Mankcam

Well I got some pretty good info from the Gloranthan Yahoo Group, who turned out to be a knowledgeable bunch and it wasn't as daunting as the old Gloranthan Digests, although I suspect some major players in the Yahoo Group would have been on the digest. From the descriptions I got, the Esrolit have alot of Hittite flavour, mixed in with Mycenaean and a touch of Gaulish influence, or something that correlates to that mix. The pics of Esrolit armour look similar to Hittite, so I'll probably use alot from them for purposes of analogies. Kethaela is one of those regions I always thought would have been more detailed by now in Gloranthan products, given its proximity to Dragon Pass & Prax where much of the published settings have taken place. The ancient empire feel of the region is great for sword n sorcery games, especially with Volcano Cults to the south and Barbarian raids to the west. Anyway I'll prob direct most Gloranthan queries to the Gloranthan Yahoo Group from now on, it's really their cup of tea

Well, for a bloke who wasn't gonna buy LEGEND, I've now got two pdfs! The $1 pdf Core Rules at DrivethruRPG got me in the door, but Monsters of LEGEND pdf was going half price, so for $12 I ended up getting both. The Monsters Book will come in handy, I've got MRQ2 Monsters book hardcover, and now I'v got the digital copy of it for LEGEND, so that's sure handy. It's like having a drink on the house, followed by happy hour - it's all good!

Wow - another surprise! Nicely played However, it would of just been better to include it with the core rules, but in any case this is another nice gesture. LEGEND is getting off to a positive start - just make sure you pump some money into the 'Age of Treason' setting next! Wishing you the best with the new product line, and it's all good from a GM/player point of view!

Wow, this is very generous. I wasn't going to buy the LEGEND core rules - I was to be continuing to support some of the settings source books, and I was just going to wait until RQ6 came out to buy a new rule set. But having the pdf core rules going for $1 !!! I just had to buy LEGEND out of curiosity, and more than happy to support Mongoose, its a nice gesture of them to do this with the pdf. Not sure if I'll get a hard copy (little reason with the pdf rules and the MRQ2 hard copy), but if its cheap enough I could buy it for a player. In any case, the $1 pdf is too good to pass up, and certainly a nice way to intorduce LEGEND to the gaming community!

Well it sounds like the LEGEND core rules won't be much use to me unless it's a bit cheaper. I'ld like to support it, but a paperback digest-sized book with less rules than MRQ2 for a similar price...doesn't sound all that appealing, and doesn't make much sense for me to spend any dollars on it unfortunately. I'm more than likely to see how DM's RQ6 shapes up, it will be the true inheritor of the system, at least mechanics-wise I suspect. Seeing the cover art, however, it might beat LEGEND in production, at least for the core rules. I would like to support Mongoose, I think their products for MRQ2 have been pretty good, and I like some of their current settings. I'll be showing my support by continuing to purchase the 'Age of Treason' and 'Dues Vult' setting lines (may even have a look at WraithRecon), but I think I'll give the LEGEND core rules a skip at this stage.

Yep, that sounds like the thread, and we were on a similar page at the time, so at least we're sounding consistent I totally get that, and its what makes RQ stand out for me. My old characters spent most of the time running around in the dusty plains of Prax wearing a mish-mash of armour styles, scrounged from numerous sources aka Mad Max fantasy style. BTW you gotta love 'The Road Warrior', its a cult fav down here in Australia. Now, if Peter Jackson can bring 'Lord Of The Rings' to cinema, perhaps Peter Weir can bring us 'RuneQuest: The Hero Wars'...

I quite like the digest format for basic editions, like what Mongoose did for CONAN. However, I would still like a big gorgeous hardcover core rules (perhaps a limited run?) sitting in my bookcase. I think that if digests become the norm then the cost should be much cheaper than what we pay for the big hardcovers

Well I have written in previous posts about using Hit Location hp as 'thresholds', it works reasonably well, combat tends to be a little less gruesome, but opponents get disabled pretty quickly all the same. Someone chipped in somewhere that 'thresholds' were the same as 'major wounds', and the discussion went from there. Not sure who made that link though. In any case Hit Locations don't slow the game down with fiddly number keeping if you use this method, and they sure do enhance melee combat

I'm not sure if it's a leftover from RQ3 or not, but I've pretty much played it like the above for the past 20 yrs or so, and it seems to work well. I also couldn't play a fantasy/medieval/ancient setting without hit locations, they make combat so much more 'tactile', setting the system apart from more abstract rpg systems. Hit Locations prob not as important in modern or futuristic settings, and some may find their inclusion hindering, but I'ld definately keep them for fantasy. Simon's suggestion is pretty spot on I think.

For my fantasy setting I actually use both values and it seems to work fine, but I'ld just stick with Status for most other settings. In my fantasy setting the more routine day to day expenses such as food, accommodation, etc and such are made using the Status roll, with modifiers for degrees of quality. I typically make each degree of quality a +/- 20% (Eg: A Commoner wanting to board in Common lodgings is a base roll, at Burgher Lodgings is -20%, and at Noble Lodgings is at -40%. If a Commoner wants to stay at Serf Lodgings they receive a +20% to their Status roll instead). If the character cannot make the roll then they don't have the resources currently available, or must do something to otherwise influence the situation (eg: offers of labour, trade goods etc to provide bonus modifiers and such). Perhaps a more BRP solution would be to make a degree above a Difficult Roll, and two degrees above a Fail; going back the other way would be a degree below is an Easy, and two degrees below is an automatic success...I'm not sure, it's prob more consistent with how the BRP BGB would do such a thing, and more realistic if you are doing a historical medieval setting which is very social class orientated. My players are a bit old school so they tend to like loot and such, so any coinage they acquire is considered 'Additional Funds' which they use to purchase important (non-routine) things like armour and weapons etc. It has all worked reasonably well so far. If I was playing in a more modern setting I would just use Status actually, it's just that coinage and buying of items is a left-over from our old hack'n'slay days, and I find the fantasy setting doesn't work as well without that. In more modern settings or in a more historical setting I'ld find it to tedious to GM however, so Status is a welcome trait for me.

I encountered the Duck issue, and unfortunately still do. I got around this by making the Durulz a Halfling fisher-folk culture that lives in the marshes, a bit like Tolkien's Hobbit Stoors, but no 'old english' feel at all. It kinda worked, but generally I steer clear of all things Duck, lest of all I lose my gaming group. I personally find Ducks ridiculous, and I guess it shows that Greg Stafford has one hell of a quirky sense of humour.

*

That's cool heh heh

CONAN is easily ported over using Mongoose's CONAN RPG supplements 'Road of Kings' and 'Faith and Fervour' for resource material, and using the MRQ2: 'Lanhkmar' book for alot of sword n sorcey setting material, especially the Black Magic of Newhon which is very suited to Hyboria. Throw in some Lovecraftian beasties from CoC, and you've got CONAN down to a tee. But it's not the same as actually holding 'CONAN: BRP Adventures in Hyboria' or 'LEGEND of CONAN' ...sigh...

Yes, the trolls ruled the region I think during the Second Age (or maybe the First Age...). I envision that the Esrolit were viewed as slave-vassals rather than a colony, so although there may be some trollish influences I don't think the Esrolit would have them as major features in their culture - maybe some folk-magic practices to work with or ward away Darkness spirits or perhaps some underground links to trollish war cults perhaps..., but certainly not much more. The trolls tend to be matriachal, as are the Esrolit, so perhaps that link was also established under troll influence in the earlier ages. In any case, the troll legacies are likely to be downplayed by the end of the Third Age. My old RQ2 Companion has a bit of info on it all. Actually the entire region of Kethalea was under the rule of the immortal Pharoah, who instructed his empire from The City of Wonders on an island in the middle of the Mirrorsea Bay. The empire was known as The Holy Country and Esrolia was considered a vassal (a 'Sixth'), with the other Sixths being Heortland, Caladraland, The Shadow Lands (Trolls of Shadow Plateau), God-Forgot, and The Right-Arm Isles. I envison the City of Wonders as a cross between Ancient Eygpt and Melnibone, with the imperial guards wearing Egyptian-style head dresses. Within recent years the Pharoah failed to be reincarnated, which has thrown the liegeship of the Sixths into chaos as the City of Wonder's influence was directly tied to the Pharoah's presence. The hordes of the Wolf Pirates than ravaged and entirely sacked the imperial capital, thus fragmenting the empire. By the end of the Third Age, the Holy Country alliances are no longer in existence, with each of the Sixths falling back into independent rulership. So while there may be a subtle 'Egyptian' influence in Esrolia, it is more of a left-over from the days of imperial unity under the Phaoroah's rule rather than from any inherent cultural aspects of the Esrolit, or that's how I read it. I might just do that...it does make me feel a little cautious to enter the fray though, I hope things don't get as ugly as the posts in the old Gloranthan Digest...but I may have to 'go to the source' so to speak...

Heh heh

Excellent news!

(Disclaimer: I'm not sure where I should post this query - I couldn't find a forum on the Moon Design website, and I wasn't sure if it was appropriate for The Design Mechanism website forums as they are primarily devoted to discussion about RQ6 system development. BRPCentral appears to be the most appropriate place for this.) This one is for the Gloranthan fans out there: "What is a good culture to use as an analogy for the People of Esrolia?" I don't have many resources which have artwork displaying Esrolit characters, so I'm not sure how they are intended to be depicted. In an earlier campaign I based them off the Mycenaens, with some Celtic/Gaulish touches here and there. I would like to bring Esrolia into my current 3rd Age Gloranthan campaign, but want to present the Esrolit in a fashion that is a more consistent interpretation of Esrolia of how the authors intended. I do have a pdf of 'Stafford Library - Esrolia: Land Of A Thousand Goddesses' by Greg Stafford & Jeff Richard; it is a great resource but not alot of artwork involved. The pic of a priestess resembles a Mycenaen/Minoan a little, so that's why I based some of the culture off Mycenae. I'm not sure if I'm going down a wrong tangent though. I don't know if any of the fanzines have fleshed Esrolia out more, so perhaps someone can shed some light on the Esrolit for me. Any ideas, anyone?

Wow !!! I almost logged off, and your post caught my eye!!! This is most impressive, I see that your art direction is more than a passing nod to the iconic art of the early RuneQuest editions, with a new interpretation of our beloved RQ2 cover. This is very good quality artwork, very evocative, you're certainly taking up the baton and bringing RQ in line with the quality of other current games. I think the physical appearance of a ruleset is hugely important, and it must directly affect sales as well. Look at Catalyst/Transhuman products for example (Shadowrun, Battletech, Eclipse Phase). Big sturdy hardover tomes with absolutely beautiful artwork, now that's the kind of product I love to buy. This cover artwork for RQ6 looks absolutely great, and the reference to the earlier RQ editions is very respectful. I absolutely love this, and I think the RQ product line has never been in better hands since the early 80s!

Can't wait for this one, I love sword n sorcery

Yes, I see the point in the digest format, aka Savage Worlds Explorer Edition or Mongoose's CONAN Pocket Edition - quite handy to have during an actual session, although I tend to make my own screens out of pdfs so not much value for me personally. I would have much preferred a nice big hardcover tome that can stand the test of time and also look a thing of beauty in my collection. IMO perhaps a limited run of a large hardcover will be nice, with the smaller digest edition being marketed as a tabletop-friendly reference, much like Mongoose did with CONAN Core Rules Hardcover and the CONAN Pocket Edition.

That's a shame. Still, best of luck with the new line. I for one have never forgiven myself for not grabbing all the the Chaosium RQ stuff years ago, so these days I tend to support most BRP/RQ lines where I can. Having MRQ2 Core Rules in hard cover, I'm not sure what a paperback LEGEND Core Rules can add to my library, but I'll certainly support the LEGEND product line with supplements like Age of Treason, Deus Vult, The Spider God's Bride, etc

I see that Amazon.com has LEGEND listed as a paperback? If Matt is reading this, I am wondering if there are any plans to release it as a hard cover?

Heimdallsgothi if you don't like the Elric saga then I reckon it's likely that you won't like the Elric/Stormbringer rpg line. It's only a setting however, so that's not an issue. Chaosium's main lines for the past 20 years have been Stormbringer (sword and sorcery) and Call of Cthuhlu (horror), but the BRP mechanics are pretty sound across a wide range of genres. If you prefer heroic fantasy as opposed to dark fantasy, just use the BRP mechanics you like, but with liberal use of the Fate option or port over MRQ2 Hero Points in high quantities. The BRP mechanics can be quite simple, but allow you to mix and match to make it a very 'nuts and bolts' if you like that. It's a GM's dream when it comes to making up optional rules, as the 'frame' itself is simple enough to hang alot of things off. Too many home rules can break any system, but there is alot of 'give' in the BRP mechanics so you can really go to town on your preferred style of play. Best to start simple and see if you like that. Good luck with it all

Yes, this seems to go with many BRP related products, it always has been behind the 8-ball when it comes to production & art when compared to the bigger products. Compare RQ3's flimsy books with AD&D in the 80s. It's much better these days, but when you compare BRP to the current competition such as D&D, Pathfinder, Warhammer, Shadowrun, Eclipse Phase, Qin The Warring States, World of Darkness etc etc the BRP products are generally lacking. Mongoose did alot with MRQ but was very inconsistent. I guess it's just down to popularity and dollars. Lucky that the content is great and the rules are some of these best mechanics in the gaming hobby, but it's always been the art which draws the kiddie crowd. I know most of us start with the more popular systems and find our way into BRP, but many of the D&D kids from the 80s are probably playing D20 OGL products now if they're still in the hobby, so I think artwork and finished production (ie hardcovers, glossy pages, etc) are of the upmost importance when securing a fan base. Your best bet is to print out the BRP quick start pdf on some glossy paper, and insert some high quality art throughout, probably doing up another exterior cover. Alot of money, but probably the only way to get that early teen crowd...