Thaz

10 hours ago, Eff said:

I mean, my interpretation of the HW/HQ1 Babeester Gor cult is that the cultists are divinely sanctioned serial killers, which at least is more consistent- when they're not being psychologically driven to murder, they can do things like stand guard or even take up hobbies. 

Yeah. I had a player recently who rolled up a BG and wanted a bit more detail on the cult than is currently out there. HW version made her eyes bleed and we all agreed it was not for using

 RQG. I'm looking forward to the Cults book being released.  I'm sure that once on the trail of a bad person BG and implacable and scary as all get out, but their day job is stopping the bad people from doing bad things in the first place. 

10 hours ago, SharpPointyStick said:

The GM screen is actually arriving in the mail Monday & look forward to it after seeing some rave reviews regarding the outstanding quality. To be honest, outstanding quality looks like the standard for Chaosium these days! 😊

The GM pack is so much more than the screen... 🙂

Having Heal Wound as a common Rune Spell means most people have it.

We've also had a Clan pay for resurrection and the player then to owe their debt to the clan. Which has been a major plot motivator. 

I use a house rule that players normally have till next round to act to save a character. Everyone pretty much has Heal Wound. So unless its a lot of damage to the head then they always get a chance to heal their comrade on sr1 next round. If you're alone or someone fails their Rune Magic roll...well thems the breaks. And there is always a chance of DI.

In two years of pretty intensive play with multiple groups and play sessions we've had two player characters die. Both were resurrected. 

Mind you I did have a npc get his head bitten off by a Dragon Snail recently. Nom!

8 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Perhaps we can get the Blue Book of Sorcery to complete things?

Top Top Top idea. 

42 minutes ago, Westnovote said:

I would dearly love to be able to get some of the Hero Wars and Hero Quest material, but finding it is a challenge.  

https://www.chaosium.com/heroquest/   if you speak pdf 🙂

I'd also be aware that there are differences in Glorantha between the two game engine versions of the world we all love. Not that there isn't a huge amount that's useful and not that it matters in your game. However there ARE differences in how runes and cults work and in timeline. In particular RQG is set in 1625 after the Dragonrise and stuff has changed. There is also a lot more Bronze Age feel to RQG. None of this matters a jot in your home game but can cause confusion if you're not aware of the differences and are expecting the two strands to blend together seamlessly.  Likewise some of the maps and city descriptions are not consistent between the two. So be aware of that upfront but there is a huge amount of stuff that's useful 

Yeah. For me I'd just alter the rune spell to allow it to be extended and possibly to allow shamen to cast it on others. Specifically their apprentice. 

Easy fix 

I'll add another vote for the GM's pack having loads in there. Throw in Pegasis and The Smoking Ruins and you've a ton. There's another mini sandbox complete with start ups in TSR and starting in Long Valley and building up to the adventure there could be a great little campaign. 

13 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Anyway, this is a bit of a different book coming from Beer With Teeth. Is it an indication that we might see more settings/locations books, in addition to the usual short scenarios? I hope so! I love the illustrations, and I love all the plot hooks on almost every page... it reminds me of some of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay sourcebooks like Ubersreik, where you couldn't turn a page without reading at least 2 or 3 adventure ideas.

As Diana says :- We'd love to put more out like this and other complex projects. But that in part depends on sales and reception. It also depends on our day jobs (those of us who still have any!) and the state of the Multiverse. But yes the more love and purchases we get the more likely this will happen. 

It was actualy quite a debate if we were going to even do POD because it's a HECK of a lot of work, especially the first time.  

Nudges this one to the top again

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/320700/The-Dregs-of-Clearwine

We're rather proud of this worms eye view of a part of Clearwine, available as pdf or Print on Demand. 

Set in the tribal city of the Colymar, The Dregs of Clearwine is a sourcebook for Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, covering the mini slum that lies north of the Ram's Head Inn. It features ten households, 25 fully explored NPCs with stats for RQG, and a host of minor characters. There are dozens of plot hooks and community events to help link characters to this area, and the people and even animals within. From potters to charcoal carriers, drunken ex-initiates to well fed butchers, the people who support Clearwine and the Earth Temple live, love, and die here. Some leave only to go to their vineyard work. Others vanish for months on end, and return with new scars.

To second what Jeff just said. 

I'd take care over character creation:- Get the players linked up. They don't have to all be the same clan but it is a good start place. Then run a few pre written adventures from GM pack, TSR or PP or the free downloads. Then you've got a TON of plot threads to run with

Speaking as someone who is watching someone else go through the process of making the next Beer with Teeth product POD as well as PDF it's not about the cost/size of the product as a direct link to size vs cost so much as the fiddly, difficult and painful process of making the pdf POD compatible. Pricing is just something that's turned over to the buyer*.

The issue is its a real pain to do the work and can be quite time consuming, at least the first time. And who pays for that time? 

*And this is where pricing does come into it as say it takes an additional week or two of someone's time to sort a book to POD, that's quite a large cost to lump in on top of the actual cost of printing it. The next BwT product is looking to be about 50 pages. Just big enough to get a spine. At this point we've got a couple of weeks of Diana's time on editing and layout, a few days each for me, Diana and Erin on writing and research (Gods it helps to have a prof of archaeology on board) and a shed load of Kris's time on art and a spot of writing and proofing and general yanking out tails on fact checking and not being idiots. Adding in another  several weeks (a month in fact) effort to make it POD compatible doesn't just hike the price because the physical thing has to be made it adds in a lot of skilled work and effort on the layout. 

Now this is a labour of love, as are most JC products. But let's just say it values the creators time in pennies so that's why a lot of people haven't gone that route. Although I accept it's likely you'll get a lot more sales if you make a POD option it may well never pay you back. We just don't have much data on that yet. Which is also one of the reasons we're doing it at BwT. We're keen to contribute to the data set and put our heads together with our fellow creators and see if it's worth the hassle of making it available in dead tree format. 

The Smoking Ruins makes a feature of one's these places 

10 hours ago, Glorion said:

The Kallyr Underground emerges! Luvvit. I go back a ways too. Was one of the original playtesters for RQ3, my name is on Elder Secrets, though I only just wrote one or two things, the Black Elf writeup mostly.

I didn't get anything into rq3 but I was one of the original HW backers and got my name in some of them. Which was sad as I hated the system (I'm super happy other people love it though). It's taken me till now to get my name on a RQ Chaosium title 😄 <awaits hard copy of PP with increasing excitement>  

IMG  yes it works on any band that have time to prep. 

And no they don't have to be Humakti 

14 minutes ago, Glorion said:

Thereby giving Argrath a Big Problem. Back in the '90s and into the Oughties there was a profileration of Kallyr Starbrow apocrypha on Glorantha blogs, arguing that the heroquest was a success not a failure, it was Kallyr not Argrath who lit Sartar's flame, and Argrath got the princedom by having her assassinated. Rejected as heresy by our Chaosium elders, and now gone underground. YGMV, you could go that way, but my suspicion is that is not where you are going.

I was around back then and still have all my old stuff from then and the signed copy of the old copy of King of Sartar. 🙂   ( I was even on the mailing list/digest) as was one of my co-gms. So yes...we're running with that

36 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Except that a warrior cannot wear a plate armor all the day. Or that means penalties. Skills penalties, CON penalties, etc...

Would you sleep fully armored ? I m not sure that you will be nice tomorrow morning

Would you travel from Pavis to Sun county under the sun fully armored ? You will die before seeing any templar.

 

There are no rules for this currently in RQG. There may be in future books. 

I certainly wouldn't march in full plate armour and from what we see in Earths historical record the Hoplites didn't either. You armour up and get the big spears out before you fight. Battles were set pieces and pretty much agreed on by both sides. 

Now if you're talking MOUNTED troops then not so much. The Crusaders used to travel all day in double mail and felt padding which is actualy hotter and heavier than plate (I've worn both). There are records of them not noticing being shot in the back multiple times with arrows and coming back in unharmed afterwards.... 

8 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Plate armor isn't a thing in Glorantha, but Roman legionnaires surely marched in their armor, while being about as armored as you get in Glorantha? 

Sure it is. I mean not full Gothic Plate (although it was in previous editions) but certainly plate armour is. 6 points Bronze on every location. plus a point or two of padding. 

In 'our' version (aka the Beer With Teeth series of linked games) Players were able to break the block Lunar Special Forces types had created stopping her resurrection and She's back baby! Of course this leaves Lekia in a interesting spot as she had a good go at burning the body.  However this is very much our games varying due to player interference. 😄 

7 hours ago, BrentS said:

.....because a gaming system should integrate with its setting. 

Part of the issue is that we have effective plate armour widely available. Which is what killed shields on earth. Sure Bronze is less effective than Iron/Steel but add in some magic .... it's noticeable that of the three real combat head munchkins in games I run have gone to 2H weapons or duel wield for their hand to hand focused characters. (one of whom is me and the other two are also GM's as well). The people who just play and never GM are much more well behaved (I think it's secret code in our circle that if you are a GM playing in another GM's game it's your job to push the envelope a little but not too far and keep the GMShield Monkey honest.) 

9 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

I think that would have been a good call. RQ3 really does have a lot of good rules changes.

I love some. 

Others sucked. 

Fatigue anyone? 

3 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Creating either a system of attributes for weapons (like "Armor-piercing") or giving special abilities to weapon classes (Pendragon-style), would be quite easy and not shatter compatibility. Weapons like warhammers have no reason to exist unless for countering armor.

I agree it would be a fairly simple rules addition and not add too much clunk. What I would dislike is it being tucked away and conversations like "Oh but I'm using the optional rule from the ultra fighters splat book that makes my warhammer wielding were-armadillo do double hype extra special damage" Which may be a direct quote from a Munchkin at my local rpg club many years ago about ten milliseconds before every GM in the room screamed "NO"

I'd also say that someone picked up a hammer and thought :- "That'll make a mess of that ahole over there" and went for it and only later remarked on how well it mashed his armour up. The rest is evolution in action. People are still hitting each other with hammers even if they aren't wearing armour, something I'm sure my Emergency Room Doc friend could evidence should I ask. And to be fair we do have Crush, Slash and Impale. 

Don't get me wrong, I love this stuff. I own a warhammer. My Wife gave it to me as an anniversary present and I love it. Even if she dented my armour with it. RQG combat is already perceived as clunky (it isn't compared even to some contemporary systems) and frankly I'm not sure how much more we want to add to it. But as an optional rule ...sure.

31 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

This is something RQ could really take in, in order to make weapons lists more interesting (Pendragon already does this in excellent way).

I think a number of improvements that Chaosium already know very well ("If you think of a new innovation chances are Greg already had it" is pretty much the company motto and it's not wrong) to keep the compatibility with rq2.  Stats as percentages, some of the sheer elegance of Pendragon's system, not ditching the resistance table etc. I think this is a fair compromise although I do miss some of RQ3's combat options. I don't know how much they plan to modify or introduce optional combat or other rules down the road. I can see a book of optional combat rules could be handy...but on the other hand there is really an argument for keeping it clean and not going down the route various editions of D&D went where there millions of exceptions and optional crunch which frankly made it silly (not a comment on current editions as I have no knowledge of them). Of course we can add as much crunch or chop as much out as we want in our own games. Viva YGMV

11 hours ago, 10baseT said:

I experience 2 typical load outs 1) on patrol (the intent to engage) and 2) travel, getting from point A to B.

On patrol, you are expecting combat 

Travelling, you are geared up and definitely encumbered.

I had a chat with Jeff about this the other day. You are completely right of course. And it backs up my own experience both out on patrol/assault ops and in hand to hand combat. This is also something we need to think about a bit generally. Wearing lots of heavy armour and carrying a shield or large weapon isn't especially practical. It gets better if your mounted but not by a lot. Jeff commented that most of the time your heavy gear is going to be carried by followers. How we tend to handle it in the games we play is pack animals. You don't load up your War or Cav mount with baggage. You have mules or remounts or pack beasts for that. And likely handlers and followers. The idea of a band of murder hobo's trekking through the wastes carrying all their own gear and hauling the loot out of a dungeon is really one for D&D not RQ.  Having spent time in both (semi it's been a bit) Modern Body Armour and Plate in hot and dusty conditions you don't want to be wearing it all day long unless you really have to or you're mounted.