RandomNumber

Suggestion for NPC rolls but interested in the views of others. Add a check box "Display skill" on NPC skill rolls: I don't intend to Whisper rolls for my NPC's (dice as rolled etc) but I'm reluctant to display the NPC's skill level to my players: Maybe this is an edge case in terms of play style? The easiest solution is simply to Whisper, I guess.

Hi Is anything known about Goodfield in SW Sartar? From a read of Pegasus Plateau it looks like it might be the clan settlement for the Yalmoring clan who were granted lands near Sartar's bridge. Thank you.

The more I read this thread I confess I wonder what version of RQ I am playing. I'm enjoying reading aspects of RQ2, 3 and G which I had forgotten or never noticed. Or noticed and ignored in favour of house rules and MGF. I do know that the write-up of impales, slashes and crush hits in RQG was almost incomprehensible compared to the simple write up in the back of RQ2 (IIRC). Fortunately those rules are implemented in the Roll20 character sheet macros so I really don't need to know them. I read RQ2 in 1980 and played it until 1984 when I read RQ3 and then played some version of that until the late 90's. Then went into a deep freeze. I skimmed through the RQG rules in April this year as I thawed out. I'm not intending to play anything other than RQG but I wouldn't want to be audited by Chaosium. Thankfully they aren't the Orderium and an audit seems unlikely. Whatever version I am playing, my players and I are enjoying it. In the meantime I stop by here every day to see whether there's an announcement that the Starter Set is on now sale so thanks all for keeping these threads going while I wait 🙂

I think ‘vs’ will work just fine. Thanks

Hi, I'm exploring the reach of the Redsmith's guild of Smithstone as a potential plotline. Do Lunar Redsmiths worship Gustbran too? I can see that Gustbran is a Lowfire who has been taken into the Storm tribe. Would some sense or aspect of Gustbran have remained in the Fire tribe and been inherited by the Lunar empire? Or might Redsmiths have found a patron amongst the Lunar gods and goddesses (Yanafal Tarnils?). YGWV etc but wondering if there is an answer to this I haven't found. Thank you.

Thank you. Checked back on the GM Screen Pack and lots of useful material added - the Apple Lane and Clearwine maps are very handy for Roll20. The RQ Players Pack is a great resource.

Hi Chao, To be frank, I don't have a problem with Resistance rolls as they are. I toyed with the idea of introducing spendable 'Luck' per COC 7ed but discounted it as I think that's what Runes and Passions are for (i.e. giving you a better shot that you would normally get). Essentially I like the rules as written in this regard. You could certainly try your proposal out but it does seem as if it could lead to a lot of die-rolling and some game-breaking imbalance. Firstly you are breaking the narrative flow for a series of die rolls. The passive party in the resistance roll will very much be a hostage to fortune i.e. the whim of the active party. That seems somehow 'unfair'. Secondly, someone with sufficient MP could simply keep rolling until they succeed, which rather removes the uncertainty from the contest. The number of trials you require before a success is modelled by the negative binomial distribution. From a quick calculation (=NEGBINOM.DIST) an active party in a 50/50 resistance roll has a 98.4% chance of success if they are prepared to spend 4MP (i.e. to get five attempts). That seems to undermine the notion of the resistance test being 50/50... It's really not for me to say what will work or won't in your campaign. Do what you wish and what your players enjoy. That said, you asked for feedback and you now have mine. Good on you though for being prepared to tinker and make it your own.

I suspect I wouldn’t be playing RQG at all if it wasn’t for the development you have done on the character sheet. My players are hugely impressed at how seamless the player experience is - attack, damage and location rolls are efficient, even some stat augment spirit magic is built in. Thank you. Gamechanging - literally. Given my only RPG opportunities are virtual, I will only be playing games that are digitally enabled. Thankfully, Chaosium’s game are to some extent. Running with your train of thought, it seems plausible that most of the development in this space will come from the big guns. Which I guess means Hasbro/WOTC - they have the resources to innovate and their recent results call showed that D&D is performing very well. Very much of anything else for any other system would have to be more in the ‘labour of love’ space. I have been a Chaosium fan-boy for 40 years but if I had the skills, time and needed to get paid, I would probably innovate/start-up for D&D. Bigger market. VTTs are super interesting because platform economics may be starting to emerge. If more and more people are drawn to RPG through a VTT then the power could start to shift to the VTT from the games companies as owning the customer relationship. App Store, Netflix etc. I’d wager someone at Hasbro is already staring at Roll20 and figuring out whether they should vertically integrate. Then they can build out more content, enablement, subscription services etc without Roll20 clipping the ticket. So I’m looking forward to the innovation, recognising that it will be monetised.

I was thinking the same. There is already blurring between TTRPG with PC gaming/tools. Roll20 certainly allows remote gaming but it (and other applications) may have a roll to play to 'computer assist' TTRPG. Imagine being able to select spirit magic and the various modifiers just play through automatically. You cast a Shimmer 2 and the negative modifier is automatically applied to the NPC attacking you. D&D has an app (D&D Beyond?); there are various RPG campaign management tools. I have heard (but not verified) that the Free League games have excellent implementations in Foundry VTT. It's good to see this innovation. Imagine being able to play a (TT)RPG like RQG without really having to know the rules because so much of the mechanical aspects are taken care of for you. That lowers the barriers to entry and creates a greater addressable market e.g. PC gamers. I can see aspects of VTTs that may well be of service even for a face-to-face TTRPG session. For example, having a map on which to move virtual characters and NPC's. I'm looking forward to what this phase of innovation delivers.

YGWV. If you want them, have them. Who can possibly say how the Humakt cult has evolved in different places and at different times. You could have fun with Humakti from one area encountering a wandering Humakti God talker. Each of them stridently convinced the other is doing it wrong.

Righto. Add that to the list of things in RQG I hadn't noticed!

Not at all. No RM use in 5 sessions so far. I suspect this is mostly because they are so used to thinking of RM as one-use. I suspect they will get used to it over time but I don't see SM fading away - it's just so useful.

Hello, My desire to read, write and play Glorantha and RQ material far exceeds the time I have available. My answers therefore reflect a 'path of least resistance'. RQG Started in May after a c.25 year RPG 'deep freeze' Earth Season 1625 Sartar. Colymar lands thus far. Ranging from the Broken Tower (Quickstart) in the South to Apple Lane (GM Adventures) in the North. Ernaldoring clan. Mostly descendants of a notable but bastard daughter of Brandgor, grandfather of Chief Baranthos. GM Screen Maps+Adventures book (indispensable), Glorantha Sourcebook (interesting background), Glorantha Bestiary (expanding on Aldryami in Tarndisi's Grove), HQ Sartar Companion (useful background on Sartar, Encounters, Clans, Personalities, Locations), Duel at Dangerford (ideas and background), Six Seasons in Sartar (ideas). Published scenarios, linked by GM whim and events of the party's own making with reference to sandbox elements of GM Adventures. Haven't gotten far enough for it to diverge very much but see Duel at Dangerford for a neat example of making deviations work. No idea how to respond, sorry. Like asking the goldfish to describe what the goldfish bowl looks like from the outside. Fun, I hope. The players want to do more but they haven't played RPGs in 25 years either so I'm not sure they are the best judges. Roll some characters and start with something low-key. Introduce elements of Glorantha as you see fit. Most importantly - give it a go and if you are enjoying it then you're doing it right. Concepts such as YGWV and MGF are important. You bought the rules, it's your game now no-one else's. Another good areas to start is Sun County on the River of Cradles as it's a fairly long way from anywhere and the locals are insular (the Sandheart series of scenarios on JC is worth a look). NB I play on Roll20, not face-to-face. If the RQ character sheet were not available in Roll20 I expect we would have put RQG in the 'too hard' basket and be playing something else instead (CoC probably). I should add that I discovered this website https://basicroleplaying.net/rqg/adversaries/index.php from listening to Chaosium's Ian Cooper on a podcast - it is a revelation for GM enablement and well worth a look. Hope this helps,

Is it worth pinning? Lots of useful advice here that ought to be easy to find.

I quite agree. I've added some macros - POW rolls and SR ordering at the very least. Many thanks to all who are contributing to this thread and @dvdmacateer for your work on the RQG character sheet.

Yes indeed, thank you.

AusPost delivered mine this morning. Thanks to lockdown I was at home to receive it and enjoy the moment.

We're not incorporating rules from prior editions. We have 'house rules' to tweak aspects of RQG to suit us but we did that in the past too. Our experience thus far (being only recent returnees to role-playing) is that we are forgetting to incorporate some of the rather wonderful new aspects of RQG like Passions and Runic Inspiration. Also, remembering that Rune Magic is not one-use. We simply don't have muscle memory for those elements of RQG yet. So it's not that we aren't intending to use them - we simply have to make a more conscious effort to remember that they are there. RQG is the best edition yet - I can't think of an aspect of prior versions that I would grandfather.

My PC's are going to be heading out from Clearwine and into Locaem lands early in 1626. Seems like there's some good raiding to be done there and scores to settle, what with the Locaem being on the wrong side of history (and a Dragon). Anyway, I'm teaching myself how to use Wonderdraft to make maps for my Roll20 RQG campaign. My first project is to create a map of Vayshan's Run. I've attached it here in case others can use it. The orientation is not N-S, see compass rose at top right. It's based on the map @Jeff posted in FB for the Ernaldori the other day, plus the description in Pegasus Plateau. The fields are a bit wonky and need work. The edge of the Plateau is on the left hand side of the map. I reckon it's about 25 km from Londros to Hillsedge, but that's hilly, wooded and uninhabited land with nothing more than the occasional hunting trail or animal track.

Lots of great advice from other contributors. I recently ran The Broken Tower and Apple Lane for 3 PC's. For the Broken Tower I had the clan send a couple of herders along with the PC's to help them wrangle the 60 cattle (39 as it finally turned out but that's another story). This meant that I had a couple of extra pairs of arms and legs available in the form of henchmen. On the way to Apple Lane my PC's met the RQG pre-gens at Asborn Thriceborn's Stead and travelled with them to Apple Lane. My intention was to have the RQG pre-gens on hand to cover some parts of Apple Lane with my PC's covering another.

That's right. GSB and G2G will have more on this. For a "Need to know" of Orlanth, Yelm and the Lightbringer quest, read p.58 of Cults of Prax (the Chaosium PDF version). Yes, Vasana's quest is akin to the Tales of Biturian Varosh. Vasana's quest illustrates RQG game mechanics, ToBV introduces you to the cults in CoP. I would certainly recommend reading ToBV start-to-finish to get a 'feel' for Glorantha. There's no need to read CoP cover to cover - the Pavis cult is of less relevance to a campaign set in Sartar. If you want to familiarise yourself with major cults then each cult write-up has a 'Mythos and History' section which is worth reading. How the cult actually works 'in-game' is covered in the Rune cults chapter of the RQG rules (many of the RQ2 mechanics in CoP have been updated). Your strategy is on point - read ToBV and decide to go deeper if you discover a cult that sounds interesting. If your campaign will be in Sartar then the Lightbringer gods (plus Humakt) are worth dwelling on. The Seven Mothers are worth a look on the basis of 'Know Thine Enemy'. I did have a deeper look at the Theogeny section of GSB last night. If your objective is to immerse yourself in Glorantha then definitely read it. OTOH, if your objective is to know enough to run an RQG game in Glorantha then I'd recommend only referring to the bits that seem interesting to you. I found some sections I'd like to read for interest so will most likely do that.

This takes the anticipation up another level still. Excitement was all very well in my teens but I'm a little, ahem, older now. With all the teasers here and on FB I just hope I last until the Sartar Box set comes out! Or the Cults book. Or... Or...

I'll preface what I'm saying by being clear that Glorantha is interesting to me as a setting in which to play RQ. I'm here in the RQ forum, not the Glorantha one. Glorantha appeals to me on many levels including by being a coherent setting with its own depth; its denizens are not simply a bunch of 'extras' there to amuse or antagonise the PC's. My advice is not to worry too much, or to be intimidated. Because Glorantha has been around for so long and has such a committed fanbase the quantity of content is overwhelming. I'm no Gloranthan scholar but what I think can take a while for newcomers to understand is that there is often no one true answer to the way Glorantha "is". In many RPG's the setting information is a monoview universal truth. What we read in the published materials on Glorantha is how it is perceived through the eyes of the (imagined) narrator/reporter/scribe whose work we are reading. Another account may vary or contradict. In the Glorantha Sourcebook you can read one version of events in 'History of Dragon Pass' (pp9-37) and another slant in 'The Redline History of the Lunar Empire' (pp.153-189). I'm sure the Theogeny section is interesting but I haven't read it, I refer to it. I've dipped into the second half of the book and have enjoyed what I have seen but I haven't read much of it. I don't need to know it to run an RQG game. But... I've probably built up more baseline knowledge since 1981 than I care to think about. So... I would definitely recommend the GSB and tend to think of the level of relevance as starting high and waning as you progress through the book (to me at least) for a campaign set in Sartar. The History of Dragon Pass chapter is excellent. The sections on the Elder Races and the Theogeny will be great primers. By that stage you've read 128 pages on top of the RQG rule book and if your objective is to run a fun RPG session for your mates then I'd venture you're into the zone of diminishing returns by that stage in terms of reading up on the background. I do recommend the Adventures Pack from the GM Screen - this is first class and a credit to all involved. The early sections on the Colymar complement the History of Dragon Pass in GSB very well indeed. The setting information, the scenario hooks, the NPC's - this is exactly what an RPG product should be - high levels of playable content. All that I see tells me that the RQG Starter Set will be the same. What gave me the greatest 'feel' of Glorantha so many years ago were the 'Tales of Biturian Varosh' in Cults of Prax (https://www.chaosium.com/cults-of-prax-pdf/). Whilst that is set in Prax, the commentaries on well known gods are first class. As a teenager I was bewitched and knew immediately that I was onto something that would offer me more than any AD&D scenario ever would. Horses for courses though... Overall my advice would be to read what you feel you need to run a game. Don't try and 'catch up' on background knowledge. Much depends on how much time you have available. My free time for gaming is limited and must be used judiciously. I find Glorantha very interesting and have to resist the urge to go down rabbit holes of research. The published works (GSB, G2G etc) are great references but are not 'required reading'. If you were going to commit to reading one, then make it the GSB (it's far shorter). In terms of 'other' scenarios/material - the Tales from Sandheart series is absolutely worth a look as it is set in Sun County which is a way from anywhere and its locals are quite content with having nothing to do with the outside world. Hope this helps. Other opinions are available etc.

The art is amazing. Glorantha allows some fabulous adventures to be had and tales to be told. And Runequest meshes so very well with the background. Particularly with the innovative new approach to character generation. The learning curve is sometimes steep but worth the journey. My friends and I were playing AD&D in 1981 (?) when I got the GW RQ2 boxed set, probably on the strength of a review in White Dwarf. We never played AD&D again after our first RQ session. Welcome.

Chaosium website is showing it in the Australian warehouse and took my order with local postage today. Remember your coupon. So the lag was about three weeks on this occasion. Not bad, really. Looking forward to getting hands on.