Lordabdul

I wanted to paste or reimport text that does have styles (headings and other paragraph/character styles) and have Publisher (re)apply its own styles based on simple name mapping. So if something had a "Heading 2" paragraph style that makes it big and bold in Word/LibreOffice/whatever, it would auto-receive the Publisher "Heading 2" paragraph style that makes it big but not bold and use this fancy font and add some colour and underline and all that jazz. Last time I tried (some time mid-last year) I could get it to work: Publisher would create a duplicated "Heading 2" that would reproduce the Word style ("big and bold"), and use that all over the reimported text, effectively losing my layout/typo design work. I was using the reimport feature, though, not the copy/paste method, so maybe I'll try that next time.

Usually the removal is annotated with a message from the mods saying "there was some tangent here, it's been removed, now watch yourself everyone". Removing messages is good -- removing them without a notice is bad IMHO. Anyway back to the OP... I've never been to Gen Con myself, but I registered for the online Gen Con because, well, it's free so why not? I have no idea how useful it will be for me... there have been a couple of online conventions in the past couple months (including our local Terminal City Tabletop Convention here in Vancouver), but if I'm home I'll be invariably distracted by the kids and other household activities and I end up missing 80% of the con anyway. I'm hoping to be able to catch a couple interesting panels this time.

In that specific case it's actually multiple buildings around a courtyard... so the entire north wall (which I measured to 21m for battlemat purposes, but less than 18m for "real"... maybe even as small as 15m) actually spans 2 buildings, here. But yeah that top left building is pretty big, and notable for having a top floor.

In which case Runeblogger's first house rule would actually be RAW (magic swords can only deal spirit damage, not protect from incoming spirit attacks)

Both Communication and Harmony, or whatever symbols Issaries traders and Chalana Arroy temples use, would be synonymous with "hey friend let's talk" and "don't hit us, we just want to help".

Woah what? You get a particular spirit jacked into your body? (like a non-sentient allied spirit?) I thought Spirit Magic was calling upon the surrounding Spirit World's "energies" to cast the spell... (I pictured it as the Spirit World basically having a "base sediment layer" of neutral spirits who have given up or lost their will and personalities, and can be manipulated in fairly predictable ways) I guess this solves the problem of casting spells in a place devoid of any spirits -- doesn't matter because you have one in your arm.

Both the clan chief and the temple are patrons of the PCs, so what each of them gives to the PCs wouldn't count, IMHO, as something that is "taxed" by the other (unless you're used to US tax laws, that is ) If it is something that was given to them by another clan's chief, however, as part of some diplomatic mission, then it might count... if the mission was for the clan, that armband might come back to the clan's elders as "this is all the loot we got from them". You probably get your share of it, and depending on the context around that particular gift, it might be good etiquette for you to pick that as opposed to the shiny sword. If however this was acquired while on business for the temple, then it's a similar situation but it's the loot you bring back to the priests. (you could of course keep it to yourself, or sell it on the way back, or whatever... that will probably create some interesting stories down the line) I would say "no", but you could check with your temple before going, so that if they have any interest in this expedition, you might kill 2 birds with 1 stone. That might add some secondary mission goals or whatever. It's also possibly the clan leader is actually your cult's priest anyway. Or that they are sending you on that mission with the blessing of the clan ring which includes your temple's priest. So in practice, there's a good chance this mission could qualify also as time spent serving the temple.

Apparently I was missing a smiley... this was a comment written with a tongue firmly in the cheek (and it's not even really "clockwork" because even in a seasonal game, one adventure might be early in the season while another is late in the season, so there wouldn't be a strong pattern there) But I still stand by the fact that you can indeed play farmers and make it interesting and fun.

Me too -- weirder is always better. It's a bit ridiculous and disappointing to me that the Waertagi might look like a glorified Patrick Duffy from Man From Atlantis: But hey, I haven't had any Waertagis in my games yet anyway...

Thanks for this, it's definitely interesting for us amateurs! I also had some issues with links to source art files. To me, the biggest issue I had with Publisher was the reimport workflow for text. In InDesign, I like that it can reference the source text document, and if I edit the text, I can reimport it and InDesign will remap all the styles. In Publisher, it seems completely broken: the reimport workflow loses or duplicates styles like crazy, so you can't really keep "text editing" and "layout" separate and in parallel... you very much have to lock down the text first, and then do a one time import to Publisher and just work there after that point. If there are any changes to the text, you need to selectively copy/paste the bits that changed, and then potentially redo the styling work... that is, unless they fixed the bugs since then, or unless I'm doing something wrong.

What makes it longer to prepare there? When we run face-to-face games, I just hastily draw shitty maps with a marker on a battlemat (if we even use a battlemat -- otherwise I draw it on a small whiteboard). I just do the same in roll20, where I use the freeform pen tool to draw equally shitty maps on the virtual battlemat. In the real world I might show them the map from the book (if it's a published adventure), so in roll20 I snap the map from the PDF and either share it as a handout, or set it as the background... Once I tried my hand at assembling a "proper" map for roll20 (using 2minutetabletop's wonderful asset library), and yeah that takes some time... but to me that's the virtual equivalent of having an entire stack of Dwarven Forge models, painfully assembling, gluing, and painting the environment... (like a Matt Mercer/Critical Role kind of map). I don't have the time or inclination to do that, but I'm pretty sure it's actually a lot quicker to do on roll20 than in the physical world.

I think Jeff was talking about the big tangent that happened about large gatherings and covid19, but it looks like all those messages have now been deleted from this thread -- that's weird, I haven't seen this kind of moderation before on these forums.... especially since now it makes it look like Jeff is angry at nothing. (unless I imagined it? I'm pretty sure there used to be another half-dozen messages there?)

....mmmayyybe? The more I read the rules, the less I'm sure about how they're supposed to go For instance, if Bill is fighting 2 spirits in normal spirit combat, each spirit would attack at SR12, and that's resolved with an opposed roll for each (spirit's Spirit Combat vs Bill's Spirit Combat, one for each spirit). But if Bill wants to fight back with Spirit Combat, does that mean we roll a third opposed roll? (Bill's Spirit Combat vs the targeted spirit's Spirit Combat) In which case yeah, I guess if Bob is fighting a spirit, but Bob attacks with a magical sword, then Bob's attack is resolved on SR-whatever (Bob's melee SR), with an opposed roll of Bob's Sword skill vs the spirit's Spirit Combat skill... but then the spirit attacks at SR12, and that's the spirit's Spirit Combat vs Bob's Spirit Combat. In the first case (Bill against 2 spirits), there might be up to 3 damage rolls going to either combatants. In the second case, there might be up to 2 damage rolls, again going to either combatant. Is that how it works? Does that mean that a 1:1 spirit combat always involves 2 opposed rolls (each combatant attacking the other) unless one of the combatants is trying to do something else (and most likely having to roll a concentration check)?

Attacking Orlanthi tribes during their time of worship, when they're gathered, pumped up on magic, might not be the best strategic choice. Instead, it's better to just destroy temples and shrines to Orlanth during the other normal days of the year. That's actually more or less what the Lunars did during their occupation, where they banned the worship of Orlanth across Sartar. Of course, most people then drew a metaphorical moustache on all their effigies and votive pictures, declaring that this wasn't Orlanth at all, it's Barntar or whoever else was still OK to worship. And between this, the Lunar's eventual sacking of Whitewall (including the Orlanthi temples there), and the building of a Lunar temple, they actually managed to kill the worship of Orlanth across Sartar, resulting in the Windstop, where none of Orlanth's magic (or Ernalda's for that matter) worked at all for about a year or so. So, yeah, they succeeded, at least for a while (give or take YGMV). To be honest, the "Summons of Evil" is, along with many aspects of heroquesting, some of the things I have the most problems grasping in Gloranthan gaming. It feels too much like it's trying to force-fit narrative synchronicity into a simulation framework... like... this kind of stuff looks great in a written myth or a novel or a movie, but I'm really worried about the kind of questions and problems it can create in a game... it's like trying to run a time-travel story: sure you can do it (for a given type of time-travel mechanic) but it's not easy, and prone to failure.

Yeah you're right. Although it's only absurd depending on how you picture spirit combat working... My guess is that it's mostly for game balance anyway, to prevent non-shamans (or other characters with no Spirit Combat skill) from having to sit and wait for the combat scene to end. Your house rule sounds fine since it keeps those characters engaged still, although it makes it a more dangerous proposition for them to try and help, so you'll have to watch out for players opting out of Spirit Combat scenes and looking at their phones instead.

Oh interesting, thanks. Another unclear sentence to fix in RQG 1.5 Actually never mind, there were some issues with it. That makes a lot of sense to me but upon checking back on the rules, maybe that's also what RAW intended? The text on p369 actually only mentions attacking! Corporeal entities may attack a spirit that is engaged in spirit combat with enchanted weapons and spells. The physical attack is resolved normally, but opposed by the spirit’s Spirit Combat skill. It never mentions defending with a weapon... I'm curious about the need for this rule and the next rule too... was there a lot of special/critical rolls on the GM's side that put the PCs in more danger than intended? Or is this to solve some other problem? I like that because it makes it more consistent with melee combat (I think one of RQG's biggest flaw is its lack of consistency... i.e. there is not a lot of knowledge transfer from one sub-system to another... too many unique rules). For consistency, would you allow splitting your "Spirit Attack" if you have Spirit Combat above 100%? I wouldn't do that... you don't especially intend to take people's stuff when you get into a fight with them, but once they're dead, you're happy to be able to loot their bodies. Maybe you could require a Control (Spirit/whatever) spell to be cast on the next round after the spirit is defeated? (if not, the spirit retreats to the spirit world) Or at least require a round or two of role/roll-playing negotiation with the spirit? Thanks for sharing!

Found this thread while looking for something... so now I'm bumping it! In normal Spirit Combat, a tie still means the 2 participants deal Spirit Combat damage to each other... surely this would happen here too, so both Vasana and the ghost would roll their normal damage? I'm considering a house rule where specials and criticals "bump down" one another... so a critical vs special would only roll normal damage. A critical vs a normal success would roll special damage. Thoughts?

That's actually a great rule, to require grappling first. I'll use that!

If the GM goes by the "seasonal" format, the players can play the "Farmers Who Have Crazy Shit Happen To Them Every Three Months RPG": one time it's a bunch of Tusk Riders attacking all the region's steads, the next season they participate in a raid with the promise from their clan that they will get more cows (to make up for the cows lost to the Tusk Riders), another season they discover some weird haunted artifact/ruin buried on their lands and that's a whole thing, the season after that some stray Lunar deserter stumbles upon your land, the season after that your kid falls ill to some disease spirit and that turns out to also be a whole other thing, etc... "I'm just trying to tend to my farm and provide for my family, but there's always some crazy shit happening to us every season almost like clockwork!" (my example is in fact fairly close to the first few adventures in my own Bachad Tribe campaign notes) Yep I did -- although to be more precise, I didn't imply that the kidnapped NPCs were innocent. I just meant that the PCs would go and kidnap them while they were minding their own business, regardless of whether they're innocent. For example, a totally decent player-driven adventure would be that they decide to go kidnap or kill Jarhast Strongarm, who is totally not innocent: he did "something bad" previously, but the PCs' clan ring ended up negotiating with Jarhast's clan, because there was a whole political angle at play. The PCs are unhappy about this and disagree with their elders' decision on the matter... so they take it upon themselves to sneakily capture Jarhast and deal their own form of justice... and of course, it backfires and more adventuring ensues. To be even clearer: when I say "the PCs would get in trouble if they did XYZ", it doesn't mean that the players shouldn't do XYZ... very much the contrary, in fact Getting the PCs in trouble is half the fun of playing RPGs!

I would personally make it a bit bigger -- around 21m for the the length of the northern wall, and about 24m for the southern wall (based on the new RQG map). The hex/square grid version would actually be a bit bigger than the "real" Tin Inn building, which IMHO would probably be only ~18m for the length of the northern wall. This is because you need to have wider spaces between furniture and other obstacles so that a character token/mini can occupy that space (so it kinda rounds up several things up to the nearest meter). I personally like smaller spaces better anyway, as it allows for more interesting tactical combat: not everybody can fit in a room, so various characters are going to go around or try to shoot through the windows, other characters will be more quickly backed against a wall, etc... It also means that as you break furniture and punch holes through walls, the maps changes more significantly and that creates more opportunities. Makes sense!

He really means it. Here's a snippet from Wyrm Footnotes 10 (available in PDF), a very early Chaosium magazine dealing with RuneQuest and Glorantha. Note the year of the planned release for the Heroquest rules

I recommend Roll20 plus some video chat platform (Google Hangouts, Skype, Zoom, whatever you fancy). Make it a priority to have good webcams, with everybody having them turned on -- it's important to keep track of who's engaged and who seems bored. At a table game, the GM generally spends their time talking to/starting at the players, and not staring at the battlemat or at the inside of their GM screen. It shouldn't be any different with an online game: the main attraction here is to play with friends. Put the Roll20 window on a secondary screen if you have the luxury of having 2 computer monitors, or just switch back and forth as necessary. Roll20 (or some other VTT) makes it primarily easy to share the character sheets, handouts, and dice rolls. Showing a piece of paper to the camera is never good enough to read, while having the character sheet plainly visible in Roll20 is super helpful (not even counting the nice features like one-click rolls). Again, at the table the GM or players frequently have to check someone's character sheet to help them with this or that roll or spell or whatever. I absolutely don't understand people who just use voice-chat only, it's not like anybody ever ran RPG adventures over the phone before. The couple times I tried it (as a player) I was noticeably less focused and engaged, and it didn't seem like I was the only one.

We just ignore scales half the time (we don't always use a battlemat) But yeah, nicely spotted, it is indeed different. I prefer the new scale though -- the buildings look way too roomy in the old version for an ancient civilization. You might get away by just adjusting a few things like the number of spots in the Horsemaster's stable (at first glance I think it can potentially fit up 30 horses).

This reminds me that, after having GMed a WFRP 4e game recently, I would love to see WFRP-like options in the upcoming GM Guide for seasonal character advancement between adventures. That is: right now RQG gives out rules for 2 things: rolling your occupation skill to get money, and doing some training. I'd love to have some other rules for "focusing" on other things during the season, like gaining or reinforcing bonds with NPCs and factions, doing some long-term crafting or commissioning something from someone else, making investments, doing research, etc. (I think actually the "research" part will be in the GM Sourcebook for Lhankor Mhy sages studying books, if I recall correctly?). All of those things can be done fairly easily in an ad-hoc way between the GM and the player, of course, but, well, the GM Guide is supposed to provide guidelines and advice so it would fit well... and I like the idea of having a lightweight "endeavour economy" between adventures to limit how many things the character can do in that time span, so it also fits a couple optional rules. Bonus points for random event tables, too, because hey who doesn't like random tables? Good idea yeah, although up to a degree. I figure that if they take it upon themselves to go and kidnap someone to get ransom, pretty soon they will get in trouble from both the opposing clan and their own clan ring, who might not appreciate them stirring trouble with the neighbours. If however they catch the neighbours fair and square nosing around, the PCs' clan elders will probably give them a more or less generous cut of the ransom -- and they might have to get involved with the negotiations, to add a bit of political adventuring between the exploration/combat chapters. Plot twist: they might gain an NPC sidekick who needs to pay off their ransom debt for a while.

It's probably not a "GM book" in the usual sense of the term -- I'm not quite sure, but from what I've heard so far, it sounds more like a "RuneQuest Companion" book (extra rules for mass combat/battles, heroquesting, guilds, etc.). It may not be a good idea to name it "GM Guide" or "GM Sourcebook" IMHO but then again I don't really know what's in it, so who knows.