g33k

<sigh> Sorry Bill... didn't notice you there in the peanut gallery, eh? (gotta throw him an eh sometimes, he gets cranky when he doesn't feel understood). So, once more for any Barbarians who... uh... "happen" to be lurking in the shadows: RuneQuest is a good ol' fashioned RPG. The game-mechanics do a very good job with simulating the "ancient-world" feel of Glorantha. It's an excellent game. HeroQuest is one of those newfangled "storygame" RPG's, big into "narrative" elements and less about mechanics that "simulate" the world. It's an excellent game, too. It's OK if you need to lay down in a dark corner, Bill. I know how these things sometimes stress you.

The Mongoose edition of Runequest (a BRP game (that is to say, RuneQuest begat BRP at Chaosium, but then RQ got licensed to Mongoose, who begat a variant (but similar, and easily translated) system as THEIR game) had an Eastern setting, with Land of the Samurai & Land of the Ninja. These had Ki Powers. That branch of the "family tree" isn't really pursuing the "eastern" line at the moment, but TDM's Mythras is a linear descendant (mechanically speaking), and typically in Mythras you'd implement the "Mystic Warrior" idea -- whether Shaolin Monk or Jedi Knight -- using the mechanics called "Mysticism." The BRP mechanism is good as written, as @Atgxtg says! The organic character-growth (getting better at the stuff you actually DO, needing to specially-train to improve stuff you haven't done) works really well. There's no "moment" of level-up where you're suddenly better-at-everything (even stuff you've never done?!), but getting a little bit better (much more often) has its own satisfactions. That said, there's several ways to speed up BRP progression if you want to. I have seen: give bigger improvements on any skill-check for improvement; or make it be automatic bump, instead of a "check;" or allow the improvement-rolls more frequently.

Hey there! Welcome! I suspect you've realized that "RuneQuest" and "HeroQuest" are entirely different and unrelated game-mechanics (HQ being much more narrative in mechanics; RQ more crunchy/simulationist), but the difference is worth reiterating (just in case; or for the sake of even-newer folks who stumble across this thread thinking "A-HA! Now THAT thread will help me figure it out!") If that's not enough, the d20-variant "13th Age" has a Glorantha-specific version, "13th Age in Glorantha." Naturally, it too has mechanics that are unrelated to the other two. It's also worth mentioning that the current game (which is where all new RQ development is happening) is RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (RQG). It's intended to be largely backward-compatible with the RuneQuest2 aka RuneQuestClassic rules; everything you're looking at above (except HQ, obviously) is for the RQ2 line. Most of the RQ2 mechanics rolled forward into RQG, but some of the RQ3-era modifications were selected instead, and some all-new mechanics are also in RQG. Still, all of that older "Classic" stuff is intentionally easy to "upgrade" to play in the new edition. Much as the RQ2 content can be "upgraded" to RQG, you can back-port any RQG mechanics you like into an essentially RQ2 game (but that becomes -- more or less immediately -- simply a sliding scale of RQ2<--------->RQG (which is fair enough, fans of the underlying BRP system have long intermixed different subsystems from different games; the core mechanical chassis is versatile and robust in that way)). Out of print but often available used is the RQ3 line, including the highly-regarded River of Cradles campaign (often seen as a sequel to some of the RQ2 stuff), Dorastor:Land of Doom, and more. HQ content for Glorantha should be regarded as good for the descriptive bits, plotlines, etc; but you'll need to create the RQ mechanics/statblocks/etc for all characters & so forth if using HQ material in a RQ game. The same is true in reverse, of course... but if running a RQ scenario under HQ rules, those HQ stats tend to be much faster to create on-the-fly. Sartar:Kingdom of Heroes, Sartar Companion, Pavis: Gateway to Adventure, Coming Storm / 11 Lights, and more... As "getting into the setting" material goes, all of this HQ content is really good stuff ! [ Also note (at least to avoid confusion) "the Mongoose Interregnum" -- Mongoose Games had the RQ & Glorantha licenses for a while, and produced two editions of the game. Some like their stuff, some dislike it (in particular, the folks at Chaosium disliked the Mongoose direction). ] [ Also note #2... the MRQ line spawned a LOT of follow-on, none of it Gloranthan, but all of it relatively-easily adapted if desired, because of similar mechanics: MRQ2 (Mongoose RuneQuest 2nd) had a talented author team, who got the license after Mongoose and launched ANOTHER iteration of that branch of the RQ family tree as "RuneQuest 6" but currently published as "Mythras," de-linked from Glorantha and re-written without any conflicting "IP." It's a popular & worthwhile game, with its own whole line of supplements, sub-licensees, etc. That main branch also yielded d101Games' OpenQuest, Cakebread&Walton's Renaissance (and several games/settings using their respective (and similar) game-engines), and others with AFAIK smaller lines. Most recently joining the family, I think, Alephtar has launched their Revolution d100 game, and are building up that line of supplements. ] [ Also Note #3 - And, of course, the fully "BRP" Chaosium lines, but without any "Glorantha..." Most particularly Call of Cthulhu, but also Superworld, Stormbringer/Elric, Nephilim, and the general "Basic Roleplaying" book itself, the BGB (Big Gold Book). ] === But now, back to Glorantha! Many find the Glorantha Sourcebook a good introduction to the setting. It's entirely free of game mechanics. Even more of the setting -- but another "enormity of the setting" experience -- is in the incredible Guide to Glorantha, 2 oversized volumes in a slipcase, equal in wordcount to 4 "average" game-supplements. It's very Old-School, but the original Cults of Prax book (newly re-available in PDF (hardcopy presumably to come "eventually") courtesy of a Kickstarter project) was for many folks what opened up Glorantha for us & grabbed us. The ongoing travelogue in sidebars, The Travels of Biturian Varosh, is particularly nice! Others prefer the material in the Cults of Terror book and associated sidebar Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale. All this material (and much more!) is also available in the Gloranthan Classic Cult Compendium volume. Until the (still in production) Cults of Glorantha project comes out, the Compendium is probably the best resource available. Whichever way you want to get this content, it's worth pursuing! (It may seem odd to be pointing you to "the religions book(s)," but myth is deeply entwined with Glorantha, and any "foundation" without the myths (and runes!) is built on sand.) Last but not least, I don't see that anyone has pointed you at the Prince of Sartar webcomic; it's on hiatus for now, pending the artist & the storyteller both having more free time ("free" being the operative word here -- it's a real time-sink for them, but has a low financial return). But there's something like 100 pages of it, IIRC... So here's a pointer... http://www.princeofsartar.com/new-reader/ === There's really two loci of adventure-development in Glorantha, plus a few other bits-and-bobs. First up is the Zola Fel valley, with the two you've already spotted (P&BR, B&B) plus some RQ3-era supplements (currently only to be found on the used market); the surrounding region of Prax & the Wastes (with the Beast-Rider nomads, the Men-and-a-Half, etc) is also viable, but has less actual adventure-development done. Then there's the Dragon Pass & Sartar area, where Prax meets the Lunar Empire (& the goddess of the Red Moon) and also meets the Storm&Earth folk of Sartar&Esrolia (and their respective pantheons featuring "Orlanth Storm-King and his wife Ernalda" & "Ernalda Earth-Queen and her sometime-husband Orlanth") and also meets the Grazelander folk... also with large varieties of other races &c not commonly found such proximity. Sartar is only recently, in the new RQG era, getting much actual RQ development, although it got a fair bit of love from the HQ line! "Bits and Bobs" would include things like Balazar (aka Griffin Mountan), Dorastor (from the RQ3 era), and others. The RQ2/RQG mechanical differences (see above) are MUCH less significant than the time-advance in the game-world, and what it does in the setting! In the RQ2 era (year 1615-ish), the Lunar Empire is waxing strong, and nobody can tell when (or if) that will change. They have conquered the Storm folk of the Kingdom of Sartar, in Dragon Pass (despite Sartar's incessant, but always-failing, efforts to rebel). Imperial Legions rule the city of Pavis, and their allied Sable Tribe lords it over the other beast-rider Tribes in the surrounding Praxian wastes. In the RQG era (year 1626) the Lunars in Sartar have run afoul of a dragon. It ate most of their army in Sartar, all their magicians and leaders in Sartar. Sartar is free!!! Now the kingdom is hastily raising forces and rushing them to intercept the (hastily reassigned) Lunar Imperial forces rushing to re-take Sartar. In Prax, the Imperial Legions were decisively defeated, alongside their Sable allies, and without the Legions in place, the Lunar rulers of Pavis have driven from power (mostly killed). The collapse of the Lunar influence in these two areas make some of the premises of RQ2-era adventures more than a bit "odd" if run in the RQG era, and vice versa. In both times, the big overarching conflict is the expansionist Lunar Empire vs the independent Kingdom of Sartar, echoing the metaphysical Chaos-vs-Creation fight. === As per others' replies, above ... Pavis & Big Rubble (city of Pavis, abutting the "Big Rubble" (which is itself the "Old City" of Pavis (and previously called Robcradle)) -- on the shores of the Zola Fel river aka "River of Cradles") - New Pavis for urban adventures, politicking, rivalries/alliances, etc; Old Pavis for mysterious magical ruins & their varied mysterious (often magical) traps, loot, inhabitants (some of whom have their OWN "urban in the ruins" storylines), etc. It's rather sandbox-y (within the confines of the specific sandbox of the Old & New Cities). Nothing makes you go into the Rubble... nothing makes you stay in Pavis... but either choice gives lots of play; and within each portion, you're able to ally with any of many groups or factions, or maintain your independence, or try to forge larger multi-group alliances, etc etc etc; and then there are groups already covertly & overtly reaching across the wall between Old City & new... Really very sandboxy. Borderlands & Beyond -- Downriver from Pavis, exiled Lunar nobleman Duke Raus is just setting up a new home on the "borderlands" of the empire. He's hiring mercenaries to help him. This is a pretty linear set of adventures, specifically set up so as to introduce elements of Gloranthan Wierdness and specifically the Zola Fel valley & surrounding wastes of Prax (q.v. below). Finish one assignment, rise in the esteem of the Duke, get a new assignment. I'd honestly advise going with Borderlands first, at least for actual gaming. Adventurers who are veterans of the Rubble will likely be able to brute-force through some of the Borderlands scenarios that are more about trying to set up Raus's holdings to be long-term-stable, where the players are supposed to solve the situation more than killfix the problem. Also, for new players the "assignment" format avoids the sandbox-y "analysis paralysis" risk of "but what do we do in Pavis? and Why?" Griffin Mountain -- one of the great Sandboxes, hunter-gatherer tribes of "Balazar" (essentially neolithic tech, plus bits of traded / stolen metal) surrounding a few more-advanced cities. Either or both of the P&BR and B&B volumes can naturally grow here, or this one can grow there. Travel through the intervening territories is tough enough to make back-and-forth'ing between Balazar & Prax an unlikely option. === Of course, there's other "ways in" to Glorantha... RQG itself, the new game, has a "Quickstart" product, about 50% intro-to-rules-and-setting, and 50% adventure-with-pregen-PCs. Move on with the core rules (spring for the version in the slipcase, which includes the extraordinary GM's Pack with several adventures and a sandbox setting for the "Colymar" tribe in Sartar; unless you're specifically sticking with RQ2/RQClassic, in which case maybe just get the Screen Pack for the adventures & setting). Going back to the Classic line, Apple Lane is one of those "all the old-timers fondly remember" modules, together with Rainbow Caverns, and often chosen as a first game for newbies. Note that the RQG GM Pack has an explicit years-later sequel, "Return to Apple Lane.

If you liken POW to STR, then you look to "skill" to apply either, in BRP terms. Traditionally most BRP games set a couple of skill breakpoints... 75%, 80%, & 90% are all common, sometimes 75 & 90 both; and 100%, of course. Then a PC has to get 3 skills above a breakpoint, or 5 skills, or 3 above a lower and one above a higher, or whatever the game-design calls for... Then the PC is deemed to have achieved a certain degree if "mastery" and new options open up. In the explicitly AD&D-esque "Classic Fantasy," this is part of the "levelling-up" mechanism. In the old Mongoose "Land of..." supplements, it was "Ki Powers". Etc etc etc.

We know that (at least some of) the Morokanth use chariots. Do any others of the nomad Tribes? I've seen artwork with Sables, in particular (that may be specifically LUNAR chariots (but equally: if the Lunars use the tribes' Sables, maybe the tribes make use of the Lunar idea of chariots...?)), but also IIRC Zebra. I'm ... kind of having a hard time envisioning rhino-chariots, suspecting they'd look terrifying but actually be a nightmare for the operator & for logistical support. OTOH, I'm having a hard time resisting the image of really t-a-l-l wheels (like, 10-15 ft diameter!) on some High Llama chariots; something like a pennyfarthing / highwheeler, but as a chariot.

It was literally the 1st result in my search. Top-most link. No search-term finesse, just explicit quotes around "sixty stone press" on Google. I've got no idea how your search found "many references" and yet did not find the most-relevant. But I guess I'm not "normal," nor any of my friends, as I don't recognize .com to be a regular synonym for website, and have never before met that usage. USA+suffix, in contrast(USAian, USAism, etc) IS something I've seen and used for at least a decade or so online. So... hilarious? ... I guess. Whater floats your boat, or offends you, or amuses you, or whatever... I'm not the one who "assume(d) you were not Intentionally try to be an ...... " so if you took offense, I'm sorry.

I think he wants the "one-line elevator pitch" for selling TOR. I too haven't read it, but have read about it. My understanding is the pitch would be something like, "The best RPG yet for simulating Tolkienesque flavor, with special attention to the Party, the Journey, and the perils of the Shadow (and it's grip within oneself!)" YMiddleEarthMV, as may YRPG.

Their entire line of PDFs is available under CC-BY-NA-SA; there's a few carefully-noted exceptions (one artist, a separately-freely-licensed logo THEY use, etc). https://eclipsephase.com/cclicense (that's for the new 2e, but 1e was similar). In principle, you could grab all the text and art you liked and recombine bits into your own highly-customized however-many-page sourcebook for your own campaign, Lulu it off for your players...

I'd have thought all of that was a given, even for less amateur productions! Still, well worth pointing out to those new to the program! But I'm still befuddled by the commercial success of Posthuman Studio's "PWYW" model for Eclipse Phase (not just "PWYW" but "Creative Commons BY-NA-SA" PDF's, art&layout included!) Presumably, whatever Dark Gods the folks over at Posthuman have sacrificed to, the DTRPG "Community Content" folk don't know the right deities and/or rituals... 😁 (N.B. not entirely off-topic for a Cthulhu forum, because (1) EP includes a fair portion of existential Cosmic Horror, and (2) the core mechanic is a d100-variant... although not (alas!) close enough to BRP for there to be the customary easy interchange of content! Would 'twere otherwise... I could see a pretty cool EP crossover with Pulp Cthulhu ... ) .

That's because USAian norms aren't universally observed. http://www.sixtystonepress.co.uk/ (that said... there seem to be some problems with their site; so maybe they're doing a revamp, or even decommissioning it, in favor of blogs/vendors/etc only (I've seen some vendors doing this: they have an "official" FB page, Twitter, etc... but no actual website of their own.); or maybe their web-hosting service is just glitching and returning empty HTML.)

To be sure I understand -- you have a map where the only label on the city itself appears to be a call to correct things via "corflu"? So the material referenced by "Colin Driver" is, in fact, a later map where "Corflu" (as a port city) has become canonical?

Hey, there's some veeeery interesting text attached. It has direct bearing on ancient Chaosium meta-Glorantha lore (to wit, the origin of the name "Corflu")... Does anyone know of this "original Prax map" ? IS it the "original?" etc...

More to the point, you won't struggle. You'll stand there, thirsty, with a full waterskin at your side... waiting for a foe you can Sword-or-Axe-or-Arrow-or-Weapon (I presume other Cult-specific Weapons may be Trance'able at some tables, or p'raps forthcoming in future supplements). You won't go LOOKING for more foes, though you'll move to engage a foe you can see, or move to clear a sight-line for unobstructed bow shot, and similar. You'll stand there -- if Extended long enough, and if no foes happen by -- until you're dehydrated, with that same full waterskin at your side. You'll stand there until you drop in your track from dehydration (or freeze in the cold, or otherwise succumb to physical failure), all while self-care solutions are immediately available to hand, and trivial to use. Those in [Weapon] Trace can ONLY do their weapon-thing skill, and immediately-proximate things (e.g. in Arrow Trance, the Aldryami can IIRC cast healing magic on their Elf-Bow if it gets damaged).

Po-TAY-to, po-TAH-to ... You say "Munchkin," I say "Illuminated."

There's technical skill, and then there is artistic "merit." Having good technique doesn't necessarily make for great art. There's some real hack stuff, formulaic but technically proficient. If you've seen Amadeus, there's a wonderful scene where Salieri has composed a "welcome" piece for Mozart's arrival. It's a nice piece of music, very intricate and pretty. After Salieri performs it for Mozart, the wunderkind sits down (having just heard the piece for the first time in his life) and performs IIRC a series of variations of Salieri's theme... each one of them BETTER than Salieri's had been. Arguably, some "great" art (e.g. Pollock's "drip paintings") have minimal technique or skill. Blue Poles is estimated to be worth $350M, for example.

But as a matter of personal taste and preference, "blue" is equally valid with "Mona Lisa" (or de Kooning's "Interchange," or the clay bowl my daughter made in school...) . None of them is more valid than any other, as a matter of taste or preference. The ONLY thing that a high valuation means, is that there are people with crazy amounts of money, who put that valuation onto those particular artworks.

Have you seen this thread, @ve4grm ...?

One of the things about "art" is that it's a matter of taste and preference. $-values don't dictate the taste of every person. Anyone is free to find the Mona Lisa to be boring, or ugly, or whatever... that's their opinion. It doesn't make them right, but it's their opinion, to which they are entitled and which is valid as an opinion. By the same token, a $1BN valuation doesn't make those who LIKE the Mona Lisa "right," either. It just means there are more of THOSE opinions. === It's like... what's the best color? You can ask someone their favorite color, but that's their opinion -- it doesn't make their favorite color "better" or more valid. As a matter of taste, "blue" is the most-favorite'd color. That doesn't make someone "wrong" if their favorite color isn't blue!

Boost with 64 MP's?

So is there ANY way to get through a honkin' big Shield and/or Countermagic? Be careful of turning defensive magic supreme. Everyone will turtle-up behind their impenetrable defenses, and let the fights become "tink, tink, tink..."

Another thought... Have you ever seen that classic 1980 comedy "The Gods Must be Crazy" ? (if not, go see it!) There's a "character" in that movie, a Land-Rover which somehow is responsible for tremendous amounts of mishap and chaos. The mechanic has named this vehicle "the Antichrist." Call your horse "Gbaji." If your GM has seen the movie, expect Gbaji to become a significant source of storyhooks & side-quests; and often to be a source of inconvenience and even humiliation.

It's really, really good. I hope you'll share the finished piece. I'd be happy to see it -- and buy it! -- included in a Jonstown Compendium item...? Together perhaps with more of your work, both art & text ... ? <hint, hint>

The USA was going through a phase of attempting to go metric at that time. I presume Greg (or others @Chaosium at the time) were either trying to be forward-thinking, flipping the bird at regressive traditionalists who found metric to be unaMERikun, taking a stab at something that would feel "exotic" to the USAian buyer, or some mix thereof. But I don't actually know.

Also IMHO worth doing is a Google image-search on "reed boat." The technology is pretty ubiquitous, and ancient. Note how common very-high prow-and-stern can be (unless tied off and trimmed short); some of these use the space for figureheads/totems. IMG, these are often human figures, and often humorous or mocking of humans... occasionally even mocking a particular human. One bright morning shortly after the Duckhunt began (when Durulz were seldom found at Duck Point; but many of their boats were still in use by humans), as a new Imperial Garrison was arriving with a fresh new commander, it was suddenly noticed that -- overnight -- all the figureheads had been replaced with figures of notable Lunars... particularly Fazzur and even Moonson himself! All having some ridiculous or mocking aspect. YGMV.

Or just generally ripping off legs, not necessarily starting with the horse, or stopping after six legs... I think there's several figures where that line would provoke "interesting" reactions. Argrath, Harrek, Jar-Eel... My pick? Solanthos. He was the Lightson leader of the Sun Dome temple that supported the Lunar effort to take over the new Cradle, IIRC. You've got the "female PC taming/riding a misogynistic male" theme. You've got Yelmalian horse-schtick. You've got your Lunar affiliation. It's pretty good all round, IMO...