g33k

How 'bout @soltakss's River Voices campaign? https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/7919-our-runequest-gloranthan-campaign-the-river-voices-legend-of-the-arganauts-has-come-to-an-end/?tab=comments#comment-111784 https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/8098-the-tale-of-ambassador-king-emperor-mello/?tab=comments#comment-114684

Has a final decision been made as to whether this will be 2 volumes, or 1? If it's 2, will it simply be a 2-vol "set" or will it be 2 semi-independent volumes, each separately relevant? And if 2 separate volumes... how will you choose which cults go into which volume (I mean, some of this I can see obvious criteria; others not so much!). Thanks for all the info you've been sharing, btw! It's very much appreciated!

I will just add the standard note of caution concerning all those Special Effects . Some folks just hit those and it's instant analysis-paralysis. They never engage, or they pick 1-2 and never go beyond. My group was that way. I had to hand-hold them with RQ6 and even pick effects for them. Other groups don't have as much problem. It bears thinking about, so you have some ideas ready if it becomes a problem. You'll be the best judge of whether your group will engage well with this, or if it'll be a problem... One solution (that I haven't tried personally, but is reported as a good option) is to get TDM's "Combat Cards" -- the GM can use these to help players, by pre-selecting a nice suite of them per weapon and/or per combat-style, and a rew generally-useful ones, for the player to hold/use at their discretion. Then when they are comfortable, they can move up to have all relevant Special Effects from the full rules. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHov_eOK_wE

... And a very interesting hook, IMHO ! I can definitely see the Red Goddess looking at Eurmal's presence in the Empire, and thinking, "What he really needs a Harley Quinn type Mythic Girlfriend! oh hey, and a backdoor into the Storm Tribe ftw!"

It's worth noting that RQG is similar enough to RQ2 and RQ3 that many play it "wrong" in one or more ways, in the belief that all their decades-old habits hold true (instead of just most of their decades-old habits). It's worth further noting that NOBODY has those decades of comparable RQG experience. Not even the devs/authors at Chaosium! So we can expect various "best practices" and optimizations (and loopholes) to be discovered and shared over time.

+1 for RQ. I mean, even RQClassic -- isn't that the ruleset QW was built upon? You would still need splashy "Boom" magic from some different flavor of BRP. One of the things I loved back when I first met RQ -- about 40 years ago -- was the elegance of the Crit/Special/Hit/Miss/Fumble from a single roll, scaling with skill; combined with hit-locations, so that you could be meaningfully "injured" (can't hold your weapon, DEX-roll each round or fall because of a 0-HP leg; etc). Suddenly every combat was a STORY with EVENTS, not just an attritional grind of the Bag-of-HP's toward zero. 🤩 So whichever flavor you end up using, I'd pick one with (or add back the feature of) location-HP's. I would grab the free intro/quickstart PDF's for BRP & for MagicWorld, and see how those look. Tweak/add as-needed from the BigGoldBook or other BRP iterations. Also worth considering is Mythras -- specifically because of their "Mythic Constantinople" sourcebook, and your own "exiles from Byzantium" backstoryline.

I follow table preferences, as a GM. As a player, I have used mini's, and I have used TotM. Both work just fine IME. At one point, there was a reasonably well-respected maker of small-scale (platoon/etc) skirmishing wargames -- DishDash Games -- who was going to bring out a Gloranthan skirmish-game & mini's. Haven't heard anything on this front in over a year, and their prior "Glorantha" project page now HTTP:404's... so I presume it's not happening (and after some Googling, I see a thread from another mini's - maker remarking to the effect of DishDash "getting hammered on the forums" and "pulling out of Glorantha." 😥 ) One concrete element I use even in ToTM is a rough map -- just a display of the environs, so that everyone is visualizing approximately the same thing. I follow this practice for all RPG's where we don't use mini's. This is after repeatedly experiencing (both as player and as GM) sudden breakdowns where someone states an action that is physically-impossible according to what someone else at the table envisions; in some cases, leading to character fatality. I find a shared map, however minimal, vastly reduces these debacles. It doesn't need to be a map-on-table with mini's/dice/markers for PCs & NPCs and etc - a rough sketch passed around is enough. I only skip this when the tactical environment is simple... an open field, a bog-standard 20x20Room, etc. RQG really doesn't have rules to interface with most elements of a "tactical" battle-mat oriented combat... facing, flanking, number of foes who can engage, etc. Ranged-combat & movement is about it. Weapon-size vs StrikeRank is similar in some ways, but it's just WAY too fine-grained to be relevant on hexes or squares of a battlemat!

If I am using mini's at all (or bottlecaps, or spare dice, or etc) then I am likely to use a ruler/etc to determine any critically-important ranges; if there are no such range situations, then not.

Relationship-map, a tool popular with some writers, gamers, etc. Also usable in other areas where relationships (between individuals & organizations &c) can be very complex & confusing & become wall-of-text-y.

TYVM, Rick!

Mostly correct, as I understand things. But the price of $120 is for the STANDARD hardcover slipcase set, not the leatherette: And it's up to the FLGS's whether to order/stock it, of course! Note that: some (most?) FLGS's participate in the Brick&Mortar program and IIRC Chaosium will send you a free PDF on proof of purchase from such shops (but not e.g. cheap online discount sellers). if you buy the PDF from Chaosium, you get a discount-code for buying the hardcover, equal to the full cost of the PDF; so, free PDF with the printed book, either way: PDF immediately, book later, all straight from Chaosium You can choose to aupport Chaosium with more of the money; or support your FLGS. Either way, you end up with both products. The only buyer who'd be advantaged buying from a discount E-tailer like Amazon (so fast as I can tell) is one who wants ONLY the hardcover book and NOT the PDF.

Honestly, I see the wargaming roots here. Early Gygax was Tolkien-izing & Leiber'izing the team-A / team-B wargames, where the "referee" was a neutral arbiter of rules-arguments. Magic replaced guns/artillery/&c; dragons replaced aircraft and bombs &c. Etc. Then came the twin notions of grabbing the "interesting commander-unit" out of the squad/platoon/company/brigade/whatever, and just running the ONE PERSON as a "unit" and have "team B" be the Ref. The focus of the game remained the wargaming focus -- combat; adding in small-unit purposes like "scouting" (exploration) and some tropes from the literature like traps&puzzles... (edit: and huge piles of treasure!)

Overall, an excellent review. My only quibble is with your mention of the Broo's "omnifertility" -- I have never understood otherwise, since beginning play in 1980 or so (though the RQ2 core book only says "atrocities and foul practices"). Broo's mate (fecundly) with any species or gender, and AFAIK always have. HOWEVER...I don't actually have many sources available with me, to actually check my recollection!

Yeah; if you can identify a Big Threat, it makes good tactical sense to preemptively neutralize said threat, before it can begin taking down your own team...

Has anyone made an R-map of the Sartar Clans?

It's all coming (as I understand it) on the same boat: Bestiary, GMScreenPack, 2nd/revised printing of core rulebook, slipcase sets of all 3, slipcase sets with a cardboard insert in place of core rulebook (for those with corebook in hand). They should all be available at the same time (unless there is some repackaging needed at the various domestic warehouses, which (I dunno) may be a thing that needs to happen? In which case I expect the repackaged products will become available a few days after the standalone products). But Chaosium seems to expect everything to be available by the end of March, and hasn't (that I have seen) called out any products for such earlier (or delayed) availability, so I think it's only my own pessimism -- of course MY purchase will suffer delays...

Many, many thanks to Clarence! Turns out I'm one of the lucky winners! And Odd Soot was on my very-short-list of gaming buy's that I was forcing myself to choose between... So, that's solved! 😁 Of course (as I explained to him in my e-mail reply) now I have a NEW quandary: in addition to getting it for myself, I was also thinking it'd be a book my son (& his fiance) might really like. What to do, what to do ... I guess I could buy a copy too, and solve things that way ... I guess this is what they call a good problem! 😊

Don't be silly. Thirty pages isn't NEARLY enough to work through the details in such a debate!

Yeah, regional wildlife variations mess up lots of folks' "visualization" vs what the authors/devs intended. TheNorth American "moose" is what the North European "Elkhound" is named for, and the North American "Elk" species would all be "deer" on t'other side of the Atlantic. Robins. Buzzards. Badgers. Panthers (most folk seem to already know this one).

YGMV

My own "feel" for the setting suggests that the "Chief's adventures" may be very different from the arc of adventures of the party to date. I think they could adventure with the chief, but suspect there are a bunch of campaign-threads & clues and pending stuff they would have to let lie fallow. Maybe the player could create a new "champion" or "lieutenant" PC to take the place of the Chief PC when demands of the position prevent him going along ... ?

AFAIK, multiple entities can engage a single target in Spirit Combat. If you cast "Distraction" on your ally to save them ... It doesn't, it just means they are engaged with both their original attacker and with you (primarily with you, until the next round when they can declare a new SoI). If being already-Engaged was a solid defense against Spirit Combat it'd be a VERY popular defensive method!

SAN loss can be for more than just seeing something... for example, being Harmonized by a Jack'o'Bear...

How about an increasing penalty per SR? 1 SR sooner @ -10% 2 SR's sooner @ -10 + -20 = -30% 3 SRs sooner @ -10 + -20 + -30 = -60% 4 SRs sooner @ -10 + -20 + -30 + -40 = -100% So you can go a LITTLE sooner at not much penalty, but going a LOT sooner gets into hefty penalties. I can see the 1-2 SR's being routinely chosen; hitting the foe FIRST is a huge advantage! But you've got to have a HUGE advantage -- or be very desperate -- for 60%/100%/150%/etc penalties to look like a good choice... Also, I'd want to look at the way this interplays with splitting attacks, and with two-weapon fighting and the "You have to have the SR's to fit all the attacks into the 12-SR round" rules. I don't actuall SEE the exploit off the top of my head, but my gut suggests the odds are high for a "loophole" (aka unintended consequences) in the way these work together.

If you buy from Chaosium, you have the PDF. Just POD it through Lulu / etc with the requisite upgrades... I'm sure ONE of those services can handle your order ... can't they? 😋