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g33k

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Everything posted by g33k

  1. I think @jeffjerwin nails it. HQ is a very-narrativist mechanic from noted game-designer Robin Laws (who's a strong advocate for narrative game mechanics); you won't "convert" HQ NPC's (and pre-gens, if any?) so much as replace them. It's almost like RQ game-masters (and I guess 13G game masters, too...?) can regard HQ sourcebooks as adventure/campaign books without any stat-blocks included, and borrow suitable stat-blocks from other RQ (or 13G?) sourcebooks, possibly re-fluffing as-needed. Or build them from scratch under RQG rules; or just hand-wave whatever RQ rules "feel right". There are, I believe, a few quirks and quibbles between the mechanics of each system, rendering SOME storylines harder to convert... but note that @Pentallion reports 11L as " the best campaign money can buy" and he's writing in the RQG context ... evidently it converts well!
  2. Fair 'nuf! But note it seems (from what I've seen) more of a "weird science / alt-science" setting than genuine "SciFi."
  3. g33k

    Races

    waitWHAT???!? They've given the noble Durulz short shrift vs those mechanized mostrosities the Mostali? And vs those annoying asparagus-folk the Aldryami??!? ... 👿 this means war 😉
  4. g33k

    RQG Prax

    I believe that plans are not yet 100% set. @David Scott is AFAIK working on Prax, with AFAIK the genuine intention to produce a supplement. HOWEVER, I think the project is still in the "figuring out details of Prax iteself" stage. See his "Praxian Tradition" and "Prax and the thousand questions about the place" threads. AFAIK, Chaosium has yet to decide if the project is going to be for RQG, for HQG, or some dual-stat or mechanic-neutral setting book, or something else enirely. I expect Chaosium will let us know what they plan to do, some time not too long after they figure out what it is they plan to do.
  5. My understanding is that for "accurate medieval-esque" data, Harn is hard to beat... Or even to match. I haven't done the research needed to verify that, but I believe it to be true...
  6. I too always say "Uz" as if it were "us, but with a z." But I conceptualize it in Darktongue with that s/z sound being something with a clicking/hissing character, something sounding almost chitinous, insectoid, as if the speaker had no soft palate, but a hard one... YGMV
  7. Necro'ing this to suggest (if y'all haven't already settled on something): Odd Soot from our own Clarence Redd.
  8. I'll note that good ol' 1970's D&D / AD&D had the same "starting characters aren't even strong enough to meaningfully kamikaze themselves against the bigbad's, they are just meaningless sacrifices if the GM were that sadistic". 1st level party vs. Asmodeus, or Tiamat? yeahNO. "YummySnackMorePlease" I believe there were various HR's and proposed-solutions floated 'round the urWeb, Back In The Day. I think even the authors of those weren't entirely satisfied with them... but maybe I'm wrong: Simon's decades-of-RW-play RQ just recently finished up at world-shaking power levels: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/7919-our-runequest-gloranthan-campaign-the-river-voices-legend-of-the-arganauts-has-come-to-an-end/ seems pretty damned EPICALLY satisfying to me!!! Despite that, I think you're correct that there is not a any clear path in the "classic" rulesets from starting RQ PC's to mythic RQ PC's; AD&D at least defined the level1 - level20 path, and associated rules, and a level-20 party might reasonably hope to defeat any of the BBG's from the Monster Manual. Laws' HW/HQ rules were, afaik, aimed in large part at solving this problem for Glorantha (I never got into those rules much, so I don't really know if they succeeded, or how well; but many Gloranthapiles seem to like them, fwiw ... ) . I think you're looking at the older RQ1/2/3 era, though. RQG is a MUCH more high-powered game. In the Quickstart Broken Tower scenario, [SPOILER ALERT: the PC's are expected to deal successfully with a previously-unknown demigoddess/demon, stealing her sacrifices or defeating her in battle or allying her with the clan or etc etc etc. END SPOILER]. This is a Hero-level challenge! I can easily see how, in the core rules of the existing RQG game, a solo adventurer might reasonably get to the level of doing the whole adventure as a lone quest. Last but not least, for RQG: the upcoming GM Book (not to be confused with the already-released GM Screen Pack) will supposedly have new Heroquesting rules in it, for even more PC-to-Mythic-WorldStriders action.
  9. ROFL (I tried to laughie-face react, but somehow couldn't)
  10. I find this exactly reversed, personally. I can do x2 and x5 in my head without a glitch (or x3 or x4 for that matter); /2 usually also, but /5 (and /3 and /4) not as swiftly (yes, I know /4 is just /2/2, that's how I math it if I gotta; but it's slower). Dividing is a distinct slow-down at the gaming-table. And I'm probably the most adept at doing such math in my head, it's worse for others (some of whom will whip out their cellphones for the calc-app). I understand this is generally the case -- multiplication is easier & faster (particularly for mental math off the cuff) than division. So I prefer STAT x DifficultyMultiplier BY FAR instead of STAT / DifficultyDivisor. That said... horror's not really my jam, so I don't have much of a horse in this race (gotta admit to liking the looks of Pulp Cthulhu, though)!
  11. I have the 3 LBBs which were the original edition. There was clearly an "Imperium" setting implicit, but no real detail; it wasn't IMHO a playable "setting: as such. That was NOT the Traveller setting. Although Marc Miller was behind that game, it really wasn't part of Traveller, nor Traveller of it. Other than both being interstellar sci-fi, they were unrelated upon publication. Wikipedia states: === Edit: Of course, NONE OF THIS is relevant to Mr. Spivey's new product. Sorry Jason/Choasium As others have said, Brin is an exceptionally exciting name to come up as inspiring-source-material!
  12. Yes, it's absolutely familiar. Mythras took the RQ2 "Cult" ideas, wherein you had to have, e.g., 90% in [Cult] Lore and whatever core skill(s) the cult had (Sword for Humakt, Bargain for Issaries, etc). They broadened that notion to most sorts of organizations... guilds... "brotherhoods." They all like your organization-specific skills to be among the higher tiers of ability, before they consider advancing you to the higher tiers of power within the organization. And then CF re-purposed that general mechanism, saying "advancing a level in a class is exactly like upon advancing in a skills-based organization!"
  13. I see there being 2 main sorts of beasts -- draft beasts, who are mostly placid & patient, but with tons of endurance; and race/battle beasts with lots of fire & spirit. I think handling them is very different. I don't really think a carter who knows placid draft-horses will have a terribly hard time driving with placid oxen, or placid zebras. Similarly, a driving a chariot with a brace of battle-hardened sables, or warhorses, seems largely similar to me. I think the high-speed racing & combat operation is fundamentally different from calmly transporting goods/people/etc; mostly, you don't GET racing/battle behavior from normally-placid draftbeasts (but as @Womble notes, when it happens it happens in a VERY dangerous way). I don't know when brakes/skids/etc became common IRL, or if they exist in Glorantha...? So far as I know, this is mostly a transport-oriented feature, for handling hills & holding the cart for loading/unloading, etc. I honestly don't know enough to be sure if the seated-vs-standing driver is a Big Deal, or a trivial variation. But again, I don't think RQ needs all these niceties... Drive(Chariot) & Drive(Wagon) look like enough, to me (with a 1/2 skill for the other Drive, at need). I don't think the "Coach" needs its own skill. YGMV
  14. I don't think an animal's "ghost" is an "Animal Spirit" in this sense. I'm thinking the INT'ful / spellcasting "Animal Spirits" are more like Totem spirits and such. Patrons of the species, or the local herd, etc...
  15. One caveat that occurs to me in the case of some Gloranthan dragons, is that they are (in themselves) of sufficient scale to have a single breath be a multi-mile-wide disaster. Furthermore, they are so cosmically-potent that I'd expect the fires ignited would spread however the Dragon wanted them to spread, regardless of the wetness or dryness of the wood/grass/whatever... Very few settings have creatures on quite that scale, of course! I'd expect the worst PC-driven accidental fires to be in towns. Wooden buildings, cracks sealed with pitch and tar, ancient and very-dry wood, close-set buildings, etc. As VonKatzen notes, some cities have lots of stonework, which obviously inhibits fires; but I'd expect most of the poorer quarters to be made as cheaply as possible (and almost everywhere, it's far cheaper to build with wood than stone). I'll see the OP's "Ruritanian Royal Forest" and raise him "the Ruritanian Capitol" ...
  16. I consider a couple of real-world cases: the race-car driver & the long-haul trucker. Their equipment (and the operation thereof) are different enough, with different-enough objectives, for me to think these may qualify foe the "half skill" rule, e.g. a trucker with Drive(Semi) might have half that skill for Drive(racecar). I think the chariot-driver and the wagon-driver may a similar case... but I confess that I don't actually know enough to be sure. Barring other input, I will probably HR it that way,
  17. g33k

    Troll Diet

    ??? I thought there was a Rune-level requirement in one of the Uz cults to eat a blood relative... ?
  18. This strikes me as perfectly correct. People without much reputation, who try to USE their reputation for advantage...? Then tend to come off as absurd & pretentious.
  19. g33k

    Coal in Glorantha

    I would presume "some sort of Diesel-/Steam-Punk hybrid" to be entirely-canonical Glorantha in some Mostali-controlled places.
  20. g33k

    Coal in Glorantha

    I would presume it has primarily social / community / ritual benefits (not primarily combat/adventuring benefits).
  21. That was my own initial impulse. But now I think I like it the rule... Runes are supposed to be this fundamental nature-of-reality thing in Glorantha, and acting against a very-strong Runic nature would be a bit like a real-world human deciding to save money by not eating for a couple of weeks... Technically possible, but very tough, very unlikely. Runes aren't simply like guns, magical tools that you pick up to be more dangerous, then put down when you're done. Runes are part of the character, every bit as much as their STR or INT. Similarly with a Passion: I'm gonna assign my Real-World self a Real-World "Passion:Wife". I will suggest that this passion doesn't "mandate" all my choices, but where she is concerned... my concern for her is my #1 priority. Acting AGAINST her interests -- even in ways I might otherwise wish to act -- is VERY unlikely for me. Once they cross that 80% threshold, they become dominant fixtures of who the PC is. But there ARE escape clauses (if the PLAYER really wants to act out of character): 1. You can roll against whatever's mandating the action. 2. You can come up with an opposing Rune or Passion, do opposed rolls to see which wins. 3. You can, ultimately, assert your player agency, and fiat that your character acts in another way, despite the relevance of a dominant Rune or Passion (and accept it will drop down below the "mandate action" threshold... because you just exerted self-control to reduce your Passion, or disengaged a bit from the Runic affiliation). So... yeah: the player can ABSOLUTELY act against the Rune/Passion; it isn't "mandated" at all. But the in-game choice comes with in-game consequences: you haven't set down a tool when acting against the Rune, you have suppressed it's existence within you.
  22. g33k

    Troll Diet

    I don't have 13G, but to me that snippet reads as an in-character/Gloranthan perspective, possibly Uz, and as such... well... suspect as possibly partisan. We know that a Chaos-curse damaged the fertility of Kyger Litor, so I'm a bit dubious of claims the Uz can devour Chaos "without harm."
  23. Pre-reg seems to be the most common way to go in the RPG/Convention industry, but onsite reg still happens... DunDraCon (one of the very oldest Cons going (DDC 43 happens in about 3 months)) does lottery-entry, NOT 1st-come/1st-serve. They allow sign-ups up until a few hours before the game. You CAN enter the lottery before the Con opens, but it confers no added advantage over the paper sign-up slips submitted there at the 'Con (it all goes into the same lottery engine onsite, that rando-picks and prints who's in what games; then there's a shark-frenzy at the board where they post the results). You can get ONE "Priority" registration -- a special elevated registration-status: Priority registrations get 1st choice, and only after all the Priority registrations are assigned does everyone else get lotteried-in -- by either GM'ing a game, or by volunteering for "X" hours at the Con (I think X is either 6 or 8 hours). Priority is pretty good at getting you into that one game you most wanted, but not always: last time I was at DDC, there was a note on one game that FORTY-TWO priority registrants tried to sign up for one 6-person game session. www.dundracon.com FWIW (my favorite of the 3 different 'Cons I have attended)
  24. Yeah, that's what CF rank IS. You improve your character via skill-checks, exactly as per Mythras core. But you have a defined/declared "Class" for your character, and when a suite of Class-skills gut up past certain thresholds, you advance a rank in that class. As your rank improves, you gain Class/LevelRank special bennies. It's kind of the opposite of D&D: there, you earn XP and THEN your skill goes up via Level-up; but in CF, your skill-improvements are what raises your rank (which unlocks Rank-based bennies).
  25. Yeah; it's the conjunction of darkness and secrets that make me think Primal Dark. I guess it depends on whether Alusar is more attuned to keeping secrets or uncovering/sharing them. Keeping secrets sounds solidly Darkness to me; sharing what is uncovered is pretty Fire/Sky. YGMV
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