g33k

Hm. Loz seems to be... talking to himself. And disagreeing with himself.

I had a character with Fireblade... The GM rolled us a random encounter, got an odd look on his face, then asked for ALL the d6'es at the table... he got maybe 20ish of 'em. Rolled 'em all, summed 'em, rolled 'em all again, summed 'em, then picked a few out and rolled those... I think he said the Giant striding towards us had SIZ 50d6. He was swinging a fully-grown pine tree as a club. By an unhappy concatenation of events, my character ended up being the ONLY member of the party engaged in the fight. Everyone else was caught up in a wierd Dragonnewt-generated social/honor conflict thingie. I don't recall if the Giant missed, or I got initiative, or what... but I managed to land the first blow, and it was a crit. Down comes the giant, leg (the only bit I could hit -- the GM reported that the hit-location table was a coin-toss head/tails for R/L legs) completely disabled (into negative HP). Then the giant started regenerating. I think it was a chaos feature...? Ack!!! Across the next several melee rounds, it turned out that in general my damage and the regeneration just about exactly cancelled each other... sometimes the giant would pull a few points ahead, sometimes I would. It was turning into a race... first one to manage 3ish successive rounds of "doing notably better" on the damage-vs-regen would get the win: if the giant got his leg into positive points, my position so close-at-hand would probably let him render me into red mud on the ground; if I could get the giant's leg to negative{Original HP in the Location} then the leg would be permanently out of comission... while the rest of the party was having this tense social/chase scene trying to establish whether there was going to be in instant duel-to-the-death between party members, or if one or more were going to flee, or what... And THAT is where the GM called rhe game 'til next week (apologies for not actually ADDRESSING the OP's query... but I think it was adequately-answered already, and this is really the only "Fireblade" relevant comment I had... ). Sadly, my character later joined a Yelmalio temple, and had to give up Fireblade... but I (the player) still REALLY like the spell!

OK, Concord; I seem to have dropped the correct name of the Fairfield store that I *MEANT* to cite... apologies to the good folk at BD, if they're here! In fact, Mare Island & Black Diamond are reasonably close to one another. With a lucky location for housing, you could well be within 15-20 min's from each! But I'm chagrined to have missed Games of Berkeley... I won't go so far as to say Endgame is the "best;" but I think they may be the most active, for gaming-outreach & eventing...

The extended SF Bay Area is pretty big... 2h end-to-end in GOOD traffic (which is an increasingly-rare circumstance). Mare Island is up in the extreme north/east corner of the BA; Vallejo is your nearest sizable town. I don't know gaming in that region, unfortunately... sorry! As noted, "Endgame" (south of Vallejo, in Oakland) is likely a good resource. Westward, you have Gamescape North, in San Rafael; and Outer Planes, in Santa Rosa (I'm also seeing promo's for a gaming-venue called "Fundemonium" in Rohnert Park, but I don't know anything about it). To the East is Black Diamond, in Fairfield. Also: if you're in the area by mid-February (12th-15th), make sure you hit DunDraCon (down in San Ramon)!

<heh> Eberron? Really??? OK, I guess that counts as my missing a pretty big one! FWIW, I think I've only ever played one session of Eberron (at a 'Con). Exalted really isn't a "straight-up fantasy" rpg, though, with PC's beginning play virtually as demigods. But the Forgotten Realms? Nah... THAT's old-school, baby! Same vintage as original Glorantha... Greenwood was creating in the Realms (like Stafford was creating in Glorantha) before Gygax, Arneson & Co rolled up their first characters!

I don't think "dinosaurs" have gone out of style since about the '60s... the 1860's, that is! But in RPG's, I see dinosaurs in a few specific roles -- in anything pulpy, wierd-science, lost-world, etc... they might very well be anything from the focus of a campaign, to a 1-shot adventure (either standalone, or as a piece of an otherwise non-dino campaign), or anywhere in between. There's also running a deliberately-anachronistic "cavemen & dinosaurs" game, and a dino-focused fantasy such as "Dinotopia" (I don't believe the author has licensed it, but it looks like a "natural" and I believe it has been MUSHed and otherwise adapted for personal projects). However, in RPG's that are otherwise straight-up "fantasy rpg's" with magical beasties & spell-casters & swordsmen & pre-industrial tech... MOSTLY, you don't see dinosaurs in those sorts of game-worlds (at least, I haven't seen 'em lately). Maybe I just missed those games/worlds...?

I too have seen it and been "Gotta put that on my to-read list ... " I finally began it the other night, and read the entire series in one go. Mostly skipped the comments, though, which probably would have turned it into a project I'd have had to stretch over a week or more...

I'm probably going to run them with the Borderlands arc, which will allow for Lunar, Pavic & Praxian PC-backstories (n.b. "ex-slave of ..." allows even more breadth) without even minor contortions (I plan to allow more "exotic" notions, if desired; but I expect they'll be good with those choices), with a smattering of other 1-off adventures exploring PC's individual backstories and players' individual interests. Maybe (depending on how soon KS fulfills those pieces) Pavis and Big Rubble intermixed with the Borderlands, for a mega-campaign -- Raus could easily have some transactions up in Pavis, and ask the PC's to be his agents up there (or escorts/guards for his agents), which could suck them into those stories. I'm hoping/planning to relocate Apple Lane to somewhere in-between Weis & Pavis, and run it as a "you all meet in an inn!" scenario.

Much of value in this thread... thanks to all who've participated! I look forward to any futher/other contributions, if any; if not, there's already lots for me to do in an improved "pitch"... @Baulderstone -- I'll definitely abbreviate this; thank you! However, I always pitch longer for "a campaign" than for "an adventure or two." I don't plan to cut down to the classic "elevator pitch" length. If I am giving them any meaningful choices (e.g. Praxian Beast-Riders vs. Pavis City-born vs. Lunar Exiles vs...) then I also need to give them enough information for their choices to be meaningful! @Joerg -- System is OK; they've played CoC and RQ6/RQE. Setting isn't so much a "hard sell" as it is (as is well known) kind of intimidating in how it appears front-loaded for lots of study. I like your idea of presenting the bulk of the detail for each type of character only to folks interested in that type... Makes good sense. @Mankcam -- So many good cultural pointers & images... thank you! I think I had not previously really looked at the Thracian people... my bad! @soltakss -- Not at all sure why you say it isn't Bronze-Age. Sure, there's a bit of Iron-use, and spell-enhanced other materials. But broadly-speaking, most of the cultures are mostly bronze-using (and most of the real-world cultural bases are bronze-age cultures). Good point not to over-emphasize the 60's/70's roots, I guess; but if I don't mention dinosaurs up-front, they end up seeming like a random "WTF?" inclusion.... and we WANTS them, my precious, yes we does! But I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with likening things to Bronze- rather than Iron-Age cultures. Just cutting way way down on the number of cultures being referenced! @Aelwyn -- Love the Joseph Campbell simile; I'll use it for sure! Not sure which of 'em will get it (or not); but if any do, it's pure gold! @Iskallor -- I think you've hit a critical note or two; quoting you (and editing down a bit): "Describe... and go... Shape the world with them." I can probably give them more info (even if I do it essay-mode like the oversized "pitch" above) and have it actually HELP them grasp things, if I do it paragraph-at-a-time on an as-it-comes-up basis. Thanks again, everyone!

http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/products.php Seems to have 3 main links: top/left "Supplements" top/right "Rulebook" full-width/bottom "Spanish PDF" === Following that top/right link, I get to 4 more links: top/left "Francais PDF" top/right "Deutsche PDF" full-width middle "Hardcover" full-width bottom PDF (English) === Now, I confess to a bit of confusion, as to why the Spanish PDF is sold at one level of the site, and the French/German PDF"s are sold at a different (more drilled-down) level... but it all appears to be there, to me...

Well ... almost. The odds of mutation presumably go up, due to a slightly-higher radiation environment; but it takes a LOT of generations before the "direction" of evolutionary pressure becomes clear. Having each generation uniformly closer to a new conceptual "ideal" just ain't evolution... genetic engineering, maybe? HOWEVER: we really have VERY LITTLE IDEA what a Zero-G / Low-G environment would do developmentally, either in the womb or growing up. There's an interesting survey-article on the topic (in Business Insider, of all the weird places!): http://www.businessinsider.com/space-born-animals-adjust-to-gravity-2013-10 That whole "lean spindly look" is, so far as I know, entirely a presumption, based on zero evidence... Then, presumably, a woman who was conceived & gestated in a low-G / zero-G environment will be a bit different from mainstream 1-G population, and HER offspring may in turn develop differently because of that. But again, it won't necessarily be anything that we would, a priori, expect or associate with such environments...

Gearing up for a new campaign based on the upcoming RQClassic reprint, I'm pitching to my gaming-group. Below, please find my "pitch." Any comments/suggestions/etc most welcome! Nobody has played more than a single session in Glorantha before. I'm pitching for a whole campaign, multiple adventures (taking one-to-several game-sessions per adventure) looking for starting characters to advance to Rune Level, I hope! And so, The Pitch: ===================================== Glorantha is a largely Bronze-Age world (with some primitive areas that are Neolithic); the Dwarves have Iron (not as a technological advance, but as a magico-religious one). Humans dominate most of the world, and are the most-PC'ed / most-PC'able people; but (many!) other races do exist. Mostly, however, those other races don't quite match the "standard" fantasy tropes, despite how much they look -- when drawn by an artist -- like similar D&D-ish races; the main races are Trolls, Dwarves, Elves, & Dragonewts. There are several notable species of sentient animals, mostly with their own cultures (but at least one notable sentient-animal species has a culture almost-identical to the human culture with which they intermix), and a smattering of other intelligent animals too. There are also dinosaurs. What RPG from the 197'0s would be complete without dinosaurs??!? The core area, most-written & most-gamed, is vaguely Ancient-Middle-Eastern-flavored (in the same way that Tolkien's Middle Earth is vaguely Northern-European-flavored). The Bronze-Age / Middle-Eastern vibe lwas deemed not quite "swords & sorcery" -- Runequest became known as the "swords & sandals" RPG! However, the Beast Rider tribes from the Plains of Prax (each Tribe rides a different beast, but all share a similar culture & overlapping religions) are a sort of Native-American / African / Mongol / Celtic fusion. The Sartar people are kinda-sorta Anglo-Saxon-esque, but with odd South Pacific Islander & Viking bits of culture, largely worshipping the powerful LIghtbringer deities. One small region (Dragon Pass) is very much an "uncontrolled but multiply-claimed crossroads" where anything-goes is the order of the day -- mostly so GM's can throw a melting-pot of PC's (and foes!) into the area and have it all be vaguely-justifiable. Unlike D&D's "alignment" on 2 axes (which largely define the "sides" in conflicts) Gloranthan conflicts are usually multi-dimensional and fluid, based on cultural and religious rivalries and enmities, and can be an opportunistic Realpolitik of uneasy alliances and friends-turned-enemies (most of which have little impact on the Average Joe, or even the average Adventurer!). The one overriding issue (for most peoples) is the fight against Chaos: Chaos is corruptive, horrific. Chaos is Evil. Even directly-opposed deities, like those of Light and Darkness (and their mortal-plane followers) set aside their differences when there is Chaos to be fought (or, often enough... to be fled!) Magic is everywhere: most villages & tribes will have civilians who know mending-type "domestic' spells, soldiers who know a few Battle Magic spells, animal-handlers with Beast Speech spells, etc. Everyone believes in the Gods because their power and presence is self-evident. Virtually everyone is a Lay Member of at least one Cult (the generic Gloranthan term for a religion (of any size)); people are often Lay Members of an entire pantheon! Above the Lay Members are the Initiates of a cult, then the priests & priestesses, and Rune-Lords and Rune-Priests. They have access to Rune Magic, which does things impossible for the basic "everyman" magic's. They also teach specialized and/or esoteric skills, hard to learn elsewhere. Joining a Cult (or some Guilds) and advancing within the Cult (or Guild) is usually the way to advance in power. === The thing is... 90% of that detail above is kinda-sorta irrelevant to your PC's. It's a BRONZE-AGE WORLD. Despite how "common" magic is, 99% of that magic is just workaday / professional tools: not magical telephones, TV's, automobiles, etc. To get somewhere (or to get news to or from somewhere), the distance generally has to be traveled, via generally Bronze-Age tech. The PC's generally only know what you'd expect someone Bronze-Age to know. Generally speaking, of course (i.e. Rune-Level magic cast by priests of the God of Knowledge (Lhankor Mhy) might exceed those low-tech limits... ) ,. If you're a tribesman (or woman), you know the plains, you know the Beasts you ride, you know your OWN tribe really well, and you know any allied tribes kinda-sorta well (they're a lot like you are... even if their Beast isn't as good as yours is!); outsiders are... odd (at best)... generally ignorant of things that are important, occasionally lucrative (e.g. for ransom, or to cheat out of trade-goods), dangerous in large numbers, etc etc etc. If you're from a town or city, you know your own town really well, but outside the walls.... well, it's a long, dangerous trip to the next town (which is a lot like yours... but not as good). The barbarian tribes outside the walls probably do kinky things with their Beasts every other Holy Day, but you don't want to travel without a safe-passage from said barbarians. At least they're stupid rubes, and easy to cheat out of valuable trade-goods. If you're a soldier from the conquering Lunar Empire, you know that -- tribesman or townie -- they're ALL basically ignorant barbarians! The Goddess of the Red Moon is rising, and She will soon have the world at her feet. Every kingdom you've met has fallen to the Lunar advance, sooner or later (even if the damned Sartars keep rebelling, and being put down... and who can even TELL which of the Praxian Tribes is where...) . At least when you want some of their trade-goods, you can "tax" them on the spot. etc... === Our Game: Assuming that everyone is willing to launch into a "Classic Runequest" Gloranthan campaign, I would propose we start in or near the city of Pavis (more properly, "New Pavis" -- but "Old Pavis" is known colloquially as "The Big Rubble" and few live there (at least, not for long!)). Pavis is a relatively-cosmopolitan city; locals and distant folk intermingle, allowing for all manner of "city" and "nationality" backgrounds. It's just inside the eastern edge of the Plains of Prax, so the Beast Riders visit often. The nominal ruler (the Lunar Empire) sends both willing settlers and political/criminal exiles. It abuts the Zola Fel river, one of the great rivers of the area; and, of course, one wall is built up against the wall surrounding Old Pavis... expeditions to the Big Rubble (with its many treasure-troves & ancient artifacts!) are a near-daily occurence. Some even come back. It would also be viable to play a "mostly Beast-Riders" campaign (near-ish to Pavis so we COULD do city stories & vast-ancient-ruins at times, and a city-bred sort might reasonably be present, too), if that held more appeal; either all from one Clan (Impala Riders? Rhino riders? Bison Riders? Bolo-Lizard Riders? Etc, 10ish Beaset choices...), or maybe a group assembled from multiple Tribes, by a single Cult... Finally, there's Dragon Pass (mentioned above). It's in the mountains above Prax to the northwest. There are lots of adventures in close proximity, but no real "big city" settings like Pavis.

Note (with regard to "not disclosing mechanics") -- the game mechanics cannot be (c)opyrighted, so it's perfectly-legal to "disclose" them and discuss them. It's only the actual words in the specific order chosen by the author/editor/publisher, specifically expressing the rules, that are (c)'able. Any paraphrase may be freely made -- even offered for sale! Discussion on a forum is probably sufficiently fair-use that even direct quotation is probably protected... So, talk freely!

Hmmm... interesting indeed. Many thanks to all who are participating... although I realize that many folks are speaking up out of their own interests in the subject, not "merely" to help a fellow Gloranthaphile dispel his ignorance... ;-) Ornithomimus @TRose? Maybe... RE the wikipedia entry: the erect-stance skeleton (at the Royal Ontario) is how I _used_to_ see them; the more-level stance (showing feathers, below) is closer, but I think any feathering is wrong for a Bolo Lizard; excepting maybe a crest or something? Searching through all the likely dinosaurian models that WIkipedia offers certainly looks like the fastest/easiest way to get ideas! @Mankcam -- RE "din.jpg" that critter is clearly a predator, not an herbivore (I like your Pisanosaurus suggestion better!); ditto for @M Helsdon suggesting the "sketch_01" pic on fancyscribbles... I like that it's being ridden, but it's a predator! Don't get me wrong, I like 'em both! But not for the Bolo lizard... RE the "Nomad Gods" playing-piece... I see those pieces as using a display-style that's intentionally incorrect: simplified, and done in graphically-strong manner, to both lower production-costs and make them easier to distinguish in-play. That blobby rounded head, for example... ugh. Definitely NOT Therizinosaur-ish, @M Helsdon -- a quick Google image-search shows that critter has outsizedly-large "Edward Scissorhands" claws on the front feet. Also, that species is the biggest of the family, and clearly far too large for a Bolo (though of course one can simply slap a different scale onto an illustration... ) . But I think you're doing well in selecting one of the derived / non-carnivorous theropod dino's as your likely base creature (albeit many experts these days are doing ALL the Theropod's as feathered (which (while interesting) I'd rather NEVER saw print under ANY "Glorantha" title!!!)). The bipedal Ornithischians are another likely source, per my original Hadrosaur/Iguanosaur suggestion, the later @Mankcam suggestion of Pisanosaurus, & Camptosaurus per @Tindalos... I hadn't seen the "Praxian Beasts" silhouettes before. I admit to finding the Bolo Lizard disappointingly small... vs. the other Beasts, I had been envisioning something midway in size between the High Llama and the Sable... Thanks again to all the participants (so far), and I hope we get further interesting notions...

I recall (years ago when I first met them) visualizing the Bolo Lizards as having a build very akin to an ostrich, but slightly larger. At this point, I envision something more akin to a medium/small Iguanodon, or maybe a Hadrosaur without the duck-bill: a three quarters of a ton (or so) of Bolo Lizard, body carried roughly-level head-through-tail. The rider (if any) likely mounted directly over the legs, or maybe just fractionally forward from there... I contemplate running a Glorantha campaign using the forthcoming "RQClassic" + some Stretch Goals. I'm hoping to show some illustrations for various places & beings, and I'm hoping "Bolo Lizard" and/or "Bolo Lizard Riders" will be among them. I'm figuring that existing pix of (some species of) dinosaur will adequately handle the Bolo Lizard... but what about one with a rider? Any hints/help/etc (including canonical text-descriptions, if they change/improve my visualization) will be welcome! - Steve, the g33k

My first RQ game (1980) the GM got us involved with Cults & Guilds & the like pretty quick. Debt (at least cash) was pretty minimal, as the cult was training us mostly in their own 1/2-price skills -- but we definitely "owed" them, and declining to do the "favors" they wanted of us would have been both churlishly ungrateful, and dangerous... ;-)

Wasn't Kyger Litor part of the Great Compromise? I had understood that not only Time, but the day/night cycle, was part of the Compromise. As such, I'd think overtly disrespecting the Sun in the sky would be tantamount to disrespecting Kyger Litor's honor... which would be tantamount to suicide, for most Uz...

Wasn't it Waha who established this? And isn't there a Rune Spell to reverse the role -- make one of the Eaten sentient, or strip sentience from an Eater? But it isn't in the "Cults" write-up for Waha... with this notion invented later? Or am I mis-remembering entirely? Or...?

+1 I believe the d100/5 mechanic was chosen because it was "the same as" d20. But as Vile says, there are times when fractions-of-skills are used, and the finer granuarity comes into play.

Over on the KS page, Rick reports having manually-sent a (very few) test-the-system BackerKit's, and he thinks those are what people are seeing/reporting. BackerKit hasn't initiated the bulk send, yet (he expects later today, or tomorrow) . - Steve, the g33k

Based on comments on the KS page, the BackerKits are really trickling out... BUT, I presume MOST of those who have gotten their backerkits have NOT announced on KS!

Everybody's Glorantha Will Vary... @Joerg -- Wow... that's a remarkable list. Some of it made me go "d'oh!" and realize I should've covered it in my OP, but much of it was new or different to what I was thinking, so... Thanks! I don't really count divine / semi-divine (or demonic) beings, those only living via spirit-world and/or mythological appearances, or immortals; I was really looking for "purely-mortal" creatures. I'll need to think if I'm gonna count shapeshifters. If there is any level of "parity" between shapes, any sense that both shapes have equal "valiidity" or "identity" (as opposed to a spell or a curse imposing an alien shape -- said being still has a "native" or "true" shape), or if the animal form is "primary," then probably. I never played KoDP; do they appear in the original version, or only newer ones? GloranthaWiki cites MoonDesign's "Sartar Companion" as the source of the "Eleurae" fox-women. I confess to zero info about Dernu & Gernu (???). And, I guess I'd better reconsider whether I count the Durulz... I have always considered them as close to "just big ducks, with intelligence" as it's possible to get, while still able to wield a sword (so, hands! and, arm-like joints/muscles in their feathered wings). @Pentallion & @Iskallor -- I confess that "sentient versions of each species of animal" does feel rather Gloranthan (so My Glorantha May Vary in that direction), but did primary authors ever write it up that way?

So, just like the title says... Off the top of my head, Glorantha has ducks (durulz), tapirs (morokanth) & baboons (do they have another name for themselves?); but are there other "animals" that are sentient? I don't count the half-and-half's like Centaurs, Minotaurs, Broo's, etc (collectively called "Beast-Men" (although the Broos' extremes of Chaos may now exclude them, they USED to be of the same general sort...)) in this list, only the "full" animals...

@Baulderrstone, I was afraid I was being too glib, there; that'l larn me! It's true that D&D 3e formalized it at "d20 + StatMod + SkillLevel" (and in fact JoT stated that he thought that D&D3's "d20" ruleset (largely his design) was more derived from ArM (and would have been a natural "ArM Next" if he had designed that) than AD&D).. Nevertheless, AD&D 1e used the same concept with d20 roll + StatMod + <some skill/level number, or sometimes vs-some-level-dependent-number, which is mechanically-equivalent> . I maintain that the ArM way to figure a skill-roll (not skill-improvement, but skill-use) is (much!) more akin to AD&D1e than it is to any BRP game up until then, and that ArM's pyramidal skill-improvement table looks more like a D&D "XP/level" table, than anything BRPesqiue.

Supplement WIthdrawn wakes up, and eats you. Turns out to be related to the Dread Gazebo...