Nozbat

Sorry @Butters.. I have both but never actually ran them .. when I do.. I'll be coming back to you for advice

I can totally understand why the pirates are waiting for these copies to be shipped ... if I were a pirate I'd be waiting too. Is the ship passing anywhere near Ireland? Honestly, I'm not readying that row boat and it doesn't really have a skull and crossbones flag.

In my view, it happens all the time. Life is cheap for cultists and whether it’s getting rid of potential enemies or sacrificing innocents to diabolical and uncaring gods, it happens pretty often in my writings. The best published scenario, in my view, Masks of Nyarlathotep starts with a murder. It’s common in my opinion and also very standard. If it’s a Scandi-noir type production, lots of murders are needed btw.

This first part is slightly off topic but I think fundamental to the solution. In any question, it's important to go back to first principles. So, three questions that might help us with infiltration and Sense Chaos: (1) How does the entity perceive Chaos. Is it an opposite? Is Chaos necessary for creation? Like darkness and light? Or Law and unLaw? Or is it seen as absolute oblivion? (2) How is Chaos manifest? And how is the manifestation perceived by others? (3) What is the purpose or goal of infiltration? Is it to normalise Chaos or is it to destroy absolutely? Or does it have another purpose? The temple of Krarsht in the Rubble is an interesting example. Obviously, the Temples goal is oblivion but the human initiates of Krarsht tend to be driven, goal-orientated power addicts that use Krarsht to gain power and standing in human society. Most initiates have never met Krarshtids or seen them, yet their burrows could be everywhere and most (as I understand it) are unaware of the true nature of Krarsht, choosing only an aspect of her. The Ogres that live on the edge of human society. How do they perceive Chaos? Is their goal just to survive and procreate? Why do they need to infiltrate? The Lunars would have us believe that Chaos is a necessary part of creation and will normalise it within their cultural remit and soften its impact (with obvious exception of that big bat thingy). I remember an article, I think in White Dwarf, and I think written by Greg Stafford, and I think it was called Wolfman Zac. It was 40 years ago at least and attempts to find it using search engines have failed me. I seem to remember that the story was about a Chaos Investigator and a werewolf musician (obviously a play on Wolman Jack). I may be wrong but I think the Werewolf was let off with a caution. In the story Wolfman Zac just liked playing music and the curse to turn into a werewolf was an impediment to that causing him to move locations frequently when discovered. Thankfully the Chaos Investigator wasn't a Stormbull as they are well known to dislike Blues music. So how does this link back to Sense Chaos? However any self-respecting Chaos entity (sic) perceives chaos, manifests itself and sets goals, it must be aware that Stormbull has a skill to Sense Chaos and it makes perfect sense that they have ways and means to negate, confuse, obfuscate that sense in order to survive and carry out their goals.

We know the Sense Chaos as a skill (that operates, possibly passively, possibly actively) that in the presence of chaos creates a feeling of unease or pain in the Stormbull initiate and the initiate knows it is close at hand (ie within 15m). The intensity of the feeling gives an indication of the strength of the Chaos entity. The skill is therefore imprecise and not directive in identifying the source so in the case of Jarst Daro, he may have been detected but in a crowd, he could not specifically be identified. The 1000+ crowd is what is likely to have saved him. The Stormbull is likely to accuse everyone within 15m of being a chaotic entity and be removed by the Justices as a potential troublemaker, as he sits sharpening his axe and singing his death song while glaring at everyone with menace. If Jaro was the only person within 15m of the Stormbull he (or possibly the Stormbull) may have been in trouble. Whatever way people operate the skill, it just needs to be consistent. Fudging individual cases for a storyline becomes problematic. A Stormbull can either sense chaos or they can't. A chaotic entity may be able to hide the chaotic taint by use of magic, illumination or a skill. How you choose to do is up to the individual game.

Some Chaos is relatively easy to detect, even a sight impaired Stormbull on a charging Rhino would notice, and therefore probably doesn't need a roll of the dice. Ogres often try to infiltrate society, there are Krarsht assassins and initiates who do not want detection to carry out their roles. As @Ian A. Thomson says, what is the point of trying to infiltrate to achieve their goals without a chance of success? Should those cults have a counter ability of Stormbull? My thoughts as a house rule would be to give specific cults, like Krarsht, an ability to go undetected and make it an opposed roll with one acting against the other.

I think that would freak my players out more than having to deal with rat packs... love it

Had they not just thought of hiring Rentokil? Or the Pied Piper of Hamelin? some well laid traps or a quick tune on the pipes… no rat packs! QED

@Jlopienski I checked the Keepers & Investigators rulebook.. there's a summary in the Keepers book which is not quite a succinct as the GM shield. I never hide behind a shield anyways.. its harder to intimidate and scare players when they can't see the .44 Magnum in your hand as you fiddle with your dice and stare at them with a faraway look that suggests you might just fail a SAN roll and shoot them.

On my Mac, I opened the PDF in Preview, enlarged the image so the screen filled one page. Then I took a screen shot of the first section, moved it across and took a screenshot of the second page etc. You can then print the jpegs. You need to enlarge the PDF first otherwise the screenshot is not sharp when you take a screen shot. I didn't try printing it though. I think from memory the same tables are in the appendixes of the main rules and/or players guide. Sorry didn't check but I'm sure someone will confirm or otherwise I don't have a windows PC but I suspect there is a similar APP to Preview on Windows?

I guess the other point.. is if you're carving runes, circles are a bit difficult to get right. Its much easier to go for lines and curves. On looking at it closer .. there seems to be a Magic Rune on it though.

No Darkness Rune .. but interesting nevertheless https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/22/engraving-on-2000-year-old-knife-thought-to-be-oldest-runes-in-denmark

oh yes... Strange lights illuminating the night sky People setting off into the wastelands that never went there before Creatures never seen before making an appearance Mystery, confusion, wonder... all happening off-screen

I suspect that there very little left to do after all that?

I find it interesting that people want a certain direction or options in written scenarios (not just @Ian A. Thomson's massive opus magnum). There are two aspects to the creativity process that impact on such a notion. Firstly, there is actually creating a storyline to be consistent, viable and fun for all the types of players we encounter at our games. I tend to write my own scenarios rather than relying on published ones, cannibalising some where I like the ideas but want to put my own stamp on it as @Baron said. When doing this I generally focus on maximum game fun (MGF) because I have very different players at the table, some are happy with the idea of roleplaying and getting into character, some prefer rolling dice as a mechanic, some play very different characters, others play the same type of character over and over. That's the nature of the people we play with, they're all different. The end narrative is what makes games memorable. It's what the players tell each other when the game is finished that matters most to me and them. Going back to the point, the best scenarios flow. They move seamlessly to the end point. Forcing situations on players feels false and they see that. What's their motivation for doing something that they wouldn't actually do? I think that's where the consistency and viability come in. Even in sandbox games there is a stated end outcome, the routes to it may be varied, but in my view the end point is immutable and in order for the scenario to make sense, it has to be fixed. If you want the end point to be different, it changes all the preceding variables and requires a serious amount of work which would be impossible to do in such a grand campaign such as Pavis. Secondly, creating a scenario for publication is very different from doing your own scenario. In writing my own, I don’t have to have every detail written. Some I can fudge, some things I did not perceive as happening and others I just make up on the spot. If I’m good at this, the players never know. I just make a note in the margin of my notes and play goes on, hopefully seamlessly. If the scenario requires another route, I write it in between sessions but it always tends towards the same end point. In a published scenario, the creator does not have that option. They can’t perceive every variable or probability of actions for different types of GMs, different players, styles of play and personal interest. Published scenarios require an immense amount of work that need to be detailed, Stat blocks, new skills, new spells, working out mechanics of actions using RAW, etc. It would be a never-ending process to include all options for different outcomes. As @Nick Brooke said above, get your quill, ink and vellum out (or your word processor) and start publishing your ideas. We are a community with lots of ideas and our Gloranthas do vary. @Ian A. Thomson is offering participation in the creation of OUR Glorantha and I think it is an opportunity for everyone to give something. I'm going with @Nick Brooke's hashtag #WeAreAllUs

LOl...I'd forgotten about the RQ3 fatigue rules... but I also ignored them until a fight went on a bit then I'd deduct some percentiles

The simple answer is that if there was a rule like that we’d all ignore it. Having said that..sorcery has always been difficult to conceptualise and to get mechanics right without over-complicating it. I’m probably in the minority if I said I liked RQ3 sorcery. There will be a future new RQG version coming and we’ll have to wait to see how that works.

As @Ravenheart87 has said a lot of the BRP derivatives already use Common skills and Specialist/ Professional skills split. The Common skills are all on the character sheet and the Specialist column is left blank to allow players to construct their own lists. New specialist skills not allocated through character creation have to be learnt from a teacher or through study (if you have a literate milieu). I do think its useful to have all the skills on the front of the sheet but that's my personal choice. They also calculate the base chance by adding characteristics (Athletics is STR+DEX; Insight is INT+POW etc) which I like as there is a different combination for each type of skill. It means that none of the characteristics is redundant and players can benefit from a high characteristic. I'm mostly playing online at the moment and as a GM I need to know how strong the characters are and what their skill level is when designing opposition for game play. I did design a fillable character sheet as one of the many tasks needed to start the game. The players can then upload their character sheets to a Cloud Drive which I can check when working out how strong to set the GMCs. I think the great thing about BRP is you can do what you and your players want. There is no right or wrong way. If the RAW or houserules don't work for the group, have a discussion after the game and change them. Its all about maximum game fun.

I think this version is pretty stable and can be filled in without messing up the boxes as long as you don't add too much text. I increased the box size for Factions and moved the Magic bit to a third page Let me know if there's any problems Blank Character Sheet v5.docx

Excellent call @Ynneadwraith .. an interesting blog of a lot of mostly classical history. He also is keen on one of my favourite military historians, John Keegan.. so extra points for that

Tak, det kan være, jeg tager imod dit tilbud.

Bought it and a Quick Look ... interesting

Its a fair point @TrippyHippy but I think people like to keep to a setting or genre and play more a campaign game rather than short one-off scenarios. BR:UGE is so diverse and I guess people use it in various different modalities. I've seen people on BRP ask for Stone Age scenarios to far future Space Age settings, and anything in between. If the settings were non-specific and easily convertible to various settings, I think your proposal would be useful. I tend to decide on a specific setting, either create the detail or use existing scenarios and then pose a number of dilemmas for the players and see where it takes us. I never know what the players will do and tend to make stuff up on the hoof with anchor points of events I have decided will happen in a timeline independent of their actions. That's the style of play I've always liked. Having said that I do cannibalise other ideas from stuff I've read, movies and other published scenarios. Sometimes a scenario works in the setting, most often it doesn't but if I can lift ideas from it then I make some changes and use it. It would be interesting what other people think though and if there are any creators willing to say what they are working on.

Although I was part of the editing and proofing and contributed a small part, I was focused on individual words, sentence structure and being consistent and coherent in the text and it is only now when I see the whole document that I recognise the entirety and magnitude of the project. It's massive.. just like trying to traverse the Rubble.. it's a bit bigger than you thought and just as dangerous. If you are interested in running a campaign in Pavis, in my opinion, this is essential. It may not be canonical, or maybe it is for YGMV. For those worrying about the mythology, consider it as the path of the initiate.. as things progress, more of the truth will be revealed and become clear in later volumes. Be patient little one, good things come to those that wait. There is so much information in this volume and it brings the New and Old Cities together. It is how the Rubble locations augment and join these population centres to create interesting stories for Adventurers to explore, make a narrative and perhaps die in, maybe on the end of that diseased broo spear or beginning a new existence as part of an expanding and imperialistically-minded gorp.This is the kind of history you want to make, either as a GM or a player. The scenarios are interesting and thoughtful and will challenge and possibly confuse Adventurers as they travel along the road of the true path for Pavis. The GMCs are well thought out and brought to life, ready to aid or thwart the Adventurers and all have Stat Blocks to aid harassed GMs. Some of the GMCs are quirky, some are useful and a few are deadly. Who wouldn't want to be killed by Hargran the Dirty? It's not everyday that a King of Pavis can be bothered to get out of bed to kill some upstart Adventurers. Perhaps you want to mint your own coins to fulfil that childhood ambition of seeing your face on some money. It's in this volume and it's a possibility, if you can manage to take control of the Pavis Mint for a few hours. Or perhaps you self-identify as an Aldryami? Well you're in luck, it's in this volume too, as well as lots more. A bit like Chhotomai's Spice Kitchen.. it's hot and spicy.. unless you're an Uz, in which case it could do with more seasoning and some of those self-identifying Aldryami. Don't hesitate. Buy it.

I liked this Loz but I'm not sure I have any left to buy !! When is your "Hanse" supplement due? That's the one I'm waiting for And Happy new Year to you and the Team