Nozbat

I’m going to buy the updated version of Horror on the Orient Express

I was trying to buy the hard copy, two volume work to support local games shops and wanted the PDF too.

Do I have to buy it separately? I was looking but can’t find any details about if you get the hard copy, the PDF can be downloaded too

Looking for some help from a Sage

On 8/13/2022 at 6:11 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

Yep, exactly what we did for our shaman who got an heirloom pet and wanted an alynx. Any stats outside of the range of the heirloom table got capped or negotiated. Do I remember this right @Nozbat?

Yes there is a size limit for awakened heirloom animals.. and I wanted a cute little Alynx rather than a crow… so it had to be a much smaller SIZ (in Germany at the moment so I don’t have access to my character notes but from memory it was SIZ 2)

I think Bill was being nice when he allowed me an Alynx… maybe not though as the Alynx had a very definite mind of it’s own and tended to attach itself to more doughty fighters in the party. But speaking of parties.. she did set up lines of Catnip for all the other clan Alynx’s during celebrations 

My vote would be for Baltic Tribes...

23 hours ago, EricW said:

The Long Ships - a 1964 movie about vikings and arabs and Christianity and a gigantic crusader church bell made of gold.

 

It's a wonderful book... by Frans G. Bengtsson... well worth the read.. and bears absolutely no resemblance to the movie ... except for the Bell which is used to cure Harold Bluetooth's tooth ache (from memory, one of his blue teeth was causing a problem)

2 hours ago, Welkin said:

Oxford Newspeak Dictionary

It was Cambridge... not Oxford

I haven't got or seen the Big Book of Cults so not sure if these are in it. These are some of the actual Cults around in the 1920s that I had researched.. I think they can be found by doing a Google search for more information. Not all of them were 'evil' cults but they can suit whatever purposes you want:

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Illuminaten (founded by Adam Weishaupt and he wrote a number of sinister sounding books)

L'Ordre Martiniste-Martineziste de Lyon

FUDOFSI

L'Eglise Gnostique Universelle

Order of Knight Masons Plus Cohen of the Universe

Ordre De Saint Graal

Fraternitas Rosae Crucis

Ordre Kabbalistique De La Rose Croix

Our lady of Endor Coven

Thule Society

Order of the Solar temple

Fraternitas Saturni

Theosophical Society

Ordo Templi Orientis

Hermetic brotherhood of Luxor

Interesting @AndrewTBP. I've used Brollachan in several scenes for games and used the Gateway Bestiary as the basis of the stats but incorporated characteristics from Alan Garner's The Moon of Gomrath where it is a shapeshifter and has powers of possession which makes it a truly terrifying creature. It had no real intelligence of it's own, just a hunger for life and darkness and is best used as a pawn for some other more 'evil' creature. 

I've used it three times with great success, in a Celtic campaign, in Cthulhu and in a Viking campaign in Britain. It was the same group of players and they remain terrified of it and would rather try to avoid it rather than face it. 

On your previous post about Voughs or Hags, it might be good to go back to the Celtic roots. They often appeared in a triple manifestation that were interconnected in some way, such as being sisters (the triple association is a recurring theme in Celtic, Scandinavian and Greek mythology). They would live in swamps, underwater, forests etc as already mentioned and control the environs of their habitation making it hostile to intruders. I seem to recall there was a AD&D (?) scenario in Imagine (?) magazine that described Hags well and had a scenario to show their power with a submersible island in a lake. It also might have been White Dwarf Magazine. Sadly I no longer have the copies of either but if you have access to the article it might help flesh out both creatures. 

It might also be good to look at Baltic mythology creatures such as Leshy, Rusalka and Vodyanoi in Mythic Russia for other ideas to incorporate (or discard)

10 minutes ago, Soccercalle said:

I realised after some googling that the Shieldwalls part of S&S is described in the Mythic Britain-book for Mythras. Seems to be quite easy to use and you could use Battle and Orate Skills from RQG. But is probably more done for battles with 20+ fighters than for 10-15 (where individual battle skills is more important).

I think its perfectly good for 10-20 warriors and works well... but my focus is really not on combat and its therefore just another mechanism to move the narrative on. Mind you the last battles produced real jeopardy for the PCs and they thought they were going to die (heroically) defending Colnecæster from the Angles.

Individual 'Battle' skills are reflected in the difficulty of the rolls. Hardened warriors who are trained to fight in a Shieldwall make mincemeat of the Fyrd. Higher Battle skills reflect types of possible formations, morale, rallying, special effects etc. As I said above, I initially wanted more complexity but the RAW in S&S can be used in all situations and I found through playing them as written works well. 

YGMV so do what you think is best as @Runeblogger has done above

5 hours ago, Soccercalle said:

I guess that the RQG Battle Skill is appr the same as Strategy & Tactics.

In Mythras Strategy & Tactics skill is a Lore and in RQG it is a knowledge skill. I guess both are similar.

Looking at the RQG Battle skill it is the ability to both survive a massed combat and to lead warriors in such a conflict.  Survival in S&S depends on the percentage of casualties and then if the character is possibly injured, an opposed roll of the individuals personal combat against the opponents original rolled S&T skill. If they are therefore good at individual combat they are likely to get away with light wounds.

The skills in both systems are really Swings and Roundabouts.. but S&S rules are easily transferable to RQG and importantly they do not take forever to play out. The main issue is usually deciding the tactics and dispositions before the battle takes place, giving a rousing speech, insulting your opponent in a meeting of commanders and jeering or being jeered at if there is a refusal of individual combat. In the most recent battle one of the players asked the Cyninge (Queen) to make a rousing speech and she fumbled. Instead of galvanising the troops she told them she was leaving and that as they faced overwhelming odds that they should run away and save their families. Needless to say most took her advice and went to get their families. The PCs still held the defensive line against overwhelming odds using a choke point and a sturdy barricade but were very scared all the way through the battle.

My players enjoy using S&S and as the campaign gets more political and they have gone up in rank they tend to be leading Warbands of 10-20 warriors. It is not feasible to even consider playing that out.

35 minutes ago, Soccercalle said:

Hi. I wonder if there are some good rules anywhere about handling battle with say 10-20 people. Not a large battle like Dangerford or Auroch Hills but something that is too large for using the standard strike rank rules. 

Mythras has Ships and Shieldwalls which is an excellent way to handle small scale to large scale battles on sea or land. 

Not much conversion needed other than skills for being the leader (in Mythras, Strategy & Tactics). All the rest of the skills are ones that a PC might have developed.

I've used them a lot with my Saxon campaign and they work well. As an ex-ancient wargamer I had initially wanted a little more depth but after playing them, I think they are quick and easy to use and allow PCs to feel involved in the decision-making 

9 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Applecline notes how it was the first game with skills that could be raised. That’s a big deal!

That was a revelation... and skills that weren't limited to classes....fighters that could sneak!!

It always seemed ridiculous that while thieves flirted from shadow to shadow .. fighters had to content with being obvious to anyone who cared to look in their direction

Thanks Rick that was an interesting step back in time 

In early 1980, I remember trying to convince my friends to try playing RuneQuest and they were all initially reluctant. We had a well established AD&D campaign supported by monthly new sheets dating from the early days of the initial 3 book D&D. The 'DM' was rotated weekly but we all played the same characters in the same world.  I persevered with trying out RuneQuest nonetheless. I remember thinking I had succeeded when playing AD&D and one of the players said... "Wait.. the Kobold hit me... why can't I parry it?"

I think the 'ridiculousness' of the AD&D came when players were chasing fleeing monsters through a forest shouting, "Come back Experience Points.. I need you to get to the next level." I don't think we ever went back to AD&D again after that. There had been a general slip in AD&D system which depended on a constant diet of new creatures which no-one knew initially how to beat. But even by this stage most characters were more or less invulnerable and there was little jeopardy in games. Everyone had +5 weapons, armour and bags of holding for the 2 million gold pieces needed to get up a level. I remember comparing PC stats and equipment to the stats of gods in Deities and Demigods and thinking that our characters could take on gods. 

Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer completed the revolution to d100 with a different way to think about the game scenarios rather than dungeon crawls where a red dragon lived in the next room to 13 Drow. I don't think they even exchanged presents at Christmas despite living next door to each other for years. I guess they were living in terror of PCs turning up, stealing their magic and treasure and were thus understandably keeping a low profile.

I did allow players to convert their favourite characters to RuneQuest and had the two campaign game went on for a while. The greater depth of the RuneQuest stories soon took over and the older characters got consigned to the nostalgic myths of a past time.

I actually looked at my AD&D books after reading the above posts. They should just stay on the shelves

35 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

And after 1625 potato farmers in Sartar may be suspect as Lunarizers? 

Wait until 1845... the Potato Famine starts... then there will be trouble...

oh.. sorry... wrong world

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

There are two different darts in the rules now, the one under "Javelin" which does more damage, and the one under "thrown weapons", so I think the Javelin-class dart is a lot bigger. Maybe it's just the throwing style - if you launch it full tilt like a javelin then it does more damage, but if you flick it overhand like a knife then it does less.

On the other hand, a javelin-class dart costs 25L whereas a throwing-style dart costs 1L so they are clearly very different items!

The Javelin class dart may be the late Roman Plumbata, a fletched dart with an iron head and weighted with  lead. That could account for the cost and damage.

10 minutes ago, moonwolf8 said:

Does your local library have anything on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that you can use?  Do they perhaps have a copy of "The Way of Wyrd" by Brian Bates?

I have sadly got both of those books..  The AS Chronicle is not particularly useful as a playing aid but there are plenty of commentaries if a chronology is needed. Professor Google is useful too. As long as whatever I write is hÿreborgan ond manigfeald I think it is fun.

The Way of the Wyrd is excellent if you want to know how to play a leæce and gives some great ideas for the spirit world encounters. Oh and great metaphors on warrior hedgehogs!

I have used Mythras' Logres and Mythic Briton as source books and liberally adapted information, been inspired by current news stories for scenarios, let players decide what they want to do, posed moral problems they need to overcome.. they have enjoyed it and we've almost come to the end of the first generation. There will be a hiatus and I'll probably wait a while before I get them to play their children... and so the chronicle will continue

If you want to use a version of APs there are plenty of systems around ... mind you IMHO the DEX strike rank works well in CoC and doesn't necessarily need complicating as really fighting should be the last thing on any players minds

Its possibly been the TDM Mythras rules which uses APs based on INT and DEX?

Most characters have 1-3 APs per round 

On 7/9/2021 at 9:39 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

And while doing so, inventing golf 

I'm thinking the Scots might be surprised by that one... but since the English Professor said it it must be true...

Mythras has a good system for battles in Ships and Shieldwalls. I've used it lots of times in my Anglo-Saxon Campaign to resolve combats between war bands. 

It's relatively simple and the players can control a war band, even if they don't actually command it, to keep their interest

I'm trying to remember the books that influenced me in the late 70s and early 80s ..

Historical/ Mythological

Robert Fox's Alexander the Great; A book called Carthago delenda est that I got from the local library and have never found again, More books on the history of Carthage; Roman history; Greek History (particularly Mycenaean/ Crete period) The Aeneid, The Trojan War, The Mabinogion, The Táin bo Cuilaghe, Book of Invasions, Icelandic Sagas (particularly Egil's saga); Mongols (of any shape and hue); Dark Ages History; Vikings; any Norse Mythology and other world mythologies from Larousse. I loved historical maps and still have a large collection of hardback books with maps.

Novels/ Fantasy 

LOTR etc (except hobbits); Lankmar series; I, Claudius; Golden Fleece; Count Belisarius; Many Coloured-Land series; Flashman; Thomas Covenant (except the chapters on introspection); Poul Anderson's books (particularly the Broken Sword and Merman's Children); Amber series.. I definitely preferred gritty 'real life' stuff to the heroic fantasy of LOTR

and probably anything from section 310 (Ancient History) in the local library...

those are the books that I remember that fed my imagination and wanted me to play out battles/ scenarios both in Tabletop war-gaming and D&D... though as soon as I discovered RuneQuest and Stormbringer ... D&D got dropped

On 7/23/2021 at 7:35 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

Hey @Nozbatwhat are those runes? 

Found the other sketch with Man Rune on her forehead.. Movement Rune on her Temple.. Beast Rune on her neck and Spirit Rune on her décolleté

Oh and the Tribal Wyter tattoo on her arm

On 7/23/2021 at 7:35 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

Only our shaman has really obvious tatties, on her face. Hey @Nozbatwhat are those runes? 

It took me a while to locate the sketch I drew of Natalinna ... This one has the Man Rune and a Fire/Sky Rune on her temple with I assume an Air Rune on the other side

I think I did another sketch with the Spirit Rune on her forehead which I think I'd prefer and a Man Rune on her chest with smaller Air and Beast Runes for the associated cults of Yinkin and Odayla possibly on her temples or inner wrists

28 minutes ago, Joerg said:

How common is drinking from navels in Orlanthi orgies?

I'm pretty sure that is not the definition of Orgy, Joerg... but YGMV so if navel drinking is your thing... well who am I to say?

4 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

I've just discovered my new tattoo.

!i!

I'm beginning to have bicep envy, Ian... if you can get that as a tattoo on your arm..I'm seriously impressed