Nozbat

49 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

Unless it's a Redcap (goblin) in disguise...

 

No-one will ever punt a Redcap... I'd be betting on the Redcap every time.. iron boots are made for punting humans

I've used the Recap in the Gateway Bestiary several times over the years and it always flumoxes PCs who end up running away or turning out the local militia in an attempt to prevent further punting

On 7/1/2021 at 2:08 PM, svensson said:

Hobbits, halflings, gnomes, and yes, ducks just make me want to contemplate genocide for the good of the milieu

My ire is mostly against Hobbits/ Halflings... particularly the Tolkienesque 'English-pretend-shire' variety. I have a vague dislike for Ducks.. but they are definitely less cutesy mushroom-eating creatures.. gnomes I have no issue with... 

It reminds me of the introduction of George MacDonald-Fraser's book the Pyrates

“That was England, then; long before interfering social historians and such carles had spoiled it by discovering that its sanitation was primitive and its social services non-existent, that London's atmosphere was so poisonous as to be unbreathable by all but the strongest lungs, that King Charles's courtiers probably didn't change their underwear above once a fortnight, that the cities stank fit to wake the dead and the countryside was largely either wilderness or rural slum, that religious bigotry, dental decay, political corruption, fleas, cruelty, poverty, disease, injustice, public hangings, malnutrition, and bear-baiting were rife, and there was hardly an economist or environmentalist or town planner or sociologist or anything progressive worth a damn. ”

I've always dislike Hobbits ...too contrived... and really... if I had been Sauron...I'd have steam-rollered the Shire...mostly out of pure spite..but on the off-chance I might have found a Ring of Power

Don't even get me started on the Nazgûl and their stupid plan on Weathertop. They were faced by a Ranger with a broken sword (not even used) and some torches.. didn't they have an extinguish spell between the 5 of them? Poor planning...poor execution... and high levels of incompetence.

I have to admit the Silmariliion was better... probably because hobbits didn't feature at all and the story appeals to my innate Celtic sense of tragedy and ultimate doom. The elves were portrayed with morally ambivalent behaviour ..and did not have the binary choice of good and evil seen in the LoTR.

The Christopher (what I found under my father's bed when he died) Tolkien stuff sometimes adds to the lore ..some is awful

I enjoyed Bored of the Rings... and just downloaded The Last Ringbearer available for free in English as my Russian isn't good enough. Will look forward to reading it

2 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

Look Nozbat, I know it's exciting, but really....

You can just never trust physical responses... but its the emotion of it all that has got... I cried with joy...

You can just never trust physical responses... but its the emotion of it all that has got... I cried with joy...

Got my hardcopy this morning... 

1 minute ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Seeing as he will be joining your band of merry steaders, I am sure you have a bit of a vested interest in that...

He'll be in the middle of the party then... safe in the arms of Natalinna

Online definitely takes longer.. I find that it can take longer even with Mythras characters... and longer if we need to decide backstories of how the characters are related.. 

You really need to make sure that they don't die horribly in the first outing

21 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

On the bright side, or not, if you allow magic in this game you may have another player!

Having read through quite a lot of it now, Bill... its a rather unique system and the magic is very different...

I think there will be a lot of conversations when running a game of the kind... "Are you pure enough?"... and "You look pure today.."

On a general note I like a lot of the concepts ... particularly the Purity score .. which will mean PCs will always be keeping an eye on that while being involved in Machiavellian Palace politics... running Palace Coups to overthrow the Gatekeeper and finding enough empty cups to get the post of Cupbearer.. or just trying not to hit your ageing Uncle with a candlestick (the one that always makes racist, homophobic, anti "third gender" at the Spring New moon festival).

Looking forward to read it in more depth

3 minutes ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

I accept zero responsibility. Point your lawyer in the directions of Messrs Gilmore and Mitchener, please. It's all their fault.

I've already instructed my Lawyers, Messrs. Kynde, Hood and Pinball, all relics of AD&D assassins who moonlight as Lawyers as something even more disreputable than assassins when they were tasked to inflict extra pain on contracted targets than just mere death

2 minutes ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

But that's a good problem to have.

I've decided to prioritise my life .. and have been speed reading bits of it...

You do realise Loz, that by publishing Mythic Babylon there is now going to be the sudden, mysterious and untimely deaths of three well thought out, accomplished but poorly-rewarded player characters in my current Saxon campaign, one of whom just got married after years of prevaricating  ... just so I can GM Babylon? 

I think the PCs may be seeking wergeld from you soon... and they think they know where you live

Looks excellent BTW... 

Bought... but the frustration is I won't be able to read it until later....

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

And some nutter on the intertubes will be along in a minute to tell us we are evil to make any money selling our books, and we should be giving them away

This is an issue in all creative arts. People often are not willing to pay living wages for quality products and have no concept about how much time effort, thinking and creativity it takes to produce something.

My daughter is an artist who often is commissioned to do portraits. People baulk at the price not realising that if an artist spends 20 hours on something they have to expect to earn over €10 an hour, particularly if you are a master of your craft. We might grumble about paying a Tiler or Plasterer €50 an hour .. but we pay it nevertheless.

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

split between creators (50%), platform (30%) and publisher (20%)

People really need to accept that creative arts needs to be paid for or else start writing themselves. We all want quality products but don't want to pay for them.

'Stop whinging and give them the fecking money' (with apologies to Bob Geldof at LiveAid)

2 minutes ago, Eff said:

Just look at Donald Duck. Unquestionably a successful and respected warrior, unquestionably a coward. Or Howard the Duck. A recognized master of the 36th Nest of Quack Fu, fighter of vampires and bell-themed supervillains, and definitely at 75% or maybe even 80% Cowardly. 

What about Daisy?... I'm pretty sure she had no cowardly aspects or passions... in fact she was usually frustrated by Donald's immaturity (read cowardliness??) and went on dates with Donald's rival Gladstone Gander (possibly the first inter species kiss on TV)

This was a woman who had a strong sense of herself and her own mind but sadly diminished by the structural sexism of the time by being reduced to a small part in movies, TV and comics

6 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Throw in a buck or two extra and grab Luther Arkwright as well!

I have most of the Mythras stuff already... but not Luther Arkwright or Lyonesse .. extra buck paid (is that a male antelope? and some weird hint for me to respond to the Great Hunt?). I had to post the antelope... it couldn't be digitalised and I have to say difficult to wrap as it kept moving and often ripped the paper

I'm not sure where I will get the time to play either Luther Arkwright or Lyonesse... but will be reading them after I've finished Ben Aaronovitch's series of books and I may be inspired to run a game or two as my Saxon campaign heads towards the glorious and heroic deaths of the characters

Contribute to a good cause also .. I've seen too much horror this last 18 months because of lack of PPE where it's needed

11 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Rest assured that the quote about stuff not being on the sheet was from someone else here on the forum. I may be dancing around on a mountain in a thunderstorm wearing a metal armor, but I am not cursing Orlanth while doing so.

Or cursing @Bill the barbarian... consider the case of  Kalfrik the Adequate... hit by lightening... bitten by a poisonous snake.. eaten by montain lions ..sacrificed by painted broo masquerading as a travelling cow salespersons... chucked off a cliff by a wandering giant...and all for suggesting that there might have been a small discrepancy ...

46 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Most of mine do not, alas and I am not sure about the shaman... @Nozbat, I’m looking at you

Look at my character sheet, Boss... it's all there ...small statuettes of ancestors and animals (worth 25L.. which is 71% of my annual salary)

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

The other thing any anonymous GM would ask is "how much silver does your character spend on this?"

So its there... and the cost.. just in case

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Pretty much everybody's character doesn't, because "if it isn't on the character sheet, it doesn't exist in the game!" (anonymous GM)

I'm not sure the GM is that anonymous... at least not to you and me... though maybe it's said be every GM 

10 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

Jeff wasn't talking about canon. What did the lines before that say?

I was sure the Mostali had canons.. or was that another myth that needs a Heroquest?

3 hours ago, Thoror said:

So, the canon isn't true. The canon isn't real.

But Canons might exist in Godtime? YGMV

19 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Significantly more sporting than how the Castilians went about it in the New World.

Definitely true...

but even for the Romans, I also have an image of several old men standing on the most de-populated and out of the way part of the border declaring war to some surprised sheep and goats 

54 minutes ago, soltakss said:

I have thought it was something like the Bell in The Longships.

One of my favourite books... I like hypochondriac vikings.. but don't watch the film!

6 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

The price of Javelins just went up due to whining!

This is just more profit for the illegal arms factory in the underground bunker beneath the Women's Bathhouse ... so we're going to forgot those plans with Beetles, Psychoactive mushrooms or Improving the breeding options for Trolls and concentrate on more production of high end javelins. Who needs to trade trinkets now?

Just now, Nozbat said:

hurling a bloody and charred javelin across the border in the presence of three witnesses

I know several PCs who would declare that this is a wanton misuse and waste of expensive resources at 35L a go and demand that the javelin was retrieved to be repurposed and given a false end-user certificate to be sold on... but that's another story

59 minutes ago, metcalph said:

One should also consider the heralds often have to do their duties with peoples that do not share their values or language.  The Spartans threw two Persian emissaries down a well (ie those wierd looking holes in the 300) although the killers later recognized it was a crime.  

The Athenians put Darius' emissaries (or ambassadors) on trial and executed them by throwing them in a pit. In Sparta the emissaries where just thrown into a well. However, to appease Darius, the Spartans subsequently sent two volunteers to Susa for execution as an atonement for the death of the ambassadors. 

In Greece, the Heralds all claimed descent from Hermes through his son, Keryx. They carried a staff of olive or laurel wood surrounded by two snakes (or with wool as messengers of peace); their persons were inviolable; and they formed a kind of priesthood or corporation. In the Homeric age, they summoned the assemblies of the people, at which they preserved order and silence; proclaimed war; arranged the cessation of hostilities and the conclusion of peace; and assisted at public sacrifices and banquets.

Pollux in his Onomasticon distinguishes four classes of heralds: (1) the sacred heralds at the Eleusinian mysteries; (2) the heralds at the public games, who announced the names of the competitors and victors; (3) those who superintended the arrangements of festal processions; (4) those who proclaimed goods for sale in the market (for which purpose they mounted a stone), and gave notice of lost children and runaway slaves.

other writers add other occupations for heralds:

(5) the heralds of the boule and demos, who summoned the members of the council and ecclesia, recited the solemn formula of prayer before the opening of the meeting, called upon the orators to speak, counted the votes and announced the results; (6) the heralds of the law courts, who gave notice of the time of trials and summoned the parties.

The heralds received payment from the state and free meals together with the officials to whom they were attached.

In early republican Rome, Livy reports a special class of Heralds called Fetiales, drawn from the important families, who formed a 'Priestly' College of 15-20 members and held office for life. Their duties were to demand redress for insult or injury to the State, to declare war (unless satisfaction was received within a certain number of days) and negotiate peace.

The process was that 2-4 Fetiales travelled to the border of the offending enemy territory and requested satisfaction. If they did not get an answer within 30 days they returned to Rome and reported the outcome. If war was subsequently decided upon, the same delegation would travel back to the border and hurl a bloody and charred javelin across the border in the presence of three witnesses which was tantamount to declaring war.

It's a series that Newt is doing chatting to people from the d101 Games family.. think that was the first one and I'm looking forward to the others

Interesting titbits from @Loz on upcoming  Mythras productions in this one

2 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

CAN I GET A PUPPY: YGWV.

So if it had been printed in Poland .. we would get a Polish puppy.. now it's a Chinese puppy? 

2 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

WHAT ABOUT A PDF: Really? People think that we won't sell a PDF? Can you name any other RQG product we haven't sold as a PDF?

And the PDF version of the puppy will be available too? 

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

You apparently never were attacked by angry girls on bare skin.

I'm just wondering what kind of women you keep company with Joerg?