I'd like to try. Help

[Diego Barretta]

For long time I have no longer played heavy and detailed systems.  I come from at least a decade of narrative or light RPGs.  Now I would like to try RuneQuest Glorantha .... I read the Quickstart and I had a headache reading combat and magic rules, strike ranks, various bonuses and more.  Now ... which game do you consider preparatory for a less traumatic transition in near future? OpenQuest, Magic World or what?

[Jon Hunter]

9 minutes ago, Diego Barretta said:

For long time I have no longer played heavy and detailed systems.  I come from at least a decade of narrative or light RPGs.  Now I would like to try RuneQuest Glorantha .... I read the Quickstart and I had a headache reading combat and magic rules, strike ranks, various bonuses and more.  Now ... which game do you consider preparatory for a less traumatic transition in near future? OpenQuest, Magic World or what?

If you want to try Glorantha, but like narrative/light systems  first stop would be Heroquest.

I half wrote a WOD based system, which works but would need finishing off on a significant amount of detail, on www.backtobalazar.com.

In all honesty try heroquest first.

[Diana Probst]

I played it, but we didn't use all of the heavyweight rules.  Our GM walked us through things slowly - do you intend to run it, or to play in it?

I think once you get to the more complex system, the important part is to know you're absolutely fine winging it, and you can look up the actual rules later.  Once you're familiar with how things work, you can add in the numbers as you go.

I had a GM walk me through chargen the first time, and it made a huge difference.  That, more than rules-light versions, were great for me.

And if you want a rules-light version of Glorantha, HeroQuest is awesome, as mentioned above.

[Diego Barretta]

6 minutes ago, Jon Hunter said:

If you want to try Glorantha, but like narrative/light systems  first stop would be Heroquest.

I half wrote a WOD based system, which works but would need finishing off on a significant amount of detail, on www.backtobalazar.com.

In all honesty try heroquest first.

Thanks, but I have HQG (printed copy). I'd like to try RQG too.

[Diego Barretta]

5 minutes ago, Diana Probst said:

I played it, but we didn't use all of the heavyweight rules.  Our GM walked us through things slowly - do you intend to run it, or to play in it?

I think once you get to the more complex system, the important part is to know you're absolutely fine winging it, and you can look up the actual rules later.  Once you're familiar with how things work, you can add in the numbers as you go.

I had a GM walk me through chargen the first time, and it made a huge difference.  That, more than rules-light versions, were great for me.

And if you want a rules-light version of Glorantha, HeroQuest is awesome, as mentioned above.

I'd like to run It. I have HQG.

[Diana Probst]

Sometimes I fall back on 'I do not know if that works.  Roll under POW x 3 to see if you get lucky and it does.'

That covers up for a lot of holes.  As far as the confusion goes, my GM went through chargen to get used to the numbers, so he'd done it a few times and had seen the results.  I think that helped too.

Good luck with finding a middle ground system.

[Jeff]

1 minute ago, Diana Probst said:

Sometimes I fall back on 'I do not know if that works.  Roll under POW x 3 to see if you get lucky and it does.'

That covers up for a lot of holes.  As far as the confusion goes, my GM went through chargen to get used to the numbers, so he'd done it a few times and had seen the results.  I think that helped too.

Good luck with finding a middle ground system.

This is great advice. Walk through the character generation process - what you will find is the final result (the character sheet itself) contains the results of that crunch. It is the results that matter - your % in skills, your SR, your hit points, and damage modifier, and you can largely ignore how you got there.

If you are familiar with Call of Cthulhu, it works basically the same way as those games. Combat is deadly, and players have lots of different spells they can use.

[RosenMcStern]

1 hour ago, Diego Barretta said:

For long time I have no longer played heavy and detailed systems.  I come from at least a decade of narrative or light RPGs.  Now I would like to try RuneQuest Glorantha .... I read the Quickstart and I had a headache reading combat and magic rules, strike ranks, various bonuses and more.  Now ... which game do you consider preparatory for a less traumatic transition in near future? OpenQuest, Magic World or what?

OpenQuest. Note also that Norberto has translated the OpenQuest SRD into Italian, so this may also help in alleviating the pain for your players. Once everyone is comfortable with attacks/parries, utility magic and combat being deadly and not narrative, you can switch to RQ:G and introduce the extra detail of Strike Ranks, Hit Locations, Rune Magic etc. etc.

And a birdie (actually, a Raven) told me that RQ:G could become available in Italian, too.

[smiorgan]

19 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

OpenQuest. Note also that Norberto has translated the OpenQuest SRD into Italian, so this may also help in alleviating the pain for your players.
 

Good advice. Here's Norberto's translation:

http://bardosulmare.blogspot.com/2014/12/introduzione.html

Another option is using the BRP Quickstart rules:

https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/BRP/CHA2021%20-%20Basic%20RolePlaying%20Quick-Start.pdf

An open secret is that you can just ignore RQG's combat rules and play with the BRP Quickstart rules instead. It works like that:

- Ignore locational hit points, just use general HP

- Ignore strike ranks, just use DEX order for initiative

-Ignore the attack-parry matrix in RQG, just use the simplified matrix from the Quickstart, page 25.

-You will have to fudge a few spells, but nothing major. 

You can switch to the more detailed and colorful RQG combat when you and your players feel comfortable.

Edited February 14, 2020 by smiorgan

[Diego Barretta]

24 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

OpenQuest. Note also that Norberto has translated the OpenQuest SRD into Italian, so this may also help in alleviating the pain for your players. Once everyone is comfortable with attacks/parries, utility magic and combat being deadly and not narrative, you can switch to RQ:G and introduce the extra detail of Strike Ranks, Hit Locations, Rune Magic etc. etc.

And a birdie (actually, a Raven) told me that RQ:G could become available in Italian, too.

I have OQ in italian and the Refreshed edition in english (printed copy). Thank your winged friend!

28/5000

 

 

 

 

[Diego Barretta]

17 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

Good advice. Here's Norberto's translation:

http://bardosulmare.blogspot.com/2014/12/introduzione.html

Another option is using the BRP Quickstart rules:

https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/BRP/CHA2021%20-%20Basic%20RolePlaying%20Quick-Start.pdf

An open secret is that you can just ignore RQG's combat rules and play with the BRP Quickstart rules instead. It works like that:

- Ignore locational hit points, just use general HP

- Ignore strike ranks, just use DEX order for initiative

-Ignore the attack-parry matrix in RQG, just use the simplified matrix from the Quickstart, page 25.

-You will have to fudge a few spells, but nothing major. 

You can switch to the more detailed and colorful RQG combat when you and your players feel comfortable.

I already have them, thanks

I was just wondering which one was the best for practicing. Thanks for your suggestions!

Edited February 14, 2020 by Diego Barretta

[Akhôrahil]

2 hours ago, Diego Barretta said:

For long time I have no longer played heavy and detailed systems.  I come from at least a decade of narrative or light RPGs.  Now I would like to try RuneQuest Glorantha .... I read the Quickstart and I had a headache reading combat and magic rules, strike ranks, various bonuses and more.  Now ... which game do you consider preparatory for a less traumatic transition in near future? OpenQuest, Magic World or what?

Definitely HeroQuest in your case. RuneQuest is for grognards who like that kind of thing.

Plus HeroQuest has the best campaign ever published for Glorantha.

[Diego Barretta]

20 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Definitely HeroQuest in your case. RuneQuest is for grognards who like that kind of thing.

Plus HeroQuest has the best campaign ever published for Glorantha.

I already have it. Thanks. Just want to try traditional Glorantha too. I'm 46....maybe I need something old sometime.

[g33k]

38 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

...

Another option is using the BRP Quickstart rules:

https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/BRP/CHA2021%20-%20Basic%20RolePlaying%20Quick-Start.pdf

An open secret is that you can just ignore RQG's combat rules and play with the BRP Quickstart rules instead. It works like that:

- Ignore locational hit points, just use general HP

- Ignore strike ranks, just use DEX order for initiative

-Ignore the attack-parry matrix in RQG, just use the simplified matrix from the Quickstart, page 25.

-You will have to fudge a few spells, but nothing major. 

One of the great things about the BRP "extended family" of games is that -- broadly speaking -- any given subsystem from any one of them can be easily (often seamlessly) used in any other of them.

Strike Ranks seems daunting?  As noted, use "DEX ranks" instead (or any other initiative system, really).

Etc etc etc ...

I too like BRP itself as the foundation-game for learning RQ.

1 hour ago, smiorgan said:

... You can switch to the more detailed and colorful RQG combat when you and your players feel comfortable.

Gotta reiterate, though -- each subsystem can be tried separately, incrementally.  You don't have to go everything/nothing!

===

However, I will urge that you lean-in on location-based HitPoints (& Armor/AP!).  They are one of the most-characteristic bits of RQ mechanics, to me!  And my experience of them is that they really enhance play at the table.

Make sure you use one of character-sheets (like the main one in the rulebook) that has the stylized figure with location-based HP's & AP's & the hit-locations marked (some people swear by alternate sheets, that just have a little table for this content... it takes all kinds, I guess!).  Roll d100 attack-skill and d20 hit-location (also damage-dice!) all at the same time, so you don't have to go digging for new dice & rolling again.  It really isn't any harder to track the HP's in different locations, when you have that convenient little graphic with all the location HP's recorded.

I find the result of having location-based HP's is that dramatic tension is higher, and narrative emerges from the mechanics...  "Oddwalt has gone down to -1HP in his right arm, and the sword slips from his numbed fingers... he backs away, desperately parrying with his buckler and unable to get a grip on his backup dagger."  "Corbyn is at 0 points in his leg, but the Berserk spell keeps him upright and fighting; his foe goes to 0, and staggers <GM rolls DEX (and will keep rolling every round)> barely able to stay upright." (note the last one -- DEX roll not to fall, with a 0-hp leg -- is my own HR afaik, not RAW).  I find that "bag-o-HP's" (aka "general" HP's) is an attritional slog with MUCH less dramatic tension, particularly when armor makes many hits low-to-zero damage... per-location HP's, in contrast, usually means that even low-damage hits move that hit-location substantially closer to being disabled, and high-damage foes can usually disable any single party-member in one shot; I find that the risks increase the tension of the combat scenes!

 

[Akhôrahil]

RQG is among the most demanding games you can find these days rules-wise. It's extremely understandable if it seems overwhelming.

Perhaps the best approach is to play another game in the BRP family, such as Pendragon or Call of Cthulhu? Then you will at least have the foundations to dive into RQG.

I mean, I'm someone who's a BRP veteran of 35 years, highly analytical, does games QA for a living, and a rules-person in general, and I think it's a challenge!

(It doesn't help that RQG is simply loaded with rules inconsistencies and the like. If you find something that doesn't seem to make sense, there are decent odds that it actually doesn't make any sense and that there's nothing wrong with your understanding. Unfortunately, this doesn't help a lot...)

Edited February 14, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Diego Barretta]

I just played CoC and Elric! when I was young, maybe 1991-1993.....

[RosenMcStern]

20 minutes ago, Diego Barretta said:

I just played CoC and Elric! when I was young, maybe 1991-1993.....

Then start without hit locations, as you have no experience with them. Use OpenQuest as the foundation, and introuduce pieces of RQG gradually.

[Akhôrahil]

30 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

Then start without hit locations, as you have no experience with them. Use OpenQuest as the foundation, and introuduce pieces of RQG gradually.

Even more importantly, don't track Strike Ranks! SRs are a horrorshow of complexity! Give everyone one spell or attack per round, along with the normal defences, and you'll be fine. Use lowest SR for initiative if you like, but don't track it point for point.

Edited February 14, 2020 by Akhôrahil