GM preparation: Combat and Chase

[Trotsky]

I am planning to run RQ:G soon and so have been reading and studying the core book. Here is me playing through a scene to gain some experience. I used whatever the dice gave me and tried to play both sides fairly.

Please excuse any grammar errors I wrote it as I went along...

 

The Den of the Scorpion Men.pdf

Edited July 24, 2020 by Trotsky

[Runeblogger]

That's really nice. Where did you get the maps from?

[Trotsky]

Thank you. I am prepping for playing on Roll 20. Most of the maps I use are from 2-Minute Tabletop (https://2minutetabletop.com), I really like that style.

[Balakatun]

Great write-up! Probably the best and exhaustive RAW combat example I've seen. I particularly liked the clear usage of SR, the illustration of a variety of concepts (moving in melee, breaking spell concentration, augments, disengaging, chase...) and the treatment of parry against natural attack. I saw your other thread around "Parrying as scorpion man tail" but was not sure I fully understood its conclusion - I actually never thought about resolving it that way but I love it. Thanks for this most excellent example!

Edited July 24, 2020 by Balakatun

[Trotsky]

Thanks Balakatun - looks like I now have enough online players to start my return to RuneQuest - I am very excited...

[Runeblogger]

13 minutes ago, Trotsky said:

Thanks Balakatun - looks like I now have enough online players to start my return to RuneQuest - I am very excited...

I hope you will tell us about your adventurers' exploits here! 🙂

BTW, I would have treated a special attack with a scorpion sting as an impale that does not get stuck. The poison is enough for the poor victim.  xD

[Lordabdul]

I definitely recommend 2 Minute Tabletop, they have really nice stuff and it's easy to use their elements (trees, bushes, cracks, etc.) as overlays to add variety and interesting stuff.

Thanks a lot for sharing, @Trotsky! You'll find a couple other similar example combats on these forums, as other people were also trying to wrap their heads around the rules.

As I was trying to follow along, I realized we might need some of the characters' stats (like their DEX/SIZ and weapon SRs for instance). I started guessing some of it and found some little inconsistencies here and there... but I might have guess wrong (and there's also the possibility that I'm interpreting the rules wrong). Could you post the stat blocks if you still have them? Thanks!

[Karlak One-eye]

Great narrative. Must have been fun to run and to play. I have a couple of thoughts; 1) I’m surprised none of the scorpion folk had a strength bonus for their damage and ; 2) I understood that if the parrying weapon was hafted or impaling then it would not damage an attacking weapon (natural or otherwise) when the attack failed, am I confusing RQ2 with RQG?

[Trotsky]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

lordabdul, I am pretty sure I missed and made some errors along the way. The Adventurers were from the website I listed so I should be able to track them down (https://www.cradleofheroes.net). The scorpion men I did not print off and they are generated randomly each time so would have to have a guess about them… I play mainly wargames such as Advanced Squad Leader and Star Fleet Battles but have a far more relaxed attitude to RPGs – I will never let the rules get in the way of a good story, and am therefore a little more lax in exact rule application The aim of the experience was to get a ‘flavour’ of how the system plays – but of course any errors I would be interested to correct. I will see if I can track down those stats tomorrow…

 

Karlak, the scorpion men did have some strength bonuses but they were generated as ‘weakling’ strength from the website (https://basicroleplaying.net/rqg/adversaries/index.php) . The scorpion men did roll badly pretty much throughout the episode – which was a bit of a shame as I wanted to try out the healing rules. The rule about long-hafted or impaling weapon rule is still there but only appears to apply to a weapon when is causes a critical hit (p.200), but I maybe misunderstanding the rule or missed something - most likely

Edited July 24, 2020 by Trotsky

[Psullie]

As the Parry was only a simple success the Scorpion man's tail would only be reduced by 1HP if total damage exceeds armour, not total damage. You would need a Special Parry to cause that much damage.

[Trotsky]

Thank you - It might have been - I was writing as I went and am sure I may have missed some things ...

Edited July 24, 2020 by Trotsky

[Bill the barbarian]

1 hour ago, Trotsky said:

I play mainly wargames such as Advanced Squad Leader and Star Fleet Battles but have a far more relaxed attitude to RPGs –

Two of my faves. I was lucky enough to be an unofficial member of a an official play testing group in my youth for the latter.

[Trotsky]

I continued the adventure a little more - chaotic possession and creepy baboon shaman included...

Chaotic possession.pdf

[Pierre]

On 7/25/2020 at 7:30 PM, Trotsky said:

I continued the adventure a little more - chaotic possession and creepy baboon shaman included...

Chaotic possession.pdf 4.11 MB · 17 downloads

Hello Trotsky! 

The French version of Runequest is coming! 
 
I would like during my holidays to translate your examples to post them on our French forum, do I have your agreement ? thank you.

[Trotsky]

Of course, that is no problem and feel free to change any details.