RQ Red Book of Magic Compatibility

[tooley1chris]

Not really too familiar with Gloranthra or RQ so I'm wondering how compatible this books "more than 500 spells" would be with Magic World?

Edited January 12, 2021 by tooley1chris

[soltakss]

The magic system in Magic World is different, from what I recall.

There was a BRP supplement that had RQ3-style magic (The Magic Book) and the Red Book of Magic is compatible with that.

However, looking at Magic World sorcery, there is nothing to stop you taking the spells from the red Book of Magic and just using them as Magic World sorcery.

[SDLeary]

Soltakss is correct. Should be able to be used... however I would suggest a test run before actual use in a campaign.

SDLeary

[Simlasa]

500 spells is a lot of spells... are they actually all that unique from each other or are they slight variations... 'speak to plant', 'speak to rock', 'speak to squirrel', 'speak to dog', 'speak to cat'?

[soltakss]

31 minutes ago, Simlasa said:

500 spells is a lot of spells

Not really, the Book of Doom has over 600 spells!

33 minutes ago, Simlasa said:

are they actually all that unique from each other or are they slight variations... 'speak to plant', 'speak to rock', 'speak to squirrel', 'speak to dog', 'speak to cat'?

There is some of that in the Red Book of Magic, for example there are 6 versions of Speak With () and 25 Summon spells.

For the Book of Doom, I tried to make as many spells as possible generic versions, so that the 600 spells are really 600 spells without many duplications.

You should get both the Red Book of Magic and the Book of Doom, but I might be biased.

 

[rsanford]

So I preface this by saying that I know nearly nothing about RuneQuest.

Are the spells in the red book and the doom book demarcated by tribe or by God? It it envisioned that any sorcerer could have a large number of these spells or it it meant to limit the sorcerer / cleric to just the spells of a certain tribe, cult, religion?

Edited January 14, 2021 by rsanford

[DreadDomain]

5 hours ago, soltakss said:

Not really, the Book of Doom has over 600 spells!

For the Book of Doom, I tried to make as many spells as possible generic versions, so that the 600 spells are really 600 spells without many duplications.

Are rune spells in BoD associated with Runes? Are they associated with gods/cults?

2 hours ago, rsanford said:

Are the spells in the red book and the doom book remarked by tribe or by God? It it envisioned that any sorcerer could have a large number of these spells or it it meant to limit the sorcerer / cleric to just the spells of a certain tribe, cult, religion?

There are a few different magic systems in RQ, Rune Magic, Spirit Magic and Sorcery. The RBoM only covers Rune Magic and Spirit Magic, not sorcery.

To keep it simple, access to rune spells are limited in two ways.

First, to access rune spells, you need to be part of a cult and each cults will have access to a number of spells. To learn a rune spell, they need to sacrifice to their god (1 POW per spell).

Second, all spells are associated to 1 or several runes. To cast a spell, you need to have a % in one of the runes. Generally, trying to emulate their god, characters will have % in the runes important to the god (generally 3 runes) so they will have abilities to cast runes from their cult (if they have learned it of course).

Now if you use them for Magic World sorcery, anything goes!

[soltakss]

8 hours ago, rsanford said:

Are the spells in the red book and the doom book demarcated by tribe or by God?

Red Book of Magic simply lists spells in alphabetical order.

Book of Doom has spells in categories, either connected to a set of rules (Alchemy, Crafting, Buildings & Ships), by Elemental Rune (Darkness, Water, Earth etc.) or by Domain (Healing, Trickster, War etc.)

8 hours ago, rsanford said:

It it envisioned that any sorcerer could have a large number of these spells or it it meant to limit the sorcerer / cleric to just the spells of a certain tribe, cult, religion?

They are simply resources that list spells.

In my Glorantha, the spells are typically available through Sub Cults or Hero Cults, or are given as gifts on HeroQuests.

I don't see sorcerers as simply being able to go out and get any spell.

However, that is going to depend on the GM and how they see their world.

5 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

Are rune spells in BoD associated with Runes?

Yes, all Rune spells in the Book of Doom are associated with Runes, in the same way as in the RQG Rules.

5 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

Are they associated with gods/cults?

See above regarding how they are organised.

I will eventually produce a spreadsheet showing deities and which spells they are likely to get, but these would be available through SubCults or Hero Cults.

5 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

Now if you use them for Magic World sorcery, anything goes!

I would expect that you would simply use the description of the spell but use the way the spell is cast from the Magic World rules. There might be some tweaks, but most spells should work fairly easily.

[tooley1chris]

How have I never seen the Book of Doom??? Neat!

[soltakss]

36 minutes ago, tooley1chris said:

How have I never seen the Book of Doom??? Neat!

Thanks. It was only released on 11th January, so is quite new.

[tooley1chris]

On 1/14/2021 at 11:23 AM, soltakss said:

Thanks. It was only released on 11th January, so is quite new.

And now it is mine 😎

[rsanford]

19 hours ago, tooley1chris said:

And now it is mine 😎

Hey Chris when you get a chance let us know how useful the book would be to Magic World GMs, please...

[soltakss]

13 hours ago, rsanford said:

Hey Chris when you get a chance let us know how useful the book would be to Magic World GMs, please...

Although I am not Chris and I am the author of the Book of Doom, I would say that it is as useful as you make it.

On the one hand, the spells are not in the same format as in Magic World and don't follow the same structure, so they are not very useful.

On the other hand, if you ignore that they are Spirit/Rune/Sorcery Magic and look at the content of the spells then you could easily work with Magic World. I don't play Magic World so I am not sure how balanced they would be, but they weren't designed to be balanced for RQ either, except in my normal "thinking about spells" balancing.

The rules for Alchemy might be OK for Magic World, as might the rules of Ships and Buildings. The rules on advancement are extensions of the RQ section, so might not be that useful. 

The preview does not contain any spells, unfortunately, but gives an idea of what the rules contain.

[Chaot]

On 1/23/2021 at 4:09 AM, soltakss said:

The preview does not contain any spells, unfortunately, but gives an idea of what the rules contain.

Hey Simon, the Alchemy rules, is it just imbuing potions with spell effects or is it something more complex?

Edited February 11, 2021 by Chaot

[soltakss]

8 hours ago, Chaot said:

Hey Simon, the Alchemy rules, is it just imbuing potions with spell effects or is it something more complex?

More complex.

Mostly it is creating different types of potions, or concoctions as I call them. 

Some potions allow you to cast spells, but others just have different effects.

[Chaot]

This is only available via pdf or is there a printed book? I do believe I’m adding it to the collection!

Edit: Never mind, I saw your comment at drivethru about getting to electrum. Here's one more purchase to get you there.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Chaot

[soltakss]

3 hours ago, Chaot said:

Edit: Never mind, I saw your comment at drivethru about getting to electrum. Here's one more purchase to get you there.

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it.