Legend, RQ6 and 3rd Party Publishers

[dmccoy1693]

Greetings everyone.

For those that do not know me, my name is Dale McCoy. I am president of Jon Brazer Enterprises. We're a Traveller and Pathfinder compatible publisher and are considering expanding into Legend and RQ6 (depending on the license details). We thought we would ask you. Are you interested in Legend material from an additional publisher beyond Mongoose? How about RuneQuest compatible material that is not set in Glorantha? If so, what are you interested in? Cults/Guilds? Deities? Towns/Villages you can plunk down into your home campaign? Alternate settings? Pre-stated NPCs/Monsters?

You tell us. What would you like to see?

Thank you in advance,

Dale McCoy

[Thalaba]

Welcome, Dale. Thanks for asking...

Are you interested in Legend material from an additional publisher beyond Mongoose?

Yes. Actually, I'm only interested in Legend material from an additional publisher beyond Mongoose. I'm more inclined to be interested in RQ6 or BRP compatible products, but as all three will be broadly compatible I don't need to be too picky.

How about RuneQuest compatible material that is not set in Glorantha?

Yes, definitely. I think Glorantha is a great setting, but I probably have all the Glorantha material need from past RQ editions.

If so, what are you interested in? Alternate settings?

Compelling setting material that is thought provoking. I like things that capture the mind-blowing effect that good speculative fiction has. I like settings that have a 'what if' factor. I also really settings with verisimilitude - which include enough depth to feel real. In that vein, the settings for Artesia, Mechanical Dream, Jorune, Harn, and Hot War all appeal to me. I love fantasy, but avoid the traditional stuff these days. Unless I'm playing Tolkien itself, I'm done with Orcs, Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, and so on.

I'm not interested in franchises from film/TV. I like original material. I want RPG settings to inspire me - not to copy other things that already inspired me. I do love historical settings, though. I suspect my tastes run in the minority, but if I don't speak up for them nobody else will, either.

Cults/Guilds? Deities? Towns/Villages you can plunk down into your home campaign? Pre-stated NPCs/Monsters? These things are very setting specific, in my view. I probably wouldn't buy such things for fear of them being too generic, or geared too much to generic medieval fantasy. That said, maybe you can surprise me.

These things would interest me:

-Something that allows simulation of ancient/medieval battles (and logistics) - without leaving the perspective of the individual character.

-A dystopian industrial themed setting, riffing off Gilliam's Brazil and Lang's Metropolis (etc.).

-Thought provoking semi-hard sci-fi focused on a single planet, colony, or ship. Think more like 2001, Solaris, Event Horizon, Pandorum, and Alien than Traveller, Star Wars or Star Trek.

[lawrence.whitaker]

Hi Dale,

As the RQ license holder why don't you drop me a PM and then we can discuss licensing for RQ and so on?

Look forward to hearing from you,

Lawrence

[frogspawner]

Greetings everyone.

Hi!

Are you interested in Legend material from an additional publisher beyond Mongoose?

Certainly.

How about RuneQuest compatible material that is not set in Glorantha?

Absolutely.

If so, what are you interested in? Cults/Guilds? Deities? ...Alternate settings?

These go together, I'd say. Not particularly, I'm afraid. Unless it's a really interesting setting, of course.

Towns/Villages you can plunk down into your home campaign?

Oh yes, definitely!

Pre-stated NPCs/Monsters?

Nah.

You tell us. What would you like to see?

Adventures! Scenarios!! Modules!!! (You get the idea?)

[dmccoy1693]

Hi Dale,

As the RQ license holder why don't you drop me a PM and then we can discuss licensing for RQ and so on?

Look forward to hearing from you,

Lawrence

PM sent.

*Scribbles down notes from Thalaba and frogspawner's comments*

[Jarulf]

Interesting settings. A late-medieval/early renaissance low fantasy Italy, or reconquista Iberian Peninsula inspired setting. Look at Gay Gavriel Kay's novels for what I mean. Cults, guild, towns etc for above.

A series of connected solo adventures (solo as in "go to section 45 if you try to sneak past the guard") for the above (that way, you can sell more than just the solos and possibly make a bit of money).

I'm not interested in elves, dwarves and so on. Anything like that would have to be very different and new to interest me.

Legend or RQ6 would both be fine, I'll get both and until RQ6 is out it's hard to say which'll be my first choice. I could live with OpenQuest and BRP as well.

[Prime Evil]

Legend or RQ6 would both be fine, I'll get both and until RQ6 is out it's hard to say which'll be my first choice. I could live with OpenQuest and BRP as well.

The beauty is that these systems have a decent level of cross-compatibility, so it is fairly easy to mix-and-match elements from different games. There's a bit of conversion required, but it's fairly trivial - they aren't really rules-heavy systems. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing how RQ 6 tweaks the MRQII system. Loz and Pete did a great job with MRQII and it will be cool to see what changes they have up their sleeve.

[Clarence in Wonderland]

I like the idea of villages, ruins, castles, space stations, etc that I can drop into a home brew setting. I've been using some pieces from Paizo adventure paths (that I know I'll never run as PF) because they look good, but the conversion of encounters is a drag. Actually, I'd love to see sets of encounters (statted up for RQ / legend) with good maps and images of the bad guys that I can plug into our games. Full settings? I've got a stack of those I'll never use in their entirety, but we all talk about the bits we swipe from settings - so why not put out those bits?

[Prime Evil]

Would a collection of pregenerated generic NPCs be useful to people? How about a collection of drag-and-drop opponents such as a typical orc tribe or a gang of bandits?

[Clarence in Wonderland]

Would a collection of pregenerated generic NPCs be useful to people? How about a collection of drag-and-drop opponents such as a typical orc tribe or a gang of bandits?

I'm thinking a bit more than just the NPCs. How about an Orc tribe (grunts, warlord, shaman, their pet wolfish-creatures) , their camp (with a nice map), a cult or two along with grimoires / divine spells.

These are the sort of encounters that are so convenient for sandboxy adventures .

[Prime Evil]

Agreed...I was thinking of a product that is a cross between the kind of thing that Raging Swan puts out for Pathfinder and the classic RQ TrollPack. And I think that a sandboxy approach is a good idea too.

[MormonYoYoMan]

What would I like to see?

This may not be "right" for 3rd party publishers - then again, Judges' Guild did an awfully good job with their Gateway products. (I put 'em all in my RQ2 Glorantha campaign anyway.) What I want - always - is for more data and information on Glorantha that's RQ-specific. HeroQuest is nice and all that, but the RQ rules and the 3rd+ age(s) are where MY Glorantha is.

There's a lot of that world which Greg hasn't gotten to yet, and I'm hoping he'll let other parties look into them - and into the history which hasn't yet been written.

Edited January 30, 2012 by MormonYoYoMan

[Newt]

Very briefly, since I'll be making a fuller announcement, I've got confirmation from both The Design Mechanism and Issaries Inc that I can include RQ6 material for Glorantha in Hearts in Glorantha and Gloranthan Adventures

[General Panic]

Compelling setting material that is thought provoking. I like things that capture the mind-blowing effect that good speculative fiction has. I like settings that have a 'what if' factor. I also really settings with verisimilitude - which include enough depth to feel real. In that vein, the settings for Artesia, Mechanical Dream, Jorune, Harn, and Hot War all appeal to me. I love fantasy, but avoid the traditional stuff these days. Unless I'm playing Tolkien itself, I'm done with Orcs, Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, and so on.

I'm not interested in franchises from film/TV. I like original material. I want RPG settings to inspire me - not to copy other things that already inspired me. I do love historical settings, though. I suspect my tastes run in the minority, but if I don't speak up for them nobody else will, either.

Have you taken a look at Age of Treason: The Iron Simulacrum?

[Thalaba]

Have you taken a look at Age of Treason: The Iron Simulacrum?

No, I never did. The name Age of Treason naturally invokes The Age of Reason, a historical period I'm not much interested in RPing in, and the second part of the name (Iron Simulacrum) brings to mind steampunk or mechanoids, which I'm also not interested in. I also have a once-bitten-twice-shy aversion to things associated with Mongoose. For these three reasons I never made an effort to learn more about it.

But if you feel it offers something different, feel free to list some of the highlights - what do you think sets it apart from other settings?

[General Panic]

No, I never did. The name Age of Treason naturally invokes The Age of Reason, a historical period I'm not much interested in RPing in, and the second part of the name (Iron Simulacrum) brings to mind steampunk or mechanoids, which I'm also not interested in. I also have a once-bitten-twice-shy aversion to things associated with Mongoose. For these three reasons I never made an effort to learn more about it.

But if you feel it offers something different, feel free to list some of the highlights - what do you think sets it apart from other settings?

Ah...I can assure you neither of those impressions are correct...

I picked up on your being 'done with' elves and dwarves etc - AoT is humanocentric. Tech level/era is ancient world (Late antiquity with some earlier stuff thrown in). The Simulacrum is an iron golem, Viceroy of the Taskan Empire, and the Divine Emperor's familiar.

The first review that came out was on the RollforInitiative blog, here:

Roll for Initiative: Age of Treason campaign setting for MRQII/Legend

I have my own blog for the setting,last post was a preview on what's in the forthcoming companion, here

Age of treason blog

And you can also find some free pdfs on the blog - map of the empire, a couple of adventurers, a courtroom scenario, and a player's introduction.

And there's an extended thread on the Mongoose forum here:

Mongoose Publishing • View topic - Age of Treason WOW!!!!!!!

But to save you searching here's one entry ont he post that summed a lot of it up:

Age of Treason - Lots of Cool Stuff

A friend picked up Age of Treason for me at Gencon and I have been perusing it for the last couple of weeks.

I like this setting. There are a lot of very nice applications of and/or tweaks to the "Legend" core rules. Lots of cool stuff to borrow if you don't run your game the Age of Treason setting.

Examples of Magical Cool Stuff:

The religion of the Taskan Empire is a pantheon of gods which have some relevance to the peoples lives. The typical RQ cults don't control worship. Worship is an individual thing. Most people aren't initiated to a god, but attend the Holy Festivals and worship them. A person can establish a pact with a diety at special services, sacred sites, or even in the presence of a "Holy Man". A person can have pacts with several of the deities in the pantheon (requires at least one dedicated POW as usual), but they have one skill which applies to worshipping all of the gods in the pantheon. That skill is effectively Lore (pantheon). You can get divine magic from any of the gods you have a pact with, limited by the POW you have dedicated to that god. The gods only offer a few divine spells each.

Official religious worship is performed using various sorcery rituals to establish worship.

Cults of the gods do exist and there may be several rival cults worshipping a god. Cults may require that a person have a pact with the god as a prerequisite to joining.

Common magic is not common in the Taskan Empire. In fact, it is rare. Some special cults may offer magic that is essentially like common magic spells.

Sorcery is common. There are sorcery spells that are in the "public domain" and published for all who can read and understand them to use. These are mostly worship spells. Wealthy families may have a Family Grimoire with possibly more adventurer friendly spells. However, generally only people trained as a sorcerer's apprentice will have the Manipulation skill. So lots of sorcery at minimum levels. One NPC in the intro adventure has a family grimoire with 9 spells: Abjure Grief, Abjure Love, Restoration, Sanctify, Sense Honour, Worship Thesh, Worship Samanse, Worship Tethis, Worship Tarsen. I think this was intended to show a typical family grimoire. The Sanctify and Worship spells allow him to perform worship services where people can ask the gods for blessings.

Blessings are a new minor magic available. They are essentially one time benefits granted by a god. They can be acquired at properly sanctified worship services, usually performed by a professional priest. In game terms, they typically grant a 10% bonus one or more skills for a short duration. A carpenter might get a blessing from Hoonvel which gives him a 10% bonus to his Craft (Carpentry) skill for a skill test or an extended task. A warrior might ask Machank for a blessing to make his weapon true, which may grant a 10% bonus to his attacks for the duration of a combat. A typical character would be able to have 3 blessings available at time.

Spirit Walking is rare (a heroic ability or special divine magic).

Spirits are called to the shaman, or sought out at places where they are known to frequent.

Spirits can manifest into the physical world. Spirits may be able to force a person into Spectral Combat.

Spectral combat takes place in the physical world. (No getting jerked out of your body.)

You can do other things while being attacked by a spirit, if you need to.

You use your full Persistence skill or Spirit Binding skill (whichever is greater) to battle the spirit.

Several spirit Traditions are described.

Sorcery Duration (see the table in the preview) is extended over the core rules. Those of us who liked the long durations of AHRQ3 will like this. Two caveats: the maximum length of time for a spell is A Year & A Day (or POW X 1 month if you prefer); and the sorcerer can not begin to recover the magic points in the spell until it ends.

Alchemy is a form of sorcery. Manipulations include doses and shelf-life.

Enchanting is a form of sorcery. It generally involves permanent investment of characteristic points, not just POW. Characteristic points yielded are spent to add abilities to enchanted items. The amount of return on investment depends on the Grimoire skill. At 40%, a sorcerer could sacrifice up to 1/4 of a characteristic and receive 1D4 per point sacrificed to be spent on the enchantment.

Basic enchantments are generally available in standard sorcery grimoires. They include Create Familiar, Write Grimoire (sort of extra memory for spells), and Create Magic Source (object with MPs that regenerate).

Advanced enchants require the Enchanting Ritual and Craft(Enchanter) skill. These let you create enchantments with virutes and conditions. Virtues are grouped by the characteristic sacrificed for them. Some of the virtues are Armouring, Life Supporting, Anticipation, Magic Damage, Wand, Haste, and Fetish.

Non-Magic related Cool Stuff:

Extended tasks - this applies the Extended tasks rules introduced in Arms and Equipment to tasks other than crafting, engineering and mechanisms. Persuasion (influence, seduction, etc) and Education (a new skill) are given rules and examples for extended tasks. This opens up a lot of other possibilities for using extended tasks. Lockpicking and searching an area come to mind. There is a several page section devoted to the arts of persuasion and oratory and bribery.

Brawl skill replaces Unarmed as a common skill. Improvised and street weapons increase damage and may allow certain Combat Manoeuvres. For example, a broken bottle adds does a D3+1 damage and allows Bleed and Slash combat manoeuvres. Slash is a new combat manoeuvre.

The Brawl skill can be used by a person using a long weapon when their opponent has closed on them.

Drive is a common skill, Ride is not. You can sit on a horse while it walks and use Drive for steering and simple problems. Difficult terrain or problems require ride skill, or get off the horse and walk. To fight from horseback requires the Ride skill. To fight effectively from horseback requires Mounted Combat skill.

The Funeral Clubs are an interesting concept. Sort of social clubs whose members guarantee that they will provide a proper cremation and funeral for its members, they will be remembered on the proper Holy Days. This is very important in the Taskan Empire. Some have become much more than that and provide other services.

Some interesting tweaks to the combat rules regarding weapon styles and shield use.

The intro adventure is very interesting. The designer used it to good affect to introduce the setting and to demonstrate some of the concepts in the game, including some magic items and spirit traditionalists for the main opponents.

Essentially, the player characters are starting youngsters out to perform their mandatory two year militia service for the Emperor. They all end up in the same half-file of a company. (assuming that you have 6 or fewer PCs) I am going the have to sit down and tinker with this because it seems that it may be very deadly for the relative novice characters. The pre-generated characters mostly have low combat scores. They do get a little training, but it seems inadequate. But it looks fun none the less. I think a solo run through is in order.

The setting itself is interesting and has potential for lots of different styles of game.

Did I mention that every citizen of the Taskan Empire has a Pact(Emperor) skill and one POW devoted to it? The benefit is citizenship in the empire.

Hope this is of interest!

[Thalaba]

Well, it does sound very much more to my taste than I thought, so thanks for bringing it to my attention. Your inspirational sources (from your blog) are close to my heart, too. What with this, RQ6, AEON, and some of the Alephtar books, the 'ancient' market is starting to look well-served.

If I see a copy in the FLGS I'll give it a closer scan-through.