MRQII/Legend & RQ6 Conan

[Darkholme]

I've been throwing together some Hyborian RuneQuest 6 & Legend character options, Just for fun (Been reading the ongoing Dark Horse Conan Series in TPB).

It's a Work in Progress, as there are many more Races and Cultures and Maybe even more Professions that I could do.

So far I have Cimmerian (Culture) and Profession (Borderer) finished.

Feel free to comment.

We'll see what else I add to it.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Darkholme

[Darkholme]

Whoops Sorry guys.

Forgot the default setting for google docs is private.

Anyone can see it now.

[Chorpa]

Yes now it is accessable.

[Darkholme]

I know it's just a start, but any thoughts on this?

Is it worth continuing for more than my own use?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[seneschal]

Your character templates do demonstrate the differences between Legend and RQ 6. That's a lot of detail for only two professions.

I haven't been reading the comics. We know that a Cimmerian is Howard's standard norther barbarian tribesman. But what is a "Borderer"?

[Psychman]

Your character templates do demonstrate the differences between Legend and RQ 6. That's a lot of detail for only two professions.

I haven't been reading the comics. We know that a Cimmerian is Howard's standard norther barbarian tribesman. But what is a "Borderer"?

I wonder if you may be about to fall into a bit of a trap here. As I recall, "Borderer" was the name of a class in the Mongoose d20 Conan game. d20 classes don't really tie directly to careers, Barbarian being the obvious example. Maybe it would be wiser to look at the RQ6 careers and work from those as a base in designing additional ones, if they are indeed needed. The "Borderer" I seem to recall was a kind of scout warrior/hunter type - filling the same slot in that system as the Ranger.

Also, RQ6 does have guidelines for new careers with maximum numbers of skills to include: up to 7 Standard and 7 Professional. Combat Styles count in the standard skill limits, magical in the Professional.

Best of luck with the conversion!

[Darkholme]

A borderer is a profession, similar to a Ranger or scout, in that they are in the wilderness alot, however its a bit different; A borderer guards the border to the wilderness, and when ordered, expands the border into the wilderness more, driving back the Picts in the process.

So somewhere between a hunter/ranger type and a soldier. Kindof like a Wilderness Specialist Soldier.

They're mentioned a few times off-hand by conan, but I have yet to see him actually come across a borderer.

It seemed different enough to actually warrant its own profession entry. But yes, not all classes in the mongoose RPG would map well to Legend/RQ6 Professions, as some are things like Barbarian (which is really a raging warrior with special abilities), and some may be adequately covered in Legend/RQ6, like perhaps Noble, and Thief. I imagine there will only be a handful of Professions needed.

The bulk of the work will come from doing up all of the cultures, and then all of the races (for a Cimmerian raised in Aquilonia, for example).

A few houserules may be suitable as well.

I probably would recommend no magic for player characters, at least for Legend. RQ6 apparently has substantially different magic, and I haven't read its magic rules yet. I have a feeling RQ Magic would be unsuitable for a Conan-esque game.

Perhaps some of the systems from Conan d20 could inspire something in the RQ Games, such as the Honor & Corruption systems, and maybe Reputation.

But people are interested enough that I should continue to share what I come up with?

As for the "7 common, 7 professional" limit in RQ6, yeah, I think I went over that a tad, but you're not getting more points to work with, so it shouldn't be a big deal if you have 8 instead. I couldn't figure out what else to cut out of the list.

[Darkholme]

Updated.

Some layout/design stuff, and added the Gunderman culture. Still a ton of cultures to go, let alone new features/hourserules.

I also posted in the RQ6 Board, with a link pointing here. It seemed like a good idea due to the overlapping relevance.

Let me know what you think.

Edited August 13, 2012 by Darkholme

[p_clapham]

Have you checked out the Lankhmar RPG, it uses Sorcery as the base magic system and has some neat rules for corruption.

From a Legend perspective I'm not sold on the Cultural backgrounds, or the Borderer. Both of those can be done easily under the existing rules.

Edited September 10, 2012 by CthulhuFnord

[Darkholme]

You could use the existing cultural backgrounds, though if I were to run a Conan game (which is why I've been working on this bit by bit) I would want individual cultures, not something as broad and generic as "Barbarian" "Civilized" "Mariner" "Nomad" "Primitive".

As for the Borderer, it You COULD take explorer, hunter, soldier, or tracker and say you're a borderer, but a borderer is a blend of all of them so I thought it merited a separate listing. I don't see any reason why someone who is a borderer by profession couldn't be focused enough to just take one of the above, but having the blend option is something I think is worthwhile.

But for the "rules lite" crowds and the "RAW" crowds, I can see preferring to just use the generic cultures in the book. Personally I would prefer cultures tailored to the setting if possible, and don't mind having more crunch. I'd ideally like to have cultural combat styles worked out as well.

I haven't checked out the Lankhmar RPG. I'll check it out and see if I like it. I looked at Conan d20, and while I liked it more than stock D&D 3.5, I still prefer RQ/Legend for sword and sorcery style gaming.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Darkholme

[p_clapham]

I've used modified D&D rules in the past for Sword and Sorcery games, but they don't have the same feel Rune Quest has. The game is gritter and more geared towards the low fantasy style of play needed for Sword and Sorcery. I highly recommend Lankhmar it's my favorite setting following Robert E. Howard's setting.

I went and dug up the Black Magic rules for you, here is a brief synopsis.

It functions almost identically to Sorcery found in the Mongoose Runequest rule set. Each spell counts as an advanced Skill. Then there are the four Manipulate skills: Magnitude, Range, Duration and Target. The additional rules are Sympathy, Agony, and Hatred. The better a Sorcerer knows his victim, or has a personal effect or body part, the easier it is for them to cast a spell on them. A Sorcery is also able to burn off hit points giving them a +5% to their Spellcasting and Manipulation rolls. Finally the more a Sorcerer hates his target the easier it is to inflict harm upon them with Black Magic.

Corruption works like detrimental mutations from Runequest. The energies warp the Sorcerer's body, mind and soul. A test to see if a Sorcerer gains corruption is made whenever they learn a new black magic spell, casts a black magic spell, kills someone with a black magic spell (two corruption tests are made in that case). It's a 50/ 50 chance that the Sorcerer will gain a corruption feature, with the following modifiers. Every 5% used of Agony in spell casting is added to the chance they will gain a corruption feature. If they use Hatred they suffer a 5% penalty per level of spell Magnitude to the test.

Looking through the Conan book I'd recommend Agony be used to represent Ritual Sacrifice/ Torture to gain arcane power.

[Darkholme]

Interesting.

Definitely going to check out this book.

My favorite set of rules for magic are the one in Cinematic Unisystem. They're very different from the others I've seen. You make spellcasting rolls instead of having points or spell slots. Casting too many spells causes fatigue. If I were to adapt it to D&D, I'd probably use the existing fatigue and exhaustion rules.

Not sure how I would put it in RQ if I were to try. But RQ Lankhmar may be a better fit for running Conan.

Out of curiosity, Why do you prefer the simplified cultures to setting-tailored ones?

[p_clapham]

Funny you mention that, but Cinematic Unisystem is my favorite set of rules for magic too. Right now I'm working on a modified version of Barbarians of Lemuria using a variant of the Cinematic Unisystem. Another game that comes close, and is another of my Sword and Sorcery favorites is Desolation. It has a free form magic system similar to the Unisystem.

In regards to your question... I just feel the simplified cultures cover the range well. Cimmerians are obviously Barbarians, Picts Primitives, and Stygians Civilized (debatable).