Idea: Rune Fragments

[pachristian]

What if when a character adventured, they could pick up fragments of a rune? Each fragment - or focus - or aspect - or whatever you want to call it - would grant the character certain abilities associated with that rune, and probably certain side effects. The first fragment could be 'found' as part of a quest, but the further along the character went, the more specific their quest would have to be to have the next fragment. As the character gathered more fragments, their runic abilities would grow stronger, supplementing their magic and their other abilities. Assembling a "whole" Rune would mark the point where the character could be considered a hero.

 

Simplistic here, but maybe a starting point? Who can add to this?

[lawrence.whitaker]

Something similar was tried in Mongoose's first edition of RuneQuest. Runes could be found and attuned, with powers resulting and access to magic associated with that rune becoming available.

It wasn't popular for many reasons, not least the fact that this was never how runes were intended to work in Glorantha. 

[pachristian]

I'm currently playing in a game using Mongoose 2nd edition RQ. Finding, and binding to a rune is part of the game, and you guys did a great job of making a link to a rune something fun and interesting to do. I like the positive effect having a rune gave, and the side effect.

I'm wondering if that could be expanded upon. My impression was that Runes were something for the "on beyond 100" setting - once my character has 100%+ in his key skills, what can he do to improve?

The catch was that once you "acquired" the rune and got the one benefit, there was nothing to build on. All you could do was find an additional rune.

So, what if instead of a single ability, the rune was associated with several abilities, and you had to pick each one separately? Then each iteration of the rune would grant additional abilities and make the existing abilities more powerful. Actually, I think in RQ that's Devotion and Exhort... But I think something similar could be done.

Maybe I'm just babbling.

[lawrence.whitaker]

The Rune Affinities in MRQII are very different to the idea you've proposed, which is very close to how MRQ1 worked. I think as a house rule, if it fits your setting, then go for it. As a formal rule, it's unlikely to be adopted, and I think that the way the Chaosium team are developing Runes as both Passions and Personality Traits is a far better and more creative way of integrating the runes into the fabric of the character. I'd actually suggest you wait a little and see if Jeff's Design Notes for the next edition of RQ give a more detailed idea of how Runes and characters tie together.

[pachristian]

Very odd, as I was starting from the rune affinities in MRQ2, and looking for ways to expand them!

[RosenMcStern]

The big problem was not that the rune system in MRQ1 didn't work, it was that it was completely separated from the meaning and usage of Runes in Glorantha, and most players wanted to play that ruleset in Glorantha (I took part in two different pbp games and both were set there). For other settings it worked fine. For instance, for Stupor Mundi I used runes as shards of lost powers from pagan gods - forbidden for christians and muslims, but in fact very powerful for adventurers - and it worked perfectly. 

So in a few words: it can work perfectly, but we strongly discourage you from using it for Glorantha. If you intend to play in "the big G", the best possible approach is the one presented in the designer's notes. Or something very similar.

[lawrence.whitaker]

1 hour ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

The Rune Affinities in MRQII are very different to the idea you've proposed, which is very close to how MRQ1 worked. I think as a house rule, if it fits your setting, then go for it. As a formal rule, it's unlikely to be adopted, and I think that the way the Chaosium team are developing Runes as both Passions and Personality Traits is a far better and more creative way of integrating the runes into the fabric of the character. I'd actually suggest you wait a little and see if Jeff's Design Notes for the next edition of RQ give a more detailed idea of how Runes and characters tie together.

Ah, okay. That wasn't clear from your initial post, and actually you were suggesting something that drifts (perilously) close to the MRQ1 rune system. As Rosen McStern says, there's nothing wrong with such an approach as a house rule for your own setting or campaign, but there are definitely more creative ways of approaching the use of runes.

[g33k]

Hm.  Loz seems to be... talking to himself.

And disagreeing with himself.

[lawrence.whitaker]

48 minutes ago, g33k said:

Hm.  Loz seems to be... talking to himself.

And disagreeing with himself.

It must be all the runes. Weird. I definitely thought I was quoting Rosen's text. Must be the Chaos rune.

Edited February 15, 2016 by lawrence.whitaker

[Baulderstone]

54 minutes ago, g33k said:

Hm.  Loz seems to be... talking to himself.

And disagreeing with himself.

He contains multitudes. It's what gives his roleplaying creations such depth. 

[lawrence.whitaker]

Quote

He contains multitudes. It's what gives his roleplaying creations such depth. 

Can I quote this in press releases?

[Baulderstone]

1 hour ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

Can I quote this in press releases?

Sure. You can even put it on the cover of the new edition of TDMRPG if you like. 

[Pentallion]

3 hours ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

It must be all the runes. Weird. I definitely thought I was quoting Rosen's text. Must be the Chaos rune.

The Chaos rune would have deleted your message.  The Disorder rune is definitely at work here.

[RosenMcStern]

You are all wrong, it is this one: the Miscommunication Rune. An evil God Learner conspiration had it removed from the official list, but it is real, and working. Particularly on the Internet, in RPG forums.

Edited February 15, 2016 by RosenMcStern

[tzunder]

I liked the Rune system in MRQ1, which may even have been based on a misunderstanding of a chat someone had with Steve Perrin, but they are not really Gloranthan.

It'd work very well for a classic Japanese 8bit FRPG game set in a shattered post-mago-apocalypse game where collecting the 'bits' to make the whole would fit the genre well.

 

 

[soltakss]

We use a fast and loose version of the Runes from MRQ, which works well in our campaign.

PCs can acquire and attune a rune, giving a Rune Skill, extra copies of the rune can be attuned giving a RunePower value, spells are stored against the rune. The Rune skill gives you the chance of casting a spell stored against that Rune. RunePower can be used to bolster the effects of the spell.

The Master of (Rune) Heroic Ability allows the PC to directly manipulate the Rune, with a higher RunePower allowing more to be done with the Rune. So, someone with Master of Water could call a wave or drain a lake, a Master of Fire could set something alight, dismiss a Salamander or hold a burning rod without getting burnt and a Master of Harmony could calm a berserker, bring peace to two warring factions or cause zombies to sit down and contemplate the universe,

It works pretty well in our campaign and allows the PCs to do more heroic stuff than they would normally be able to do.

 

 

[pachristian]

Thank you sotakss: that's the kind of ideas I was hoping to spark discussion on.

 

Do you use game mechanics of these rules, or do you work via narrative and story-appropriateness of the powers?

[soltakss]

16 hours ago, pachristian said:

Do you use game mechanics of these rules, or do you work via narrative and story-appropriateness of the powers?

 

Games Mechanics to a certain extent, so the PCs have to roll beneath their Rune skill in order to do something.

The Runepower (Number of Runes) held has an effect on what the PC can do, but it is very fast and loose - they can affect things on/near themselves fairly easily, can affect larger things depending on how large their Runeower is. We also have Cult Presence, which is effectively generic Divine Magic, so they sacrifice POW to the deity that can be used to fuel the Divine Magic they possess (Orlanth Presence 6 and Teleport can be used to cast Teleport twice using Presence and then the spell can be cast as normal) and I play that Cult Presence can be used to boost Runepower for the cult's runes. So, Orlanth Presence could add to Storm, Movement and Mastery.

Opposed rolls are easy - two Masters of a particular rune both roll under their Runeskill and a critical beats a special beats a normal beats a failure beats a fumble, The victor gets the desired effect, a tie means the effect was watered down or countered.

 

They enjoy opening pits beneath people, blasting flyers out of the air with jets of water, floating boats across dry land, using a puddle of water they keep moving beneath the boat, using Air to deflect missiles and so on. The Master of Storm / Master of Death pumped all his Death/Storm Runes and Storm Bull/Humakt Presence into a ginormous lightning bolt that killed a group of Lunar Enchanters quite memorably.

 

 

 

[Mugen]

The problem with MRQ1 Runic magic system was the disparity in spells per rune, with metal having more than half a dozen, and others such as plant or heat having only 1...

Edited February 16, 2016 by Mugen

[soltakss]

The players in our game allocate spells to whichever rune suits them.

So, Heal might go against Earth or Life/Fertility, Fireblade usually goes against Fire/Sky, Bladesharp could go against Death or Air/Storm or Fire/Sky, depending on where the spell comes from.

I don't really mind, as long as the player makes a good case.