Community rules for the new Runequest

[CruelDespot]

Will the new Runequest have rules for resolving events at the community level (tribe, city, etc?) 

I'm a fan of Pendragon. Since Pendragon is influencing the new rules (passions, family history), I am hoping that Pendragon's manor rules might get mixed with King of Dragon Pass to yield some awesome rules for community-level drama and conflict. Mass combat! Intrigue over succession! Deciding wither to recruit more warriors, buy more cows, or build another shrine! 

[pachristian]

I'd rather see that as an additional book. "When in doubt, add simplicity" (Zen saying). One of RQ Classic's great strengths was that is had everything you needed to play, and nothing you did not need. 

[CruelDespot]

6 hours ago, pachristian said:

I'd rather see that as an additional book. "When in doubt, add simplicity" (Zen saying). One of RQ Classic's great strengths was that is had everything you needed to play, and nothing you did not need. 

I need community rules to play, since I want to have adventures that are driven by the character's roles in the community. 

I guess it depends on what one considers necessary for the game's goals. The recent designer notes regarding family histories give me hope that community focus will be a goal.

Heroquest Glorantha has a section in the core book for community rules. Pendragon appears to be a major influence and it has community-scale rules in the core book (mass combat, manor descriptions, etc).  Some players, like me, probably learned about Glorantha through King of Dragon Pass, which is about leading a community. 

Perhaps there might be some very basic community rules in the core book, and later a supplement that provides more detail, as was the case with Pendragon. 

[Joerg]

Given that the setting for the new RQ will be post-Great Winter, it involves a lot of shattered communiities, with the families/bloodlines possibly the best anchor in a world hit by a catastrophe and numerous invasions. The characters will be torn between rebuilding those communities and participation in the greater events of the Hero Wars.

[David Scott]

15 hours ago, Joerg said:

The characters will be torn between rebuilding those communities and participation in the greater events of the Hero Wars.

Characters will be torn between a game of epic adventure or a game of staying home and fixing stuff. Easy decision. Let the NPCs rebuild the communities. 

[styopa]

On 6/18/2016 at 5:57 PM, CruelDespot said:

Will the new Runequest have rules for resolving events at the community level (tribe, city, etc?) 

I'm a fan of Pendragon. Since Pendragon is influencing the new rules (passions, family history), I am hoping that Pendragon's manor rules might get mixed with King of Dragon Pass to yield some awesome rules for community-level drama and conflict. Mass combat! Intrigue over succession! Deciding wither to recruit more warriors, buy more cows, or build another shrine! 

 So in fact you simply want "Pendragon Glorantha"?

[CruelDespot]

2 hours ago, styopa said:

 So in fact you simply want "Pendragon Glorantha"?

Nope. I want the community rules from Heroquest Glorantha, but crunchier (as we expect Runequest to generally be crunchier than Heroquest), preferably with the crunch (resources, events, etc) similar to King of Dragon Pass.

Perhaps mass combat rules similar to those in Pendragon, but adjusted to reflect bronze-age warfare rather than knightly warfare.

 

5 hours ago, David Scott said:

Characters will be torn between a game of epic adventure or a game of staying home and fixing stuff. Easy decision. Let the NPCs rebuild the communities. 

Good community rules should provide sources of adventure, not an alternative to adventure. And mass combat rules should provide truly epic adventures. 

[David Scott]

14 hours ago, CruelDespot said:

And mass combat rules should provide truly epic adventures.

Not for me. I find any form of mass combat time consuming at the expense of roleplaying. Pendragon is perhaps the best of a bad bunch. 

[CruelDespot]

1 hour ago, David Scott said:

Not for me. I find any form of mass combat time consuming at the expense of roleplaying. Pendragon is perhaps the best of a bad bunch. 

So you like conflicts that are "epic" but that only involve small numbers of people. 

[styopa]

2 hours ago, CruelDespot said:

So you like conflicts that are "epic" but that only involve small numbers of people. 

Name a single epic story in which the lead character is actually the army?  

I'm with David, despite being a simulationist that loves wargames, in my RPGs mass combat is narratively driven, not mechanically so.  It provides a backdrop to character action. Their choices may influence it in unexpected ways, but generally it's plotted out as a series of events that I want to happen, "dumping" the PC's out at the end in a given situation.  Obviously, the trick is to keep them from knowing that with enough DM sleight-of-hand.

[g33k]

49 minutes ago, styopa said:

Name a single epic story in which the lead character is actually the army?  

Waterloo was pretty "epic".  Yeah, sure, there was that French guy, Napier or somesuch.  The English probably had someone in overall command... any idea who?  Wellesley?  Weatherby?  

Agincourt & Crecy maybe?  Or is that "lead character" the longbow?  

 

Edited June 21, 2016 by g33k
just wondering if I could troll any harder...

[David Scott]

3 hours ago, CruelDespot said:

So you like conflicts that are "epic" but that only involve small numbers of people. 

Basically yes. The battle system of pendragon does that by concentrating on the players and having the battle in the background. I tried to show how this would work in HeroQuest Glorantha when I wrote the Battle of Iceland battle example. Player focused with an epic battle going on behind. Narratively this is easier than tables and numbers, but that's what I like. 

[Joerg]

2 hours ago, styopa said:

Name a single epic story in which the lead character is actually the army? 

Xenophon's Anabasis?