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Good One-Shot For Introduction to RQ?


CitizenK2

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My formula would be read how Theylans are portrayed in the G2G (and HQ Red Cow book - look at Google images of Mycenaeans & Thracians for inspiration), and adapt that to Apple Lane, playing Gringles Pawnshop and Rainbow Mounds.

Then either adapt the upcoming HQ Red Cow campaign to RQ if you want to play in Sartar, or find a reason to shift the setting to Pavis & Prax, as from there you can play scenarios from the Pavis, Big Rubble, and Borderlands books for mileage.

Edited by Mankcam

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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I ended up running Rainbow Mounds. I created five PCs (4 humans and a duck), using the previous experience rules. I set four of them up as ex-mercenaries and one as thief apprentice. My hook into the adventure was that three of the humans came from Apple Lane, and upon returning to the hamlet, they discovered that their families had been victimized by Whiteye. Worked like a charm.

They fought the Rock Lizards, fled from the ghosts, and navigated the lake to the room of three spikes, where they fought the 1 (!) Troll-kin guard and then defeated Whiteye and the cave troll. One of the PCs was a heavy infantry merc, so his plate armour was tough enough to stand up to most of the blows from the cave troll. They managed to hit Whiteye with a Demoralize spell on turn one that made his attacks all but worthless. It did take them awhile to get through that troll hide though! At that point there was only 20 minutes left in the meeting and we ended the session. Everyone enjoyed the one-shot though, and the system was well-received!

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6 hours ago, GianniVacca said:

That is a very handy reference. :-)

Two questions:

1) Can a character benefit from full credit from the Fighters Guild, the Thieves Guild, and a Cult? The rulebook talks about magical "credit checks" they can perform, but I wasn't sure if that was just intended to prevent a fighter from fleecing the Fighters Guild in every new city they visit, or if it meant a combined credit limit across organizations. Frankly, the former makes more sense to me.

2) Do GMs typically use Previous Experience as an alternative to the Guild credit, or in addition to it? For simplicity's sake I used the Previous Experience and ignored guild credit.

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1 hour ago, CitizenK2 said:

1) Can a character benefit from full credit from the Fighters Guild, the Thieves Guild, and a Cult? The rulebook talks about magical "credit checks" they can perform, but I wasn't sure if that was just intended to prevent a fighter from fleecing the Fighters Guild in every new city they visit, or if it meant a combined credit limit across organizations. Frankly, the former makes more sense to me.

2) Do GMs typically use Previous Experience as an alternative to the Guild credit, or in addition to it? For simplicity's sake I used the Previous Experience and ignored guild credit.

For campaign-oriented play, Guilds (and even moreso, Cults ... noting that many "Guilds" are thinly-veiled fronts for the Cults!) are VERY useful ways to tie the PC into the setting, give them motivation, bake-in rivalries and enmities, etc...  ( For a 1-shot, it can be a simple on-sheet notation as to allies and rivals (that are relevant to the (presumably tightly-plotted) 1-shot)).  In a campaign, they give the GM ready sources of mentors, sources of intel/gossip, a "safety net" (the PC often leaves cash on-deposit with a Guild as ransom, and has a very-good chance or surviving capture thereby; and if the PC hits a lean stretch, the Guild can often provide meals & a flop cheaper than anywhere else), and much more.

I permit the PC to apply to multiple guilds/etc -- it's GREAT, it yields even MORE ties into the setting!  Especially when the Storm Bull cult (where you're leaning Great Sword skills) notices you're ALSO visiting that bunch of Deleskaring mercenaries to learn archery... and it turns out the Storm Khan and the priestess leading the Deleskarings used to be lovers up until a few months ago... and it was a REALLY acrimonious break-up... (etc etc etc) ...

And that kinda-shady alchemist who taught you the knock-out drug to coat your sword & arrows (the guy you think may be part of some shadowy underworld, you're not exactly sure of his affiliations):  you have begun to suspect that BOTH the Deleskarings AND the Storm Bulls might be pissed-off at THAT connection...

And then comes the time when the PCs are back from a successful venture... "a round for the WHOLE bar, inkeep, all 27 of 'em, and the best room in the inn for me and my party!!!"  Next morning, ALL of your creditors want to be paid back... and the truth is, you don't have as much ready cash as THAT would take!  So:  who do you prioritize?  Who do you short?  Who do you put off entirely?

... etc ...

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27 minutes ago, Aprewett said:

Did I kill the thread?

Dunno about any others... I personally did a quick&dirty search for online "starting" example PC's and didn't find any quickly/easily.  I was out of time, and meant to come back to the thread, but hadn't (yet) done so.

FWIW, there is a bit of ambiguity to "what is a starting PC" -- specifically, do you load them up to the maximum will Cult/Guild credit for paid training?

 

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On 3/15/2017 at 2:43 AM, Aprewett said:

Hi, I am in a similar situation, long time gamer new to Glorantha/Runequest.

Are there some examples of basic starting characters from RQ2 floating around.

I got Borderlands, but I am fairly sure the pre-gens are more experienced.

Fangs or Foes have very basic pregens, but they are more aimed at NPC enemies than PCs.

Character generation in RQ is so quick and easy, especially for basic PCs with no prior experience, that pregens are almost never required.

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3 hours ago, soltakss said:

Character generation in RQ is so quick and easy, especially for basic PCs with no prior experience, that pregens are almost never required.

... but by modern-gamer standards, the RQ2/RQClassic rulebooks are a bit of a hot mess in terms of organization & layout.  Examples of how it "ought" to look can be useful, as a reference to be sure you haven't missed anything substantial.

And lots of folks these days try a new game by running "example" PC's out of the rulebook for their first adventure; because even in the simplest systems, learning chargen can take much longer than doing chargen...

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On 3/14/2017 at 10:43 PM, Aprewett said:

Are there some examples of basic starting characters from RQ2 floating around

I don't recall any pre-gens for players for RQ2.  There were a few in various RQ3 modules, particularly Sun County and, I think, Dorastor, but I don't believe those are available.

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11 hours ago, jajagappa said:

I don't recall any pre-gens for players for RQ2.  There were a few in various RQ3 modules, particularly Sun County and, I think, Dorastor, but I don't believe those are available.

RQ3 River of Cradles had a full set of pre-gens for the Troubled Waters campaign.

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3 hours ago, Iskallor said:

Page 63

The weapon master

The veteran

The Barbarian

The remittance man

The mercenaries

Two Barbarians.

Yeah, but it isn't clear WHICH (if any) are 100% by-the-book "starting" (no AppendixH "previous experience" rules) characters; some clearly are not ...

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13 hours ago, Jeff said:

Very soon there will be a self-contained one-shot introductory adventure for the new RuneQuest rules. You just need to hold out until Free RPG Day and then get a copy free.

This...

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On 3/23/2017 at 8:02 AM, Jeff said:

Very soon there will be a self-contained one-shot introductory adventure for the new RuneQuest rules. You just need to hold out until Free RPG Day and then get a copy free.

Yes, and virtually all of us are looking forward to it VERY highly!   :D

But I don't think this answers the query:  Aprewett specifically requested exemplar PCs right now... presumably for general use so people can build their own characters, from their own concepts (for which RAW-legal PCs for reference are a desirable thing).  This would be for the edition currently in-print...

 

Edited by g33k

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  • 2 years later...
On 2/16/2017 at 3:34 AM, Yelm's Light said:

I always loved the bar fight in Apple Lane...reminds me of my favorite brawling game of all time, Swashbuckler.  Alas, it's also lost in time...Swashbuckler, not Apple Lane.

The group I played with in the early '80s loved that game.  We usually did a free-for-all, with a chest of gold upstairs, and the two that got out with it won.

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