RuneQuest Quickstart - The Broken Tower

[MOB]

This private forum is for GMs running The Broken Tower, the scenario contained in the RuneQuest Quickstart Rules which will be released on Free RPG Day (June 17).

Here's where you can ask questions, share ideas, and generally support one another. Jeff, Jason, Rick, MOB and Todd from the Chaosium team will be checking in regularly.

With this being a private area, we can discuss spoilers and secrets without any players sneaking a peek.

Welcome!

Edited June 10, 2017 by MOB

[g33k]

Hi!

Thanks for setting up this forum!  

Mi-Go, huh?  How 'bout a Gloranthan nasty... Gorp?  Broo?  Thanatari?  OTOH, I'm guessing Chaosium wants a relatively-unified OP program, so a single password is maybe the best solution...  

===

There's a couple of threads about the content already.  Nothing too spoilerific, but some corrections/suggestions.

Could those perhaps get collected here, where GM's can all share the insights?

[Jonas]

To clarify: by "forum" you mean just this thread? Because I'm not seeing any others.

So any and all comments should just be replies right here?

[styopa]

Mike,

The qs mentions supplemental characters for download...Iirc it was a shaman and assistant priest?  Do you know when those will be available?

Clarification: p8 movement, max move 8m in combat, 24 out of combat.  I would presume that this is based on their being in melee at the start of combat?  (Is firing a missile weapon considered in combat?)   However, p13 says people can move half and still melee/spell cast, but also says engaged toons basically don't get to move at all?  Not sure how to reconcile all these?  Could we get an example?

No weapon table in rules at all?

Parry p14:  success parry vs failed attack means attacking weapon takes FULL damage?  On average, that means a broadsword (12ap) will break after two failed attacks (avg dmg of d8+1+d4) vs successful parry? Really?

Damage p17 talks about 3x damage resulting in sever or maim (why "irrevocably" when it isn't?), without distinguishing the difference or when it's one or the other...which is critical because one can be healed only with the 6pt heal

P18 refers to healing rate, not mentioned elsewhere, not shown in example character sheets?

P18 focus: if I pick up Jimmy's focus for heal 2, can I use it to cast it if I didn't have the spell? If I did?  If not, why would anyone put a focus in something they could drop?  Do I have to see the focus or touch it? (Ie could it be a tattoo on my back ?)  Could it be a tattoo inside my mouth out of sight?

Regaining magic points is oddly phrased & awkward...Do they come back as a lump every quarter day? At fixed times?  Or in 6 hour quanta after spending? Why not just say they come back proportionally to pow every 24 hours? (Iirc that was rq3?), does the meditation bonus come if they've meditated anytime in that 6 hours span, or could they meditate 6 times in 6 hours and get a bonus for each hour?

P19 farsee description is bizarrely worded

Visibility- aren't spirits normally affected only by shield already? Do you mean makes it subject to physical attacks?

"Other than spirit combat..." sentence confusing and needs rewriting

Can you be in spirit combat and melee simultaneously?  Can you attack in both in a round?

That's it so far, gotta board a plane.

 

 

 

 

[Jonas]

Well, if we're talking about rules here...

The thing that immediately jumps out at me is the chart on page 3. I see you've gone with ".5 or more rounds up" instead of the old "any fraction rounds up".

While this might satisfy mathematical purists, I feel it's a huge mistake in terms of playability.  With the old formula you just have to memorize a few rules of thumb (each unit of 20 or part thereof gives 1% crit chance, each unit of 5 or part thereof gives 1% special chance), but now you have to do either a calculation or chart lookup every time. It also gives a progression that's unaesthetic (for lack of a better word).

[Tiger Jet Hedges]

I am running Runequest for free rpg day here in Tucson at Isle of Games my Local FLAG store, I just got my copy!

I am excited Glorantha has finely come back in Print ya!

I am very Happy to be able to return to the games of my child hood!

[theWoozle]

ditto the downloadable resources Q. I have a physical copy but the PDF will make charactersheets easier. 

[rkhigdon]

Has the PDF been sent yet, or are people just looking at newly arrived print copies for Free RPG Day?  

[g33k]

(At least some of) the PDFs have been sent.

Check your mbox; check your spam-filter, which may have mis-filtered it.

Could you have registered with a different e-mail?

[styopa]

6 hours ago, styopa said:

Visibility- aren't spirits normally affected only by MAGIC already? Do you mean makes it subject to physical attacks?

 

Fixed my autocorrect.  Sorry!

[Sean_RDP]

2 hours ago, rkhigdon said:

Has the PDF been sent yet, or are people just looking at newly arrived print copies for Free RPG Day?  

Mine ended up in my Gmail Promotions filter? Which happens from time to time... )gets coffee and begins to read)

[theWoozle]

The character sheets have runes at the bottom with no explanation. Are these just decoration?

[MOB]

9 hours ago, Jonas said:

To clarify: by "forum" you mean just this thread? Because I'm not seeing any others.

So any and all comments should just be replies right here?

Yes. Because the Cult of Chaos is the OP program for all Chaosium games, we'll soon be creating a top-level Cult of Chaos forum, which will have Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest and other Chaosium games as subforums inside it. But for now, this just resides where it does.

[MOB]

9 hours ago, styopa said:

The qs mentions supplemental characters for download...Iirc it was a shaman and assistant priest?  Do you know when those will be available?

The supplemental shaman character will be released when the RuneQuest Quickstart goes on out public released on July 1st.

[Sean_RDP]

So question on pages 31-32 the Rock Lizard encounter. It states make an INT check to determine if the characters know they are Rock Lizards. Fair enough, but why does not one of these farmers/herders have Animal Lore?  

The adventure looks enjoyable, this will work with some of the crowds I will be running through this. 

[Jeff]

Because none of them have spent much time learning about animals other than their own livestock. Herding or Farming more than covers the care of cattle, sheep, pigs, and the like. It doesn't really tell you much about strange wild fauna like Rock Lizards!

[Jeff]

13 hours ago, Jonas said:

Well, if we're talking about rules here...

The thing that immediately jumps out at me is the chart on page 3. I see you've gone with ".5 or more rounds up" instead of the old "any fraction rounds up".

While this might satisfy mathematical purists, I feel it's a huge mistake in terms of playability.  With the old formula you just have to memorize a few rules of thumb (each unit of 20 or part thereof gives 1% crit chance, each unit of 5 or part thereof gives 1% special chance), but now you have to do either a calculation or chart lookup every time. It also gives a progression that's unaesthetic (for lack of a better word).

In my experience rounding 0.5 or more up is not substantively more difficult than rounding any fraction up. In fact, I for one find rounding any fraction up harder because it requires "unlearning" my gut instinct. 

[Jonas]

42 minutes ago, Jeff said:

In my experience rounding 0.5 or more up is not substantively more difficult than rounding any fraction up. In fact, I for one find rounding any fraction up harder because it requires "unlearning" my gut instinct. 

But my point is that if you've learned the old pattern, there is no need for rounding, you don't need to do any calculations.

With the new rule, there is no simple pattern to learn, so you have to do the calculation, at least every time a modifier changes your skill before a roll. It eats up more time and mental energy.

I dunno, maybe for new players who don't have the old chart ingrained in them, it won't be that big of a difference. But I know I'm going to be houseruling this...

Edited June 10, 2017 by Jonas

[theWoozle]

The Strike Rank rules are leaving me with more questions than answers.

With initiative being a function of how many things the player wants to do in a round, do they have to go around the table and detail all of their actions to determine their Strike Rank and THEN take their actions in the SR order (low to high)? 

what is the actual function of the DEX / SIZ Strike Ranks? Is it a limit of some kind, or the Base Strike Rank? The example on page 7 gives the character a  Dex 11 (SR3) and suggests he could move, cast a spell, and ready his bow for 11 SR but what does the Dex-based SR of 3 actually DO as it seems to have no relationship to the example?

Some of the NPCs have a Base Strike Rank and some don't. Does it default to 1? 

[Jonas]

17 minutes ago, theWoozle said:

The Strike Rank rules are leaving me with more questions than answers.

With initiative being a function of how many things the player wants to do in a round, do they have to go around the table and detail all of their actions to determine their Strike Rank and THEN take their actions in the SR order (low to high)? 

what is the actual function of the DEX / SIZ Strike Ranks? Is it a limit of some kind, or the Base Strike Rank? The example on page 7 gives the character a  Dex 11 (SR3) and suggests he could move, cast a spell, and ready his bow for 11 SR but what does the Dex-based SR of 3 actually DO as it seems to have no relationship to the example?

Some of the NPCs have a Base Strike Rank and some don't. Does it default to 1? 

I can answer some of this, presuming it works the same as in RQ2.

Statement of intent has always been a headache, and I hope they clarify that.

The base SR in melee is DEX SR + SIZ SR, while base SR for missiles and spells is just DEX SR. In the example, DEX SR is used in the casting of the Disruption spell: The rules earlier on the page spell it out: SR for a spirit magic spell is DEX SR plus 1 per MP used above 1. Disruption is a 1-point spell, so it's 3+0=3.

I think they just forgot Base SR for some NPCs, it's certainly not 1 but it won't matter 99% of the time.

[Zac]

16 hours ago, styopa said:

Parry p14:  success parry vs failed attack means attacking weapon takes FULL damage?  On average, that means a broadsword (12ap) will break after two failed attacks (avg dmg of d8+1+d4) vs successful parry? Really?

I had the same general issue. It seems as if weapons are going to break quickly unless you get good at parrying attacks.

[theWoozle]

7 minutes ago, Zac said:

Gotta love the bronze age. 

 

[Zac]

Quote

Gotta love the bronze age. 

There is that but even forged bronze weapons can take a fair bit of damage. I'm more concerned that players will look at those rules and judge tht blocking isn't worth the effort

[Jonas]

9 hours ago, theWoozle said:

The character sheets have runes at the bottom with no explanation. Are these just decoration?

No, they're the runes the character in question has the most connection to.

Though there's a mistake on Vastana's sheet: she should have Truth as well (or instead of Moon).

[Jonas]

Carthalo, p. 29: does he have 80% or 95% Spirit Combat? It's unclear to me what spells he could cast to summon a ghost (p. 30). or what skill or stat he would be rolling against.

Yanioth, p. 43: as a priestess, even an apprentice one, her number of Rune Points seems kind of low. She doesn't really excel at anything besides magic, either, so as written she's the least useful party member.