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Trollpak =v= Trollpack ?


g33k

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So I recall a prior thread touched upon the HQ "Trollpack" product (under development) ... 

I wondered how much (if any) it would supersede / overrule / contradict / invalidate the old RQ2 (upcoming RQC) Trollpak product?

How much of it will be more-or-less-the-same, just ...  from a different perspective, a somewhat deeper dive into this facet, or a somewhat broader gloss upon those ones, etc?

How much will be assembling existing fragments from old/obscure/unavailable sources, fleshing them out, editing into a consistent whole, and polishing them to a modern standard?

How much will be new Uz revelations, un-touched by old info?

Last but not least ... is there any ETA, or a newer status (such as "ms. 1st draft in editorial review" or what-have-you) available?

 

Obviously, I'm not asking for exact word-counts, or %-content (specially since it's a HQ book, not a %ile-system!), nor violation of NDA!  I'm just hoping for some additional info ... 

Thanks for anything available!

Edited by g33k
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You may have seen this already, but here's the short summary that the author of the work-in-progress new three-volume Trollpack, Dan McCluskey (@boztakang), posted a while back:

Quote

Vol1 is troll info and adventures for humans.


Vol2 is everything you need to run troll PCs in a trollish setting with a campaign based around trollish clan life. 


Then Vol3 covers Dagori Inkarth with a full description of Redstone, and takes the campaign literally from "tussle over a cave" into creative heroquesting, pc Heroes stomping around like a chit in the DP wargame, and climaxes with one of the defining magical events of the HeroWars

 

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The entire work is profoundly inspired by the original Trollpak, obviously, and nearly all of the original material will appear in to the new version. 

Book 1 has by far the majority of the previously-existing material. Even so, more than half of book 1 is brand new, containing detailed advice and hooks for using Uz in your regular campaigns, two well-detailed troll Clans, and six all-new adventures (with a couple nods to old favorites) suitable for a typical adventuring party (heheh - "typical" adventurers).

Book 2 then deep dives into Uz culture, religion, and everything you need to know to play troll Uz characters from the Uz point of view. Big Clan and Char creation sections, with detailed Job descriptions, and cult write-ups for the Seven Sacred Ancestors, and other important troll gods and ancestors. It has a series of adventures for a party of young trolls, set in the Great Caves region, focussing on clan life and Uz culture.

Book 3 gives a broader description of Dagori Inkarth, with encounters and a massively expanded description of the Redstone Caverns, detailing the seven major clans, Cult writeups that didn't fit in book 2, and even several of the Uzuz residents of the deepest caves. It then takes the campaign from Book 2 in several unexpected new directions, culminating in one of the definitive events of the Hero Wars.

Work continues, with a few exciting developments that I am not certain are meant to be public just yet.

 

 

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1 hour ago, tedopon said:

Trollpak is my favorite supplement published ever for any rpg. 

The HQ book is fine, but the RQ one is genius.

We'll see, eh?  Most of the RQ/Trollpak content, plus quite a bit more.  The HQ books honestly sound pretty good, to me...  Standing on the shoulders of giants?  All the original genius, plus solidly-crafted new material?

It's like, you get to be faithful to your True Love, *AND* have an exciting new relationship but it's somehow not "cheating".  :D

We'll just have to wait and see...

I just wish it would come out dual-stat'ed for RQG as well as HQ; it seems likely to be *THE* definitive Uz resource, and I hate to see RQ & RQ-players "locked out" ...

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If there's stats for all the Troll breeds in the RQG Creatures book, then I don't mind whether I have a RQ Troll Book or a HQ Troll Book., as HQ stats are not usually a prominent feature. Personally I prefer RQ for Glorantha, but conversion from HQ to RQ is pretty easy in my opinion.

The content for this upcoming HQ Troll book sounds excellent if it has all the previous Trollpak content plus more. I remember I was very impressed by the HQ Pavis book which followed a similar approach.

To digress slightly, it makes me wonder if the printed books for Glorantha should even come out with game stats; perhaps just print pure narrative content.

That way collectors who just want the lore will be happy, and rpgers can always interpret the content into whichever game system they prefer. I know of people who would love to play Glorantha with HARP Fantasy, and there will be those who prefer FATE Core. No reason for them not to come to the party.

The formal game stats material could also be released as separate booklets or pdfs, a version for each of the official Gloranthan rpgs (RQG, HQG, 13G). I don't mind having pdf game stats, that way I just print what I want.

Makes more sense to me

Edited by Mankcam
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" 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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59 minutes ago, Mankcam said:

To digress slightly, it makes me wonder if the printed books for Glorantha should even come out with game stats; perhaps just print pure narrative content.

Maybe a Core Book Supplement with separate booklets for HQ/RQG/13thAge Glorantha to cover the needs of the system. Forex: RQG will need stats for characters and spells etc. for cults.

This could be done either as a Free PFD (especially I the content is small) or something to buy.

RQ3 had some supplements with pull-out stats.

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In general, I have been VERY much in favor of most Glorantha books (going forward) being mechanic-neutral (either free of mechanics, or dual/triple stat'ed for RQ+HQ/13G) .  Because really:  as a RQ player, I don't particularly want to exclude the 13G/HQ players from Glorantha, if I get a glorious RQG product for MY game-system; neither do *I* wish to be excluded from wonderful works which are heavily stat'ed for HQ or for 13G.

7 hours ago, Mankcam said:

... To digress slightly, it makes me wonder if the printed books for Glorantha should even come out with game stats; perhaps just print pure narrative content.

That way collectors who just want the lore will be happy, and rpgers can always interpret the content into whichever game system they prefer. I know of people who would love to play Glorantha with HARP Fantasy, and there will be those who prefer FATE Core. No reason for them not to come to the party.

The formal game stats material could also be released as separate booklets or pdfs, a version for each of the official Gloranthan rpgs (RQG, HQG, 13G). I don't mind having pdf game stats, that way I just print what I want.

Makes more sense to me

Well, but ...

On 6/13/2017 at 8:01 AM, boztakang said:

Book 1 has

  • two well-detailed troll Clans
  • and six all-new adventures

Book 2

  • Big Clan and Char creation sections
  • cult write-ups for the Seven Sacred Ancestors, and other important troll gods and ancestors
  • It has a series of adventures for a party of young trolls

Book 3

  • encounters ... description ... detailing the seven major clans
  • Cult writeups that didn't fit in book 2
  • several of the Uzuz residents of the deepest caves
  • takes the campaign from Book 2 in several unexpected new directions, culminating in one of the definitive events of the Hero Wars.

That's actually quite a LOT of mechanic-specific content; too much, IMHO, to be cost-effective as "free" product.  And for me, the big draw of pre-gen adventures is the minimal prep needed; if I must comb through and convert, I lose a LOT of that value!

This brings me to the point of wondering if I have been right in thinking the crunch-free books are as viable as I have thought...  Sure, cultural & cultic "fluff" need no game-stats, but as soon as you want to name a play'able NPC, cult-specialty spells, etc... crunch is required.

 

I almost wonder about releasing dual-volume books... HQ:Trollpack + RQG:Trollpack.  Keep the fluff the same, and just re-write the crunch for each system...  This strikes me as a mistake... but maybe I'm wrong!  I presume it's too late in the dev-cycle to do this for Trollpack, actually; maybe when they release Duckpack?

 

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I think in terms of viability, the add-on game stat books would need to have a purchase price. Obviously RQ may be a bit more in cost than HQ if there are more stats etc. I think that would be fair and the only way to have a business model out of it

Edited by Mankcam
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" 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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On 13/06/2017 at 5:09 PM, tedopon said:

Trollpak is my favorite supplement published ever for any rpg. 

The HQ book is fine, but the RQ one is genius.

What HQ book? There isn't one yet, so how can you judge? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you though.

The upcoming book sounds fab.

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1 hour ago, Steve said:

What HQ book? There isn't one yet, so how can you judge? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you though.

The upcoming book sounds fab.

I remember there was a licensed Uz book for Heroquest by another company (now out of print and basically forgotten). I don't remember the name of the book or the company ("Unspoken Words" maybe?) though.

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3 hours ago, Steve said:

What HQ book? There isn't one yet, so how can you judge? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you though.

The upcoming book sounds fab.

I was referring to the two previously published ones. I guess I misinterpreted the original intent of the thread as wanting to know about currently available material vs upcoming stuff.

I get excited about trolls. I run an almost all troll campaign in my home game currently. 

Can't remember the name of the previous HQ title, but it's basically a rehash of material from the original Trollpak.

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Ah yes, the "Uz: Trolls of Glorantha" Unspoken Word/Issaries troll sourcebook from 2001. That was for Hero Wars rather than HQ though. I've never seen it so I don't know what's in that. The upcoming HQG book that's being discussed in this thread sounds massively more appealing though, and a completely different kettle of fish.

 

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9 hours ago, Steve said:

Ah yes, the "Uz: Trolls of Glorantha" Unspoken Word/Issaries troll sourcebook from 2001. That was for Hero Wars rather than HQ though. I've never seen it so I don't know what's in that.

While I have it, I really haven't used it as it went in some decidedly non-canonical directions.

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Creature stats are easy. I'd expect full stats in the RQG rules, and HQG stats can be improvised (though I wish Chaosium would go more with the stat format in the HQ2 rules book, which makes explicit what HQG sometimes I think assumes players will fill in from background knowledge that not all players have). 

But the real issue is long form cult writeups (where cult includes animist and sorcerers traditions, obviously). Well over half the information in them is not game specific and should be the same between game systems. Repeating all that content for each of the two game systems is unlikely to be a popular move with those who end up buying both. Personally, I'd prefer just putting both versions in one book, for books that are mostly game system independent. Make e.g. the troll books include a couple of pages of RQG notes and unique spells with each long form cult write up. 

I am *very* much looking forward to especially the second and third books, I hope this doesn't end up like the Red Cow books with a much longer than intended gap between publications. For those of us who already own the Guide, and all the RQ2 and RQ3 troll books, the first book will not contain too many surprises, though I'm sure some great campaign material. 

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