Apple Lane stats conversion

[Mac]

I have not run an RQ game for 25 years, but am really pumped to try to build an RQ group in my rural neighbourhood.  Having followed the forums and FB Threads regarding scenarios for total newbies, I have decided the 3 scenarios in my tattered and torn Apple Lane edition are still the best way to introduce total system newbies ( not to mention reintegrating my wife and I).  So, before I waste hours and hours........has anyone out there converted Apple Lane stats yet?????.....Pretty please

[Richard S.]

You should be able to use most of it as is. If you want to make sure the NPCs are up to date, just download the free RQ2/RQ3 to RQG conversation document.

[Mac]

Thanks - are you referring to the conversion info at the end of th RQG  book or am I missing a specific resource?

[Richard S.]

6 minutes ago, Mac said:

Thanks - are you referring to the conversion info at the end of th RQG  book or am I missing a specific resource?

Yeah that should be it. There's a seperate PDF version of just that chapter available too but you can just use the stuff in the book.

[Furry Fella]

I too have looked at this and I'm not so sure it's that straight forward. The question is who / what gets to count as an initiate - cause that's where the (even limited) rune magic starts to fly. Should the Rock Lizard Mother have Rune Magic - probably. The RQG PCs will likely have more and better skills than RQ2 (even those with previous experience) though Spirit Magic will be well down. What dose reusable Rune Magic mean to Whiteye's defense and tactics? Warding, Sanctify, Multispell, Extension etc are Common Rune Magic's.

[Ian_W]

1 hour ago, Furry Fella said:

I too have looked at this and I'm not so sure it's that straight forward. The question is who / what gets to count as an initiate - cause that's where the (even limited) rune magic starts to fly. Should the Rock Lizard Mother have Rune Magic - probably. The RQG PCs will likely have more and better skills than RQ2 (even those with previous experience) though Spirit Magic will be well down. What dose reusable Rune Magic mean to Whiteye's defense and tactics? Warding, Sanctify, Multispell, Extension etc are Common Rune Magic's.

Starting PCs are substantially more capable than they used to be - you can expect an out-of-the-box warrior to have combat skills in the 90% range, which can easily go to 120% with spirit magic and an Augment. This is without the fairly-resusable 3 points of Rune magic they will all now have.

I'd suggest bumping up the skills of opponents by ~20% and making just about everything count as an Initiate, unless you want the players to kick ass and take names (which may not be a bad approach for a first game).

[simonh]

As always, it depends on the size and composition of the party. Certainly most of Apple Lane is designed to be doable by a substantial group of 5-6 starting RQ2 adventurers with some militia training, and RQG characters are quite a bit more capable, but I ran Apple lane with my girls under an early draft and it was fine. There's only two of them, so I gave them some troll allies to help them out.

Yes you could boost up the NPC skills a bit, but very few if any have any rune magic so that's not really a problem. All the 'bad guys' are outlaws, so wouldn't have much access to methods of recovering rune points so maybe they're all out of points.

For a starter adventure, Apple Lane, and the Rainbow Mounds in particular can be pretty deadly. Whiteye only has a 55% chance to hit, but dishes out 12 points of damage on average (with Bludgeon) and Slud does even more. How many times do you really want to dish that out to your PCs anyway? Same with the Rock Lizard mother. She's dramatically OP and can easily rend PCs limb from limb. I've never yet actually used he as none of my groups happen to have gone that way. She's a party shredder.

Edited June 19, 2018 by simonh

[Furry Fella]

Odd you mention the Rock Lizard Mother. Just 2 moderate characters can take her - the Quirk is good shimmer spell. More characters makes her more dangerous as more attacks.  Actually the 3 Ghosts are the likely killer as they are POW 20, 16 and 14.

The bit I think people are missing is the Rune Spell Sanctify as a common spell. Worship cam be conducted in a sanctified area. Equally the Rock Lizard Mother is in a sacred place following the general tenor she should be or have some priestly power(s).

[simonh]

If you happen to have Shimmer 4 that would certainly help, halving her best attacks and wiping out her leg attacks. Still, she's got a ton of hit points and decent armour. Her tail is brutal, so keep to the front and try not to get swallowed!

[Furry Fella]

Unless later prints changed her protection is only 5 (except the head at 8). In the tactics for her she only attacks the 1st 3 people attacks with her tongue which is just 45%. As a natural weapon this is a sitter for a weapon parry. After those 3 attacks it is bite. When I 1st played it we forced a change by standing outside and shooting. The first group I ran it for were well prepared having bailed after the trouble the ghosts gave them. Avoiding the tail or being swallowed are the principle issues.

[soltakss]

On 6/19/2018 at 10:00 AM, Furry Fella said:

Odd you mention the Rock Lizard Mother. Just 2 moderate characters can take her - the Quirk is good shimmer spell. More characters makes her more dangerous as more attacks.  Actually the 3 Ghosts are the likely killer as they are POW 20, 16 and 14.

The bit I think people are missing is the Rune Spell Sanctify as a common spell. Worship cam be conducted in a sanctified area. Equally the Rock Lizard Mother is in a sacred place following the general tenor she should be or have some priestly power(s).

We found that she was actually quite hard to kill. She regenerates, from memory, with a good chunk of skin armour and a fair number of hit points. The ghosts certainly don't help, as Spirit Combat in RQ2 could kill you. The Rock Lizard Mother is actually a Demigoddess, or an Avatar of Mother Rock Lizard. She is definitely in a Sacred Place and would count as the equivalent of a Wyter in the RQG rules, except that she has no worshippers. Her Spirit has been broken, hence the Ghosts, so she is effectively the unintelligent Beast Aspect of Mother Rock Lizard, trapped in a GodTime Bubble, or Short World. So, that is why I wouldn;t give her Rune Points, as such, but would probably give her Temple Defences instead.

[Atgxtg]

She doesn't regenerate, but she does know Healing 4 The RQ2 one has better armor and slightly lower HP (6AP, 25HP) than the RQ3 one (5 AP 27HP) and has somewhat better combat skills (40% claw vs. 20% claw) but gets three attacks as opposed to five (!!!). Unfortunately for Pentallion, both version are immune to Disruption.  

I think offensively she's a killer, especially with the Ghosts, but defensively she is weak. The RQ3 version doesn't need much of a boost. A smart and/or experienced group of RQ players can probably take her out quite easily, if they try. But a group of not so smart and/or new group of RQ players could get slaughtered. On the plus side 2 points of natural armor is one of the best rewards you can get in RQ, especially when it doesn't count as a Chaotic Feature, Not to mention the other treasure.. So the survivors will make out alright. 

 

If I were running it with new players I'd probably run it as is, and if running with more experienced players I'd probably just up her armor, or give her Protection. 

[creativehum]

If I should start a new thread for this, I apologize and please let me know. It is kind of a detour. I'm digging into RQ for the first time and looking for clues.

I'm looking over the adventure right now and I'm seeing there is an "inn" and a "pawn shop" -- and I'm not seeing those two elements fitting into with the feel of everything else I've read so far about Sartar. 

Am I wrong about this? Or is there something about pawn shops and Sartar that makes perfect sense that I'm not understanding?

[Atgxtg]

No, you're quite right. Apple Lane was a very early RQ adventure, and so was kinda of a halfway point between the typical D&D style setting and what RQ evolved into. Much of the fell of things evolved over time- and with RQ, especially RQ2 there was always a bit of a gap between the way the game played and how Glorantha was described in articles.

If you look up Apple Lane in the HeroQuest books (I can check to find out which one) the authors kinda mention that Apple Lane was something of an oddity in Sartar, with things that didn't exist elsewhere. 

[simonh]

It does say Gringle has travelled widely, so maybe he got the idea for the pawn shop from some distant foreign land with strange ways.

Taverna or something like them have existed for a long time in the real world. There must have been some form of hostels catering to travellers in the ancient world. It’s just that more recent forms of such things are more familiar to us. I don’t worry too much about anachronisms like this, it’s just too much like hard work.

[Furry Fella]

The senario pack is called Apple Lane. The reference is to a small hamelt on an important road. Notable features include a "one of a kind" establishment known as "Gringle's Pawn shop. Said Gringle being a seriously old and capable Issaries Rune Lord & Priest (and Hero Quester). There are 2 senarios  "Gringle's Pawnshop" where the PC's are hired as guards for the night / short period as Gringle is bussy and Rainbow Mounds a find and remove the troll outlaw at said location that comes with a second twist - beyween local Nwetlings and an ancient infestation of Rock Lizards - the bit being discussed. For practical purposes this twist generally turns into its own short session.

Apple Lane is surprise surprise in an area well known for its extensive and intensive apple orchards. The small hamlet is on the Royal road that runs Jonstown, Red Bird Fort, Rune Gate Fort. so has a "Day Inn" - a day away from the Inn either side (this is the "Tin Inn" another wise very oversized establishment for the local.

Due to timing etc this location is the start for almost all of us old fogy or even new / young fogy Rune Quest geeks. With a good gamesmaster this set of senarios was such an eye opener with the intergrated and cohesive nature of RQ as to sell us totally on the new experience. I guess a great many of us experienced our opening years in Glorantha and Runequest both as characters and players in these parts. My 1st RQ character was one on only 2 PC's to survive the whole pack (in part as part of the group got the pip over newbies playing and doing better in the new environment that they tossed their toys). Oldly enough that character still survives and does pop ins when that GM's groups need buffing or leadership -been some really clever (if annoying to the player) was of haling him in to.

[Atgxtg]

Plusit was one of only a handful (three I think) of RQ adventures, available before RQ2 and the boxed sets, and this one wasn't just your standard dungeon crawl. 

 

BTW, I guess they are going to release an updated version of this as one of the first RQG adventures!

[Joerg]

3 hours ago, creativehum said:

 

I'm looking over the adventure right now and I'm seeing there is an "inn" and a "pawn shop" -- and I'm not seeing those two elements fitting into with the feel of everything else I've read so far about Sartar. 

Am I wrong about this? Or is there something about pawn shops and Sartar that makes perfect sense that I'm not understanding?

Apple Lane s the seat of semi-retirement of Gringle, a (formerly) exrremely wealthy heroquester, who collected unusual followers (like Uleria cultists, a Third Eye Blue ironsmith) and foreign notions. Notice how I don't include Quackjohn in the unusual followers? He and the inn are only second grade oddities.

Gringle used to be a thane of the princes of Sartar. He was a member of Kallyr's High Council in 1613, too. That's about as highly connected as you can get in Sartar.

When I refer to Apple Lane, I often call it Gringlestead instead. It is the abode of a high level adventurer. Every successful character should have something like this.

[Atgxtg]

What was the follow up adventure that they did? the one that took place after Gringle left?

[simonh]

Here in the UK many if us got the Games Workshop edition of RQ2. This came boxed with a UK printing of the rule book, a copy of the Basic Roleplaying rules pamphlet and a copy of Apple Lane, so for us it was almost an intrinsic part of the game.

Edited June 23, 2018 by simonh

[jajagappa]

4 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

What was the follow up adventure that they did? the one that took place after Gringle left?

"Return to Apple Lane" in Sartar Companion is the one where the Lunars arrive to claim one of Gringle's magic treasures.  The PC's are supposed to help Gringle escape.

There was another Apple Lane scenario done somewhere set a few years after the Lunars had taken over, but I can't remember where, though I think it was in some fanzine.

[Mac]

9 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Plusit was one of only a handful (three I think) of RQ adventures, available before RQ2 and the boxed sets, and this one wasn't just your standard dungeon crawl. 

 

BTW, I guess they are going to release an updated version of this as one of the first RQG adventures!

If true- wish they’d hurry before we spend hours reinventing it🙄

[creativehum]

Thanks for the replies!

I want to be clear, I wasn't trying to take away any pleasant memories or criticism the adventure.

What I understand now is that Apple Lane is a specific and strange place... not a typical village in Sartar. (The placid name of the place threw me off.)

As I dig into it I might make some changes in the "set design" and the name of places ("pawn shop" might well be replaced so my players don't make associations about setting and culture that don't fit). But I take everyone's words that the adventure is the bomb.

[Oracle]

3 hours ago, jajagappa said:

"Return to Apple Lane" in Sartar Companion is the one where the Lunars arrive to claim one of Gringle's magic treasures.  The PC's are supposed to help Gringle escape.

There was another Apple Lane scenario done somewhere set a few years after the Lunars had taken over, but I can't remember where, though I think it was in some fanzine.

The HeroQuest 1 scenario Sheep, Clouds, Thunder from the Gathering Thunder module, which is volume 3 of the Sartar Rising campaign contains a description of Apple Lane after the Great Winter, i.e. under Lunar occupation. Not sure, if that is the scenario you thought of, but it gives definitely an impression of the hamlet during the Lunar occupation. But I'm also not sure, if this is still canon ... but the new Apple Lane scenario will shed some light on this question probably.

[Oracle]

18 minutes ago, Mac said:

If true- wish they’d hurry before we spend hours reinventing it🙄

According to @Jason Durall it will be part of the upcoming GM Pack:

On 6/12/2017 at 5:18 PM, Jason Durall said:

It's part of the GM Pack, and should be released simultaneously with the core rulebook and the bestiary.

...

 

Which should be available until Gen Con in August, if I got that correct ...