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Post by ffilz on Apr 24, 2017 15:59:30 GMT -5
Wow! Some of you have a lot of old school stuff! Those of you who are RuneQuest players should start a thread about RuneQuest and fill us in on it! I thought I'd respond... I purchased RuneQuest back in 1978 when it first appeared and I fell in love with it. It became even better with the release of Cults of Prax which expanded on the role of cults in the game. The bullet list of features I like about the game: - Skill rather than class system (one of the first such systems)
- Monsters are written up pretty much the same way a PC is (the same attributes, even having random scores, the same skills, probably the first system to do so)
- Experience system is a combination of learn what you use and training
- The training system sucks up a lot of the treasure the PCs gain
- Low power magic that most people have with a higher powered magic for experienced characters
- A different setting that is still approachable (not as alien as Tekumel or Talislanta)
- Combat system with static hit points, critical hits, fumbles, hit location, aiming rules that don't make everyone take head shots
- Cool adventure supplements
- Some hills and mountains are sleeping dragons
- Giants you hope hit you in an arm or leg (because you can put those back on as opposed to heads which don't regenerate so well...)
- Initiative rules that work pretty well
Some of the more odd things: - Ducks as a playable race (sort of Howard the Duck but different)
- Elves are plants (and they have prayer songs to sing over plants they kill for food and weapons)
- Dwarves are just weird
- Trolls and trollkin (the Orcs of Glorantha) are more nuanced (and have even shown up in adventure parties)
- Lunar magic that follows the moons cycle (which is a 7 day cycle)
- The Crimson Bat
While there is no reason the game system must be used with Glorantha (in fact the core of the game system is used for Call of Cthulhu and has also been used for Elric, Stormbringer, Elfquest, The Ringworld RPG - and Quest World, Land of Ninja, Vikings, and Fantasy Europe were settings that have had minimal support), I would only envision ever playing it in Glorantha (other than one session of a RQ based Space RPG). A decent map of Sartar and Prax, combined with Cults of Prax and maybe a few other supplemental materials presents an interesting setting of play. The various games I have run have mostly featured beginning characters seeking adventure. I have either used the Chaos Caverns from Apple Lane (a nice small beginner dungeon crawl) or modules converted from other games. Wilderness adventure isn't too dangerous if one takes the opportunity to hide from the big nasty things. Players often set their own goals as they start to learn the setting (as I play it) and the system. The greatest challenge I would have today is that the combat system is a bit involved for the shorter game sessions I play these days, and to me, the combat system is not easy to separate from the rest of the system, though really it could be, and Basic Role Playing could be used as a model (dropping the hit location and initiative rules). The skill system has plenty of non-combat skills that even running the combat straight up still provides for plenty of non-combat play. Frank
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Post by Mighty Darci on Apr 24, 2017 21:59:36 GMT -5
Thank Frank, that is very interesting and it looks like something I would like to take a deeper look at. Is there anything available free or for low cost to get your feet wet with it?
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Post by ffilz on Apr 24, 2017 23:51:22 GMT -5
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Post by mormonyoyoman on Apr 25, 2017 6:08:22 GMT -5
Thank Frank, that is very interesting and it looks like something I would like to take a deeper look at. Is there anything available free or for low cost to get your feet wet with it? A free quick start BRP is here: www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-brp/BRP stands for Basic Role Playing and not, despite anything you've heard, for Baptist Refried Potatoes.
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Post by Vile Traveller on Apr 25, 2017 8:31:53 GMT -5
There's an OGL SRD here, based on the Mongoose RQ 1st edition SRD but tweaked to be like Chaosium RQ2: basicroleplaying.org/files/file/296-retroquest-ii-srd/I wonder who did that? BTW, I bought RQ2 in 1983 and used it, over then next 25 years, to run games inspired by Greyhawk, Time Tunnel, Traveller Spinward Marches, Blade Runner, Aliens, Middle Earth, Cyberpunk, Karl May and Daniel Defoe Wild West, 30-Years War, WWI, WWII, Biggles, Cthulhu Mythos, Domitian Rome, Lankhmar, near-future solar system, Conan, A Plague of Demons, Star Wars, Battletech, er ... and others, I'm pretty sure. Mostly I was attracted to it for the experience system (get better at what you do in the game, or pay for training in), the combat system (we were seriously into gritty and "realistic" in inverted commas back then), and the incredibly intuitive percentile system. I stayed with it, adding in bits of RQ3 later, because it was so easy to adapt other setting to it - much less work than actually learning the rules of new games. The only other system I ever got into was Delta Force - again, in the 1980s, and again because of its highly crunchy combat system. At one point I had vast reams of tables converting Traveller to that system, sadly long lost now.
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 25, 2017 11:27:07 GMT -5
There's an OGL SRD here, based on the Mongoose RQ 1st edition SRD but tweaked to be like Chaosium RQ2: basicroleplaying.org/files/file/296-retroquest-ii-srd/I wonder who did that? BTW, I bought RQ2 in 1983 and used it, over then next 25 years, to run games inspired by Greyhawk, Time Tunnel, Traveller Spinward Marches, Blade Runner, Aliens, Middle Earth, Cyberpunk, Karl May and Daniel Defoe Wild West, 30-Years War, WWI, WWII, Biggles, Cthulhu Mythos, Domitian Rome, Lankhmar, near-future solar system, Conan, A Plague of Demons, Star Wars, Battletech, er ... and others, I'm pretty sure. Mostly I was attracted to it for the experience system (get better at what you do in the game, or pay for training in), the combat system (we were seriously into gritty and "realistic" in inverted commas back then), and the incredibly intuitive percentile system. I stayed with it, adding in bits of RQ3 later, because it was so easy to adapt other setting to it - much less work than actually learning the rules of new games. The only other system I ever got into was Delta Force - again, in the 1980s, and again because of its highly crunchy combat system. At one point I had vast reams of tables converting Traveller to that system, sadly long lost now. I will have to take a look at this. Is there anything you can't do? If I were ever to get rich (not likely in this or any other reality) I would immediately offer you a full time job.
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Post by Mighty Darci on May 1, 2017 7:52:26 GMT -5
Wow! Some of you have a lot of old school stuff! Those of you who are RuneQuest players should start a thread about RuneQuest and fill us in on it! I thought I'd respond... I purchased RuneQuest back in 1978 when it first appeared and I fell in love with it. It became even better with the release of Cults of Prax which expanded on the role of cults in the game. The bullet list of features I like about the game: - Combat system with static hit points, critical hits, fumbles, hit location, aiming rules that don't make everyone take head shots
- Cool adventure supplements
- Some hills and mountains are sleeping dragons
- Giants you hope hit you in an arm or leg (because you can put those back on as opposed to heads which don't regenerate so well...)
- Initiative rules that work pretty well
Some of the more odd things: - Ducks as a playable race (sort of Howard the Duck but different)
- Elves are plants (and they have prayer songs to sing over plants they kill for food and weapons)
- Dwarves are just weird
- Trolls and trollkin (the Orcs of Glorantha) are more nuanced (and have even shown up in adventure parties)
- Lunar magic that follows the moons cycle (which is a 7 day cycle)
- The Crimson Bat
Any stories to tell in regard to any of these things? Did you or any of the players ever play a duck?
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Post by Vile Traveller on May 1, 2017 8:54:11 GMT -5
My RQ3 books have every instance of "duck" Tippexed out and replaced with "goblin".
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Post by The Red Baron on May 1, 2017 9:40:14 GMT -5
- Some hills and mountains are sleeping dragons
- Ducks as a playable race (sort of Howard the Duck but different)
I'm not a fan of Runequest, but Glorantha has some fun details.
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Post by ffilz on May 1, 2017 11:06:24 GMT -5
I thought I'd respond... I purchased RuneQuest back in 1978 when it first appeared and I fell in love with it. It became even better with the release of Cults of Prax which expanded on the role of cults in the game. The bullet list of features I like about the game: - Combat system with static hit points, critical hits, fumbles, hit location, aiming rules that don't make everyone take head shots
- Cool adventure supplements
- Some hills and mountains are sleeping dragons
- Giants you hope hit you in an arm or leg (because you can put those back on as opposed to heads which don't regenerate so well...)
- Initiative rules that work pretty well
Some of the more odd things: - Ducks as a playable race (sort of Howard the Duck but different)
- Elves are plants (and they have prayer songs to sing over plants they kill for food and weapons)
- Dwarves are just weird
- Trolls and trollkin (the Orcs of Glorantha) are more nuanced (and have even shown up in adventure parties)
- Lunar magic that follows the moons cycle (which is a 7 day cycle)
- The Crimson Bat
Any stories to tell in regard to any of these things? Did you or any of the players ever play a duck? I don't remember if we ever had a PC duck (definitely not in my longest running RQ campaign), I had GMPC ducks (my RQ play was almost all solidly in the era when I would have NPCs that were essentially my PC.. a mode I have been working hard to get out of). We did in my last RQ campaign have a PC newtling, which aren't quite as odd as ducks... A fun one, once in college a group of PCs was fighting trolls and trollkin. There was a PC Chalana Arroy character (very very non-violent healing cult) and there was a Troll healer (might have even been Chalana Arroy, or may have followed the Troll healing cult). The two looked at each other, and the PC proceeded to tend for a fallen troll while the troll healer tended for a fallen PC, because that's who they were closest to. These days though, I'm not sure I'd actually encourage a PC Chalana Arroy, think of all the "Would the Paladin allow the PCs do actually do this." and now replace it with "Would the Chalana Arroy actually stand by while the characters did this." Where "did this" becomes almost any violence... Chalana Arroy characters won't even use a weapon in self defence (they do have a sleep spell though, but of course anyone affected by the sleep comes under the protection of Chalana Arroy). The credible threat they can offer PCs is withholding of all healing services. I think we had a dwarf PC or two before we learned just how weird dwarves were (an article published in Different Worlds). Dwarves stats are pretty nice too, so a bit unbalanced if you play them like D&D dwarves. Definitely had several encounters with giants where the giants played golf with various PC body parts... (Rune Quest has hit points per hit location, with constant hit points based on 3d6 CON with a few bonuses, resulting in most hit locations having at most like 6 or 7 hit points, with a limb going to -6 being severed, so 12 points past armor (7 points max on an arm in RQ 1) so 19 points total, not hard to get on 6D6 or more damage... Oops, you arm just got severed... But your healer can probably put it back on (a starting character could possibly have Battle Magic Healing 6 which is all you need - I allow elves the possibility of this).
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Post by ffilz on May 1, 2017 11:07:41 GMT -5
My RQ3 books have every instance of "duck" Tippexed out and replaced with "goblin". So sad... Ducks are fun. But if you don't use RQ to play in Glorantha I can understand...
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Post by ffilz on May 1, 2017 11:09:46 GMT -5
- Some hills and mountains are sleeping dragons
- Ducks as a playable race (sort of Howard the Duck but different)
I'm not a fan of Runequest, but Glorantha has some fun details. For me RQ and Glorantha are inseparable. There is Hero Quest for another system to play Glorantha with. One could also go to a lot of work an use a different system. The thought has occasionally crossed my mind to try Burning Wheel for Glorantha.
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Post by The Red Baron on May 1, 2017 11:15:07 GMT -5
Have you ever played "King of Dragon Pass"? There was also a glorantha "Fight On!" 'zine issue
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Post by Mighty Darci on May 1, 2017 11:19:16 GMT -5
I don't remember if we ever had a PC duck (definitely not in my longest running RQ campaign), I had GMPC ducks (my RQ play was almost all solidly in the era when I would have NPCs that were essentially my PC.. a mode I have been working hard to get out of). We did in my last RQ campaign have a PC newtling, which aren't quite as odd as ducks... A fun one, once in college a group of PCs was fighting trolls and trollkin. There was a PC Chalana Arroy character (very very non-violent healing cult) and there was a Troll healer (might have even been Chalana Arroy, or may have followed the Troll healing cult). The two looked at each other, and the PC proceeded to tend for a fallen troll while the troll healer tended for a fallen PC, because that's who they were closest to. These days though, I'm not sure I'd actually encourage a PC Chalana Arroy, think of all the "Would the Paladin allow the PCs do actually do this." and now replace it with "Would the Chalana Arroy actually stand by while the characters did this." Where "did this" becomes almost any violence... Chalana Arroy characters won't even use a weapon in self defence (they do have a sleep spell though, but of course anyone affected by the sleep comes under the protection of Chalana Arroy). The credible threat they can offer PCs is withholding of all healing services. I think we had a dwarf PC or two before we learned just how weird dwarves were (an article published in Different Worlds). Dwarves stats are pretty nice too, so a bit unbalanced if you play them like D&D dwarves. Definitely had several encounters with giants where the giants played golf with various PC body parts... (Rune Quest has hit points per hit location, with constant hit points based on 3d6 CON with a few bonuses, resulting in most hit locations having at most like 6 or 7 hit points, with a limb going to -6 being severed, so 12 points past armor (7 points max on an arm in RQ 1) so 19 points total, not hard to get on 6D6 or more damage... Oops, you arm just got severed... But your healer can probably put it back on (a starting character could possibly have Battle Magic Healing 6 which is all you need - I allow elves the possibility of this). This is fascinating, sounds like a lot of good times. I think that "did this" stuff is players trying to place 21st century mode, instead of embracing the time and place of the game. If you refuse to buy in, go play something else is the way I feel about it. I was taught to go all in if you play a game. I have to get a copy of this and take a look, sounds like a lot of great fun stuff.
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Post by Mighty Darci on May 1, 2017 11:20:12 GMT -5
My RQ3 books have every instance of "duck" Tippexed out and replaced with "goblin". So sad... Ducks are fun. But if you don't use RQ to play in Glorantha I can understand... I could see using ducks in non-Glorantha worlds and in D&D or Gamma World either one.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 1, 2017 15:20:16 GMT -5
Almost every player in my groups tried playing a duck. My favorite was an initiate (eventually a rune lord) of the Cult of Panache, played by a friend in OKC, who carried his own chandelier to swing on and into a fight. Am unable to spell his name, the closest phonetic being "shzkwsplpppKK" accompanied by lots of spit.
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Post by Vile Traveller on May 1, 2017 18:59:33 GMT -5
My RQ3 books have every instance of "duck" Tippexed out and replaced with "goblin". So sad... Ducks are fun. But if you don't use RQ to play in Glorantha I can understand... You're right, actually - by the time we moved on to RQ3 (took us a few years), we had completely stopped using Glorantha. We did run Gringle's Pawnshop, Duck Pond, and Duck Tower in our RQ2 days. But it was incredibly hard for us hard to get new players into our games if the subject of ducks came up. Traveller had the death-in-chargen prejudice to overcome, RQ had ducks. We had some interesting ogre PCs, though.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 1, 2017 19:01:10 GMT -5
So sad... Ducks are fun. But if you don't use RQ to play in Glorantha I can understand... You're right, actually - by the time we moved on to RQ3 (took us a few years), we had completely stopped using Glorantha. We did run Gringle's Pawnshop, Duck Pond, and Duck Tower in our RQ2 days. But it was incredibly hard for us hard to get new players into our games if the subject of ducks came up. Traveller had the death-in-chargen prejudice to overcome, RQ had ducks. We had some interesting ogre PCs, though. People could accept anything but talking ducks~
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Post by ffilz on May 1, 2017 19:06:10 GMT -5
You're right, actually - by the time we moved on to RQ3 (took us a few years), we had completely stopped using Glorantha. We did run Gringle's Pawnshop, Duck Pond, and Duck Tower in our RQ2 days. But it was incredibly hard for us hard to get new players into our games if the subject of ducks came up. Traveller had the death-in-chargen prejudice to overcome, RQ had ducks. We had some interesting ogre PCs, though. People could accept anything but talking ducks~ Jeez, and I never even read Howard the Duck (who might have been written up for RQ).
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Post by Admin Pete on May 1, 2017 19:49:13 GMT -5
People could accept anything but talking ducks~ Jeez, and I never even read Howard the Duck (who might have been written up for RQ). I read it and loved it. [off topic rant]The shameful thing is that is was one of those work for hire abominations, where a writer comes up with something great and his employer owns it all and he gets peanuts for his creative work. No corporation is a good guy, if they were work for hire in creative endeavors would die and be buried as a concept.[/off topic rant]
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Post by xizallian on May 1, 2017 21:57:57 GMT -5
Loved Howard the Duck! Cute too!
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 1, 2017 22:41:39 GMT -5
Jeez, and I never even read Howard the Duck (who might have been written up for RQ). I read it and loved it. [off topic rant]The shameful thing is that is was one of those work for hire abominations, where a writer comes up with something great and his employer owns it all and he gets peanuts for his creative work. No corporation is a good guy, if they were work for hire in creative endeavors would die and be buried as a concept.[/off topic rant] Steve did manage to get what he considered justice - and we got the satisfaction of knowing Destroyer Duck and the FOOG portfolio helped. If we had only been more successful at getting him - ahh, skip it. His health was never as good as it could have been, and Marvel was better to him, post-Shooter.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 1, 2017 22:43:29 GMT -5
My RQ3 books have every instance of "duck" Tippexed out and replaced with "goblin". You're going to make me google "tippex," aren'cha?
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Post by Vile Traveller on May 2, 2017 0:42:15 GMT -5
My RQ3 books have every instance of "duck" Tippexed out and replaced with "goblin". You're going to make me google "tippex," aren'cha? Yup. Although I will say this: Mike Nesmith's mom.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 2, 2017 3:59:01 GMT -5
We had a different name fer it here: Liquid Pepper.
I said we had a different name, not that we spelled it rite.
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Post by robkuntz on May 2, 2017 6:00:59 GMT -5
My #1 question about the game is still concerned with its title, that is, did ANYONE ever find the RUNES...
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Post by robkuntz on May 2, 2017 6:01:18 GMT -5
Double Post deleted. Perhaps that an omen??
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Post by Vile Traveller on May 2, 2017 7:22:16 GMT -5
Finding them was the easy bit. Mastering them, now ... I always thought RuneMaster would have been a better name.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 2, 2017 11:42:39 GMT -5
My #1 question about the game is still concerned with its title, that is, did ANYONE ever find the RUNES... Yeah, but we had to wait for Heroquest to do it. They were more "there" in White Bear and Red Moon, and it turned out that it was easier to have them in play in King of Dragon Pass.
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Post by ffilz on May 2, 2017 13:00:47 GMT -5
My #1 question about the game is still concerned with its title, that is, did ANYONE ever find the RUNES... Yeah, but we had to wait for Heroquest to do it. They were more "there" in White Bear and Red Moon, and it turned out that it was easier to have them in play in King of Dragon Pass. RuneQuest was clearly a serious compromise to actually fit Greg Staffords vision for Glorantha. I agree that it's a bit odd to imply questing for runes when that isn't actually part of the game (even though it's mentioned in the first pages of the game...). I've always just played it as a game and setting as presented, with my own interpretations and changes.
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