Return from Continuum II (Category: Life, Faith, Role-Playing Games)

I somehow think I'm doing what I promised myself I would never do again - going away for a while only to have to return to "work" for a few days before going away again. I thought I'd been so clever and got so much done before the wonderful time that was Continuum.

It was fantastic to get away, and far more relaxing travelling by train. A long-weekend conversation, gaming and beer. I managed to play a good first game of Mythic Russia, complete with a profusion of silly accents (my apologies to the chap who couldn't cope with us!). I'm now eagerly awaiting my pre-ordered hardback copy. Company, conversation and beer, not to mention a little vodka from the Mythic Russia launch party, and some blended whisky direct from a glass bottle shaped like a football boot (I kid you not!), all collaborated to ensure a 2am bedtime. What is less understandable is that fact that I felt better rested in the morning than under normal circumstances at home! (However since "at home" usually includes two+ wake-ups calls from Little Miss Placid, maybe I shouldn't be too surprised!)

Saturday (after the obligatory cooked breakfast) saw a superb game of Savage Worlds set in Darkest Africa, as British, German and Zanzibari groups sought the fountain of eternal youth. Proved to be highly enjoyable, even if the Germans did manage to get some of the water back home to grant the Kaiser another 200 years of life! I ended up playing a Zanzibari Princess, and discovered afterwards that I was adjudged second-best player from the 15 or so who took part. I'd never met the games system before, but it seemed to work very well. The basic mechanic is, so far as I could tell, to have skills and attributes keyed to a given die (d4, d6, d8, d10). You get one throw of the appropriate die plus a d6 ('cos you're heroic). 4+ is a success, and you use the highest roll of your 2 dice. A maximum roll entitles you to a further throw - and hence a better result. Simple, but practical.

I spent the afternoon somewhat game-lagged in a Gwenthia game. (I've mentioned Gwnethia here before, as I'm one of the writer/developers who hank out at The Tavern), but I was rather to tired to get the most out of it - and played my rather thick axe-wielding character to the hilt. Problem was that no-one would give him any orders to follow...

Right now, of course, I've forgotten what I did on Saturday night, apart from chat and drink and go to bed late, that is. More will have to follow...

The point is though, although I've safely arrived home and had two decent nights sleep, uninterrupted by GLW, LM and LMP (who are all at Granny and Grandpa's) I'm still totally whacked. All I want to do is sit around in a tired stupor, which makes writing the two sermons I need to get ready for the day after I return from the full-family holiday a nearly impossible task.

Remind me not to have a few days between holidays again!

And with that I need some lunch if I'm to ahve any chance of getting anything done...  ¶ 10:36 am 0 comments

  A Glad Time We Had Of It (Category: Life)

While the sentiment could equally apply to Continuum, from which I have still not really recovered, I think the latest of David's poems, takes a rather different direction!

*A Glad Time We Had Of It*

A glad time we had of it,

the sun beating down on us

but with mercy’s breeze

at the church.

To walk waving across from

home to there, with her

on my arm, a father and daughter

at their closest, so unlike a losing.

Such surroundings!

The prayers of the years,

the inbreak of the uncontainable,

the smiles of down to earth love.

We talked

of how we will always talk about it.

In coldness and in heat,

in companies or in pairs,

we’ll savour the day.

(C) David Grieve 2006

  ¶ 8:51 am 0 comments

  Return from Continuum I (Category: Role-Playing Games)

Having recently returned from Continuum, and being tired here are some first impressions of Mongoose RuneQuest. (Regular readers are entitled to glaze over at this point).

I almost want to say "I've been had." There's the old adage, if it ain't broke don't fix it. I'm sure that RQ2 wasn't perfect (even though I have to say I preferred it to RQ3), but I'm not terribly impressed with MRQ. In fact I am distinctly "underwhelmed".

I probably need to read it more closely, but I'm actually not sure I really want to. Here's some observations and impressions.

As a physical object the book is nicely done. The hardback cover is solid, but rather too D&D D20 derivative for my taste, and the interior illustrations are good pencil drawings - although I can't say I think much of the way the runes are portrayed. They might be meant to look like brass rubbings, but they really look more like someone has tried to scribble them out!

So far I've noticed one obvious typo (the word "crossbow" being rendered as "cros" space "bow" which is pretty inexcusable since spell checking should be able to pick that up) and one implicit error (the armour value of a leather hauberk). I've also found a "hole" in the rules, unless I read them too fast. Specifically I found no reference to an individual dying by taking a number of hit points in excess of their total. It might be implied in the combat example - but even there it wasn't explicit.

It might be an isolated incident, but it could be based on a writer's presumption based in knowing the former rules sets.

I like some of the ideas that have been introduced into the combat system, but not the implementation. For example "Responses." Allowing a parry, dodge, dive, riposte, whatever as an opportunistic response to an attack seems fair enough. But do you really need to have the attacker roll again? The initial attack roll has already been made and declared a hit. To then force the attacker to roll again, which may mean the initial successful attack becomes a failure, just screams "wrong" at me. You've already determined the hit. It's almost unjust to then see it taken away.

"Magic" or more specifically "integrating runes." The rules book basically confines itself to this one system. While I can understand the principle that's being made here, I'm not quite sure what's going on. By requiring the integration of runes at 1 point permanent POW loss a time it is changing a fundamental feature of Glorantha. It actively reduces the availability of magic, something so pervasive in Glorantha that this too is just plain wrong. In a non-Gloranthan setting, maybe, but not for Glorantha.

Then there's the nature and identity of the runes. A "metal" rune? Please! So the implication is surely that Bladesharp and Bludgeon (for example) only apply to metal weapons. By implication a spell tied to the metal rune should have no power on an obsidian sword, a flint spearhead or a wooden club, should it? On top of that there are cult and cultural issues to consider. Remember that old RQ mainstay, Disruption? By tying it explicitly to the Disorder rune what are the implications, especially given the traditional Gloranthan distrust of Disorder as being merely one step from Chaos? Which reminds me of another gripe. Possibly the strongest attack spell in the game "skybolt" requires the integration of the Chaos rune. Get that, the integration of Chaos? Not something most people would touch in classic Glorantha. And then to compound it, what's one of the cult spells of the Storm King (generic, but obviously resonating with Orlanth, Dorburdun etc.)? Yep, skybolt. OK MRQ will be set in Second Age Glorantha with Lokamayadon and so forth, but it still just feels wrong.

Battle/Spirit Magic has effectively disappeared. Either there is no common magic at all or the runes characters need to appropriate are far too common and have lost value (And for what it's worth it seems that Runepriests and Runelords need to be less powerful, and you can't have a dual Runepriest/Runelord - which I'm sure you could before, but that could be my memory playing up!)

The stated position for MRQ if I remember correctly is to update RuneQuest and introduce Glorantha to a new audience. Very laudable goals you might think. The problem is that I'm not sure it does either especially well.

On the rules side there are some nice tweaks to RQ, but that's all they are. I can't get away from the unworthy and cynical thought that there is an exercise in Intellectual Property rights going on here, sort of "how many words do we need to change to get away with it?" MRQ is largely a BRP rip-off with the addition of Hero Points. Perhaps I should have expected nothing less. Still, I am somewhat surprised that there has been no legal objection from Chaosium.

On the settings front MRQ drops in some Glorantha references, but not too much. Glorantha is mentioned and implied and to be fair to introduction explicitly states that the "rulebook contains the core rules for RuneQuest and little else. However it tends to assume that ... Glorantha.... will be used most of the time." Beyond runes (including a new Communication rune, to get around using the Issaries one!) there's something on the importance of cultic affiliation, then trolls, ducks and broo, but little else. That's about it. We have to wait for the Companion and other volumes for that.

Possibly this is the biggest worry of all. The basic mechanics are good, but not noticeably better than BRP. As such they might make a good intro to role-playing, but the magic system is too tied to (Gloranthan) runes to apply much anywhere else and there are no other options provided in the book. And this is the problem. The strongest selling point RuneQuest can have in the current market is not rules quality but settings quality, as Avalon Hill discovered to their cost. Instead Mongoose have promised us a range of quality Gloranthan supporting materials. I just hope their policy pays off, but there's more Gloranthan material in the old RQ2 rulebook than here, and it shows.

On the whole I'm disappointed. MRQ falls between the stools. Not strong enough to be generic and insufficiently Gloranthan to excite in one book.

(And while I'm griping, is it too much to ask for language consistency? We have "armour" (British spelling) but use "pants" in the American context, rather than trousers. It's annoying!)

Should you buy it? No, probably not. Go onto eBay and do yourself a favour with a copy of RQ2, that, or get BRP or HeroQuest. But if you're reading this and know what I'm on about, you'll have those already.  ¶ 12:52 pm 7 comments