Longtime readers of this blog knows I am a nutcase when it comes to collecting some games. I have multiple copies of the 2nd ed. DragonQuest rules in addition to the 3rd ed. copy I own. It's a very old school game, quirky and fiddly like the best of them. I have been charmed by it since I first read it, but have yet to play it. One reason for that is the fact it's designed to be played with a hex map for tactical combat, and that is a bit of a hassle in a Hangout session.
Now I caught the bug again, since I took down my Kingdoms of Kalamar books. KoK is a fantasy world that is a bit like Greyhawk in that it's medieval fantasy without any special twists. There's nothing to get "weirded out" by like in Tekumel och Glorantha. Just plain fantasy. For some a bit too plain, even.
What would be better pairing then than to play it in that world using the down to earth and deadly DragonQuest system? I have now spent some days thumbing through books and pondering how it could be done. God knows if I'll ever be able to convince anyone to try it, but it was fun to think about for a few days.
So, this got me thinking.
How often have you encountered a book, a film och a tv-series and felt it just had to be turned into a rpg? Quite a few times I'd guess.
How often have you taken down an old favourite game, like that less than loved rules set you love that don't get the love on the blogs and on g+, and felt it should be cool to use it for, that thing? For me it happens all the time. My version of the classic gaming ADD is strongly connected to that behaviour. Last time I counted I owned 103 different rules system (counting separate D&D editions as different games), so that could be why.
Maybe it's just me being odd...
Showing posts with label Glorantha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glorantha. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Friday, March 21, 2014
Glorantha ORE, maybe?
I have managed to misplace my copy of Heroes and other Worlds, so I had to get on Lulu and order another copy today. Before that I tried to sort through all my games and find it, unsuccessfully. While doing that I did find some gems I had not seen in a long time. Boy do I have many game books or what? I need to stop working and play games full time!
One game I found that made me stop and browse it was Reign. For some time it was a game talked about quite a bit. Now I have not heard about it in a long while. Maybe the fact that the built in fantasy setting was not all that interesting, and that the weird world just felt weird for it's own sake made people shrug and walk past it. But, the rules are interesting and the idea of playing on a higher level, as lords and leaders, still resonate with me. I felt that resonance way back, and long time readers know.
I've never played the so called "end game" of D&D and all that jazz, neither have I ever played Pendragon. I've always felt Reign was the way to go, though. Especially as an alternative to D&D, since you would get there from the get go, and I never was that into knights.
Consider Glorantha. When the rules set Hero Wars and Hero Quest were published, Greg and friends really pushed for the social aspect of the game to come to the forefront. I seem to remember there actually being a book all about "hero bands", like they called the party. It was a group of individuals with contacts, relationships and resources. I kind of liked the idea, but never tried it in play.
Enter Reign. That's the game that's all about playing a "company" of some sort. Maybe it could be married to that setting where you no longer exist (things were different in thr RQ days) as a lone adventurer?
Playing games full time sounds better and better every time I say it...
(anyone want a copy of the flawed but brilliant Glorantha game Hero Wars? Pay shipping and it's yours...)
One game I found that made me stop and browse it was Reign. For some time it was a game talked about quite a bit. Now I have not heard about it in a long while. Maybe the fact that the built in fantasy setting was not all that interesting, and that the weird world just felt weird for it's own sake made people shrug and walk past it. But, the rules are interesting and the idea of playing on a higher level, as lords and leaders, still resonate with me. I felt that resonance way back, and long time readers know.
I've never played the so called "end game" of D&D and all that jazz, neither have I ever played Pendragon. I've always felt Reign was the way to go, though. Especially as an alternative to D&D, since you would get there from the get go, and I never was that into knights.
Consider Glorantha. When the rules set Hero Wars and Hero Quest were published, Greg and friends really pushed for the social aspect of the game to come to the forefront. I seem to remember there actually being a book all about "hero bands", like they called the party. It was a group of individuals with contacts, relationships and resources. I kind of liked the idea, but never tried it in play.
Enter Reign. That's the game that's all about playing a "company" of some sort. Maybe it could be married to that setting where you no longer exist (things were different in thr RQ days) as a lone adventurer?
Playing games full time sounds better and better every time I say it...
(anyone want a copy of the flawed but brilliant Glorantha game Hero Wars? Pay shipping and it's yours...)
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Game giveaway
Do you want a copy of the innovative, and mind bending Robin D Laws design Hero Wars? The game is horribly broken as written, but the ideas within are mind shatteringly cool. It's a shame it was published
in the shape it was, since it deserved a better presentation. But, it has changed the way I see some things, as Robin's designs usually does.
I have the Narrator book and the Hero book, decent shape both. Send me your address, and pay for shipping and it's yours.
Stay tuned for some post soon with real content.
in the shape it was, since it deserved a better presentation. But, it has changed the way I see some things, as Robin's designs usually does.
I have the Narrator book and the Hero book, decent shape both. Send me your address, and pay for shipping and it's yours.
Stay tuned for some post soon with real content.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Game giveaway
Now I have rearranged stuff on my selves, and some of the stuff I have put aside to one day put up on eBay have showed up. I'm sick of them.
The first person(s) who send me an email (i.e. the one that ends up higher in my sorted inbox) and agree to pay shipping costs (from Sweden) gets these for nuthin.
The first person(s) who send me an email (i.e. the one that ends up higher in my sorted inbox) and agree to pay shipping costs (from Sweden) gets these for nuthin.
- Rippers - the horror wars : It's a minis game based on Savage Worlds
- Tales of the Reaching Moon #13 : a great Glorantha fanzine, this issue is a special about the West. I already have a copy.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Glorantha stuff for sale
While I have no intention of turning this blog into a marketplace, I am a bit wary of entering the big swirl at eBay. Should any of the items below catch your fancy, email me with an offer (address is on the left side on the blog front page). Everything is in Sweden, and you will have to pay actual shipping costs.
I already have more copies of these items, and some (like the Genertela box) I consider to be the definitive source on the matter.
If none of it finds a buyer I guess I'll have to go to eBay. I do have some more stuff, for DragonQuest, that I also have excess copies of. Those might show up later.
Gods of Glorantha - Scotch tape on box. Cults book have tears by the staples. Otherewise just fine.
Tales of the Reaching Moon #13 - spine have scruff marks.
HeroWars:Roleplaying in Glorantha - Excellent condition.
HeroWars:Narrator's Book Game Mastering in the Hero wars - near mint.
Snake Pipe Hollow RQ3 - Excellent condition. NPC stat booklet photocopy.
Apple Lane RQ3 - In shrink wrap. Some tears in shrink wrap, though.
Ye Book of Tentacles vol.2 - near mint. Minimum shelf wear.
Glorantha:Genertela, crucible of the hero wars - One box corner crushed and taped. Map have tears along creases, lover box have split corner, player's book have torn and creased corner. Otherwise excellent condition.
I already have more copies of these items, and some (like the Genertela box) I consider to be the definitive source on the matter.
If none of it finds a buyer I guess I'll have to go to eBay. I do have some more stuff, for DragonQuest, that I also have excess copies of. Those might show up later.
Gods of Glorantha - Scotch tape on box. Cults book have tears by the staples. Otherewise just fine.
Tales of the Reaching Moon #13 - spine have scruff marks.
HeroWars:Roleplaying in Glorantha - Excellent condition.
HeroWars:Narrator's Book Game Mastering in the Hero wars - near mint.
Snake Pipe Hollow RQ3 - Excellent condition. NPC stat booklet photocopy.
Apple Lane RQ3 - In shrink wrap. Some tears in shrink wrap, though.
Ye Book of Tentacles vol.2 - near mint. Minimum shelf wear.
Glorantha:Genertela, crucible of the hero wars - One box corner crushed and taped. Map have tears along creases, lover box have split corner, player's book have torn and creased corner. Otherwise excellent condition.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
[The Shadow of Pavis] Solar System - what makes it cool?
When I posted about me playing a Gloranthan game, I said I would post something more on the game system. Instead of just telling you how it works, I'm going to try to say why it makes me think it a good match for this game.
One of the features of the so called "Solar System", is that you have something called keys. I guess you could say they are late cousins of the Spiritual Attributes in The Riddle of Steel. For those of you who became none the wiser from that, I'll say they are triggers for things which gain you XP.
So, the fine things with these keys are that you pick them yourself during character generation. This means you get to decide what you want to do to gain XP! Isn't that kind of sweet, eh?
If you have a key like, Key of Hatred of Uz, then every time your character can show some hatred against trolls, you gain XP. Simple.
The second thing I wanted to mention is Pools. In the basic and generic Solar System, you have three pools of points which you can spend on rolls. All abilities are tied to a pool, and chuck in some of those points and you get to roll more dice and have a far better chance of success.
Like you have figured out by now, that means you can decide when something in the game is important for you and make it pretty likely your character get to shine. Also, it is a pretty cool resource management level in the game.
Thirdly, the best name of a game sub-system ever, is Bringing Down The Pain. I love it. Bringing it down is something you can do in a resisted conflict when you are going to fail, and just wont let it pass that easily. Regularly, you can't kill anybody unless you bring the pain. The vanilla conflict, if it's a fight, is a one roll affair to decide who wins.
When the pain is brought down, you go blow by blow in whatever conflict there is. For all those you you who had played a game which glosses over the nitty gritty when you wanted to dive in, this is where it shines. Having a mechanic like this makes it possible to customize when you want to have an involved game system and you just want to move on.
So why would all this make it a good fit for Glorantha? Well, I think that in a world where the mythic and the mundane are juxtaposed like they are in Glorantha, it's crucial to be able to decide when to "zoom in". RQ always had the same scale on things. I means, in a percentile system everything goes from 1 - 100 since that's the maths, right? It always makes it a bit wonky when you try to mix in godlike abilities and the fact that the power scale between a dirt farmer and some of the movers and shakers are so huge. HeroQuest/Wars tried to remedy that with "masteries" for every 20 steps of an ability, and they could then cancel each other out to reduce the system to a manageable level. While that is kind of neat, I think the Solar System manages something similar in a way more too my liking.
Another thing I like with the Solar System is the idea of gift dice. It is a neat way to make communal support a part of the system. In Glorantha you usually can't make much happen without the backing of someone else.
Most important though, I have always wanted to test the system! Now I had, and it was fun.
One of the features of the so called "Solar System", is that you have something called keys. I guess you could say they are late cousins of the Spiritual Attributes in The Riddle of Steel. For those of you who became none the wiser from that, I'll say they are triggers for things which gain you XP.
So, the fine things with these keys are that you pick them yourself during character generation. This means you get to decide what you want to do to gain XP! Isn't that kind of sweet, eh?
If you have a key like, Key of Hatred of Uz, then every time your character can show some hatred against trolls, you gain XP. Simple.
The second thing I wanted to mention is Pools. In the basic and generic Solar System, you have three pools of points which you can spend on rolls. All abilities are tied to a pool, and chuck in some of those points and you get to roll more dice and have a far better chance of success.
Like you have figured out by now, that means you can decide when something in the game is important for you and make it pretty likely your character get to shine. Also, it is a pretty cool resource management level in the game.
Thirdly, the best name of a game sub-system ever, is Bringing Down The Pain. I love it. Bringing it down is something you can do in a resisted conflict when you are going to fail, and just wont let it pass that easily. Regularly, you can't kill anybody unless you bring the pain. The vanilla conflict, if it's a fight, is a one roll affair to decide who wins.
When the pain is brought down, you go blow by blow in whatever conflict there is. For all those you you who had played a game which glosses over the nitty gritty when you wanted to dive in, this is where it shines. Having a mechanic like this makes it possible to customize when you want to have an involved game system and you just want to move on.
So why would all this make it a good fit for Glorantha? Well, I think that in a world where the mythic and the mundane are juxtaposed like they are in Glorantha, it's crucial to be able to decide when to "zoom in". RQ always had the same scale on things. I means, in a percentile system everything goes from 1 - 100 since that's the maths, right? It always makes it a bit wonky when you try to mix in godlike abilities and the fact that the power scale between a dirt farmer and some of the movers and shakers are so huge. HeroQuest/Wars tried to remedy that with "masteries" for every 20 steps of an ability, and they could then cancel each other out to reduce the system to a manageable level. While that is kind of neat, I think the Solar System manages something similar in a way more too my liking.
Another thing I like with the Solar System is the idea of gift dice. It is a neat way to make communal support a part of the system. In Glorantha you usually can't make much happen without the backing of someone else.
Most important though, I have always wanted to test the system! Now I had, and it was fun.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Shadow of Pavis
So have I finally joined the ranks of Gloranthaphiles who have fought their way out of the Big Rubble. Last Wednesday, a day that had sucked from when I got out of bed, ended well with our brave adventurers escaping with their lives, and nothing much more.
Way back when RuneQuest was the game of choice for gloranthan gaming, everyone were gaming in the plains of Prax and in the city of Pavis. Far later everyone shifted their focus to Dragon Pass, but latecomers like me never got to experience Prax. Now I have at least addressed that.
There was a time when whatever somebody posted about on Big Purple, the recommendation was to use Savage Worlds instead. The darling before that had been The Shadow of Yesterday. I have the former, but have never played it. The latter I had become very curious about, due to the above mentioned recommendations. Now we had a setting and a system, we all just waited for the lovechild of that union.
After character generation, we started off in media res, but not in the midst of the adventure. After the adventure, having a drink and retelling our adventure!
We had a very peculiar setup. Our GM knew little of Glorantha, the other player nothing, and I know far too many odd little details thanks to my extensive collection. How do that work, do you ask? Well, you just set up a dramatic and appropriate scene based on general knowledge, and when an NPC asks "Tell me more of how that happened!", you as a player with more setting knowledge can step in and add to the background. It was an interesting way to involve the players. There's often talk about player skill, and I found that having the GM set up a tight spot and then as a player have free reins to develop that situation, both by solving the immediate problem and by fleshing out the setting, was an interesting usage of just player skill.
Our brave adventurers was on an expedition into the Big Rubble, which is a dungeon which can contain anything. We ran into some weird plantmen, i.e. elves, which scared us witless. Exchange of gifts according to some ancient agreement with the Pavis cult took place, as we invented that ritual on the spot. After being amazed by a levitating rock, chewed some narcotic leaves and stolen our gift from the elves, our thief managed to loose it in a cesspit. The local occupation force did not detain us, since we had after all our troubles no treasures to tax.
I think the lessons of this session was how a backward narrative with a swapping of tall tales in an inn worked quite fine to set up short and challenging set pieces for us both to solve and embellish. It was a good way to develop both the setting, story and characters without heavy prep, massive reading assignment on the setting and a nice way to keep the session contained and restrained both in time and space. Really good for a one shot.
We didn't exercise the game system that much, but The Shadow of Yesterday didn't get in the way, and the possibility to tailor the abilities you get XP for was interesting. I might write more on the game system at a later time.
Way back when RuneQuest was the game of choice for gloranthan gaming, everyone were gaming in the plains of Prax and in the city of Pavis. Far later everyone shifted their focus to Dragon Pass, but latecomers like me never got to experience Prax. Now I have at least addressed that.
There was a time when whatever somebody posted about on Big Purple, the recommendation was to use Savage Worlds instead. The darling before that had been The Shadow of Yesterday. I have the former, but have never played it. The latter I had become very curious about, due to the above mentioned recommendations. Now we had a setting and a system, we all just waited for the lovechild of that union.
After character generation, we started off in media res, but not in the midst of the adventure. After the adventure, having a drink and retelling our adventure!
We had a very peculiar setup. Our GM knew little of Glorantha, the other player nothing, and I know far too many odd little details thanks to my extensive collection. How do that work, do you ask? Well, you just set up a dramatic and appropriate scene based on general knowledge, and when an NPC asks "Tell me more of how that happened!", you as a player with more setting knowledge can step in and add to the background. It was an interesting way to involve the players. There's often talk about player skill, and I found that having the GM set up a tight spot and then as a player have free reins to develop that situation, both by solving the immediate problem and by fleshing out the setting, was an interesting usage of just player skill.
Our brave adventurers was on an expedition into the Big Rubble, which is a dungeon which can contain anything. We ran into some weird plantmen, i.e. elves, which scared us witless. Exchange of gifts according to some ancient agreement with the Pavis cult took place, as we invented that ritual on the spot. After being amazed by a levitating rock, chewed some narcotic leaves and stolen our gift from the elves, our thief managed to loose it in a cesspit. The local occupation force did not detain us, since we had after all our troubles no treasures to tax.
I think the lessons of this session was how a backward narrative with a swapping of tall tales in an inn worked quite fine to set up short and challenging set pieces for us both to solve and embellish. It was a good way to develop both the setting, story and characters without heavy prep, massive reading assignment on the setting and a nice way to keep the session contained and restrained both in time and space. Really good for a one shot.
We didn't exercise the game system that much, but The Shadow of Yesterday didn't get in the way, and the possibility to tailor the abilities you get XP for was interesting. I might write more on the game system at a later time.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The question about RuneQuest magic
I came late to the show. RQ had already passed on, and while there was this new game being worked on it took ages and everyone still spoke in RQ terms. Finally I got the new game, HeroWars, and while it was an eye opener it was also one of the worst produced games I've ever seen. But, it did give me some vocabulary to speak about Gloranthan things. Then there was these RQ terms.
One bone of contention is the vocabulary of magic. In HW the different magic paradigms are very different. In RQ3, there are spirit magic, divine magic and then there's sorcery. Even though the latter is supposed to be more powerful and take more study, it's quite similar in game effect to divine magic, which comes from the gods. Then there's the spirit magic, which even though coming from spirits look just like the spells of divine magic. I always wondered why there wasn't just one game mechanic and the metaphysics just background facts.
Now, in RQ2 things were named differently. There was something called battle magic, which I think was not at all that related to battle. I seem to remember something called Rune magic as well. Whatever that was.
When HeroWars spawned its successor, HeroQuest, we suddenly had something called "common magic", which once again mixed up the cosmologies, or at least made me mix it all up. Unless I misremember (I've never owned HQ), it also did change the name of one of the other schools of magic.
So, how on earth do all these related? Why are they all looking so similar when they depict three very different views on the world? With the great Yellow Tome, the new BRP rules, I've been thinking of a Gloranthan game but have hit upon the problem of relating to all those old RQ based books that I have.
Now we go into the territory of Gloranthan high weirdness.
The heroforming of HeroWars seemed a perfect fit for superpowers. The use of theistic feats for skill augmentation would be a simple +20% to a skill if your Devotion skill was higher than the skill rolling for. Animism then would just use the summoning skill, and the sorcery system using the regular spell system.
Do this in any shape or form look or feel like either RQ2/3 or HeroWars/Quest? I have no idea.
Frankly, when I a few weeks ago got hold of the British edition of RQ3 all these questions came back to me again. Anyone know enough of all these schools of magic to tell me how battle, spirit, common and sorcery magic all related? Oh, there were divine and rune magic, and a few others as well. Arrgh!
One bone of contention is the vocabulary of magic. In HW the different magic paradigms are very different. In RQ3, there are spirit magic, divine magic and then there's sorcery. Even though the latter is supposed to be more powerful and take more study, it's quite similar in game effect to divine magic, which comes from the gods. Then there's the spirit magic, which even though coming from spirits look just like the spells of divine magic. I always wondered why there wasn't just one game mechanic and the metaphysics just background facts.
Now, in RQ2 things were named differently. There was something called battle magic, which I think was not at all that related to battle. I seem to remember something called Rune magic as well. Whatever that was.
When HeroWars spawned its successor, HeroQuest, we suddenly had something called "common magic", which once again mixed up the cosmologies, or at least made me mix it all up. Unless I misremember (I've never owned HQ), it also did change the name of one of the other schools of magic.
So, how on earth do all these related? Why are they all looking so similar when they depict three very different views on the world? With the great Yellow Tome, the new BRP rules, I've been thinking of a Gloranthan game but have hit upon the problem of relating to all those old RQ based books that I have.
Now we go into the territory of Gloranthan high weirdness.
The heroforming of HeroWars seemed a perfect fit for superpowers. The use of theistic feats for skill augmentation would be a simple +20% to a skill if your Devotion skill was higher than the skill rolling for. Animism then would just use the summoning skill, and the sorcery system using the regular spell system.
Do this in any shape or form look or feel like either RQ2/3 or HeroWars/Quest? I have no idea.
Frankly, when I a few weeks ago got hold of the British edition of RQ3 all these questions came back to me again. Anyone know enough of all these schools of magic to tell me how battle, spirit, common and sorcery magic all related? Oh, there were divine and rune magic, and a few others as well. Arrgh!
Friday, April 8, 2011
[From A to Z in Kalamar] Hobgoblins
On Tellene there are one race which in addition to humans, elves and dwarves have managed to build a civilization. I quite like the fact that it happen to be the hobgoblins.
Having humans in funny suits is not all that interesting, and the kind of anthopology 101 that Glorantha becomes in it's worse moments is probably not that fun either. Well, the latter might not be true if you like to read more than play, and enjoy canon debates, but let's ignore that for now.
So, hobgoblins are something special, and quite interesting without the above mentioned excesses. Two things define hobgoblins, and they are enough to build an alien enough society to be fun. Those two things are strength and honour. While strength is kind of self explanatory, it is very focused. It means you have to have the power, since power is strength, to control the most precious of all, someones life. Being able to kill, but not necessarily to do it, is a defining factor in the hobgoblin culture. The second one, honour, is all about doing something the right way. Exercising influence, or proving your ability is honourable. Now combining that with the value of strength is interesting.
Imagine you are fighting a hobgoblin, and you are actually a character of some standing. Should your weapon break, or you fall, your hobgoblin opponent might actually stop and yell to his subordinate to provide you with a weapon so the fight can continue! This makes me think of intelligent gamers who suddenly stricken by the brain damage that is alignment rules, will sometimes kill defenseless kobolds or orcish females and cubs "because they are evil". What's the honour in that?
Take one trait, and then another which seem to be slightly ajar from the first one and make them the basis of a demi-human culture and I think you'll have something interesting on your hands. How hobgoblins are treated in KoK is one of the subtler things I like with this setting.
Having humans in funny suits is not all that interesting, and the kind of anthopology 101 that Glorantha becomes in it's worse moments is probably not that fun either. Well, the latter might not be true if you like to read more than play, and enjoy canon debates, but let's ignore that for now.
So, hobgoblins are something special, and quite interesting without the above mentioned excesses. Two things define hobgoblins, and they are enough to build an alien enough society to be fun. Those two things are strength and honour. While strength is kind of self explanatory, it is very focused. It means you have to have the power, since power is strength, to control the most precious of all, someones life. Being able to kill, but not necessarily to do it, is a defining factor in the hobgoblin culture. The second one, honour, is all about doing something the right way. Exercising influence, or proving your ability is honourable. Now combining that with the value of strength is interesting.
Imagine you are fighting a hobgoblin, and you are actually a character of some standing. Should your weapon break, or you fall, your hobgoblin opponent might actually stop and yell to his subordinate to provide you with a weapon so the fight can continue! This makes me think of intelligent gamers who suddenly stricken by the brain damage that is alignment rules, will sometimes kill defenseless kobolds or orcish females and cubs "because they are evil". What's the honour in that?
Take one trait, and then another which seem to be slightly ajar from the first one and make them the basis of a demi-human culture and I think you'll have something interesting on your hands. How hobgoblins are treated in KoK is one of the subtler things I like with this setting.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Imagine meeting a... duck in Rappan Athuk!
One thing I really appreciated was how Glorantha had a very cool mix of high and low. I put that in past tense, since in the new HeroWars/HeroQuest era (and that bone dry anthropology 101 book, Thunder Rebels) way to much energy have been spent on making it a superhero game with a social context.
The place names was one thing which always made me smile. Those are still around, luckily. Sadly the great issue 16 of Tales of the Reaching Moon have been superseded. I thought it was a great idea to include things like the Red Square and other cold war era spoofs in the lunar empire. Gaming should be about making fun, right?
Anyway.
There is a creature which for some really nails the silly aspect of Glorantha. Naturally I speak of the anthropomorphic ducks. While they are silly (they are!), they therefor have quite a potential to pack a lot of emotional punch when you play them straight. I have always loved the idea of Death Drakes. A small, beaked, fellow who worship the god of Death and Honour. A small, beaked, fellow who kicks serious ass. A small, beaked, fellow you don't want to walk past your farm because this affinity with Death makes your chickens keel over. A small, beaked, fellow who's affinity with Death, and stay dead, makes him invaluable as a hunter of undead. Where would such a fellow show up if not in a dungeon riddled with undead and temples to Orcus?
Imagine meeting a duck, in Rappan Athuk!
The place names was one thing which always made me smile. Those are still around, luckily. Sadly the great issue 16 of Tales of the Reaching Moon have been superseded. I thought it was a great idea to include things like the Red Square and other cold war era spoofs in the lunar empire. Gaming should be about making fun, right?
Anyway.
There is a creature which for some really nails the silly aspect of Glorantha. Naturally I speak of the anthropomorphic ducks. While they are silly (they are!), they therefor have quite a potential to pack a lot of emotional punch when you play them straight. I have always loved the idea of Death Drakes. A small, beaked, fellow who worship the god of Death and Honour. A small, beaked, fellow who kicks serious ass. A small, beaked, fellow you don't want to walk past your farm because this affinity with Death makes your chickens keel over. A small, beaked, fellow who's affinity with Death, and stay dead, makes him invaluable as a hunter of undead. Where would such a fellow show up if not in a dungeon riddled with undead and temples to Orcus?
Imagine meeting a duck, in Rappan Athuk!
Friday, October 8, 2010
How I love and hate Glorantha
I have a fairly extensive collection of Gloranthan gamebooks, fanzines and other esoterica. Once I was totally entranced by this world, but for reasons not of that world I fell out of love with it.
Now a few days ago I once again became amazed by the enormous amount of "gameable" stuff there is in there. So many cultures are strange mixes of real world cultures, but with that extra twist that makes you want to invent reasons for how that extra twist came to be. Put that power in the hands of players, and I think you could have a jolly good time.
Since I hadn't read about things in a long while I got back on the main Gloranthan discussion list to ask about a few things which had gotten muddled in my brain. Guess what happened? I totally fell out of love of it all again.
Having people tell you from up on high how things really are, that is a killer for all kinds of enthusiasm. The world enemies of Glorantha as a game world always seems to be its official publishers...
*sigh*
Now a few days ago I once again became amazed by the enormous amount of "gameable" stuff there is in there. So many cultures are strange mixes of real world cultures, but with that extra twist that makes you want to invent reasons for how that extra twist came to be. Put that power in the hands of players, and I think you could have a jolly good time.
Since I hadn't read about things in a long while I got back on the main Gloranthan discussion list to ask about a few things which had gotten muddled in my brain. Guess what happened? I totally fell out of love of it all again.
Having people tell you from up on high how things really are, that is a killer for all kinds of enthusiasm. The world enemies of Glorantha as a game world always seems to be its official publishers...
*sigh*
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
I have too much choice
I have been thinking the last week about how much I want to start a new game. We have been getting regular sessions going every Wednesday with indie games, lately it's been 3:16, and since it is a game with a time limit I have been thinking of what's up next.
My biggest problem have been to pick one game. I have too much to choose from! Quite a problem to have, eh?
My latest idea, which might be void and null tomorrow, is to use the big fat tome of BRP to play in second age Glorantha. It would feel kind of fitting to use that game system, since I have only tried the seriously broken Hero Wars, and BRP was after all born as a gloranthan system.
Why I'm not thinking of using MRQ? Well. I don't own it, and I need any more to choose from, do I?
My biggest problem have been to pick one game. I have too much to choose from! Quite a problem to have, eh?
My latest idea, which might be void and null tomorrow, is to use the big fat tome of BRP to play in second age Glorantha. It would feel kind of fitting to use that game system, since I have only tried the seriously broken Hero Wars, and BRP was after all born as a gloranthan system.
Why I'm not thinking of using MRQ? Well. I don't own it, and I need any more to choose from, do I?
Monday, December 14, 2009
Why I love and hate Glorantha
Today I was moving around some of the piles of gaming fanzines I have collected. Glorantha is a game world where most of the interesting things for a long time was published in fanzines, and not by a regular rpg publisher. It's happened a few times before, Warhammer FRP is another good example. Now I found my copies of the Pavis and Big Rubble Companion volumes III and V. Naturally (I am a crazy completist) I felt that maybe it was time to try to track down copies of volume I, II and IV.
For those of you who didn't knew about this wonderful little creation I'd suggest you visit the excellent site Ian Thomson have created in support of the magazine. There you will also find the reason I hate Glorantha.
Did you notice where Ian wrote about his stuff being superseded by Greg's latest thinking on the matter? That drove me nuts. Gobs of cool and gameable stuff was produced, and often with a dash of humour. Much later it would become clear that Greg had been thinking about it, and it would be declared false on a panel at a Glorantha convention or in a much later product from Issaries which usually looked far less like a professionally produced product than the fanzine where the idea first appeared.
Now, Glorantha is Greg's creation, and it is his to do with as he feels like. But, for someone who just wanted to play a game, and not wanting to run into "canon conflicts" with other gamers it was a mess. I have nothing against Greg personally, I have never met him, but this aspect of him as the Creator grated on me. Some Glorantha fans have made it a verb, so to contradict an old fact is now known as Greging. I sometimes, depending on mood, find that hilarious. sometimes I just groan.
The world Greg created contains some very evocative stuff, like the tragedy of the hero Arkat, and the very strange and truly alien trolls. I love that guy Arkat! One of these days I will just try to ignore the hundreds and hundreds of pages of stuff on Glorantha I have on my shelves and just game the hell out of it. I hope.
For those of you who didn't knew about this wonderful little creation I'd suggest you visit the excellent site Ian Thomson have created in support of the magazine. There you will also find the reason I hate Glorantha.
Did you notice where Ian wrote about his stuff being superseded by Greg's latest thinking on the matter? That drove me nuts. Gobs of cool and gameable stuff was produced, and often with a dash of humour. Much later it would become clear that Greg had been thinking about it, and it would be declared false on a panel at a Glorantha convention or in a much later product from Issaries which usually looked far less like a professionally produced product than the fanzine where the idea first appeared.
Now, Glorantha is Greg's creation, and it is his to do with as he feels like. But, for someone who just wanted to play a game, and not wanting to run into "canon conflicts" with other gamers it was a mess. I have nothing against Greg personally, I have never met him, but this aspect of him as the Creator grated on me. Some Glorantha fans have made it a verb, so to contradict an old fact is now known as Greging. I sometimes, depending on mood, find that hilarious. sometimes I just groan.
The world Greg created contains some very evocative stuff, like the tragedy of the hero Arkat, and the very strange and truly alien trolls. I love that guy Arkat! One of these days I will just try to ignore the hundreds and hundreds of pages of stuff on Glorantha I have on my shelves and just game the hell out of it. I hope.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
What are Ken Rolston up to these days? Making huge computer games!
I just read an article on Gamasutra about the history of "CRPG"s. That alphabet soup is what you call roleplaying gaming when they show up on a computer. Most of them don't allow much roleplaying, but that's just to be expected.
The article goes though all the big classics in the genre and even classifies them based on their ancestry. Interesting idea. Among the other data collected on the games they also note down who designed what. I already knew Ken St. Andre designed Wastelands, but now I also know what Ken Rolston does these days. He designed Morrowind and Oblivion! Those who remember Ken's role in the Gloranthan Renaissance at Avalon Hill probably have fond memories of his work.
I still remember when Daggerfall was new, and all of us played it like obsessed. The game was huge, and you could basically live your life in that big world. We also found out that you sometimes had gotten a bad rep in a town, and had to move to another one, post haste. I loved that. How I wish Ken could be designing a Gloranthan computer game. That would get me into computer gaming again!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Endurance sports in fantasy
After a weekend of motorsport I have started to think of how to import the "Le Mans experience" into a fantasy rpg campaign. Once a long time ago I had all the boxes Avalon Hill put out for RuneQuest. One of those were a thing called Monster Coliseum, which if I remember correctly included some kind of Ben Hur style racing arena. The box didn't contain much that caught my fancy, so I sold it and kept just the Glorantha boxes. Now I'm wondering if it might have contained something useful after all.
For a fantasy world to feel "real", I think there are somethings which has to be there. Two of those things are sports and religion. For the latter it is usually present in weird cults and as a source of spells for "clerics", which often is just wizards with another name. The former is, as far as I know, more scarce. Sport is something which means a lot to many people all over our world, and it involves a lot of people from the very casual level up to those who are professional athletes. It's not that odd to expect some measure of that devotion to sport in secondary worlds, is it?
Personally I only care for motorsports, which in most fantasy settings will be a bit hard to implement. But, the Monster Coliseum got me thinking. Now, I'm not going to talk about futuristic settings since they are obviously more easy to adapt to phenomena in our world, and fantasy gaming is the major part of gaming. Taking a queue from the enormously popular and truly epic classic Ben Hur, I think low tech sports probably could be the focus of a whole campaign without it being boring! The first thing you think of will probably be arena gladiatorial fighting (like the classic Arena of Khazan from Flying Buffalo for T&T, but since I'm a race fan I'd prefer some sport that is less focused on fighting.
For those of you who don't know what "Le Mans" means, I can summarize the idea like this. You take a car and try to make it run as fast as you can, as far as you can, for 24 hours. It will take not only speed, but also a lot of endurance both by man and machine. Doesn't that sounds like something that could be used in gaming? How about a hunt, going on for many days? How about trials and tribulations along a messaging or mailing service, like the Pony Express in the Old West? How about some arena racing, like in Ben Hur?
I'm beginning to see a lot of interesting campaign possibilities, all having elements of competition and endurance. Not only will there be interesting to explore the wilderness outside the dungeon, it will be an interesting way to roleplay interpersonal conflicts and maybe even some resource management for players who like things like that. If you want to go crazy, you could even have a racetrack, in the dungeon. I'm seriously tempted, let me tell you! I'll be all happy after getting my racing fix for a long time after this weekend. We'll see if it will show up in my campaign. What about yours? If you have included any sports, then I'd love to hear how it went. Race On!
Monday, June 8, 2009
How We Came to Live Here - new school adventures in a southwest that never was
Last night we had a session of a distinctly new school game. How We Came to Live Here, by Brennan Taylor. What's making this game tick is a communally created village, with inside and outside threats. There's no “story”, so it's very much a sandbox way of playing. In play there will be two “game masters” so to speak, one playing outside threats and the other inside threats. The scenes are created alternately by inside and outside threats and the players of the heroes. That mean that if you want to explore the interplay between a hero and a NPC you helped create when you created the village, you can set up scenes that way. One round of scenes, or the end of the predetermined track of dice pools, is the end of the session and a period of recuperation, which might be months, take place before the next session. IT reminds me slightly of Pendragon, with its emphasis on dynastic play.
That being some overview of the rules I'd like to say something about the setting. It's supposed to be based upon the cultures of some native American cultures in present day south west USA. There's spirits, corn, a beautiful but dangerous land. In our game we have turkey eaters, a cactus woman and weird non-peoples who wants to eat our livers as our outside threats. Our game master (well, the guy who set us up with the game) have emphasized the props a lot so we have made food and other physical and tactile items a strong part of our game. It's very evocative!
Yesterday's session my character traveled to the spirit world, and I got to bargain with animal spirits and give gifts of servitude and offerings to them to get what I wanted. Even though I'm a big fan of Glorantha I have never played in Glorantha myself, but this felt like I've always imagined a good session of myth working in Glorantha to be. Very cool.
I don't have much to say about the game really. The system is using Fudge dice with a IGO/UGO attack/defend mechanic where you bring traits into play to enlarge your pools. Nothing fancy, but it works. It's a different experience from a more traditional rpg, since nobody knows what the session will be about until we start framing scenes. You could say that it's more about telling stories together by tossing your friends into a situation and then see how that situation shapes the persons and society. Have you ever felt that your heroes were suspiciously detached from their society, then this game might be for you. I'm not sure I'd say I'm a fan, but it is always interesting with games that makes you experience new dimensions in gaming.
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