Lockdown Challenge Day 16: Hyborian Age Roleplaying

Jason Durall is a prolific writer of RPG material. For me (beyond the fact that he is a good friend), he’s above all the author of the invaluable “Big Gold Book”, the hefty 2008 tome that consistently presented the core Basic Role-Playing System engine and many of its optional rules in one single place. He’s also the line developer of Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of [that was a long name], a pulpy S&S game set in a lovingly accurate version of Robert E. Howard’s Hyboria – not a surprise here, as Jason is a long-time fan of the Texan writer’s barbarian hero.

At the time of the BGB, or slightly earlier, Jason had his own homebrew BRP game set in Hyboria (Hyborian Age Roleplaying). He was kind enough to share a few notes with his friends, so here is a character generated for Hyborian Age Roleplaying!

EUSEBIUS

Nickname: the Lithe

Gender: Male

Age: 23

Homeland: Bossonian

Occupation: Thief

STR 8  – Effort 40%

CON 17 – Stamina 85%

SIZ 11 – Damage bonus None

INT 16 – Idea 80%

POW 11 – Luck 55%

DEX 16 – Dexterity 80%

APP 13 – Charisma 65%

Hit points 14

Magic points 11

Fate points 3

Distinctive feature: Musical speech

Weapons

Poniard 45% Dmg 1D4+2+db

Cutlass 35% Dmg 1D6+2+db

Throwing dagger 35% Dmg 1D4+½db

Armour

Leather Jerkin 1D4

Languages

Bossonian

Aquilonian

Skills

Bargain 35%

Climb 80%

Conceal 45%

Disguise 55%

Dodge 52%

Evaluate 35%

Fast Talk 35%

Gamble 5%

Hide 60%

Insight 35%

Jump 25%

Listen 45%

Move Quietly 20%

Natural World 65%

Navigate 10%

Orate 25%

Physick 30%

Pick Lock 45%

Repair 64%

Ride 35%

Sailing 15%

Scent/Taste 15%

Search 60%

Swim 25%

Throw 25%

Track 30%

Trap 5%

Lockdown Challenge Day 15: L’Era di Zargo

Marco Alberto Donadoni is an Italian boardgame designer whose fantasy wargame Zargo’s Lords was quite popular in Europe. Three other games, Zargo’s Lords II, Blue Stones and Zargos, were set in the same fantasy universe, which as a result grew into something quite developed and with a real “in world” depth – think Glorantha albeit on a smaller scale. Where Glorantha shines because of the myths, Zargo’s universe shines because of its unique races.

It was then only natural that a group of Italian fans should decide to create a fantasy role-playing game set in Zargo’s universe. Rather than creating their own system, the team, led by Tito Leati, developed a retro-clone of the most popular frp game, which I must say is really satisfactory; obviously, the main interest of this frp game is that L’Era di Zargo features the beloved races from the boardgames.

My favourite being the Arachnids, I am creating an Arachnid PC for today’s Lockdown Challenge.

Name: Siaj
Race: Arachnid
Sex: Female
Class: Shaman
Level: 1
Alignment: Neutral

CON 11 (0)
DEX 11 (0)
STR 9 (0)
CHA 14 (+1)
INT 17 (+2)
WIS 15 (+1) --> +2 (racial modifier)

Hit points: 8
Fate points: 2

Armour: Leather armour (+2) & Small wooden shield (+1)
Armour Class: 13

Weapon: Quarterstaff (dmg 1D6)

Spells
1 first-level spell + 1 improvised spell per day

Rough Guide To Glamour

The Jonstown Compendium is a programme that lets you publish your own Gloranthan PDF publications on the OBS online platform (i.e., DriveThruRPG) provided you respect a small number of constraints that Chaosium has set. Here is the full story.

There have been a number of successful publications, but the biggie I was waiting for with anticipation was the new version of the Rough Guide to Glamour, the wonderful capital city of the Lunar Empire.

There had already been an earlier publication of the Rough Guide to Glamour, in 1997-98 (one with a blue cover, one with a red cover; I have the latter, which is slightly more complete). So, what is the difference between the 20th century version and the latest one? Here is what Nick Brooke, the editor of the Rough Guide to Glamour, has shared on social media:

“The 1998 edition of the Rough Guide to Glamour contained about 29,000 words. We have cut out a third of the book: sections either reprinted in or made redundant by the Glorantha Sourcebook (e.g.: The Lunar Pantheon, Dart Competitions & New Year Ceremony) and sections primarily written to support the freeform Reaching Moon Megacorp's Life of Moonson (eg: Recent History, a list of Sultanates, Provinces etc. and their rulers). So there are 20,000 words from the old Guide remaining.

The Jonstown Compendium edition of the Guide contains more than 50,000 words.

Most major sections are significantly expanded (e.g.: the Gazetteer is 60% longer, detailing 117 locations in Outer Glamour; the Rough Guide itself has two new pages on Holidays and Festivals). We have incorporated material from the Guide to Glorantha (a full write-up of the Silver Shadow Sultanate, with a new map by Colin Driver), from Tales of the Reaching Moon (Cult of the Red Emperor, Lunar Government, Satraps & Sultans, Letter from a Monopolist, A Visit to Glamour), and from the epic Yolanelathon (three interlinked stories by MOB and myself, presented at various conventions in the nineties but never collected under one cover). There is a new 4,000 word write-up of the Cult of Glamour by Jeff Richard, plus obscure rumours, fragments and oddities scattered throughout (e.g.: Antiquities of Old Glamour, Red Empire, Pelorian Rhapsody, Annual Dinner of the Lunar College of Magic).”

So grab you credit card, head to DriveThruRPG, and purchase this magnificent guide to the capital city of the civilised world!

Lockdown Challenge Day 14: Everway

Everway is a rules-light role-playing game by Jonathan Tweet (of 13th Age fame) that hit the market in 1995, at a time when rules-heavy games were the norm. Published way ahead of its time, Everway did not encounter much success – which is a pity: Everway was sold with 90 cards† showing cryptic scenes, which I believe a referee stimulated by improvisation could take really advantage of.

†and I believe 90 more could be purchased separately.



In Everway you play a ‘spherewalker’, a hero able to travel from plane to plane; some do so because they are on a quest, some others because they are gathering knowledge for the Library of All Worlds, some others yet simply because they are restless adventurers.


Character generation is really quick if you just go by the book. In reality, you’re supposed to discuss your character with the referee, going through a whole set of Q&A, but well, this was just for the Lockdown Challenge.

Name: Palimpsestic Vagabond
Motive: Knowledge

there is a different set of tarot-like cards used for character generation
(to determine Virtue, Fault, and Fate)

Virtue: Fertility (growth)
Fault: The Griffin— reversed (cowardice)
Fate: War (great effort vs effort misspent)
Power: Walking Unseen (cost: 2)
Magic: 0
Air: 5 (brilliant)
Fire: 3 (average)
Earth: 4 (robust)
Water: 6 (empathic)

an Everway character sheet

Lockdown Challenge Day 13: Ebon Fantasy

I have already waxed lyrically about Sarah Newton’s Monsters & Magic— “Old School Fantasy, New School Play”, her role-playing game that aims at replicating and emulating the Old School fantasy role-playing experience whilst using modern mechanics. Well, this mechanic does have a name, it is called the “Effect Engine”. Since the Effect Engine has been released under the Open Gaming Licence, other people have used it, most notably Ebon Gryphon Games. The latter have published two absolutely fantastic books, Aperita Arcana and Collectanea Creaturae, which add lots and lots of options to the core Monsters & Magic rules.

Ebon Gryphon Games are currently gathering all those improvements under a single heading—at the moment tentatively called Ebon Fantasy.

I am using the draft version 0.90 from 29 December 2018 (no idea if there’s a more recent one) to generate today’s character.

Name: Ebenezer Grubb
Level: 1
Kindred: Halfling
Size: Small
Background: Farmer
Class: Arbiter
Speciality: Commander

STR 9 (−1)
DEX 11
CON 12 (+1)
INT 13 (+1)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 17 (+6)

Prime Attribute: CHA
Advancement Trait: Quick-Witted
Proficiency Bonus: +3

Mental Defence: 13, resilience die D8
Physical Defence: 11, resilience die D6

Traits
Racial Traits
Childlike Appearance, Made for Skulking, Oblique Speech, Protean Form

Background Traits
Farmer’s Knowledge, A Little Dirt Never Hurt

Basic Traits
Calming Presence, People Reading, Taunts & Insults, Voice of Reason

Lockdown Challenge Day Twelve: Devâstra Réincarnation

Devâstra – Réincarnation is a French role-playing game that allows you to play in a high fantasy version of ancient India called Prithivî.

When I say “high fantasy”, I may be understating the power of the player characters… in Devâstra – Réincarnation, Prithivî is under the threat of the Asuras, and the players are supposed to play the roles of young Avatars wielding magical sentient weapons whose destiny it is to prevent the Asuras from reaching their goal of world domination! Therefore, a player does not have one character sheet, but two: the player character, and their Devâstra – their magical sentient weapon.
Despite being a fully-fledged role-playing game with quality illustrations and professional layout, Devâstra – Réincarnation can be downloaded for free from the publisher’s web-site.

My Avatar: Shesha Nāgarāja
Dharma: Altruistic

Traits
Body 2
Movement 4
Spirit 2
Charisma 4
Soul 2

Chakra 3

Attributes
Hit points 24

• Depleted (0-6):  penalty of +2 to any Body/Movement rolls
• Injured (7-12): penalty of +1 to any Body/Movement rolls
• Uninjured (13-24): no penalty

Âtman 18 [basically magic points]
Confidence 4

Karmas [Karmas are special abilities that have both a positive and a negative in-game aspect]
 - Destiny
 - Dharma Balance
 - Ksatriya

Skills
Athletics 1
Dodge 2
Etiquette 1
Intimidation 1
Missile weapons 4
Perception 1
Plant Lore 1
Unarmed combat 1
Yoga 3

My Devâstra: the Serpent Bow of the Nāga
Damage 2
Protection 0
Bonus to Etiquette
Bonus to Intimidation
Âtman 6

Powers [these are to be created by the player using the guidelines in the rulebook]
Level 1: Serpent arrow
Level 2: Deflecting missile
Level 3: Earth-shattering bolt

Lockdown Challenge Day Eleven: Outlaws of the Water Margin

My son managed to coerce me into watching Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. I won’t comment on the films because they are beyond the scope of ‘normal’ cinephilia by their colossal budget and by the all-pervasive hype surrounding them. No, what interests me is the sheer number of roles in these films. I do not have the exact figure, but I’d say there are about 40 main characters, which is much more than even the ensemble cast of Short Cuts (approximately 25 protagonists). With their almost 50 characters I claim the Avengers films are more akin to Chinese Classical Novels than to the standard ‘Boy Meets Girl’ Western kind of fiction. The Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢), one of the Four Great Classical Novels, has 40 protagonists and more than four hundred additional characters. Famously, the Water Margin (水滸傳) tells the story (or rather the intertwined stories) of the 108 outlaws from the Marshes of Mount Liáng.

Which brings us to today’s role-playing game of choice for the Lockdown Challenge: Paul Mason’s Outlaws of the Water Margin, a heroic adventure role-playing game, which –alas!– was never professionally published (my copy is a printout from the 1998 PDF) – if you are interested, my full review of the game is available here.

There are two methods for character generation: using one of the many templates, or going through the various steps one by one. Let us create a character via the step-by-step method. The character will be very much shaped by the background choices made by the player, enabling them to play the PC they had in mind.

Age: 24 ➡️ born during the Original Plenty era (元豐), sign: Yáng Water Horse
Natural gifts points 11
Experience points 18

Name: Third Son Bāo
Gender: Male
Size: 0
ENERGY: 7 ➡️ I spend 12 experience points to increase it to 10
BODY: 7 ➡️ I spend 6 natural gift points to increase it to 9

Abilities
Basic Aptitudes
Endurance +1 (3 natural gift points)

Specific Aptitudes
Deception +1 (1 natural gift point)
Intimidation +1 (1 natural gift point)

Unknown aptitudes
??? +1
??? +1
??? +1

Skills
Drinking +1 (1 experience point)
Swimming +1 (1 experience point)
Thievery +2 (3 experience points)
Tracking +1 (1 experience point)

Background
Provenance
Country ➡️ Fighting +1, Animal Lore +1, Plant Lore +1, Wilderness Lore +1, Manners −1

Occupation: Boatman
Status +1
Fishing +1
Rowing +1
Shipcraft +1
Swimming +1 ➡️ total +2

Lockdown Challenge Day Ten: Bravoure & Infortune

Today, Bravoure & Infortune, a French generic role-playing game that has been suggested to me by fellow OSR enthusiast Snorri. Nothing revolutionary, but it is solid, the PDF has a nice layout, and it’s free.

The idea behind this game’s character generation system is to have a firm idea of one’s player character and to choose keywords accordingly (only the characteristics are set, everything else is freeform). My PC is going to be a dangerous demonologist who spends his time in dank dungeons, donning his dearest dark dress and dealing with demons.

Name: Derek the Dour

Vigour 2
Agility 1
Spirit 3
Aura 4

Traits
Demonology 1
Hide Aura 1
Second Sight 1

Items
Sacrificial Knife 1
Tome of True Names 1

Asset
Shady Dealings

Shortcoming
Agoraphobia

Lockdown Challenge Day Nine: Almogàvers

cover by Albert Monteys

Almogàvers by Enric Grau is a historical role-playing game published in 1995 by Joc Internacional, the Catalan publisher who also published the Spanish translation of RuneQuest 3. The 90s were a period during which stat-heavy, gritty RPGs were definitely the norm. The reason I mention this in this short introduction is to make you realise that upon reading Almogàvers I got the impression that it was written with the assumption that RQ wasn’t gritty enough. You know… RQ is jokingly referred to as the RPG in which you get your left leg chopped off. Well, in Almogàvers you get your left leg chopped off and then you bleed out to death because your femoral artery was severed. Or you get an infection and no physician is available to cure it, your leg gangrenes, and you die in terrible pain. There are actually three large tables (in true 90s fashion) to figure out how you die of a major wound. I love ‘em.

As implied by the name of the game, you play an Almogavar, one of the many Catalan mercenaries who merrily terrorised the coasts of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century under their famous battle cry of Desperta Ferro! (“Awake iron!”). Apparently, their legacy lives on in Greece where a popular saying still goes as “may the revenge of the Catalans fall on you” and in Bulgaria where “son of a Catalan” means, well, you can figure it out by yourself.

I believe the game enjoyed some popularity in Spain since it was supported by several adventures in Líder, the most successful Spanish gaming magazine of the 90s.

I am going to create a standard warrior. Characteristics are rolled using 3D6, re-rolling any ‘1’s and assigned to a chosen characteristic without the possibility of changing one’s mind if a better score appears later; e.g., I roll 1, 4, 5, re-roll the 1, getting a 5, so 4, 5, 5 = 14 for my first characteristic. Do I assign it to my favourite characteristic? What if I get a better roll later?
I think this is an extremely nicely thought-out method that could be ported to any 3D6 stats-based role-playing game.

Almogàvers makes a difference between Characteristics and Attributes. The former are used for skill point purchase and advancement, the latter for what you’d call ‘derived attributes’ in most games (hit points, damage bonus, etc.). Both are rolled using the method described above; however, the 6-18 results are transformed into adjectives for the Attributes.

PERSONAL DATA
Name: Jeroni
Profession: Warrior
Social class: Soldier
Height: 1m60
Weight: 60kg
Sex: Male
Age: 27 (--> 180 character creation points)

CHARACTERISTICS
Dexterity 15
Agility 8   Speed modifier +4
Constitution 12
Memory 10
Perception 16
Willpower 13

ATTRIBUTES
Strength Normal   Damage inflicted 2D6
Size Small
Appearance Very ugly
Charisma Normal

Wound Resistance
A 7
B 10
C 15

Reputation 0 (Normal)

SKILLS (I am only writing down the ones in which I’ve invested character creation points)
Warrior skills; all start at “Novice” level
Shield (Agility skill) Novice+ (cost: 16 points)
Sword (Dexterity skill) Initiate (cost: 40 points)
Bow (Dexterity skill) Initiate (cost: 40 points)
Dodge (Agility skill) Initiate− (cost: 45 points)
Ride (Agility skill) Novice (no point invested)

Non-warrior skills I’m also investing points in; all start at “Ignorant” level
Hide (Perception) Novice+ (cost: 36 points)
Search (Perception) Neophyte− (cost: 3 points)

Aaaand then you roll 3D6 to get your starting money and purchase equipment but sorry I am not going through all those super accurate tables with armour being purchased on a per location basis. The interesting thing is that damage is based on the character’s strength, not on weapon type– the latter indicates the kind of wounds are inflicted. And we’re back to losing legs and bleeding to death!

Lockdown Challenge Day Eight: Yoon-Suin

Yoon-Suin is an Old School Renaissance (OSR) sandbox setting that describes a dark, decadent, and dangerous Oriental setting. Far, far from the Disneyfied version of the Orient usually depicted in ‘Oriental’ role-playing game supplements, Yoon-Suin emphasises the moist and the corrupt aspects of the Orient; ancient temples overgrown with venomous vines, opium-addicted landlords lecherously gazing at lackadaisical lasses – the setting is much more reminiscent of The Royal Way by André Malraux than of the Kai Lung stories by Ernest Bramah.

Although not an RPG per se, Yoon-Suin does have a character generation chapter – it’s even the very first chapter. Characters generated following the steps therein are expected to be compatible with most OSR role-playing games.

In true OSR fashion, I have created my Yoon-Suin player character via the random tables. Even the details of the deity have been randomly rolled.

Name: TUI RUL of the Topaz Isles
Geographic Origin: Seaborne Nomad
Race: Human
Background: Ordinary Parents
Age: 19

Character Class: Holy-Man
Level: 1

STR 12
DEX 10
CON 15
INT 11
WIS 16
CHA 10

Hit Points: 6
Armour: None
Weapon: Bow and arrows

Deity: the Elephant Goddess
Alignment: Neutral
Spheres of Influence: Creativity, Love
Sacrificial Rites: Invertebrates
Holy Colour: Red
Spells: 3 first-level spells

Lockdown Challenge Day Seven: Electric Bastionland

The Sinuous Strands of Synchronicity — or was that the Cryptic Chains of Coincidence? Anyway. I’ve selected Into The Odd as my role-playing game of choice for instalment No.4 of the Lockdown Challenge. And I’ve just discovered that Electric Bastionland, a more advanced version of Into The Odd, with more careers†, and especially more background detail about the mysterious city of Bastion, is available for free on the author’s blog.

I have a feeling that the game is more clearly rooted in the dieselpunk or social science fiction genre now. We also know why the adventurers do what they do— they collectively own money to a vicious loanshark or debt collector and they must delve into the most dangerous areas of Bastionland to scavenge valuable stuff to sell it and pay off their debts. (Note: I can see a cool re-skin of the game set on Jakku where player characters are scavengers trying to purchase their way out of that shithole of a planet).

† Appropriately, careers are now called failed careers

Jaynee, Stu, and the paper-boy
(Accident by Jan-Wes on deviantart)

Name: JAYNEE
Failed career: Newspaper Intern
STR 13
DEX 9
CHA 13
Hit Protection 3
Loose change £1
Equipment: a notepad
Unarmed attack: D4 damage

Lackey: Stu
STR 6
DEX 6
CHA 6
Hit Protection 1
Weapon: Crowbar (D6)

Animal: a slow disowned lizard (2HP)

A paper-boy that has nowhere else to go (DEX 15, 2HP) blindly obeys me.

Lockdown Challenge Day Six: Call of Cthulhu 6th edition

The player character I’m generating today is actually not really for the Lockdown Contest... I genuinely need a new Call of Cthulhu 6th edition investigator, since mine died during the last session.

We have been playing a mash-up of Masks of Nyarlathotep and of Horror on the Orient Express since 2015 and, believe it or not, we are halfway between Kenya and China, and I’ve only lost two investigators. Meaning the one I’m generating today is only the third one. Fellow CoC enthusiasts who have been through the many horrors of the Masks campaign will know what I’m talking about.

via British Hong Kong FB

Behold, then, William Tratman. William works in the Hong Hong Police, more precisely for the Water Police, specialising in anti-piracy work.
William is stationed at the Water Police Station at Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀) but his service is usually aboard a sailing gun-boat.
William has been corresponding with his friend Cedric Brackenbury [my previous character] and knows about Jackson Elias and the whole backstory behind the Masks campaign.

Name: William Tratman
Occupation: Detective
Birthplace: Durham
Sex: Male
Age: 39

STR 16
DEX 12
INT 13
CON 12
APP 12
POW 15
SIZ 12
SAN 75
EDU 16
Damage bonus +1D4

Sanity points 75
Magic points 15
Hit points 12

Investigator Skills†

Bureaucracy 40%
Language, Own (English) 80%
Language Other (Cantonese) 50%
Archaeology 5%
Occult 30%

Forensics 30%
Dreamlands Knowledge 15%

Library Use 45%
Sneak 40%
Conceal 35%
Listen 55%
Track 50%
Psychology 40%
Hide 50%
Spot Hidden 70%
Alertness 85%

Fast Talk 44%
Contacts & Resources 60%
Interrogate 40%
Persuade 35%
Etiquette 52%

Handgun 55%
Dodge 40%
Fist/Punch 70%
Navigate 40%

†These are from the French edition of Call of Cthulhu 6th ed so they may differ from what you’re used to.

Lockdown Challenge Day Five: the Willow Sourcebook

I have something to confess: for this fifth instalment of the ‘Lockdown Challenge’, I have cheated. The game I’m generating a character for does not exist.  Or rather, it does exist, but you have to read between the lines.

The year is 1988. At the time, there was no Open Gaming Licence, no D20 craze, no OSR, no retro-clones, nothing. In 1988, the only way to publish a gaming supplement that uses Gary and Dave’s rules is to have it published by TSR, period. Anything else is illegal.

So what the Willow Sourcebook (written by Allen Varney and published by Tor Books) does is that it is presented as a setting for a role-playing game that is never mentioned, never made clear, never described in the book itself. As I have written above, you have to read between the lines.

The book basically presents the world of the ‘Willow’ film (races, geography, history) and then stats all the characters from the film using the inexistent, unnamed RPG’s stat blocks. By analysing all the stat blocks, I have sort of managed to reverse-engineer the chargen system.

Without further ado, I present to you Arthemain, a Senkadi druid. Although the only druids in the film are evil, the sourcebook explains that there also exist neutral druids, called the Senkadi.

Name: ARTHEMAIN
Class: Senkadi druid
Skill-level: 1
Alignment: Neutral

Strength: 9
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 10
Wisdom: 14
Intelligence: 11
Charisma: 12

Hits:18

Defence
Thick robes and unarmed combat training providing Armour Class 7

Skills
Pass without trace
Predict weather

Spells
Animal friendship (strength 1)
Warp wood (strength 2)

Weapon: fights bare-handed, damage 1D6

Equipment
Druid stones inscribed with magical scratchings (equivalent to a spellbook)

Lockdown Challenge Day Four: Into The Odd

For today’s post, I was trying to find something even more minimalist than yesterday… That’s how I realised I don’t actually own many games with curt character sheets.

The closest I could find was Into The Odd (Lost Pages), a role-playing game with a mysteriously reduced background, in which the aim of the adventures is – apart from enjoying the adventures themselves – trying to discover what the whole setting is really all about, because it is but shortly outlined (at least in the free version I have). Is it steampunk? fantasy? set in the modern era? earlier? later? It’s really hard to say. And that’s what makes it so interesting.

Chauncer is a street urchin from Bastion’s slums. Bastion is the big city mentioned in Into The Odd. Apparently it is a huge, sprawling, and multi-levelled city that the adventurers are supposed to loot. Getting there seems always tricky though.
Chauncer has only known poverty and loneliness in his life and he’s determined that this should change. The sooner, the better.

Name: Chauncer
Experience level: Novice

Strength 6
Dexterity 14
Willpower 13

Hit Points 6

Equipment
Dagger (D6)
Fire oil
Mirror

Lockdown Challenge Day Three: 17th Century Minimalist

Pookie’s review of 17th Century Minimalist by Games Omnivorous watered my mouth so much that I almost immediately impulse-purchased the PDF of the core rulebook (well, at USD6.90 it was an impulse purchase I could afford).

I’ll let you read Pookie’s review (who always does a better job at reviewing games than anybody else), but in a nutshell 17th Century Minimalist is Lamentations of the Flame Princess sans the magic rules, and with a few clever bells and whistles that firmly root the game in the grim plague- and war-afflicted Europe of the 17th century; hit points, for instance, never increase. So I may have found the perfect game – at last! – to play in my tentative early modern setting for weird fantasy role-playing (described here).

Anyway, the Lockdown Challenge is about generating a new character with a different role-playing game every day, so on to character generation!

Name: ONE-EYE ZOLTÁN
Background: Zoltán was born in Upper Hungary. Although a fervent Protestant, he enlisted in the armies of the Habsburg and saw action against the Turk. After a bad wound at the battle of Keresztes left him one-eyed and scarred, Zoltán decided that he’d spend the rest of his life caring for no one but himself, and started improving the acts of legerdemain one of his uncles had taught him when he was a kid.
Class: Illusionist
Level: 1
Max Hit Points: 6
Main ability: Charisma
Weapons of choice: small weapons
Experience points: 0
Reputation: 6

CHA 13
DEX 8
STR 7
INT 8
Luck 6

Languages: Hungarian, German, Turkish

Special abilities
Déjà Vu: add extra die to the initiative bag
Weapon Clumsy: disadvantage on all non-small weapons
Entertaining Crowds: may gain experience and SP, or be beaten up by the crowd
Performing Tricks: can do tricks of current level or below

Armour: cloth armour
Main Weapon: pistol

Starting Equipment
-    Two daggers
-    One whip
-    One pistol & ammunition (D10)
-    Grenades (D6)
-    10 SP
-    Bag of tricks
-    Tricorn hat

Lockdown Challenge Day Two: Usagi Yojimbo 2nd edition

Day Two of my Lockdown Challenge (a new character generated every day). Today: Usagi Yojimbo 2nd edition (which is really the 3rd edition, but the second by Sanguine Games). I participated in the crowdfunding campaign and the character I’m creating is based on the final PDF backers have received.

Usagi Yojimbo 2nd edition is “Powered by the Apocalypse” – which I still haven’t grokked – but I am creating a character following the chargen chapter nonetheless.

Name: Akira
Species: RABBIT (of course!)
Initiative +2
Negotiation -1
Righteousness -1
Schooling =0

Career: BOUNTY HUNTER
Social class: Samurai
Unique move: Stalking
Attack move: Bushido

Quirk: Unpredictable

Weapons:
Katana (Melee; Aim, Riposte, Sweep; 侍)
Wakizashi (Melee; Bind, Riposte; 侍)

Lockdown Challenge Day One: Monsters! Monsters!

Lockdown Challenge Day One. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be doing this but anyway. I’ve decided to post every day a character generated for one of the role-playing games I own, whether in dead book or PDF format (given the amount of games I own I think the coronavirus will tire of all this before I run out of role-playing games).

Today: Monsters! Monsters! the role-playing game in which you play a monster, preying on innocent villagers and killing the adventurers the villagers have hired to get rid of you. You also get bonus adventure points if the villagers you kill are female with high charisma. It does sound sexist but it’s a good Old School game from 1976; actually a spin-off of Tunnels & Trolls with very little in terms of new rules – it’s mostly new races.

By the way Monsters! Monsters! is currently being crowdfunded for a new edition with a new layout, new art, and many more monsters! Quick! Only seven days left!

OK, on to the character. Let me introduce you to Keeper of Secrets from the Unfathomable Past (but everybody just calls him ‘KoSfUP’). He is a Naga from the Trollworld Nagalands. He is usually employed as a mercenary but he enjoys cooking and secretly dreams of writing a human flesh cookbook.

Name: Keeper of Secrets from the Unfathomable Past (KoSfUP)
Type: NAGA
Height: 5'11" (1m80)
Weight: 190 (86kg)

Level 1

Strength 12
Mystic 39
Intelligence 24
Luck 13
Constitution 24
Dexterity 26
Charisma 11
Speed 6

Combat Adds +15
Adventure Points 0

Unarmed combat 3D
Weapon: scimitar (4D)

Leather Armour on human part of the body (3 hits, weight 150) + snake scales on snake part of the body (7 hits, weight 0)
medium shield (5 hits, weight 450)

Magic: Bladesharp - doubles damage for 1 rnd (cost: 4 pts)

Talent: Bores people to Death (INT)

Basic Role-Playing SRD and OGL – At Last!

The Basic Role-Playing System, the common ‘engine’ at the heart of most Chaosium role-playing games, has at last its own System Reference Document (SRD) and its very own Open Gaming Licence (OGL), different from that “other” open gaming licence.

On top of the bare bones rules of the Basic Role-Playing System, similar in size to ones from the early Chaosium booklets, and in scope and content to the ones within the “Big Gold Book” (pictured on the left), the Basic Role-Playing SRD also contains guidelines for publishing content under the Basic Role-Playing Open Gaming Licence.

The Chaosium web-site provides a lengthy explanation of what is allowed and what is prohibited via the BRP OGL. The SRD itself may be downloaded as a PDF from here.

I hope these new tools will spur game designers to create BRP-compatible role-playing games and adventures!

Ethilrist and the Black Horse Troop

For those who aren't on Facebook... Jeff has posted this today:

Sir Ethilrist was the descendant of a long line of mercenary captains in Ralios. After a series of defeats, he led his Troop across the great mountains, through the Syndics Ban. To avoid the Ban, he led his troop through Hell. When they left Ralios they were the White Horse Troop. When they emerged on the western borders of the Lunar Empire they were the Black Horse Troop, and Ethilrist was a Hero.

Ethilrist was a Hrestoli, but he encountered Hrestol himself in the middle of Hrestol’s own quest, ravaged Hell, and Ethilrist gained great loot. Ethilrist is sometimes thought to be an incarnation of Hrestol.

And yet. Ethilrist’s followers worship Hrestol as a god and Ethilrist as demigod. And somehow gain Rune magic from Hrestol (!). And the magic includes such strange things as Shield, Darksword and Control Demon (and I’ve seen rumours of Command Chaos!). And yet, Ethilrist is known to offer worship to the Invisible God, and trains a few sorcerers to serve him.

Some think there are deeper secrets known only to the inner circles of the cult. That Ethilrist worships the Eternal Hero, or even the Anti-Hero or the Hero’s Shadow. Others claim he is a secret Arkat and that his cult is an Arkati fraud. Ethilrist knows the Red Emperor well (and personally dislikes him, although often serves him), many of the Feathered Horse Queens, and many others. He has likely long since transcended anything resembling Malkionism, but it is known that his runes are Man, Mastery, and Darkness. However, the Troop as a whole is commonly identified with Darkness and Harmony.

RuneQuest QuickStart in Italian

Good surprise this morning! I found out there was an Italian translation of the RuneQuest Quickstart booklet available!
The PDF says it's been translated and published by Raven Distribution — a company I'd never heard of, even though they publish the Italian version of the 7th edition of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game (my bad!).

The Well of Daliath

Daliath is the Gloranthan god of Secret Wisdom. He is worshipped by the Gnydron, the enormous monster merfolk who live in the abyssal depths of the Gloranthan oceans. His Runes are Water and Fate. Daliath is also worshipped by the seafaring Waertagi.

For those more interested in Heortling mythology, Daliath is Heler’s father.

Daliath is called ‘the Keeper of the Well of Wisdom’, so it is no surprise that Chaosium have chosen ‘The Well of Daliath’ as the name of their online portal of free resources.

The crazy thing that I have noticed is that apparently not many fans of RuneQuest are aware of the existence of this portal even though it features a zillion things....

timelines...

Q&A...

PDFs of RuneQuest rules errata/clarifications...

the Glorantha Core Rune Font...

and much more!

the Taun Taun

The Guide to Glorantha only mentions ‘Hsunchen Bands’, but in My Glorantha there are several other semi-nomadic peoples, of mixed (but mostly Woki) descent, who also live on the slopes of the Hachuan Shan mountains between Teshnos and Kralorela (plate 32 of the Argan Argar Atlas). These wandering peoples use a variety of mounts, but the most commonly used one when raiding is the taun taun, a biped reptile native to this rather cold region.

Here are the taun taun’s stats for RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha (inspired by the ones that had circulated in the RuneQuest 6 Star Wars supplement some time ago), shown in the familiar Bestiary format.

TAUN TAUN
Arctosaurus Corniger
These large biped reptiles may trot or run on their two hind legs bearing a human-sized rider. These mounts are particularly adapted to the rugged terrain of the Hachuan Shan mountains, and will outrun a horse or any other animal that is not used to mountainous terrain.
They will fight only if cornered, but will carry their rider in battle.

Characteristics (Average)
STR 2D6+18 (25)
CON 2D6+6 (13)
SIZ 4D6+20 (34)
POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 2D6+6 (13)

Hit Points: 19      Move: 12
Magic Points: 11     Base SR: 2
Armour: 2-point thick fur, plus horns on head.
Skills: Dodge 35%, Listen 60%.

Taun Taun Hit Locations
Tail 01-02     2/6
Right hind leg 03-04     2/7
Left hind leg 05-06     2/7
Abdomen 07-09     2/8
Chest 10-14     2/8
Right foreclaw 15     2/5
Left foreclaw 16     2/5
Head 17-20     4/7

Weapon % Damage SR
Butt* 45 2D8+3D6 6
Kick* 45 1D8+3D6 6

*a taun taun will kick if cornered, but it will rather butt and then flee if it has a choice.

OCR'd Wyrms Footnotes

Chaosium has made the old issues (No.1 to No.14) of Wyrms Footnotes available as cleanly OCR'd PDF files on their web-site. Issues may be individually purchased at USD 2.49, but the whole fourteen-issue bundle is available at USD 24.99. BUY 'EM; this is a fantastic set of boardgame and TTRPG history, and Greg Stafford's editorials give great insight as to how a gaming company was run during the golden age of our hobby — these fourteen issues cover the 1976-1982 period of time.

I have started reading them, and there are lots of nuggets of weird knowledge and exciting announcements of supplements that never were. Some of my comments appear in this thread.

In issue No.5, from summer 1978 (just after RuneQuest got released), there is the very first tentative list of RQ supplements:

RUNEQUEST SP SERIES
SCENARIO PACKS, numbered, by several various authors. Scenario Packs are mini-dungeons or short overland treks. They include appropriate maps, monster stats, treasure stats, and everything required to run an expedition of one to more nights.
#1, Kakston's Art Museum, by Warren James is for all beginning characters with no more experience than they might roll up on the Past Experience charts. Only $2.
#2, Balastor's Barracks, by Steve Henderson is tougher, requiring a party to have gained some skill at arms, and a few spells as well. Only $2.
#3, 4, and so on are also in the works, and will sell for various prices.
Both of these are Definite.

LOL... “Both of these are Definite”. Although Balastor's Barracks was eventually published as SP1, I have never ever heard anything about Kakston's Art Museum, not even as a draft publication.

Whip weapon stats (RQ:G)

So RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha mentions the whip as a weapon (e.g., on page 48, amongst the Water Rune-weapons) but doesn't provide any weapon stats whatsoever.

Research on various forums, newsgroups etc. has indicated the article Eight New Weapons for RuneQuest by Paul Cardwell Jr on p.32-35 in issue No.22 of Different Worlds magazine (July 1982) as the preferred reference for the whip's weapon stats.

Since the topic keeps appearing on forums, I have taken the liberty of copying the most salient parts of the ‘whip’ section from that article here. I will obviously remove this post should anybody complain about copyright infringements but –hey!– the original article is from 38 years ago; we can almost consider this post as an ‘RPG history’ article of sorts.

Whip

The whip is a logical part of the gear of a herder, teamster, caravaneer, slave merchant, or even a general, all-purpose villain.

The whip is a weapon of fixed range. It is useless beyond its range, and it can only be used to attack a target at equal to or more than half its maximum range. Within that range, the whip is useless.

Category	Name	Base %	STR	DEX	Damage	HP	ENC	Range	SR
Whip	Whip	10	9	9	1D4	12	1	5m	0

Wrapping
The whip will wrap around its target on any Special to hit roll. A wrapped victim cannot act. If a leg is caught, the target must roll DEX as a percentage to keep from falling.
The whip will loosen after one round.

Movement Rates for RQG (Updated)

Page 102 of RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha provides Movement Rates for various terrain types in the Dragon Pass area. In a previous blog post, I have expanded that table for other types of terrain. Now I realise I had been too optimistic in terms of river travel, and that I hadn't included sea travel, so here's an updated table:

Terrain	km per day
River (upriver)	10
River (downriver)	30
Sea	40
Ocean	30
Royal Road in good weather	50 / 40 / 25*
Royal Road in bad weather Trade road in good weather	40 / 30 / 15
Trade road in bad weather Herders' path in good weather	30 / 25 / 12
Herders' path in bad weather Wilderness	20 / 15 / 5
Forest Desert	10 / 8 / 3
Swamp	8 / 5 / 2
Snow storm Mountains	8 / 5 / 0

*pls refer to p102 of the RQG core rules for details

RPG Review - Issues No.40 and No.44

I haven't blogged about the excellent Australian online zine The RPG Review for quite some time now, but I must absolutely make up for lost time now that not one but two issues entirely devoted to the world of Glorantha have been published!

Issue No.40, subtitled Ten Year Anniversary Issue & RuneQuest Glorantha Down Under Convention Special (yes, that is a long subtitle), has (amongst other great articles) quite comprehensive RQ:G Designer's Notes by Jeff Richard — which may explain why many RQ:G players do not like the new sorcery rules, trivia and anecdotes about the good old days by Steve Perrin, and an Australian-flavoured bestiary by William Noble and Lev Lafayette.

Issue No.44, similarly subtitled RuneQuest Glorantha Down Under IV Special Issue!, features (inter alia) an interview of Jason Durall (Creative Director of RQ:G at Chaosium), a long humorous piece about Delecti the Necromancer and his Sartarite neighbours by Darius West, a serious piece about the Bronze Age and its economics by James Haughten, and a fully-fledged scenario set in the Seshnelan Country of Castle Coast (plate No.35 in the Argan Argar Atlas).

an excerpt from Jason's interview

Chaosium News from Dragonmeet

Alas like most of you guys I haven’t been able to go to Dragonmeet in London (one day I will!).

Luckily Nick Brooke live-tweeted the Chaosium panel. For those of you who aren’t on Twitter (BTW I am Gɪᴀɴɴɪ’s Eᴠɪʟ Tᴡɪɴ on Twitter, follow me!), here is the transcript from Nick’s tweets:

“On the panel are Jeff Richard, Michael O’Brien, Jason Durall and Ian Cooper.

MOB introduces the new Jonstown Compendium, Chaosium’s online library of fan-published Gloranthan works at DriveThruRPG, which launched yesterday.
He shows off Martin Helsdon’s awesome hardcover “Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass,” a lavishly illustrated, beautifully laid-out labour of love.

MOB solicits contributions written for RuneQuest Classic, RuneQuest Glorantha and HeroQuest Glorantha, and stresses that YGWV — “Your Glorantha Will Vary.” Canon does not limit community content: it’s a rod for the official publisher’s back only.

He mentions that Chaosium has identified several talented new authors through the Miskatonic Repository — the “Call of Cthulhu” equivalent — who have gone on to be published in Chaosium’s own books.

Jeff talks about Basic Role-Playing and QuestWorlds, an initiative to produce SRDs authors can use to produce their own BRP and HQ-based role-playing games. (Terms and conditions apply: there will be a new Open Gaming Licence for these)
Among those T’s & C’s: you can’t produce games about Lovecraftian investigations, Gloranthan heroics or indeed King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Which seems fair enough, given Chaosium already print those.
And if you want to produce a game using someone else’s IP, you’ll need to obtain the rights from the owner (and good luck with that!), but Chaosium won’t stand in your way.
Like Jason’s Big Gold Book, the SRDs will contain all sorts of options, with the expectation that authors will pick and mix (and remix!) the bits they need for their games. Not use the whole kit and caboodle, every time.

MOB teases future libraries for Pendragon & Seventh Sea, once the Jonstown Compendium is up and running.

Jason talks about the next RQ book, “The Smoking Ruins,” containing big scenarios by Chris Klug and Steve Perrin, and opening up a major area to the west of Sartar.
After that, “Pegasus Plateau,” a collection of pick-up-and-play starting adventures for lazy GMs (like me). Lots of new authors in this, including John Wick (not that one), and another scenario by Steve Perrin.
The scenarios will take adventurers all over Dragon Pass and offer a whole range of different experiences.

Next: the “RuneQuest Starter Set,” including a guide to Jonstown and several scenarios for beginning GMs and players. Everything in the book will be new and useful to established campaigns: it’s not reprints, and any group could use the material.
Plus 14 pre-generated characters (incl. 7 from RQ:G core and a bunch more archetypes; Jason mentions adding some downloadable non-human characters).

The “RuneQuest Gamemaster’s Guide” will expand the game with plunder, Rune metals, heroquests, mass combat, etc. It will be exactly the right size to replace the GM Screen Pack in your slipcase set.

Finally (for now), “Cults of Glorantha” (Jeff has the complete manuscript in two volumes / 450 pages), and the “RuneQuest Campaign,” an adventuring timeline for the Hero Wars comparable to “The Boy King” for Pendragon.
That should keep them busy for the next 6-8 months. Other books mentioned include Troll stuff and Robin Laws’ reboot of Pavis in the Hero Wars timeline, but those are further off: they’ll be multi-book sets and won’t be available until everything has been finished.
So the pipeline feels healthy, and some of the next releases are in the late stages of layout, with art and maps aplenty. As always, there’s no commitment to publication dates — Chaosium don’t do that nowadays until a book is done and ready to ship.

And so to Q&A.

Will there be more of an “Apple Lane Campaign”?
The players’ home stomping grounds for most RQ:G material is assumed to be around that area, and several upcoming scenarios will tie in directly — including “Return to the Rainbow Mounds.”
Jeff waxes lyrical about the huge master-maps of Dragon Pass and Prax he’s been constructing from Greg Stafford’s originals. Working at this scale is illuminating — e.g., you can see the Block from Boldhome.

Maps of the Holy Country? Nochet City, Seapolis etc?
A Nochet book incl. a poster map of the city is well advanced, and a Seapolis adventure and pack is ready for final content-edits as soon as Nochet is nailed down.
Plus scenario packs and sourcebooks for Whitewall and Heortland, allowing the latter to be used as a RQ:G character homeland (incl. event tables for parents and grandparents).
Nochet works in two directions: while you can have plenty of adventures without ever leaving the city walls, on the other hand it’s easy to hop on a ship and sail off to distant Kralorela.

Jeff dilates on how Battle rules will work — they’ll be not so much a wargame (working out which side won), rather about adventurers’ experiences on the battlefield.
So the Battle rules are player-facing: they determine what your heroes did in the battle, rather than which side won. (“What happened when the Crater Makers hurled comets at our army?”)
Player characters need to make Passion or Runic inspiration rolls to take any action that will make a name for themselves (e.g., taking on an enemy champion in single combat) — otherwise, they’ll sensibly hunker down with their units.

The prime movers in the Hero Wars are Jar-eel and Argrath: they reflect each other, the “Yin and Yang” or the Holmes and Moriarty of the conflict. “The Hero Wars is the dance between Jar-eel and Argrath.”

MOB’s hope is that eventually new RQ books will be coming out every couple of months (the same pace as CoC). Once Jeff is sitting on a mountain of loot, he may return to the “Prince of Sartar” web comic: he’d love to keep it going, but it’s a time sink.”

THE KRAKEN 2019 Report – A Different Perspective

I coerced my daughter into writing convinced my daughter Valentina Vacca to also write a report about THE KRAKEN. Since we took part in very different activities during the con, I think this very different perspective will make for an interesting addition to my own report. Enjoy!

Friday, 18 October

After at least ten hours of driving through France, Belgium, and Germany, we reached Schloss Neuhausen. We greeted long-time-no-seen friends and attended the ritual which would officially announce the beginning of our gaming retreat: the Opening Ceremony, with the presentation of the guests of honour (Sandy Petersen, Robin D Laws, Ken Rolston, Lynne Hardy, Jason Durall and Ian Cooper).

Then, after an awaited dinner, I started my very first game of the season: Siebenbürgen, a strategy game designed by my father Gianni Vacca, in which four ethnicities seek to develop their people in Romania, especially Transylvania, through four ages.

My brave Romanian people resisted the plague, the Mongol invasion, repelled the Hungarians, snuck between the Saxons, and saw their hills stolen by the evil Szeklers. Thanks to their ability to spread their Orthodox faith, they won the game in the end. Aaaaand led me to go to bed at 3 a.m.


Saturday, 19 October


Waking up after barely five hours of sleep was a difficult task, but not impossible. I managed to get out of bed and have a good breakfast. I needed to have some energy for the masterclasses to come: during these workshops, I took some precious notes for various purposes: my improv lessons, my theatre homeworks, and eventually my future scenarios, which I hope to GM.

Then came the famous Horror Lottery: this year I was not lucky— I was extremely lucky. I admit, I really enjoyed seeing all these jealous faces which talked to me with either amazement or kill rage: I was picked to be a player in Robin D Laws’ King in Yellow scenario and in this year’s Sandy Petersen horror scenario as well.

During the afternoon, no role-playing game yet, but I playtested a co-operative game called Perdition’s Mouth ran by its designer Timo Multamäki. A bunch of heterogeneous but skilful heroes seek to visit a dungeon deeper and deeper in order to destroy in its heart a Demon King. My epic dwarf had some fun by sending monsters and cultists to hell. So metal. I recommend it.

Then, the evening came, and serious business with it: it was time for Robin D Laws’ King in Yellow scenario: A Taste of Absinthe.

I absolutely do not want to spoil any detail of the scenario, but I certainly will remember this story – or was it real? I was a student in arts, my speciality was poetry. I entered a frightening, traumatising and horrific time loop which lead me to live again and again disturbing visions, of an apocalyptic and violent world that tried to pull me in more than once. Future, past, present, everything was the same, and all our actions were highly reflected… nobody wanted to literally beat him or herself to death, lose its face or be dragged and torn apart by enraged Parisians… you might think I am mad, but the illusions always have an inspiration that is rooted in reality. Simply drinking some alcohol with my friends and colleagues became a quest to save the world without succumbing to the temptation of reading that fascinating play: The King in Yellow. One thing is for sure: I will never write a poem that contains any of these letters again, ever: k, i, n, g, y, e, l, o, w.


Sunday, 20 October


True story: I actually was so anxious after my King in Yellow game that I drank a midnight beer to appease my spirits. A lime flavoured Beck’s. Don’t drink it. It’s absolutely disgusting. However, it helped me to go to bed with no fear, and I woke up full of energy. And what is the most obvious thing to do in the morning during a gaming convention? Playing Brains!, a game ran by Philip Glass in the Keller of the Schloss.

Now you maybe think that playing this game made me play a weak and panic-stricken human survivor during a Zombie Apocalypse. Absolutely not. It made me play a Zombie longing for some brains to devour. By playing a young lady that seemed to be twelve years old, any stupid human that had some empathy with my theatrical skills with me “playing dead” (even though I actually was dead) finished in my rotten stomach. What a way to fulfil one’s homicidal behaviour: we sure had loads of fun.

Unfortunately, I did not manage to attend the Dramatic Interaction Masterclass, the third workshop which interested me during the con. Luckily, it was then posted on YouTube and I was able to take my final precious notes:


After lunch, I played my second role-playing game won at the Horror Lottery: It has to start small by Sandy Petersen. How to describe this one? I was an elementary schoolteacher who just wanted to have fun with a man that she hoped would be her next boyfriend. But somehow, one my students knocked at my door saying his dad locked him in his room, after trying to force him to bring him to the forest by night. The poor fellow ran and escaped. This was alarming. Then, one other of my students – who really liked me – barged in saying his dad couldn’t bear the sunlight any longer. And going on and on, everybody came to my house (including my soon-to-become-my-boyfriend luckily). Eventually, that is how the story of how we saved the world by sacrificing ourselves began. We all died, but as heroes. And that eleven-year-old kid was sweet after all.

Finally, after dinner came my very last role-playing game for this year’s con: A Trip to the Lake, ran by Nikolas Tsamourtzis. I was exhausted, I was in a cellar: what could possibly have gone wrong? We all played stereotypical-slasher-teenage-characters and roleplayed it as a horror comedy movie. I for instance played a wallflower girl who actually was an expert in martial arts. The narrative system was very funny, as we often succeeded in what we decided to undertake but had to add something bad to the scene. And this is how my super badass action of throwing a rope with a knife around a three metre tall monster deer became ridiculous, when someone decided that the monster had to pull the rope to drag me to it. Well, we all managed to survive anyway. Once again, I highly recommend this narrative system!