http://www.enworld.org/forum These forums are databases and are meant to be accessed only with special scripts. en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:07:56 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.enworld.org/forum http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/268122-xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:18:39 GMT Disclaimer: I should say up front that I have known Tracy Hickman for many years. Despite that, I shall endeavor to give this book a fair review. XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery is written by New York Times bestselling author and game designer Tracy Hickman and his son Curtis Hickman, with... Disclaimer: I should say up front that I have known Tracy Hickman for many years. Despite that, I shall endeavor to give this book a fair review.

XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery is written by New York Times bestselling author and game designer Tracy Hickman and his son Curtis Hickman, with illustrations by Howard Tayler. According to editor Sandra Tayler, Tracy and Curtis “wanted to find a way to help role playing gamers remember to enjoy their games rather than get caught up in the mechanics of systems.” This book does just that.

Throughout XDM, one theme is clear: ditch the rules, the fiddly bits, and anything that gets in the way of having a good time at the gaming table. XDM explores making the game the best it can be, both from the player’s standpoint and from the XDM’s. Yet the book does so with the right touch of humor to set the tone.

I should probably mention that several of the chapters in this book are based on seminars that Tracy Hickman has given over the years. Much of this is familiar to me from the GenCon I spent stalking Tracy at his various seminars.

After the obligatory introductions, the book begins with the “Secret History of XDMs.” This chapter is an account of the “history” of XDMs, from ancient Babylonian times up to the modern day. This chapter is just for fun, but it gets into the mood of the book.

We move on from there to Getting Started as an XDM. This section deals some with some fun initiation material, but has a really good page on what an XDM does and what he doesn’t do. This is an invaluable tool for understanding the content of the book.

The next section is on the theory of XDMing. There is a good section on the types of players an XDM may have at his table. While not as detailed as what we’ve seen from Robin Laws or in the 4th edition Dungeon Master’s Guide, the three archetypes presented here are a fairly accurate summary of the types of gamers.

We move on from here to a section on storytelling, which is one of the gems of this book. This includes a variant of the Campbellian Monomyth, designed for use for storytelling. I’ve been using the monomyth in my current game, and the results have been great!

We move on to designing games for story, which takes the premise of story and moves it to practical gaming application. The next few chapters adds on to the foundations of the prior chapters.

From there, we move on to a section where we go beyond normal game mastery to the realm of the Ultimate XDM. Imagine adding sound, lights, lasers, holograms, and fog to your game! And yes, there’s even a bit of pyrotechnics.

What throws the book off, though, is the next chapter, on magic. This chapter talks a lot about various magic tricks, but doesn’t really explain much about how magic tricks deal with a role-playing game. This chapter really felt like it disrupted the flow of the book, and was hard to get through.

However, the book is saved once again with the next chapter on Killer Breakfast, a fun event that Tracy runs at GenCon. I’ve played in Killer Breakfast for several years, and this is a nice behind-the-scenes on how to do it. I’m not certain this is something you can do with friends, but it would be great for a game at a convention.

We then move on to another gem in the book – How You Play the Game. Tracy’s GenCon seminar on this very topic has been quite inspirational to me. One story in particular regarding a barbarian Tracy once played really set the mood.

From here, we go into the next chapter on the XD20 role-playing system. It exemplifies XDM principles in its simplicity. Despite knowing what the authors had in mind, it just wasn’t engaging to me. In a way, having a game system may run counter-intuitive to what this book does best – giving advice on making your game great.

The book finally ends with an afterword called “Waiting for Gygax.” Truthfully, this section should have been the forward. It sets the tone perfectly, and would have been a great place to start. In fact, many of the ideas in this book would have been better served if organized differently. I think some editorial reorganizing would have helped tremendously.

The illustrations helped to make the book what it is. Each one was fun and funny, and I had a good time going through them. It’s too bad that the book wasn’t in full glorious color.

Overall, this book has a lot of great ideas. Yet it has a few flaws, too. The biggest flaw of the book is the excessive amount of typos. It is my understanding that the book was produced in five weeks. It shows. Grammar mistakes run rampant throughout the book, making it distracting. Likewise, the book comes with footnotes. A few here and there would have added just the right spice to the book, but I felt that there was so many footnotes that we were drowning in flavor. Plus, the paper stock reminded me of the type of paper used in the 1st edition AD&D books.

The book seems to be designed for players and GMs who have played RPGs for a while. It’s also a great resource if you’re a Tracy Hickman fan, or a fan of adventure writing.

This book is a masterful resource, one that every GM should have. However, the book is in need of some editing to make it shine. Certainly, for the information inside, it is a valuable and indispensible resource. Yet the book comes across as a bit of a diamond in the rough. ]]> Reviews Dragonhelm http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/268122-xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery.html http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267383-critter-cache-6-lovecraftian-bestiary.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:33:13 GMT To my perception, one of the biggest hits among Game Masters, is a big old book of monsters. When Chaosium had opportunity under the OGL and their deal with Wizards of the Coast, who produced a full color Call of Cthulhu d20 hardcover, to make a Monster Mallus for 3.0/3.5 and didn’t take it, I... To my perception, one of the biggest hits among Game Masters, is a big old book of monsters. When Chaosium had opportunity under the OGL and their deal with Wizards of the Coast, who produced a full color Call of Cthulhu d20 hardcover, to make a Monster Mallus for 3.0/3.5 and didn’t take it, I thought it a massive lost opportunity. Game Masters of the Dungeons and Dragons game want to bring in elements of the Cthulhu mythos. Paizo and Green Ronin, along with others, have been tweaking the material that’s open for years. This doesn’t count the various homage such as WoTC’s own Far Realm and various critters from the beginning like Mind Flayers.

For me personally, this is a great product in that I’ve been waiting for more material in this vein for a long time. While the old 3.0 hardcover from WoTC was nice, it’s great to have this material in 4th ed. Between the original Deities and Demigods, which was essentially useable with 1st and 2nd edition, this means we’ve got eldritch goodness for essentially every edition of D&D.

Now fans of the 4th edition game need wait no longer. Clocking in at 42 pages, this is I believe, the largest Critter Cache that Goodman Games has done. Yes, the stars are indeed right and it’s not a nightmare you can awaken from. The Lovecraftian Bestiary is out. As a nice touch, it’s on sale now for $3.99. A solid deal.

The book is illustrated by Hunter McFalls who should be familiar to fantasy fans. If you like the cover, you’ll enjoy the interior illustrations. Written is done by Blackdirge who should be familiar to fans of both 3rd and 4th edition.

Monsters range in level from a 2nd level skirmisher, Mi-Go Scout to a massive 35th level solo soldier Cthulhu himself. In between is a nice range of old favorites including Star Spawn, which come in at the second highest level, 25th, to Dragon himself, a 15th level solo brute.

Lore checks vary depending on the monster. For example, on the deep ones, it’s a nature lore. On the big guy? It’s dungeoneering or religion. Other standards, including encounter groups, and tactics are included.

As an added bonus, there is a brief section on eldritch artifacts that allows you to include such treasures as the silver rod or the green trapezohedron. These act a little different than standard magic items even though these are statted up as regular magic items with details including level, gold piece cost, and ability. The silver rod for example, ranges from 2nd to 17th level and does cold damage and slows the target. To use such an item requires an arcane check equal to 10 + item’s level. A nice touch is a +2 bonus for warlocks with the star pact. There is a potential side effect if the user fails the check by 10 or more. To continue with the silver rod, the user would take damage and be slowed.

It is my hope that with this, Chaosium shakes off the strange apathy they have for the Dungeons and Dragons system and works with Goodman Games and author Blackdirge and make a full fledge 4e Monsterous Mallus. ]]> Reviews JoeGKushner http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267383-critter-cache-6-lovecraftian-bestiary.html http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267356-wilderlands-high-fantasy.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:04:22 GMT The background, this was the first setting published for D&D predating Greyhawk. It was published in a number of parts with the City State of the Invincible Overlord and Wilderlands of High Fantasy coming first followed by a number of other areas such as the Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde, City State of the World Emperor and detailed settings like the Shield Maidens of Sea Rune. It is a classic Sword and Sorcery setting with sci-fi elements which can be easily modified or ignored by the GM, think in terms of Howard, Leiber, Clark Ashton Smith and Edgar Rice Burroughs as the inspiration.


This is also the first setting I used as a GM, or Judge as it should be with Judges Guild products, and I freely admit to having a bias on this score which meant this review was always likely to take the form of a rant or a rave. Read on to find out which.

I actually class this as a part playtested review as I have been using the Rorystone Road download for my campaign, and I doubt you could manage to finish all of this in a lifetime. If you want a sample there is a chapter download for Lenap available at the Judges Guild.com website as well as the fan material and Rorystone Road download.

Content
Opening the box you find 18 maps (double sided unfortunately) and two books. The first book contains the Introduction, which has what rule content is needed, largely advice on wilderness movement, creating the judge's own encounter tables and a set of tables for random ruins and relics. The introduction also includes the judge's history of the Wilderlands. The second chapter covers using the map booklets, and has some cross referencing to other Judges Guild and Necromancer products. Each numbered chapter describes the map of the same number. Descriptions of settings which are inhabited have a Technology Level as an addition to the standard DMG description, with a note on the important individuals for that location and a brief description that often gives an immediate adventure hook. The main resources for a village or town are also noted. The levels of NPCs are generally low compared to 3e expectations and it would often be recommended that a Judge used slower than standard levelling to avoid the PCs overwhelming a particular area, there are some very high level NPCs, but these are figures like the World Emperor that players are unlikely to directly encounter.

Judges are encouraged to change, add or delete material to suit their campaigns with it being noted that each 5 mile hex contains many more encounters or locations than the ones detailed in the two map booklets, which is why the random ruins table is provided and the Judge is encouraged to create their own encounter tables. The area covered is around the same as the Mediterranean sea so is large, but not a complete world, but given move distances is not excessively large or small.

The feel is old school where sites are as they are not tailored to the party level so there can be an EL2 encounter in one hex and an EL15 encounter in the next, players need to use gather information to be forwarned and be prepared to run where necessary. The setting is also far from PC as there is slavery as a common factor and there are the lightly dressed amazon warriors and some locations are also noted as having brothels.

Chapters

• • Introduction
• • Using the Map Booklets
• 1. Elphand Lands
• 2. Valon
• 3. Valley of the Ancients
• 4. Viridistan
• 5. City State of the Invicible Overlord
• 6. Tarantis
• 7. Desert Lands
• 8. Barbarian Altanis
• 9. Ebony Coast
• 10. Lenap
• 11. Isles of the Blest
• 12. Isles of the Dawn
• 13. Sea of the Five Winds
• 14. Ghinor
• 15. Silver Skein
• 16. Ament Tundra
• 17. Ghinor Highlands
• 18. Southern Reaches

Some sample entries follow
5124 Blackspell(Village): Conventional; AL N; TL 4; 200gp limit; Assets 5,375 gp; Population 860 (Able bodied 215); Mixed(halfling 66%, human 20%,wood elf 10%, gnome 2%, noble elf 2%); Resources: Market.Authority Figure: Culwane the Winged, male halfling LG Ftr3.
Important Characters: Frudoc, male halfling CN Rog3 (boatwright); Rego Gamblas, male halfling NG Ftr2/Rog2 (pearl merchant). Located on a bluff overlooking the bay, the village of Blackspell has grown since the first group of halflings settled here many generations ago. The natural shelter provided by a small harbour has allowed it to prosper as a centre of trade and the nearby forests have provided an excellent source of shipbuilding material over the years. In recent years some of the sailing vessels traveling this region have reported seeing large expanses of sea weed in certain areas where the winds grow still and the waves settle down.

1332 Monkey Isles (EL varies): These islands are overrun by bands of roving monkeys who attempt to steal all small items they can get their hands on. Searching an monkey nest reveals an average of 2d20gp, 1d4 gems, 1d4 mundane items and a 5% chance of a random magical item. The only thing keeping the monkey population upon the isles in check are scores of boring beetles.

Layout and art
Page numbering for the books is continuous so that book 2 starts at page 217, the layout is clear with about 95% of the page used for text with a narrow border down the outer edge of each. There is not a lot of art in the books due to the sheer volume of content. The art is generally very good with the illustrations usually matching the area where they are placed.

There is a Frank Frazetta picture used for the cover of the box and both books, which is a great fit for the feel of the wilderlands setting.

The maps are clearly laid out, but have been noted as containing a number of mistakes which are being detailed in the errata thread on the Necromancer Games message boards. Cities, villages and towns, and citadels and castles are shown on the map, but other types of setting are not (Lairs, ruins and relics). Each map has an adjacent area on the reverse.

The box appears to be sturdy and is completely filled by the maps and booklets so there is no space to store other products in there. It is better quality than the old TSR boxes used to be.

Using it with other products
You do not need the Player's Guide to the Wilderlands or City State of the Invincible Overlord to use this product, but they are useful. Pretty much any module or city could be slotted into one or more of the areas, with there being threads on the Necromancer Games boards discussing this.

Pluses:

• Setting in sufficient detail to run games, but not prescribe a GM's options
• Adventure hooks everywhere
• Easy to integrate other products
• Clear layout with little wasted space
• Frazetta cover

Negatives:

• Sources for all the creatures are not clearly indicated
• Some entries do not match between the maps and the books
• Double sided maps
• Books have identical covers so need to be opened to find which is which.

Downloads:
There are players and judges maps, support documents and adventures available from the Judges Guild website. Too many really to list, but there are plenty of extra things whatever a judges requires with a personal favourite being the Tomes rules.

Overall
I think this is the best campaign setting I have seen published, ever, including such good ones for previous editions such as Al-Qadim, Mystara, etc. Highly recommended. I give it a 9 for content and a 9.5 for style.

This product was Ennie nominated for Best Product, Best Setting and Best Cartography showing that I'm not alone in regarding it as a great product. ]]> Reviews MonsterMash http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267356-wilderlands-high-fantasy.html http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267351-runequest-2-a.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:36:42 GMT Runequest is set in the world of Glorantha, which was created by Greg Stafford originally and used as the setting for the White Bear Red Moon boardgame. This has several features which were unusual at the time it was published and it is still a distinctive setting with a different approach to many... Runequest is set in the world of Glorantha, which was created by Greg Stafford originally and used as the setting for the White Bear Red Moon boardgame. This has several features which were unusual at the time it was published and it is still a distinctive setting with a different approach to many of the usual fantasy tropes. For example the elves as begetable life, The actual rule book has little settng information other than a general overview of the world and map of Glorantha with a timeline. There is a more detailed map of the Dragon Pass region in the back of the book with encounter tables and the sections in the rules on magic and creatures do help to add to the setting information included. The section on cults with the details of the Orlanth and Kyger Litor cults bring in quite a large part of the background from this book.

Later RQ books such as Cults of Prax, Pavis and Trollpak all fleshed out the setting with details of their subjects included. Trollpak has a very highly regarded explantion of the life of Trolls is one of the ironic RQ sourcebooks.

Contents

• Introduction
• How to Create an Adventurer
• Mechanics and Melee
• Combat Skills
• Basic Magic
• Other Skills
• Rune Magic
• Monsters
• Treasure Hordes
• Appendices
• Indexes

Rules
Basics
RQII uses a percentile mechanism rolling under the target on two d10 or d20, critical successes are on low rolls and critical failures or fumbles on high rolls. For character generation 3d6 are used and the other standard polyhedral dice of d4, d8 and d12 will be used for damage rolls. Rolls of 01-05 are always successful and 96-00 always fail. The critical hit/success and fumble rolls are linked to the overall skill level of a character with the chances of a critical hit being 5% of the character's skill level so if Rurik has a 50% to hit with a cudgel then he will get a critical hit on a 01 or 02 as the fractions are rounded down. The chance of fumbling is 5% at base being reduced by 1% for every 20% skill in a weapon that a character has above 20%, so continuing the example Rurik with a 50% chance with a cudgel will only fumble on a 97-00 roll. Impaling with a weapon can only be done when using a thrusting or missile weapon and the attack roll is 20& or less of the to hit chance, so Rurik using a spear with 60% to hit will impale on a roll of 01-12. The effect of an impale is to add the maximum possible damage roll number to the actual damage roll and to stick the weapon in the victim unless the attacker can make a roll of twice his impale chance on 1d100.


Characteristics
RQII has 7 characteristics generated by rolling 3d6 in order, unlike later BRP games there are not any primary characteristics generated by using dice and adding a specified number to give a narrower range of options, e.g. RQIII and Call of Cthulhu having Size and Intelligence generated as 2d6 + 6. Some secondary characteristics such as the strike rank and various bonuses are derived from the rolled ones and other factors. The assumption is that all characters are human, but the details in the bestiary give the dice and modifiers to generate any creatures characterstics allowing really any intelligent race to be played. The background rules are only really set up for human races, but many of the supplements give details for other races, for example Trollpak.

• Strength
• Constitution
• Size
• Intelligence
• Power
• Dexterity
• Charisma

Hit points in RQ are the character's constitution score modified for the Size and Power characteristics. This gives a much narrower range than many RPG as an experienced character is unlikely to have a much greater score than a novice. When I discuss combat I'll cover the effects of this in detail. The maximum for any characteristic is the maximum dice score plus the number of dice rolled which for humans gives 21 as the highest value.


Advancement
RQ advancement is by a mixture of experience and training. A character can increase a skill they possess by making a successful skill roll then rolling less than their current skill level deducted from 100 on percentile dice, e.g. Morgan has a 25% skill in broadsword, but is successful in hitting in combat, so after the combat she if she can roll less than 75% on percentage dice (100-25) then her skill will increase by 5%. Once a character reaches a 95% skill level then they can use their intelligence score as a % to earn an increase. A character can also purchase training in a skill from an appropriate guild, with this being the only way of learning a skill that they do not possess, e.g. read/write other language. Training can only be used to take a skill to 75% while experience can raise it to 100%.

Characteristics can be improved by training and experience, except none can exceed the racial maximum and Strength and Constitution cannot be increased past the highest one of the Strength, Size and Constitution characteristics' starting value. This training is pretty expensive and it will often be done purely on very weak characteristics. A major reason for characters to seek wealth is to help improve their characteristics as this gives a broad range of improvement on various tests for skills depending on the characteristic that is chosen. Intelligence cannot be increased by normal means meaning that it is the most important stat to get a high value in at character generation. The main characteristics improved by experience are Power and Charisma. For Power winning in an opposed power test, e.g. by casting a spell on another, gives the chance of making an improvement roll. Charisma increases where improved skills and renown of the character can raise the basic statistic.


Skills
The skills system is consistent across the different areas using a percentile value. In a skill check a player needs to be rolled the skill value or beneath to succeed with high rolls of 95-100% potentially being a critical faliure (fumble in combat). The skills in the core rules include alchemy, languages and mapping, thieve's skills, weaponsmiths skills and animal training. Skills are normally taught by the relevant guild, with Alchemists, Sages (languages and mapping), Thieves, Armourers, Sailors and Animal Trainers included in the core rules. Characters can obtain training by paying for it and the rules for this are the same for both melee and non-combat skills. Training costs are set out in the rules and a limit of 75% exists as the highest level that a skill can be trained up to. Any further skill advancement above this has to be by experience.


Melee
Combat uses the same percentage values for other skills with an attacker needing to make a succesful attack roll which the defender will then need to try and make a successful parry or defense roll against. Damage is dependent on the weapon type, the attacker's damage bonus and the armour that the defender is wearing. A simple, but effective, hit location mechanism is used with each part of the body assigned a number of hit points. The locations on a humanoid are head, chest, right arm, left arm, right leg and left leg. Armour is used to reduce the amount of damage taken with it being specific to each part of the body covered. The hit location requires a D20 roll after the successful attack roll.

The order in which actions are taken is controlled by the strike rank. There is no random element in the initiative order though an adjustment is applied to strike rank for surprise. Strike rank order is low to high with weapon length, size, encumbrance and dexterity all affecting strike rank. A pikeman with a high dexterity can be very dangerous in RQII as they will strike early in each combat round. With spells being cast the amount of power points used will tend to affect the casting time with more powerful spells taking longer.

Melee can be lethal due to the low numbers of hit points that most characters and creatures will have - a human with the maximum constitution of 18 will rarely have much more than 20 hit points meaning that a critical hit can still potentially kill in one hit. This means that even experienced characters will not rush straight into melee in most circumstances and there will often be extensive manouvering and use of magic. Compared to earlier editions of D&D melee can be a bit sluggish due to rolls to hit, parry, hit location and damage often being needed for each attack by a melee participant, but this is balanced out by the low hit points that tend to ensure that few hits are needed to kill or disable an opponent.


Magic
There are two types of magic in RQII: Battle Magic and Rune Magic. Battle magic is the everyday magic with the spells having a focus on what is used in combat, hence the name. Rune magic is far more powerful and is only accessible to characters that have had a substantial amount of development. A characters ability to cast spells is based on their Power attribute which gives the total number of points available to cast Battle Magic spells.

Battle Magic is commonly available with most characters and intelligent creatures having access to it. The spells include Bladesharp, Countermagic, Glue, Healing, Multimissile, Spirit Shield and various detection spells. Spells can have variable or fixed power levels. Every spell cast uses an amount of power, which is only regained at a rate of 1/4 of the character's total Power every six hours. To cast a spell on an opponent requires overcoming their power with the resistance table used to determine the chance of this. This mechanism is used for spirit combat when either a character is attacked by a spirit or attempts to bind a spirit to an animal or crystal to have the spirits Power and Intelligence to store and use spells without draining the character's own power. This can mean that experienced characters do have very large amounts of magic available to them and the start of combat consists of large numbers of spells being cast to defend or strengthen the combatants.

Battle magic spells have a financial cost to learn with this being greater for more powerful spells. A character can keep casting a known battle magic spell while they still have current power points, but an opposed spell can become less effective as it will have to overcome the current Power of the target. The limits on spells known is set by the Intelligence of the spellcaster with number of power points for the spells held in memory being equal to the Int score. So a character with an Int of 11 could have say Bladesharp 3, Healing 2, Strength, Detect Enemies, Speeddart, Detect Magic and Light in memory and any other spells they knew only as options.

Shamans can be created by binding to a fetch, this is done by allying to a spirit using the apprentice shaman's Power and Charisma against the spirit's Intelligence and Power. Once a fetch is bound a shaman can enter the spirit world and use the spirit world to store Power, cure disease, return from the dead and control spirits. The shaman also has the support of their tribe or cult, but has obligations to that tribe or cult that will dictate some of their actions. There are other disadvantages for shamans will limits on increase of skills and characteristics once they have gained their fetch.

Rune Magic is very powerful and requires characters to sacrifice permanent Power points to obtain it. Rune magic is mainly available to experienced characters who can achieve Rune Lord or Rune Priest status though a cult may allow an Initiate member to learn a limited amount of rune spells at a cost. Rune spells can be cast repeatedly by those that have learnt them and are powerful in allowing multiple casts of Battle magic spells or in allowing the caster to protect himself.To achieve Rule Lord or Rune Priest status the requirements include being a faithful follower of a god in good standing and for a Rune Lord 5 skills at 90% are required including at least two combat skills and for some cults it may be five combat skills. A Power of at least 15 is required by a Rune Lord. Rune Priests require a Power of at least 18 with the ability to read/write their own language at 50% and 90% in three skills specific to the cult's specialities.

The pervasiveness of magic in Glorantha is shown by the RQ magic system which helps integrate the setting and the system. The weakness of the RQII rules is in not really elaborating on how magic might be used within society by farmers, etc though healing spells would obviously aid in many lives. There is little in the way of mechanical detail about failed casting attempts unlike fumbles in melee, as all that happens really is that the spell fails. RQ's magic systems do capture the flavour of a world where there is pervasive magic use and the most powerful Rune magic comes at a cost for its users from the Gods. The magic system can be criticised as being very combat focused in the base rules, but this does reflect how most RPG have always been written.


Cults
The religions in RQ are based around cults of the various gods, such as Orlanth, Issaries and Kyger Litor. The cults are linked to various runes, which show their links to different types of powers. There are sample cults in the book with Orlanth for humans and Kyger Litor for trolls detailed. There is far more information in the later books which is a major part of the Gloranthan setting. The cults are a critical part of the game for characters as to learn Rune Magic the characters need to have links to a cult, particularly if they aspire to Rune Lord or Rune Priest status.


Creatures
RQ includes a wide range of intelligent races that are different to most other fantasy worlds, with elves as a species of sentient plant and the dwarves or Mostali being different form the usual tolkeineque dwarves. The unique races include dragonnewts, who go through multiple life stages with different statistics at each time. The trolls include several different races including the trollkin. The ducks have been a feature of the setting that has often been controversial with many feeling that they are silly, but personally I like how they are handled and they do have a place in the complex world of Glorantha.

Non-sentient creatures include the riding animals for the barbarians of Prax and monsters like the Dragonsnails and rubble runners. The dragons in RQ are not encountered widely as they are sleeping deep underground, but their dreams are capable of taking flesh and being encountered.

The rules on allocating treasure for adventures have a simple mechanism for estimating the strength of monsters to work out how much treasure is appropriate, the Treasure Factor. There are a number of tables for the different types of treasure with a master table that gives the amounts of treasure of each type for a particular treasure factor. Treasure Factors can also be used to estimate encounter difficulty by calculating the adventurers' TF and comparing it to the TF of what they will encounter.

Appendices
The appendices include optional rules for different character generation systems, prior experience, rules for environmental conditions and optional combat rules. The optional combat rules include rules for aimed blows, shield attacks crushing and knocking back opponents. There are rules for disease with these being particularly important when facing Broos, the chaos creatures riddled with disease that can infect the characters they fight.

Alternate chargen includes a points buy system where a player has 20 points to allocate amongst the 7 characteristics with a maximum of 18 for a human and a base value of 8. There are other dice based systems included as well as this, but in practice the standard 3d6 or the points buy mechanism seem to have been most widely used.

Prior experience can take a number of forms depending on what a character becomes, a player can join a guild to gain trade skill while simultaneously being a member of the militia, this would largely be peasant or townsman characters. For barbarians there is set of possible advances from their lifestyle and there is the option of being a member of a mercenary company for a more combat oriented set of advances. The guilds are the ones that the characters can use to train them in skills for advancement, so a member of the thieves guild will advance in those skills.

Natural damages and conditions and their effect on characters form an appendix including fire, drowning and falling. The information about running a game and Languages are other contents in the appendices.

The appendices include a bibliography and encounter tables for different types of location. The bibliography includes not only books, but also other roleplaying games and the boardgames set in Glorantha. It is brief, but still useful in comparing the origins of RQII to say AD&D where the Dungeon Master's Guide has its Appendix N on the inspirations for the game.



Presentation
There were hard cover and softcover editions produced inclduing ones printed in the UK by Games Workshop. The actual content is the same with the page layout being clear with the text reasonably spaced and enough white space round it to allow for easy reading or making comments in the margins. The art is not particularly great in RQII with the cover having a female warrior fighting a giant lizard that is sometimes called the pizza cover because of claims that her shield looks like a pizza that the lizard is biting into.


Support
There is a lot of support material for RQII originally mainly in print as it came out in the pre-internet era and this includes many classic modules and sourcebooks. These include scenarios like Griffon Mountain and sourcebooks like Cults of Prax and Trollpak, some of which have recently been reprinted. Online there is the Glorantha website and many fansites.


Positives

• Consistent and effective combat and skills system
• Magic systems tied into background
• Speed of character generation
• Wide range and quality of support material
• Interesting background
• Contents, Index and bibliography included

Negatives

• Rules can breakdown with values outside normal ranges, e.g. skills above 100%
• No random element in melee initative
• Limited amount of background information
• Limited number of combat and play examples
• Fairly extreme results from background roll on character wealth and equipment
• Art is variable in quality

Overall
On its original publication RuneQuest was recognised as a realy good RPG ruleset and I still think that RQII holds up well today. The fact that many mechanisms that were used in RQ are still in use supports this idea as does the fact that many other Basic RolePlaying system games are available. Indeed the consistent success of Call of Cthulhu with its minor changes to the rules over the years and the recent release of BRP by Chaosium help to reinforce this point. I recommend RuneQuestII or RuneQuest III highly, I've not yet looked in detail at Mongoose's recent edition.

I give it a 9.5 for substance and a 4 for style as the art is one thing that does reflect the relatively low standards of the early years of roleplaying games. I'll admit to a slight bias on the substance as this was the first RPG that I really thought that the mechanics on were really great, but I had already played OD&D, Traveller, Bunnies & Burrows and SuperHero'44 by that time. The fact that the BRP system is still available from Chaosium and is used in both Call of Cthulhu and Mongoose RuneQuest supports my idea that it was a really strong set of mechanics. ]]> Reviews MonsterMash http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267351-runequest-2-a.html http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267063-heros-handbook-eladrin.html Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:07:22 GMT As a primary game master, Hero’s Handbook, Eladrin, pleasantly surprised me. The book includes a wide range of information that will be useful to gamers of different stripes. The tome is illustrated by some well known fan favorites including Doug Kovacs and Scott Purdy. For fans of the Goodman... As a primary game master, Hero’s Handbook, Eladrin, pleasantly surprised me. The book includes a wide range of information that will be useful to gamers of different stripes. The tome is illustrated by some well known fan favorites including Doug Kovacs and Scott Purdy.

For fans of the Goodman Games setting Aereth, it includes background information on how the elves came to split into the eladrin, elves, and dark elves.

For those just wanting ‘general’ or ‘generic’ all purpose background material, it’s provided. While it does suffer a little from ‘elves is best’ writing, “Eladrin clothing is beautiful and of superb craftsmanship’ that isn’t back up in any game mechanics terms (what’s that awesome clothing worth for example), it does include a lot of ideas on their ‘court’ system following a seasonal theme with role playing notes not just for Eladrin in general, but how they are per court. This includes providing numerous NPCs for the game master’s use.

Players looking for more than just flavor though also have the standard new toys ranging from new rituals and magic items, to feats and paragon paths.
For me as a game master though, I was most intrigued by the ideas on the Fey Realm and the monsters included. For example, the bonegrinder, a giant that, yes, grinds bones to, and a follow up monster, the dough golem, crafted from the flour made from the bonegrinder’s mills. More standard creatures like centaur’s and various types of hags, including an old favorite, Baba Yaga, are also included.

The details on the Fey Realm include Eladrin cities as well as methods of going to and returning from the Fey Realm. To me, this was almost more useful than the information on the Eladrin because while 4e has used the Fey Realm for many a thing, it’s not explicitly detailed and it can use the fleshing out that’s provided here.

By making the book GM focused as well as player focused, I find Eladrin to be immediately useful not only in providing my players with possible options, but in detailing the world the players adventure in. ]]> Reviews JoeGKushner http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267063-heros-handbook-eladrin.html http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267061-forgotten-heroes-scythe-shroud.html Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:49:06 GMT Forgotten Heroes Scythe and Shroud introduces the new power source Death and with it, four new classes. To me, a power source is merely an ‘effect’. Much like the Hero game system where you can have an energy blast that does 1d6 per rank, you get to choose what the effect is. In D&D 4e, they went the opposite route in that they tell you what the effect is, but most of the game mechanics are of a similar level in terms of power.

The book is lightly illustrated and my only complaint would be that the illustrations all don’t follow a ‘type’ if you will. For example, while I enjoy Marcio Fiorito’s art and his known for many of his d20 illustrations in the past, his style is crisp and clean, almost comic book like, and it fails to mesh with some of the others like Doug Kovacs or Brad McDevitt.

Like the previous Forgotten Heroes book, this one does a little more than just throw the classes at you. It provides some other details as to how the classes might get along. What sort of conflicts they may come into. Because it’s also a power source on death, it includes details on some planar destinations for you when a character dies, and some adventure hooks. For example, Sheol is the Final Destination. A group of planar travelers is building a sphere to travel there and deities do not wish this to happen. Or a renegade angel claims that Sheol holds a secret the gods to not wish to learn. These are far from fully fleshed out ideas but the seeds should be enough to get any creative juices flowing.

Each class includes all standard class traits; Role, Power Source, Key Abilities, Armor Training, Weapon Proficiencies, Bonus to Defense, Hit Points, Haling Surges, Trained Skills, Class Skills, 2 build options, class features, and the full allotment of standard powers. After each standard listing of powers comes the paragon paths. Epic destinies are included after all classes.

Assassins are the strikes of the book. A pretty standard fantasy archtype, this isn’t the assassin who merely brews poisons and pricts someone as they walk by and gloats in their death, but rather someone who has abilities called Harrowings and such lovely options as the 23rd level encounter harrowing, Kidney Slice that weakens the target and provides the character with a study point. These study points are part of the class feature and the assassin can accumulate them and then trade them in for bonuses to hit and damage with the bonus changing depending on what tier the assassin currently is.

Deathwardens are the leaders. While the other classes are fairly well represented in the fantasy genre, or at least the d20 genre, the deathwarden strikes me as fairly unique in that they use the connection to death to ‘shield your allies and dispatch your enemies.” Their abilities are also called harrowing and include those abilities which let allies spend healing surges as well as those that inflict damage.

Necromancers the controllers and like assassins, a fairly common archetype in fantasy, especially d20 which had numerous variants of them. My favorite ability of the necromancer, perhaps due to the full page illustration accompanying it, is Necromancer Attack level 29, Summon Dead God, where the necromancer summons the corpse of a god. This daily action conjures forth a dead god with defenses equal to 10 + ½ level + intelligence modifier + implement. If it takes damage, it’s destroyed (which makes me wonder why it has hit points equal to three times your healing surge value), but it inflicts 4d10 + intelligence modifier and as a sustain minor, the dead god can make another attack. Moving the dead god is a move action. To me, that’s a power that showcases a lot of creative thinking.

Spiritsworn the defenders. While perhaps not as typical as the assassin and necromancer, their association with spirits tends to make them like shaman or spirit talkers and are a traditional fantasy role going back to at least 2nd edition’s Shaman sourcebook.

There are two epic destinies included here, angel of death and demilich. Other ‘standards’ of player favored books includes feats for each tier, as well as multiclass tier feats and magical items. Magic items include new or hardly used types such as death masks and poisons.

For those without a DDI subscription and no access to the ‘official’ assassin, or those who are tired of waiting for WoTC to come out with a necromancer class, Forgotten Heroes Scythe and Shroud is worth reviewing. ]]> Reviews JoeGKushner http://www.enworld.org/forum/reviews/267061-forgotten-heroes-scythe-shroud.html