Character Sheet Is Up!!!

[Archer]

It's OK, Archer.

You have never played RQ2?

No, we began playing DoD (Drakar och Demoner) around '81 (followed by EDD etc.), and when we got around to playing RuneQuest, it was RQ3 that was the current edition, which I think would be somewhere around 85/86 if I am not misstaken.

From what I have gathered, there are not that major differences between RQ2 and RQ3 rules-wise. Or am I wrong?

I have always had the impression that much of DoD1/2 was rules-wise ripped from RQ2 (or perhaps even older version, don't know really). If my memory serve me well, I think one of the creators of the original Drakar och Demoner mentioned something along those lines.

 

[GbajiTheDeceiver]

There's some fairly significant ones.

The entire previous experience rules are RQ3 only, there's no Agility skills in RQ2, no Ritual Magic or Sorcery in RQ2, Shamans are fairly different, RQ2 has proper Scrolls, full Alchemy rules, totally different cultures, skills use blocks of 5%, and so on.

The core mechanics are virtually identical, but it's all the tasty bits that go around them that are almost entirely different.

 

[andakitty]

The reason I asked is that of all BRP systems RQ2 is closest to Fifth Cycle, the game in which hit point locations work well by themselves.

At any rate I am very curious to see what additional wound mechanics Mongoose has come up with. After thinking about it, I think Fifth Cycle works so well because it has low armor values and a critical effects table that is significantly deadly. Kind of like the WFRP one in some respects.

 

[Malakor]

Heay Malakor?

I know I'm pushing it, but any chance of a charactrer sheet with the male hit location image replace with a female image? :?: It helps when people play female characters, and when getting a woman to try the game.

Ok, look at the sheet marked FemPg1 on my wiki and see if that will work for the moment

http://leshan.pbwiki.com/

 

[atgxtg]

Ok, look at the sheet marked FemPg1 on my wiki and see if that will work for the moment

[

"Yeah, that ought to shut he--, I mean, very nice."




A suggestion (only-I'm not asking for this, just giving a suggestion, consider it something for the journal, I'm happy now ) for the sheets would be to take the hit location boxes off of the image and put them around the image , but connected with a line, so people can draw on the pic to create a character portrait. Did that make sense?

 

[Archer]

The reason I asked is that of all BRP systems RQ2 is closest to Fifth Cycle, the game in which hit point locations work well by themselves.

Ok.

At any rate I am very curious to see what additional wound mechanics Mongoose has come up with. After thinking about it, I think Fifth Cycle works so well because it has low armor values and a critical effects table that is significantly deadly. Kind of like the WFRP one in some respects.

That is probably the deciding factors.
Critical effects tables tend to shift the scale quite a bit.

 

[Malakor]

Ok, look at the sheet marked FemPg1 on my wiki and see if that will work for the moment

[

"Yeah, that ought to shut he--, I mean, very nice."




A suggestion (only-I'm not asking for this, just giving a suggestion, consider it something for the journal, I'm happy now ) for the sheets would be to take the hit location boxes off of the image and put them around the image , but connected with a line, so people can draw on the pic to create a character portrait. Did that make sense?

An excellent suggestion, actually

thanks

 

[Ravelli]

Heay Malakor?

I know I'm pushing it, but any chance of a charactrer sheet with the male hit location image replace with a female image? :?: It helps when people play female characters, and when getting a woman to try the game.

Hey, seeing as we're pushing things here ... Malakor is there any chance you could replace that male image with something that's not from one of the original Champions character sheets? Your MRQ sheets are excellent but everytime I see that bloke I want to write "10d6 AP EB" on them. :wink:

Ah, is that where I got that? I have a file at home called body images It may have to wait until I have time to do something else. What I'd like to do is replace it with an actual sketch of a person if I get some time.

I'd be willing to scan some other images if it could help. (Sorry Malakor, I didn't mean to snowball this). I could "borrow" the images/characters from the old RQ3 Adventuerer sheets and paste them over the generic one ion Malakor's sheet. THat would let people customize the image and be a spot for a character picture (something that some people want).

Cheers, Malakor and atgxtg! I'm sure you guys'll come up with something very suitable.

 

[Ravelli]

I like some of the low skill abilities....some of my most fun gaming experiences have been when I started off in the gutters.....though many of the skills abilities are reasonably high - a well rounded beginning character

Yeah, I agree with you, burdock. I had some great fun with starting characters in games like WFRP and RQ2, where a generally low chance of success really made the action quite tense and the growth of one's character much more satisfying.

 

[atgxtg]

Cheers, Malakor and atgxtg! I'm sure you guys'll come up with something very suitable.

Give Malakor all the cheers. He is doing all the work, he deserves them.

 

[Archer]

Malakor: Your character sheet is just marvelous. I wish Mongoose would have included yours instead of their own

 

[Malakor]

Malakor: Your character sheet is just marvelous. I wish Mongoose would have included yours instead of their own

Thanks Archer.

I'll be working on 'extra' sheets over the next week or so, add ons like companions/animals a grimoire sheet for those who want to detail their spells, and that type of thing.

Basically it will let folks build a 'journal' type set up using the sheets they need.

I'll also make some changes to the character journal after the book is released, and I'll post news of any upgrades to the cs here if I make changes.

Hope everyone finds the sheets useful.

 

[burdock]

yea I'll use yours malakor. thanks. Though I think the updated mongoose one is ok...simple and neat......I don't bother with character pictures. I prefer to create a written description and hold the image in my imagination. (for similair reasons I dont bother with miniatures).

 

[burdock]

ravelli posted: where a generally low chance of success really made the action quite tense and the growth of one's character much more satisfying.

Yea I remember forming a pavic street-gang where all the PCs were total wimps with abysmal stats. We became the most feared gang in the city by having an initial spate of ridiculously lucky rolls....and then, by expanding on our reputation through roleplay, we never had to fight again!....

 

[Gaheir]

The 2nd page of the character sheet gives some insights into the upcoming magic system. It appears that magic will be much less available. It seems that each spell will have associated with it a runecasting skill, and rune(S), not rune, needed. This certainly implies that to cast a spell you will have to gain access to it's associated rune(S), and a runecasting skill-hopefully gained when you find/learn the rune. Than, you must learn the spell. This leads me to believe that magic will be much rarer, and each character will have access to far narrower selections of spells (those he's gained the runic knowledge of.) (This is an interesting idea, making the RUNES in runequest key. It may make the less frequent spells acceptable and may even make them more consistent with the world, depending on how approached.) I can see gaining mastery of runes becoming a key part of the game, and not just for priests/mages. Very interesting...

 

[Gaheir]

Another point of interest regarding magic, for me, is that it seems that spell casting will involve a skill roll for succesful casting, as in RQIII. Our shaman (in the character sheet example) has a 38% runecasting skill, for the spirit rune. I assume he will have a 38% chance of casting spells associated with that rune. This does not bode well for non spell specialists, nor does his access to a single rune. Given the number of runes, (35 on the rune sheet), and the number of spells available, it seems that a character might have access to one or two spell choices early. And, it seems that there will be low skills associated with them.
Magic is being weakened. The skill association will limit the spells cast, and (for beginning characters) their spells will frequently not work. If they work, and target another, there will be some kind of resistance roll- probably associated with the targets persistence or resilience scores. This gives 2 chances for targetted spells to fail. Hmmm.

 

[atgxtg]

The 2nd page of the character sheet gives some insights into the upcoming magic system. It appears that magic will be much less available. It seems that each spell will have associated with it a runecasting skill, and rune(S), not rune, needed. This certainly implies that to cast a spell you will have to gain access to it's associated rune(S), and a runecasting skill-hopefully gained when you find/learn the rune. Than, you must learn the spell. This leads me to believe that magic will be much rarer, and each character will have access to far narrower selections of spells (those he's gained the runic knowledge of.) (This is an interesting idea, making the RUNES in runequest key. It may make the less frequent spells acceptable and may even make them more consistent with the world, depending on how approached.) I can see gaining mastery of runes becoming a key part of the game, and not just for priests/mages. Very interesting...

Wen I first got RQ, and started reading it. I sort of got the impression that characters would learn runes and then be able to work magic based upon combining the various runes and thier skills. SO, a character with knowledge of the Mastery and Plant runes could control plants or do other plant manipulating magic. Turned out not to be the case.

Until now.

Juding from how HeroQuest works, I suspect magic won't be less common, just more specialized.

 

[SteveMND]

SO, a character with knowledge of the Mastery and Plant runes could control plants or do other plant manipulating magic. Turned out not to be the case.

Too true. So disappointed was I with the lack of rune-based magic in earlier RQs, I decided that would be a key elements of my own campaign world, and started work on making a rune-based magic system based off the old sorcery rules.

It's nice to see that the MRQ is adopting that style of magic for their game; I just hope it's flexible enough I can modify it to work in my next RQIII/BRP-based campaign...

 

[Adept]

yea I'll use yours malakor. thanks. Though I think the updated mongoose one is ok...simple and neat......I don't bother with character pictures. I prefer to create a written description and hold the image in my imagination. (for similair reasons I dont bother with miniatures).

Do you only play solo? A character picture helps the other players (and GM) immensely in visualizing your character. A picture says more than a thousand words, remember.

 

[SteveMND]

Do you only play solo? A character picture helps the other players (and GM) immensely in visualizing your character. A picture says more than a thousand words, remember.

Unless the character portrait is done by a 'professional' artist, I've yet to see one that didn't hinder the descriptions of a character. Few people involved in RPGs can draw a tolerable picture of a character; almost everyone involved in RPGs can give at least a good, solid description of a character (if not the most poetic).

I think many of us can remember the disturbingly-childish artwork that came out in many of the later AH/Chaosium RQ books. Elder Secrets, anyone? I would have far preferred for NO artwork to have been in those books rather than what was used.

Dobyski was a fine man, and I don't begrudge him doing the artwork for those books, but he had probably more artistic talent than most players, and it still tainted a whole slew of gamers with those depictions.

Ugh, I still remember the "group of helpful dark elves" picture. *shudder*