New Dm for RuneQuest, need ideas to get players switching!

[AlexH]

I've fallen in love with the RuneQuest system. I read the whole Deluxe book in an evening and the day after, i went to get Pirates and Spellbook. I'm still looking for the the DM guide but it's unavailable around here...

So, anyway, i was planning to use Runequest and Pirates as a mean to run my own homebrew campaign. My current group is playing D&D 4th but i don't really like the new rules, while they to like it (it's the only RPG they ever played). They seemed hesitant to switch to Runequest, but they promised me they'd give it a try. So, we'll be doing a few one of's of RQ.

What i need, is some really nice, cool, interesting ideas for mini-adventures using the "coolest" features of runequest in hope that they'll like so much as to be willing to switch over from D&D

Mind you, i'm not always that evil or manipulative, i'm just bored with D&D.

 

[Deleriad]

Well, I would be tempted to run a completely different style to what they're used to.

Have characters with nothing but the odd cutlass and some leather armour with some muskets and go for some old-fashioned blood and thunder and watch your players suddenly get frightened by combat.

My current play group consists of 3 ex-D&Ders who played a pick-up game at the gaming club I joined. They love rolling d20 to see the location they hit, they are terrified about getting out-numbered in a fight because they can't parry everything and every hit hurts.

In the last session they ended facing a great troll and they know enough now to know that one hit from it could kill, so they talked their way out of things.

The ethos of RQ is, and always has been, "yes you can." If a player really wants to do something there's almost certainly a skill you can get them to roll against and if it seems really over the top, let them spend a hero point to give it a go.

So that's what I would do.

 

[AlexH]

Thanks for the input!

Yeah i'll probably do something like that. Though i want them to see a little bit of everything, so i'll probably give them a few runes and spells to start with

 

[Utgardloki]

I've long been wanting to convert Privateer Presses The Witchfire Trilogy to Runequest. It is an adventure with lots of opportunities for role playing, dodging steamjacks, investigating mysteries, and thwarting awesome necromantic magic.

You could either run it in a runequest version of the Iron Kingdoms, or adapt it to any other world. You could easily put it in the Caribbean, for example.

 

[zozotroll]

I am gearing up for my third RQ Pirates campaign. Here are some notes I made myself from the last two

1. Be sure they have some form of magic healing. Waiting three months to heal up after a fight may be historicaly accurate for Pirates, but is very boring to play.

2. Use Gloranthan cults, rather than real world religeons. Even though you may think your friends have never been to church in thier lives, one of them may have an aunt you have never heard of who goes twice a week, and you accidently insult a major part of a faith you know very little about.

3. Remeber that real pirates in the golden age didnt last very long, three years being a long time to survive. I set my latest one in 1640 to avoid that particular problem. And remeber Privateers last a lot longer than pirates.

4. RQ is very lethal, even the current one. They may not think of armor as pirateish, but even a set of chain makes you more likely to survive the first few fights until they get the hang of it.

5. Consider two charecters apeice, one set up to play on the ship, and one to play on landing partys. That way, no matter how the action goes, everybody has some one that can do something.

Probably a bunch more but thats all I can think of at the moment.

 

[Cleombrotus]

Here's what I'd do.

Start the game in the middle of a boarding action, just as the hooks are thrown - staight in with the action. The chaos should be enhanced by the fact that the players have no introduction to the story or the world.

In the midst of the chaos I'd have as many mini encounters as I could think of. Skill rolls for boarding, sharpshooters in the rigging for ranged combat, strength tests for turning a cannon to bring grapeshot to bear on something, etc, etc.

After the battle you can hit them with the backstory, or even get them to play the backstory as a prelude to this battle, "So how did it come to this?"

I'd use skeletons and zombies to give the most graphic demonstration of hit locations and I'd have them find something really intriguing in the captain's cabin of the defeated ship to give the game some future direction.

 

[durulz]

Yup, as George Lucas said, always open with action.
Mind you, judging by those Star Wars prequels, I'd ignore anything else he has to say.

 

[AlexH]

Good idea! Thanks!

I didn't thought of putting them directly in the action. Usually, i just improvise the first few sessions as to see what tone, characters intereactions and background my players offer. I think i'll try that this time.

I was already planning some kind of plot involving some merdaids and stuff, to get them involved, but i guess if they realise the potential of the system, they'll be happy to swith, too

 

[Utgardloki]

I am gearing up for my third RQ Pirates campaign. Here are some notes I made myself from the last two

2. Use Gloranthan cults, rather than real world religeons. Even though you may think your friends have never been to church in thier lives, one of them may have an aunt you have never heard of who goes twice a week, and you accidently insult a major part of a faith you know very little about.

Apparently somebody has not been reading my threads about equating Amaterasu Omikami with the Greek goddess Rhea and defining Yahweh as the brother of Jupiter and incorporating a bunch of Mormon ideas into my mix.

Not that I'm recommending it, but there's no reason why you can't do things like that if you want to. Using a traditional religion like Catholicism is a lot easier in Runequest than it is in D&D, because there is no need to incorporate any particular game material. If you want to give holy men special powers, you can, or if you do not want to give holy men special powers, you don't have to.

I ran a game where one of the pre-gen PCs was an Orthodox Priest. I gave the player the option to change change to any of the other religions in the area -- Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim, etc. It worked fine. Of course, that doesn't mean that some aunt somewhere might not have ojected.

 

[zozotroll]

Actualy, as Catholics have already been done in Stuper Mundi, that is the one real religeonI do use. That is because I can show somebody the full worked out document, and they can agree or disagree.

I dont see as much problem with older, "dead" religeons. You may get the odd (perhaps very odd) Thor worshiper wander into a game, but they dont seem to get the passion about insults that currently popular religeons generate.

Haveing witnessed more than one melee break out between players, as opposed to charecters< I advise cautuion on the subject.

 

[Utgardloki]

I guess I get away with it because I make it clear, and the players understand, that this is a fantasy game, sometimes based on history, and nothing in the game is taken to be a statement of what really applies in the world.

I've had a Jewish PC once and the only problem was that trying to get anything done in medieval Europe was difficult because of all the discrimination. But that's what you get for playing a character who is in a persecuted minority.

For a pirate game, I'd probably create my own world with its own religions, or adapt an existing world like Glorantha or World of Greyhawk. It would be likely to use my "Another Ringworld" idea, and have pirates on this ringworld I've described in a previous thread.

If I were to do a pirates game set in the Carribean, I'd probably use existing religions like the Judeo-Christian religions, the native American religions, and voodoo. I'd want to read up on how voodoo developed, since I suspect it was not the same thing 350 years ago that it is today. Of course, knowing me, I'd probably use Atlantean elements as a part of the game as well, and all that attendant madness.

The nice thing about Runequest is that you can take your pick. Do you want a reality-warping witch in every port? Or do you want a cup of lice with your scurvy? Or anything in between.

 

[zozotroll]

For me using RQ cults killed two big birds. One no potential conflicts, and two they are already written.

I have plenty to do without the need to write up a new set of cults. And trying to get the balance right might be tricky.

As for voodoo, my wife is Santoria, which blends a lot of voodoo with christian things as well. So I have a ready source if I get it wrong. As for changes, yes there are some. The problem is as I understand it, is that it never was a well organized affair, with people going off in all sorts of different directions. Even today, they dont go out of their way to advertise what they are. I suspect that true voodoo was kept pretty hidden, particularly in areas where the inquisition was strong.