So, my longish running MRQ game ended this week, the first campaign I have ever brought to a real conclusion.  Since we ended early enough I put out a few ideas on the table for the next campaign and let everyone hash it out.

Lucky me: they picked something that I had not actually put forth as a possibility. The idea of a 'Modern' Runquest game, backed by the necessity of adding Elves (for Kitara, who refuses to play any game where she must be Human (since she already IS one...), meant we would be doing essentially D20 Modern, Urban Arcana, only with Runequest II.  

The RQII was a necessity because two of my players are brand spanky new to RPGs and didn't want to try and learn a new game system, not even D&D.  I don't, as it happens, own Call of Cthulu, but I do have the BRP book, so this particular adaptation will not be excessively hard (aside from the challenge of adding non-humans to the humanocentric Runequest without unbalancing, something I've been playing with and around for a couple of years now, so...)

This thread is for brainstorming and codifying rules that will be necessary. Future posts will include deep hidden secrets of the setting and so forth, though as always I welcome ideas.

Since no one has actually MADE a character yet I will be operating in a vacuum as to how the campaign will actually go, so right now I'm just setting the table, so to speak.

To start with: Magic rules will be essentially unchanged from RQII. However, no character will start with an understanding of, or knowledge of the existance of Magic (aside from the Elf, who will only be able to say definitively that it exists).  Uncovering and exploring those facets of the game will be a central element of the campaign, at least in the early stages.

Deep history secrets: The Monotheistic Church is, arguably, the Bad Guy, actively supressing Magic, non-humans (elves) and so forth.  Faith in the 'Cult' of the Church is not rewarded with divine magic, though 'hidden' members of the church can use Divine Magic by tapping the faith invested in the church, though this is limited to larger factions of faith.  This is not a political statement, but my players are not particularly religious so I'm running with it as a fun idea.

Sorcerous Grimoires: Two primary ones exist. I'll have to divide up spells.  Nephilim and Atlantean.    Secondary Grimoires are either bastardized from the  big two, or were 'imports' from the ancient, non-human refugees (Elves etc...).  Lets say three big ones then, but knowledge/use of the Imported Grimoire automatically assumes you have 'outsider' blood, even if human, and are therefore vulnerable to Church relics/holy water...

Alternate History:  Approximately two thousand years ago a portal opened up allowing refugees from another world to enter our own, fleeing some poorly  documented apocalyptic event in their own world.  These refugees, human, elf, dwarf and other found a world with almost no magic, and found the secrets they brought with them greatly weakened. They took shelter among the local tribes, scattering around the globe, living amongst us.

Before that, many eons ago, the Gods and Great Spirits of the world dallied amongst the human tribes, seeding great and terrible progeny amongst them, the Nephilim.  These god-touched Nephilim became conquerors and kings, ruling lesser men as Tyrants and slaughtering those who opposed them. In horror the Gods withdrew from the world, from the conflict, leaving their children and Men to slaughter one another.

Enraged, a tribe of Men, denied the one thing that had leveled the field against the physically superior Nephilim, turned to study and primative science to find ways to defeat the Nephilim, any one of which was worth a dozen men.  Eventually, using primative alchemy they invented a strange metal, Orichalcum, which was toxic to the Nephilim, and stole from the Nephilim the secrets of Sorcery, which needed no gods nor Spirits.  

Armed with weapons of metal and magic the people of this tribe destroyed the Nephilim, but in the mighty battle their great city was destroyed, sunk, and the ancient Atlanteans scattered, losing the greatest of their arts.

And yet, the Atlanteans had one, the Nephilim were lost, their armies shattered, their leaders murdered, their power broken. Only the weakest and most cowardly survived, driven into hiding, underground, their own secrets, the secrets that had let them sink cities, largely lost and forgotten as well.

As new kingdoms and nations of Men arose, as they too discovered the secrets of metal weapons and armor, if not the terrible secrets of Orichalcum, and the lesser secrets of magic, if not the wonders of Sorcery, the surviving Atlanteans and Nephlim waged a shadowy war across the ages.  

Slowly the Gods began to return to the world, though they still favored their own children above other races.  With the Nephilim wearing metal armor and backed by the power of the Gods, the Atlanteans began to lose once more.  Their enemies were powerful, immortal and had divine favor on their side, the Atlanteans only had their Orichalcum.

The arrival of inhuman refugees, backed with their own powerful magics, only seemed to acerbate the Atlantean plight.  These new arrivals were all as vulnerable to Orichalcum as the Nephilim, and were seen as threats to Man, even those who appeared to be Men themselves. It did not help that many of them had knowledges of magic and sciences that rivaled or  surpassed the Atlantean's own.

And so they launched an ambitious plan, unlike any other the world had known. Supporting a little loved, minor Kingdom's God, they changed myth and history alike to suggest he was the Only God, and they found a prophet, then centuries later a second one, to promulgate this new creed of this new god of their own devising.  Deprived of worship, the true Gods withdrew from the world once more, and the newly minted Catholic Church persecuted the alien mystics and heretics, and its inner Cabal drew strength from the forces of thousands of worshippers, along with their wealth.


Those who run the Church today do not call themselves Atlanteans, and their ancient war against the Nephilim is all but forgotten.  Two thousand years on the winning side of history, and internal factionalism (schisms, rival faiths (Islam) run by different cabals) and the like, along with long mingling with other tribes of humans have long since erased their ancient culture, and diluted many of their secrets.  

Regardless, those who run the Church (Any...) have a long standing vested interest in suppressing magic and rival faiths.  Even in the face of nearly forgotten enemies, when the reasons for the enemity is long lost,  faith and self interest combine to keep them going.

Many of the agents of the church are true believers, thinking that their power comes directly from God.  More cynical, informed Cabal members may believe that it comes directly from the power of the faithful, pooling and almost completely untapped.  In truth, no living soul could ever say.


The Old Gods are still around, some are even still worshipped, and their faithful grow stronger where the Church is weakest. The fragmenting schisms of the Reformation, the anti-christian focus of modern Islam have given the Old Gods a new foothold, and the prayers of the faithful have power once again.  The ancient patterns are unraveling and the bold actions of the few may just be enough to write new ones.   Dwarves tended to stick to racial enclaves, both by instinct and due to the difficulties with cross breeding. Rarely more than small villages, there are very few Dwarves as a result.

Evil Church. So over done. (It was overdone when the Televangelist stand in was doing nasty things in the Elementals comics..)


I might simply make it one factions of the Church. This allows some interesting characters like members of the Church who aren't in that faction helping the PC's. Or possibly conspiring to put themselves at the head of their own "new" faction with inhuman allies.

I might also put in a few "evil" cults of different ilks aimed at helping various non-humans to gain favor in their attempts to overthrow whatever enemies they have, and serve everyone up to demonic masters.

Of course I always planned UA as a more "horror of the familiar.." where a goblin lives downstairs in a ruined tenement "the crazy old man" who never comes out, but the children call a "monster" and who secret plans on eating them when he can.

Eh. I'm running a game, not trying to publish the next great american RPG.  

I'm also trying to adapt a pantheistic ruleset to a monotheistic world. The way I see it the vast majority of any faith is honest and 'morally upright' people just doing what they do.  However, at the heart (in this admittedly somewhat trite setting) of the big mono-churches is a core group of people making sure the earth is safe for ordinary, uncorrupted humanity.

Tiny amounts of Orichalcum in the holy water fonts?  You betcha.

Witch Hunters wanting to take out Elves and the like? Also a betcha.

Its not just teh Catholic Church, but the factions of Islam, the Angelicans...


As for how much use I'm going to actually GET out of that? Who knows?

maybe the players turn to the Church as an Ally early on when they learn those various rituals and holy implements really DO have power over the evil gribblies they face.   It has an agenda, it has people using it for self aggrandizement, but it is no more inherently evil than anything else. Note that the Nephilim (whom the church was set up to fight) are explicitely BAD PEOPLE.   Divine parentage or not, the Nephilim were tyrants and conquerers who considered ordinary humanity as utterly inferior, resources rather than individuals.  

I reject your judgement of 'Evil' in substituite a judgement of my own 'Complex'.

Quote from: Spike;377414I reject your judgement of 'Evil' in substituite a judgement of my own 'Complex'.

Fair enough. I just hate the commonality of it in gaming. I mean I'm a Baptist (sorta) and I see lots of both sides of the fence in people of that faith--but often its made one-sided (either direction) in gaming.

You might also think about how each monster/fantasy thing works.

Is that dark part of Chinatown no one talks about some hidden world, a pocket for goblins, ogres and other "oni"?

Why does the city have such extensive storm drains? Just what is hiding under there. A friend was telling me about a hidden city of homeless in Nevada/Las Vegas. A place they can gather and not be run off, and with access to water, food, and so on thanks to the gluttony of the city dwellers/visitors above..Just who are these people in your world?

Well that's part of the intent, to include things like that.  I'm STILL getting the campaign ideas in mind trying to put such a wonky group together on the fly...

I mean, I am trying to throw in some Lovecraftian shit too.  Its just when I start deep historical origins, I tend to start in central asia...