So, I've had RuneQuest for quite some time in one edition or another up to and including the newest, shiniest book to come hot off the press. And I'm gonna run this sucker through it's paces.

Now, I, like many gamers do not have a regular group, due to a nomadic lifestyle and irregular work schedule. So, for the benefit of others like myself I'm gonna cover every aspect of gameplay to include getting a group together.


To start with, I'm posting a flyer at the local game store. Not a hand written scrap of paper but an actual, computer generated flyer. Nothing fancy, no images, no bizzare graphics.  I'm putting down a day of the week and a time I  intend to run it. This will prevent those players who just want to show up whenever, a sure receipe for disaster in my expirence.  

As of this post I have three players more or less

Spike the Pikachu of DOOM!: Your lovely and talented Game Master
Kitara: the same name, same bow weilding wanna be elf girl of DOOM, Spikes lovely and talented Housemate...
Jason: Kitara's freind and occasional sociopathic assassin wannabe...

I could run with that but I know disaster can only result so I'll wait until I have a few more.

Now, since the new runequest is sadly incomplete, especially in the setting department, I will be making the setting up as I go along, using the ideas of the original Glorantha as my touchstone. In other words, almost all metal usage is restricted to Bronze, with iron (and especially steeled iron) being extremely rare.  

I do intend to expand the magic chapter a bit, going back to the spirit magic and sorcery of older editions on top of 'rune magic' in the current book.  

I'll post again as things develop.

As an update:

I have since posted my flyer for January, given the holidays, and already have my first character made, and Avante studying the sorcerous arts (and if that doesn't make perfect sense, you obviously haven't been reading my world building exercise... for shame!)

The player's sorta-boyfriend should be making a character later this week, along with my housemate.  That brings me to three, which for me is short of a full deck by a stretch. I like 4-6 players for comfort, going up to 8 for really epic games... which this isn't really.

Already planning the campaign first session, which strikes me a necessary to get everything up and moving once the players sit down to game.

My idea for starting is to have everyone at the Port City of Renbluve, current heart of civilization. If anyone is a Nornsa, they can be native, otherwise they've come to Renbluve to make their fortune... or what have you.

Now, a crucial point for MOST games is to set up some sort of conflict. I'm not uber enough to ignore that so I need something. Given that I don't exactly want to lay down an entire 'campaign trail' for people to follow like breadcrumbs I just need something that is both generic enough not to be susceptable to weird party compositions, and is capable of grabbing everyone by the balls (or tits, equal opportunity being what it is...) and tossing them headfirst into adventure!  Never mind that I love to let the players set the course of adventure.

So. We have an Avante sorcerer, and we'll have an elf healer type coming up.  Don't know if the Elf is going to do magic to start with, but I'm going to step in with the Fiat that the Elf is one of those 'child' elves that get frustrated at the extended social marginalization, which helps keep the idea that immortal types have lots of time get crazy good skilled.  The question, not that I forsee it becoming incredibly important, is what 'tribe' of elves the player is from. Not critical, because I haven't put forth a bunch of information for the various tribes, except the Tuatha, who we know were militant and proud.

So... conflict?

Given what little I have right now, I suspect having the Avante accused of theft, with the elf as his alibi might be an interesting idea. They will have to get the actual thief...  

More to come as I hone this idea down a bit and build upon my knowledge of players.

I didn't have to fiat anything. My elf player, despite being very contrary minded in character creation (almost enough to get booted for being disruptive) selected the tribal nomads from the Sea of Grass as a culture of origin, and despite bitching about a lack of swords in cultural weapons, made a hunter, an archer with a pet wolf (we used the hunting dog as the basis for this).

While I haven't got much of a clue what her character should be doing so far from home, I haven't really thought it was necessary for a detailed 'purpose'. For the moment I'm going about it like this: the characters start out having met on a boat pulling in to dock.  The Avante is returning to continue his studies after a trip home for reasons left to the player, and the elf is just possibly experiencing wanderlust.

With that said, and room to add in the third and fourth characters as soon as I get those players to sit down with me to make them, I suspect the starting adventure will start with the sorcerer in trouble. After all, even in a cosmopolitan place, the Nornsa have some prejudice about their northern enemies and rivals.  So, when someone steals from the Avante and uses it to frame him for a crime, its just business as usual, nothing personal, mate...

So I finally got my third player to make his character. He's been a bit sick, but barring another blizzard we should start play next week.

Let's review the characters so far.  We have the semi-savage plain's elf huntress, the Avante Foriegn Exchange student of Sorcery, and now we have the Renbluvian court dandy.    He knows which end of his rapier is sharp, but that is about it. They will be hard pressed to deal with any real violence at this stage of the game, which leave me wondering how to challenge them properly.

Anyway: working with my original concept of how to put the group together, the two dirty foriegners... I mean the Avante and the elf have just arrived in port together on ship.  I expect no real difficulties on getting them to hang out together, but we will see. I'll describe the scene to them and let them wander aimlessly, and breifly, for the 'first day'.

Then arrest them in the night for the 'theft' they've been framed for. This is tricky stuff, players hate being captured, and they hate 'fiats' so I'll have to either convince them to go along with it, or arrange it in such a way that they feel they've had a say in events.  Anyway, in the morning they are hauled before a magistrate, where a nobleman accuses them of working with player three (the dandy) to steal a ducal signet ring.  Player three, if he asks will be told he may recall a exchange of wittisisms that went bad against his accuser some weeks prior, but no other contact with the man.  I expect impassioned pleas of innocence et cetera from his character... we shall see.

The end result is the last forgone conclusion I expect to use in the game. The Players are given 48 hours to clear their names or be executed by the largely sympathetic magistrate.  Where they go from there is up to them.

The investigation, should they chose to do that, is somewhat simple. They know they didn't steal the ring, in fact never saw the ring. They also know they've never met before.  Their accuser had the ring stolen for his own reasons, pinning the blame out o fpetty spite to cover his crime.  His agent escaped through the sewers (the players will learn this as the crime is explained to them at the 'trial'), and is holed up until the heat passes and a new ring is minted.  This will leave the accuser (name to be decided later) with a duplicate ring, and the attendant power.

Cursury checks with servants and criminal scum in town will reveal that the man is ambitious and known for a vindictive streak and a dislike for the duke who's ring was stolen (there are a few who stay in Upper Renbluve from time to time...). Criminals and lower class citizens can report seeing the man... out of place, in Lower Renbluve in rougher neighborhoods and even point them to people he might have spoken too.  

If they make a run for it they won't have too much difficulty, other than what they make for themselves.  Overland they might be chased for a short time by a Dragoon, but the guards aren't keeping watch for them really. The magistrate simply doesn't care about them, and the real theif has dismissed them entirely from his mind as soon as the trial is over.  

I'll have to check, but I believe my two foriegners don't speak Nornsan at all. I'll wind up giving them the language at base value so the party shares a common tongue.  I don't intend to run a game of linguistic challenges but as they travel (assuming they ever do) language will be an issue for them at times.

Hey, Pika ... two questions:

First, about how many hours of your effort do you think have gone into the campaign so far?  It sounds like you've really been working your little tail off, but maybe that's an observer bias I've formed from the way you're describing things.

Second ... why play out the arrest at all?  Why not just start in media res as they're dragged in front of the magistrate?  Then you don't have to worry about the Fiat, because you execute it all in framing the scene.

Quote from: TonyLBHey, Pika ... two questions:

First, about how many hours of your effort do you think have gone into the campaign so far?  It sounds like you've really been working your little tail off, but maybe that's an observer bias I've formed from the way you're describing things.

Second ... why play out the arrest at all?  Why not just start in media res as they're dragged in front of the magistrate?  Then you don't have to worry about the Fiat, because you execute it all in framing the scene.

I would recommend this also, if you play through it you'll end up needing to railroad to get there, which is not so fun.  But players will generally accept as part of setup that you start in a situation, I once started a game with "your characters wake up after a night's heavy drinking deeply in debt to a local loanshark".  It was the premise, so people were cool with it.

You can't do that too often, but it's no more or less restrictive than saying "you all meet in a tavern".

The actual campaign not so much, most of my work was in wrangling my players together and getting them to make characters.  

The campaign world was swapped over from my original intent when I started my world building exercise and realized I really should use the better developed world to play in... go figure, eh?

 You guys do have a point about the timing of events, but I sort of wanted the players to feel committed to the scene, having had a chance to establish themselves in the world first.  It's a toss up, I guess.  Sacrifice the chance to get the players to really feel like they just stepped off the boat vs. feeling railroaded into the trial.  I'll have to think on this.  

I should also point out that I tend to think three players is a bit on the low side. On the other hand, the only other candidate for a fourth player is a guy known for serial character creation and disruptive play... I'd rather leave that be. The Sorcerer and the Dandy I've never actually gamed with, though I know them reasonably well and as they are sort of a couple they should get along pretty well.

Over all: I'm gaming with the group I have, not the group I would like to have...

Could you say to your players "guys, for the first bit of the game I want your characters to get arrested to play into the plot, after that it's up to you what happens, deal?" or would that not work with this particular group do you think?

If you can say that, you play through it but they know to go along with the arrest bit when it happens.

If not, I'd find another plot or at least a backup plot as if they don't surrender you will need to roll with that and go where that leads.

I should point out that none of my players are familiar with Runequest, and only one has any expirence outside of D&D that I am familiar with (Exalted).

One thing I expect to do at the start of the actual first game session is to get some feedback from everyone about what they want to do, and how 'rough' they expect me to be on them, after I've explained the default lethality of the system.

For NPC's, especially combative ones I pretty much expect to cheat whole heartedly.  Many 'mook' NPC's will simply be a combat skill rating (30%, 40%, 50%) and a weapon/armor loadout (armor being non-existant for the first game or two, given that the players total sum of armor for the entire group is one duellists cape...)... with an idea of roughly how much damage the bad guy can take before fleeing or dying. I'm a lazy git.  For mooks, average stats accross the board.  Stealing a note from Computer RPG's the first likely enemy they will face will be large rats in the sewers.

 If they go that way.

Quote from: BalbinusCould you say to your players "guys, for the first bit of the game I want your characters to get arrested to play into the plot, after that it's up to you what happens, deal?" or would that not work with this particular group do you think?

If you can say that, you play through it but they know to go along with the arrest bit when it happens.

If not, I'd find another plot or at least a backup plot as if they don't surrender you will need to roll with that and go where that leads.

As much as I hate to do it, I may just narrate the first part up through the arrest to keep the idea of 'fresh off the boat' and 'in media res' together.  As long as I keep it short.  The Dandy's character won't even be in play until the trial, which  dictates a lot of how I handle it as I don't want the player to be twiddling his thumbs off screen for too long.

One thing I did notice with the sorcerer and the dandy is that the RQ character creation system really really got them invested in 'who am I'.  the elf sort of gamed her character out towards goals (play and elf, have a bow, do some healing stuff), but I expected that.   If you ask me, the Dandy could have gotten a little more gamey, as he actively avoided making a capable combatant. Originally his strength was 6, until I pointed out that POW was his magic stat. Yes, I let him rearrange stats. It wasn't the lack of strength that was the issue, but when coupled with the 16 he rolled for size it was a serious disconnect in ability.    Of the three players he is the only one who was enthusiastic about starting as a member of a cult, which gives him some ties within the city (where he is, essentally, a native)...


One thing I intend to do is steal the Demeanor rings from Ramlar (from my review)... not so much for 'leveling' growth, but for goal progression. This is going to be far from 'pure' RQ....

One thing to watch out for, in my experience the smaller the group the more quickly they get through any prepared plot.

Seriously, three players, which I've had tons of times, go through plots like lightning.  With more players you get more internal party debate and bickering and general chat, with fewer they decide and do stuff and it can really take you unprepared if you don't watch out for it.

I'd email in advance on the lethality issue, but to be honest MRQ gives you hero points which already covers much of the issue for you.  If you want less lethality, give more hero points, simple as that.

On dangerous opponents, just figure if these guys are at this level odds are so are most non-professional combatants.  A few thieves likely won't have much skill and will run if there's much of a fight, even hired thugs will likely break off if the PCs show much sign of fighting back, so the trick is just to keep the opponents people who don't have much reason to die for their cause or people who are realistically going to be as crap as the PCs are.

I'm not worried about a prepared plot so much as getting them invested in both the world and their characters.   I am very much the 'set up the situation, see what happens' sort of GM, and have been since the earliest days of AD&D when i was the default GM becuase I was the one who most wanted to play.

If anything I should come up with a short list of stock situations to toss at the players when things get boring for them. Or just steal a list from one of the numerous published ones in the back of various D&D books (and others...).

I think giving them the D/T wheels for their in character goals will help, as it forces them to think about what they want to accomplish and then think about how they plan to pursue it.  

This SHOULD (operative word...) have the effect of getting them to go out and look for things to do to accomplish their own goals, rather than looking at me for motivation.

It should, but I GM the same way you do and I agree that it's good to have some stock situations on hand just in case...

Quote from: SpikeThe actual campaign not so much, most of my work was in wrangling my players together and getting them to make characters.

That's actually the work I was asking about.  How many hours, do you think?

Quote from: TonyLBThat's actually the work I was asking about.  How many hours, do you think?

The typical post in that thread took me anywhere between half and hour to an hour, not really any longer. I spent maybe half an hour on my admittedly shitty map. The original Cultural Studies that led up to it were much more involved, taking two to four hours apeace, done around other work...so let's just say two hours each.

Thinking about stuff? No time at all. My electrically powered cyber-brain never sleeps. :cool:  Many times I get cool ideas from what I'm already writing and just incorporate it as I go, or put it in the next post or the post after that.