Review Tuesdays: Legend by Mongoose Publishing

By | Published December 6, 2011

Brace yourselves: this post may be bordering on being timely.

Last week Mongoose released Legend, a re-release of the ruleset they used for Runequest II, but without any Runequest intellectual property. The book exists because the good people at Mongoose no longer have license for the Runequest properties, but have chosen to continue to support the RQII ruleset by rebranding it as ‘Legend.’ As someone who, after running RQII for nearly a year, consistently describes it as his favourite fantasy RPG, I think this was the right move.

Now as a caveat, I have to confess that I do not have a physical book to review. Instead I’ve been looking at the $1 PDF that Mongoose is more or less giving away at Drive Thru Rpg. Personally, if you don’t have a copy I think you should get one. I mean, come on, it’s only a buck.

The Gist

Legend is exactly what the people at Mongoose said it would be when it was announced earlier this year: a repackaging of the RQII rules with new art, errata fixes, and a few new odds and ends. It has also been excised of any references to Runes or Quests.

Just like Runequest II, Legend runs on a percentile based system with skill based combat and task resolution. In general, the goal is to simply roll under a character’s skill. How much they roll under their skill doesn’t generally matter, unless

a) You are rolling against another character, in which case the highest roll without going over wins (‘Price is Right’ rules); or
b) Your roll comes up between 01 and the skill you are testing divided by ten (rounding up). In that case, you’ve rolled a critical.

Character creation is a mixture of random and lifepath based by default, although there are point buy options as well. Unlike Runequest II, however, human character creation is the only option if you are only using the corebook.

Legend also has chapters devoted to Equipment, Magic in general and two forms of magic in particular, Guilds Factions and Cults, Gamemastering, and a few other high-level character options in the ‘Heroic Abilities’ chapter.

All in all, it’s a solid little corebook that provides you with a solid foundation for a game. However, Legend’s corebook does not come loaded with any kind of bestiary so there are no stats provided for any non-human creatures or NPCS. For that matter, there aren’t any stats for human NPCs either.

What’s Great

Well, everything that was great about RQII is captured here: the fast, funky combat, the ease of play, the divine magic and sorcery chapters. All the hits are here.

The new art is also amazing. I know a lot of people had issues with RQII’s art, but Legend really hits it out of the park when it comes to interior illustration.
It’s also nice to see some of the rules cleared up, particularly movement in combat and charging, but I noticed a few other minor tweaks they made this time out. They’ve also entirely cut out the Spirit Magic section and, given how much I complained about it last time out, it won’t be missed by me.

What’s not so Great

The absence of a bestiary (even a small one) means that this game is not a complete game with just the corebook, which was a feature of Runequest II. Looking at the PDF pricing (‘Monsters of Legend’ goes for $11.99) I suspect part of the strategy may have been along ‘only the first hit is free’ lines, but that would mean I’m complaining about a one dollar download. More realistically, they may simply chosen to release one complete creatures book rather squeezing a tiny section into the main rule book. That said, the resulting absence of non-human character creation in the corebook is a bummer.

As a consequence of removing all things runey from the game, they have also cut a few of my favourite things. The absence I feel hurts the book the most is the elimination of the ‘Rune as archetype/build your own god’ section and the chapter relating this to cults. Instead, there is a chapter on ‘Guilds, Factions, and Cults’ that briefly sketches out what these organizations can offer to PCs. It’s a great idea, but I felt it was a bit light on content.

Closing Thoughts

I will recommend Legend to anyone that asks and a few that don’t. It takes my favourite aspects of Mongoose’s RQII rules, cleans them up a bit and puts them into an attractive and cheap package. What else can a gamer ask for?

Posted in Review Tuesdays, rpgs | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Legend by Mongoose Publishing Arrives!

By | Published December 5, 2011

The weekend and its holiday festivities ate me, so this post is super short. My apologies.

Legend by Mongoose Publishing is here and Drivethru RPG is practically giving it away. Legend is, essentially, a repackaged version of Mongoose’s fantastic RuneQuest II ruleset sans the RuneQuest license. Now I loved RQII (and said so in my review), so I think this is a fantastic chance for people to grab a great game for next to nothing.

Tomorrow, I’m hoping to put up a quick review laying out the differences between RQII and Legend, as well as commenting on the PDF itself.

’til then, I strongly recommend investing a buck in Legend.

Posted in rpgs | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Review Tuesdays Continued: Runequest II Empires by Lawrence Whitaker, Part Two

By | Published November 23, 2011

This is the second in my two post review of Runequest II Empires. Part one can be found here. Last time I wrote about the product in general. This time, I want to look at what works and what doesn’t.

What’s Great

There are plenty of great random tables here. If you want random events for diplomatic missions that fall apart, events in the heat of great battles or that occur as the seasons change in a feudal holding, you will find them here. The content of the tables are solid and may even be usefully adapted for use as a lifepath system for character creation.

The Empire Mini-Game itself seems pretty solid, but I can’t imagine playing it through with a group of Players in campaign I was running. Similarly, the rules for managing a lordly domain feel like a stripped down version of Pendragon’s winter phase and look like a lot of fun.

What’s Not So Great

There is a lot of potential here, but it just doesn’t hang together. The basic concept of giving nations stats that are very similar to PCs is sound, but the Empire Mini-Game is so complex and on such a huge scale that I can’t help but wonder if a simpler system that could be scaled down to kingdoms, guilds and factions would have been more useful.

The main problem is that Empires takes the actions and capabilities of PCs out of the equation when it comes to running empires, guilds or lordly domains. The core of all the systems in Empires involves an empire (or guild or lordly domain) taking an action that is resolved based on its own stats which then triggers an event that a PC can roll to resolve. At most Empires gives rules on how an Empire’s stats can provide bonuses for PCs during certain situations.

At no point are there any rules covering how a PCs skills or actions can boost an empire or faction or kingdom’s fate. Your PCs may have a master diplomat, a great general and an amazing trader, but no where does Empires cover how these skills can help the organizations the PCs belong to (or rule) thrive. Essentially, the rules for empires, kingdoms, guilds, and factions run parallel to the PCs, which is a huge disappointment.

This is only compounded by the fact that the detailed rules giving stats to an empire’s capabilities and abilities don’t scale down to the factions, guilds and domains covered in the rest of the book.

This is especially glaring when it comes to the resource management aspect of running a lordly domain. The rules in the Building Kingdom’s chapter helps determine exactly how much silver a lord receives each year, as well as the costs associated with building everything from a chapel to a castle. To me, this level of bean-counting is tedious, especially when there is an abstract wealth system in the empire-scale rules only a few chapters earlier in the same book. Why force a dukedom to count every penny when an empire can just roll its commerce stat?

Final Thoughts

Runequest II Empires is the only book for this line that I wish I passed on. In theory it was exactly what I wanted, but in practice it was too modular and detailed for me to find much use for it. I hope that if a similar supplement is put out for RuneQuest Sixth Edition or Legend that it is a bit more robust.

Posted in Review Tuesdays, rpgs, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

Review Tuesdays: RuneQuest II Empires by Lawrence Whitaker, Part One

By | Published November 22, 2011

Runequest II Empires is a heartbreaker. The back cover claims that ‘Empires is a complete guide on founding, growing and running your own empire.’ That is something that I really wanted: a supplement that would help my PCs find their roles in my campaign’s city-states, cults and empires. A simple set of rules for when my PCs inevitably seized control of territories and factions.

I knew I wasn’t going to get my platonic ideal of a rule set that goes seamlessly between character and collective, but stoked by RuneQuest II’s outstanding corebook, I thought I’d get something pretty great.

Unfortunately, I found RuneQuest II Empires to consist of a series of oddly disconnected, but extremely detailed, modular rule sets that barely interacted with Player Characters outside of the occasional random table. Instead of a supplement to help with players do things to Empires, I got a supplement that, when it takes Player Characters into account at all, is about things Empires can do to characters.

The Gist

A hardcover book clocking in at 126 pages, Empires is nearly all crunch with the odd piece of art scattered here and there. Roughly 44 pages are devoted to defining, rolling up and playing what I like to call the ‘Empire Mini-Game’ (the ‘Empires Defined,’ ‘Characteristics’, ‘Imperial Economics,’ and ‘Empires at War’ chapters). The remainder of the book covers a number of different topics in the ‘Religion, Magic and Myths,’ ‘Factions and Guilds,’ ‘Imperial Service,’ ‘Building Kingdoms,’ ‘Renown,’ ‘Imperial Characters,’ and ‘Sample Empires’ chapters.

The Empire Mini-Game chapters lay out a set of rules for rolling up empires, working through the economic cycles and pitting them against each other. Empire creation is very similar to character creation, with each empire having a number of characteristics and abilities that can be tested with a percentile roll. The economics chapter takes you through a ‘turn’ of imperial events wherein empires spend wealth in various ways and attempt weather random events. The war chapter provides a combat resolution on an annual campaign scale that pits the abilities and capabilities of one empire against another; it also provides a short section on what adventurers are up to during these titanic battles.

The other chapters have different focuses and barely interact with the Empire Mini-Game rules that dominate the first third of the book. The Magic chapter, for instance, provides guidelines for constructing national myths, has a brief section of religious dominance and lists a number of spells that require large cults to cast. The Factions and Guilds chapter gives a loose outline on how to construct factions and guilds along the lines of the cult creation rules in the Corebook. Its main contribution is the introduction of a ‘Passions’ system that allows players to get a bonus on actions related to things they love or hate.

The Imperial Service and Building Kingdom’s chapters provide random events that noble and Imperial characters can undergo as well as a castle building and domain management system that are puzzlingly unrelated to the Empire Mini-Game.

The Renown chapter provides a reputation system for characters operating inside of Empires that can be easily ported into any game. The chapter on Imperial Characters provides Imperial professions to be used in character creation as well as advice on how to use a representative of an Empire can use its authority to gain skill bonuses. Finally, a few sample empires are stated out in the last chapter of the book.

Next time, I will go through what I thought was great, and not so great in RuneQuest II Empires.

Posted in Review, Review Tuesdays, rpgs | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

RuneQuest II: Monster Coliseum Review

By | Published November 15, 2011

Mongoose Publishing’s Monster Coliseum is a pretty standard, if light, ‘monster bestiary’ fused with 20 odd pages of information concerning gladiatorial games, chariot races and other ancient divertissements. Overall, it provides enough of a bestiary for a RuneQuest II GM to remain stocked up on threats, as well as a wellspring of potential PC races. The gladiatorial content, however, feels a bit tacked on.

The Gist

Clocking in at 184 pages, Monster Coliseum consists of page after page of creature write-ups and about 25 pages of advice on subjects like how to run gladiatorial combat, have your PCs race chariots and use arena set-pieces in your settings. Each monster includes a pretty standard write up, a stat-block with skills and powers, as well as the number of dice to roll for each stat, should you want to generate them in the same fashion as PC. Moreover, Monster Coliseum gives tips on how to use every creature type in the book as a potential PC race and tips on how they would fight in the area.

Monster Coliseum covers most of your basic fantasy creatures. There are chapters on ‘Humans and Humanoids,’ ‘Arachnids and Insects,’ ‘Dinosaurs and Reptiles,’ and ‘Creatures of Legend’ (containing most of your more traditional monstrosities). While there are no glaring omissions, the range of creatures in Monster Coliseum feels kind of narrow. That said, the ‘Human and Humanoids’ chapter will likely get the most use for GMs as it provides stats for, and character creation information on, Gloranthan and standard Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, and the like.

Monster Coliseum also provides rules for twisting any of the creatures in the book with a chaotic taint. This takes the form a few random tables that can result in anything from random animal limbs to a creature being boneless. It’s a good tool for GMs to keep things interesting.

The arena information, while interesting, is very campaign specific. It’s an ok mix of rules and fluff useful for gladiatorially inclined games, and Monster Coliseum even provides example coliseums in number of different settings; including the world of Elric. This section is nice to have, but I can’t help but think that thematic rules with a broader appeal (say ‘Wilderness Encounters’) would have been a better choice.

What’s Great

Ducks. Monster Coliseum provides rules to create Duck PCs and this, in my opinion, is worth the price of admission.

Other than my fine feathered friends, the tips on roleplaying each creature as a PC are a nice touch and the book generally presents each creature in a well-rounded way. If you are looking for mindless or purely evil creatures, you won’t find much here (with the exception of the Broo).

What’s Not So Great

Monster Coliseum gives a number of human stock characters for GMs to use, but it’s a depressingly small range of character types and it’s very focused on the ‘arena’ setting. A broader range with a few NPC types like ‘Bandit,’ ‘Cultist’ or ‘Sorcerer’ would be useful.

A complaint I had with the RuneQuest II Corebook was that Spirit Magic felt a bit under-supported. Since Spirits are supposed to be interacted with, I think Monster Coliseum would have been a great place to include a ‘Spirits’ chapter to provide GMs with a batch of pre-made Spirits to use in their game. Unfortunately, the few Spirits in the book are treated as straight-up creatures and no reference to the Spirit Magic rules are made. This is a missed opportunity, in my opinion.

Final Word

Monster Coliseum is a necessary and useful companion to Mongoose’s excellent Runequest II Corebook. While it could have had a broader scope and the arena rules feel a bit out-of-place, it remains a great resource for RQII GMs.

Posted in Review, Review Tuesdays, rpgs | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Review Tuesdays: Runequest II by Mongoose Publishing

By | Published November 8, 2011

In the spirit of being late to the party I’m posting this review right as Mongoose’s Runequest II morphs into Legend. Overall, Runequest II proved to be a great and gritty game for sword and sorcery. It is intuitive to learn, fast to play and provides a pretty spiffy toolset for GM’s to use. Assuming they haven’t scrapped the good bits, I would strongly suggest anyone shopping for a fantasy RPG to consider picking up Legend or finding a used copy of Runequest II.

I ran a RQII campaign from October of 2010 until September 2011 and I also ran it at Toronto’s 2011 Fan Expo. Unless my players were lying to me, we had a pretty great time with it when playing both the campaign and the one-shot. This review reflects my experience running the game, so it is obviously a product of my biases, misreading and gaming habits.

The Gist

Like its predecessors Runequest II has a fairly simple percentile based system with skill based combat and task resolution. In general, the goal is to simply roll under a character’s skill. How much they roll under their skill doesn’t generally matter, unless

a)      You are rolling against another character, in which case the highest roll without going over wins (‘Price is Right’ rules); or

b)       Your roll comes up between 01 and the skill you are testing divided by ten (rounding up). In that case, you’ve rolled a critical.

Character creation is a mixture of random and lifepath based by default, although there are point buy options as well. PCs are assumed to be human, although every non-human character provided in the ‘Creatures’ chapter gives you the number of dice thrown if you are inclined to use them as a character race. Be warned, Runequest II isn’t really big on ‘balance’ though.

The Corebook also provides a fairly standard Equipment chapter, four different magic systems, and general chapters on cult creation and magic in the game; as well as fairly brief sections on game mastering and the aforementioned Creatures chapter.

It’s a pretty complete toolkit that provides more than enough tools to get a game off the ground.

The Awesome

Runequest II’s combat system is probably the best fantasy combat system I’ve ever seen because of two mechanics: Combat Actions and Combat Manoeuvres.

Combat Actions are derived from a character’s stats (along with an extra action if they wield a shield or second weapon) and determine how many actions they can take, including any defences against incoming attacks. If you are attacked and out of Combat Actions, you are in serious trouble. I can’t express how much tension this added to my games.

Combat Manoeuvres are where the game really shines though. Any time an attacker hits with an attack and the defender fails to either evade or parry, the attacker can choose a Combat Manoeuvre ranging from choosing a hit location, to impaling their opponent to disarming them. Defenders can choose from a similar list should they succeed in a parry roll and the attacker fails their attack.

This has two effects. The first is that no one ever has to call a shot and fail again and again. The second effect, is that every good, solid hit has a dramatic and cinematic consequence. Fights are often over as soon as one character scores a combat manoeuvre and uses it to their advantage.

Finally, the Divine Magic chapter, when used with the general magic/rune chapter and the chapter on Cults, provides a great set of tools to quickly put together a pantheon of deities, their cults and the mystical rewards their followers get. I found that spending twenty minutes sketching out some cults made the religions in my setting far more alive than they would otherwise have been. I will be using these tools next time I play in a fantasy setting.

The Less Than Awesome

The Spirit Magic rules were vague and left me with no idea of how I would actually use them in play. Honestly, they seemed so different from the rest of the magic rules that they felt like they belonged to another game. Thankfully, they rarely came up in my campaign.

The GMing section is a bit on the short side. I realize that very few people are going to be new to gaming when they pick up RQII, but a little advice on using Runequest II rules to build one’s own setting would have been great; especially in terms of dialling up or down the amount of magic in a setting.

Finally, I was bummed that the corebook did not include Ducks in the Creatures chapter. I realize they are Glorantha specific, but duckmen are awesome.

The Final Word

Runequest II is a criminally overlooked game. Next time you feel like running a fantasy game that isn’t D&D, take a look at it. If you like a bit of gritty, fast moving game, I think you’ll find RQII just what the doctor ordered.

Posted in Review Mondays, rpgs | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Muerte Las Vegas! A Vampire: the Masquerade Campaign

By | Published October 27, 2011

Its inevitable.

The only thing better than my current game is the next the game. Usually, I feel a bit guilty eyeing the next game while my current game is just getting its swing, but this time its different. StarGuard, my group’s Icons campaign, was always intended to be a brief stop over until the next big game.

A rebound campaign, if you will.

So, what am I planning after StarGuard? The answer is ‘Muerte Las Vegas!’ a Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition campaign set in 60s Vegas.

Mobsters, Casinos, Hustlers and Howard Hughes. I’m hoping for a ‘James Ellroy meets Casino by Night’ kind of feel, hopefully with a bit of a Pendragon mixed in as each adventure should be considered ‘the adventure’ for a whole year. The goal is to chart the rise, decline and rebirth of Las Vegas from the 60s through the 80s with the PCs at the center of it all.

But we shall see.

One element of my Runequest campaign that I would like to push is my pilfered port of the brilliant Smallville relationship map/character creation mechanic.

At this point, I’m thinking of something like the process below to balance group city creation while meaningfully reflecting the points players have spent on Backgrounds like Allies, Mentors, Contacts, Domain, etc.

To start, and unlike how I ran it for Runequest, I will likely throw up a few NPCs and Places (collectively ‘Non-Player Objects’ or NPOs) that I want to have in the Campaign.  This will likely include the Prince of the City, two rival power brokers and the Shangri-La Hotel.

Once this is on the paper, the rest of the process will go like this:

Turn 1

1)      Each PC contributes One of the following:

a.       A Circle containing a group of people(can be used as minions, herd, connections)

b.      A Square containing a Person of Influence (can be used as an Ally/Mentor/Prominent Connection)

c.       A Triangle containing a Setting (Haven/Resource/Appropriate) Square

2)      Each Player must then draw a line between one of the NPOs and their PC, loosely noting their relationship

3)      Each Player must then connect any two NPOs to each other, loosely noting their relationship to each other

4)      Players can then ‘spend’ one of their previously selected Background Points (or points if appropriate) to link transform an NPO that has been connected to their NPC into a Contact, Herd, Ally, Mentor, Domain or even Resource owned possession

Turn 2

1)      Each Player creates a new NPO

2)      Each Player then draws a connection between an NPO and a PC controlled by another Player, loosely noting their relationship (the recipient of this connection can object)

3)      Each Player then has the option to spend a Background Point  to make an NPO a Contact, Herd, Ally, Mentor, Domain or Resource

Turn 3

1)      Each Player creates a new NPO

2)      Each Player must then connect any two NPOs to each other, loosely noting their relationship to each other

3)      Each Player must then draw a line between one of the NPOs and their PC, loosely noting their relationship

4)      Each Player then has the option to spend a Background Point  to make an NPO a Contact, Herd, Ally, Mentor, Domain or Resource

Turn 4

1)      Each Player must connect any two NPOs to each other, loosely noting their relationship to each other

2)      Draw a connection between an NPO and any  PC

3)      Each Player then has the option to spend a Background Point  to make an NPO a Contact, Herd, Ally, Mentor, Domain or Resource

Turn 5

(Continued until all Contact, Herd, Ally, Mentor, and Domain dots have been accounted for)

1)      Players with remaining Background Points may draw a new NPO and connect them to their character

2)      Other Players must then draw a connection between either: any two NPOs or an NPO and any PC besides their PC or, if the NPO was created this turn, the PC belonging to the Player who created it

3)      Each Player then has the option to spend a Background Point  to make an NPO a Contact, Herd, Ally, Mentor, Domain or Resource

Hopefully, this will allow the Players to create an unholy mess of intrigue and connections that will form the meat of a rocking campaign.

Posted in rpgs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Gone and Cut Off

By | Published October 24, 2011

Howdy to my spambot friends.

Ok, fourth time is the charm. I have dusted off this old blog and will try to post again.

A lot has happened since I stopped posting. My child is now a toddler, my group has had some turnover and I’ve now stopped playing the game that I was kinda, sorta, writing about in April.

More challengingly, my new place of employment blocks any website that mentions the word ‘games’ anywhere, including my own blog. This has made getting into the swing of things a challenge and, frankly, it makes getting news about the gaming world far harder. I mean, I think I am a pretty good employee, but don’t we all like to distract ourselves a bit when things get slow?

The Mongoose Runequest II game ended in a bang. There were living gods roaming the lands, hordes of cannibalistic barbarians, shady dealings with Moorcockian Elves and a lot of extremely violent deaths. Even by RPG standards.

That said, I thought it was a blast and I was sorry to see it end a bit abruptly. Unfortunately, we just hit one of those moments when scheduling changes and group turnover made it logical to kill a campaign, bring in some new blood, and try again. And this was after I failed miserably at bringing in some new blood.

B. was introduced into the group by one of the current players. Unfortunately, it was like dropping someone into the last third of a six hour film. Slightly bewildered by the Byzantine plots and probably put off by the agressiveness of some of the players regarding the best course of action, B. just sort of disappeared. I can’t say I blame him.

Its been a while since I’ve felt that I really failed a player as a GM, but this is one of those times. I should have been smart and let the campaign wind down before introducing new players. Frankly, I think I forgot how much detail had been created for our setting and how many twisting webs of NPCs had been generated through play. I took my experience of the game for granted and, consequently didn’t think about how tough it would be for an outsider.

Lesson learned, I hope.

Posted in Comments/Rants, rpgs | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

RPG Blog Carnival April 2011– A Relationship Map and Me

By | Published April 1, 2011

The most useful map in my current campaign has not been a geographic one, but the relationship map we built at character generation. And it may actually be my favorite RPG map of all time.

Don’t get me wrong- I like me a good map. In Junior High, there was nothing I liked better than a campaign map brainstorming session with my friend Andrew. Nine times out of ten we never actually played more than a session in the setting, but the map making is fun. And in my current gaming, impromptu and hastily annotated maps are constantly being cooked up (more on that later). But hands-down, my favorite map is the relationship map my group and I built during character creation for the ‘dirtbag Sword & Sorcery’ Mongoose Runequest II game I’m currently running.

As detailed in an earlier post, I stole liberally from the MWP Smallville ruleset to structure this, but the gist of it was: taking turns, every player could add a person, place or organization to the map and define their relationship with another person, place or organization- including the PCs. Later, as the map was populated, each player would take turns connecting the existing items and defining this relationship. By the end of the session, we had a tight-web of connections, intrigue and craziness that would dominate the next months of gaming.

Not only does this map enable me to remember who knows who and why at a glance, it generated a ton of stuff I wouldn’t necessarily have thought up on my own:

  • A fat Elven crimelord as the PCs patron and owner of the seedy ‘Copper Rail’ tavern
  • One PC has being chosen by a cult to be the vessel for their god
  • The existence of a Duck Ghetto
  • That a PCs father ruled the game’s setting and had foully murdered the father of another PC

Basically, it gave me a ton of toys to play with, and play we have!

So for GMs with less time for worldbuilding than they would like, I heartily recommend giving your PCs a shot at it. I know I will (in fact, I’m dreaming up a variation to use for our hypothetical Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition campaign…

Posted in rpgs | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment