And this year at last, I get to possibly run the intro scenario twice. I’m using it as a Trojan horse to get members of my boardgaming group to try a RPG. There are dice to roll, maps on the table and secret agendas. I’m hoping they will feel right at home.
I got 11 replies from people interested in trying it, around half of them complete novices. Should be fun… if I can work out the scheduling logistics.
I’m all prepped for it. Just a few A3 maps to print still.
I got the Avatar Legends RPG on order from their Kickstarter. I guess that launches this year, at least the pdf version will.
I’ve already gotten the pdf version of The One Ring, the Lord of the Rings RPG which is also by Free League. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m always down for some low-magic fantasy.
I guess the elephant in the room is the next version of DnD that’s rolling out in bits and pieces with Monsters of the Multiverse being the first installment.
I hope you get to play. Lots of systems are very approachable and easy to learn. Pretty much all the rules a player needs to know are printed on a double A4 sheet in those folders. And the GM and experienced players are always happy to help newcomers. So don’t be intimidated. It’s all about having fun telling a story and rolling dice.
For me, the big one with be Broken Compass. I really want to play my Indiana Jones or Jules Verne adventures. I also know that getting players to sign up for lesser known systems is a challenge. Hope I can sell the crazy episodic adventures to club members.
We are currently playing TOR 2e and its great. The book? Not so much. It looks great. But the organization is terrible, rules all over the place and impossible to find during the game quite often. Not to mention they managed to actually send out the books with misprinted dice. I am a Free League fan but that KS was incredibly huge and for that amount of money the result is a bit disappointing. But, it is a better game then TOR.
We are doing a fun experiment in our one shot group this year. 7 GMs 7 Sessions. Every GM is a player in the others games. We keep the characters as best as possible but every GM runs a different system and genre (if they can make it work somehow) of their choice and we aim to weave one “coherent” story. Each session has a prompt:
Ready for Adventure - Played part 1. Used Trophy Gold.
Interesting Conflict
Suden Plot Twist
Recruiting the good guys
The villian’s Perspective
A Heartless betrayal
The Final Conflict
Can’t wait to see where this goes!
Besides that I am also working on several Broken Compass games. :-D
Love the elegance and simplicity of the Year Zero Engine - I actually designed an RPG engine myself over several years which I - once I found the YZE - realized was basically trending towards the same basic design. Would have bought TOR built on the YZE on the spot, simply to see how they hacked the system to the setting. Sans YZE, my interest is a lot cooler.
The TOR rules are fantastic to emulate the fiction of LOTR. YZ has a thing where it’s a death spiral and works well for certain themes. But TOR ruleset was custom built for the experience and it absolutely shows. It’s super light and elegant as well. I woul not want to play TOR with YZ rules. I don’t think they would fit well. But I understand the sentiment. The MYZ rules are very elegant but they don’t lend themselves to “heroic” characters at all. Or at least I haven’t seen a game based on the engine that does that well yet. Forbidden Lands is the closest and it’s very gritty. And LotR really isn’t so much.
Anyone who backed @BiggerBoat’s Starforged Kickstarter: there’s a new version of the rulebook uploaded on Feb. 1, all 400 glorious pages of it. And these updates are in the latest post:
The Digital Edition will be finished (including all remaining art) and delivered by the end of the month
Files go to the printer at the end of the month
Can’t wait to get the physical book in my grubby hands, along with the spiral bound reference guide.
Thanks for the shout out! We’re getting there. Fingers crossed that the production and shipping issues don’t hold things up too much, but the printer at least seems rather blasé about it.
Should be art-compete in a week or two if all goes well. I am nerding out at the fact I get to include a cutaway illustration for our canonical starship.
(Much better cable management in this cockpit than in my PC)
The problems are not world-shattering; they don’t threaten to split apart Middle-earth. This is a game written for fans who want relatable stories set against the sweeping lore of The Lord of the Rings .
That’s not to say that there aren’t mechanics in place for epic fights and longer encounters, but there are no armies, no war. You won’t be leading the Horse-Lords as they reclaim the lands of Rohan from the Dunlendings, but you and your friends might have to figure out how to muck out Farmer Maggot’s stable and still get home in time for second supper.
The starter set adventure is incredibly low-stakes - spoilers, obviously:
Summary
its about a break-in to a museum, and the biggest threat is a poodle, and a stern scolding from a guard.
I don’t know - I just find it rather silly - like something for children, and the review says more or less the same, from the blurp you posted, Telefrog.
Be aware there’s at least two or three other ways to play in Glorantha (HeroQuest, 13th Age) - the setting itself seems quite cool, I’m not sure Runequest itself would be my jam.
I play Call of Cthulhu weekly and am looking forward to the upcoming Rivers of London TTRPG. Assuming the D100 is similar to Chaosium’s BRP system for those games (characters have a variety of skills rated 1-100 and you must roll under to succeed), then I’d have no qualms with it.
Good to know it’s a shared setting though. Might give me other opportunities to play in it.