From: Colin Watson (watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 18 Nov 1993 - 19:39:35 EET
Ah, thanks for clearing this up.
I wonder what a God tied to both the Law *and* Chaos runes would be like? Something like Judge Death I guess: The Law is broken by the living; so all the living must be destroyed. (Is there such a deity already?)
NPC spell lists only really have to include those spells which they are likely
to cast during the scenario. If the plot requires that the NPC casts City
Harmony then, fair enough, it's essential to list it; but in this case you
obviously have a highly constrained plot. Exotic spells are all very
colourful, but a scenario is unlikely to live or die by them. I don't think
a scenario is going to be improved by having exhaustive lists of NPC spells
which are never going to be cast.
Anyway, if I don't like the spells an NPC has I find it the easiest thing
in the world to ignore them (or substitute them). eg. I don't like Sever
Spirit or Resurrect so any NPC Humakti & Chalana-Arroyans lose 'em.
>Where is the scenario which tells the story of the rival
>inside one's own cult who keeps intriguing against the PC with the
>priest? Also a generic plot, but to flesh it out, lots of information
>is needed.
Indeed, this is a classic plot: but to write it you really have to have a specific PC in mind. More detailed background on cult structures would help; also sample temple layouts & cultists stats. This kind of thing would be nice in a sourcebook. Ah, a sourcebook for each cult... I'll keep dreaming.
>All I have seen are Cameos, each and any to be heavily edited by the
>GM. I have to agree with Nick that a fully fleshed out scenario has to
>work without more effort than reading it before, at least for a certain
>situation.
Ok, my plot suggestions were cameos. This is due to lack of time & bandwidth.
Add location & character descriptions, stats and a few more pages of subplot
and you'll have a scenario. Then the GM can add his own background as and if
required.
I tend to find that *any* scenario needs a fair degree of work to prepare
to run it. I usually read "ready to run scenarios" at least twice before
running them and the more detail they have the more I have to read. Now,
it's not that I don't enjoy a good read, but time reading is time spent not
playing. And then I find that it's not really ready to run for *my* campaign
and *my* PCs at all. So I modify it...
...or I start a new campaign with new PCs (which is my intention for RoC).
>Do you want ready to run scenarios, or just cameos, which can easily be
>fitted into any ongoing campaign?
I'd like ready to run scenarios which can easily be fitted into any ongoing campaign. Am I being difficult? :-)
>This kind of destroys the premise of Griffin Island. Wouldn't Hilme priest
>Taklong Woodheart have long ago hit the evil sorcerer Halcyon var Enkorth
>with a big Sunspear?
Maybe Halcyon doesn't go outdoors on sunny days. ;-) But seriously, hasn't he strengthened his Hit Points to counter such a threat? (I assume that Sunspear doesn't ignore the extra HP). I think if Taklong was a serious threat then he wouldn't be allowed to live within a thousand clicks of HvE, let alone 100m.
I know a guy like that. He has these amazing dice which always seem to pull
out a crit whenever a big monster turns up. A great guy to have in your party.
As a GM you just have to laugh along with the PCs when he nails yet another
sea-serpent.
My advice is to use lots of small beasties rather than one humongous
critical-attractor.
Funniest crit I ever saw was when we were pseudo-HeroQuesting to find a
gateway into Hell. The gate was guarded by a Dwarven stronghold and we had
to petition the aid of a Dragon who was the ancient enemy of these dwarves.
The Dragon was a particularly large version of the standard Monster Book
variety (iron scales, fiery breath etc). We happened to have a Jelmre stone
which would triple the strength of any creature it struck...
So we used it to boost the strength of the Dragon. It was awesome.
Off he flew to massacre the stunties and we followed on foot.
So, there was the dragon bearing down on the walls of the fortress. The
dwarves had a couple of ballistae, but, we thought, even if they did hit
the dragon they couldn't knock him out of the sky.
Wrong!
01 in the head. The bolt flew straight into the dragon's eye and killed it
stone dead. Oh, how we laughed.
The beast crashed through the walls flattening a large section, and while
the stunties were celebrating we stole through the breach before the dust
had settled.
We never really liked that dragon anyway...
___
CW.
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Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 19 Nov 1993, part 2
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