Men & Magic of Glorantha

[Falconer]

I’m thinking of putting together (for personal use, not for sale) a digest-sized players book that is modeled after Men & Magic (OD&D Vol. I) — retaining the style, terseness, simplicity, excitement, and even actual wording, where possible and desirable — but completely adapted for RQ2 + Cults of Prax rules. The main goal is to have a players book that is completely not daunting to new players, but totally adequate to use to sit down and fill out a character sheet. I’d be interested in any input and/or collaboration you might want to offer.

First, let’s make a general table of contents for M&M. Pagination per 5th Printing.

1. Introductory material (pp. 1-6)
2. Classes (pp. 6-7;16-19)
3. Magic Item Creation (p. 6-7)
4. Races (pp. 7-8)
5. Alignment (p. 9)
6. Abilities (pp. 10-11)
7. Languages (p. 12)
8. Non-Player Characters (pp. 12-13)
9. Equipment (pp. 13-15)
10. Encumbrance (p. 15)
11. Experience Points (p. 18)
12. Hit Points (p. 18)
13. Alternative Combat System (pp. 19-20)
14. Saving Throws (pp. 20-21)
15. Spells Table (pp. 21-22)
16. Turn Undead Table (p. 22)
17. Magic-User Spells (pp. 23-31)
18. Cleric Spells (pp. 31-34)
19. Spell Research (pp. 7;34)
20. Spellbooks (pp. 34)
21. Money (M&T, p. 39 -- kind of important)

Initial thoughts:

Races. I’m torn of whether to stick to humans only (Balazarings, since I’m running Griffin Mountain) or to go ahead and include Dwarves, Elves, and maybe one or two others (??) just to stay analogous to M&M. Include them but still not allow them at the start of the campaign?

Classes. I had the crazy idea of leaving them in there and letting players pick one, just as a TOKEN choice that wouldn’t actually affect game mechanics AT ALL. It would just be left in to give the game a slightly more OD&D-ish feel while giving the players SOME general sense of direction. “Fighters” might tend to ultimately become Rune Lords. “Magic-Users” might tend to ultimately become Rune Priest. “Clerics” might tend to join the cult of Chalana Arroy. Does that work out about right? I’m not quite clear yet what a Shaman is in RQ.

Other than this TOKEN choice, all class and XP info needs to go. Skills need to be included in their place.

Spells. I think this can be just an encyclopedic listing of all the spells they may ever have. Even spells belonging only to certain cults can be included, and they’ll have to find out in-game how to get them.

[kent]

The problem is that Glorantha is a *setting* and M&M is a rule set. Glorantha's success is its flavour. Original D&D's charm is that it has no flavour and you have to provide that.

It would make more sense to fit Glorantha to the Greyhawk Folio format or something like that but I don't see the point.

[Falconer]

Oh, it’s not really about Glorantha at all, it’s about Runequest rules.

[Deleted]

Let me make sure I understand what you're doing.

1. Using Glorantha (Griffin Mountain) as campaign setting.
2. Using Runequest 2 rules.
3. Formatting the Runequest 2 rules to fit and feel like Men and Magic booklet.

Is that correct?

Seems like an odd project.

However, to add something useful....:-)

If you are running Griffin Mountain, I'd just do humans. Regarding classes, maybe you could rename them Callings and have them be a package of skills (see Call of Cthulhu occupations).

[kesher]

I'd turn races into cultures, different human cultures. Picturing those awesome RQ2 maps in my head, maybe Praxian nomads, Lunars, Sartarites from the Stormhold area, etc.

[Finarvyn]

Jun 6, 2013 21:01:28 GMT -6 @ptingler said:

Seems like an odd project.

When has that stopped anyone on these boards?

I think it's a neat concept. First of all, as "Men & Magic" is essentially the first ever Player's Handbook, what we're talking about is putting all of the player-based rules in a single volume. Character creaton, spell lists, equipment lists, and so on. Sounds like a useful booklet at the end.

I started to do something like this for Metamorphosis Alpha years ago and never got around to finishing it.

[kent]

I suspect that Falconer has not fully thought through his potentially interesting idea to eliminate the nonsense.

Falconer's schemes have that managerial vagueness, laziness even, which require others to work hard to see if his inventions will bear fruit.

[Vile Traveller]

Start with the D100II SRD and go from there.

basicroleplaying.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=433

[kesher]

Jun 7, 2013 11:56:20 GMT -6 kent said:

I suspect that Falconer has not fully thought through his potentially interesting idea to eliminate the nonsense.

Falconer's schemes have that managerial vagueness, laziness even, which require others to work hard to see if his inventions will bear fruit.

That, Kent, was a pointless post. Maybe that's faux condescension in your tone, or maybe it's real--either way, it's mean-spirited.

[Deleted]

Jun 8, 2013 18:02:53 GMT -6 kesher said:

That, Kent, was a pointless post. Maybe that's faux condescension in your tone, or maybe it's real--either way, it's mean-spirited.

Agreed, totally unnecessary and contributes nothing to the thread or the quality of this forum. Shame on you Kent.

[kent]

Jun 8, 2013 18:02:53 GMT -6 kesher said:

That, Kent, was a pointless post.

It is not important to me that everyone gets the point.

[Falconer]

Just to give a quick idea of the sort of thing I’m coming up with.

[Deleted]

Looks good.

[Falconer]

The document is up to 22 pages now. It starts with pp. 3-5 from Men & Magic — the iconic Forward, Introduction, Scope, Recommended Equipment, and Preparation for the Campaign — just for fun. Then there are the pages that I posted above, more-or-less — revised quite a bit, but basically that content, i.e., exactly what they need to fill out a character sheet. Then it includes a list and descriptions of most Battle Magic spells, Weapons and Armor Tables, and the Calendar.

I’m thinking it would be neat to create a booklet for every cult they players come across (let’s start with Hunter, Issaries, Chalana Arroy, Lankhor Mhy, Orlanth, Yelmalio, and the Seven Mothers). This would include the cult description plus descriptions of available rune spells.

For my own benefit, I may also produce an alphabetized monster booklet (from RQ2 + some or all of Gateway Bestiary).

The current booklet has gone through various name changes, but right now I’m thinking of just using “DRAGON PASS” as a series title and then each booklet having its own sub-title. The current booklet would be simply “Balazarings,” and eventually there could be variants of this booklet for making Elves, Ducks, non-Balazaring Humans (RQ2 standard social classes and starting skills), and whatever else.

[kesher]

This is truly great stuff---keep going!

[thorswulf]

Falconer, I'm very interested in this project. Runequest 2 and Glorantha are favorites of mine, but the depths of culture and magic and religion are always difficult for simple game play. I liked the proposal of cultures for classes. I'm not sure if dropping the other races is a good idea or not. How are you going to handle magic?

[Falconer]

I’m doing everything “by the book,” really. It’s just that the presentation is as bare-bones as possible for the players. Right now they have a list of battle magic spells and their descriptions, completely without explanation of the mechanics.

[Baron]

If these are to be references for players, then I'm totally interested! I'd love a culture-based reference for newbies!