Eradariin: The Red Elves of Chirak for Runequest 6/Mythras

Eradariin, the Red Elves of Chirak in Runequest 6/Mythras

The Red Elves, called Eradariin in the old elvish tongue, are elves who were enslaved in the Goblin Wars and later freed themselves, adopting the worship of Shaligon as they did, and assuming the mantle of control over the goblins. They are normal elves, but ritually scarred and tattooed in honor of Shaligon, and they revel in the vile ways of goblinoid culture.

Although the eradariin are not all evil, it is difficult to be good in a society which is dominated by the worship of Shaligon and the veneration of chaos. As such, red elves born of good alignment are usually found out and killed, or escape to the surface world to find freedom. Luckily, the depravities of the red elves on the surface world are largely an unknown, except for

regions such as Correnstal where they are manifesting as a dangerous military presence.

Languages: Red elves begin play knowing both elvish and goblin as languages, although they do not start knowing Tradespeak, but instead know Lower Common, the trade language of the Lower Dark.

Eradariin Traits: once a breed of high elf, the eradariin have been deeply scarred and changed by several centuries of assimilation into goblin culture and the worship of Shaligon. They have the following unique traits:

Ability Scores and Base Traits: Eradariin are identical to normal elves (per elves as depicted in Classic Fantasy).

Languages: Eradariin start play with two native languages at +40%: goblin and elven.

Marks of Shaligon: The red elves brand themselves with ritual scars and tattoos in veneration of Shaligon. Any red elf may elect to start with the Tattoo Mage skill at character creation (as a professional skill option for the elvish culture) but must invest points in it.

Combat Style Suggestions: Blades of Shaligon, the Cruel Whip, Bloody Brawler, Pain Striker 

Tattoo Mage Professional Skill (DEX)

Prerequisite: any spell caster; Eradariin elves gain this feat as part of their Mark of Shaligon trait

Benefit: Called tattoo mages, the practitioners of this art stand out due to the garish spell tattoos which cover their bodies. The character may brand ritual spells upon his or her body in lieu of a spell book, gaining unique special effects for those spells.

   In Chirak there are several cultures which engage in this form of ritual magic: most notable are the eradariin elves, who engage in a form of ritual scarring that imbues their flesh with spells. In the west, the Sabiri use elaborate forms of artistry and sharply contrasting pigments to imbue spell magic on their skin. Among these cultures heavily decorated skin is a sign of great power.

   Rules on tattoo magic are as follows:

   The Sabiri and Eradariin have learned the unique art of inscribing spells on their own bodies. Through the use of this skill, along with 100 SPs worth of tools and a special ink which comes from the blood of an enchanted creature (usually a gorgon), the Sabiri artist can spend one day placing the inscription or engram of the spell in question upon the body of the caster.

   For this to work, the skill of the tattoo artist must be higher than the skill of the recipient’s spell being tattooed. The time involved will take approximately 4 hours, but the GM can rule more time for more complex spells. The spell may be of sorcery or rune magic. Once it is placed upon the sorcerer’s skin, then he can never lose or forget the spell; he knows it innately.

   The Sabiri tattoo artist can also transfer the power of any rune stone* to the skin of the runecaster. This requires the same details as above, but the rune caster must integrate the stone at the time of the inscription, transferring the power of the rune to his own flesh. If all skill rolls succeed, then the process is done and the rune is now integrated physically. If the tattoo artist fails, the rune is integrated, but not on the skin (in the stone, instead). If the runecaster failed, he now has a cool tattoo that does nothing.

   If the runecaster dies, it is possible to take the rune from his flesh. It is also possible to then integrate the rune through the process described above, with the integrated rune being on stripped flesh instead of a stone or other object.

   Tattoo artists among the Sabiri often charge enormous sums to foreigners of the culture for the privilege of an integrated tattoo rune. The base price is usually 1,000 SPs, plus maybe some task.

*depending on which edition of Runequest you are using.... 

Mythras Imperative now out!

Over the weekend The Design Mechanism released the Mythras Imperative, the first book in the revamped, re-named system formerly known as Runequest 6. You can download it for free here, or pick up the print version at lulu here. The new introduction to the system precedes the release of the updated core book, which as I understand it may be available/announced sometime after July (if rumors are right) and will mostly be a slightly revised version of RQ6 without the ligatures.

That said....the new introductory book gives you everything you need to run historical, modern or SF games with a nice lite version of the system that is nonetheless a complete ruleset, including relevant skills and equipment (just no magic system). After reading it I realized this is easily sufficiently complete that you could pair it with --say-- Luther Arkwight and have all you need to move forward with Mythras for regular gaming. Check it out!

Plotting a Campaign in Pergerron using Mythras in the Near Future

With Classic Fantasy out soon, Mythras (alias Runequest 6) is really on my mind right now. On the one hand, I've been trying to ignore it a bit, as I have a couple active games going with no immediate end in sight....White Star (now on Saturdays) and D&D 5E in Chirak (that consumes Wednesdays). But, we could put D&D on pause Wednesday, or White Star could conclude in another 5-10 sessions easily enough. When that happens....I think a little RQ6/Mythras is in order.

Not sure if I'll use the Classic Fantasy content whole cloth, as I like the core rules as-is, but maybe I could snip the monsters, magic items and some other stuff out and blend it in. I'll most likely use my Pergerron setting, which worked quite well for my prior two Magic World campaigns, so it should translate pretty easily in to Mythras.

Failing Wednesdays and Saturdays, I have some other local gaming cohorts who have been asking me to run RQ6/Mythras for a long time now. If I can somehow find the time to introduce a third game, this would be an easy way to do it. Hmmmmm.....

If you are wondering why RQ6/Mythras is sufficiently interesting to merit extra effort to run, know that it is probably the best system currently on the market for managing a blend of fantasy and realism that will evoke the grim and gritty elements of sword & sorcery (& sandals, don't forget those) in a manner consistent with actual fiction. The power and fragility of RQ6/Mythras characters contrast in such interesting ways, and you really can model an Achilles in this system without resorting to tricks or house rules, essentially.

That sort of evocative experience is a real eye-opener for many people when they finally get to play RQ6/Mythras for the first time, realizing that there's an entire other range of storytelling you can be doing in fantasy, which draws upon a much more mythic and historical resonance than D&D traditionally can. D&D can handle a certain style of game exceedingly well....but it's not a system where losing a limb is a realistic prospect in combat, or where casting spells requires meaningful sacrifice and effort....or where you can, by the Rules as Written*, advance in skill and talent without ever lifting a blade, to become a major mover and shaker by force of wit and personality and talent alone. Mythras is all of that, and a bit more.

Time to revisit The Vosjin Wood again, I think.

*In 5E's defense you can train in downtime without leveling to gain new skills and languages, but 5E is not even remotely as nuanced as Mythras is in this regard.

Classic Fantasy for Mythras (the game system formerly known as RQ6) is in the wild - first impressions review

It's still in pre-order status, but you can get the PDF for free and then the book ships around June 1st. I've pre-ordered by copy, and am now hopeful based on the contents that Classic Fantasy will work for my own dark purposes....especially now that it looks like Magic World won't ever see it's other supplements come to fruition! You can pre-order the book and PDF here (PDF downloads immediately).

Here's the final cover:

Classic Fantasy provides a sort of skeleton on which you can drape the Mythras system in the veneer of classic D&D-style dungeon delving (and other assorted adventuring). That means it's the usual BRP-style system, but it gives you all the plug-ins needed to keep the game focused on a certain style. But because it is actually Mythras (RQ6) you get a much more involved and interesting take on that D&D experience. I'm already kinda sold on seeing if I can get my group to dive in to it, ASAP.

Here's what it contains:

Character Races: the usual littany (human, elf, half elf, gnome, halfing, dwarf, half-orc)

Classes (framed as professions with more stuff): bard, cavalier, cleric, druid, fighter, magic user, monk, paladin, ranger, thief, thief-acrobat, berserker.

Combat: I need to read through this section but cannot help notice that it's loaded with tactical minuatures-based combat options. Interesting....

Magic: this takes classic BRP/RQ/Mythras magic and turns it on it's head. We've now got arcane and divine magic that much more closely resembles D&D style quasi-Vancian magic in feel. There are 82 arcane spells and 77 divine spells. It looks like we get enough spells to mimic D&D up to around the 8th to 10th level of caster experience.

Monsters: there are about 80-90 odd monsters here. It's a literal "who's who" of D&D Monster Manuals, and if you combine this with the RQ6/Mythras core, maybe add Monster Island, you'll have pretty much every possible beast covered. CF does not duplicate any monsters from the core rules, unless the D&D version requires a new entry to handle its variant style. I'm really quite impressed....this is a major hurtle for many GMs who (like me) might want to pull a setting in to Runequest but have to do some footwork to add in beasts introduced from D&D campaigns. Now the work is all done....need some dark elves, lizard men, liches, stirges, bugbears or classic D&D trolls in your Mythras game? Here they are.

Treasure: this section is loaded with D&D-esque treasure, includes treasure tables, and is pretty much going to feel very comfortable to D&D fans. Those who like RQ6, Magic World and other systems but wished the design supported more treasure will be pleased as well...although how well the system works if pulled from it's proper place "in situ" remains to be seen.

Other stuff:

Passions: this is basically an alignment system for Classic Fantasy.

The Planes: there's a whole disucssion of this after treasure. It also talks deities a bit, and identifies the deities of "Greymoor" which is presumably totally "not quite Greyhawk and not quite Blackmoor, but the result of what happened after Mordenkainen's time-space accident." (that's just my take)

Wandering Encounters: there's some decent charts in the back of the book.

Indexed: it looks decently indexed to me in the PDF, which matters to a lot of people.

.....Okay so my initial impression is that this is the proper answer to people who really like the D&D style and feel of gaming, but maybe aren't so thrilled with specific aspects of D&D, and much prefer the more realistic skill system, combat, hit mechanics and injury rules of Runequest/BRP. This product is dramatically better than the Classic Fantasy Monograph which was released many years ago for BRP.....don't even bother thinking about that book in comparison to this one; this new edition is complete, very tightly designed, and incredibly efficient at what it is designed to do.

It also looks like it was carefully designed with the idea that you could grab any classic 1E AD&D module and run it with this system with minimal or zero conversion.

I'll probably talk more soon and may try to set up a scenario or two with it for the blog. Probably, almost certainly, going to try and run this with the regular group ASAP. It does such a good job at blending the feel of D&D with the style of Runequest that I am simply blown away at the fact that the new Classic Fantasy pulled it off.

I'm thinking maybe my Altavir setting I keep trying to start off the ground might find a good home with Mythras's Classic Fantasy. Hmmmm.

Eyeballing Runequest 6 for the next alt-night Fantasy Campaign

Source!

Magic World has been on hold for a few weeks due to thw whole D&D 5E thing sucking up everyone's game time, but I am getting a serious itch to return to the split game nights, in which we rotate campaigns with D&D one week and "something else" the next. My plans currently are as follows: introduce the Wednesday night crowd to The Void, and expose the Saturday night crew to Runequest 6. The Saturday group has already got a decent Magic World campaign under their belts, but I think they are ready to graduate to the Big Boy of the BRP family of games now. This will open them up to the full range of exotic magic in Runequest, as well as the more tactical/maneuver based combat system which is where RQ6 has a definite leg up on MW.

Apparently Design Mechanism has been busy when I wasn't paying attention, because there's a short "Ships & Shield Walls" supplement out as well as a campaign setting book. I've ordered a copy of the former in print through frpgames, and the latter may be nabbed in the future, if only for the fun of reading it.

For many GMs, the question of "what campaign to run" is a matter of what resource you want to read, or whatever setting you devise in conjunction with your campaign. For me it boils down to which one one of my existing worlds I would like to exploit for my RQ6 campaign. Right now I'm using Enzada for my Wednesday D&D setting, Chirak for my Saturday D&D setting, and was using my newly created world of Pergerron for Magic World. Pergerron, being customized for MW already might be a very easy fit for RQ6, and could in fact benefit from the additional magic systems. However, if I were to run it, then I would have to explain why we were using RQ6 and not just continuing with the MW characters where they left off. So.....

There's my old venerable setting for Lingusia. The World of Lingusia has received so much weird attention from me in the last few years that it's timeline and setting details are all over the place now. I used it most recently for my 13th Age games, but decided that ultimately 13th Age is a little too epic and super-heroic for a world that was originally grounded in a mixture of AD&D 1st edition, T&T 5th edition and Runequest 2. So now, with my latest "update" to that setting I'm thinking maybe Runequest 6 would be a fine choice.

D&D 5E would be, too....but I don't want to just run D&D into infinity anymore. I was to keep it mixed up  a bit.

What I think I'll do going forward is devise the new setting (a revisionist timeline of Lingusia set in the year 2,090 AW for those actually familiar with the setting) with RQ6 as the focus. Make RQ6 the de facto engine for Lingusia going forward, essentially. Given how much I've used time traveling campaigns to revise the setting, this may be more than a little appropriate....and the grittier RQ6 mechanics will be more than sufficient to handle the Age of Strife era I am working on for the next iteration of the world.

So....goal now: try to develop this setting and campaign with RQ6 in mind, and sprinkle blog with liberal doses of both!

Runequest 6 is Here

My copy of Runequest 6 showed up last night. It's a thick book, and the cover has that sort of "artsy" quality to it that I have no word to describe other than "not glossy, but kinda like those European travel books" which is probably as lousy a description as I can get. Let's just say it looks "pro" and leave it at that.

Now that I see the final product in its intended print form, two things still stand out:

1. Those damnable loopy "t's" make the book a chore for me to read. I gave up on the PDF and decided to wait for the print copy (I did print the PDF out too but the bound copy was so large I found it unwieldly). I have no idea why the funny font trips me up while reading...it just does. It's like my eye is instantly drawn to the loop as if it were analyzing a mistake or glitch. Weird, and annoying. Hopefully reading through it will desensitize my eye to noticing the "loop."

2. There's a lot of book in here. On the one hand, it makes for a good, thick read. On the other hand, there's something to be said for the slimmer economy version of the system in Legend with its "pick up and play" feel. This is not really a complaint, just an observation that if these books were actually mattresses, Legend would be a fold-down camper's cot with lots of cushions and a go-anywhere attitude, and RQ6 is like my king size bed at home, delightful to sleep in but emminently impractical when it comes to moving.

Anyway, it's still nice to have the print book, and for those of you on the fence, go grab it with the PDF for $50 at The Design Mechanism before the sale ends on the 22nd of August.

Me, I'll be revamping my Sarvaelen campaign for RQ6 very, very soon!




EDIT: The preceding may be considered my "critical" review of RQ6. Basically, the only things I can find wrong with it are, "it's got funny tees and it is very large, perhaps dangerously so."

Future columns will elaborate at great length on the awesome elements (i.e. the whole book) in the form of admiration, scenarios, NPCs, monsters and setting content.

Runequest 6 is now out, in case you hadn't heard! It's up at RPGnow.com as a PDF for $24.99 but I advise you instead go to The Design Mechanism and order a bundled physical preorder plus PDF for only $50, a much better deal.

So far after a few hours' reading, and despite my son's best efforts to stress test the Nook to the limits of its structural integrity, I have managed to glean the following information:

1. This is a much more comprehensive and robust rulebook than RQ2's equivalent edition was. It is also complete in one volume, with a healthy bestiary and all the magic rules (including spirit magic) within. It also introduces mysticism, a new form of magic which is derived from the old concept of heroic/legendary abilities. Also, runes reappear in a new form.

2. Glorantha is not in here, not even as a default; it's 100% universal as a fantasy system.

3. The entire system is not merely a reprint or repackaging of RQ2, it's a rewrite and expansion from the ground up. Everything has either been slghtly revised, expanded upon or otherwise given more elaborate treatment. The net effect still means that you can use, say, Legend or BRP stuff with minimal or no conversion problems, but the actual mechanics of RQ6 are just presented with more detail elaboration and consideration than we've seen previously. It smokes Legend, too. If you owned this book and Legend, Legend unfortunately only has one thing going for it (the OGL license).

4. Sorcery got a bit of a revision....minor, but little things (such as a minimum cost per spell) will have a measurable impact on play, especially for anyone who's seen sorcerers abused in RQ2 or prior editions goink back to RQ3 with Avalon Hill.

5. I like the black and white art overall, but a few pieces are from royalty free art packs that I've used and so the familiarity was disappointing (though they are good art pieces). Near as I can tell Pete and Loz managed to avoid the Mongoose "inappropriately naked chick artwork" problem prevalent in Legend and RQ2 as well.

6. A thorough, comprehensive index. Also, a suggested reading and viewing list, which I can't tell you how nice it is to have that single page in the book. Sure, I've read and watched it all, but it's nice when an RPG reminds the reader that it's meant to serve as a vessel for heroic literary and cinematic fantasy.

I'll talk more as I continue reading. Expect lots of future coverage and material in RoC for RQ6!

Runequest 6 Getting Closer

There's a first-look preview up now at the Design Mechanism right here. It looks really well done, and I am getting very eager to land a copy of this. I appreciate all Mongoose is trying to do with Legend and all (and Legend is by definition a fine system), but RQ6 is shaping up to be the most artistically well-done and comprehensive edition of the system so far.

In any case, even if one decided to opt for RQ6 as your primary edition of the system, I think that Legend's compatibility will work in its favor. I am sure I will be able to use Blood Magic (my new favorite supplement, hand down) with RQ6 as easily as Legend.

And then Loz mentions a reworking of spirit magic and the addition of a fifth magic system, mysticism, over here. Oooooh! Too much excitement.
Plus, Panthotaurs!