System for Jorune

[Trench]

Hello Everyone,

I may well be posting this into the wrong area of the forum so please accept my appologies in advance if that is the case. I scanned the various headings and with this being the most active board I thought it the place most likely to generate feedback.

I'm looking for a good system to use with Skyrealms of Jorune and would like to hear Forge members thoughts on what would work well in this setting. I've had this game for nearly 15 years (2nd and 3rd editions) but have never played it. I always return to it, dust it down, marvel at the artwork, promise myself to get a game underway, and then promptly put it back on the shelf and forget about it for another year or so.

The major stumbling block for me is the system. There are a lot of things I like about it (eg, advantage roll, lethality of combat) but many other that I don't (separate armour penetration roll, wild variety of dice, etc) - and that's just combat pro's & con's.

My RPG history began in '79 with D&D and Traveller and then moved into CoC and Runequest late into the 80's. Since then I've played many other systems but have been relatively inactive for much of the 90's.

I must say that I do favour rule heavy systems and in particular, harsh, gritty, low heroic seetings - I ran a Lankhmar campaign setting for 3 years with RQ3 rules (but AD&D magic) which was very enjoyable, and although I'm not necessarily looking to repeat this, it is something that I'm liable to lean towards.

I *could* just use RQ3 again - and I have thought about it - but I feel that would detract from the alien setting that this game offers. I don't want my players  to think they're just playing RuneQuest Jorune.

I've looked at Fuzion, Runebearer, PLUS, and Dominion, but none of these appealed to me. FUDGE is the only one that I've so far been tempted to try because it has some things in common with the native jorune setting (eg no hit points) without it's annoyances.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

[Jeffrey Straszheim]

I'm not really sure what sort of systems you like, but I'll throw out a few suggestions.  These will require a fair amount of adaptation on your part.

Runequest Slayers:  This bears almost no relationship to the original RQ.  The core system is pretty solid.  And it's free.

 http://www.thalcos.com/rq.html

The Pool:  An utterly simple system, but one that quite adaptable.

 http://www.geocities.com/randomordercreations/thepool.html



[ This Message was edited by: stimuli on 2001-10-31 11:45 ]

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Trench,

I surely hear you about the Jorune system. I'm even a magic system junkie and that one defeats me every time.

Interesting - about halfway through your post, I thought to myself, "Sounds like this guy would do well with Fudge," and presto, it appeared at the end of the post!

Fudge may be a tad lighter than you are used to (given the RQ3 reference), but philosophically it's tightly allied to the goals of both the Jorune and the RQ3 systems - just easier. I recommend it.

Best,
Ron

[kwill]

w00+ jorune! (we have a boxed set stuck in our gaming library that I've looked over before)

my question is, how to introduce the players to what looks to be a fairly intricate setting? in certain games with a rich setting it's easy to start with sketchy characters (eg, Deadlands, starting without the weird stuff and introducing it slowly), but certain settings seem to EXPECT you to know EVERYTHING

as a (potential) GM, or player, I'm happy with this, I like reading lots of background; but it certainly stops potential players in their tracks when there's a book to read before even character creation begins

in fact this is a general problem I've had thinking up games, and may relate to the recent Bobby G discussions...
if the players start knowing nothing "important" the GM can introduce elements as he sees fit; in a largely alien setting, though (Jorune, even UnderWorld), there has to be a lot of pre-play preperation (reading), which is not everyone's bottomless cup of tea

now when you have mystery/special background, slipping into Bobby G becomes a lot easier ("they need to find out about the Red Vampires, so I'd better help them find one") -- obviously one doesn't *have* to do this, I'm just pointing out a potential trap in this kind of setting

so I guess the question is, given a rich setting, where do you begin introducing the players and the characters?

and, given a mystery/secret background setting, how do you lay out the secrets so that you aren't funneling the players towards them, but that they do find them eventually?(*)

hmmm... new thread?

(*) okay, initial thought is a version of the wandering clue (where the players speak to the gardener instead of the butler, so HE tells them about the screams last night; in relation to a mystery setting, if the players hang around the gardener instead of the butler it turns out HE is a Red Vampire)

[Mike Holmes]

Jorune. There's a toughie. Haven't played my favorite Thriddle character in quite a while. Hmmm...

Have you looked at GURPS? Might be good for what ails you. It does have a HP system, but it's non inflationary, and combat is pretty realistic; some would say overly realistic. You could use GURPS Psionics, instead of magic or some combination. I wouldn't be surprised to find that somebody has already done a GURPS Jorune, already.

What was it that you didn't like about Fuzion? If it was too light for you, might I suggest it's bigger older brother, Hero System (the Champions generic system)?

Have you read the GNS articles? If so, considering your target audience and your own desires which mode is most appealing to you? If not, think about reading up. It can be very useful, potentially. All the systems that you have considered and have been suggested are very much what we would refer to around here as Gamist or Simulationist. You might take a look at some Narrativist systems as well. I could see an Over the Edge conversion running very well in Jorune, for example. Even better, Hero Wars might be converted with considerable effort, but it might yield big returns.

Just some thoughts.

Mike

[Ron Edwards]

Mike's right about GURPS. I must have been temporarily stricken with Huntingdon's to have forgotten that.

Anyway, assuming that the PHILOSOPHY of RQ3 play is to be maintained, I'd say, GURPS if the priority is very "justifiable" and consistently-determined game events; Fudge if the priority is fast handling time.

By definition, both games are highly customizable to setting and in my experience work very well for the sort of science fantasy Jorune represents.

Best,
Ron