Category: Latest news

Mythras Encounter Generator Difficulty Levels Refactored and Many Other Things As Well

The Most Important Table in Mythras (Monster Island page 282) did not exist at the time MeG was created 8 years ago. During that time more than 3800 public encounters have been created and similar number of ones that have been private to their creators’ campaigns. MeG has also evolved during that time getting many new features and most of all the creators have gained experience in how to use the MeG and creators’ ambition has risen as well.

As I have created 2300+ of the encounters I decided to go back and take a look what I could with some amount of work improve or change based on the experience so far. All creators can change only their own creatures so this is how I changed mine.

One of the contributions of Monster Island was the MITM (Most Important Table in Mythras). It gives you the idea of what skill levels novice, competent, proficient, expert, master and paragon would have and what they are known for.

MeG has a similar ranking but with not as many levels. As currently it is not feasible to change the names of the MeG ranks I made a tentative mapping between MeG and MITM as follows.

Main skillMITM rankingMeG rank
01-30NoviceRabble
31-50CompetentNovice
51-70ProficientSkilled
71-90ExpertVeteran
91+Master and ParagonMaster

After this I generated each (well almost each) of the 2300+ templates I have made at least once and took a look at few of the first npc’s generated from each template what is the main skill generated and the rank MeG has and changed the ranking to correspond to the above. So for example if the MeG rank was skilled and the generation yielded mostly in 71-90 range – I changed the rank to Veteran. And so on. Most often this was combat skill but for some templates for example sorcery magic skills were more appropriate to judge. In some cases I took a general view and not exact view on one skill percentage. For some templates I found that I wanted them to have higher skill to maintain their rank or lower skill to lower their rank so I changed them. In several cases I wanted more variety in the percentages so I changed the flat percentage add to be more varied dice rolls. This changed ranks for 822 of my creations – some went down, some went up.

I also took a look at the notes block for the creation and if some things could be moved to be “features” like “Abilities”, “Combat Style”, “Basic Poison” etc or if some abilities were missing I added them and cleaned some of the notes block. This changed 173 of the templates.

I also added few tags here and there but that would need another round sometime in future.

Some of the monsters and animals were missing “Natural armor” tick box – so they were slower than they need to be in initiative. I added the tick box to everything that was not wearing armor. This changed 465 templates.

I also changed few characteristics for less than a couple of dozen templates that did not follow the SIZ and STR guidelines from the RAW.

So what is the benefit of this:

When you filter by rank in MeG – many creatures (all of mine) now are of appropriate difficulty level to that rank. So if you want skilled opponents – you are not confronted by masters or if you need masters you will not find novices in the filtering results.

Also you will find that those generated have now correct natural armor penalty – so animals and monsters are quicker in initiative. There is also more info in the encounters for the abilities so it is easier to use – do not have to look up the info in the RAW or MI so much.

I encourage everyone who creates new creatures to fill the rank correctly and use the “features” and natural armor tick boxes. It is also hugely beneficial for all of us as users if you use enough proper and useful tagging. When you go back and visit your templates – it would be useful to do similar changes if the creatures are public.

So what will happen in the next refactoring – perhaps more tagging, more adding of combat styles and additional features and more explanations what the creatures are and where to refer for more information. This may come some time in future but not this year…

You will find Mythras Encounter Generator here

Classic Fantasy Monsters for Mythras With Some Blood Tide Welling In

Classic Fantasy is a Mythras supplement for dungeoneering in the percentile world. Here are some of the monsters (some of them classics we grew to love in the early days of RPGs) in the Mythras Encounter Generator format.

There are also some encounters adapted from the evocative Blood Tide supplement for pirate campaigns.

For the fun of it here is an undead variety of the crocodile of the Pamaltelan continent.

You will likely find more useful encounters with the Encounter Generator. There are users guides to finding encounters and creating encounters and monsters

Pregenerated Characters for Mythras – Nomad Herders and Warriors in Prax and Elsewhere

Games Master will sometimes need quickly a set of player characters. Perhaps it is for a one off at convention or otherwise. Perhaps there was a TPK or you had one new player on baord without a character. Though character generation is fun it may take awhile – so in this series of posts a way to generate quickly some pregenerated characters.

Previous installments of pregenerated characters for Mythras/Rq6 Encounter Generator tackled some city folk and barbarians.

Now is the time for the noble nomads. These can be used either in Prax in Glorantha or anywhere using the animal names as just names of the tribes.

First some herders

..and then some warriors to protect them

You will also find a pregenerated nomad party, most likely in Paps or near Pavis city walls as so many different tribes together is likely to cause strife.

What are you waiting for – go make ambush already in Plains of Prax or hire out to protect a merchant caravan or go looting he Big Rubble in front of you

 

Nasty – Check. Chaotic – Check. Dorastor – Check. TPK – Check.

Looking for a one shot or TPK – here are few nasty encounters for Encounter Generator for Mythras and RQ6 from every GM’s dream and every player’s nightmare – lovely home of the shrine of Dorasta – Dorastor. Most of them mean death for even the most powerful of the player parties. Most of them are unique – meaning only one of them exists in Glorantha.

Vampires might exist anywhere. This was originally from Sun County

Disease spreading is not the prerogative of Broos only. Here is a flock of Harpies to do the same

The abandoned ruins of Dokat contain often the only inhabitant a spirit known as

Madness is prevalent in dorastor and few things are as mad as the

Mad Sultan never goes anywhere without proper entourage

There are relatively good guys in Dorastor but they are few and far between

Slimestone is a place but it has got some personality even if a bit clinging one

Siamese twins are rare but here is a pair who would like to meet you

Maidstone archers have a remote relative

This is the most volatile thing you might encounter

Some other chaotic ones are here

 

Pregenerated Characters for One Off Mythras Scenarios – Standard Barbarians

There are situations where you need quickly either many or a single pre generated character. You might be running a one off and do not want to spend any time for creating the characters. There might have been a very nice total party kill early in the game night and players want to still continue. There might have been even an unlucky character death in the middle of the evening. In all these cases you just want to get back to the railroad.

Encounter Generator solves this neatly for Mythras and old RQ6. Here is a first quickie fix for the problem. Here is a pregenerated characters party that can be used both in Sartar or Prax or even non Gloranthan environment. Characters are at novice level. Generation follows majority of the steps included in the chargen – cultures, careers, appropriate weapons for three different professions that seem to be universal.

Here are all of them in a pack

All of these could be easily used also in non Gloranthan settings by changing the language names and shield names. In case of combat styles – just change the names. If you want to allow only one combat trait for a character – select one of those.

Later on I will publish more pregens for other professions and civilizations.

Here is a link to the Charts that the GM might need and the way Encounter Generator can be used to support game night.  If you need a tavern to let the group meet – here are several. Markets are just nearby.

 

To see the Monster Island and die – Monstropedia of Loral

 

Here are few new denizens of the beautiful island called Loral. It is populated by rare endangered pieces unified in their approach to life (hate the intruders). There is rather large treasure ship wrecked on the island and there used to be God Learners here long time ago so the historians are of course quite interested in the island. The below natural exhibits are imagined for RQ6 Encounter Generator. Among the less educated the island is called Monster Island.   The sources have been the Tradetalk #13, Guide to Glorantha and Men at Sea.

Some are really co-operative and are driven by the sense to please (their palates) and fulfill their heart’s desire (hate the intruders). Some of these are bad news indeed.

There are other pages on Monster Island

 

RQ Encounter Generator Creates Lycanthropes in Glorantha

I was reading the RQ2 rulebook electronic version that I received as part of the Kickstarter and noticed that I had missed many of the lycanthropes in the RQ Encounter Generator. Did a bit of search and found that Sandy had done a nice piece on Lycanthropes in Glorantha (I thought it was in Forgotten Secrets of Glorantha but on re-checking cannot find where the original source is) so decided to add all of those

According to Sandy – were jackals do not have a tribe associated with them anymore. All others are Hsunchen

There are other were folk in Glorantha but these are now described.

 

Old School is back: RQ Classic Fantasy Is Soon Here with Rust Monster and friends

RQ6 Classic Fantasy is close to being published. Got a glimpse of things in store at the yahoo group for Classic Fantasy and Rod encouraged me to create a couple of the monsters for RQ Encounter Generator that the Classic Fantasy is going to contain.

Here is the number one hated monster from ye golden days of adventuring – GM’s best friend : the Rust Monster

There was also a very nice Mimic there as well as its more dangerous brother the Killer Mimic.   The full descriptions of these are available in the above yahoo group.

You will find these and more in future with the tag “Classic Fantasy” in the RQ Encounter Generator. This Runequest 6 supplement promises to be lots of fun for all old school GM’s.

 

Lunars have Adventures in Glorantha

Here are the bringers of civilisation, the light of the goddess, the sharp edge of the empire, the thin line between chaos and the world, the word that cannot be spoken, the collectors of the coin that shall be emperor’s, the foot that stomps, keepers of order that must be kept, the long shadow of the bat to come. RQ Encounter Generator welcomes the updated Lunar Provincial troops – the troops that stoutly sacrifice all in the name of the Emperor and the goddess to protect the innocent – and protect above all the interests of the empire from those who would defile it.  Convert and serve the goddess – it is in your best interest… You cannot stop the onslaught – empire (and you) can generate these encounters in unlimited numbers.

These now take into account passions towards locals and the Empire, expanded skill sets from Rq6 and AiG, the Lunar combat styles (Sagittarian Peltast, Lunar Corps Hoplite, Pelorian Cavalry, Antelope Lancer and new weaponry (Moon sword, Khopesh, Kontos and the new shields)). You can also add to your own Lunars a cult which has the common Folk magic spells for Lunar Provincials.

You will see these in Pavis, Sartar and Esrolia.

Lunar Agent

Lunar Peltast

Lunar Peltast Officer

Lunar Peltast Officer on a city patrol

Lunar Peltast on a city patrol

Lunar Hoplite

Lunar Hoplite Officer

Lunar Hoplite Officer on a city patrol

Lunar Hoplite Officer, Danfive Xaron Acolyte

Lunar Hoplite Officer, Danfive Xaron Devotee

Lunar Hoplite Officer, Danfive Xaron Initiate

Lunar Hoplite on a city patrol

Lunar Hoplite, Veteran

Lunar Hoplite, Veteran, Strong one

Lunar Antelope Lancer

Lunar Antelope Lancer Officer

Lunar Cavalry

Lunar Cavalry Officer

Lunar Agent

Lunar Tax Collector

The parties have been updated as well

Lunar Antelope Lancer Party

Lunar Cavalry Patrol

Lunar Hoplite City patrol

Lunar Hoplite City patrol – first response

Lunar Hoplite Field Patrol

Lunar Hoplite Field Patrol, Danfive Xaron

Lunar Peltast City Patrol

Lunar Peltast City Patrol – First Response

Lunar Peltast Field Patrol

Lunar Tax Collectors

 

The rabble and the nobles (and followers of the bat) will likely follow in the footsteps of the forward troops – they always do.

 

 

Glimpses of Count Felagga’s Mystic Menagerie – Chaos and Creatures From Distant Lands

Wyrms Footnotes #15 has a wonderful article by Sandy Petersen on a circus with really esoteric exhibits – Count Felagga’s Mystic Menagerie. Here are some of the creatures from the Dangerous Animal Section and the Chamber of Horrors fitted with RQ6 statistics in RQ6 Encounter Generator

  • Pterodactyl Sorn The Chaos ‘birds’ from East isles
  • Rhamphorhynchus Sorn Smaller Sorn species
  • Duocanth The amphibious monster from Kralorela
  • Nandi The beast with excellent memory from Kingdom of Ignorance
  • Xamalki The hulking chaos monster from Pamaltela and East Isles
  • Sparhog The electrifying boar from the hinterlands of Teshnos
Other creatures

Part of Count Felagga’s Mystic Menagerie stats are here.