Quote

Most importantly, they want to play again.

Excellent! Having fun and wanted to play again are really the most important aspects.

Sounds like it all played out well. I think you found, like most GM's of RQG do, not to worry too much about the movement. Narrative/story flow is more important than simulation.

Quote

1) What do you think about the Shadowcat situation above? Do Shadowcats "follow orders" like familiars? Whether they can or not, how would you have avoided an effective "no" under that situation?

Seems reasonable. Unless the shadowcat had an awakened/allied spirit (effectively a familiar), then it's a normal animal, trained to some degree. Use of the Beast Rune to communicate the command works fine.  With a regular success, I probably would have sent the shadowcat off, and then had it come hightailing back. But given the unusual situation (and likely Sakkar scent), not having the shadowcat go off at command also works.

Quote

2) Is an elemental's damage physical or magical damage?

Earth elemental's damage is physical (basically it's a crushing attack). Armor should have the opportunity to protect, but it certainly can immobilize the target too.

Quote

3) I wasn't sure how creatures with natural weapons "parry," so I just used their claw statistic. Correct?

Correct.

Quote

4) Any skill not in any NPCs list happens at base value, correct? The biggest aide that was missing was a list of skill base values, and I will have that for the next session.

That's the easiest approach and works fine. You could check against cultural/occupation modifiers to ensure it seems reasonable, but I wouldn't go out of the way to do so.

Sounds as though you had a good session and everyone enjoyed it.

For some reason, I couldn't quote things, so had to cheat.

3 hours ago, klecser said:

1) What do you think about the Shadowcat situation above? Do Shadowcats "follow orders" like familiars? Whether they can or not, how would you have avoided an effective "no" under that situation?

It depends on what the Player thinks the Shadowcat is, really.

If it is a trained beast that can go off on its own on forays, then I'd say that a successful Beast Rune roll would be OK for it to do that. However, I'd limit what it could do to its INT in basic commands.

If it is just a pet, then a critical Beast Rune roll would probably be needed.

If it is a familiar, or awakened Shadow cat, then it is effectively an NPC and can be sent off on its own.

As for the issue raised in the writeup, about becoming Sakkar-fodder, you could do it in several ways, if the Shadow cat encounters a Sakkar:

1. Have the Sakkar eat the Shadow Cat without the PC knowing what had happened
2. Have the Sakkar chase the Shadow Cat into a hole/up a tree, for the PC to have to go and find the Shadow Cat, hopefully when the Sakkar is not around
3. Have the Sakkar chase the Shadow Cat as it runs back to the PC, followed by a Sakkar
4. Have the Shadow Cat avoid being noticed by the Sakkar and return to tell the PC where the Sakkar is
5. Have the Shadow Cat ambush the Sakkar, jumping on it and clawing it to death from surprise

I would avoid 1 and 5, but any of 2-4 should be reasonable.

3 hours ago, klecser said:

2) Is an elemental's damage physical or magical damage? In other words, does Armor apply? I wasn't sure in the moment, so I made it physical, with the hope being that Yanioth would roll a 4, 5, or 6 on its damage to overcome armor. She rolled a five, and it was appropriately epic, but I'm wondering if I played it correctly. It just seems odd to me that you'd drop four rune points to control an elemental, roll a two for damage result when it engulfs, and have the elemental do no damage to a foe with armor. Seems a potentially huge waste of a large rune point investment.

From RQ2 memory, as I haven't memorised RQG Elementals:

• Earth Elementals deal physical damage, so armour protects. Typically, they open up a pit and grab the opponent, smashing it as the pit closes.
• Fire Elementals deal magical damage, although it is physical fire it attacks General Hit Points. In RQ2 Armour didn't protect, but spells did (Shield/Protection)
• Water Elementals attack by drowning, so forcing their way into your mouth/nose and into your lungs, so armour wouldn't protect
• Air Elementals pick you up and toss you, so you receive physical falling damage, so armour protects (Maybe you have to make a Luck Roll, I can't remember)
• Darkness Elementals attacked with a claw in RQ2, so armour protected from that, they also dealt cold damage and armour didn;t protect from that, but their main attack is Fearshock.

3 hours ago, klecser said:

3) I wasn't sure how creatures with natural weapons "parry," so I just used their claw statistic. Correct?

That's what I would do.

3 hours ago, klecser said:

4) Any skill not in any NPCs list happens at base value, correct? The biggest aide that was missing was a list of skill base values, and I will have that for the next session.

There are several ways of handling this:

1. The NPC hasn't got the skill listed, so hasn't got the skill, so uses the basic chance
2. The NPC has a general skill (Fighter 50% or Scout 60%) and you just use that default value for non-listed and appropriate skills
3. The NPC has a general skill (Fighter 50%, Scout 60%) and you just use the appropriate default value for non-listed skills

I prefer approach 3, personally, so I could have an NPC with Wizard 60%, Fighter 50% and Hunter 70%.

12 minutes ago, soltakss said:

That's what I would do.

There are several ways of handling this:

1. The NPC hasn't got the skill listed, so hasn't got the skill, so uses the basic chance
2. The NPC has a general skill (Fighter 50% or Scout 60%) and you just use that default value for non-listed and appropriate skills
3. The NPC has a general skill (Fighter 50%, Scout 60%) and you just use the appropriate default value for non-listed skills

I prefer approach 3, personally, so I could have an NPC with Wizard 60%, Fighter 50% and Hunter 70%.

I use a generic 50 for skills that I need for Call of Cthulhu so those options make total sense to me.

I mostly don't allow animals (ordinary non-sentient beasts) to "parry" as such.  I do allow a dodge.

After you hit them once or twice, they figure out that the  hitty-thing  hurts.  If it hurt a LOT, they'll try to dodge.  If it only hurt for 1-3(ish) HP's of damage, their version of 
"Parry" is to BITE it, like it was the swipe of another animal's paw, or something.  In the wild, this is a very effective strategy.

However, this amounts -- more or less -- to sticking their head in the way of the Adventurers' weapon.  😨

Granted, they meet the blow fangs-first -- and the sakkar, IIRC, has some pretty serious fangs! -- but it's generally not a winning strategy vs. armed humans carrying weapons to get through the armor of human foes...

Most weapons (with the exception of swords) have quite a lot of non-business parts that can be "attacked" in order to deflect a bow. Spear and axe shafts, or the arm of a knife fighter are within reach of the parrying party.

Cats of all sizes and bears will use their paws to strike attacking limbs, and may well be able to go for the flat of a blade, too. Only dogs are predominantly head attackers, and even they will use their forepaws to hold down thrashing prey (parrying hoofed kicks).

Quote

1) What do you think about the Shadowcat situation above? Do Shadowcats "follow orders" like familiars? Whether they can or not, how would you have avoided an effective "no" under that situation?

Shadowcats are doglike in their trainability.  I'd allow a well-trained dog to do a scout-and-report, within limits.  As Soltakss says, limit it to INT "tricks," if they're complex, dangerous, or otherwise difficult-to-train.  I'd let it do a "Trick" on any relevant roll -- Beast Rune, animal-handling, animal-lore, etc.

In-game, you've established that "scout-and-report" is not one of the Tricks it knows; if Nathem is a Player's character, I'd allow him to work on training his shadowcat to do this (I'd expect it to take months of dedicated effort; at least 10 training sessions every week for at least 2ish hours/session (normally I'd do 1h sessions, but not for outdoor/exploration tasks).).

Use communication via Beast Rune (or spell) for other things.

On the ordinary success achieved in-game, I'd probably have been a bit more generous, but I'm gonna call that a simple difference of opinion, not that your choice was "wrong."

I'd have had the Alynx understand Nathem wanted it to go "look around out thata-way," and rolled 3d6ish for 10-meter range-increment it went (30m-180m(ish)) & a bit of randomizing for precise direction and for straight-line vs meandering.  Without a trained Trick, I'd default to the cat only having 2 reports available:  "Found some prey - lets go hunt!" (n.b. cattle are not valid "prey") or "oh HELL no -- that's dangerous.  don't go hunting THAT way!"

===

About those "limits" (within which a critter's scout-and-report are limited):  the most-limited bit is the "report" of course.  How well do you read the animal's body-language?  How sophisticated is its mind, how much can it grasp, to even attempt to convey?  I would call for a separate roll to UNDERSTAND the report.

I'd disallow any "count" info beyond one/some/lots... and any particularly-scary-to-the-animal threat might register as "lots" of threat, regardless of count!  It can't really convey species, etc.

That said, wild animal groups have been documented with different threat-signals for "hawk" (animals take cover vs threat from above; large-enough ones only "take caution" and don't take cover) & "poison snake" (animals look at the ground, avoid dense undergrowth) & "Big Cat" (animals look for trees to climb, avoid big-cat-cover), etc.  I'd allow them to also specifically be able to signal "human" and maybe 1-2 other specific creatures (hounds can be trained to hunt specific species).

Complex situations are beyond their ability to convey.  A mixed party of humans & trolls, mounted on bison, bolo-lizards & beetles, with packs of hounds & trollkin?  Your report will translate roughly as:  "It's a booshgobbldyfrake.  Big one.  Let's run away."

===

IIRC, Nathem's shadowcat does NOT house any allied-spirit / etc.  So it's an ordinary beast.  As others have noted, a spirit will give it a mind, make it effectively an NPC like any other.

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

Most weapons (with the exception of swords) have quite a lot of non-business parts that can be "attacked" in order to deflect a bow. Spear and axe shafts, or the arm of a knife fighter are within reach of the parrying party.

Cats of all sizes and bears will use their paws to strike attacking limbs, and may well be able to go for the flat of a blade, too. Only dogs are predominantly head attackers, and even they will use their forepaws to hold down thrashing prey (parrying hoofed kicks).

I'm unconvinced; you seem to be implying more cognizance and combat-savvy than I'd expect from a wild animal... going for the flat of the blade??!?

A haft is still a heavy piece of hardwood; even not striking the weapon-head, it's still roughly a d8 Quarterstaff!

I agree that a knife, even a shortword/handaxe, puts the weapon-bearing hand and forearm in reach.  Granted, the haft is less-damaging than the head.  But particularly a thrust, like a spear... I wouldn't expect a beast to let the nearest bit get close while it reached around to the bit behind!

Obviously, almost any weirdness could crop up in a wild melee.

But an out-and-out "parry" is -- mostly -- an intelligent trained response.

I've seen a cat try to claw at objects, you're right -- they do use their paws that way.  But when I see cats actually FIGHT, they mostly go for each others heads/shoulders (with a rear-leg rake if they get 2 good clawfulls at the front).  I've seen a sort of "guard pattern:"  one paw high/wide, threatening and possibly doing a series of fast swipes, sort of interdicting a vector-of-attack & threatening a Big Hit if ignored.

But preferentially striking each others paws, "block" style?  Not much, not really.  Sometimes a cat will get a claw "stuck" in their foe; the victim doesn't even use a paw to knock the (static, unmoving) limb off them.

I have been known to "kitty duel" if the cat seems like it's in WildBeast mode -- my speed vs. theirs -- to go for a lightning-fast tummy-pat, paw-tap, jaw-scritch, etc.  If I've mis-judged the cats mood, it leaves; but often it stays to play a game for a minute or several... (and yes, it gets me scratched sometimes; not all cats play that game with velvet paws! (I figure it's my fault if I get hurt, not theirs).  And sometimes instead of bloodsport, it turns out the cat was into cuddles&scritches&purring; and that's good, too!  (The one cat who liked to purr & nuzzle WHILE ripping at me and drawing blood... OK, that was a bit creepy...))

They are clearly treating my hand as the "attacker" (they ignore everything past the wrist (except an occasional claw/claw/bite&Rake, when I've been REALLY slow...)).  They'll nail a finger if they get it, but what they're aiming for is the whole hand.  But the closest I've seen to a "parry" (from "duelling" a dozen so so cats (not all cats are interested & willing; and some don't see the "game" in it)) is more like a "trap" from martial arts -- a hook-and-draw-in motion (taking advantage of those curved, ripping claws), not so much "blocking" my finger as trying to grab it to bring the "body" of my hand in for the kill...

===

I haven't seen as much of bears -- never owned one, pet-sit one, visited other owners, etc -- but from what I've seen they too do little to "parry" -- when they reach out a paw in a fight, it's to HIT (or to threaten).

Bears will swipe, but not really paw-v-paw "parry" -- a meaningful blow is to the head/body, not an opposing paw.  They mostly try to hit PAST the paw, and defend by biting an incoming paw (Paw meets Jaw is usually worse for the bitten paw!).

If an animal was intelligent -- awakened, or with a Spirit inside -- then all manner of good tactical and strategic options open up, including parries.

Even a good trainer might be able to elicit non-instinctive combat mannerisms.

But for wild animals, I'm gonna stick with my "mostly no parries" rule, unless I see pretty convincing arguments (or video?) otherwise.  I can probably find youtube vid to support most of my points, if you'd like.

3 hours ago, g33k said:

I have been known to "kitty duel" if the cat seems like it's in WildBeast mode -- my speed vs. theirs -- to go for a lightning-fast tummy-pat, paw-tap, jaw-scritch, etc.  If I've mis-judged the cats mood, it leaves; but often it stays to play a game for a minute or several... (and yes, it gets me scratched sometimes; not all cats play that game with velvet paws! (I figure it's my fault if I get hurt, not theirs).  And sometimes instead of bloodsport, it turns out the cat was into cuddles&scritches&purring; and that's good, too!  (The one cat who liked to purr & nuzzle WHILE ripping at me and drawing blood... OK, that was a bit creepy...))

They are clearly treating my hand as the "attacker" (they ignore everything past the wrist (except an occasional claw/claw/bite&Rake, when I've been REALLY slow...)).  They'll nail a finger if they get it, but what they're aiming for is the whole hand.  But the closest I've seen to a "parry" (from "duelling" a dozen so so cats (not all cats are interested & willing; and some don't see the "game" in it)) is more like a "trap" from martial arts -- a hook-and-draw-in motion (taking advantage of those curved, ripping claws), not so much "blocking" my finger as trying to grab it to bring the "body" of my hand in for the kill...

Yes, against larger opponents (let's say house cat vs. German shepherd) the cat uses dodge and lightning strikes, but it doesn't strike at the jaw, but the top of the nose. That's what makes me think that it will recognize the business end of the attacker and avoid it.

One former cat of ours came to us rather young, and accepted a plush hand puppet of a badger as mock-sibling, reducing the danger of drawing blood significantly (but also my reach). Against a smaller opponent, the instinct to dodge is lesser, and if you scale up to sakkar size, humans qualify as smaller prey.

I liked your Combat 101 document.  A couple of comments:

• Statement of Intent.  I have always done the statements in INT order(lowest to highest ) That gives the players with characters that have higher INT a bit more info to base their actions on.
• Movement/attacks. You can only attack twice with a melee weapon if your skill is 100% or higher, AND you have enough  strike ranks. And each attack is at 1/2 your base attack skill.  I have played that spells cast on the weapon( ie Bladesharp ) have their modifiers added AFTER splitting, while spells cast on the person( ie Sword Trance ) have their modifiers added BEFORE splitting.  Its the skill before splitting that has to be 100% or higher. One exception to needing 100% or higher is missile weapons with a Rate of S/MR. With those, you use your full skill for every attack, and can attack as many times as you have strike ranks for.  More below

In your Action/Strike Ranks table, one error is that missile weapons don't have a strike rank, so those attacks are on the character's DEX SR.  Shooting a weapon with a rate of S/MR, and a low enough DEX SR, you can attack multiple times per round.  So

• DEX SR 2, Weapon ready to fire at the start of the round( arrow knocked )
  • First round, First shot at SR 2
  • Load weapon, ready to go at SR 7( +5 SR )
  • Second shot at SR 9.
  • No time to reload this round
  • Second round, weapon loaded at SR 5
  • First shot at SR 7
  • Weapon reloaded at SR 12 (+5 SR)
• DEX SR 1, Weapon ready to fire at the start of the round
  • First shot SR 1.
  • Load weapon, ready to go at SR 6
  • Second shot at SR 7
  • Load weapon, ready to go at SR 12
• DEX SR 1, Weapon not ready to fire at the start of the round
  • Load, ready to go at SR 5
  • First shot, SR 6
  • Load, ready to go at SR 11
  • Second shot, SR 12

With a DEX SR of 0, it works out basically the same as a DEX SR of 1, except that, if you're ready at the start of the round, you can get 3 shots off in the first round.