Baron Wulfraed

The weapon weights were ridiculous... One pound per foot of sword, for steel, is reasonable -- and may even allow for a scabbard, since decent fullers on the blade reduces a lot of blade weight. US silver dollars of the 1800s tend to run 27 gram, which comes to about 0.86 ounce Troy -- so that AD&D 1.6 ounce (presume Troy) is only double weight. 17 of them make an avoirdupois pound (so 60 of them weigh as much as one of the larger broadswords). Modern "$1" silver eagles (bullion "coins", not used as money) are 1 ounce Troy US Double Eagle ($20 Gold) are 33.4 grams, 1.07 ounce Troy. Modern "$50" gold bullion are 1 ounce Troy. The "$100" platinum is 1 ounce Troy. Copper large cents (pennies) varied from 13 to 10 grams, so yes -- it would take four or five of them to make one AD&D coin 🤑

You people are EVIL! I've just dropped $107 for the World Builder Bundle -- Even though it's been some 30 years since I last tried mapping a fantasy world. Back then it was a large sheet of hex-paper using a scaled up Traveller template, pigmented inks, and an assortment of air brushes.

Note that "crossbow lock" means the mechanism that holds the string back, and the trigger lever to release it. The "bow" itself is likely composite (layered horn, wood, sinew) to get any effective power without having unwieldy limb length. Definitely not the more modern steel limbs. One could probably prototype the lock using dense woods, but it may not last more than a few shots before the catches are chipped/worn. {Consider yourself shot with a bronze age crossbow}

Conditions likely needed... the wick remains lit (so not /drowned/ under an influx of oil) the wick lands /on/ a large enough puddle of oil which it can vaporize and ignite

For Yelmalio, one doesn't even have to wait for a supplement book. The existing RQ:RiG book already has gift/geas tables for Yelmalio (page 309) Granted, page 296 (Humakt) does hint that a supplement book could expand beyond the 12 gifts listed there.

Granted, I've not studied modern grenade usage, but... The common (as seen in war movies) grenade fuse is started by the handle being released -- and said release occurs when the grenade has been thrown, and the handle flips off. Your above description has the user holding the body of the grenade, deliberately letting the handle flip into the air, and then counting down for a throw. Per Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenade

I've been hoping that the mythical/rumored Gamemaster/Campaign Guide would include such -- when ever it is released.

Solid barriers will block shrapnel from explosives. But fireball? Unless one is in a room totally sealed off from the center of the fireball, the heat/flame will expand around openings*. Both may produce some form of shock wave (especially a concussion grenade vs fragmentation type) -- not sure how tightly the shock wave will follow around openings; there may be a shadow effect that is calm. * Very old AD&D outing. Party was in "strategic retreat" from some big-bad. I had a magic user with one spell left, a fireball. I had the rest of the party go out the room and down the hallway while I stayed to set off the fireball at point-blank range. Yes, suicidal "final strike" character. Magic user somehow survived the fireball, which did take out the big-bad... my other character (the group normally ran two characters at a time in case one gets killed) who was way down the hallway outside the room... did not survive the back-blast.

Makes two of us... I do have the old black soft-cover from ages ago, but...

With visions of Fluttershy tossing Harry Bear to the ground and twisting his head "Stay down, I'm trying to loosen up some of your stiff muscles"

Ever read the history of the Russian Silver Fox breeding experiment... In only a few generations of selecting for friendliness they ended up with floppy eared foxes with juvenile traits as adults. https://evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-018-0090-x

Even for Humakt, if one interprets is overly strictly, it means the cult has to solicit for new members from outsiders -- since if cult members don't have children, there won't be any brought up following their parents and hence already leaning to Humakt.

There is a Download link under the map on the web page, and the PDF file has a page size of 19.5x22 inches.

Ah, a Quarterstaff is 6-8 feet long... so 1.3-1 HP per foot (2m ~= 6.5feet => 1.23 HP per foot). There is no awkward mass distribution creating a weak point just below the head -- and it likely bounces and flexes on impacts. The Great Hammer is 5 feet long, so 1 HP per foot (equivalent to a long 8ft Quarterstaff). And it likely needs the reinforcements just to keep the head from snapping off -- especially if a parry catches it between the head and the hand grip, as the mass of the head will try to continue its motion. The Singlestick at 3 feet, gets 1.33 HP per foot, so in a way, it is the more durable weapon of the three. 👹

Still page 210 though The medieval just provides both the pick/spike, and a small flat hammer end (though some may have cross-slots on the flat to produce a multi-point head) I suspect a bronze-age version is cast, rather than forged.

Did you read the description on page 210? It's basically a croquet mallet with metal strips down the side of handle, and with a tin can covering the head. (Okay, for Glorantha it likely has a copper can wrapping it) In contrast, the War Hammer and Maul have cast/forged metal heads (or stone as an option for the Maul). The War Hammer is close to a short bec-de-corbin or ice axe, and the Maul is essentially a sledge hammer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_hammer#Design

All of 4 seconds? So much for my mental impression of 3 second fuses...

And just to toss (no pun intended) some other numbers into this... Assuming a sidearm (level/horizontal) throw, the grenade will be about 5ft (I don't think in metric, so sue me) above ground. That means solving for (if I haven't made any mistakes): 5 = 1/2 * 32 * T^2 5 = 16 * T^2 5 / 16 = T^2 sqroot(5 / 16) = T The grenade will hit ground in 0.56 seconds. assuming a target 66 feet away (~20m) means 66 = 0.56 * V 66 / 0.56 = V or 117.9 feet/sec => 7074 feet/min => 42440 feet/hour or 80 miles an hour. A professional baseball pitcher's fast ball is around 90-100 mph. I really doubt the typical grenade tosser approaches that capability. So, that leads us to lobbing the grenade -- and that means having to split the velocity into vertical (up) and horizontal, and incorporating the starting vertical velocity into the acceleration of gravity. Left as an exercise for the student.

I fear it may be difficult -- even 2nd and 3rd editions had a base age of 15, and that was already the transition into "adult" status in many ancient cultures. You might have to allow for some combat skills -- thrown rocks are likely common, and even slings may be familiar (used for hunting squirrels and rabbits, say). Unlikely to be "murder skills" if you take into account the penalties for SIZ and STR -- I'm presuming you'd use something closer to 1D6+6 for size of children (and you'll have to add some rules to account for growth to adult size over time -- maybe roll adult size 2D6+6, but then interpolate down by age difference [assume full size obtained at age 18?]; similar for STR). Might have to allow for small knives even (I owned a hunting knife in the 6th grade -> 12 year old, and had pocket knives as a 10 year old -- which leads to the fact that the local kids attempted to make bows and arrows using branches cut from trees or found in the woods; sure they had no effect unless one got hit in the eye...). Based upon my childhood -- we hardly had more than a 1mile radius from home in which we wandered. 2 miles at the extreme, and that was on city streets, not wandering over farmlands and deep into the woods.

As I recall, both discus and shot-put use full body rotation techniques (spins), and discus is a bit odd to hold onto (finger tips over rim, palm flat on the "top" side). Grenade throws are closer to baseballs, allowing for overhand, sidearm, and underhand tossing. The first and last should tend to be close in azimuth but have more variation in range; I'd think sidearm would have wider spread in azimuth, less spread in range (opening hand too soon will have it roll off the fingers to the side, too late means the arm is going across the body, so likely [right hander] 90deg right to 45deg left).

Probably makes two of us, given what crawled through my brain around 1AM last night... (two separate entities, not to be seen as one longer work) Humakt and Orlanth A spat between two brothers Death severs all bonds Ho, haiku hijack Learnéd are the peacekeepers Waging magic war Addendum: Given how much ancient stuff was relayed verbally, having an INT roll for Memory might be viable. Read/Write might be of use for the longer pieces -- but if one is relying on alliteration and/or rhyming Speak may be more important (especially if the spoken languages are different even when the written language is the same. No idea if Sing or Orate is the more applicable /performance/ skill -- Orate makes me think of politicians on soapboxes, haranguing an audience.

Playing devil's advocate... Consider that Beowulf is considered a poem! All 3000+ lines of it! So is Spencer's Faerie Queene, all six "books" of it. Don't confuse classical poetry with schmaltzy love sonnets. Even Poe's The Raven is on the short side.

That leads to a possible ambiguity on page 51. Are those 50% restricted to only non-0% Elemental Rune affinities (and any Form/Power, since those are balanced pairs), or could they be used to give a token positive value a 0% Elemental Rune?

My fault for confusion -- somehow the sense that "classic titles" meant "for the RQ2 reprint" and not "updated for RQ:RiG" slipped my mind.

And the larger 11-platter models eventually reached a whopping 100MB of storage! As I recall, my college machine (late 70s) had six 100MB drives, and they later added two 300MB drives -- not for student data, but for swap files! (Hmm, the CP/V user guide I just found via Google talks of 24MB removable drives and a 6MB fixed drive) Students taking BASIC had a quota of 30 "granules" or 15kB.