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Well historically the French did just that an Agrincourt and the British didn't run away. They killed prisoners, but they didn't run away. And the British though it was the main French army not just a dozen knights. By the Book of Battle Henry V' would have lost the battle because of it. The thing in Pendragon is that we are talking about one unit/eschille of PKs getting to the camp, not the whole army, an nowhere else does one group of PK have this great an impact on the course of the battle. With the way the Book of Battles runs, a fight that is dead even turns into a route the instant the PKs make it to the enemy camp. Even killing the Enemy leader doesn't usually have that great an effect. What historical examples do we have of an army turning and running when the enemy gets into their camp, and was the army already losing/withdrawing when it happened? Are there any cases of an army that was winning a battle losing because of it? Did is actually change the course of the battle? Or did it just speed along the inevitable?

Interesting. It used to. THeat was one of the issues about RQG that was brought up in the past. So is there a way,to extend Spirit Magic anymore? Yes, and that's the crux of the matter. I don't think Sword Trance is unreasonable or a problem. You get to spend MP to get a bonus to hit. It's about on par with Bladesharp. Yeah you can burn more MPs into it than you probably can with Bladesharp, but then you are spending lots of MPs and temporarily losing some rune magic to do so. The question is if long term extension is a problem, at least when combined with a spell like this, where a characters can boost the benefits by spending more MPs? And I honestly don't think we will really know the answer to that for awhile yet. Probably not until RQG has been around for a couple of years, and we see what happens. If everybody starts houseruling things or not.

Yup, plus Sword Trance isn't the problem here, it's the duration that is the potential problem. Otherwise it's no big deal. For 12MP a character (who knows it) could have Bladesharp 12, which would add +60% to his attack and +12 to damage.It ability to keep the spell up for days and days where the danger lies.

That is, at least partially true, but then that can be true of just about anything in an RPG, too. The actual adventures run play a part in it too. Most of the existing RQ adventures did have a good deal of combat in them, and this tactic could be quite useful. I can't think of any of the RQ2 and RQ3 Gloranthan adventures where this wouldn't be of some benefit. One question I have is what else could the character do with those 2 rune points, are would it be of comparable use? Not to mention what a character has to give up to gain access to Sword Trance.

The alleged problem, such as it is, isn't really about combat though, but about extension. Mobility, or Vigor could be just as bad if a character has then at a high enough point value. What makes Sword Trance nasty is that you only need to know a little bit of it to pump a lot of MPs into it. And that gets to combine with Extenstion. A characrter who has this on an only gets into one fight during the time it is active is probably going to benefit more from having it than by having the free rune points. Sure he will, for one thing nothing about this spell makes the Humakti any more vulnerable to magic, spirits or missile weapons that he was without it. What the spell does do is make him far more effective if he can get within melee distance. And that will affect the opponent's tactics and limit their options, and that can help quite a bit. The thing about this is that is isn't really a an example of a "one-trick pony" because it is a relatively cheap to pull off rune point wise, and while costly in magic points, the MPs will come back, and the extended spell will last a long time, unless knocked down by some other spell. It's biggest weakness, IMO is probably that the character is low on MPs for a day or so after casting, which can weaken him magically if trouble starts before he recharges. But a wekk down the road it is practiaclly a freebie. Or even a other different spells that get extended. The major worry here is the ability to "cast in advance" via extension. Someone walking around with Protection 10, Bladesharp 10, or Vigor 10, or Countermagic 10 or some such present similar problems. They are a little harder to pull off, since they require knowledge of more spirit magic, but still as effective. The real question seems to be, are the benefits worth locking up the rune points, and investing so many magic points?.

The part of this that worries me isn't so much a begging character sho has this as his only rune spell, but instead an experienced character with a larger pool of rune points so that he can spare two points to do this. Maybe even boost it with some magical defenses. While the enemy could and probably would knock the spell down, it would force them to put time, effort and MPs into doing so. If the character with the spell is already good with a sword, the the benefits of dispelling the effect aren't all that great either.

Okay, I get a bit more of what you are saying,now. I'm curious about some things through. Do you have the, fight one opponent or run several skirmishes? Also, how to do you factor in the group''s results to the overall battle, since the groups results don't affect the commander's roll for his NPC followers? I think what you are doing could work, I'm just not sure exactly how you did it though. I could see handling the outcome of the whole battle with opposed Battle rolls, and apply modifiers for odds and the results of the PKs. (something like +1 per win, -1 per loss). Since attacking the enemy commander from the rear is only a -5,-10 I can't see the baggage train be even that good. Maybe -1d6 to the intensity?

LOL! THat wasn't an intentional pun, was it? More seriously, I think it might come down to being consumed as mulch keeps an elf part of the community and part of the food chain and life cycle. Unlike human cultures, who mostly find cannibalism abhorrent, in no small part because it minimizes out individuality and feelings of superiority over "lesser" animals, with elves it could be that "mulching" and consumption reinforces that they are part of the plant life, and brings them closer to Aldyra. It's an logical, internally consistent, but alien mindset, so it has potential.

Yes it probably should, because the effects of being hit are the same regardless of SIZ. Also, the SIZ 60 dinosaur is going to get slightly reduced protection because it's high SIZ will give opponents and increased chance to hit, and also an increased chance to impale and get through th e spell. I think for a living creature the SIZ isn't a problem, as the effect is the same. Especially when you consider that the spell has no limit to how many times it can stop damage while active. For example, someone with Protection 10 could pretty much shrug off burst after burst of arrows/mutilmissles even submachinegun fire, barring impales, all hitting on the same SR, and over multiple rounds. So SIZ protected really insn'ta factor, nor how much total energy a spell should stop. Just how much it can stop from one attack. Sounds about right to me too. The Spirit Magic spell Vigor gives 2 CON per point, which would functionally give a character +1 hit point per MP, and the other benefits of a higher CON, such as resistance to poison, and fatigue. But Vigor limits the amount you can raise your CON to a maximum of twice their current, unadjusted CON. I suggest something similar with Hit Points.

Uh how? By the normal rules the players actions have no effect on the outcome. THe only exception is if/when a scripted event gives the PCs a shot at a leader or some such, but then even when they don't succeed, somebody else will. Yeah, I tend to treat treat +5 and _+10 modifiers from scripted events for the normal system into a -4 and -8 modifiers to battle intensity. I think that is actually a flaw in the Battle System. As I mentioned previously, by the Battle System the English would have lost the Battle of Agincourt, when the French reinforcements did actually attack the English baggage train. I also find it hard to believe that one small group of ten knights reaching the enemy camp can (or should) have more effect on the course of the battle than anything else, including the how the rest of the entire army is doing. Honestly, with a group that small, how would enough of the army even know they were there to cause such a massive shift?

I think a linear relationship would be dangerous and vulnerable to mini-maxing or other forms of exploration. SO this would be a "proceed with caution" path of thinking. I could see some clever player coming up with some sort of specific application of a spell that minimized the penalties while maximizing the protection. For example, just off the top of my head, if protection could be cast on only part of the body, then a character could forgo the heaviest pieces of armor, such as chest protection, and rely on of magic. Especially in RQG where the chest has high ENC but gets hit the least often of any location. As for something like delayed healing, I'd consider using the old RQ3 sorcery duration table as a guide. Something along the lines of subtracting the MP cost from the spell, but with a minimum cost of 1 MP., and that the spell would be very vulnerable to countermagic and such since it would be both low power and long duration For example, a Heal 5, that takes 2 hours to work for 1 MP might be okay. But, I'd suggest playtesting it a lot.

No. The Cultures as defined in Magic World are unqiue to Magic World. RuneQuest 3 did have Cultures, but they were somewhat diffident, being Primitve, Nomad, Barbarian and Civilized. THese are roughly similar to MW's Band, Tribe, Chieftain, and State but aren't the same. As fas a religion goes, Civilized Culture in RQ3 did have Priests, but not Shamen (a Shaman is usually from a less "advanced" culture), so Priest/Shaman probably wasn't dropped because of RQ. Some of what makes for a Civilized Priest in RQ3 would be close to the Government Official/Diplomat occupation. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that the various systems for magic in RuneQuest (Spirit MAgic< Rune Magic, and Sorcery) are all different that Magic World's Sorcery. Usually I downplay languages, except perhaps special ones for different species/races. My main reason for doing so if that languages greatly limit the amount of interaction the PCs can have with NPCs. If the characters can't speak to each other they can only communicate basic ideas at best. I don't know if a solo individual would have a "culture" . I think you would need some sort of group for that. Even going with a character such as Tarzan, I don't think I would classify him as having a "culture" per say. ON the other hand, Magic World's Chargen probably needs something like this in order to write up such a character, and the skills and professions you listed seem right for such a character. Actually Tolkien is a good example to support your ideas here. In Middle Earth, most of the Elvish communities are comproised of various groups and subspecies of elves (Noldor, Sindar, Slyvan), and the region/community they are from seems to be more important as far as thier culture goes than the actual type. Now that said, most of these cultures would probably be considered the same type of culture in Magic World terms. Part of the problem here is that most evlish settlements in Middle Earth only have one or two settlements, not lots of cities. So they would probably be more like a Tribe of Chiefdom rather than a State, despite their being more advanced than any of the "States" in middle Earth, such as Gondor or Arnor. Elves would probably need Cheifdom or even State type Occupations, though.

That kind of fanzine could be quite a boon. I could see some adventures that could work for multiple games and have multiple stats. For instance a Magic World adventure is already 90%+ compatible with Stormbringer, and at least 70% compatible with RQ or BRP. A Pendragon adventure could easily be adapted to Prince Valiant, and so forth. .

They are sooo gorgeous.

Maybe, I guess it would depend on if "elf" is considered a delicacy or not. Do Aldayrmi sprints reincarnate into new elves or do they join with Aldrya? Also, is there anything special to Adalyrmi nutritionally, that might actually be required for good elf health? Maybe they are a source of some nutrient that normal elves get naturally from the deceased, but that rogues are cut off from, save by extreme measures.

Yeah, that would seem to fit in with thier world view. When dead an elf is considered "mulch" and is used to support and strengthen the Adlryami in another way.

The odd thing is that the (original) film and TV series were from the same time, yet the two styles/genres clash greatly. So it easy to visualize what the two would would be like if combined, and yet oh so wrong.

Good Luck and Best Wishes.

I agree. 75% isn't Earth or Glorantha shattering. I think you do, too. BTW, as a GM I'd be more concerned about the long term effects rather than the short term effects. Players could move several skills towards 75% over a few years, and that might be something a GM needs to be concerned about. Going from from RQG's improvement system to RQ3 would be kinda like how Green Knights' change to three improvements during the Winter Phase in 4th edition Pendragon. It definitely had long term repercussions. Characters qualified for Knighthood and other things much sooner, and were better rounded (since you couldn't stack the improvements on one thing). But since in RQ there is no reason why someone can't stack his training it could become problematic.

Why can't demonic flesh eating horses from the underworld look cute and cuddly?😉 Little Shop of Horrors meets Mister Ed: "Feed me, Wilbur!"

Well, since I'm sticking with RQ3 I can't disagree with you there. It depends on what you consider "competent". Tradiconally RQ seems to use about 50% or so for most people who do something for a living. In the real world, it usually takes a couple of years to be good enough with something to be a professional at it. Quite a bit special if you can do it in a few seasons. In the real world it takes a several years for someone to be good enough to get a degree at something, at thats with their being a full time student (although with the summer off). To be able to do something like that in somebody's spare time, while performing their other duties seems quite special to me.

It's scary.😵

What the *%@# is that thing?

I think it all depends on the pace at which time passes in your campaign. If you are running one adventure a year or so, then a season for training works out to be simply, and improvement occurs as a decent rate, but not too fast.The old RQ2 and RQ3 methods could be too fast at that rate, since someone could go from "zero to hero" in a skill in a year or two, which would be only one or two game sessions. If you are running at a slower, more traditional pace, then a full season might feel like it's too long.

Definitely. Plus it is actually fairly easy to adapt any of the existing battle systems, or even your system to allow PKs to affect the course and outcome of a battle, if desired. Book of Battle already does so, but has other things that people may like or dislike. The -20 intensity for getting to the enemy camp for instance (frankly, that rule would have changed the outcome of the Battle of Agrincourt).