soltakss

Allowed, yes, of course, you can have any cult, within reason. Wise, perhaps, that depends on your campaign and how it works. On the Allowed bit, you could be a Warrior and pick Chalana Arroy, which is such a mismatched choice that it prevents you from using most of your Warrior stuff, except when fighting Undead. On the Wise bit, you might find that your PC can be a member of an unsuitable or atypical cult and it works OK. Or, you could find that you can't operate unless you are in a fighting cult. It all depends on the campaign, how the GM is and other things. Sometimes it is useful to be in a different cult, as you can react differently to certain circumstances or use your skills/spells in unusual ways. So, if you come across a woman giving birth, there's not a lot a Heavy Infantryman can do, but there is a lot that an Ernaldan can do, so you could assist in the birth and perhaps save the woman's life.

And a joke becomes not a joke if it has to be explained.

Everyone uses magic. It's not a crime and it's not cheating. Powerful people use more or better magic. Sure, you might know that magic is being used and that might give you a bonus, or you could use a Passion as an augment because magic is being used. You could also question the result of a contest because magic is being used. However, when PCs use magic, Players don't accept that NPCs might not accept the result because PCs used magic.

Slap a woman in the face? That's fine, I can just cast healing, she's OK. Not my interpretation of the geas, but Your Geases May Vary.

Superfan.

It is described as given +2 APs per point, so I'd apply that to SunSpear, even if SunSpear normally ignores armour (can't remember if it does).

That's not the reason at all. Both Jason and I were running those games at about 3 am our time and had a very tight time limit for the game. That is one of the dangers of running a game as a Designer or Expert. People read things into whatever rulings you used or how you played the game. It is one of the things to be aware of, that people follow these games and treat them almost as gospel. What people don't understand is that every game is different. You might run a game one week and not use SRs and then run another game for different players at a different game and use SRs. I just look at online games and take ideas from them. Occasionally, I laugh and wonder why they did things in that way, or I think that I would never do that.

That's when the game was. Even RQ SuperHeroes have to abide by when the other Players can make the game, or when the game is scheduled.

I gave his claws poison equal to his POW, just in case he wasn't strong enough without them.

I fell foul of this when stitching together old Pavis maps and adding some stuff, so was asked to take the map down. I then redrew them completely, from scratch and then reposted them, but asked Mood Design, as was, if the maps were OK. So, it is worth contacting @Rick Meints or @Jeff to see if they have any objections. They are normally very quick at getting back and usually offer friendly advice on what is and isn't OK.

We played that it did. Soltak Stormspear won several games of the Shell Game by casting Farsee on the pea and then using Detect Magic, including the one where the pea ended up in the chappie's pocket.

Summons of Evil is an interesting spell. On the one hand, it is an abstract spell that summons "Evil" to an effigy, that effigy comes to life and fights, but is easily destroyed. On the other hand, it can summon an enemy to the clan to physically fight. So, if the effigy comes to life and fights, a spirit or other entity has temporarily possessed it. I play that the effigy can fight as if it was the summoned evil. So, the effigy becomes a broo, ogre, dragon or whatever. It has those abilities. In an old campaign, my Players used Summons of Evil and Granny Keeneye appeared and scared the bejeesuz out of them. If the spell summons an enemy, you might find that the clan is attacked by broos, ogres, Lunars or an opposing Orlanthi clan. This is a physical attack on the clan rather than a symbolic attack on the casters of the spell. There is also the possibility of a HeroQuestor latching onto the spell and appearing from nowhere, as in the Granny Keeneye case above.

Oh, it can be very easy. What I would do is to have Professions and Backgrounds as Keywords, with important skills as Breakouts. Spells could be Breakouts of some Keywords. So, Viking and Warrior would be Keywords, You might have Warrior 18 (Sword +3, Berserker +2) or Skald 17 (Play Lute +2, Sing +3, Honey Words +2) or Viking 19 (Longship +2, Brave +3, Hardy +1, Well-Combed Beard +3). With magic and spells, it all depends on how you want to do them. I'd have them as Breakouts, as I like Breakouts. You have a choice whether to make them Narrative or Functional. Narrative just means that a spell is a Breakout and adds to your Keyword, so you narrate the consequence of using the spell. Functional means that the spell has a concrete effect on the game, so you might say that Berserker adds a boost to you combat skills and allows you to ignore mind-affecting spells.

As someone who has been playing RQ for an awfully long time, I don't struggle with this at all. However, I completely understand that this answer is not helpful to you at all. What I do is to have a list of the spells that the PCs have and a very short description of what they do. You can refer to this in the game if you want. Also, as a GM, you don't care about what spells the PCs have, unless they are about to expire. As an example, Sven casts Bladesharp 4 and Jaran casts Protection 4, they start combat with some broos, as a GM you are just interested in what the broos have, "OK Sven, what's your attack chance?", "85 with my Bladesharp, I roll 15, a Special", "The broo hits you, Jaran, doing 7 points of damage, does it get through?", "No, I've got 4 points of armour and Protection 4, so it bounces". See, you don't need to care, the Players take care of that kind of thing. You might want a Round Tracker, with notes of who cast which spell when, so that you know when they expire, because Players can very easily forget that their spells only last for 10 rounds in a 12 round combat. It does get easier and, after a while, becomes second nature. What I do is to give NPCs far fewer spells than PCs and not use them all at once. Sure, some might cast Bladesharp, Ironhand, Protection, Shimmer and so on, but those are fairly easy to manage Yes, sure, that sounds right. However, Common Magic isn't about spells that everyone has, it's spells that everyone could get. So, you choose 3 Runespells to start, I think, so you could choose Find Enemy or Heal Wound, or you could choose a cult special spell that is really useful. Don't underestimate Warding, it has saved many a party over the years.

Sounds OK to me. Some people have very different views on starting characters, that they need to start off as weak, or that you need to follow the rules exactly. Personally, I don't really care. I let players swap out skills, in the same way that you allowed Farming to be swapped for Hunt. If it suits your game, then it works for you and that is what is important. Also, it's very rare that you get personal insults in this forum.

I've not run HQ SciFi, but it should be easy. Professions are Keywords, with appropriate Breakouts, so you could have Space Marine, Ship's Engineer, Mentat or Psi Cop as Keywords. Equipment plays a more important part in Sci Fi games than other games, so you might want to work out what equipment does. Is it just a Tool (Hand Scanner), an Enabler (Blaster, allows me to shoot using my Space Marine keyword), an Enhancer (Specialised Scanner, gives +3 to Scanning) or a Thing (Eye of Knowledge, Is a Keyword by itself). Ships should be NPCs, with Keywords and Breakouts. Ship to ship combat is just a Simple Contest or Extended Contest, using Ship abilities, perhaps with PCs enhancing or replacing ship abilities. So, a ship with Scout 18 could be crewed by a PC with Crew Member 10M (Ship's Gunner +5), so they could use Ship's Gunner instead of the standard Scout. Rather than listing all the things a ship has, I would have the type of ship as a Breakout and then have those things listed somewhere as information. So all Ranger Class Scout Ships might have Life Support, Stealth Mode and Silent Jump, so I'd have Scout 18 (Ranger Class +1) rather than Scout 18 (Life Support +1, Stealth Mode +1, Silent Jump +1) and, yes, I know that everything is Silent in space, but Silent Jump sounds better than Undetectable Jump. Increasing ship abilities, or abilities of any technology, should cost Hero Points, where the PCs can spend Hero Points to enhance various parts of the ship. Some things could be enhanced just by buying things. So, a ship could have AI 5M (Navigation +1, Scanners +2, Entertainment +1), but the PCs could buy or find a special programme that boosts Entertainment to +3. The great thing about HQ is that you can make it as crunchy as you want. If you want every piece of equipment to give a bonus, then list it as breakouts on Keywords. If you assume that all Space Marines have armour, weapons and weapon skills, just have Space Marine as a Keyword and only have important differences as Breakouts. Also, the beauty of HQ SciFi is that you can take any SciFi supplement and rip things out as Keywords or Breakouts. This works with Traveller, Mythras Star Wars, RQSciFi or any other SciFi RPG.

Not at all. If two Ernaldans are arguing and both look very convincing, people know they are using magic and don't care. The most charismatic person isn't always the one who wins the argument, being Charismatic simply helps. Having two Tricksters using a Lie spell to give different information is similar, "The Rebels went towards the Blue Hills", "The Rebels went towards the Black Caves", both would be believed and the targets would think that the rebels split up.

Some do, some don't, in my game. Spells such as Fireblade obviously do, as a flaming sword is hard to miss. Invisibility does, but you can't see it, the visual component is that the target cannot be seen. For spells such as Bladesharp or Protection, I play that it makes the blade look sharper or the armour/skin look stronger. Now, such a description cannot be described, so I just say "The Lunar soldier uses a scimitar that looks sharp and has apparently strong armour". Spells such as Truesword make the blade glow slightly. Seal Wound makes the weapon glow black. For targeted spells, I normally have a streak going through the air, unless the spell is a hidden one, vast by thieves and assassins. Spells such as False Form don't have a visible component, as it defeats the whole point of the spell. Face of Lanbril has the indistinguishable face as a component. Lie does not have a visible component.

Hopefully I'll see it before I retire.

ILH1 and ILH2 were published by Issaries, so would be official, but are no longer canon.

The programmer in me approves, as a set of codes should be meaningless, but the player in me screams "Surely (C) for Canon, (L) for Largely Canon, (S) for Some Canon and (N) For Non-Canonical.

In that situation, I'd just start the duel and immediately submit. Honour is satisfied without breaking a geas. Also, are you sure the geas wasn't "Never harm a woman needlessly"? In which case, all bets are off.

Oh yeah, thanks, forgot about that one!

Yes, but we had guidelines for ransoms, so a Rune Lord fetches a certain amount, Rune Priest a bit more, High Priest a bit more and so on. I can't remember the values now, but we had 10,000L lined up as a ransom, just in case. Soltak Stormspear's was more, as I was filthy rich and had given a lot to the cults.

OK, we are confusing several things here. A HeroQuest doesn't need to be badass. Most aren't. An Orlanthi who wants to marry someone from a forbidden clan can perform one of the many Orlanth Abducts a Maiden HeroQuests to abduct her and marry her. Although the act is normally forbidden, the HeroQuest makes it possible. This isn't a badass HeroQuest, the HeroQuestor invokes the HeroQuest and conforms to the Stations, where possible or finds encounters as per the Stations. It ritualises certain aspects of the scenario, causes some participants to want to behave in certain ways and gets a legally-binding result in the end. A Yelornan Maiden who want a Unicorn can perform the Unicorn Quest. She goes out into the wilds, purifies herself, hunts for a Unicorn, proves herself worthy and comes back riding the Unicorn. Again, not badass but with a magical effect at the end. These are Other Place HeroQuests, to places outside of the Mundane Realm, to the Sky Dome, to the Red Moon, to the Underworld or Hell, to one of the Planets, to the Eternal Battle, to a Star. You can go there in many ways, but only the most powerful HeroQuestors do this. The magical rewards of going to the actual place on the Other Side are more than doing it in a mundane place. In my Glorantha, yes, you can do exactly that, as in the examples above. Now, I think that you can. Every major event causes a Node on the God Plane and this allows HeroQuestors to travel to that Node. The Gbaji/Arkat Smackdown, Dragonkill, Battle of Night and Day, First Battle of Chaos, red Goddess at Castle Blue, The Dragonewt Dream, Wounding of Korasting and many more are events powerful enough and mythical enough to have created a God Plane Node.