trystero

Styopa mentioned what I consider the main advantage of parrying; you don't need to tie your attacker's success level to avoid at least part of (and possibly all of) the damage from their attack (and a fumbled parry doesn't get you hit).

The other reason in RQ3 was that Dodge was reduced by your encumbrance, and Parry wasn't; the Quickstart doesn't have any real encumbrance rules, but I wonder whether the full rulebook will include some sort of Dodge penalty for heavily-armoured or -encumbered adventurers. (If not, I might consider house-ruling.)

p. 17, Damage section, first paragraph, line 8: change "when a hit locations' hit points are exceeded" to "when a hit location's hit points are exceeded".

2 hours ago, Psullie said:

I always wondered if you should go STRx5 v STRx5 or each rolling on the Resistance Table: e.g.: 10 v 13 = 50% v 65% or 35% v 65%

The former is effectively how 7th-edition Call of Cthulhu does it; characteristics are multiplied by 5 (so if you roll 13 on 3D6 for your STR, you have a STR score of 65), and characteristic opposition is handled using opposed rolls; there is no Resistance Table.

I prefer this approach, myself, as a simplification (one less table lookup, plus consistency between skill-vs.-skill and characteristic-vs.-characteristic contests, plus the ability to have skill-vs.-characteristic contests if you want them).

Very minor, but... the Multiple Activities Outside of Melee section on p. 7 includes an example with a character casting Disruption, a spell not included in the Spirit Magic Summary on p. 19. Perhaps replace Disruption with another spell in the example to avoid confusing new readers?

Copied from errata thread in RQ forum:

p. 7, Strike Rank Modifiers table and Magical Attacks and Strike Rank section: These sections both say that the first Magic Point in a spirit-magic spell does not add to the strike rank of the casting, conflicting with the Spell Strike Rank section on p. 20 (which says every MP adds to SR).

p. 16, Thrown or Dropped Objects section: Is each 3 kg of object weight supposed to add +1D8 damage to the base 1D3, or is this a typo for +1D3? Adding 1D8 seems like a lot...

p. 18, Spirit Magic section: Says that spirit magic spells usually have duration of two minutes, conflicting with Duration section on p. 20 (which says five minutes).

p. 18, Magic Points section: In the first paragraph's fourth line, "additional magic pointed added" should be "additional magic points added".

p. 18, Resistance Roll section: The second sentence says an adventurer can try to augment their POW for the POW vs. POW contest using the Meditation skill, and refers readers to the Meditation sidebar on p. 20, but that sidebar only mentions using Meditation to regain Magic Points. Is this just supposed to be a regular skill augment?

p. 20, Spell Strike Rank section: This section says that all Magic Points in a spirit-magic spell add to the strike rank of the casting, conflicting with the Strike Rank Modifiers table and the Magical Attacks and Strike Rank section on p. 7 (which say that the first MP does not add to SR).

p. 20, Duration section: Says that all temporal spirit-magic spells last five minutes (25 rounds), conflicting with Spirit Magic section on p. 18 (which says two minutes).

Back cover (bottom centre): In the "For more information about Chaosium..." text, "seeour" should be "see our".

p. 18, Resistance Roll section: The second sentence says an adventurer can try to augment their POW for the POW vs. POW contest using the Meditation skill, and refers readers to the Meditation sidebar on p. 20, but that sidebar only mentions using Meditation to regain Magic Points. Is this just supposed to be a regular skill augment?

@Jakob, I agree about the elemental stats.

p. 18, Magic Points section: In the first paragraph's fourth line, "additional magic pointed added" should be "additional magic points added".

p. 17, Results of Damage section, "Damage Equals or Exceeds the Hit Location's Hit Points" bullet point: In the third line, "the character calls to the ground" should be "the character falls to the ground".

p. 16, Thrown or Dropped Objects section: Is each 3 kg of object weight supposed to add +1D8 damage to the base 1D3, or is this a typo for +1D3? Adding 1D8 seems like a lot...

This thread is for collection of errata in the RuneQuest Quickstart Rules and Adventure booklet; my hope is that some of these can be corrected or clarified for the 1 July 2017 PDF and print-on-demand releases.

p. 7, Strike Rank Modifiers table and Magical Attacks and Strike Rank section: These sections both say that the first Magic Point in a spirit-magic spell does not add to the strike rank of the casting, conflicting with the Spell Strike Rank section on p. 20.

p. 18, Spirit Magic section: Says that spirit magic spells usually have duration of two minutes, conflicting with Duration section on p. 20.

p. 20, Spell Strike Rank section: This section says that all Magic Points in a spirit-magic spell add to the strike rank of the casting, conflicting with the Strike Rank Modifiers table and the Magical Attacks and Strike Rank section on p. 7.

p. 20, Duration section: Says that all temporal spirit-magic spells last five minutes (25 rounds), conflicting with Spirit Magic section on p. 18.

Back cover (bottom centre): In the "For more information about Chaosium..." text, "seeour" should be "see our".

I've been holding off on reading the Companion for years now, not wanting to dive in until it was actually finished. Now that it is, and my hardback copy has arrived, I'm amazed; it's an astonishing labour of love, and makes me wish that I had the years of free time it would take to run Masks properly.

Well... maybe when we finish Horror on the Orient Express (2nd edition) I'll give it another look.

Great work, and lovely presentation.

Pretty much right, I think. One minor correction: monsters can defend as many times per round as they can attack before attackers start getting the bonus die for outnumbered. So if a creature gets three attacks in a round, only the fourth and later attacks against it will get that bonus die.

I love cards as long as they're an option and not required for play.

My fifth-edition D&D group uses the spell cards created by Gale Force 9, and they're a great time-saver; it's easy to flip through a set to find the spell you want, and they provide more detail than a summary sheet can.

In my Call of Cthulhu game, I print my own 3" × 5" index cards for investigators' spells and artifacts so that the players don't need to look in books at the table. Again, hugely helpful.

In both cases, though, I'd be grumpy if the cards were the only sources for the spell/artifact descriptions; I like having the canonical spell descriptions in the rulebook, with the cards serving only as quick references.

https://rpggeek.com/wiki/page/Call_of_Cthulhu_7th_edition_upcoming_releases is everything I've heard about so far.

There's a good discussion of European gun laws in 1923 in Book I of Horror on the Orient Express (2nd edition), if you have it; I won't reproduce the whole thing, which is worth reading, but the short version is that shotguns appear to be the only legal gun option for foreigners in England, as they aren't allowed to obtain licenses to carry handguns or rifles or sub-machine guns as required by the 1920 Firearms Act.

p. 145, column 2, paragraphs 1 and 6, line 1: "Nightmare (I)" and "Nightmares (II}" - parenthetical distinctions not needed since spell names differ (singular and plural) - change to "Nightmare" and "Nightmares"?

p. 140, column 1, paragraph 13, line 1: "the effects lasts last" - typo - change to "the effects last".

p. 76, column 2, paragraph 8, line 3: "alter" - misspelled - change to "altar".

p. 68, column 2, paragraph 8, lines 4–5: "'Protect me from harm forever,'" and "'slay that human,'" - final commas not needed in non-dialogue quoted phrases - change to "'Protect me from harm forever'" and "'slay that human'" without commas.

p. 140, column 2, paragraph 11, lines 6 and 7: "cause the target" and "make the target" - verb tense mismatch with earlier "diverting" and "causing" - change to "causing the target" and "making the target".

p. 137, column 2, paragraph 7, line 1: "puss-weeping" - misspelling - change to "pus-weeping".

p. 5, column 2, paragraph 3, lines 5–9: "In many traditional fantasy games and fiction, magic is often a source of wonder, possibility, and utility, a tool used to achieve a result for little or no cost. Very much a tool used to achieve a result for little or no cost." - repetition, and second sentence is a fragment - change to "In many traditional fantasy games and fiction, magic is often a source of wonder, possibility, and utility, a tool used to achieve a result for little or no cost."

p. 5, column 2, paragraph 4, line 1: "Wielding otherworldly energies damns the wielder, the more one drinks of the unnatural power…" - comma splice; should be a colon - change to "Wielding otherworldly energies damns the wielder: the more one drinks of the unnatural power…"

p. 7, column 1, paragraph 6, lines 8–9: "Some wizards will ritually bathe; others may use foul–or sweet-smelling oils to purify their flesh." - en dash in place of a hyphen and a space - change to "Some wizards will ritually bathe; others may use foul- or sweet-smelling oils to purify their flesh."

p. 7, column 2, paragraph 8, lines 5–6: "…the life of human sacrifice" - missing indefinite article - change to "…the life of a human sacrifice"

p. 7, column 2, paragraph 8, lines 9–10: "Understanding the nature of such sacrifice is vital tool for the Keeper." - missing indefinite article - change to "Understanding the nature of such sacrifice is a vital tool for the Keeper."

p. 8, column 1, paragraph 2, lines 6–11: "The spell might call for the sacrifice of an animal and just stealing one from a farm might sound like a brilliant solution, but as the beast has no value to the caster the spell will fizzle. Whereas, the sacrifice of a favored pet or an animal of great significance to the caster is exactly what the spell is asking for." - fragment - change to "The spell might call for the sacrifice of an animal and just stealing one from a farm might sound like a brilliant solution, but as the beast has no value to the caster the spell will fizzle, whereas the sacrifice of a favored pet or an animal of great significance to the caster is exactly what the spell is asking for."

p. 8, column 2, paragraph 6, lines 12–15: "…overtly penalizing the spellcaster and increasing the likelihood of failure (i.e. nothing to happening) can be very anticlimactic…" - ungrammatical parenthetical - change to "…overtly penalizing the spellcaster and increasing the likelihood of failure (i.e. of nothing happening) can be very anticlimactic…"

p. 8, column 2, paragraph 6, lines 16–18: "Better for the spell to go awry and cause some unexpected calamity than for it to fizzle and nothing happen." - verb disagreement - change to "Better for the spell to go awry and cause some unexpected calamity than for it to fizzle and nothing to happen."

p. 10, column 2, paragraph 8, line 3: "Transitins" - typo - change to "Transitions"

p. 11, column 1, paragraph 6, lines 4–7: "Mythos magic draws upon the hidden cosmic realities of existence, something humanity is ill-equipped to understand or employ." - singular/plural disagreement ("realities"…"something") - change to "Mythos magic draws upon the hidden cosmic realities of existence, which humanity is ill-equipped to understand or employ."

p. 12, column 2, paragraph 1, lines 4–5: "But, consider whether such an alteration is actually warranted." - superfluous comma - change to "But consider whether such an alteration is actually warranted."

p. 12, column 2, paragraph 6, lines 3–8: "A ritual sacrifice is a cold-blooded act of murder, very different from the frenzy and heat of pitched combat where there is little time to think. Investigators wishing to cast certain spells will have to question whether the means justify the end. Whether they can take another’s life in such a manner—often on no more authority than the text in a moldy old book claiming to be a spell, which to any rational mind is plainly ridiculous." - fragment - "A ritual sacrifice is a cold-blooded act of murder, very different from the frenzy and heat of pitched combat where there is little time to think. Investigators wishing to cast certain spells will have to question whether the means justify the end, and whether they can take another’s life in such a manner—often on no more authority than the text in a moldy old book claiming to be a spell, which to any rational mind is plainly ridiculous."

14 hours ago, Numtini said:

It moves combat ahead faster partially because you're instructed to have NPCs fight back...

Instructions notwithstanding, I find that the choice between dodging and fighting back is a great way to characterise NPCs. A foe that always dodges is trying to preserve his or her (or its) own life; one that fights back against the first attack and dodges the rest is willing to take some risks; and one that always fights back is unconcerned about danger (whether because of superior skill or some other advantage). I never spell this out to my players, but they pick up on it all the same.

My players are very happy using Dodge and winning degree-of-success ties in combat. They usually only Fight Back if they're (a) much better than their opponent, or (b) desperate.

On a quick skim, I've so far only observed some very minor glitches, mostly to do with numeric punctuation.

• page 37, col 2, para 7, line 2: "10-feet across" - incorrect hyphenation (not a compound adjective) - change to "10 feet across"
• page 43, col 1, para 7, line 2: "a Hard Dodge roll for each 10-feet" - incorrect hyphenation (not a compound adjective) - change to "a Hard Dodge roll for each 10 feet"
• page 43, col 2, para 2, line 1: "Four-feet across" - incorrect hyphenation (not a compound adjective) - change to "Four feet across"
• page 43, col 2, para 2, line 1: "100-feet long" - incorrect hyphenation (not a compound adjective) - change to "100 feet long"

(See http://www.whitesmoke.com/janestraus_17 for a brief discussion of hyphenation of numeric values in text. The short version: only include a hyphen when forming a compound adjective, such as the "10-foot cube" in the final paragraph on p. 142.)

• page 47, col 1, para 5, line 3: "30oC" - "o" used in place of degree symbol - change to "30°C"
• page 182, col 1, para 4, line 1: "damage 1D10+ 5" - extra space before "5" - change to "1D10+5" (should all be on first line)
• page 203, col 1, para 4, line 1: "1-3" - hyphen used in place of en dash - change to "1–3"
• page 203, col 1, para 5, line 1: "4-6" - hyphen used in place of en dash - change to "4–6"
• page 203, col 1, para 6, line 1: "7-9" - hyphen used in place of en dash - change to "7–9"
• page 213, col 1, para 3, line 5: "52-55" - hyphen used in place of en dash - change to "52–55"
• page 228, col 1, para 9, line 1: "5-10" - hyphen used in place of en dash - change to "5–10"
• page 256, col 1, para 3, line 1: "1928-1933" - hyphen used in place of en dash - change to "1928–1933"