Pentallion

Spirit magic lasts 25 rds in RQ3.  Not sure in RQ2

Not many Enchanters here huh?

Helm of enemy detection.  1 POW for binding enchantment.  Magic spirit with detect enemy.  2 pts POW to bind into  enchantment because magic spirits have Int and Power. Then condition - everyone forget conditions? - for 1 POW that magic spirit casts detect enemy whenever someone has ill intent upon wearer.  Total cost 4 POW.

+4 broadsword.  Same deal but condition is magic spirit casts bladesharp 4 whenever sword is drawn from scabbard.

As Jim Harbaugh famously lip synched.  "I want cake!  I want cake right now!"

Don't forget the Earth Shakers have a WMD.  That large crack in the earth that swallows entire regiments.

Some might classify Harrek, Jar-Eel and Androgeus as WMD's

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Staging a battle with meaningful input from the player characters is easy if the player characters qualify to step forth as champions. It fails abysmally if the player characters take a place in the ranks, reducing them to little more than goons with a front line point of view on events.

From that perspective, the battle is a set of railroads and mary-sue champions doing their thing leaving the player characters to cheer or jeer, and then experience the terror of facing an inhuman wave of bodies on a collision course. No place for individual heroics like in the defence of the Cradle, just trying to maintain formation while hell breaks out. In a non-commanding role, there is hardly any way to make a battle a satisfying wargaming experience if your point of view is fixed to within the formation. Roleplaying the personal horror is easily done in narrative mode, but not in the gritty combat simulation that RQ excels at when player characters can act individually.

This is what made me avoid the trope of the Sun Dome militiaman.

No, my personal experience says that is incorrect Jeorg, sorry to disagree with you.  Take the last time I ran the Battle of Iceland, for example.  The PCs weren't the leaders of the battle, but they had the potential to affect the battlefield.  In the end, they only affected their area of the battle.  Nothing changed in how the narrative of the battle was given.  Note that Orlanth is Dead was a HeroQuest scenario and we were playing Runequest using WarHamster rules for large combats.  So the narrative qualities of the battle were built in, but the RuneQuest simulationist qualities were what affected the PCs directly.   They got to experience the fear and exhiliration of being heroes caught up in a major battle nonetheless.

In the initial phase they held their ground just long enough for reinforcements to arrive, then fell back to regain fatigue points.  But then the people came out of the woods and the heroes realized the Lunar flanking maneuver through the forest.  So I take it back because this was their biggest affect upon the battle.   They lit the woods afire and destroyed those lunar units.  But while this was happening, the lunars were pushing through down the main road.  The PC's returned their attention to the front lines.  The Basmoli Berserker went full Basmol and leaped over the Hoplite line and began attacking them from the rear out of a move from Vikings on the History channel. 

This was my favorite part.  Right then the Lasadon Lions arrived and he had to go toe to toe with Carmanian lion folk.  The other PCs, desperate to save their friend, pulled out all the stops to get through the hoplites and fight by his side.  Meanwhile, all the chaos stuff began happening, all the flying creatures attacked.  the Sun Domers switched sides.  Ethilrists troops vs King Broyans men.  While the PCs find themselves in a little pocket of resistance that's pushed a bulge into the Lunar lines and is in danger of being surrounded.

And in the end, they were surrounded and all hope looked lost.  And right then, the trolls rose up out of the ground and saved the day.

So what did the heroes actually feel like they did?  First and foremost, they survived.  That's the very mythical core of the I Fought, We Won battle that Iceland represents.  Secondly, they bought time for their side to finally win the day.  Without them, those troops coming down that main road would have overrun Broyan and the rest of the Orlanthi.

What's cool about major battles - and WBRM captured it in their combat system - is the importance of what modern combat theory calls combined arms.  Combined arms nowadays refers to the integration of the air force, infantry, tanks and artillery in combat.  In Glorantha, it's the integration of shamanism, infantry, divine and sorcerous (and even chaotic magic) in combat.

Grasping the secret of combined arms is what set Argrath apart.  The Orlanthi always focused on Divine magic.  Just look at King of Dragon Pass and you see how their combat focused on divine magic.  But the Lunar's had conquered and subsumed so many cultures that they had learned to integrate spirits, sorcery, divine and chaos into their military tool box.  Argrath transformed the Orlanthi so that they could do the same.

And it works not only on a grand board game scale, but in the game Runequest as well.  Have a unit of 200 shamans release 200 spirits to possess 200 enemy infantry who then turn and attack their compatriots and you're going to not only disrupt their formation but cause a lot of damage.  Now charge into that unit while it's under spiritual attack and 200 sorcerers are casting multispelled venoms and even an outnumbered Orlanthi force can wipe out a much larger, heavily armed Lunar force. 

Except, of course, that the Lunars have their own shamans and their own sorcerers and Humakt knows what chaos magic they'll summon.

I love set battles in Glorantha.  Using WarHamster, I've run the Battle of Iceland I think 3 times.  It's always gone differently for the PCs even though the battle generally follows closely to the script.  That battle should win roleplaying awards for being so well designed.  It works perfectly with WarHamster rules.

Geek is derailing this thread in a most interesting and fun way.  I, too, have wondered why certain real world tactics keep getting employed in the face of a magical world.  For example, the cavalry charge can really be wrecked in Glorantha even without Agimori pikemen.  Earth elementals are impressive vs charging mounts. Now we've got earth elementals hoisting up hula hoops of doom.  Makes me wonder why anyone rides mounts at all.

Yes, a company of sorcerers can smother an entire regiment.  Like being mowed down by machine guns.  A few hundred Maran Gor cultists can cast their spell to  open up a crack in the earth (yeah, the name of the spell escapes me right now) and the combined castings all stack which means we just swallowed up 10,000 hoplites just like in the board game.  Runequest does a fantastic job of providing spells that perfectly simulate the board games grandest magic.

But still a phalanx of hoplite led spearmen is a thing to behold in Glorantha.  That 18AP shield says "Magic?  We don't need no stinkin magic!"

And in all the battles I've ever run using WarHamster, all that major Runequest magic would take out big chunks of troops on one side and be answered by their own devastating magics wiping out a big chunk of the other side and when all was said and done, the magics were all used up and it came down to sword bashing or one last gasp by one side that finally routed the other.

Or the trolls rising up out of the ground just when all seemed lost.

When you get right down to it, war in Glorantha is very much the meat grinder that war was in WW1.  The offensive firepower of magic way outweighs the defensive capabilities of magic so that people just get eaten up.

On 1/14/2018 at 6:44 AM, soltakss said:

I like the idea of the Dragonewt Gap in their Personality Traits and use it in my games.

So, whereas a human might have Brave 01-70/71-100 Cowardly, a Dragonewt might have Brave 01-69/70-71/72-100 Cowardly, thus introducing a gap. If the Dragonewt rolls against Brave/Cowardly and rolls inside the gap, then it has behaved correctly, according to Right Action, and can choose whethwer to be Brave/Cowardly/Neither, otherwise the Dragonewt is forced to be Brave or Cowardly and should do something later to correct actions.

As a Dragonewt gains experience, the gap can increase, meaning it has more control over emotions. In my Glorantha, each Stage much challenge and master a number of pairs of emotions, in other words having a gap of 90 or more. Once those emotions are mastered it can progress to the next stage where it must challenge and master another group of pairs. A Ruler/Full Priest Dragonewt has mastered most pairs, an Inhuman King/Dragonet has mastered all pairs, so almost always follows Right Action (01 or 100 still counts as failing in this situation).

I like that too and since we've never had a dragonewt campaign, I think I'll incorporate both the gap and the idea about 50/50 and have it work like this:  Your dragonewt tries to get the runes to 50/50.  Once he does, he creates his first gap.  It becomes 01-49/50-51/52-00.  If he rolls right inside the gap, it widens by 1 each way.  If not, he gets out of balanced and has to balance it again.  Only when both extremes are perfectly balanced and he then rolls in the gap does the gap grow.  Get it to where the gap has widened to include all and he's ready to evolve to his next stage.  Of course, he'll have lots of runes and as each one competely gaps, he evolves further.  Until he finally transcends all the runes.

Two weeks.  Not more than two weeks.

No, that's a good question.  But I fear we are getting into Magic: the Gathering level of rule mechanics here.  I think more than an ironclad ruling, a more rpg ruling is required, so yes, I suppose that's philosophical.  Arrow Trance IMO is an attack spell, not because it fulfills the conditions of targeting and overcoming resistance, but because it just is.  Speeddart is also an attack spell that doesn't fulfill the targeting requirement.

Well, I'd argue anything that doubles your chance to attack successfully is an attack spell, but aside from that, someone else could cast a Fanaticism on an Arrow Tranced elf.

On 1/2/2018 at 4:22 PM, Puck said:

It is not just that the disadvantage of the spell does not work against an archer.  It is a massively powerful spell if it can be used for archery due to the multiple attacks that can be made by an archer.  Imagine an archer who is quick and can attack 3 times per round. If they are well skilled with the bow, maybe 80%, it means that they are making THREE 120% (2 if less quick) attacks per round! (with all the chances to impale and critical going up as well). Three 24% chances to impale per round is pretty nasty.  ( Just as a note, I have been allowing the player to use the spell and it has not gone off the rails yet (lots of close quarters stuff and he also has to cast mobility first to lower his SR), but right away I  feared the possibilities and mentioned that I would have to do some checking). It certainly trumps the other missile type spells for archers though.  

That archer that attacks 3 times a rd.  He's an elf named Cherry and he casts arrow trance and wonders is it stackable with fanatacism?  And the rules always point out when spells arent so it must be.  So Cherry now shoots three times a rd with trplie chances to hit.  Which,  IIRC, for Cherry puts him well above 400%.

As DM I have no problem with this.

But I get upset about Hula Hoop of Death?  Why?  Idk.  Everyones DMing may vary.

On 1/1/2018 at 12:54 PM, Runeblogger said:

Interesting. So the same players who first played the all elf campaign then played the all troll campaign, right? It would have been cool if the two campaigns had taken place simultaneously with different players on each side! 
Can you tell us any cool stories from the elf campaign? What was their goal? How different were the elf PCs?

No, only one player played both campaigns.  They all knew each other well and when he said the trolls would die and I agreed they passed on it.

The elves preferred to be an all elf team.  Having even a single human made life rough.  One funny thing happened.  They hid in a tree from some trolls who had been chasing them.  The trolls circled the tree.  The players wanted to know how the trolls knew they were in that tree.  I said dudes its the only tree for miles....

Double post. sorry.

On 12/30/2017 at 10:04 AM, Runeblogger said:

I'd love it if you could elaborate a bit on both.  I've been toying with the idea of running an all-elf campaign for years.

All I can say is, the trolls had a Black Box and intended to pop into the middle of The Garden and set it off.  At least, they discussed it.  Then I told them that the elf characters from the all elf campaign would be the ones defending the place and the raid never happened.  We knew one troll would escape, because he could turn into a shadow.  The rest wouldn't make it out alive, even with the Black Box killing the elves.

This is what I have to go by:  we had an all elf campaign and we had an all troll campaign.  They all hit or neared rune level.  I think our elves would beat our trolls.

On 12/27/2017 at 7:08 AM, MJ Sadique said:

All wrong... In Introduction to Magic / Common Magical Procedures and Concepts / Spells you have the answer to the question. And it's not in the Divine Magic chapter so most of people forgot or miss it ! The paragraph is just before spirit magic and is resume in Spell Strike Rank Table.

RQ3 Deluxe or french Chapter "Spell Casting During Melee" states :
An adventurer casting spells during a melee round uses the standard strike rank procedure ... To determine the strike rank in which a spell takes effect add the spell cost in magic points plus the readiness of the spell caster plus the strike rank of the caster. The result is the number of strike ranks that it will take the caster to loose the spell. This is summarized on the Spell Strike Rank Table, below. Divine spells add no spell cost unless magic points are included in the casting.

To resume IN RQ3, Spell SR = DEX.MRA + MP + 3 (if surprised)

PS : This rules is the Same in Avalon Hill 1984' english edition or Oriflam French Edition (the one I use)

Well, I stand corrected.  Let me rephrase my answer to say that it works that way in my glorantha because the RAW are lame

If its a meaningless npc we say he is incapacitated.  Why are you still hitting him.  If it's a major npc/PC he is incapacitated so you coup de grace him.  If it is a scorpionman we say it's a design feature and why it sucks fighting scorpionmen.

14 hours ago, soltakss said:

That is why we preferred Option 1, sometimes you just habve to go Berserk with a good Bladesharp, just to increase the Critical chance and to reduce your opponent's parry chance. I have seen many RQ2 combats where going berserk was a useful tactic. In RQ3, not so much, as it didn't have anti-parry, so someone with 100% parry could fend off a berserker, so we houseruled to bring back anti-parry.

My group doesn't mind them parrying because you batter their parry weapon and knock them down where knockback becomes bounce off the earth so even if you parry while prone you take damage from knockback into a solid object.  

Eventually, the lost ap makes parrying useless.  

It reduces the danger of the weaker opponent and thats not good.  Also, say Im 190 and youe 90.  You become 05 and I go to 100.  But then I berserk.  Still 100, youre still 05.  The RQ3 way, that attack at 380 specials for double damage 76% of the time and the weaker guys shield begins to crumble and he starts getting knocked around.....but his 90% skill still makes him dangerous.  Desperate, but dangerous.  

IMO the reduction is the worst idea and all 6 of my players have expressed their dislike for it in our recent campaigns even though I kept my opinion to myself.  

So that's a rule we wont be using.

I know this:  all my players have unanimously said they hate the rule to reduce the skills.  If it also reduces the chance to crit and special that's a deal breaker.

I don't see how you're reading into it that the rule has anything to do with opposed rolls.  Say I'm 140% to hit and you're 90% to parry.  Per this rule, I become 100% to hit and you become 50% to parry.  Opposed rolls have nothing to do with this.  It simply lowers your chance to parry.  I am pretty sure that Jeff specifically said that your chances to crit and special are not affected by this rule and if that part is not clear in what you're reading, then they may have to clarify. 

7 hours ago, waltshumate said:

The RQ3 is far from optimal for RQ:G, you ran that game with the Numtini and the guy that wanted to do a horrible thing to the dead femal Greydog didn't you?. I think we had a discussion around about the time the Quickstart was supposed to be released about doing something about an Roll 20 sheet but like this time we  were advised not to do anything and let the professionals sort it out.  

If anyone one is interested in running the Quickstart and you do not have a Pro account I can setup a game and give you GM privileges.   With Pentallion's permission I could a copy over the characters he put so much work into as well.

 

Of course you have my permission! Its all about people having fun.  They can have the maps I made too.  I was quite pleased with how those came out.

And as far as waiting for the professionals, when it comes to character sheets you ARE the professional and Chaosium would be wise to employ your services.

On 12/8/2017 at 2:12 AM, waltshumate said:

That fellow you cannot contact made the post right above yours.   

Hey, I hope I didn't piss you off somehow.  I got really flustered when I realized I had screwed up.  I've played on other public games where you simply announce the time and date and if it's open to the public then people just join.  I thought that's how Roll20 worked too.  Anyways, I and my players really appreciate what you did for us and couldn't be happier with the RQ3 sheet. 

On 12/6/2017 at 9:45 AM, Psullie said:

Yes having RQG fully integrated with character sheets would be great. If I'm impressed by roll20 enough to upgrade my account (necessary to create character sheets) I'be be happy to give it a go.

Jason was going to run a game on Roll20 for AetherCon but it fell through at the last minute, but it was just using the QuickStart pregens - perhaps a free scenario pack with art etc would be good too...

Yeah, I had a game all ready for AetherCon, but I misunderstood how open games work on Roll20, having only run private games.  I didn't realize what was needed to invite people onto the server and thought they could just join if it was a public server.  So the game dropped at the last minute.  Next time I'll be ready.  Unfortunately, I can't contact the fellow who created the RQG character sheet.  He does excellent work - his RQ3 character sheet is the best Character sheet of any game on roll20 - but he hasn't replied to me since that incident.  Bad enough I screwed up AetherCon, but I hope the experience didn't put him off too.