Pentallion

I finally just bit the bullet on Tapatalk.

16 minutes ago, Rick Meints said:

What leapt to mind for me was having someone use the Dinosaur as the animal for a bound allied spirit.

The Flintstones had obviously developed this technology.

On 1/8/2020 at 3:02 PM, g33k said:

I think the idea is, you get involved with your community, your clan.  "Full time adventurer" isn't what the rules are aimed at; your "day job" isn't an optional choice you make.  You're expected to be a responsible & engaged member of the clan, the community (more or less non-optionally).

And your god generally cares about this stuff.  Don't expect rune-magic & rune-points if you're behaving selfishly; your god wants their whole community to thrive!  The world doesn't just go on by itself -- if YOU, personally, aren't helping it get along, YOU can expect personal repercussions.

The "landed aristocracy" isn't the same thing (in Sartar); it isn't a leisure class, and it isn't "landed."  You hold land, and work it, on behalf of the clan ... but it's still Clan land, not YOUR land.  If you delegate the duty to a lieutenant so you can go adventuring, you can expect the Clan may soon decide you were right, and reassign the land formally to your (former) lieutenant, who has demonstrated ability and dedication (unlike some slacker who calls themselves an "adventurer").

We had an early HR in our RQ2 games:  you could only take one "training" check in any given skill, then you needed some real-world experience before you could get another training-check.  I haven't decided whether to carry that forward to RQG.

Something worth considering is the idea of skill-thresholds.  50%, 75%, 90% ...  We already have one threshold, at 100% -- the 100%ers can suddenly split their attacks.  99%'ers can only dream of it!

So you might say... for "Ride(Horse)" that somewhere around 30%, you won't fall off (unless somebody knocks you off, or the horse tries to buck, or similar).  Below that, and you may just be inexperienced enough to fail a "ride in a straight line on easy ground" roll, just from the horse changing gait unexpectedly, or something like!  😆

Just a thought FWIW.

For a game set in a classical greek era during the Hero Wars ie classical greek Iliad, it sure goes out of its way to have stay at home heroes.  Not very sail off for years of adventuring type rules.

For the Eleven Lights campaign, I took all the information that Mynaryth Purple gives out, broke it down into each fact that he needed to discover along the way, started with the first clue, made an adventure for the LM to go on to discover this and then made a mini-campaign out of the entire thing.  Some of it was in libraries scattered about Dragon Pass and Pavis.  So travelling was generally the primary source of adventure.  Then, of course, all of this "adventuring" ie, truth finding missions, culminated in the HeroQuest the PCs took to become the Eleven Lights.  There was also some missions to uncover how to repair the broken sky dome.  That's the optional adventure in the GM pack I incorporated into our Eleven Lights campaign. 

So a LM pure philosopher can make a very good PC for adventuring.

On 12/28/2019 at 12:52 AM, Joerg said:

Cwim has a force multiplier - every wound it takes creates gorp. Your three Humakti will get dissolved before Cwim loses significant amounts of general HP.

You need to take out the chest or abdomen of two bodies (or alternatively both legs of a single body) of Cwim to get it grounded, and then the bugger regenerates. Those bodies are huge. They may shrink a bit as they spew gorp from their wounds, but that doesn't matter much.

Then there is knockback. So your Humakti parried the first 16 points of the hit and absorb 8-12 points of what comes through with armor and shield. The hit still will fling her out of immediate action, and the sword will look worse for the abuse it suffered.

What hit?  5% chance to hit.  Humakt use greatswords.  Cwim cant hit them.

Gorp are slow.

Str spell, truesword and bladesharp mean Harrys legs are gone.  One of Dicks too.  Rd. 1.  Cwim falls down.  Especially with geases that increase dmg.

21 hours ago, metcalph said:

She is also associated with chaos and has been since her first appearance in Cults of Terror.

 

So Subere is chaotic then?   I don't think so.  She bade Malia to guard the secret of death because nobody liked going near Malia and her disease spirits.  This was long before Chaos entered the world.  Diseases weren't chaotic.  Malia wasn't chaotic.  Thed originally wasn't chaotic. Even the Mad God Ragnaglar wasn't chaotic.  Only when the three of them brought the Devil into the world did they get associated with Chaos.

What possible difference would that make to the disease spirits that existed since the time of Subere?

1 hour ago, g33k said:

I really don't see this as balance-breaking.

I mean... virtually all experienced RQ players have long known that ambush, middle fire, outnumbering your foe, are all very-advantageous strategies.  This is decades-old stuff.  We also know that Storm Bull and Humakt are EXACTLY the sorts of foes where that kind of advantage may be life-or-death for your PC, victory-or-defeat for your side (and neutralizing the foes' use of those advantages (or NOT doing so) may ALSO be victory-or-defeat for your side).

So... a Humakt in "GodMode" throws this lesson into sharp relief?

Yeah, I'm OK with that.

It's not like an Orlanthi who Flies around the battlefield casting Lightning isn't going to ALSO be out-classing the average combatant!  Or a combat-oriented Shaman, who hits you with spirits and Spell-Barrages and Kolat only knows what else...

 

Okay Geek, you can have Cwim then. I'll take 3 Humakt.  Not starter level Humakt, I'm talking PC level Humakt.  And one Orlanthi to Teleport them in.  You will be forced to come to one of two conclusions:  Cwim should no longer exist or the over 100% rule is broken and with Sword Trance is really, really out of whack.

2 hours ago, Kloster said:

Only you can use the MP, this is true, and only you can cast the spell known by the spirit, but anybody that can perceive it can target it with a control spell that automatically succeed (p250).

The rules on spirit trapping crystals are pretty clear:  you can ONLY use the spirit to draw upon its magic points.  You can't use a spirit trapped in a crystal to cast spells.

pg 122 (GM Pack):

Quote

. . Binding a Spirit: If one does not wish to put
a bound spirit into an animal as a familiar, one
must find or buy a spirit trapping crystal. Once
a spirit has been bound within such a crystal, the
POW of the spirit is available for the use of the
binder. The spirit may not throw spells itself or
take other independent action unless the binder is
attempting to control more spirits than their CHA

Nor does it say anywhere that binding the spirit in the crystal gives you allied spirit capabilities so you can't cast its spells either.  Also, it binds the spirit.  shamans and others with control spells cannot simply cast control over it while it is trapped in its binding.  The conditions of a spirit trapping crystal supercede that.

The part on page 250 you're missing is this:

Quote

Anyone
that can use the item can also cast spells on the entity trapped
inside: they do not need to be in physical contact with the
item to affect the entity with spells, although they must use
magical means of seeing (such as Pierce Veil, Second Sight, or
Soul Sight) to target spells against a bound entity in this way

That' bolded part is the kicker.  per the rules on spirit trapping crystals only the binder can use the item.

1 minute ago, Kloster said:

The danger is not there: Anybody that can see the spirit, either by being a shaman, or by using a spell like second sight, can target it with a control spell that automatically succeed. The following order is in most of the case to attack the owner of the crystal, that is thus attacked by his own spirits.

I disagree.  It explicity comes with a condition, that condition that only you can use the spirits mps and it also has the condition that the spirit can only be commanded to give its magic points, not cast spells.  These conditions prevent a shaman from doing anything but seeing the spirit.

On 12/26/2019 at 7:10 AM, SNaomiScott said:

Okay, I'm a bit confused. It would appear there are two different versions of the Rune Spell 'Crack', one as described in the RQG rulebook, pg 324 (Non-Stackable, can't affect spirit-occupied items) and one as described in the RQG Bestiary, pg 94 (Stackable, can affect spirit-occupied items).

Is the Bestiary version an upgrade that's specific to Thed worshippers only, or does the newer version supplant the older version all round?

One uses a Chaos rune, one uses Disorder.  They are both correct.  How it works depends on which rune you use.  Chaos doesn't obey the rules.

20 minutes ago, Kloster said:

Dead crystals are not attuned, they can't be. And I can't find anything that forbid to take control of a spirit bound in an attuned crystal. The only restrictions are with enchantments.

You're right, it doesn't say you attune the crystal, my bad.  However, it DOES say:

Quote

Once a spirit has been bound within such a crystal, the
POW of the spirit is available for the use of the
binder. The spirit may not throw spells itself or
take other independent action

So no one else can use the spirit you trapped in the crystal but you.  For spending mps that regenerate.

15 hours ago, lordabdul said:

I originally read the rules in RQG GM Pack as meaning that the spirit in the crystal cannot act independently, and can only obey the crystal owner (i.e. it can cast spells if ordered, but it can't on its own, unless the owner has more spirits bound than their CHA, in which case spirits can start rebelling). Now I'm not so sure. The sidebar on p60 of The Smoking Ruins makes it look like crystals can actually have independently acting spirits in them. And FWIW, in old RQ2 books like Apple Lane, crystal-bound spirits were also able to act on orders... Gringle had a spirit in a crystal with orders to defend his house against intruders.

This is something I would roleplay.  For example, if an animal spirit were put into a crystal, about all you're going to get out of it are its magic points.  But if an ancestor spirit were put into the crystal, then it really depends on how that ancestor reacts to its owner.  So while Gringle probably had a friendly spirit he could trust in that crystal and he knew it would willingly defend his home, if, say, the PCs were to nab that crystal it probably wouldn't be so inclined.  And while it must obey its commands, well, I'm an old school Stormbringer player and demons of desire are the most dangerous of all demons, just ask my players, so that spirit may "obey" it's commands, but it's never going to be doing so loyally and faithfully.  "I know the house burnt down, but the salamander I summoned to destroy the intruders wasn't itself an intruder master."

@Jeorg:  I didn't know you had it in you   Spirit combat munchkinnery at its finest!  I think you could outmunchkin my munchkins!

2 hours ago, Kloster said:

Because a spirit bound in a crystal can be controlled by ANYONE that can see it. If it is bound in a binding enchantment, there can be conditions, but not with a crystal, and having your own spirits turned against you is very dangerous.

No, the crystals are now attuned.  Only the attuned person could snatch the spirit out of the crystal.  However, if the attuned owner of the crystal was foolish enough to command the spirit out, then, yes, someone else could wrest command away from him.  However, the initial thought is valid:  put powerful spirits in your crystals so they regenerate magic points. 

17 hours ago, Marc said:

Where in the rules does it say this?  Looking at the text on page 390, it says:

Knowledge of a sorcery spell can be inscribed into an item—
such as a scroll, book, piece of jewelry, weapon, or some other
small token—through ritual enchantment, instead of using
a point of Free INT. The enchanter, who must know the
spell, must sacrifice 1 point of POW to create the inscription.
For each point of POW added to the inscription, the
base strength, range, or duration of the spell is increased by
1, without requiring any manipulation by the sorcerer. This
enables the sorcerer to create spells with a greater intensity
than their Free INT would allow.

 

The way I read that, all the initial inscription does is allow you to cast the spell without tying up a point of Free INT.  Additional points of POW added to the inscription allow the sorceror to add additional levels of intensity for strength, duration or range, without requiring manipulation at the time of casting, and therefore allowing you to cast the spell with the "baked in" manipulation not using any of the caster's Free INT. I don't see how that gets the caster out of providing the required magic points, and the strike ranks they take.

 

I agree.  The only way to get around this would be fairly easy for the sorcerer the OP is talking about, however.  Simply use all those MPM enchantments to enchant his scroll with magic points on the condition that they be expended to pay for the mp cost of the spell.  So I make a scroll with Intensity 13 Boon of Kargan Tor and have 13 mp's enchanted in the scroll to pay for that intensity.

That still wouldn't get around the SR time.  For that you'd need the God Learner skill of Fast Casting or the skill taught in the Fronela temple (at Riverjoin?  I forget.  The White Moon university)

1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

Hey, cool!

Pages 34-36.

And we get a description of Tyram as well!

"Tyram the Sky Horror? That is a different Sky Terror, yes.
When Tyram manifests, it’s more of an East Isles’ Chaos god. When
Tyram manifests, what happens is that the sun becomes the pupil of
a giant eye that fills the whole sky. That’s Tyram. The sky is one huge
eye seeing you all the time, knowing everything, knowing all the se-
crets, governing everything. It’s the worst."

Tyrant, yes, that's the correct word, except to assemble on of those you need five different pieces.  Canada, USA, Australia, NATO and Great Britain.

Tyram is the sky horror, not a sky terror.  It's a bit confusing as they refernce both monikers in your quote.  Tyram is a chaos God.  A Sky Terror is the most horrible of chaos creatures.  Not all Chaos Gaggles are composed of the same Sky Terror.  If you can bring back the original whale, goat, etc of a particular sky terror, you can reassemble it.  During the Great Darkness the sky used to be full of Sky Terrors.  So while Razalkark knows the secret - find the original parts for each individual Sky Terror in order to reassemble them - it isn't always all that easy. 

I may be recalling incorrectly since it's been a while since I bought and read Forgotten Secrets, but I think a weak-sauce Sky Terror can be created by Razalkark using pieces of different Sky Terrors, but my memory isn't certain on that.

I agree with you totally there Joerg, especially the balance breaking Humakt.  Except for the dedicated Tricksters.  Maybe I've been blessed with some really good Trickster players, but they tend to be the heart and soul of the campaigns we've had them in.

14 hours ago, Joerg said:

One such attack per melee round, vs. a whole number of attacks starting with 185% but reduced by 20% per parry. It doesn't matter where the attack comes from, as long as it can be parried (i.e. no arrows or sling stones, but thrown javelins, axes, or melee attacks).

Which is why I advise to use javelins against such an opponent. Can be parried, may be lethal when ignored, and happen before any melee attacks take place. If you send an earth elemental to trap him, you don't even have to enter melee.

Yeah, cuz LOTS of cool creatures I'd like my PCs to run into use javelins, bows or have dispel magic....the over 100% rule can't be defended.  It should be house ruled out.

Queen Leika sent Nameless to prepare them.  Nameless captured a ghoul, toed it to a tree.  She had her trainees also tied to trees.  She let the ghoul howl to its hearts content.  After about 3 or 4 hours the PCs were all immune per the rules for gaining immunity to the howl in RQG Bestiary.  They understood why Nameless told them to wear their brown pants.

On 12/23/2019 at 5:20 AM, Akhôrahil said:

No, this isn't how it works - "Stackable" just means that you're allowed to add Rune Points for some specific purpose. Compare "Bless Champion", for instance, which is a 2-point spell but is Stackable because it allows a duration increase for a Rune Point, or Bless Pregnancy, which is a 2-point spell but is Stackable because it allows Rune Point spends on a one-to-one basis for characteristics increases.  

Teleportation should emphatically have "Stackable".

Stackable means you can cast it multiple times at regular cost.  Your definition is incorrect.

8 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

This must be just an error, surely? 

No, it's not.  If it were simply stackable, being a 3 pt spell, it would cost 3 additional rune points to teleport a second person.  The spell description supercedes that, saying it only costs 1 additional ruen point to teleport additional person.  Therefore, it would make no sense (and given munchkinnery, potentially could be degenerately broken - I don't know how, but one never does until the munchkins get a hold of it) for Teleport to be stackable.

13 hours ago, Crel said:

@Akhôrahil, @HreshtIronBorne: if we're in rules-lawyer territory, per @Jason Durall's errata answers on the Q&A spells with the "nonstackable" tag cannot be Extended. Notable spells including this are Peace, Charisma, Bear's Strength, Sword Trance, Truesword, and Earth Shield, though this includes others as well.

(FWIW I'm not sure I'll be keeping with that ruling myself, and I suspect it's an example of imprecise definitions as Akhorahil has complained of, rather than an intended result. I've not yet found an example of actual published text in the core where a "nonstackable" spell was Extended.)

Thanks, I missed that errata.  That fixes the extended Sword Trance munchkinnery.

18 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

No I actually played only a few one shots so far. That's why I'm asking

Well, if you play a campaign for, say 8 game years, your guys will have tons of power crystals.  I mean, if you just allow what's in the printed material.  If you don't like that happening, then make power crystals incredibly rare items and ignore the crystals given.  Won't really help, since as pointed out above, the PCs will just make their own and to keep their opponents challenging, you'll be having to give them the ability to keep up in the MP race.

It's a vicious, inevitable circle.  Your only real options to avoid MP creep is to steal from the PCs on a regular basis or charge them not in money, but in power crystals.  Personally, I just don't worry about it.  They reach a point eventually where even they don't want anymore power crystals and start bartering them off.  Meanwhile, no one has to worry about tracking the mp supply.  Less game maths.

Until an epic fail like Sword Trance comes along.  That spell has "Designed by someone who never played a long RQ campaign" written all over it, I don't care that Jeff has played LOTS of RQ, he obviously never stuck to one LONG RQ campaign or he'd have nerfed that spell immediately.

13 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

 

So I like the idea of removing the rule, since it means you can keep your pre-calculated Special/Critical success thresholds... but, errr, doesn't that make high powered combat completely ridiculous? Everybody always does special/critical success, even when 2 evenly matched opponents fight?

It makes for really fun combats.  And between two highly skilled combatants, combat is always dangerous, even if one is 200% and the other 140%