d(sqrt(-1))

When do you declare use of Parry or Dodge? It can't be in the Declaration of Intent because you don't know how many times you will be attacked, and it's a reactive thing. Do you get to see the Attacker's roll before you decide? Can you Parry AND Dodge the same attack (cumulative -20% penalty of course). The revised use of Dodge allows it to be used vs multiple attacks/opponents.

Sure, if everyone defends with full POW that's certainly possible, but it need to be clear in the text. Similarly if magic can target different resistance abilities (a la Fire Elemental) then the resistance section might need to say so. The Resistance Roll section also says an adventurer may try to augment their chance of success with resistance roll by using and appropriate spell (presume Countermagic) or through the use of the Meditate skill. The Meditation sidebar says that mediation takes 1 hour and returns 1 MP, so I'm guessing that this is an indirect use of Meditation to give magic resistance, rather than actively doing so. Can a meditating character go above their normal MP using this? It used to be that you couldn't go over double MP AFAIK. If it means the section "Increasing the Casting chance", that says that the character can take no other action in the round that they use meditate, and that refers to casting chance. Also, under "Increasing the casting chance" and Meditation it is defined that a mediating character can make a POWx3 roll to resist loss of concentration - however the Spirit Magic section on p18 just says that "If the caster's concentration is broken (e.g. by taking damage) they cannot cast the spell and must try again. It seems to me this would be a good place to also mention POW x 3 to avoid losing concentration as it's easy to miss otherwise.

Ok thanks, I didn't see mention of it and the errata is still fairly small. (Checks Vishi Dun) So the small Earth elemental does no damage it just holds on to things. I guess you can check STR vs STR each round to escape? It also has no SR listed and I don't think the means to calculate it are in the QS. Its SIZ is large, DEX may be low and the weapon should count as SR 0, so probably about 3-4 SR, although these seem somewhat odd considerations for its SR. If summoned by Rune spell on SR 1 can it act in the same melee round? Can it appear directly under a PC? (Checked RQ2): Elemental takes 1 mr to form, 1 mr to take orders, can appear anywhere within 60 m, will automatically attack anything in or on top of it and while the summoner is giving orders neither they nor the elemental can do anything else (including parry). Move: Shade 12, Fire 6 Water 6 Earth 3 Air 12 Earth Elementals used to do 4d6 to each leg - ouch! None of them have DEX listed. For SR I guess their size and weapon is mostly irrelevant. I would put Air and Shades as High Dex, Fire and Water as medium-ish, and Earth as low, but as the Earth elemental only has to open a pit maybe that doesn't matter? They all pretty much attack by engulfing, so they only need to move over a PC to do their attack.

Sure, but the sequence is to move unengaged characters and if they move half they can then engage in melee, cast spells etc which must be done in the resolution phase. If you don't do that then you are back to people moving and taking SR actions whether they are engaged or not at the same time. So something doesn't fit.

Hm, none of the playtest PCs have SIZE or INT < 10, and in fact one has INT 20 and another INT 19 which seems odd (and the lowest INT is 15), as INT used to be a thing you couldn't train - maybe you can now? So I would guess SIZE and INT will be 2d6+6 (or more)

- p13 Melee Round says that the sequence is "Statement/Move Unengaged Characters/Resolve Melee, Missile & Spells by SR/Bookkeeping". However the example on p7 "Multiple Activities" has an unengaged character casting a spell first, then moving which doesn't fit with the Melee sequence. - p15 Shooting at Moving Targets mentions the use of Evade, but this should really be more explicit under movement and/or combat - p16 Two Weapon use says that they can be used for two attacks, two parries or one attack and one parry. Given that multiple parries at cumulative -20% are now allowed it makes no sense to specify this here. I guess this is a direct cut and paste from RQ2. - p18 Resistance Rolls says that you use POW vs POW to overcome targets - p6 Resistance Table says magic point vs magic points. The latter would fit with earlier versions of RQ. p20 for Rune Spells also says POW. - p45 Sorala has INT 20, p46 Harmast has INT 19 (and no PC has INT < 15). Not necessarily errata, but INT either at 3d6 or 2d6+6 won't work, and INT was something you couldn't train previously. - p47 Vasana's Bison has no INT? - p47/48 The Small Earth and Fire elementals have a MOV of 0 - is that intentional?

Sure, some other interesting ones I've found in RQ2: - It's unclear whether HP are actually subtracted from location HP, or location HP are just a threshold for damage (Everyone plays that they are subtracted, but it's not explicit. I quite like the idea of location HP being merely a threshold to see how serious the wound is). - Are weapon skills Attack & Parry, or just one rating for both (it's kind of implied both) - Criticals and Specials are introduced wrt combat but are never mentioned in the Skills chapter (everyone uses them that way but it's not explicit) - Does a negative Defence apply? I always thought it did, but there are no monsters (e.g. Giants or other high SIZ creatures) with a negative defence. It's much easier if min Defence = 0, TBH especially if you have players that forget that sort of thing all the time.

Something I just noticed in the Quickstart, to cast a Spirit Spell you need to roll POW x 5 (as per RQ3). However, for the Resistance roll you also roll POW vs POW, rather than MP vs MP (p 18) I guess that is intentional but it seems a fairly large change - in RQ2 Rune Lords always resisted will full POW, but now it looks like everyone does that. The Rune Magic section just says that the caster has to overcome the target's POW using a resistance roll. Not explicit but I assume that also means that the caster uses POW? However the Resistance Table section (p 6) explicitly says magic points vs magic points, so I wonder if the POW vs POW thing is a typo.

RQ1/2 Battle Magic always worked on oneself or inanimate objects or unconscious characters unless 96+ was rolled (p 33 in RQ2). It's a bit ambiguous in the rules but it looks like you always roll d100. But vs enemies you needed to overcome their POW. There is no mention of POWx5, that's an RQ3 thing I believe. Rune Magic always went off in RQ1/2 too - you might need to overcome resistance though (p59-60 RQ2 makes no mention of needing to roll to cast Rune Magic and the example of Ariella & Rurik vs the Trolls on p63 doesn't mention it either)

Yes I think you are right re RQ3, plus the idea that "you don't start moving until DEX SR" etc. I don't mind if we go with moving in one chunk and track the SRs, or move first and then go by SRs, but the rules and examples should present these consistently.

Sure. I would be happy to say "Unengaged characters move first, up to half MOV maximum if you want to do anything else this round, +1 SR per Move unit then we swap over to SRs for actions". That seems pretty clear to me. RQ 3 tried to make it into an SR by SR segment system which was way OTT.

I'm never sure about movement. The section on "Multiple Activities outside of melee" (p7) gives the example of someone casting Disruption (3 SR) moving 9 m (3 SR) and then readying a bow (5 SR). So far so good (I think this is the same example as from RQ2). But the Melee Round sequence (p13) expressly says Unengaged characters move up to their Move, or up to half that if they want to melee, cast a spell etc. Only after that do actions in SR order happen. So how do you reconcile these two? As a GM I want to avoid SR by SR movement etc, that is a real pain with any significant number of NPCs. It's not even that good for the players as they have to track SR by SR actions. Previously I ended up using the Stormbringer DEX initiative instead. When I ran Snakepipe Hollow with 6 PCs, some NPCs and about 15 Broo it became unwieldy to use the SR method. (Additionally, the Evade rules vs Missiles seems to be hidden in the Spot rules whereas they should also be covered under movement)

Will we be able to order hard copy versions, or is it just going to be the pdfs in July? I'd definitely like a print version.

All we did was to say that Initiates recovered their Rune Magic on the High Holy Day, and expended Rune Magic still counted for priest requirements (and if you succeeded you could regain them all quickly thereafter)

Wow - Extreme Close Up!

Me neither!

Ok, I guess I can wait to see the final thing - I still think she should have some scars, broken teeth or the like though!

I would agree - we had loads of fun with Gods of Glorantha (I did have CoP and CoT though at the time).

Dunno, I'd be surprised if there weren't though. Tekumel - yes, no fair skins there except for the Yeleth (androids)

I'm looking forward to new RQ. However I really don't like the cover much - the lizard is fine but the warrior is FAR too clean and tidy.

Does a checked Occupation skill continue to be able to be raised at +1D8% without an EXP roll even when the skill is > (100-INT)?

Hm, off the top of my head: Leffe Brune/Blond/Triple/Radieuse Grimbergen Brune/Blond/Dubbel/Grand Cru Kwak Mared-Sous Brune Kloster Andechs Doppelbock Dunkel Bofferding (very difficult to get outside Luxemborg!) Herold Black Lager Asahi Black Gordon's Christmas err, there's probably quite a few more. Mark

Hi, I picked up a copy of Dragon Lines on Friday and have had quick a read through it. One question - I haven't seen an actual definition of the Chi rating for a PC anywhere. I assume that it's the same value as Magic/Power Points would be, and several of the Chi manipulations etc seem to imply this but I haven't seen it explicity stated. Looks like lots of nice ideas in the system as far as I can see. I would have preferred not to have a background to the text as I find that makes it more difficult to read though. cheers, Mark

Sure, for the former I was just assuming that they are training in downtime and that we don't necessarily see it explicitly in the game (or well, they can say, "I train in Climbing for a week", or somesuch). depends on the game I guess. cheers, Mark

The more I've considered it the more I like the idea too. I've never really liked the idea of giving out a flat X improvements per session, a la MRQ, but letting people tick what they have used and then choosing how they allocate a limited number of points between them I think works rather nicely. I'd probably say that the points allocated per session are either decided by GM fiat e.g. 10, or are a number of dice depending on how tough/long/challenging/etc the scenario was, say default 3d6 for an average of 10-11 pper session. TBH you could probably even do away with the need to tick skills if you wanted and just let people improve what they want to improve, or just give them a tick if they attempt something, even if they fail. cheers, Mark