Akhôrahil

But in that case, the Wraith gets two chances to hurt you in the round - first the initial first-round attack, and then a chance to win in Spirit Combat.

For having no math, that’s a lot of math.

At least for the first seven days, surely? Also, Ancestors have to be considered part of the community.

That would mean that Spirit Combat doesn't happen at all in round one, which seems weird if the PC wants to attack it. (What makes this weird is that while Spirit Combat has a sensible system, it's a very different kind of system compared to regular combat.)

It's also not obvious how the first-round attack works. Is it separate from Spirit Combat?

Jesus Christ, the rules and rulings in this game... that’s just silly. The rule might technically be phrased this way, but that just makes it a horrible rule that needs to be fixed right away! It should be bleeding obvious that you only reduce down to 0% and then stop.

That doesn’t happen anyway, does it? You only drop someone down to 5% or 0% (not sure which) and keep any overflow? Also, one PC in my campaign got a Farming skill of over 100% on its own, raised to over 180% through Bless Crops for the income roll.

Kenneth Hite has talked about maybe writing a module for this for Trail, with the PCs being Soviet investigators who have to protect humanity while navigating the bureaucracy and a state that is ideologically committed to deny anything supernatural.

Dragon-Eurmal, that's got to be something!

Also note how the attacks take place on SR 1. This makes it seem like it's not actually Spirit Combat (which always happens on SR 12). On the other hand, its attacks are described as "Sprit Combat", using (one would think) the normal Spirit Combat rules. This is either an unedited remnant of an earlier version, or a major deviation from the regular rules. It doesn't really make a lot of sense as written - anyone attacking it in Spirit Combat will strike at SR 12 under the normal system with an opposed roll, which means that it could do damage twice in a round (sr1 and SR12), but then, it doesn't have a printed Spirit Combat damage... This is what I think makes sense: ignore all the parts about MP vs MP and SR 1, and just say that it does 1D3 Spirit Combat damage and twice that to a location. It's still not clear how the first round effect interacts with Spirit Combat, though. Gods, what a mess!

Or even just go on with their lives. "Before enlightenment, cut wood, carry water. After enlightenment, cut wood, carry water."

Not sure. Most of the big guns of the HeroWars seem to be Illuminated.

This is not quite mathematically identical, as you have some nice rounding bonuses as a player under the regular system. This is a quibble, though.

I don't think this is true. Illumination is certainly not common on a continental scale, but it's way below hero-level, and large swathes of the upper echelons of the Lunar religion and administration are Illuminated, I believe. SImilarly, most to all Arkati higher-ups. Lots of people in Kralorela.

It’s a good rule until it isn’t. The basic idea is very good. It’s when it gets abused in combat to depress attacks to nothing when it ges bad. I limit the penalty to halving (this will get stupid when both sides have 200+%, but we’re not close to that yet).

This is RQ. You will have one POW vs. POW spell., or you're doing it wrong. 🙂

They get POW vs, POW, so it’s questionable whether this is better than an actual debuff spell.

That’s why I asked in the Rules thread - the rules are explicit and unambiguous, but very surprising. I’m not at all sure that this effect was intentional.

This is murder in the Ars Magica RPG, where wizards have exceptionally good magical defences and you want to heal an unconscious one...

Arkat the Duck totally needs to be canon! EDIT: Arkat Hueymaktson.

Huh. Does this mean that you have to roll POW against POW to heal an unconscious target?

Yes, this is explicit in the rules. With Ancestors counting as worshipers for temple size, it’s far easier to maintain a DF shrine in your stead than any other cult. Supposedly, Ancestors with DF Rune points will be able to regain.

I wonder if some creatures have some kind of "inherent worship", or whether Orlanth-worshiping Umbroli actually have to drop in at temple worship regularly to replenish Rune Points. The latter is really cool, so I would be inclined towards it, but I'm not sure how much sense it makes.

Wind Children and Orlanth, although this is hardly surprising. Depending on your premises, Morokanth and the Praxian gods. I imagine Newtlings might be able to get away with worshiping humans gods? As might, of course, the rare baboon...

Another way of doing something similar would be to reproduce the sorcery used by the God Learners to summon Tanian. Sources state that it's about combining the Water and Fire runes in ways people didn't think was possible up until then.