Akhôrahil

Agree (well, often a little beyond round 2, especially if there's an initial missile/spell exchange). RQ has this strong "death spiral" (once you start losing, you start losing more) which is usually considered a bad thing (as it means a battle is decided long before it's finished if everyone fights to the death) but works really well here, as it means that even if the sides were reasonably even at start, things will soon tilt in one direction and then it's time to try to get out of the fight for the losing side because catching up is really hard, and further supported by how there are institutions for not fighting to the bitter end. Even if one side fights to the death, I like to call things once it's clearly decided ("You clear out the remaining rabble"), because rolling your way through the mopping-up is pretty boring and time-consuming. If they could handle 12 zombies, they can handle the remaining 3, unless they've been seriously weakened doing it.

If they kill Chaos with 90% precision, a lot of people are going to be fairly accepting of the iffy cases where you can't be sure. Cost of doing business. It becomes meaty if Storm Bulls killed your uncle with questionable evidence of his Chaoticness. Should you attempt revenge?

Won't they be disappointed by the HeroWars, then! 🙂

The curse on Dorastor does look a lot like tapping, really. Sucking out all fertility.

True - this is pretty subtle.

I have seen 144 to 160 pages for each, which is close enough for same size. On the other hand, this could have been just a generalization - it would make sense to me if the Lightbringers one is bigger.

I think the player part matters quite a bit here. The GM needs everything, but a player can get a reasonably-costed single volume that works a little like a splatbook. I’m a little surprised full Storm + Lightbringers, presumably the most popular PC cults with some margin and also not merely an Elemental pantheon, will get the same size as Moon or Sea.

Nysalor would be one example of a god with Initiates who also provides no Rune Magic.

Bunches of people in The Smoking Ruins are Initiates of Arachne Solara, including with Rune Magic.

This is my reading of the rules text, but I don’t like it. Parrying seems weird, and dodging… even if you do it, it means moving away (probably backwards), which is what the attacker is trying to achieve anyway. I would also 100% allow a shield attack roll for pushback.

Also counter-cavalry.

I’m aware of Brangbane - I was just thinking he’s known for wickedness rather than the foolishness displayed by Bolthor or Temertain.

You mean Urgrain, right?

Another symmetry argument is that Parry should also add 1 HP in order to be symmetrical with Bladesharp/Bludgeon.

Since Dorastor: Land of Doom is placed (as far as the Risklands campaign goes) in (IIRC) 1617, it means that they stepped back from the CoT timeline (Hahlgrim's War takes place in 1623-25, so when the RQG timeline starts, it's just about to end), and the war is in the future (as was almost all the HeroWars stuff at that point). The upside to this is that if you start in 1617, PCs will be seriously experienced by the time Hahlgrim's War gets going. And it's much more extreme that you suggest - Cults of Terror was published back in 1981!

I don't believe that at all - he belonged to the Osteri clan of the Bilini and (presumably) had Ironbreaker as an heirloom. (It originally belonged to one of Hahlgrim's ancestors, so there's probably a story about how it ended up there.) I say very early 1625 (or the Sacred Time between 1624 and 25, or possibly very late 1624). It seems related to people gathering at the Hold for Sacred Time celebrations. The best way to time it is to note that the offensive against Ralzakark is renewed by Oddi in late Sea Season of what must be 1625. Speaking of queens, I'm a bit unclear on whether (the positively awesome!) Gudmund the Golden stayed in Biliniland after king Hakon was killed, or returned to her clan in Skanthiland.

While a Rune Spell is the standard format, I think it's completely legit to make up a special ability or something instead. They will only keep the ability as long as the spirit is being correctly worshiped anyway, so they can't just forget about that part. (Most PCs in my campaign recently picked up a +5 to CON for purposes of resisting cold.) ((A Spirit Cult doesn't even have to be Associated - you can join them without the regular cult restrictions. But it could be, if that makes sense.))

No, I agree. I would call them "rules" but not "the (currently applying) rules". 🙂 That's how I run it. As long as there are non-CA spirits with Sleep - which seems like a certainty to me, unless we want to say that no spirits can put anyone to sleep outside CA-spirits - shamans can obtain it, if possibly with more hassle. I had a CA spirit show up and browbeat the shaman into swearing to uphold CA restrictions when using Sleep, only teach it to other swearing the same, and taking responsibility for the spell-related actions of those he teaches it to (it's interesting how players seem a lot more nervous about a CA spirit asking nicely than they would towards most actual threats backed by violence...) and even decided to be very restrictive with teaching it in case a student later would misbehave and he'd take the blame from CA. So I can see how Sleep could be somewhat available but not widespread.

The best symmetry would be if one spell boosted sharp weapons and penalized blunt ones, and the other was the opposite!

I need a "Lokamayadon Was Right" t-shirt!

"She began as a dark troll" says the Guide.

What you define as "the rules" is exactly what I define as "not the rules". 🙂

What other rules applied when only the rulebook was out? 😉 The one that said repeatedly you could learn any spirit magic spell?

If it's passionate enough to do actual HP damage. Which might not be every kiss, at least? Once the enemy has been broken up and can no longer easily assist each other, or if your side merely outnumber them, or if they don't know the mechanics of Sleep (like animals), Sleep is devastating.

I think the Invocation idea is productive - Yavor doesn’t have a subcult, but he is who you call on when casting (or learning) Lightning, and so on. Although in this case, Lightning already almost has a subcult, depending on your interpretation of the Four Weapons.