Psullie

RQ2: Yes a simple parry still applied its AP to the attack as you say, but a critical parry deflects all damage from a normal hit and reduces a critical hit to a normal hit. Also parrying an impale with a weapon (as opposed to a shield) deflects the impale completely.

How about... GM: The troll attacks (rolls dice), um and misses, what do you do? Player: Well as he missed I can try to parry and hope to break his sword, but then I might fumble and lose my own sword, but um I could dodge, but if I fumble the troll will get an automatic hit, so I do nothing! The point of declaring your response BEFORE the dice are rolled is to create tension and uncertainty. Do you offer the same options for the NPC's? Also your example just illustrates why, even with the advantage to your Dodge, parrying with a shield is the safer option because it can reduce the level of success, where as the Doge is all or nothing.

You haven't seen me dance or heard me sing then !! But yes, you could chose to Augment your casting chance and roll the dice or play safe and guarantee smaller bonus but the Resistance roll can only by augmented by Meditate if I read the relevant bits right

I'm with jajagappa, during your statement your declare that you are either parrying or dodging. RQ3 clearly stated that it was an either/or situation, sacrificing all your attack or parries that round to Dodge. I feel that the Dodge skill is not instinctive ducking, but a planned keeping out of harms way tactic.

POW doesn't change (except when sacrificing for your Cult), it's your MP that go up and down so any POW roll would be against it's full value. I agree that at first reading the Resistance Roll on p18 is misleading by implying that the victim gets a roll, but this is not the case. The augment is to improve the strength of the spell by the caster. For example if your casting a spell and you have POW 16 and the target has POW 18. You have a 16x5 = 80% of casting the spell and a 40% chance of overcoming their natural resistance. You could Meditate first for 2 melee rounds and get either a +10% to the casing chance bringing the total to 90%, or get an augment roll on your Meditation Skill to get a modifier to the POW resistance roll, a +20% on a success for example, giving you a 60% chance to overcome their resistance. IMO Meditation and Casting require different levels of attention but it would be your call as to what constitutes an interuption during casting, for me taking damage wouldn't even require a roll to say start again.

Strike Rank has always been about who goes first, not who goes when. I think the mistake with RQ3 was that it tried to make a board game out of combat by implying that SR was a 'when' matrix, I even what as far as using it as a skirmish miniatures game, RQ2 was all about the order of events only in so far as does it happen before, during or after another event that might impact on the result. The clearest example is melee, where a dexterous individual can dispatch his opponent first, but he's still spending the round fighting as per the statement of intent. It is not meant to be read literally that in the 12 second long combat attacking as SR 2 being the 2nd second and our nimble fighter just hangs out for 10 more seconds. With regard to other actions, spells, movement etc. the 5SR penalty with DEX SR is just a mechanism for saying that somethings are quick and if you are nimble enough you might get to do extra stuff so long as your not engaged in melee. But again it's about the order of things, snap off Disruption before the troll whacks the fighter and again afterwards.

Ture, but that applies to abilities not Characteristics...

If two adventurers are arm wrestling each other BOTH get to roll based in the different of their characteristics. This is how I've always interpreted the ruling. If my character had STR 12 and yours had STR 16, I'd be rolling against 30% and you'd be rolling against 70% (rather than 60% & 80%)

the clack drops My take was as follows: Character rolls (POW, STR etc x5 or whatever) were only used if nothing else fit. The traditional example is the luck roll or POW x5. Tests of characteristics using the Resistance table is the preferred option where the the GM assigns a value for the test, POW v POW etc. Where the 'defender' is passive only the 'attacker' rolls, e.g.: bashing down a door, the GM assigns a STR for the door and the player rolls the dice. Note that using POW to resist magic is passive, the defender does not roll dice. Active tests, where both parties are actively resisting each other, means that both roll on the Resistance table where the difference in abilities matter more than their base value

I believe that the through behind this is that with an opposed Resistance table roll, you chance of success is effected by the opponents. On a straight roll of STRx5 you have the same chance of success regardless of who you're up against. The resistance table highlights differences in characteristics to skew the odds rather than the core ability. Consider an arm-wrestling tourney at Gimpy's. your adventurer has STR 16 (80%), you are up against 3 contestants, STR 12 (60%), 16 (80%) and 18 (90%). On the straight roll you are relying the opponent loosing (admittedly with the higher roll winning rule you have an advantage over the 12) However on the Resistance table, you have a 70/30 advantage over the 12, 50/50 on the 16, and a 40/60 challenge against the 18. I guess it all boils down to how you want to stack the odds.

Thanks styopa, I must print out those as I keep loosing track

personally I like the high proficiency problem in that it reflects heroic combat - opposing sides nether gaining advantage until a single master stroke finishes everything. but that's just me

hi ragnagand, welcome onboard the parry and weapon damage topic was well thrashed out in the Cults of Chaos forum - hopefully the admin will open the discussion to the public now that the QS is available - and the consensus was that as this is a bronze age setting weapon damage was a big part of combat, repairing and maintaining your kit would be a ongoing activity, also as the QS is heavily abridged from the actual rules, special results such as impale were omitted for simplicity. Critical = ignores armour, maximum damage (not doubled) Special = double damage, less armour Yes, it is possible to do more damage with a special than a critical.

From the Optional Adventurer pdf: Once a corporeal being is engaged in spirit combat, they may not attempt any skill or engage in physical melee combat with a separate physical melee target without first succeeding at with a roll of INT×5. Corporeal beings engaged in spirit combat may cast a spell if they succeed at a concentration check. Spirits may cast spells if they possess that ability and do so in the same manner as other combatants. Does this mean that an adventurer can melee attack their discorporate assailant and engage in Spirit Combat in the same round without the INT test? Spell casting Spirits do not have to make an INT test to target other targets? Do discorporate Shamans count as Spirits with regard to casting spells? And can a shaman travel in the spirit world to a middle world location, become visible (or forced to become visible via Visibility) and cast spells etc.

Yep

Generally you are assumed to have already prepared your first spell. So with a DEX SR of 2, you could cast Strength (2) on SR 3 (first MP cost is free of SR) then prepare a second spell taking you to SR 8 and cast Mobility (1) on an 8, 5 more SR will take you to 13 so you couldn't cast spell number 3 Rolling over SR's to the next round is typically avoided for simplicity, however some very complicated spells could take more than 12SR to finish, in this case the spell will trigger in the appropriate round. The games master could also suggest circumstances where the caster in not prepared, and their first spell would DEX +5 SR. Usually only one spell at a time, but there are exceptions when one spell effects another like Extension.

Spirt Combat!

Yes but when a shield Parries it absorbs all damage, your broadsword only current APs with the balance gong to the arm

I think this raises the whole issue of cultural weapons etc. By Tudor England all Yeomen were required to attend regular archery from the age of 12 or so. In the tower of London Henry V's (IIRC) armour is on display, he was very very broad shouldered due to many years, since childhood, swinging broadswords, axes etc. If your character comes from a culture of archers, then sure. But if not then buying NEW skills should be very costly. I think think this would also reinforce cultural bias towards certain equipment and why even when better technology comes along they are slow to adapt (Samurai during the shogunate, French Gendarmes during the Wars of Religion etc.)

Hi Yelm's Light - For your reference this quote is from: Genghis Khan and the Mongol War Machine By Chris Peers

good points Just a note: To some extent bows were replaced due to heavier armour worn by knights. But the main reasons bows were replaced was because unskilled people are cheaper. It took a lifetime to train a bowman, 30 minutes to train a musketeer, or crossbowman. Even with slower reload etc. a general could simply put more on the battle field.

RQ has always taken the approach that Shields were just weapons that were better at parrying. And so the 1x parry & 1x attack = shield & sword, or 2x attacks (you could hit someone with the shield) or 2x parries. RQ3 was much more restrictive. I think the simplification with RQG is that while you don't need a shield it's pretty useful: higher damage resistance and protection. With the damage breaking rules using your rapid to parry the attacks may not be a wise approach in the long run. Also a main gauche (a renaissance anachronism in Glorantha) wouldn't be much use against a Great Troll's war club... The 1980 edition is RQ2. RQ1 is 1978 and credited to Steve Perrin & Friends. We don't mention the 'goose much in these parts (much like Ducks really :-) )

You could declare holding off an attack to coincide with another's. RQ2 has that higher DEX goes first, if equal then both attack are rolled. Risky gambit

Welcome on board, more voices the better Like you I'm a long time player, still have my RQ1 laying about, and keen to see a nice tidy new game I'd be happy with either view as long as it does what it sets out to do. Games design is a two step job - decide on the point of view, then build the mechanic that reflects that view. With that in mind I did some googling and discovered some interesting facts... Modern sports bows have a draw weight of 40 - 50 pounds. The English longbow at Agincourt had a 100lb draw weight, some later Chinese bows has draws of 125lb+ Native American bows has a draw of 45lb, the Ancient Egyptian bows also around 40lb. This is impotent as it relates to effort and effectiveness. Given RQ's ancient setting lets zone in on the 40lb, comparable to todays bows. Some interesting info here Bernard Cornwell in the back of Agincourt suggest 15 aimed shots per minute, other sources range from 6 - 12 (8 was expected by Tudor times) - these remember are 100lb+ bows! At the time of Genghis Khan Mamaluk Archers (40lb recurve bow) were able to 'discharge five arrows in two and half seconds' if stationary and at the ready, mounted archers could manage 2 per ten seconds. source The key difference is purpose, the longbow is a long range support weapon, the recurve bow a close range skirmish weapon. As far as I can see RQ models itself after the lighter bows from the ancient world. Short range, fast ROF and low penetration. Hence the 2 shots per round. If RQ was medieval I'd imagine Longbows and their ilk would be limited to 1 per round I'm only throwing this out there to help frame the 'bow rate of fire' thread. If I'm wrong with my assumptions happy to hear otherwise. Also I know that this raises the issue then why can't hand-to-hand get multiple attacks as long as they have the SR, I guess that boils down to the point of view of Jeff and Co. and all we can do is offer reasoned suggestions... cheers

you are correct, the initial Enthrall is a straight POW v POW resistance roll. Poor Varanik didn't stand a chance against her POW 25. But it was his subsequent roll at POWx3 to break the charm that snapped his mind, rolling 98+ There is also writers fiat that accounts for anything that makes a good story...