icebrand

I'd completely allow that. Singing bothers spirits, and it should give a bonus because it's happening during the combat.

Double post plz remove!

Does anyone feel it should be the other way around? Like, shields having HP and breaking (while fully protecting the user) and weapons having AP (and powerful hits sliding and hitting the parrier instead of breaking the weapon) just makes more sense. This gives us an interesting mechanic: you shield parry (which is better, as it should) until your shield breaks, and then have to rely on your weapon. Weapons would have AP (half their HP rounding up, which gives the RQ3 value more or less). Tracking weapon AP like in RQ3 would be optional. This would prevent gameplay "features" such as people parrying with their iron sword (30 hp) instead of their shield (12 ap) until the sword gets low, which seriously, makes no sense at all.

I loved it!!! You should use this as a "demo" pdf and do a full pdf with all the gods and a bit deeper on game mechanics! I would buy it! (Idk what's chaosium deal with 3rd parties ATM, maybe you can't and it's a lot of work for pure fan material)

In rq3 (book 2, pg57) under "binding enchantment" it clearly says: "Binding enchantments are species specific so an enchantment created to capture one species of creature cannot be used to capture another species" RQG (pg249) under "binding enchantment" The item to serve as the binding enchantment must be enchanted with 1 point of POW per characteristic possessed by the creature. Thus, a typical spirit binding enchantment requires a sacrifice of at least 2 points of POW (as spirits always have CHA and POW, and sometimes INT), while a binding enchantment for an elemental requires at least 3 points of POW (elementals always have SIZ, STR, and POW).

Changing the sorcery rules would be nice. Getting rid of the one round cast time (leave the rest as is) would be a good start. Say that the sorcery flavor of the grey sages is slower but true sorcerors don't need the 1round start up because they are more efficient in their way of approaching sorcery, due to not having to do through a god. BAM! Sorcery kinda fixed.

I take it you never GMed for a shop teacher, a physicist and a plastic bag salesman / reporter lol.

No, the problem is that players usually take the path of least resistance. I want to kill the enemy runelord. Why bother spending magic points for magic damage when a damage boosted sword is clearly much better? (It always was). So the magic damage takes a step back and it's only good against magically unskilled low armor opponents... And the damage boosted sword is looking even more effective. So now our spells are only good for long range... But turns out a random dude with a bow will drop 3 enemies by the time you casted once... Now imagine you are with your group, and by the time you cast a spell the combat is over. This isn't very fun for the sorcerer, is it?

Well, we started playing with RQ3, GoG, and Genertela. I'm pretty sure glorantha has rq3 sorcery, i have the books right here. Sandy Petersen sorcery rules are a popular alternative and later published stuff is clearly inspired on both. If you meant "RQG doesn't have rq3 sorcery" I agree 100% and that's my issue. Because it does have Rq2-3 battle and rune magic (with some changes, but it's an evolution of the system). Lets say RQ8 has rune magic taking 5 SR for rune point. Wouldn't you agree that would be a radical departure from how rune magic worked since the OG runequest? Would you consider this an issue and if so, why isn't an issue for sorcery?

I love all you say, but again, why can't sorcerers form/set fire on people anymore? They have been doing it for 35 years up to RQG (HW/HQ did shift them hard to support, but they still were able to use their spells on the fly, and we're IMHO the most versatile they have ever been. Sadly everyone I roleplay with dislike hw/hq with a passion. My players even created this "bob the janitor" character who was a high school janitor and had "janitor" as his one and only skill with several masteries... And then make this mock adventures to show how bob used janitor to beat every challenge and prove the system was bad. They convinced me.

I would argue that that was ritual magic, and having a few descriptions of sorcerers performing rituals doesn't mean they can't cast spells in combat in an effective way compared to the other magic systems. Sorcerers in RQ and other brp fantasy settings have been working similarly since the OG magic world and through every iteration of BRP and HW/HQ. I understand wanting another twist on the established canon (this is a new edition after all), i just find it... Not my Glorantha, sorcerers have been promimently featured as NPC and PCs since 1997, if I change how they work this much that wouldn't be *our* (my PCs and fellow GMs and mine) Glorantha anymore. The other systems fit perfectly in our canon and sound solid, we decided we will keep playing our RQ2/3 hybrid (it rocks) with added stuff from RQM - So far we adding passions, runes, reputation and still didn't get to magic but we have to check shamans carefully, shaman nerfs are a *very* touchy subject, and will probably use RQM rune magic system with RQ2 cults. Spirit magic we will keep using RQ2 battle magic and sorcery RQ3 sorcery.

Because your adventurer gets one action every 2 or even 3 rounds and everyone else in the table is acting every round (some several times). People usually find more fun to do stuff every round and not multi-round actions, especially if those multi round actions are not more impactful than everyone else's (or even less one could argue).

We play it like that, only that when there is no resistance and you have <10 MP your cast chance goes down!

Thank you for your in depth response, it is much appreciated and very well written! Also I didn't want to go into deep unneccesary detail; we use RQ2 magic with RQ3 sorcery (with a few spell tweaks, for example damage boosting is +1 / 2 intensity. For both battle magic and rune magic we just do pow vs pow. If you cast vs a non resisting target you do MP vs 0 MP, so you still have 95% (and less if you are low). Afaik Rq2 RAW doesn't have Pow x5 to cast battle magic, or else I've been playing wrong for like 15 years. If this is the case can you point me at the page? I re read the basic magic chapter on RQCE and there's no mention to this. It says spells on self and willing targets always work (except 96-00, but it's the same for us, we just don't double roll vs enemies)

Anyone can cheat, but cheating is viewed as godlearning and everyone hate you for it, like everyone hates arkati. Lunars don't do that kind of thing, they do another thing (rolls illumination). "Better" may be relative, but you are giving me an abstract idea that doesnt help. The sorcery in RQG, as it is, is much weaker than in RQ3 (where it was arguably the "worst" magic system at low levels, but at medium-high level started to pick up and gain its own unique advantages, and was able to compete -to some extent-). Everything people say here about sorcery, you could do it on the old rules, only better. The sorcery system, RAW, for a player character, as i see it... Is *EXTREMELY* underwhelming. Yes you can have long-duration buffs. You could before, and the spells were better/easier to master. You can't even get POW gain rolls now, unless you want to spend a round and a half (maybe 2) casting a spell. Acting once every 2 or 3 rounds, is, in my opinion and im confident my players simply boring. Ive been playing roleplaying games for 25 years. I played AD&D, D&D3e, RQ2, RQ3, many WoD and nWoD games, Fate, Savage Worlds, SWD6, Warhammer 2e, and probably i few more i cant recall. I never, ever saw a wizard class taking 2 turns to perform a single basic (and weak) spell (especially when the counterparts can attack twice per round, or cast support magic + attack). I really can't understand why everyone is cool with it. If i spend 3 rounds casting a spell, i expect a battle-ending, world shattering spell, not "+2d6 damage" or whatever. In old RQ3 you could cast a 18 point intensity spell in 2 rounds. That was a sight to behold (and a very rare occurence, since no intelligent enemy will let a wizard spellcast for 20+seconds... except maybe in RQG because in 2 rounds you cast a pathetic 5 point spell (and spend up to 15 MP on it to boot).

How do they even cheat on heroquests??? By using sorcery? Don't theists use their own, better magic there? Also isn't heroquests cheating a godlearner thing? They believe in god, malkion, hrestol, they gather for worship, how are they not a church? (Again it wasn't my intention to snarl, english isn't my 1st language, im at 30% skill)

"one of best army in the world" and "magically powerful" directly contradict you i think, but english is not my 1st language, i might be mistaken. Jeff's comments here on this site. Nothing has been published. YGWV (and his) i guess. We tend to take published sources as cannon and go from there, but you do you 😃 EDIT: i find completely out of character for Loskalmi to cheat on heroquests to gain spells from other magic systems. If a PC of mine did that the church would most definitely excomulgate him.

While my PCs started as murder-hobos (we were 17 back then lol) they arent anymore for at least 15 years. One is a king, one is a self-proclaimed sorcery saint (and of course, banished from the realm) and one is... an old murder hobo (but that's a cult duty so it doesn't count). Of course there are more characters (once i GMed for 12 people... NEVER AGAIN), these are the only surviving "OGs" (well, one of them is like 2 IRL years younger and the other two spent a few IRL years death until they came back but you get my point). "It looks like where you're going wrong is by trying to upgrade the game system while continuing the same campaign and keeping the same characters. That sounds like a recipe for a whole bunch problems, regardless of the game system." Well, i disagree. The system is pretty similar to what im running (RQ2+3 aberration). Most new stuff we house ruled strikingly similar. My only real dislikes with the system are rolling dice to cast magic (RQ2 FTW) and the sorcery rules (which are not getting used as they are, i think my sorcerers would literally hit me with a chair if i nerfed them like that LOL)

"The Loskalmi army is one of the best in the world. It is professional, motivated, well equipped and magically powerful." Glorantha: Genertela, Crucible of the Hero Wars, Genertela book, page 11 (emphasis mine). Has this been Gregged? Do you have a source for their weakness and compromises? Is there a source for the heroquesting stuff?

Hrestoli, Vadeli and the Black horse troop would like to disagree with your "philosopher and alchemist staying in their tower" trope IMHO "From a pure game design perspective, though: there is zero point in adding a third magic system that does what the other two do, which is to be useful in action and combat scenes. If a character wants to be able to cast spells in less than a round in order to buff themselves up or deal damage or control the forces of nature, there's already Spirit and Rune Magic for this. Sorcery (again, IMHO) is for something completely different in terms of gameplay, storytelling, and flavour." But in glorantha there are whole societies (and quite a few of them) that mostly / only use sorcery. This doesn't fly. What happens if the lunar army clashes with a western army? They just win no contest? Because published low rank NPCs from every RQ incarnation have access to magic, and now it turns out westerners don't really have a practical alternative. You can argue that the wizards can enchant the knights, but the lunar priests can also enchant their soldiers, faster and spending way less magic power. Or, you know, let the soldiers get a similar boost by themselves and then use all their magic offensively or for healing (since a single wizard having to cast spells for a lot of knights cant just cast high intensity spells on everyone)

Yeah the problem is that the main PC sorcerer is a Hrestoli magus. He has been playing the character since 1997 (not on the reg anymore). He always explored hostile territory and fought stuff, he wasnt a magical gadgeteer, sorcerers never were, not in RQ3, not in Gods of Glorantha, and not in HeroWars/HeroQuest. This is a radical departure of what gloranthan sorcery ever was. My latest personal character was a Black Horse county mercenary. Am i supposed to not use magic again? Do i need mercenary hirelings for my mercenary character?

Man multiquoting is beyond my forum skill :) "I regularly have sorcerers in my games, they always prepare beforehand. Spells like Boon of Kargan Tor are cast weeks before," Yes, my sorcerers do that too. But they also cast spells. I cant tell a guy who has 210% evoke fire (form/set fire in RQ3) that his favorite spell is completely useless. "Preparation. The Lhankor Mhy sorcerer was really useful at discovering important stuff, no fighting required. We didn't have any runelords." But the sorcerer in question does fight. He is a hrestoli, and has a damage boosted greatsword. While we are at it, how are sorcerers supposed to gain POW now, since clearly spellcasting is not an option? "That means they are standing to close 🙂 I've never had one interrupted, they can always make a concentration roll." Yeah, well, theres a whole country (loskalm) of sorcerers that do stand close to fight. I guess that they dont use magic besides buffs anymore...

So, i am to tell my sorcerer PC that has been playing since 1997 that his magus is now useless in combat and "standard" runelords (i.e. not heroes) that he used to destroy now can wipe the floor with him? I mean, the new sorcery system is a straight downgrade from core rq3 sorcery in every single aspect... He is a hrestoli btw, do knights not adventure either? Or maybe they get killed every single time they face a different type of magic user?

So, while converting my old RQ2/3 mashup house rules to RQG i got to the sorcery part, which is literally unplayable for me. Can someone explain how are you supposed to adventure with these rules? They seem pretty much unplayable (and I find them overly complicated and limiting with the runes). Did anybody playtest these??? How is it any fun to "cast a spell" for 2+ rounds while the runelords actually do stuff, and then most likely get interrupted? Like... I feel the best way to play a sorcerer now is "hit stuff with my damage boosted sword" (only damage boosting got nerfed to oblivion AND everyone else is actually better at hitting stuff with their swords). I feel these rules are only good for NPCs... And even then those NPCs would be better off being shamans or theists. /Rant

Hi there! I don't post much but i GMed rq3 from '97 to '16 or so. I had a hardcore group of 3 players but GMed for quite a few people (i even had a couple of 12 player sessions when i merged everyone for a campaign finale). Anyway, TLDR: i can't remember a single theist PC without access to shield. People just didnt pick those cults!!! Other gms also treated those cults as npc cults / secondary too.