Russ Massey

Isn't the intent of the critical hit rule to ensure that no one is ever invulnerable to damage through excessive mundane and magical defences? Anyone engaging in combat should be at risk. So criticals should bypass any type of defense by authorial intent. Just my opinion.

You're lowering the value of the original shirts, still kept in the packageing and never worn. I insist you burn a dozen copies of Lost City of Eldarad to even the balance!

That's what I expected. I'll leave off buying it until I need it more.

Thanks - I already have more or less everything in print. I guess what I was asking is whehter there is any game utility for Mythology before there are actual Heroquesting rules are released. I did feel that the Prosopaedia was of little use in GM terms.

But is it of utility to a GM who just wants to run a game of RQ?

Forbidden Planet is advertsing the first three Gods nooks as available from 31 May at £25.99 for The Lightbtingers and and £23.99 fpr thr Prosopedia and The Earth Goddess. RRPs are shown as £29.99 and $27.99. Is that release date accurate?

The Sun Dome Templars are a professional fighting force. In large scale fighting this should give them major advantages against non-professionals such as tribesmen and barbarians. This is not easily represented in the skirmish level actions typically seen on the RPG table top, but if you created a random action chart for non-professional warriors (so one could cast a defensive spell, while his mate fires a bow and a third man charges the eneny, and the fourth chants his augmenting war song) while the Yelmalions can act uniformly and in perfect sync (like PCs always tend to) then you'd see the advantage in action. It's the Roman army vs the Gauls, where professionalism can defeat a numerical advantage with relative ease.

The original quest was in a Tales of the Reaching Moon, but I can't locate the actual copy on my shelves. It was written for the PenDragon Pass rules, and I ran it a few times when I was playing a campaign of PDP about 15 years ago. One Redaldan adventurer on the quest criticalled a seduction roll on the quest(or lust, maybe - it was a long time ago), and gave birth to the giant's child a few weeks later.

Yes, it already knows Firehorn, Ignite, Light, Spirit Screen and Binding Enchantment (so likely not a Yelmalio sympathiser then) - generated randomly from the summon ancestior spell list.

I've decided the Unicorn cannot initiate until his rider achieves runelevel, and at that point the U. is effectively the embodied allied spirit of the rider. That should preven the rider having effectively 2 allied spirits, and not over-power the rider at initiate level. With the Unicorn effectively ruled out of cave and dungeon scenarios I don't think it becomes a scenario breaker, and the point about thin-skinned mounts being very vulnerable to missile fire is well taken. The rider is already looking at protection spells and casting shield on his mount as well as trying to persuade sceptical Sun Dome armourers of the feasilbility of barding under the unforgiving heat of Yelm. Should be no real problem in Prax temperatures for at least half of the year, but in Fire season I think it would be a no-no. In real life I assume barding was only put in in preparation for battle, but limits the possibility of it being useful in most RQ encounters.

The rider is already researching the cost of barding....

I think I may rule that the U. can only initiate when his companion achieves rune level, and at that point takes the place of the Allied Spirit. That should keep down the power-gaming aspect a little.

And anyway, we haven't asked the Unicorn for his views. Maybe he wants to be a Ulerian ;)

Males ARE allowed to initiate into Yelorna - they just get -10 to CHA when taking the entry test and cannot progress to runelevel.

A Yelornan in my Sandheart campaign has successfully completed her unicorn quest, and now wants her mount to initiate into Yelorna. Her argument is that as unicorns are mythically associated with the goddess, and as there are entires tribes of unicorn-riding Yelornans, this should be an common-place and routine thing. I'm not so certain. Using the guidelines from the otiginal cult write-up in Big Rubble it would seem to me that the unicorn would have to pass the normal tests for initiation (heavily disadvantaged here from the lack of thumbs), and be forbidden from ever progressing beyond initiate status as it is not a human or Aldryami. Am I being too harsh?