ChrisJ

This forms the basis of my house heroquest rules - the skills augment the Rune - I've had 3 HQ in the current campaign and this has run quite well. Additionally for the hardest HQ, the questor is not allowed to re-use a Rune used elsewhere in the quest (although for a Sacrifice/Geas one can reset this). This rule generated alot of meta thinking by my players - but also was the reason they sought out more information on the Myths the HQ was based on.

The example on page 386 although only a 1 Rune/1Tech example aligns with the your second block of text Godlearner, and does not align with your first. The text that confuses the matter is just above this example "Using an unmastered technique or Rune costs double the magic points, and if a sorcerer tries to cast a spell with a Rune and a technique they have not mastered, the magic point cost is multiplied by 4 (essentially, doubled twice)." But there is no example in the book covering the use of both missing runes and techniques. Nor is there an example with the sorcerer casting a spell with 2 runes not mastered but all techniques mastered. After discussion with my players our interpretation was: MP Cost of casting a Mastered sorc spell spell = Base + Additional Intensity MP Cost of Casting an Un-Mastered Sorc Spell = Base + 1MP per Rune Implied +1 MP per Technique Implied + Additional Intensity*2 Where Base is the number of Runes and Techniques the spell uses.

Nice spell - although one can always pass the MP matrix around.

Indeed we spent several minutes of our session Zero trying to interpret that the text on the spell cost. The Tables clearly show un-mastered manipulation costing double, and the example shows what happens when missing 1 R/T. What was most unclear to us was what happened if more than 1 Rune or Tech was missing - in the end we decided to increase the base cost of the spell by 1MP per missing R/T and only double the cost of intensity. As for MP cost - all the PC's had MP matrix or Spirits in POW storage Crystals. Only 1 of them had a TAP spell (the Macabean had a Tap Moonlight spell similar in Power to the steal Breath spell - although my interpretation of that spell is that the duration only applies to how long excess MP remain available, and only 1d6 comes per round up to the limit of the number of d6 indicated by intensity). We had a lot of fun in the mini-campaign, but have since reverted to their main Satar based characters - albeit with an increased awareness of the abilities of sorcerers.

As per the rules on pg 384 "Mastering New Runes or Techniques A sorcerer starts by mastering one Rune and one technique, as described in the Philosopher occupation on page 70. A sorcerer must have a minimum INT of 13 to understand one Rune and one technique. For each point of INT above 13, the sorcerer can learn one more Rune or one more technique." The players in my mini campaign found that the double MP cost of non mastered runes to be a greater impact to them casting spells than the free INT - using a 3 Rune/Technique spell with at least one rune un-mastered is 4MP+42MP to cast at full intensity, and takes nearly 10 rounds to cast (1Rd + Dex SR + 82SR). This was not a problem for a weekly boost spell but not something they felt was going to help them in the middle of combat. In fact a lot of the campaign was setup around them planning their spells to be cast ahead of time in dark alley's or out of the way rooms.

The campaign (I called it "The Moonuments Men") was for 4 Lunar sorcerers sent back to Satar after the dragonrise to recover some artifacts and tomes left behind after the rapid redeployment of the Satar garrison (lets not call it a rout). One was an Inripi Ontar Worshiper, the other 3 were of sorcerer schools I'd derived (based on HQ material), A lunar College of Magic Sorc, a Macabean Sorc, and a Red Moon Warlock. They travelled back to Boldhome and their raid on the Satar palace vault coinsided with the disastrous outcome of Kalyr's Lightbringer quest.

I just finished running an all sorc mini campaign - I kept all the other rules for INT the same but set starting Free INT to max human INT (AKA 21). Worked out pretty well. Apart from the weekly castings most spells averaged about 14 pts of intensity due to the long casting times. Two of the Sorcerers had INT 16 - the big impact to these sorc was that they could only have 5 Runes/Techniques, so they had to select their runes carefully, and expect to cast using extra MP for some spells.

It says suffocation starts the round after the casting (which implies no suprise on the victim), thus suffocation is CONx5 for the first 5 rounds - so that should give any respectable opponent a good chance to cause the caster to force the caster to make a concentration roll to maintain the spell. The spell is also active in which case the caster will have difficulty moving away from other opponents, who now see the sorcerer as a dangerous opponent. TAPing the very essence on ones god can be seen very negatively by worshipers of the Air pantheon (most of Satar and Prax), and thus the reputation of the sorcerer will cause unfair targeting by the locals. Just like when fighting against an opponent with a high weapon skill, multiple opponents are usually a better challenge than a single "tough guy" - I recall that in my game my party decimated a Dragon in 1 single combat round.

I Have limited the MP's that may be sacrificed for Worship rolls. For Initiates the Bonus caps out at 2 additional MP (AKA +20%), for Priests and God Talkers the bonus caps out at 4 MP, and for Rune Lords the limit is the character’s MP. This had the effect that several of the PC's sought out the additional bonuses, as well as augments from Devotion and Sing/Dance skills. I run a rolling calendar not rigidly sticking to 1 adventure per Season and so recovery of just a few RP can be important. There is a big difference in difficulty when you know an important encounter is coming up and the PC's have spent all their RPs, but then some other encounters become Trivial if the Orlanthi Rune Priest Casts Shield 3 before rushing in.

Of course a Initiate with a Power Crystal (available as a Boon during character generation), can pay for an NPC to cast the summon at a local Temple, and then use command cult spirit to "store" said elemental in the Power crystal. If cast close to a Holy day the NPC and the PC will probably recover the spent RP without needing them in the intervening day or so. Once the PC has sufficient RP they can do this themselves of course.

Don't sweat it. If they take 3xHP to limbs from multiple blows. They are likely dead! (If their Leg HP=5 then their THP=13-15). So yes damage from subsequent blows to the same location still count for THP damage. This is why creatures lacking THP (Zombies/Skeletons etc) can be fearsome opponents. Intelligent creatures should cry "Ransom" before letting the fight get this serious.

Since the RP recovery bonus lists "Weekly or other minor holy days" as a bonus to the roll - I have given all my players the option of a weekly holy day for their cults. Orlanth Windday, Ernalday Clayday, Eurmal Wildday, Yelmalio Fireday, etc I haven't yet had a Humakt initiate but I would offer either Windday as a former son of Umath, or Godday as the option. But I do like the idea of offering a minor holy day to commemorate or perpare for a major battle subject to the local priest/high priest's decision.

I try to err on the side of player agency - for some games as suggested suspense dictates otherwise - but for RQ I try to put the dice in the hands of the players. I have also chosen to GM without hidden dice - so a GM roll would be seen anyway. Most of the situations raised above can be overcome through a slight re-framing of the situations or the application of the skill. In many cases though the test is an opposed roll, and the outcome isn't set until the opponents roll. E.G sneaking up on a guard - fail move silently roll - "you are mostly quiet but your armor is subtly clinking with every step" Their intent could still be mostly successful if the guard fails their Listen roll too - e.g. you get in range for a dagger strike before they can let off a warning (but they can dodge) - but not you reach them and surprise them striking without a defense roll. As to how to handle the inevitable failures and fumbles - I use Humor and Ridiculousness. E.g. Someone fumbles a Hide roll - "You stand in the corner with a lampshade on your head" For fumbled knowledge rolls I usually gift information starting with "There is an old wives tale that you recall" - then decide if the information is false or true - the PC's do not know if the information is false, partly true, or fully true, until they try it. A failure is easy, "you don't recall anything useful about that", or "most people know X". As for traps - "GM: You are about to trigger a trap" "PC: Surely I would have seen that before stepping on it" "GM: OK roll me a search or scan". The only issue I face is POW vrs POW to resist a spell (as some spells have special effects on Special/Critical - e.g. Madness) - but most times I will invert the roll and tell them they have a 35% (or whatever) to resist the spell. But this is not to say I haven't had fun in games run where the GM handles any roll where the knowledge of success or failure is unclear immediately - because these games are also fun. The best advice is talk with your players and find out what makes things fun for themselves.

For Orgorvale Summer, as this is presented as a Spirit cult I did not give any special treatment for Worship or cult Lore - and only gave a base Devotion 60% to the PCs that founded the cult. There is no indication that anything else is warranted - these will all grow as the PC's endeavor to expand the cult.

OK it seems I miss remembered. But due to the ability to back search the game log in Roll20 I'm able to confirm the actual details. Firstly the large hit on the Storm Bull was a Special not a Critical (so Armor did apply). The Demon Claws slash resulted in 27 damage to the abdomen - with a Heavy Scale Hauberk that resulted in 22 penetrating. This PC is Size 21 (Darkness rune +1, Bison Rider +2), with a con of 15 (thus 22 while Bezerking) and has 25HP while Bezerking (9HP in Abdomen). Thus he was left with 3 Total HP after the hit, and a very negative abdomen (not an instant kill - 22 is not 3 times 9 - the location HP), but bleeding. So I apologize for the confusion the hit wasn't quite as severe as I initially remembered - still I was amazed that the PC survived.

In my HQ rules - I'm reversing the position of runes and skills - instead of the Rune Augmenting the skill - the Skill augments the Rune - EG fighting using a broadsword is a test of ones Air rune (or Death rune, or even Movement rune, depending on narration and goal), if you want to augment that then you can use your Broadsword skill (or possibly other skill if narrated). One roll of the air rune is all that is used - from which the players and I can narrate the outcome using opposed rolls. Using the same rune over and over will be penalized just the same way as multiple parries in a round are penalized (i.e. -20%). We have our first otherworld HQ using these rules (obtaining a Wyter for the Orgovale Summer cult) - if I capture enough notes I'll relay our experience here.

Yeah Dread - the Players know they were lucky with that one. I know that the Dragon wasn't going to last long when there is a sword in the mix that ignores the dragons best defense (its armor) on a normal attack. Two of the other warriors attacked with their normal weapons and their attacks were stopped straight against the Dragons armor (low rolls for damage). Even still the non-melee combatant had a 50-50 shot with a buffuddle that would have made the dragon an easy target. Most of the pointers I gave were about reminding to prep before a fight. Protection 2 and Bladesharp 2 can be very effective in reducing lethality and increasing potency. An extra 2pts of defense or 2pts damage can be the difference between loosing the use of a limb, or causing an opponent to loose a limb. The other things were mainly reminding them of underused capabilities on their character sheet - e.g. telling them of the use of a timely Fanatasism can give them an attacks against a foe who will not be able to parry (the timely part was to use the spell after the opponent attacked in a round). In actual fact their main gripe (again former D&D players) has not been the lethality of combat, but the durability of their opponents when equally matched - I.E. the tenancy of RQ to be multiple rounds of Attack-Parry-no damage. again the advice was to not use the same tactics, and break out of the attack parry mold.

If you want to fight against overwhelming odds then RQG will quickly set you right - my last session was the climax of the Dragon of thunder hills from the Gamemasters screen adventure pack. Facing down 5 adventurers (4 of which are very obvious warriors), the Dragon got cocky thinking it could take them on solo, and it was quickly put to shame when the Babeester Gor warrior maiden criticaled with her Great-axe and did 42 pts of damage to the dragons abdomen - instant smear. Contra-wise a few sessions previously a Large Chaos Demon critical-ed the Bezerking Storm Bull initiate (also in the abdomen) for 30pts of damage. The difference between these two scenarios was that in the second case the Storm Bull initate had a friend nearby able to cast Heal Wound. In my opinion the introduction of re-usable Rune magic for initiates has already taken the largest step in mitigating the lethality of previous revisions (I've only played RQ2 and RQ3), and for my games there is no need to introduce many house rules to reduce it further. One thing I realized early with my group of fairly new RQ players (long time players and GMs of other systems) is that they were not using all the tools available - once I shared some old school RQ tactics with them they haven't looked back.

Just ran the "Dragon of Thunder Hills". The Dragon was a bit of a letdown really in the end - One Bite of the Praxian for 30pts of damage (it was parried and after shiled and armor only 12pts went through to hit the arm where 12pts was not enough to sever the arm, and since it was a 5HP arm only 10 pts recorded). Immediately following the bite, the Babeester Gor axe maiden critical-ed with her greataxe (scoring 42Hp damage) and the dragon was dead. Fortunately everyone enjoyed the build up and the heroic end will be remembered a long while.

We just had our first near death experience for one of my players - a demon had a special on its claw attack striking the abdomen of our bezerking Storm Bull (hence no parry) - a large demon has a claw attack that inflicts 4d6 damage, thus the special now did 8d6 - I rolled low and did 27 damage (against 5AP) so 22 penetrated - with the HP boost from the Bezerk the Storm Bull had 9hp in the abdomen (so no instant death) - but only 21 hp. Fortunately the Babeester Gor Initiate was close by and had not acted and was able to cast Heal Body. This did require 1 Fudge for MGF since Rune magic is supposed to occur at SR 1, so I ruled the Heal Body took effect 5SR after the change of intent. Just an FYI - Large Demons are nasty - 21 POW => 21 HP and 21 AP.

Spell Teaching is described as a week of prayer, fasting, and forming the spell focus. But one of the outcomes of spirit combat is wresting a spell from the spirit you defeated. So the concept is still present.

Its been used in some unusual ways in my game - the Babester Gor Warrior Sang a song of war and death (augmenting her Sing skill with Battle) - the Sable Rider told his Khan of the Battle of Dangerford using Battle instead of Orate - it has been used in place of scan to avoid obvious ambush sites (could be used to find the best site too if you wanted to make an Ambush).

Many of the NPC's appear to have added the move silently penalty for each piece of armor they are wearing - but it was my understanding (and can't find a change) that it was the highest penalty for the "noisiest armor that was used (and not the sum). E.G. Jardin on pg 21 has a move quietly penalty of -70, but by my understanding, the penalty should be -25 for the heavy scale skirt (the armor piece with the worst penalty). This same interpretation is repeated with several NPCs wearing heavy armor.

In the character history - there are a couple of opportunities to receive a boon. One of the potential boons in an extra RP.

In runequest there are fixed point spirit magic spells and variable point spirit magic spells. Variable spells can be learnt at many different point levels (typical values are 1 to 6), a variable spell learnt at the 4pt level can be cast at any level from 1-4 (e.g. if the player knows Heal 4 and only wants to heal 3hp damage they can cast heal 3 - but that player character can't cast heal 5). The spell disuption is an example of a fixed point spell with a fixed point of 1, other spells such as demoralize have a fixed point of 2 and the spell lightwall has a fixed point of 4 - these spells cost their fixed point when cast. Now Glorantha is a magical place and there are some exceptions - one exception is the Rune Magic Spell "Multi-spell", which allows(in RQG) multiple spirit magic spells to be cast at the same time - there is a special text in the spell description that describes how this affects disruption. Another exception is to enable a spell to overcome magical defenses, in which addition MP may need to be spent to overcome the defenses of the target - this is described in the defensive spells such as countermagic or the Rune spell "Shield". There are probably other examples where some exceptions to the basic rules occur - but these will be special circumstances. Hope this helps and welcome to the game.