Austin

I'd see this as something more like "Steal Glowspot" or "Devour Glowspot." Though maybe it would only last until the next Full Moon day before the nearest Temple of the Reaching Moon restored the patch. I don't know how the "mechanics" of a magical "generator" supporting the Glowline works.

That adventurer's first array had a CHA of 5, which the player really liked for that adventurer, but lousy CON and I think SIZ. His second array was super good (including the CHA 18), but initially he was torn between the really good or really bad CHA and went with good. Our logic was basically that that adventurer was kind of like Charles Manson or some other cult leader/murderer (the adventurer was a Bison Tribe Praxian, not a troll) and kind of had this eerie persuasion that made sense to "normal" folks but was still off-putting. It was a great. Literally came up with both of those within the last two, three days while writing material for my group. Made up a group of Lunar soldiers-turned-bandits and kept getting rolls of like 5 and 7 for STR or CON--which is particularly relevant when they're supposed to be wearing heavy armor! So I started just auto-re-rolling dice under 10, and kinda-sorta formalized it into a personal rule. I let a few garbage characteristics stand, but usually had to have some reason in my brain why. For example, a scout and archer with STR 5, not enough to wield a Self Bow--well, he just got nailed by a disease and hasn't built the STR back up yet. That sort of thing. I've not tried the 19D6 thing yet but we just and a couple adventurers die last session and they doesn't wanna get rezzed, so I think I'll offer them this method. If they takes it up, I'll report back. My thinking with the 19 is that makes 3 numbers assigned to 5 characteristics, then 2 numbers assigned to 2 characteristics, SIZ and INT. So they're still getting the +6 fixed bonus. Total of 19 dice thrown; maybe more if I offer "reroll ones" as well. For me, the real appeal of that method is watching the minmaxed bizarro characters which get build. Things like INT 17 but STR 4, CHA 6, etc.

Feel like I need that on a shirt or something...

Just to be sure I understand your process, you took the percentage already present in the old adventure, then added either (1D3-1)x5 or (1D6-1)x5 to the existing percentage? Ex, Reek, a trollkin, had Poky Stick 20% in an old adventure. Rolled a 3 on D3, so gained 10% to have Poky Stick 30% in your RQG conversion? Thank you.

Ooh, you're going to get into trouble for that! How about "Rules are for players, but Heroquesters break the rules." ?

I've had some of the same concerns as OP. The raw roll of 3D6 can feel really, really mediocre. And as @Ian Absentia points out sometimes a low characteristic makes for great roleplay, but at other times it's just vexing. Currently, I've been having my players choose three points first to add where they want, as if from Bless Pregnancy, to be "what my family hoped I would be." Sometimes this remains true to character, sometimes there's tension. Then I had them roll characteristics in order, which seemed what's going on RAW before finally adding their bonuses from Elemental Runes. I somewhat like how this works, because you can end up with a really surprising characteristic which results in unusual play (like a Zorak Zoran berserker with CHA 18 who's just persistently, weirdly compelling...). After, if the array was super garbage, I let them re-roll it. Almost every adventurer we've created has re-rolled two or three arrays and picked one. So I feel like yeah, 3D6 is rough to get "feel-good" numbers on, even if the adventurers still might be playable (so long as that 3D6 CON is reasonable...) I like the idea of 4D6 best 3, like in D&D. From my experience it makes for pretty good characters and you've usually got some lousy stat somewhere. I could also just see a flat rule of "reroll under 8" or under 10. Under 10's what I've done when I'm generating "elite" NPCs for our game. Another idea I'm tossing around is having my players roll 19D6, record the numbers, maybe reroll 1's. Then, use those generated numbers where they please to create adventurers. I feel like this absolutely encourages minmaxing but might also end up with these bizarro characters with like three amazing characteristics and four mediocre/terrible ones. Has anyone tried a point-buy system? Know of one from a different rendition of RQ/BRP? I'd be curious to see how that works. Or a stat array like in Pathfinder.

Oh, I thought you were criticizing the spell point totals (knowing 12pts of each). My bad. Too many editions of this bloody game.

Could you cite that? AFAIK that was the case in prior editions, but is not in RQG. I just re-skimmed the spirit magic chapter and didn't see anything (but in full honesty I was going pretty speedy). P.253-255 seems to be where the text would be.

This is entirely in My Glorantha, but to make my life simpler I've ruled that the Rune spell Discorporation and the shaman ability to discorporate are two different abilities sharing the same name. I've treated Discorporation as basically similar to astral projection or wandering ethereally in D&D; you can enter the Spirit World at a vortex (I used a naiad's pond before) but are generally restricted to exploring your immediate surroundings in the Middle World for the spell's duration. If you want to move quicker than mundane walking a Spirit Travel roll's required. You can also get this effect by smoking hazia. The ethereal adventurer is somewhat aware of "other side" shenanigans going on around, but their perception is primarily focused on the Middle World. In contrast, I plan to treat the shaman ability as focused on the Spirit World. It lets you go there right away, starting at the adventurer's home place. (My players haven't awoken a fetch yet.) The adventurer gets to wander the Spirit World, making their one Spirit Travel check and getting their one spirit encounter per the rules before returning to their body. The shaman may forcibly leave the Spirit World and explore the Middle World, but is less aware of what's going on physically. They require the Visibility spell to initiate spirit combat or to speak even with a magical language like Spiritspeech. I assume you can, because not all cults with shamans appear to have Discorporation. For example, the Yelm of the Golden Bow subcult and IIRC Kyger Litor. Though I doubt you could gain experience in those skills without actually using them while discorporate. Of course, you can always head over to Prax and light up some hazia or moon flowers...

This is something my players struggle with too (especially since I'm the only one in the group who owns the book). I've got a quick summary of common Rune magic and some other rules prepped and in a binder on the table so they don't have to slog through the rulebook, but they still don't have the instinctive "well, what're my Rune spell options?" feeling. Of course I'm probably fighting more of an uphill battle than I would with new players because most of mine are used to our previous campaign, which was RQ3 with very little divine magic used at all. Mostly Petersen's shamanism and sorcery.

Post them! though TBH I think the only hero/superhero my players won't wanna someday throwdown with is Harrek.

In my copy and on the PDF I don't see the ** mark indicating a linen linothorax can be worn beneath other armor. Also (just in general) worth noting that I don't believe there's a "wear under" option for the head.

AFAICT, there's no reason to not wear leather vambraces, hauberk, and pants below your other armor. The table on p.215 notes "Can be worn under any other armor, with a cumulative encumbrance penalty" for those items but the listed ENC is 0. So.... Free AP! I think. Unless I buggered the reading again. Am I wrong?

What was your process when coming up with these stats? I can very much see my players wanting to go up against notable named characters of the Hero Wars metaplot someday...

Would that be something that comes under a Cult Lore skill, or something more specific? Also, thanks for all the ideas. Much appreciated especially the Eurmali invisibility! What do you mean by a "this world" heroquest? It doesn't ring a bell for me.

On p.201 of the Bestiary the entry for windberry trees has a description of how to make a Staff of Flight from one of its boughs and a sidebar describing such a staff's functions. This really caught my imagination. I love the idea of adventurers being able to learn how to create magic items in this way in addition to casting enchantments from Rune and spirit magic or from sorcery. It's definitely more flavorful than comparable systems of item creation I've read. Does anyone know of other examples of magic item creation in this way from older RQ material? From what I remember of Plunder there's a lot of cool items, but the general trend was more "cool/terrifying artifact from the Godtime" rather than "here's something your adventurer can learn or set as a goal." Also, has anyone made up an item creation process like this themselves? How have players reacted to it?

Could you elaborate on your reading? Having re-read the sections on 275 and 311 this notion of "compatibility" feels ambiguous to me. The way I see it, Friendly is more "oh hey we like each other" and Associated is the close bond needed to share worship. But I feel like there's not really support in the text to prefer one reading to another, so I'm curious to understand your interpretation.

You could maybe just do a quick and dirty house rule of buying "reinforcement" for a shield. Something like +1HP +1ENC for half the original cost of the shield, stackable. So pricy but not insanely so (since probably custom work), but quickly prohibitive due to the increasing weight of the damned thing. Then let the player describe what ways they want their reinforced shield to look like--metal coating, edges, seven-layered oxhide, etc. So a doubly-reinforced Large Shield would be... Oh. I see what @Eric Christian Berg was talking about prices-wise. A large Hide Shield is 25C for the same stats as wicker or wood. Harrumph. Maybe that's supposed to be L? But it's C for all the Hide shields... So to amend the above, I'd suggest reinforcing wooden only--they're the only ones with enough starting structure to add atop or some such explanation. Then a doubly-reinforced large shield would cost 80L, and have 18 HP and 5 ENC. Probably require higher strength to wield, too... maybe +1STR requirement per point of reinforcement?

That's interesting to me. In the past one of my friends played a Stormbully (love that btw) and our GM played it as entirely passive. Anytime Chaos was around (and occasionally when it wasn't) he'd roll the player's Sense Chaos and let him know if he felt any. If he felt any, the player's adventurer was compelled to kill/destroy the thing he thought was Chaos. If the GM had rolled a fumble Surprise! wasn't actually Chaos. It never ended up happening, but this always made us worry a little more when he'd start tossing dice while we were in a town. God forbid poor little Sally's secretly a Chaos horror...

Don't have exact numbers involved in mind, but I can imagine doing a mix of Geas/Gifts and Oath to result in rewards from Humakt heroquests, particularly for non-Humakti. What I have in mind is basically "You're offered a gift from the god of Death; do you take it?" If yes, sacrifice any number of MP, and GM decides gift from list or other unique one. Get a geas as well, but instead of just losing the gift if you break the geas, you get nailed by a Sever Spirit of MPx2 or x3, with the Humakti perma-death attached if you don't resist. Sort of an Oath-backed gift, getting something meh or really good the riskier you're willing to play it.

The way I read it, because Humakt has "None." for Associated Cults listed in its entry on p.297, initiates of Humakt can't be initiates of other cults. Which makes sense, given the whole separation motif running throughout the cult in the stories IIRC.

Malkioni are especially powerful sorcerers we'll have to wait for a supplement to be sure in the meantime, I'd say that what Malkioni sorcerers can achieve doesn't mean that any other sorcerers can do the same Keep in mind these thoughts were going while I'd boinked the fragment @metcalph quoted on p.391 out of my memory. Though, I do look forward to that mystic, magic day we get the sorcery supplement. Wonder if "sorcery rules" will become the next "heroquest rules" type wishlist item, after the Gamemaster's Guide happens.

I think from a game balance perspective, Power Enhancing crystals just have to not work for sorcery. Unlike Healing Focusing crystals, Power Enhancing don't have the "only double as many points as its POW" tag--and even if it did, that would still be insanely strong. As a GM, I can't imagine ever letting a sorcerer get their hands on such a crystal. On an average 4.5 POW in the crystal, with only doubling as many points as POW, it would still be an incredible tool. +4 or +5 spell strength to every spell you cast? That's incredible. With the way sorcery spells grow, that's incredibly strong. It's basically getting the crystal's POW as a strength-only inscription for all of your spells. If you allowed it for duration or range... Oh, maybe that's how the Lunars enhanced the Moonburn. Looking across the board, it seems that the crystals aren't written with sorcery or Rune magic really in mind. Is this another case of copy-paste? I'm unfamiliar with crystal text from other editions. Generally, at my table I'll probably rule that Power Enhancing, Healing Focusing, and Sensitivity crystals only provide effects for spirit magic. The other crystals feel generic enough that I'd let their effect stand across the board, probably.

Munchkin "trick" #507: Start with a 41 year old adventurer. While the skill bonuses are pretty trivial, you do get +6 Rune points for being 20 years older than starting. Only costs one point of STR, CON, or DEX, of your choice. At 51, get +9RP. Page 81, though it's in a sidebar, it doesn't look like a "variation" or "alternative" type of rule.

This sounds to me like you could also get in a free shield bash if you're using a shield instead of a second weapon. Basically, each hand can parry once, attack once, and further parries take the -20% penalty. Am I right?