Zit

In basic combat, what is the point having a shield in close combat ? It seems to be only cosmetics, but basic combat is more adapted to narrative, so it does not matter so much. Except that it takes one unusefull trait. Can't we state that a shield removes 1 damage (depletes or disturbs a strike...), provided you have the Trait, like does armour ? Or alternately to allow the situational modifier "Target partially covered by an object" and extend it to close combat ?

When using a power as bonus during a conflict or a basic combat: 1- how do you diferenciate high powered spells (ex. divine or high Might arcane) from low powered spells (ex. cantrips) ? As long as they are not used for rolling for effect, do you consider that they are only helps with no significaant difference ? 2- How do you diferenciate the short lasting powers from the long lasting one ? Do you consider powers triggered before a conflict -ex. during a ritual- with a long duration encompassing the whole conflict as a situational modifier ? That is, changing the basic chances of success (or damage or whatever) for the whole duration, and not as a bonus for a single roll ?

on the other hand, the section "Your Community" p. 39 seems to belong to the chapter "Keywords", which header seems to be bigger, while the header "your community" has the same size than "your cultural Keyword" and "your occupational keyword". It not very clear. And the Community section is between Cultural KW and Occupational KW. So I would tend to consider that it is a keyword according to the rules themselves.

With a proper Heroquest ?

Anyway, I've never seen check-hunting as being a problem. After all, this is like in RW: learning by practicing. It is normal to try to put in practice a technique you want to improve, even if it is not the most efficient you know. Of course, there are some risks, as Jeff said. And RQ2 limited even training without in-between experience, if I remember well.

Excellent suggestion

Did you ever consider having an ebook version of it, and in general of all your products ? For instance e-pub, convertible to other proprietary formates. Ok, it is not optimal for art and is B&W, but would be nice for all the ebook possessors.

I understand the Communities as keywords. Am I right ? Is it possible to have a contact as a break-out of a community ?

1- the defender is in this case supppsed to hit the attacking weappn, so he can use his bonus 2- this is unclear in CRQ. But in the original 16-page BRP which was sold together with RQ2 boxed esition and could be seen at that time as the basic RQ rules, RQ being an extension of it, it was clearly stated that you can only either attack once OR parry once in the same round, not both. 2H spear was an exception. This contradicts indeed Rurik's example. I made at some time my own rule where having one single weapon allows one attack and one parry, but having 2 (including shield) allows one single action per weapon : the combat technics (stance etc.) are different. You can in any case attack or parry twice with 2 weapons, which not possible with a single weapon whichever rule you chose (Basic RP or Rurik's exemple). 3- either bypass armour or double damage when parried, not both. It is clearly written in the book. 4- yes it can. armours don't lose points in RQ2. It works at full efficiency against every single blow.

As a modest martial artist, I'm with you. It is also a question of character and physical features. The question is not so much to understand what actually are Martial Arts, but what you want then to be in your game. If you want to stuck to RW, the body is a weapon and there is no reason to have a mechanism more detailed than for any other weapon skill. Wth a sword, you can also fight defensively, aggressively, make parade-ripostes and so on. All this is encompassed by the skill roll. MArtial art is only an academic way to learn using your body as a weapon. Now, if you want martial arts be a kind a superior power, then you need some special rules, stunts, powers, traits or whatever.

that's the only reason why I'm always hesitated playing with Lunars, especially priests. For the others, you can play without knowing every season's holy day. ok, but what about other players, that is we, the people you are making the game for ? How many of us want to keep track of the days to be able to play a sorcerer ? How many new players, who are no Glorantha-geeks ? But I may be an exception, I don't even use RW calendars . On the other hand, you play-tested it, I did not, so if nobody complained about that, I'll assume that it works fine.

Why rolling dice ? Why not plain +n% ? What does it really bring rolling dice in term of MGF ? Moreover for a few % It slows down the game and I'm always for simplification whenever possible. That said, I always have been reluctant to the diverse sorcery systems, incl. in HQ, but this one is the first one which seems easy to understand and to play, to me at least. My only concern are the timely bonusses, which oblige to book keep a game calendar. I'm afraid most players, incl. GMs, won't. (Players : " We want to go from that place to that one, how many days it takes exactly?" GM: "how, let me have a look at the map a calculate it. Let me look in my notes which we are today. How is the weather ? And there is a small part of moutain track. How fast are your mounts ? Mmh, let's say you come on Clayday ". Sorcerer Player: "what ? But I masterize the Water Rune ! Let's clacuate it again to see if we come one day before to get my bonus".) I found it always a big pain for Lunar Magic. Did you consider only seasons and weeks ? This is easy to manage during a game. Anyway, if see seasons give element bonus (e.g. Sea), you don't need the days as well (e.g. Water).

"Elegance" was the word chosen by an old early 80's French fanzine to define Runequest ("RuneQuest : l'élégance faite jeu" - Elegance made as game). I totally agree.

If we consider battle magic -like Glue (*) or Mindspeech (**)- as in Runequest, which is supposed to simulate the gloranthan basic magic, it cannot play a big role during a battle : spells are to short lasting (2mn) and consume power, which prevents from casting them again and again. Battle magic is usefull for the first shock only and some is probably kept in reserve to flee if needed. Rune Magic, unless exception (e.g. Humakt's Morale) has generally an effect limited to a single being and is very rare. So I think that mundane skills and equipment play basically a very similar role than in RW for the mass of the combattants. But may be the new version of the rules will contradict this vision. (*) does not work in living tissues (**) works only with sentient creatures able to understand the caster's language

You ressort to magic at every level in Glorantha ! I was speaking of course of the old RQ versions. I find Runequest more adapted for low (beginners) to high (runemasters) level characters, but not really to very high and heroic levels, while HQ is. It is not to say that you can't play big heroes with RQ, but the rules are not really made for it (in my opinion which everybody may not share): Magic available for PCs remains at a human scale, Heroquesting is not handled and stats are detailed. However, the new RQ version will have rules for Heroquesting and the magical effect of runes will be more integrated, so I suppose it will be possible to handle a better way heroic powers and epic campaigns than with the older versions.

Regarding gloranthan rule systems: RuneQuest is grittier than HeroQuest:Glorantha, which is epics-oriented. No idea about 13th Age which I don't know. But of course, you can do what you want with any set of rules. And there is another common accepted rule called "YGWV" for "Your Glorantha Will Vary". Just start with a simple background and dig into it and expend it while playing.

I suppose that stirrups really help with a rigid wodden saddle which makes it more difficult to hold the horse, for heavy armored warriors to get onto the mount, to do some accrobatics like taking something on the ground without dismounting or dodging -and probably for the pathtian shot as well, even if of course feasible without stirrups-, to pull and hold a target entangled in a lasso (and not getting dismounted instead !), and probably to stay hours sitting on the horse and relieve your bottom (especially if you are heavily armoured). There is also a difference between the simple leather laces from ancient times probably essentially made to help getting onto the horse (there was sometime only a single one of them) and the broad iron stirrups made for day-long work on horseback while standing, like in Mongolia, Spain of the Camargue. Anyway, using the full potential of stirrups and all the tricks they allow requires IMHO a rigid saddle, in order to share the pressure over the full surface, which allows 1- to hold the saddle stronger (it does not rotate when standing on one stirrup or getting onto the horse) and 2- push the stirrups downward e.g. by standing on them without injuring the horse. Rigid woden saddles appeared in the 4th AD in Central Asia. That may be the reason why the stirrups spread among steppe nomads before among other nations ? We could imagine the same for Praxians and Pentians spending all their time on horseback and doing tricks with them vs. settled cultures who have a more limited way to use their mounts and may not have recognized (or found) the insterest of rigid saddles and stirrups. But in the time of the Heroes War, there has been enough contacts to spread these over all the nations. My 2 pence.

Good job. This should encourage players to consider crossing a desert or an arid country not being a trivial matter, and how riding horses can be a disadvantage vs. praxian beasts in Prax and the Wastes. BTW, are these US gallons or Imperials ? I wanted to convert all these into metrics for us, poor foreigners (or you may make a version with both ?)

I got it for 1€ on my Kindle. However hard to read through. The repetition of visions goes a bit boring, and this obsession of punishing sinners in horrible tourments made me feel unconfortable. The guys who wrote that were obviously not completely sane. Bit still, beyond what auyl mentionned, I liked the explanation of the seasons and cosmic cycles with the 6 gates of the sun, too. There some material for a fantasy world.

Since Glorantha is a bronze age world, what about saddles? Are there any? This question probably alredy arose in another thread, but I can't remember where.

+7d2 + 30% from being above the target, this hurts ! But I guess that a defending spike or long spear would profit from the charging animal bonus as well. May be as an advantage effect ? Or a stunt ? Or both.

OK. Another question: I haven't seen any rule about charging with the mounted lance. Is there something I missed in the basic or advanced rules ?

Question about damage in basic combat. In the version of the rules I have, it is said: "subtracts 1 for each Size class the target is bigger than Medium (or adds 1 for each Size Class for a smaller target)" Is that either or both ? And this in addition to each opponent's Might, which already depends on size class. For example, an average class M vs. an average class L: when rolling the die, the class M substracts 1 if it wins and the class L adds 1 if he wins, which makes a difference of 2, or players have to chose between either substracting one for the M OR adding one for the L ? Then average L would roll 1d6-1 (-1 from the size class difference) and his L opponent would roll 1d6+3 (+2 Might from his size class +1 for the class difference). Or 1d6-1 vs. 1d6+2 ? or 1d6 vs. 1d6+3?

They may ride traskars, like the Newtlings of Five-Eyes temple.

What is a 3 dimensional role-playing? Still it should be possible to renounce. There can be an event in the life which makes people completely change their ways, a revelation, an unveiled secret or whatever. This is not uncommon in fiction (and even in real life), and rpg is about fiction. It does not have to be realistic (Magic rules or stats for a dragon aren't realistic) but consistent. For exemple, in my current campaign, a PC has been called by the spirits to become a shaman, as usual in Central Asia. What if she was already dedicated to something else ?