gochie

Perhaps house-rule that special parries deal normal weapon damage (no STR mod) to the attacking limb.

If you have a home somewhere you would likely be rooted, and frequent a specific temple regularly. If you left for too long I don't think the community would hold it against you, but your servants/family might. If you don't own land or have immediate family, then you should be allowed to be completely rootless. I don't think anyone would really care if you never came back to your village if you don't even own a farm, and nobody would notice if you went missing in a city.

If you ask my wife (who is currently pregnant, and absolutely hating it), she would not adventure at all. She wouldn't farm either… or hunt… or pick berries. She would sleep. All day.

Definitely sounds like a Heroquest ability.

Not to start a fight, but you got dinged because that's not at all what you said in your first post. I responded to: "very expensive" "for that price I would normally expect a book in print." "I'll know if it was worth it when..." Which are all either wrong or insulting to the author imo. Your second comment, though, is very valid and should have been said first.

You won't get a new 380 page document for 25$, and 60$ for the printed version is a fair price imo (especially considering it's not mass-produced and probably quite expensive to make). I also happen to think people should charge more than 5$ for their adventures. RQ doesn't exactly have the huge following other games have.

I'm so very thankful that you're starting to give the "facts" instead of 20 different versions for each myth. I understood the real-life similarities of the multi-version approach to myths, but as you say, it's not great for explaining a game and its rules to newcomers. Plus, I always thought in-game myths might (should?) not have tons of versions if the gods were actually real and could be "contacted" by mortals.

I mean... Hide the Lunar branding, if that's an issue (as was said above). Or flash it if your confident enough lol.

Except that it does mention casting and attacking... I requote "However, casting a spell such as Bladesharp or Fireblade on a weapon held in the hand and striking with it in the same round only involves adding the normal strike rank to cast the spell to the normal strike rank for that weapon for that melee round." And yes, I agree that the rulebook really could've used an extra level of editing/review.

The powers remind me a bit of the three-eyed raven in Game of Thrones. If you feel like making an homage to the books/series you could make it a gem that you place on your forehead (like a third eye) to use its powers, which then turns your real eyes white. Instead of a birds-eye view, maybe you can see/hear whatever a target visible creature can see as long as you concentrate. That could be quite useful for adventurers. You could also "reverse" this power and project what YOU see/hear to someone who's dreaming (or even awake). Used strategically, another adventurer could effectively speak to the target by speaking to the item-user. As for your other power, maybe everytime you use the "eye" there is a chance you actually see into the Gods plain through the eyes of some minor raven-type god. This would let you explore the Gods plain and perhaps discover powers/items you can bring back to the mortal world, etc. Just an idea 😁

It's honestly very confusing. Under Magical Attacks and Strike Ranks: "However, casting a spell such as Bladesharp or Fireblade on a weapon held in the hand and striking with it in the same round only involves adding the normal strike rank to cast the spell to the normal strike rank for that weapon for that melee round." But then under Multiple Activities Within Melee: " While an adventurer might throw a spell at an oncoming foe and then engage that foe in combat within the same round, an adventurer cannot, while engaged in combat, attack both physically and magically. This means that an adventurer who starts a round physically engaged in melee may either: . Attack and defend normally; or . Defend normally and cast spells."

As a munchkin player I would totally cover/alter the sword in some way so that it wouldn't be recognized, and rebrand the horses.

After money is divided we just split it according to who benefits most from the items; what benefits the group the most as a unit.

What about content that changes existing rules? Or straight up house rules/changes? For example, different stats or starting skills for existing cultures/occupations, different rune spells for existing gods, etc.

I don't know the HeroQuest itself, but I feel like an epic adventure like that should yield epic rewards... Like permanent poison immunity (all poisons) or a permanent increase of CON for the player who resisted the sting. I would relate the reward/power to the way they each killed or defended against an adversary, individually.

Honestly, the magic-weapon-damaging-spirits-thing is HEAVILY broken. Runelords can easily wreck any spirit or ghost with an enchanted weapon, especially with True (weapon). I really don't think spirits should have to become visible to attack.

For an Orlanthi initiate, I think Eurmal is the most logical, as mentioned above. A new character that could be a great "shapeshifter" (at least in appearance) would be an Eurmali Fox-woman. You could probably do a 2-point Illusory Sight over yourself in fox form and look like a different animal (or object) of similar size.

Quick side question… If someone steals or borrows a sword blessed by Humakt (Humakti(s) owner is still alive), I assume the sword retains its blessings even when not wielded by the Humakti?

Wew, this thread went off-roading in the mud real hard... And I'm not even sure anyone actually answered the initial question. My take is this: I think they (Chaosium) want Orlanthi culture to be super progressive (which is probably a fairly recent change as a by-product of our increasingly progressive environment IRL), but didn't think to change the specific cult rules on gender from the older versions of the game. Tldr: they rushed into the idea of progressivism without changing everything it might affect--maybe 😊.

Wachaza's Lesson (now more commonly known as Crystal’s Choker) The “Choker” is an intricate necklace made of black lace. Several black pearls dangle from it and an enormous black diamond is embedded into the lace itself at the center of the necklace. Cults: Associated: Wachaza, Black Fang. Hostile: Engizi, if they somehow learned the history of the item. Enemy: Any sky/light cult (and many others) would probably see the item as being demonic (or at least dangerous) if they knew about the history and/or binding enchantment. Knowledge: Automatic (strength increase), Cult Secret (the rest), One of a Kind History: The lace necklace itself is an ancient, one-of-a-kind artifact from the God times. Once upon a (god) time, the great war god Wachaza became infatuated with an extremely seductive barracuda, who was actually the great sea-nymph Crystalossa. Wachaza, being a god of death uninitiated in the ways of love, did not know how to approach the nymph. The god pirated and plundered, but never found a fitting gift. It was only when he looked into his old bag of curses that he found the perfect present--an enormous black diamond--the eye of his demonic mother. He blessed the gem so that anyone who carried it would gain the strength of the sea--the greatest offering the war god could think of. Crystalossa accepted the gift with delight as she felt her strength growing to that of the sea, but the demonic energy within the diamond quickly began its work on her ungodly spirit. The next time Wachaza came to her, the nymph’s corruption had already taken its toll. He had not felt his mother’s presence in the stone, as her demonic aura was natural to him. Wachaza attempted to save the nymph by subduing her, hoping to wrestle the diamond away. His attempts failed as she ripped through his nets with ease and escaped his hold. The god chased the demon across the seas until she reached the soft waters of Engizi, the Sky River Titan. Engizi intercepted the demon and immediately trapped her with his indestructible net. Wachaza pleaded Engizi from the sea, but the river god did not hear him, and along with all of his water elementals and naiads, he pulled the net tighter and tighter until the demon-nymph was completely crushed. When Engizi unwrapped his net, Crystalossa’s black blood had stained it, and the black diamond was fused within its mesh. He unknotted and swiftly disposed of the black, diamond-encrusted netting, sending it downstream back to the sea. Wachaza kept it to remind himself and his worshippers of their dark nature and their incompatibility with love and fertility. Recently, it is said that a Blackfang agent--codename “Crystal”--acquired the necklace from a Wachaza War Master during a mission to recover the Laask Artifact for a secret client. Disguised as a courtesan at some docks in Vormain, she managed to seduce and decapitate the War Master by desperately using the necklace as a garrote while her feet were submerged in seawater. The agent later brought the necklace to Pavis, where she spent much of her substantial payment getting the black diamond inscribed by a Flintnail master. The inscriptions were later enchanted by Blackfang shamen at the agent's request--as part of her reward. Procedure: The original item(s) and their powers are unique, but the magic point matrix and spirit spell matrixes could be reproduced on another item. Powers: The netting/lace of the necklace is indestructible. The diamond is naturally extremely strong (virtually indestructible) and doubles the strength of the wearer as long as they are touching sea-water. The diamond is cleansed of the demonic presence that once corrupted it, but it has an empty binding enchantment that has the capacity to bind any demon. The Blackfang shamen also enchanted the diamond with a Magic point matrix of 12mp, and a Glue 4 spirit spell matrix. Enchantment conditions cause the necklace to cast Glue 4 on itself (using the stored magic points) as soon as it wraps around a person’s throat (under SIZ 30) and dispells itself once the attuned user says a unique catchphrase. When successfully used as a garrote, the user now has the option to “glue” the necklace’s ends to each other at the tightest point possible, forcing the victim to resist the attack with their STR vs the glue’s STR of 40 each round, instead of the usual STR+DEX of the victim vs. STR+DEX of the attacker. As long as the victim has the necklace wrapped tightly around their throat, they cannot speak or cast spells. Attuning to the diamond stops the Glue spell from auto-casting when the user wears the necklace themselves and permits them to dispell the Glue effect. Value: Wachaza cultists would pay as much (and kill as much) as they could to get this sacred item back to a temple. Assassins who understand the properties and their usefulness would pay up to 5000L for it. As jewelry, it is a collector’s item worth at least a few thousand lunars, as the black diamond is the largest in the known (non-Mostali) World, and the black pearls are real, although not magical.

True, but is that really a problem? I'm sure the Telmori would want to stay in wolf form forever if given the chance.

One thing I think might help is the use of Extension only on Transform Self to lock in the Wolf form longterm... Otherwise, I think it's fine. They should have full transformation as an eventual goal, and now that you start with 3 free Rune points and can potentially increase each season, it is achievable quite easily.

I agree that you usually train offense and defense at the same time... At least for more advanced martial artists (boxing and kickboxing often teach strikes before slips/parries/bob&weave/etc.). This is why, as I mentioned previously, starting skill bonuses could be equal if you want to consider that they stem from training or equal attack/defense opportunities while doing your job... But it doesn't explain experience checks. You will often have the opportunity to get check in both attack and parry, but not always. And I don't see a reason why succeeding in a jab should improve your bob & weave.

I think giving starting bonuses as a single skill (ie to both skills equally) could work if you consider that they were both equally trained/practiced together, but when it comes to experience checks I feel they should be separate since you are clearly only succeeding in either attacking or parrying.

What I meant