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What source is your PDF? I'm pretty sure Chaosium has stated that all their e-retail channels have the updated PDF. I'd do an explicit logout from the e-tailer website, all the usual cache-purges on your browser, quit it and re-start, re-login, and try a fresh download. If you're still getting what looks like an older PDF, contact Chaosium directly, as you may have found some error they need to fix (or have DTRPG fix, or whatever...) .

Fair 'nuf! I usually play with the same group. If we want to play, say, ShadowRun, we've all got the 3e books for that and would play it. Some have 4e, I know. Don't know if anyone has 5 or 6 or 6/Anarchy. But yeah, if one of us wanted to play an out of print game that not everyone has... There would be grumbling! While we DO still buy new RPGs occasionally, mostly we play from our libraries of already-owned games. Nope, nobody's locked in; and I didn't mean to suggest it! Please accept my apologies. In no way did I mean to accuse you of anything you had to "justify!" I was just not understanding, and you were gracious enough to help me figure it out.

See, here's a thing I hear (repeatedly) that I just don't get... If a new edition of a favorite game comes out, and you find that you vastly prefer the older edition... Why do you "move on to [another] system" instead of just staying with the one you already know and love? Having disliked HQ2, why did you go looking for a new system, instead of settling to your familiar custom HW/HQ ruleset? I hear a similar account often... people abandoning a line because the new edition moved in a direction they disliked. But why? Why not stick with what they already liked? I also see people still playing AD&D 1&2, never having liked 3.x, PF, 4e or 5e. Here on BRPC, someone reports they're still proudly playing RQ1e! Etc... So it goes both ways. I confess I only understand one (revert to the favored edition) and hope someone who prefers the other one (switch for a whole new game line) can help me understand ... ?

Yeah, there's that other element of the Lunars that's really appealing for players... it has some really interesting, dynamic, female-centric myths and archetypes that are VERY different from the Orlanthi way. I mean, sure... Vinga, yeah. Gives Glorantha that whole Title IX (*) experience, eh? Is she a bit of a Red-Headed Stepchild though, a "Diversity Hire"? The "female Orlanth" dutifully trotted out to "disprove" Orlanthi sexism (because in SO many ways he is SUCH an asshole "bro" ) but ultimately... unconvincing? And while Ernalda fulfills a needful archetype, there's more than a little bit of stereotyping and passivity there. Earth Tribe has pretty much lost their identity in the "marriage" to Storm Tribe; look at the Language Trees on RQG p.172 (iirc) with a mighty tree for the Solars, a mighty tree for the Storm... and Ernalda, stuck off in a corner and j-u-s-t managing to influence one branch of Storm's language-tree. Ernalda doesn't have her own Tree. Ernalda. Taste the irony (or I guess the coppery). There's Babeester Gor, but she's a bit one-dimensionally Axe-y. I guess you could say Maran Gor has a bit more depth to her. But the Lunar Way has a depth and a richness and complexity that I just don't see the essentially masculine-POV Vingkotling descendants offering to a female perspective. YGMV (*) for non-USAians, "Title IX" is the amendment to our education code that requires girls to have the same sports/athletic opportunities that boys have.

CS/11L are HQ books, a different game system. It isn't "compatible" in a mechanical sense, but hacking on rules is a grand old to tradition, and I've seen more than one proposal that the HQG rules just be yoinked over to RQG to offer a "feels special, mechanically" mechanism for running heroquests in RQG. I also know that more than one campaign is just building the RQG character sheets for all the CS/11L NPC's & other RQ-mechanical bits, and running those campaigns as RQG campaigns. That said... yes there _IS_ a RQG Campaign/GM book coming, reportedly containing "native" heroquesting rules for RQG. No ETA is announced.

Plants, Beasts, and Humans are all physical, Middle-World things. Spirits are not.

5e is a very different game from what you played in your teens/20s. Give it a shot, you may like it! Obviously, the GM and the group are going to make a HUGE difference... Essentials of the game can be d/l'ed free from WOTC website, and there are inexpensive "starter kit" products if you like. Character-optimization strategies and "ideal builds" seem to be less important to most 5e groups than to the 3.x/Pathfinder branch of D&D, but some groups still emphasize that; the Internet will help you find such optimizations if it seems to be how that group rolls. Maybe ask the GM how the group feels about such things? Some groups in turn abhor the practice, so IMHO it's worth a check-in... Lots more D&D-specific advice obviously available on other sites that aren't BRP Centric! 😁 But we help as we can...

It has all been mentioned by them, publicly, but kind of spread out and scattershot. They haven't taken the time to make sure every social-media-outlet is covered & every PR channel spun, when they don't have the resources to keep their core operations moving along smoothly. But they turn out a damned fine product, and even in go-slow mode for new productions, it's got plenty in the existing corpus to commend it!

Agreed. Once characters have begun skill-checking from exp, it's an overwhelming factor compared to the +/-5% of most characteristic changes. The whole POINT of a skill-bonus is to give an edge to those with "native talent," but nobody expects the young thief to out-lockpick the master-thief, no matter how "natively talented" the youngster.

Yes, they are still in business. I think it might be fair to say that they are pausing in any new endeavors, and current projects (multiple manuscripts under way!) are progressing slowly, at best. The website hadn't been satisfactory to them... for years, and they decided to let that die, with possible all-new site later. One of their partners has been struggling with health issues, and the company schedules are shot all to hell. I think the last official thing they released was The Koln Machinations? It was announced as available in PDF last August, in print last Sep, I think.

And just plain ol' sharpened wood! After all, if it's good enough for a master Vampire... 😁 I quoted some data from "thoughtco" above, without citation. I'll give the whole link... Good reading for anyone interested in neolithic parts of Glorantha! https://www.thoughtco.com/arrowheads-and-other-points-facts-167277

The Vadeli can rape, and the victim experience this as evil & perverse, and the Vadeli use this in their ritual. They don't have to personally see it as evil & perverse, any more than they see the succubus they created as evil and perverse. Each is a means to an end, steps on a pathway... no more.

I certainly count the slavers themselves, the merchants, the captain/officers of transport ships, as "complete monsters." I am willing to (in a few cases) cut some slack for buyers/owners. Not many cases, but a few.

Obsidian, being glass, can be crafted to a hellaciously-sharp edge/point. As noted, it's also FRAGILE. As I think about it, I would allow obsidian a +1 damage bonus! But then, figure all armors as being TWO points more effective specifically against obsidian edges/tips (and also degrade those edges, quickly rendering the pointy part non-pointy). But that's "allow" if a player wanted some customization for their klanth-wielder / etc... otherwise, too much bookkeeping.

THIS! One source I found suggests stone tips average 1-3 uses before breaking. Archaelogists find broken-off-tips in mostly-random locations; larger broken base pieces are usually found at camp/village sites, presumably brought home to re-work into smaller pieces.

Spears can have stone blades Arrowheads can be stone. Atlatl darts too. Slings, of course, classically use stones. Axe blades of stone (like a club, but sharpened) are quite old.

In this thread, to figure out "First Aid," I see cited: P.139 Pp.148-149 Pp.176-177 An xref to BGB p.58 <ahem> Chaosium, this appears... Sub-optimal.

Come now, Bill... I understand you need to behave professionally about union musicians... But Shirley you aren't claiming the non-Union ones can't even play a scale??!? That'd be... Uh... Confederate ones? Or is that ancient-enough history that you meant the Other C... Canadian ones?

<nods> Explains so very, very much, doesn't it? All that deep lore on his site (tempting! ... illuminating!) Gaming resources... House Rules, leading one away from heterodox wisdom... etc... So very, very et cetera...

Or for Dragons, surely! And dinosaurs... Saurischians... Ornithischians... (I hope you see the slippery garden path, here...) 😁

"I don't think so. It's a ... very little Death Rune, after all. I'm sure if you go make a donation to Uleria, someone can help you."

The "coif" is usually chainmail, but does cover the area. I see no reason the same couldn't be done as scale, or ring... Originally, the "hauberk" was supposedly just a shoulders/neck thing (per the etymology -- dunno if it's attested in the archeology?), but most usage (and in particular, RQG usage!) is the tunic/shirt type armor. I can imagine that some ducks might favor "scale" armor etched with a feather pattern!

For one thing, it makes heroquests to gain additional powers work very differently. If your mountain-god has no special "Shield Stuff" in his myths, but that other culture's mountain-god does, and they turn out to be the same... then you have a hq about hidden paths and identity and self-discovery. If they're different gods, you may need a hq about mugging the other one for his powers (ZZ / Hill of Gold style) or sneaking in and stealing them (Orlanth / Sandals of Darkness style), etc. For another thing, it makes their followers into natural allies... once they see each other as worshipping the same god! Etc...

I quite like this. Especially enjoying the "crest-like" helmet, vaguely dinosaurian. I find the feet a bit oversized, fwiw. The eyes are utterly non-duck-like... but I wouldn't change them at all! I'd like to see a longer sword -- based on what looks like a stumpy little arm, set far back on the body, this probably doesn't have even as much reach as his bite!

You are right -- it is confusing. The thing is, the Strike Rank system has always sat kind of uncomfortably on the border of just being a RANKING system (order-of-action); and an Action-Allowance system (governing multi-attacks (as with skills over 100%, and/or dual-wielding)); and also a TIME system, with "movement" (which by definition is distance/time) in combat being measured in SR's. So... confusing! In the specific examples you gave -- 2 opponents with large SIZ/DEX and long weapons, such that neither has an advantage vs the other, with (identical) very-low SR's; and 2 opponents with very-high DEX but average/low SIZ and small weapons, both having moderate SR's -- you have indeed pointed to an irrational outcome. If this is a serious problem for you, I suggest HouseRule'ing it. The HR that my original RQ GM taught me, back around 1980/81, was this: When the SR's based on "Reach" (SIZ of character + weapon-length; do NOT count DEX or magic (unless the magic affects Reach)) are different by 3 or more points, the person with less Reach needs to make an attack just to close the range. This attack does no damage, but gets them "inside" the range of the spear/etc. N.B. -- The person with 3+ points of Reach may well get an attack (doing damage) vs. the person attempting to Close -- they do have those 3+ points of SR advantage! If the attack-to-Close misses -- or is parried by the Reach weapon (not a shield!) -- they failed to Close: they couldn't get past their foe's guard. Better luck next round. (Gee, being a spearman's target-dummy sucks!) If they DO close, the situation reverses -- the person with 3+ points of "advantage" from Reach has a foe inside their guard, and must roll an attack to increase the range. As with the Closing attack, the Increase-Range attack does no damage, and fails to increase the range if it misses or is parried. When calculating multiple attacks, ONLY calculate using Skill rules and DEX SR's: daggers can attack swiftly! (but they still may need to Close vs longer weapons / bigger foes) This HR may not suit you; other solutions have been found. One is just to apply some common-sense and say that when SR's are identical due to SIZ/Weapon Reaches, then they go on the same DEX ranks as the Reach weapons' wielders. Each being fully-engaged and with no Reach (dis)advantage, they attack "as if" their SIZ and Weapon SR-mods were both 0.