PhilHibbs

Has anyone extensively used the "over 100%" mechanic, with characters and opponents who have skills over 100? So far I've only run a game with the pregens, where Harmast has the highest skill at exactly 100%, so runic augmentation was the only time it could have become relevant, and in that case the opponents were not defending.

So what you should really be saying is, HeroQuest mastery rescaling is a D20 transposition of the RQ2 mechanic.

Sorry, A and B are both attacking me, I didn't make that clear enough.

Just to clarify, I haven't seen an official ruling but the converse would be bizarre. 1. A has 100%, B has 200%, A goes first. My first parry is not reduced, but my second is by the standard 20% and further by 100%. Fine. 2. A has 200%, B has 100%, A attacks first. My first parry is reduced by 100%, and my second is reduced by 120%. Order of incoming attacks has made a profound difference to the outcome (assuming I survive the first blow, that is, maybe she rolls really low on damage.) If A and B attack simultaneously, how do I figure which to use? I guess simultaneous attacks already have this problem, as one of them gets parried at full chance and the other is at -20%.

Yes.

There's never a three-way comparison of results. If I'm splitting my attacks against two opponents, that's two separate comparisons. If I'm parrying two attacks, that's two separate comparisons. Alice and Bob are attacking me. Alice's skill is 130 and my parry is 90. That's 100 vs 60. Bob's skill is 120 and my second parry is 70. That's 100 vs 50. Are you proposing that Bob's attack be reduced to 90 because of Alice's attack skill?

Seems to me that everyone, including the authors, have just assumed that in the first case, the higher skill is reduced to 100% even though the rules don't actually say it. Clearly there is a sentence that needs to be added to make this explicit!

My Bestiary is 10/10/2018 cha4029_rq_gm_screen 13/09/2018 cha4029_rq_adventure_book 13/09/2018 Seems my work laptop copies of the GM Pack PDFs are out of date.

And un-retrieved D4s on the carpet are a serious health hazard.

Mol Tribute has cleared the Suez Canal and is now in the Mediterranean!

Ah thanks, I didn't spot that when I was flicking through in a panic in the middle of a combat round.

1. Yes, it is updated since July. I'm fairly sure that the PDFs currently available (main rulebook, bestiary, GM pack) are not the final versions that went to print. It takes quite a lot of effort to make a PDF version that is ready for release, and not bloated and slow. I'm guessing Jason has other things to do, and has punted this to the last minute and will get one out ready for when the new books go on sale. 2. The best way to identify a PDF version is to hit CTRL-D and look at the modified date. The latest version of the rulebook I have says 17/10/2018.

This is something that my group is struggling with a little, working out when the next holy days are that they can use. Vishi Dunn is particularly a problem for this. I haven't decided yet if he can do his own holy day ceremonies, but the problem hasn't arisen yet as we're only just at the start of the game.

What can Power Runes be used to augment?

Don't worry about it, it's just something that ran and ran a while back. It got a little heated.

"Can be seen as", yes, but there's an important mechanical difference in that subcults have the same RP pool but different cults don't. Or, there could be justification for transferring RP pools from one cult to another maybe, where there is a relationship like this?

"Prize" has the advantage that you can play "Gimme The Prize" by Queen at the end of the game session.

Yes, the Spirit Magic spell Control (Species) has always had that problem. The Rune Magic spell Command (Species) is much more versatile. In RQG, it has the occasional disadvantage that it's a straight POW vs POW roll, whereas with the Control spell you can train up your Spirit Combat and be able to Control spirits that you might not be able to Command. But Rune Magic is primarily for priests, who should have a high POW, whereas Control is primarily for shamans, who have a high Spirit Combat. So it's all good. In some alternative rule sets for spirit combat, a critical success would give a win before the other side is reduced to zero, so that was one way that a Control spell could be used without knocking out the target.

Of course it is. Are you surprised that a Bronze Age world is sexist?

Tricky. Race conditions. When you declare an attack, you don't have an "opponent". Or, your opponent doesn't have a skill. After you declare, the opponent gets to declare either a parry or a dodge. They may have a higher parry skill than your attack, but a lower dodge, or vice versa. So you need to know, before you declare, whether they are going to oppose you and which skill they are going to use, and you need to know what their skill level is, and you do not get to know that. So the fact that the GM says "yes you can go early" or "no you can't go early" gives away privileged information.

Clan chiefs do a lot of heroquests. They go on trade and diplomatic missions, and occasionally they get abducted or attacked. Plenty of scope for adventures!

I'm not too bothered that this hasn't been detailed. I'm sure the answer is "It varies". In the Rex example, you could be a stay-at-home chief who rules from the chair, or you could be a warrior-king figure who leads the armies from the front. The former would not take part in the Adventurous rites, and so would effectively lapse from the cult in practice if not formally; the latter would play up the heroic leader role and lead the Adventurous ceremonies, with the opportunities to gain new Adventurous magic.

Well, the Aldrya subcults all have the same plus some bonus ones at the later stages, but I assume you don't lose the RP or rune spells that you got from the previous subcult. I don't know if Aldrya is unusual in that you have to leave the old subcult to join the new. Probably you have to leave Orlanth Adventurous when you become chief and join Rex, but I'm sure you keep the Lightning and all the RP. The way we've always played Eurmal in the past is that every shrine is a different subcult, and you have to go through whatever humiliating and often deadly ritual that the acolyte-in-charge comes up with to join the subcult and get the spell.

Another data point is the Aldrya cult, where the natural progression is by leaving one subcult and joining another.

We didn't have time. We didn't even notice there was a problem until half way into the first session. And I dread to think what a new player at a convention game would think when this dawns on them.