PhilHibbs

No, I'm not agreeing that. If someone faster or with a longer reach than you takes you out before you can hit them, then you're out. So a different abstraction would have different logical consequences? That makes no sense! The very word "abstraction" means that the game system is not modelling all the logical consequences of actual in-world events. Then you might as well just get rid of SR outright and roll all actions simultaneously. If there's no advantage or even difference at all to having a lower SR, then what's the point?

The game mechanics are not the reality. There is no such thing as a melee round or a strike rank in Glorantha. They are an abstraction in the RuneQuest rules to make the game simple and playable.

I think you need a Protective Circle for that. Enchantments are only spirit magic if they are spirit magic.

Neutralize Spirit Magic So you cast this at an enemy, and take down all their spirit magic - Protection, Countermagic, Strength, Fanaticism, etc. The Neutralize spell stays on them for the default duration of 5 minutes. For that time, any spirit magic spells cast on them (Disruption, Befuddle, Sleep) also will probably be cancelled by the spell. I wonder if a sorcerer can cast a spell with a lower duration, in effect use it as an instant spell, just to get rid of current spells without providing ongoing protection. I'd probably allow that. I doubt that "Gloranthan reality" has sorcery with fixed quantum intervals.

Also: The rules for overcoming a target's resistance mention POW, not MPs. I assume that this should be interpreted as "POW, or current MP if higher". Also, some offensive sorcery spells (Dominate, Create Hallucination, say that you use Spell Strength vs POW, not POW vs POW, so these extra MPs aren't going to help in those circumstances.

Ah. Except that Cast Back provides no protection against magic whatsoever. It only takes effect if the offensive spell fails to overcome the POW of the target.

Tap Body This spell had to be included, if only as a nod to "the itty bitties" in Griffin Island. So if someone has their SIZ tapped down to 1, should they lose any other characteristics or abilities? Could you tap a Great Troll all the way down, leaving it still having the ability to wield a Maul with a +1D6 damage bonus, if they were fairly strong for their race? Reminds me of those halberd-wielding pixies. I once played a claustrophobic duck sorcerer that lived in the backpack that his familiar wore.

This change has had an unfortunate layout knock-on effect, which should be easily fixable. On page 377, the first line "Spirit places are relatively rare. Some famous examples include:" has been pushed back by two pages, separating it from the actual list of places. Can this line be bumped from page 375 back onto page 377?

Ah yes, thanks. Ooh, and it only affects offensive spells, that's nice. A magical defence that doesn't block healing or other good things.

v1.9.3 Alpha 3: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DZHMTtvd87Rc2fzOTJp6u19VteMk07ETwqp-sCYXD10/edit?usp=sharing Better Rules buttons Added translations for the Rules terms (Spanish is just from Google Translate, please let me know if you can do better)

If it's a matrix for a spell that most people are familiar with, like Healing or Bladesharp, I'd just straight out tell them. Something more exotic might require some experimentation. I wouldn't give them a matrix for "Self Immolation 10" as a trap. I think the process of casting a spell - whether known or in a matrix - is a deliberate one, you see in your mind's eye the nature of the magic as it forms, targeting or directing it as necessary. It might be possible to construct a booby-trapped matrix that creates the illusion of a beneficial purpose whilst concealing a horrendous effect, but that would be a lot of effort. Maybe chaos can corrupt matrixes in this way, though.

Neutralize (Rune) So, the sorcerer needs to have mastered, and learned the variant of this spell for, the Rune in question. If I want to defend against Thunderbolt, I need to master Air and learn Neutralize (Air). If I want to defend against Madness, I master Moon and learn Neutralize (Moon). If I want to remove an enemy's Morale spell, I have to master either Death or Truth (or Fertility or Illusion at double cost) and learn the Neutralize variant, and hope that the caster used the rune that I mastered. This seems... unlikely to be of much use. The chances of having mastered and learned the right rune variant for any given instance that this spell would be of use is pretty slim. Maybe if you're going to war with the Lunars, then mastering Moon and learning Neutralize (Moon) would be useful. And vice versa for Lunar sorcerers going up against Orlanthi. Also, if my reading is correct, this and Neutralize Spirit Magic are the only spells that provide ongoing protection against incoming spells, and there is no spell that will provide ongoing protection against incoming sorcery spells. Feel free to post your thoughts on other specific sorcery spells in this thread.

Are you sure about that? The French translation makes no mention of the 4-point ranges, it looks to me like it is saying that the tranches are 5 points wide. Google says:

I've found a problem with the forum - I pasted an image into a post by mistake. and it seems to be impossible to remove it! I can edit the post, delete the image, but it still shows after I have saved. Any suggestions how I can remove the second, big image that is a full desktop screenshot? Or can an admin delete the whole post and I will re-post it? Ah, I found the "delete" option, it was camouflaged against the image. Problem solved, sorry!

Splitting off into a new thread in order to avoid topic drift. I wonder if anyone's figured out what is up with Hardral, Balarzak, and Arkat, all of whom went into Dorastor, and then later on we get Ralzakark.

I hope I am wrong about this. It's an amazing thing to do, to donate something so rare and valuable. I'm sure it will go for a lot of money. But, "a lot of money" for an item like this is not "a lot of money" when it comes to running a gaming convention. I'm worried that the high price that this will fetch will be a drop in the ocean when it comes to the next con, and the one after that, or whatever the schedule is. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it will go for such an astronomical price that it will make a real difference to the quality and survival of the down-under con. I hope so (although, that means that I won't win it, I didn't bid THAT high!) I'm sure there will be secondary benefits. The publicity that this has brought, and the encouragement that it will give to others to be generous in their support of the con. Good luck!

v1.9.3 Alpha 2: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/184iocA9xCIvBXc7hYfEvSd8scf9LEIBuQ0usFnR2vL4/edit?usp=sharing Indicates which rule is currently in effect with a checkbox (don't just check the box manually! Let the button do it!)

This appears to be working now! Whatever comes after the thread ID is ignored, and the link forwards to the latest thread name. Maybe this was fixed by a forum software update after I tried it and found it not working.

v1.9.3 Alpha 1: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15WZFkF8BDbK2QrwXIetIBQIM87ENaWyuv4kt1-TAAB4/edit?usp=sharing Implements optional alternative RQ3-style category modifier calculations Go to the "Rules" tab, and click the Law Rune next to the desired rule variant. This swaps in alternative sets of values in the hidden Lookups sheet. If the runes are messed up and do not display correctly on the rule rows, then re-load the browser tab. There always seems to be a render error on the title line so ignore that as long as the rune is visible on each rule row. I'm going to make a better button icon. I did consider implementing this as a checkbox or dropdown that is then used in conditional formulae, but that would complicate and slow down all the recalculations. This swap-in framework is more flexible for other, more complex rule changes. I recommend that if you are using RQ3 category modifiers, that you do not use the check boxes for the spirit magic spells as they are very much tied to the RQG category modifier system. Just use the "Temp Adds" column instead. I might expand the effect of these rule-swap buttons to cover those calculations to make them work consistently. To do: RQ3 characteristic sets for the category modifiers (e.g. just INT for Knowledge), not sure if anyone wants this. Any suggestions?

So that's officially resolved. I still like the dramatic tension of the answer "You detect one enemy, but then your spell dies. There's at least one more out there, who must have some kind of magical protection", with Countermagic not being taken down by Detect.

Except that that person may switch to another provider, or reorganize their Dropbox, and not update all their old forum and Facebook posts. They might die and their account be closed, or hacked and get everything infected with viruses which are then replicated into Dropbox. I think it's probably better to index the downloads section through threads - if you upload a file, make a thread for it. Link to that thread from a wiki. Link to the thread from Facebook. Keep the thread up to date by editing the first post to link to the latest version. Problem solved. It's a real shame that you can't host Google Sheets on file download sections, because my RQG Character Creation Spreadsheet suffers from this exact problem. Fortunately, using it requires making your own copy which can easily be re-shared online, so plenty of people will by necessity be mirroring it in case my original disappears somehow.

Brings a whole new flavour to the phrase "well knock me down with a feather". OK, WHACK! 7D6! 😁

The double damage bonus and max damage bonus doesn't really make much sense, but that's ok. It's an example of where the RuneQuest scaling doesn't quite work seamlessly. Really, the damage done as you go up the SIZ scale should mostly come from being able to wield bigger and bigger weapons. The bonus should only distinguish between a strong Great Troll and a weak Great Troll, or a strong 12m Giant and a weak 12m Giant. RuneQuest is centred on the human scale (attribute average 10-11), and the RQ2 human scale at that, where SIZ was 3D6 just like all the other charactistics. The fact that damage bonus keeps going up and up as you go up the creature SIZ scale just inevitably leads to the awkward mechanic where much of the damage from hitting someone with the trunk of a fully grown oak tree is coming not from the tree, but the damage bonus of the giant wielding it. Perhaps that is why a 9m giant is shown as having a Maul that does 2D8, the same as a weapon that a strong human can wield, plus 7D6 damage modifier. Looks like that is a general principle, weapon damage stops going up when you're above the human scale, and it's all about the damage bonus.

It is impossible. However, the impossible has been done on several occasions.