PhilHibbs

v1.9: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gLCGxM8OKBOZDDst5tsoYN31jcSqd6mfSRnqqUqJOkY/edit?usp=sharing Fixed another French translation @sireRage Can you check over the French instructions, please, I've attempted to update it to describe the new translation mechanism but I probably bungled something!

It would not protect the people inside... although the Protection example is a good one. Yeah, if you can't do it with Protection because of your example, then you probably can't do it with Countermagic, although contrived examples aren't necessarily a perfect way to straighten out rules.

I didn't think you get them back on associate cult holy days, but checking the rules, you do. So you get 2D6 for Seasonal Holy Day, 1D6 for the floating Holy Day, and 1D6 for each associated cult Seasonal Holy Day visits happen to occur when you are near one. That's still a long way from "at will", many adventures will not include an opportunity for a worship ceremony. My point is, the game systems are very different in the way they dish out magic, both in the range available, the hunting around you need to do to get it, and how often it can be used. Better to compare a new write-up to other similar RQG cults than to HQ cults.

Given that only the creator can use it, the runes and techniques should all be available at the same level or better than when it was created unless the caster has suffered INT loss. Although that raises the interesting question that, since "Once a Rune or technique has been mastered, it cannot be unmastered", maybe INT loss does not mean the loss of mastery. If so, could you use Enhance INT to boost it for long enough to master more runes?

Flight once a season.

I don't think so. Maybe, but I think it should be limited. Maybe you have to erase the manipulation, add POW, and then re-cast the spell, so it will always be limited to what you can cast yourself. Manipulation is baked in. I don't think the inscription changes the cost at all, you are casting the spell so you need to know the rune(s) and technique, and pay the costs according to your current mastery of them. Not sure about that, that's a big change. Also I don't think you can create self-casting enchantments like you can with rune magic. Maybe you could create an inscription, bind a spirit to it, and have it cast the spell, but it would need to have cast the spell into the inscription itself. I think the POW could come from elsewhere, like with other enchantments.

I think the jury is split as to whether Countermagic on you protects a weapon that you are holding.

v1.8 Alpha 2: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fAW74SjicDK_eOI3NcSj5xItKiAIvA0cUXjWsiTpipQ/edit?usp=sharing Fixes to French translation I thought I had already applied most of those changes of yours, I think I might have lost a version somewhere. I'd rather not have visible disambiguations in things that the user interacts with, like the profession list or skill names, so I think I'll stick with the zero-width space, unless that's causing you a problem? I removed the duplicate entry for "Instructions on the wiki".

HQ gives a lot more magic than HQG, as I recall. Correct me if I'm wrong, I only ever ran the playtest version of HW, but in that, any Orlanthi could start with flight at will.

You don't address imbalance by reducing the chance of the imbalanced thing from happening. That just introduces uncertainty, and you can't plan around it. I think you are probably a little bit on the strict side, I'd allow relatively slow or steady movement of a trained mount without any penalty, especially if it isn't a directed offensive spell, and other distractions that are less than taking damage should be less distracting, so maybe INTx4 or INTx5 instead of x3. The essential problem is that giving a player powerful abilities but taking away the chance to use them is not good. Better to have a fair chance to use a less powerful ability. Access to MP reserves is one way to constrain sorcerers, as is free INT.

Yes, I seem to recall some rule about the Young Elementals being subject to the Moon rune rather than their own element, but I can't find it now.

I think Countermagic is correct, at least it always has been in my experience. The Bladesharp text may be another inadvertent bring-over from RQ2, although I can't find it.

Then all success are special successes, but the success chance still goes down below the special chance. That's going to be fairly rare, though, and only when the defender is thoroughly outclassed. It only really breaks down when the lower skill is 1900% or more, where both sides still have 95% chance of a critical.

"Still hitting at 100%" (well, 95% really) isn't on the table here, is it? I don't think that either of us are advocating changing that. I think the only difference between my way and RQG is that in mine, the lower skill gets to keep critical and special chances that are closer to those of their opponent. I see no way at all in which my way is more generous to the higher skill, quite the opposite. I like the way that my system keeps the two combatants closer in terms of outcome.

It's easy for you and me. I've seen grown men angry and tearful over having to do it, not being able to, and having to rely on others. Anything that can be done to entirely eliminate any form of multiplication or division in the middle of combat is a good move in my books.

v1.9 Alpha 1: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11EUSHtd9s8cJb5wP7wMrAwnO8vPgkA7sNAnm6GSYqN8/edit?usp=sharing Streamlined translation process, just select and click. All I need now is for someone to do a Spanish translation of the instructions!

That would be quite a campaign, visiting 1000 islands to gather ingredients for a sauce.

I remember a game with a running gag about the troll gathering ingredients to serve the duck with.

I'm hoping for a preview containing the family background tables as soon as it's in a usable state!

Hmm, now that I re-read it, you're right, it says "skill is reduced" so it affects everything. Personally I will houserule that it does not affect crit and special. Fewer recalculations. Why do you think it makes the primary skill too powerful? I think it's the other way around. In my example, the higher skill should have a 5% crit and the lower a 3%, whereas in my rule they get 10% and 8% which is closer in relative terms. Special chances RAW would be 20% and 10%, my rule gives 40% and 30%. So the basis difference is the same, but proportionally they are closer.

If you want to stretch it, sure. I don't see the need to, why not go with the simplest and most obvious meaning?

I think the reduction of high skills is new to RQG. And as I understand it, it doesn't reduce the chance of specials or criticals. So 200% vs 150% when reduced to 100% and 50% still have special chances of 40% and 30%, and critical chances of 10% and 8%.

You can't make a real thing disappear with an illusion. Well, not normally. The "Become" spell can make the caster smaller and lighter, but that's an example of Trickster rule-breaking. So a portable hole might be a thing, but there has to be a reason why it exists when it is impossible. I'm sure there's a myth about that somewhere. My trickster had "Become pair of smoking boots". He once cast it when another character cast Disrupt on him. It was worth the two points of POW just for that one gag played once. Well, two gags. An hour later everyone realised he hadn't even been wearing boots.

Well, they can't be "disbelieved", that is explicit. Illusions have always been temporary reality. That's always been how Gloranthan illusions have worked. p393:

The example on p314 indicates that multiple wounds can be healed with a single Heal Wound: