GAZZA

So, not just like Arrow Trance then?

Correct, it doesn't say that you will attack friends, for two reasons: That's fluff text. It is descriptive. It is not mechanical. If one wishes to interpret it as mechanical, then it would seem that if my friends are "my strongest loyalties" then they are not "forgotten in the rage to destroy". Especially in RQG where the other PCs are quite possibly in the same clan or tribe. A RAW "you will attack friends" should look something like, "If the Berserker has no opponents in melee range, he will move towards the nearest foe. If there are no foes nearby, he will move towards the nearest friend and attack them instead." It doesn't say that, nor (IMO) anything that could reasonably interpreted as that.

Almost verbatim, you say? So you won't be able to parry? If that's really the intention, I don't honestly see the point of Sword Trance/Axe Trance at all. Might as well just give them Berserk, perhaps with Humakt getting double against undead instead of Chaos. Note that Berserker RAW does not have any "will attack friends" or "cannot distinguish friend from foe" requirements, so that part of Arrow Trance is actually begging the question. If you don't mean that they won't be able to parry with Sword Trance... then perhaps we'd better wait until that errata actually exists before we start celebrating, because it is not as clear as you imply in that case.

I am inclined to agree that being able to stop things like Poison is a bit silly; not as convinced about efficacy versus Thunderbolt or Sunspear as those are (minimally) affected by normal armour. As far as decent crit protection goes, I would imagine the old tactic of matrices helps: make a matrix with 18 intensity split however you like between duration and strength, and then add your own free int worth when you cast the spell; it might not save you against the Bat but 18-20 odd will stop at least a few critical hits. Maybe only from missile fire, but given that those are the ones that can't be parried, that's not nothing. (I am of course assuming any decent sorcerer has 18 INT and keeps all of that free by stashing his spell knowledge in spirits or matrices).

In previous versions of RQ the equivalent of this spell (Neutralise Damage) could protect even against critical hits - is this still the case? The wording not only implies it can still do this, but also that it can stop virtually anything that damages the body, which would seem to include such things as Poison, Thunderbolt, Sunspear, and (more mundanely) Disruption. Was that all intentional?

I'm rounding up for dramatic effect, and yes - it's good to know that we're still getting stuff for RQG. But I'm one of those guys that lived through the RQ3 "Renaissance", and long delays ... spark painful memories. Of course I'm not intending this to come across as entitlement (though I realise it comes across that way). Nobody at Chaosium owes me anything. I'm just noting that it's hard (perhaps prohibitively so for new RQ GMs) to get a campaign going based on what's been released so far, which is unfortunate.

And this is basically what kills 13G for me. I bought 13A just to play 13G, but with essentially nothing outside the core book it's never going to get played. Yes, of course I can convert stuff, but that's what I pay money for supplements for - for someone else to do the legwork. It is especially disappointing whenever you have a book that references upcoming books only to discover that these will likely never see the light of day. RQG is not immune to this; it's been 2 years and we still don't have the gamemaster's guide that is referenced in the main book. The only real reason that's tolerable is because I have enough older/different edition RQ stuff to fill in the gaps without full scale conversion.

Per pp369 of RQG you can attack a spirit with (say) an enchanted iron sword, and "the physical attack is resolved normally but opposed by the spirit's Spirit Combat skill." Does this mean if you fail the attack and the spirit succeeds in a parry, that it can damage your weapon?

Awesome, exactly what I was looking for! Cheers!

I've played RQ3 a bit, always loved Glorantha, haven't ever really run a successful game of it. I am really liking what I've read of RQG so far, and I think my players will as well. However, I would like to use a lot of my older source material, in particular the Giant's Cradle event from the Pavis sourcebook, so I would like to have my adventurers essentially supplant the parent generation in the default family history bit. I'm far from an expert in Glorantha; while I realise I could just use the quick start family history to do this, has anyone besides me (and with better Glorantha Lore %) done anything similar with what would be, in effect, a "great grandparent" section (since the adventurers will be the "parents", their parents will be the "grandparents", I would ideally like a decent idea of what important events happened one generation earlier).