Wookie

It feels like it might be an editing issue - the writers know what they intended to say, so when they checked it, that's what they thought it said. We've come along afterwards and found multiple interpretations, which probably include the one meant by the writers, but we are uncertain as to which one that is. Between the character sheet and the cultural skills section, things are unclear; we can guess the intent, we can make our own decisions that apply in the campaigns we are participating in, but it leaves things open for confusion and dispute when someone moves from one game to another. Hence my request for clarity: I can think I know what they meant overall, I (along with my GM and fellow players in my group) can make a decision about how we're interpreting it, but I can then find myself in a dispute when talking about the game, because someone else interpreted things differently and arrived at a different decision. Given that the noncombat skills that required subchoices were explicit*, it doesn't seem unreasonable to suggest the same effort should have been put into the combat skills. Maybe I haven't looked in the right place(s) yet (as I said, I read through all of the RQ CRQ thread), but an acknowledgement that people are getting confused on this issue and a clarification on what was meant would be appreciated; I was impressed by the Cradles of Heroes online character generator, but the creator didn't realise how the weapon skills are supposed to be split up, they've gone with what's written on the character sheet (looks like they've assumed that Battle Axe means 1H Axe...) I am unsure as to how to raise this in such a way as to get a definitive ruling from the authors - I had hoped posting here might be it. I will continue my efforts - in our campaign, we have people talking about creating new characters as replacements, partly in case their current character dies, partly to test out new themes and ideas, so getting this information would still be useful to us. I do thank all the people who have posted on-topic - it has been interesting and informative to see how others have approached the same problem. The OP *: nearly all the time - Elder Race Lore is not explicitly a category skill requiring a subchoice on the character sheet. Old Tarsh characters get Ride +5%, instead of Ride (any) +5% like characters from Sartar. There may be other examples - I'm not trying to nitpick the entire book.

Thank you to everyone who has replied to this thread. I have looked at the Runequest Core Rules Questions thread, what I could find for an answer was unsatisfyingly vague. [Now going to type weapon skills as Category (Specific Weapon, method of use), using the listings from p208-212. If in quotes, "Weapon" is what is written in the rulebook.] For reference, my original post listed the different interpretations that each entry could have with regard to the specific skills used. e.g. "Dagger +10%" in Cultural Weapons - it is unclear whether this is supposed to be a bonus to the category Dagger (covering 4 specific weapons) or Dagger (Dagger) the specific weapon skill. "Battle Axe +15%" in Cultural Weapons - it is unclear whether this is supposed to be a bonus to the skill 1H Axe (Battle Axe 1H), the skill 2H Axe (Battle Axe 2H), or both skills. The character sheet doesn't make things any clearer - listing the skills as "1H Axe" & "2H Axe" doesn't tell me where my bonus for Battle Axe goes. Broadsword is listed separately to the other 3 weapons in the 1H Sword category, but the sheet states "1H Spear (includes Lance)", instead of listing Lance, Short Spear and Javelin separately; a fact that got past a number of people who've created character generators for this edition of RQ - they've used the skills listed on the character sheet as being the skills, not realising that some of them are categories that need to be made more specific. Also applies to anyone using a fillable pdf version of the character sheet from the rulebook; with no place to write the specific weapon next to the category, it appears some people have not realised that they need to select a specific weapon. There is a section in the RQ CRQ thread that makes things even less clear: Quote 11/13/2018: "Yes. It's not explicit, but when get a cultural or professional skill bonus to a starting weapon (such as a javelin) that can be thrown or used in hand-to-hand, you start with both at the same skill. If you add points to them while customizing your character, you should assign those points to one or the other. " So that quote would seem to indicate that "Javelin" in Cultural Weapons refers to both 1H Spear (Javelin, melee) and Javelin (Javelin, thrown), with a possibility of also including 1H Spear (Javelin, melee offhand), Javelin (Javelin, thrown offhand), Javelin (Dart), Javelin (Dart offhand), Javelin (Short Spear, thrown) and/or Javelin (Short Spear, thrown offhand). What it and similar skills refer to in Occupations is also unclear - but apparently once you get to Step 7 in character creation, they all become separately identifiable skills that must be increased individually; it's just not clear beforehand. I'm a highly experience RPGamer with GMing experience in multiple systems - my RQ playing experience is limited to this edition, although I created a character for RQ (RQ2?) a long time ago and have been vaguely familiar on and off with the world setting and the system over time. I'm having trouble with this - the newbies in our group who are seeing all this for the first time have no clue and are looking to myself and the GM for guidance, which we are both struggling to provide. We think we've divined some of the intent behind what is in the rulebook and choices have been made for the campaign we are in, but I was seeking some more explicit clarifications on what skill(s) is actually being referred to, since it is (to us at least) very unclear. If I recall correctly all the decisions made so far in our campaign, we decided that "Dagger" was Dagger (Dagger), "Battle Axe" was 1H Axe (Battle Axe 1H), "Javelin" was Javelin (Javelin, thrown), "Throwing Dagger" is not mentioned in Cultural Weapons and didn't come up for anyone's Occupation choices, the "Lance or Short Spear" option for Sable Riders was deemed to be 1H Spear (Lance) or 1H Spear (Short Spear), and the "1H Spear" and "1H or 2H Spear" options for Cultural Weapons were needing to be a specific weapon falling under that category (our Old Tarshite (Orlanth) Heavy Infantry is using a Short Spear 1H & a Large Shield, to very good effect.) I like Runequest and I'm enjoying the campaign I'm in, but the lack of clarity in the rules is off-putting at times - we had someone create as their first character a Lhankor Mhy sorcerer, but they ran afoul of this issue with the skills section of the character sheet, rolled stats away from the table instead of using the stat array as defined by the GM, did their maths badly in many sections of the character sheet and quit before they started when the GM stated he thought the character needed checking. The GM banned Sorcery from his PCs after that (a good call, I reckon) and I ended up homebrewing an expanded skills section (running to several pages) to help keep things straight, which became even more useful when we found the defaulting rules. So we're keen to keep going with the campaign (6-7 players, still running through Discord & Roll20 through the Covid-19 lockdown), we just want help with interpreting what was meant from what was written.

Hi Our GM is running a RQ:AiG game and we're enjoying it, but we had a little trouble with character creation. When talking about weapon skills, the 1H swords are broken out into easily-identifiable individual weapons but the character sheet in the back lists the other weapon skills as 1H Axe, 1H Spear, Dagger, etc - it's not clear from this that these are category skills requiring a specific subchoice. The Cultural Skills section has the same issue - there is a small note on p60 about it but given that some of the weapons listed in the Cultural Weapons fall under multiple broad categories, it's not really very clear. Examples: Dagger is both a category and a specific skill Battle Axe falls under both 1H Axe and 2H Axe Javelin is a category, a thrown weapon and a stabbing weapon Short Spear is a 1H Spear, a 2H Spear and a thrown weapon Throwing Dagger is a thrown weapon and a stabbing weapon The example characters in the book are also not clear about which specific skill they use with these weapons (exception: Harmast Baranthos' Son has Javelin 1H and Javelin thrown, but also has Battle Axe and Dagger, which are not specific) so we had to guess and rely on a GM call on what was meant Would you please clarify the specific weapons meant in the Cultural Skills section? And would you please publish a new version of the character sheet, modified so that category skills are clearly identified and it is obvious to newbies that these skills involve making an extra choice?