The Red Book of Magic corrections thread

[Scorus]

Summon Ludoch- Mispelled "Chorolinthor".

Edited December 18, 2020 by Scorus

[DreadDomain]

On 12/19/2020 at 1:02 AM, PhilHibbs said:

The Well says "The description on page 316 says nothing about losing the spell, so there’s no reason to think you would lose the spell. This falls into the category of what Robin Laws calls “non-rules” which are rulings specifically to describe things that players assume are part of the rules… but aren’t."

The description also doesn't say anything about (quoting the Well):

"You should dedicate the Rune points to the spell when you gain the spell, when you first gain the Rune points (through POW sacrifice), or when you regain them through worship."

Has this part being thought through and being removed (which is a good thing in my opinion, too much hassle to track multiple RP pools for no real benefit to the gameplay) 

Edited December 19, 2020 by DreadDomain

[Scorus]

page 4, paragraph 6: delete comma after "reality"

[DreadDomain]

May or may not be a mistake:

Devising New Rune Spells (p5) says that "no Rune spell should cost more than 3 RP yet there are afew spells costing 4 or 5 (Fang of Wachaza as an example)

[Paid a bod yn dwp]

17 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

The description also doesn't say anything about (quoting the Well): "You should dedicate the Rune points to the spell when you gain the spell, when you first gain the Rune points (through POW sacrifice), or when you regain them through worship."

One-Use spell p 12. 
 

• Yes this is an important thing to mention ( if the explanation in the well is correct). Otherwise people may presume that they can use the associated rune point on other spells in their knowledge and vice-versa, as with standard Rune magic and the Rune pool of points.
   
• Also ( after reading the Well clarification) the wording whether you lose knowledge of a spell or not after casting, should perhaps be taken out of the bullet points completely and added into the general description to save repetition. Currently the way it’s mentioned in the bullet points makes you question whether it may in fact be possible in some circumstances to lose knowledge of the spell. Which is counter to the clarification in the Well. It’s not 100% clear. 
   

Edited December 19, 2020 by Paid a bod yn dwp

[Glyph]

Healing Plants (P72) - is the D12 on the Seasonal Potency chart meant to be a D10, and if not what is the % equivalent for curing disease - if it's capped at the same 95% for D10 could this be made explicit.

Also, the example has Muricane spend 3 MP to refine the medicine from treating Systematic poison to curing the Shakes - should this have been 4 MP?

I think the last sentence of the example should make it clear it's percentage being rolled - my first reading of it was the potency was refined to D10 and she rolled a lucky 10..

[Glyph]

Learning spirit magic spells (P105) - Learning from Cult, do cults still teach their spirit magic spells to members of associated cults, albeit at full cost?

[Godlearner]

4 hours ago, Glyph said:

Learning spirit magic spells (P105) - Learning from Cult, do cults still teach their spirit magic spells to members of associated cults, albeit at full cost?

Well, technically they can teach any spells their rune masters know. 

[Scorus]

Dark Walk- This should be self instead of ranged, as per the Well of Daliath errata.

And someone should go through all of that errata as this wasn't the only one that didn't make it into this printing.

[Rodney Dangerduck]

Scram: the example math for Scram 1 

"(10+5+1)"

doesn't make any sense and doesn't match the much simpler text of 2x, 3x, etc...

Also, there should be an alternative version named "Amscray" 🙂

[davecake]

On 12/18/2020 at 5:18 PM, lordabdul said:

Back to spells: I'm confused about the Tree Chopping Song spell. It says: "All those influenced can use any type of axe against Aldryami of any type as if those weapons were mauls or maces."... isn't it the other way around? They can use mauls or maces as if they were axes?

It’s a weird one - allowing trolls to wield axes at their mace/maul percentage is definitely what the spell is supposed to do (clearer in the original Cults of Prax text maybe) but it has never been clear what mechanical advantage trolls get from this, if any (large trolls may actually lose out a little in combat against elves etc). I’m not sure this spell ever made real sense - it makes intuitive sense that axes will be far more effective weapons than maces against things made of solid wood at least, but I don’t know of any set of the rules where this is taken into account. 
 

(a running joke in my local RQ community at least that the lyrics of the tree chopping song start with “I’m a lumberjack, and I’m ok, ...”)

Edited December 20, 2020 by davecake

[Shiningbrow]

Fertilize (p51).

It says it will "restore to the soil... of an area". It doesn't indicate the size of said "area".

 

ETA: I also find it odd that it's non-stackable, as it would make sense for this 12 hour ritual to increase the radius/plot of lands that it could affect.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Shiningbrow

[jongjom]

Page 5. There are other forms of magic as well, such as sorcery and draconic magic, but those are beyond the scope of this book.

Suggest:

Other forms of magic as well exist, such as sorcery and draconic magic, but those are beyond the scope of this book.

 

Page 5. ...time-consuming and/or Power-consuming...

 

Page 5. Ritual Spell: These spells can only be cast during a ritual. These spells direct and define the ritual, and vice versa.

Suggest:

Ritual Spell: Cast only during a ritual, these spells direct and define the ritual, and vice versa.

 

Page 5. If there is a limit to the spell’s strength, that limit is included in its description.

Suggest:

Any limit to the spell’s strength, that limit is included in its description.

 

Page 6. Meditation Modifier table. Suggest using the format of the table on page 245, RQG.

 

Page 9. Spells should be appropriate to the god. Humakt is concerned with Death and fighting; Kyger Litor with people trolls and Darkness; Orlanth...

 

spirit plane or Spirit Plane: varies between page 20, 51, 79. Suggest changing page 20 to 'spirit plane' to be the same as the lower caps as the others (lower caps also use for material plane on page 9).

[jongjom]

Page 56. Harmony. The caster makes a single roll on the resistance table. All others whose POW would be overcome are affected.
Example: Fildarus has POW 14 and rolls a 42. Everyone within range with a POW of 15 or less is affected. 

-- Fildarus is actively trying to overcome everyone, therefore Fildarus is the active factor (page 145 RQG). 

Page 61. Inviolable...own POW, as if the caster were the active characteristic, following the results until a value lower than the roll is reached.

Page 61. Example:...Her POW is 15. She rolls a 42 on D100. Consulting the resistance table as if she were engaging in a POW vs. POW struggle[comma] with herself as the active force, Yanioth’s result puts her lower than 45 (POW 16), but above 40 (POW 17). This means that the spell affects anyone in range with POW 16 or lower.

--The caster is the active factor. 

----In both cases it follows the caster has better results from making a lower roll, the standard for RQG.

[Austin]

JW, is there an ETA on when the corrections thread will be closed? Sorry if this has been stated before, I don't have the time presently to skim through. I'm working through my own proofread of the RBM, but can't imagine I'll be done until sometime after the New Year.

[jongjom]

Page 51. Fearless...or to the typical fear resulting from battle, Chaos, or Terrors (see the Glorantha Bestiary, page 188). 

Page 69. Power Drain

-- Should the first one read: Power Drain ([deity] variant)?

Page 70. Example: Loronaga has performed the Meld Form ritual three times and can turn into a cat, a bison, and a sea serpent. If she casts 3 points of Proteus, she can switch back and forth between her own shape, the cat’s, the bison’s, and the sea serpent’s. Thus, she could become a cat, then a bison, then herself, then a sea serpent, then a cat again, if she wished.

Page 72. Rune point will make the roots as good as if they were found in Dark Season, potency 1D12.

--- The Seasonal Potency table has it as 1D12.

Page 74. Require Truth. They could even ask only some of the questions and return days or weeks (or years) later for more questions,

[jongjom]

Page 55. Group Defense. Self, Duration (special), Stackable.

--What is the Duration (apart from 'Special')?

Page 55. Hailstones

...2D6 general hit point damage per round to everything in a five-meter radius of the target.

--It's an Instant spell

Page 55 - 56. Harmonize, Harmony & Harmonium are out of alphabetical order

[Dragon]

Ride River Horse - other than the extra 'only' mentioned above, it states 'Anyone can ride the river horse, but there is a limit of ten passengers per spell point'. 

But Ride River Horse is a two point spell, and nonstackable. So the sentence could instead state '...but there is a limit of twenty passengers.' That would avoid any confusion.

[Dragon]

On 12/19/2020 at 9:55 PM, davecake said:

Back to spells: I'm confused about the Tree Chopping Song spell. It says: "All those influenced can use any type of axe against Aldryami of any type as if those weapons were mauls or maces."... isn't it the other way around? They can use mauls or maces as if they were axes?

I believe this makes sense with two clarifications. 1) It is indeed that those influenced can use axes (in which troll skill is generally low) at their skills with mauls or maces. 2) In older rules I believe crushing weapons and impaling weapons did less damage to War Trees and War Trees count as Aldryami. In RBoM, they did not mention any types of weapons doing less damage to War Trees nor that War Trees count as Aldryami.

I believe the missing verbiage needs to be added to Animate War Tree, which is where the War Tree stats are located.

[Dragon]

Spirit Melding p83.

'For the spell's duration, add the spirit's POW to the caster's when the caster is resisting spirit combat and spells'.

No problem for spells. But spirit combat is resisted by the Spirit Combat skill now, not POW. Does it add the spirit's POW to the Spirit Combat skill? Does it boost the effective POW so all Magic skills have a better Modifier? How does it aid resisting in Spirit Combat?

[Dragon]

Just now, Dragon said:

Spirit Melding p83.

'For the spell's duration, add the spirit's POW to the caster's when the caster is resisting spirit combat and spells'.

No problem for spells. But spirit combat is resisted by the Spirit Combat skill now, not POW. Does it add the spirit's POW to the Spirit Combat skill? Does it boost the effective POW so all Magic skills have a better Modifier? How does it aid resisting in Spirit Combat?

Hey, I thought of another possible aid. Spirit Combat damage (i.e. MPs) could be taken from the spirit's MPs first. That would certainly help.

[Dragon]

Bear's Strength, p15; Strength of Basmol p 87

These state 'doubling the target's natural STR' or similar. It doesn't mention whether that can exceed the race's STR maximum. Seastrength p 76 does: 'with no restrictions on maximum'. For clarity, Bear's Strength and Strength of Basmol should state how it affects racial maximums.

Summon Spirit of Law, p95. Oh no, Spirit of Law no longer has a special power to kill any chaotic creature that it defeats in spirit combat. We used that a few times, when chaos things regenerated too fast.

[soltakss]

2 hours ago, Dragon said:

Ride River Horse - other than the extra 'only' mentioned above, it states 'Anyone can ride the river horse, but there is a limit of ten passengers per spell point'. 

But Ride River Horse is a two point spell, and nonstackable. So the sentence could instead state '...but there is a limit of twenty passengers.' That would avoid any confusion.

Per spell use would be better. So casting one Ride River Horse costs 2 Rune Points and carries 10 people, Ride River Horse 2 costs 4 Rune Points and carries 20 passengers.

[Dragon]

5 hours ago, soltakss said:

Per spell use would be better. So casting one Ride River Horse costs 2 Rune Points and carries 10 people, Ride River Horse 2 costs 4 Rune Points and carries 20 passengers.

True. Which would make it stackable.

[Jason D]

On 12/22/2020 at 12:56 PM, Crel said:

JW, is there an ETA on when the corrections thread will be closed? Sorry if this has been stated before, I don't have the time presently to skim through. I'm working through my own proofread of the RBM, but can't imagine I'll be done until sometime after the New Year.

I'm making edits now based on everything prior to this post, and will do another pass at the very end of December. There'll be a new .pdf released soon after that.