RuneQuest: Weapons & Equipment - corrections thread

[trystero]

p. 118, first column, second paragraph (starting with "The Malkioni use sorcery…"), final sentence: "before the any formal sorcerous tradition commences." "Before the any" is garbled, and "tradition" isn't an activity that can commence. Suggest recasting as "before any formal sorcerous education commences".

p. 118, first column, fourth paragraph (starting with "An adventurer with the…"), final sentences: "A spell generally takes a season to master. See RuneQuest, pages 389–390, for rules on spell training and research." This information is independent of the private-trainer context of this paragraph; suggest breaking this sentence off as its own paragraph to make this fact clearer.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[filkertom]

P. 94 - should be a comma between "Chariot" and "Command".

P. 99 - s/b "Mobile Dwellings", not "Moble".

P. 99 - clumsy sentence: "Building onto what one inherited means not only having the means to pay for the new standard of living but requires the ability to acquire the type of dwelling that standard requires." Suggestion: "Building onto an inheritance means not only being able to pay for the new standard of living,  but also the availability of the type of dwelling that standard requires."

P. 107 - s/b "Rampart, Earthen". Probably also s/b "Raised Walkway, Earthen".

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[Frp]

Page 86. I'm seeing the armor table duplicated. It should be shields. 

Edited December 13, 2021 by Jason D

[PhilHibbs]

p.8 Masterwork Items:

Quote

The gamemaster should
determine to what skill or skills use in this case.

Redundant "to".

Edited December 13, 2021 by Jason D

[Jason D]

As a note, I'm going through this thread and doing strike-through on the error reports as they're being fixed. A new updated .pdf will be available soon. 

Some I need to think about, so don't worry if yours hasn't been fixed yet. 

[Jason D]

On 12/11/2021 at 12:30 PM, jongjom said:

Into the Troll Lands - what are you referring to here? 

The upcoming Into the Troll Lands book. 

[Glyph]

P4 Availability of goods

it's not clear what the modifier in the Market Size and Item Availability table is applied to, the preceding paragraphs deal with size, population, frequency, types of goods but not the modifier, whereas on the following page it states bargain or homeland lore modified by the following table (Homeland Lore Modifiers)

It would be good to have this spelt out, and maybe an example or two at the end of the section?

Edited December 13, 2021 by Jason D

[trystero]

p. 118, Sorcery Spell Teaching Costs table: I'd suggest changing the plural entries ("Common spells", "Uncommon spells", "Cult secrets", and "other unique spells") to singular ("Common spell", "Uncommon spell", "Cult secret", and "other unique spell") to make it clearer that the listed cost is for learning a single spell.

Same page, same table: It would make more sense to reverse the order of the last two table rows, so that all the per-spell costs are grouped together.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[trystero]

p. 119, first paragraph: The final sentence ("More than any other chapter in this resource, the gamemaster should weigh carefully whether any of the items presented here are available, and limit access as appropriate") is immediately repeated, with one word differing, as the first sentence of the second paragraph ("More than any other chapter in this sourcebook, the gamemaster should weigh carefully whether any of the items presented here are available, and limit access as appropriate"). Suggest removing the first-paragraph instance and leaving the sentence as-is in the second paragraph.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Jason D

[trystero]

p. 120, Types of Crystals section, Combination entry: "a POW 4 Sensitivity/ POW 3 Healing focusing crystal has a POW of 7 for attunement purposes but can only double 3 points of Healing and aid four Detection spells" has a mixture of numerals and numbers spelt out. Suggest recasting as "a POW 4 Sensitivity/ POW 3 Healing focusing crystal has a POW of 7 for attunement purposes but can only double three points of Healing and aid four Detection spells"

p. 121, Spell Strengthening entry, final sentence: "This does not drain the POW from the crystal, it will always have a POW of 4" is a run-on. Suggest recasting as "This does not drain the POW from the crystal, which will always have a POW of 4".

p. 121, Spell Storing entry: "the spell and spirits are lost" should be "the spells and spirits are lost".

p. 122, Opened Binding entry: "If sold, the buckle disappears instantly, but they may be stolen by guile or force" switches from singular to plural partway through. Suggest recasting as "If sold, the buckle disappears instantly, but it may be stolen by guile or force". (And recasting the preceding sentence in the singular, too, if possible.)

p. 124, Common Enchantments table, One-use Leap Rune spell entry: missing period at end of description.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[trystero]

p. 125, Extraordinary Gems section: "Prices are for a stone of size ENC (1/10)" uses a fraction instead of the parenthetical-divisor notation used elsewhere in the book. Should this be "Prices are for a stone of size ENC (10)"?

Same issue on p. 126, in the first paragraph: Should "1/10 ENC" be "ENC (10)"?

Edited January 3, 2022 by Jason D

[Glyph]

Sorcery Training (P117/118)

Can there be more explicit times/costs for learning new runes and techniques - perhaps expand the Sorcery Spell Teaching costs table, and maybe add a column for time taken?

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[Glyph]

I may have missed this, but there doesn't seem to be anything like a waterskin - I would have expected this in Adventuring Gear

Also Pack, Soldiers (P35) doesn't have enc, although the other packs do

Wrist Wrapping (P62) table shows 10HP - this is better than an armoured glove, is that correct? Likewise, Knuckle Strap has 8HP, the same as armoured glove - these seem a little high to me

Tools, Thieves (P35) - doesn't have enc, but as it includes a small pry bar I'd expect something

Just spotted another worrying omission - the Philosopher occupation in the rulebook has a small portable platform as part of the starting equipment, but it doesn't seem to be mentioned in in Weapons & Equipment...

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Jason D

[molmedoz]

Page 75, there is a draw of 2 Chakrams, but no description or reference to it in the weapons table neither weapons list.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Jason D

[Jason D]

On 12/11/2021 at 1:14 PM, Akhôrahil said:

Several of the Land Improvements (p. 100) make no sense economically by the rules. A +5% bonus to the Income roll or Farming roll for a Hide of land will typically be worth less than 3L yearly on an 80 L-producing hide. This means that improvements like Irrigation, Road (on non-rolling terrain), Shop and Stable/Barn, with a higher maintenance cost than this, will be a net cost even after the initial investment.

A Standing Stone is good, though!

I think you're interpreting these values incorrectly. They are not to the amount of income, but to the % of the skill roll to determine income. 

Harmast, as a noble, determines his yearly income based on his Manage Household or Orate skill, per hide he owns. He has added some land improvements. These improvements don't add to the income specifically, just the chance he will succeed or get a better-than-average success in that income roll. 

See page 422 of the core book. The difference between failing that roll and succeeding is half his income per hide, a significant amount. So he's going to spend what he can to improve his odds, carefully choosing improvements that maximize his wealth while minimizing his upkeep. 

Of course, at some huge macro-level with thousands of people rolling thousands of times these values average out, but that's not the experience of a single adventurer, in this case, Harmast. 

If Harmast has spent so much on improvements that the upkeep cost is more than he can afford, then he's bad at business. 
 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Jason D

[Yinkin]

I was looking at the mercenary contracts on page 48, which suggested that standard pay is 5L per week for a mercenary soldier. This comes up to 200L per year (not counting Sacred Time), which is quite a lot more than the 60L suggested base yearly income of a warrior in the core rule book. Is this on purpose?

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[Marc]

p. 112.  In the first paragraph of Land Events it states(emphasis mine):

Quote

During Sacred Time, after Family Rolls are made (RuneQuest,
page 426), the gamemaster should roll on the Land Events
table (following) for each adventurer that owns land.

However, near the top of the next column, it states:

Quote

This roll should be made before the Omens roll in
Sacred Time (RuneQuest, page 421). Many of these rolls
can spur adventures or inspire heroquesting to stop them.
The gamemaster may wish to make this roll secretly at
the start of the year or pick a desired result, and let the
adventurers spend one or more seasons dealing with the
determined event.
 

So, I'm thinking that if you roll after Family Rolls, it's for the next year, and the party may be able to avoid negative events, or boost positive ones. If you roll before Omens, it's for the current year, and you take what you get.  If that's the case, the wording could be better

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[Akhôrahil]

On 12/21/2021 at 11:55 AM, Jason D said:

I think you're interpreting these values incorrectly. They are not to the amount of income, but to the % of the skill roll to determine income. 

I realize that - that makes it worse, as +5% to Harvest roll or Income roll is less that 5% to just earnings.

On 12/21/2021 at 11:55 AM, Jason D said:

Harmast, as a noble, determines his yearly income based on his Manage Household or Orate skill, per hide he owns. He has added some land improvements. These improvements don't add to the income specifically, just the chance he will succeed or get a better-than-average success in that income roll. 

See page 422 of the core book. The difference between failing that roll and succeeding is half his income per hide, a significant amount. So he's going to spend what he can to improve his odds, carefully choosing improvements that maximize his wealth while minimizing his upkeep. 

Of course, at some huge macro-level with thousands of people rolling thousands of times these values average out, but that's not the experience of a single adventurer, in this case, Harmast. 

Sure. But, unless I completely screwed up my math, +5% to either Income roll or Harvest roll comes out as less than 5% additional earnings, while having an upkeep for the granting improvement that costs more than the expected gain.

I did a spreadsheet for this, and +5% to Income roll means something like +3.5% to expected income (on average, naturally). For instance, going from 55% to 60% for the Income roll for an 80L Hide earns you an average of 2.8 L yearly (counting the full spread of results, and this is pre rents and taxes!), which means that paying 4-6 L in yearly upkeep to achieve this makes for a net loss. Harmast should never make these Improvements - they just don't pay, even long-term.  

+5% to Harvest roll is actually slightly better than +5% to Income roll (this surprised me), but is still not enough to cover a 4L maintenance cost.

So basically, you have to pay an initial cost as an investment, and even after that, there's a net expected loss on a yearly basis for several of the improvements. This makes these improvements awful economics. What I would expect is an initial investment cost that then results in a return of investment over many years, eventually paying off. Statue/Standing Stone does work this way as it has no maintenance cost.

I don't think you can even argue that this is a risk reduction for the farmer, as the farmer is now stuck with fixed maintenance cost on top of his regular SoL costs. 

Halving maintenance costs for these improvements would lead to small expected gain instead of a small expected loss. Perhaps too small - the RoI is really bad - but it's something at least. Meanwhile, the RoI of getting yourself a Hide's worth of Cattle or (better yet!) Sheep and hiring a herder for it is pretty good (although this does assume that you have grazing lands as well)

On 12/21/2021 at 11:55 AM, Jason D said:

If Harmast has spent so much on improvements that the upkeep cost is more than he can afford, then he's bad at business. 

My point is that Harmast shouldn't make improvements in the first place if they result in an expected net loss for him.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[Akhôrahil]

On 12/21/2021 at 3:29 PM, Yinkin said:

I was looking at the mercenary contracts on page 48, which suggested that standard pay is 5L per week for a mercenary soldier. This comes up to 200L per year (not counting Sacred Time), which is quite a lot more than the 60L suggested base yearly income of a warrior in the core rule book. Is this on purpose?

Two factors that might help to explain this:

1. The 60L income is in addition to having full Standard of Living already paid by the employer of the RQG warrior. Since Free SoL comes to 60L, the cost of paying the Warrior is actually 120L yearly (being a warrior gives you a lot more extra income than being a farmer). 

2. The mercenary pay is presumably for active duty in an ongoing war, making it a lot more dangerous than being a full-time clan or tribal warrior on average. It makes sense to cut this pay for comparatively garrison duty in peacetime. Since the mercenary also can't expect to be employed full-time (for the same reason), payment needs to cover costs during slow years as well. 

Warrior occupation actually looks pretty good in comparison. You also have a better chance of being cared for in your old age, I would guess. Mercenary officer does pay superbly, though, and many starting Warrior PCs would be officer material already.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[Jim]

The effect of enchanting tin is not stated on p.14. It just states it is rarely enchanted. For instance in game terms does this give it the properties of bronze and make it able to affect targets that would need and enchanted weapon to hit (e.g. telmori and spirits) or does it just remain “light and not very durable”. Some cults have enchant tin, so is this pointless?

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[Squaredeal Sten]

P. 3, weight and distance converisons:

If 10 km = 6 miles can be covered in 2 hours of walking, then 100km = 62 miles can not be covered in 15 hours of walking.  People get slower when the walk longer distances, not faster.  And they need breaks.  And they develop blisters.  The 15 hour figure ruins suspension of disbelief.

Try 62 miles in 1 1/2 days at fastest.  2 1/2 days is more reasonable for men in good shape.   3 days carrying packs.

Weight and Distance Conversions
Metric Imperial Approximate
1 kg 2.2 lb A jug of wine
½ kg 1.1 lb A melon
¼ kg ½ lb A large apple
100 g 3½ oz A small pear
100 km 62 miles 15 hours of walking*
10 km 6 miles 2 hours of walking*
1 km 1,100 yards (2/3 mile) 10 minutes of walking*
½ km 550 yards (1/3 mile) 5 minutes of walking*

Edited January 3, 2022 by Jason D
detail

[Squaredeal Sten]

p.18, the table of enchant metal spells by cult:

I am not arguing with the yet-unpublished gods book, but from what i can reference right now, this looks peculiar:

Why should the Argan Argar cult only have Enchant Lead, when according to the (RQ2) Cult compendium, p.206, "  They usually do not use enchanted lead
either, preferring bronze, a surface metal.    "?

Gloranthan Cults with
the Enchant (metal) Spell
Aldrya: Enchant Copper
Aranea: Enchant Iron, Enchant Silver
Argan Argar: Enchant Lead
Asrelia: Enchant Copper
Babeester Gor: Enchant Copper, Enchant Iron

 

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jason D

[Squaredeal Sten]

In Nonhuman armor, p.89,

the last sentence is  "  The ENC value for nonhuman armor should be guided
by the Nonhuman Armor table (Page 89).  "

The table is actually on page 88.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Jason D

[Akhôrahil]

So this isn’t some outright error, just weirdness:

A cestus is a metal boxing glove. It has 4 HP or 8 HP depending on whether it’s Light or Heavy. Wrist Wraps, meanwhile, are simple leather wrappings but have 10 HP.

How does this make sense? 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Jason D

[Jason D]

On 12/18/2021 at 12:37 AM, Glyph said:

Just spotted another worrying omission - the Philosopher occupation in the rulebook has a small portable platform as part of the starting equipment, but it doesn't seem to be mentioned in in Weapons & Equipment...

Worrying?