RuneQuest Quickstart - The Broken Tower

[Jason D]

1 hour ago, g33k said:

Any chance of getting this corrected in D/L'able version (and any other player-facing bits -- PC sheets, player-hand-outs, etc)...

before Free RPG Day ?   

I've passed the info on, but the uploads/etc. are out of my ability to control. 

[Jeff]

1 hour ago, Eric Christian Berg said:

I believe he's referring to page 8 under Movement, the last sentence of which reads, "An adventurer engaged in melee cannot move until disengaged."

I am also confused as to whether a point of MOV equals 1m or 3m. That section seems to suggest it is 1m while in combat and 3m when not engaged, but that doesn't jibe with what you quote later where folks in combat can move half their movement.

You can always run away until you are actually directly engaged in combat. But once you are actually in the fray, slashing around with your sword and parrying with your shield against another person, it is too late to simply run away (yes, I know that there exist examples to the contrary, but most of those can be explained "rules-wise" as either being someone who runs away before engagement or is disengaged).
This by the way is why mounted combat is so advantageous.

[GamingGlen]

"Sorala has sorcery in the core rulebook, but it was easier to just give her spirit and rune magic for the quickstart."

 

So 'Find Magic' is a sorcery spell that is in the spell matrix item she has?  I was going to change it to Detect Magic, but she already knows that.

Edited June 12, 2017 by GamingGlen

[Jeff]

Find Magic is a Rune Spell. 

[JerHoc]

I searched through and didn't see this question already, but I apologize if I missed it.

On page 6, regarding Opposed Resolutions..."If both participants succeed, the winner is whoever rolled higher."  Is this a typo?  If critical successes are the lowest of rolls, and you are always aiming to roll under a number, why would the higher roll of an opposed resolution win (if both have succeeded)?  It seems counter intuitive to the mechanic, and confusing for the players.  Should it not be, "If both participants succeed, the winner is whoever rolled lower"?

Thanks in advance!
 

[JerHoc]

8 hours ago, Jason Durall said:

 

• Vasana's having the wrong rune is a mistake, and we'll fix it in the corebook and for future printings or downloads. 

 

What is the correct rune?  

[Psullie]

lets say Harmast and Vostor are having a singing contest - 35% & 30% respectively. Harmast rolls 25, Vostor a 28. Both succeed but Voster wins the contest has he rolls higher. Now if Yanioth were to compete (70%) she'd need to roll between 29 - 70, a special or a critical to win. Rolling higher therefore favours those with higher skills.

if however Harmast rolled a critical of 02, Yanioth would need to critical and roll 03 - 04 to win. She'd lose on a roll of 01 and draw on a 02

Edited June 12, 2017 by Psullie
clarification

[g33k]

6 hours ago, Jason Durall said:

Gotcha. In this case, "move" means non-combat movement. You can take half your movement rate during combat as part of that combat, but you're still technically "engaged" in combat. 

1 MOV equals 1 meter when in combat (so you can move up to 4 meters in combat for free,8 meters doing nothing but moving) versus out-of-combat movement, when you can move up to 24 meters. 

I was coming at it from another angle:

In the context of movement (you were moving last round, and/or your most-recent SoI was a non-combat "Move") -- you may engage in combat only if you haven't gone more than 1/2 normal movement.

In the context of melee-combat (you are in combat-range of a foe, and either of you has attacked the other one last round and/or has made an "attack" SoI for this round) -- you must Disengage from the combat before engaging in "Movement" (or the foe gets to attack which you may neither Parry nor Dodge.).

That is to say, each rule is correct, within its specific context.  But because of the way things are "framed" it can appear odd, broken, or like a rules-contradiction.

Is all of this correct?

Edited June 12, 2017 by g33k
corrected as per the rules (I hope)

[SBaldrick]

.I found the PDF.  It was well concealed. 

Edited June 13, 2017 by SBaldrick

[styopa]

9 hours ago, JerHoc said:

I searched through and didn't see this question already, but I apologize if I missed it.

On page 6, regarding Opposed Resolutions..."If both participants succeed, the winner is whoever rolled higher."  Is this a typo?  If critical successes are the lowest of rolls, and you are always aiming to roll under a number, why would the higher roll of an opposed resolution win (if both have succeeded)?  It seems counter intuitive to the mechanic, and confusing for the players.  Should it not be, "If both participants succeed, the winner is whoever rolled lower"?

Thanks in advance!
 

This is one of the clever mechanics of the opposed roll, actually.

If we have a contest, your skill is 40 while mine is 20, if we both roll a "normal success", my possible rolls are 05-20, while yours are 09-40, meaning even if we both nominally "succeed", it's much more likely your normal success was better (higher) than mine, because of your intrinsically higher skill.

This was a clever way to implement a "better" result within a "same" success category that didn't involve mathy subtraction to figure who had the better differential vs their skill....same result, MUCH simpler, albeit a little counter intuitive until you get it.

 

Jason, as far as movement, my point was in the "the melee round" description that lists the order of events:

Statement of intent

Movement of UNENGAGED characters

Resolution of melee, missiles and spells

Bookkeeping

...ie engaged toons never get to move?

 

[styopa]

18 hours ago, Jason Durall said:

• The "2nd kind of meditation" is the same as the 1st kind. See the description of the skill on page 12. The description at the top of page 20 is explicitly talking about its role in restoring magic points. 
• Earthpower, like most Rune spells, lasts 15 minutes. The top of page 21 says "Unless the spell description says otherwise, all Rune spells are passive with a duration of 15 minutes". The extra POW goes away at the end of the spell's duration. It's not a permanent thing. Not having a D after the spell description is an oversight, though, and it's clearer in the core rules.  

First, HUGE thanks for your replies.  Much appreciated.  There are some really helpful answers in there.

Meditation: on p21 it says "the sole purpose of this meditation is the casting of the spell, and does not yield additional magic points" - so NOT the same as the first kind?

Earthpower: so the caster gets a point of POW for 15 mins... I didn't realize the duration limit, thanks.  Obviously this point of POW shouldn't be sacrificeable for rune points.

Edited June 13, 2017 by styopa

[Gorwen]

2 hours ago, styopa said:

This is one of the clever mechanics of the opposed roll, actually.

If we have a contest, your skill is 40 while mine is 20, if we both roll a "normal success", my possible rolls are 05-20, while yours are 09-40, meaning even if we both nominally "succeed", it's much more likely your normal success was better (higher) than mine, because of your intrinsically higher skill.

This was a clever way to implement a "better" result within a "same" success category that didn't involve mathy subtraction to figure who had the better differential vs their skill....same result, MUCH simpler, albeit a little counter intuitive until you get it.

 

 

A similar mechanic used in Heroquest also, and I never quite understood it there, until your explanation here. Now I totally understand it and can explain it to others now, TY.

[Jason D]

17 hours ago, JerHoc said:

I searched through and didn't see this question already, but I apologize if I missed it.

On page 6, regarding Opposed Resolutions..."If both participants succeed, the winner is whoever rolled higher."  Is this a typo?  If critical successes are the lowest of rolls, and you are always aiming to roll under a number, why would the higher roll of an opposed resolution win (if both have succeeded)?  It seems counter intuitive to the mechanic, and confusing for the players.  Should it not be, "If both participants succeed, the winner is whoever rolled lower"?

Thanks in advance!
 

Welcome to the most hotly-debated aspect of the Basic Roleplaying system... the opposed role resolution! 

It's been mostly answered below, but if you've got non-matching outcomes (normal success vs. a special success, special success vs. a critical) the better result (not the roll) wins. 

If you have matching results (normal vs. normal, special vs. special, crit vs. crit) then you compare the highest of the actual number. This gives the higher skilled character the advantage. It's the easiest (if non-intuitive) means of handling it, because otherwise you're dealing with subtracting or some other complicated resolution.  

 

[Psullie]

When running one off's with new players I find name tags useful for me and the players so I threw these together last night and hough I'd share incase any one else finds them useful

PS: I love the way Yanioth is the only one looking at the viewer, really self-assured and Vostor looks shifty, well done to Roman Kisyov on the portraits. Any chance of colour versions?

nametags.pdf

[GamingGlen]

I keep thinking 'Klingon', the ones from Star Trek's original series, when I look at the male portraits, especially Vostor.

[JerHoc]

Thanks @styopa and @Jason Durall!

[Psullie]

I'm trying to date the adventure, based on the character backgrounds I figure between Dragonrise, Earth Season 1625 and the Battle of the Queens the following year. Due to the weather I'm guessing late Storm Season 1625?

 

[Psullie]

I assume that the Rock Lizards has only 4 HP in their Right Hind Leg (not 6)

[styopa]

39 minutes ago, Psullie said:

I assume that the Rock Lizards has only 4 HP in their Right Hind Leg (not 6)

Maybe they didn't skip leg day?

[Bill the barbarian]

Greetings from north of Valind's glacier. Anybody know if we will be getting down loads of player's aids or should we make our own?

[hanataka]

On 2017/6/13 at 0:25 AM, Jason Durall said:

Gotcha. In this case, "move" means non-combat movement. You can take half your movement rate during combat as part of that combat, but you're still technically "engaged" in combat. 

1 MOV equals 1 meter when in combat (so you can move up to 4 meters in combat for free,8 meters doing nothing but moving) versus out-of-combat movement, when you can move up to 24 meters. 

 

I am very confused about the movement rules.

In old RQ2, Movement rule is very clear.
MOV unit is always 3 meters (10 feet) in combat round, and Human has move 8.

If you are not engaged in MELEE combat:
  You can move up to 24 meters if you move only.
  You can move up to (half) 12 meters if you use combat action. (Delay 1 SR every 3 meters of movement).
If you are engaged in MELEE combat:
  You can not move.

Is it changed? why?
In RQG term, what do you meen non-comabat movement and "engage in combat"?

[Psullie]

2 hours ago, hanataka said:

I am very confused about the movement rules.

In old RQ2, Movement rule is very clear.
MOV unit is always 3 meters (10 feet) in combat round, and Human has move 8.

If you are not engaged in MELEE combat:
  You can move up to 24 meters if you move only.
  You can move up to (half) 12 meters if you use combat action. (Delay 1 SR every 3 meters of movement).
If you are engaged in MELEE combat:
  You can not move.

Is it changed? why?
In RQG term, what do you meen non-comabat movement and "engage in combat"?

this is how I read it:

As soon as your character is within weapon reach and you are trying to hit you are engaged in combat. If you end a round engaged you begin the next round engaged. If you start the round not engaged but can connect an enemy in less than 12 meters (4 MOV) you can enter combat at an SR cost of 1 per 3 meters (1 MOV) travelled.

Likewise, unless you are actively being attacked, but engaged you may move 1 meter (1 MOV) per SR. An example being two v's one where the flanking character could elect to move and engage another, remaining engaged at all times. 

Finally to disengage requires that the character move outside of contact range. then begins the next round unengaged with higher movement.

You could also state that if you end a round out of weapon reach of any opponent you are automatically un-engaged for the next round.

 

Edited June 14, 2017 by Psullie

[Psullie]

Question about element runes

The Earth Rune lists Search as an Association. Fire/Sky Rune lists all Perception skills as an Association.

Does this mean that a player could chose either Earth or Fire to augment a Search?

[Jeff]

3 hours ago, hanataka said:

I am very confused about the movement rules.

In old RQ2, Movement rule is very clear.
MOV unit is always 3 meters (10 feet) in combat round, and Human has move 8.

If you are not engaged in MELEE combat:
  You can move up to 24 meters if you move only.
  You can move up to (half) 12 meters if you use combat action. (Delay 1 SR every 3 meters of movement).
If you are engaged in MELEE combat:
  You can not move.

Is it changed? why?
In RQG term, what do you meen non-comabat movement and "engage in combat"?

The new RQ uses the same movement rules as RQ2.

If you are not engaged in MELEE combat:

• You can move up to 25 meters if you move only.
• You can move up to (half) 12 meters if you use combat action. (Delay 1 SR every 3 meters of movement).
   

If you are engaged in MELEE combat:

• You cannot move until you disengage.

The only difference in the new RQ is that it is possible to disengage from melee through retreating.

[hanataka]

Thank you, Jeff. I was relieved to hear that.

"MOV is usually considered to be 1 meter in combat," on QS page 8.
This is a mistake or typo, the correct rule is "3 meters in comabt", isn't it?