> 1) Skills over 100%. According to the RQ3 manual (a Finnish translation,
> however - I hope it's that!) the maximum skill value you could have is
> 100% + the modifier + 6%.
The translation must be bad. Skills have no limit, as long as the user has a positive modifier. The chance for increase is normally (100% - skill %), without including the modifier. The chance cannot be less than the category modifier, though. Thus, those with high modifiers can easily continue to increase to very high skill levels.
> However, for example, the vampire in Sun County
> has attack/defense of 199/138 with one of his weapons.
Since the vampire is presumably very old, he has had many chances to use and improve his skills.
> Ok, there are obviously some rules for high-level campaigning, but I have
> never seen them. Could anyone relate them to me?
Well, there are the HeroQuest rules. There's no single official source for these (yet), but you'll find a number of proposed HQ rules on the web. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my own--they're more "gamey" being GMing tools rather than high Gloranthan concept, but that's what I prefer.
> 2) Just a few general notions about magic: Sorcery seems to be pretty
> powerless ...[snip]...seems to require tons of magic points to be of any
> use, and casting time besides.
It really depends. A sorcerer can use Damage Boosting to great effect, for example. With only a fourteen free INT he can have a +5 damage weapon for a week -- highly effective. And once he gets some matrices he can use DB to make all of his weapons, extremities, arrows, and whatnots into highly damaging tools.
Basically sorcerers seem to be least effective in direct-attack spells. One of the most useful effects I can remember was to use Multispell to cast 1-point Glow spells on the eyes of many enemies at once -- only gave them a -10% each, but still an effective area-effect spell.
The usefulness of the various characteristic spells also cannot be overlooked. A well-prepared sorcerer, from a community of sorcerers, should have STR, DEX, CON, and even APP that are at least a few points higher than nature (the dice) intended. If category modifiers improved by long-duration spell-enhanced characteristic spells actually improve the chance to learn from previous experience, the sorcerer will be more likely to increase skills over 100%.
RQIII sorcery isn't bad, but it really doesn't have the right "feel" for Glorantha. I've proposed a highly experimental Rune-based version which is on the same page as my HeroQuest rules (at <http://www.tiac.net/users/maranci/rq.htm>, plug plug). Sandy Petersen has a set of Sorcery rules which you can find via David Dunham's RQ/Pendragon Pass page. I've played in RQ games where modified spell lists from RoleMaster were used in place of the standard sorcery. It's definitely worth playing around until you find something that feels right to you.
I *wish* there was an RQ rules list! Particularly since Avalon Hill says that their new RQ will be a new system...I wonder what that means. Looks like the only way to keep the system alive is by passing material around on the net.
-->Pete
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Maranci pmaranci_at_tiac.net Malden, MAEditor, Interregnum RPG/Science Fiction APA/magazine -- email for info. Interregnum WWW home page: http://www.tiac.net/users/maranci/index.html RQ adventures, art and more: http://www.tiac.net/users/maranci/rq.htm
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