Scorpion men, tactics, and RQ vs HW from Philip Hibbs on 1999-04-25 (Glorantha Digest Vol 06)

From: Philip Hibbs <phibbs_at_snark.freeserve.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 02:27:54 +0200

>I also remember tense times in RQ where I've felt my god,
>I've got to get at least a slash to a non leg location to put this
>scorpion man down or I'm dead meat if/when that stinger hits me.

Shouldn't have picked it up then! :)

Seriously, the RQ tactic that worked best against scorpion men was to parry twice - if you parry a failed stinger attack with a sword, you stood a good chance of chopping it off.

I think I will miss this kind of tactical thinking that RQ encouraged - combinations and unusual uses of actions and skills that work out really well. In HW, a scorpion man will just have a "fight with sword and stinger" ability that will be piched against the character's bland "fight (with sword)" ability. If the scorpion man is better, he will likely win. Unusual approaches are (AFAIK) limited to finding a skill that you can bring to bear in an unusual way, such as setting a booby trap with your "build things" ability. But that can be no better than using ranged combat, whereas in RQ a well-thought-out booby trap can flatten a runelord.

Philip Hibbs