> I agree with him but I am also absolutely convinced that there is a
> weird serpent worshipping cult somewhere in Ralios that is
> headed up by the last surviving members of the serpent hsunchen.
> Cheesy fantasy, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard
> and many others make it mandatory!
Also relevant are the Serpent Kings of Seshnela -- the boundaries between Seshnela and Ralios are never easy to draw. (Though I think that the reptile hsunchen lived further away from the border.)
Roger McCarthy asked
> 1) If a 10w4 character fights a 5w2 character then the contest is resolved
> as 10w2 vs 5 - but does the 10w4 start off with 90 or 50 action points?
Both contestants have the same number of APs no matter who they fight - -- 90 and 45 in your example. The dropping of masteries is only for purposes of resolving the rolls.
> 2) In a melee where several characters are fighting each other are action
> points returned to base level every time a character switches opponent - if
> they are then what about feats or spells that augment his abilities - do
> they have to be recast anew with every new contest or do they carry on
> indefinitely ?
Action points never reset until a brand new contest -- switching opponents in a fight is not a new contest. Augmentation likewise normally keeps on going for the duration.
Or, as Trotsky suggests, think of it as resetting with a new scene (though the actual practice may be in between -- I can easily imagine scenes which include multiple unrelated contests).
In general, if your overall goal remains the same ("deal with these enemies"), your APs remain the same, no matter what you're doing (attacking them, using magic against them, trying to run away from them).
> As a general comment the one thing that I do miss in these rules is any
> element of random character generation - HW looks like it will be great if
> you either know at the start exactly what your character is going to look
> like and can do (which genuine Gloranthan neophytes on the whole won't)or if
> you're happy playing one of a limited number of archetypes but I don't think
> I'm alone in seeing the way an interesting new character can spring up fully
> fleshed out of a few random dice rolls as one of the really magical elements
> of RuneQuest and Pendragon.
You could always use a dictionary and open a page at random to help you construct your 100 words...
I like the character generation because it gives you control without devolving into a spreadsheet, and because you *don't* need to know much about your character to start with. You don't need all 100 words, you can start with just a culture and occupational keyword. (I've seen this done and it works well.)
> However I suppose HW is flexible enough to allow us to set up random ability
> generation tables and to allow us to roll starting ability levels with 2d6+6
> if that's what we want to do...
You could certainly randomize your ability scores if you really wanted to, and your suggestion would work fine for abilities that normally begin at 13.
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_pensee.com> Glorantha/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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