RuneQuest Home Rules

With thanks to Nikk Effingham http://www.nikkeffingham.com/runequest/rules.htm and Sandy Petersen from whom most of these rules are pilfered.

1

RuneQuest Home...................................1 Rules......................................................1 General..................................................7 Exploding dice.....................................7 Character Generation.............................7 Rolling Characteristics........................7 Luck Points during character generation.......................................7 Background Skills................................7 High Magic Points Recovery(MP).........7 Ablative Hit Points...............................7 Hit Points Over 20...............................7 Free INT..............................................8 Magic Items Limit................................8 Quirks..................................................8 Luck Points/Hero Points.......................8 Using Luck Points.............................9 Family.................................................9 Ransom Fund......................................9 Edges................................................10 Skills.....................................................14 Automatic failure...............................14 Chances of success over 100% ........14 Adjusted chance of Success less than 0%.....................................................14 Opposed Skill Rolls i.e. Sneak vs Scan ..........................................................14 Encumbrance Penalty for Skills and Spells ...............................................14 Team Rolls........................................15

Step One: Advantaged or Disadvantaged ..............................15 Step Two: Calculate Skill Rating ....15 Step Three: Make the roll ..............15 Step four: Resolution ....................16 Opposed Skills Rolls ......................16 Unopposed Skill Rolls (Team) ........16 Characteristic Rolls (Team)............16 Aiding Rolls ......................................16 Additional Skills.................................17 Agility skills....................................17 Communications skills...................17 Knowledge Skills............................19 Magical Skills.................................23 Stealth Skills..................................24 Damage................................................25 Dying.................................................25 Last Words........................................25 Long Term Damage...........................25 Minor Wound..................................26 Major Wound..................................26 Severe Wounds..............................26 Resurrection......................................27 The Resurrection Ritual..................27 The Deceased................................27 Death Sickness..............................27 The World.............................................28 Falling...............................................28 Asphyxiation.....................................28 Acids.................................................28 2

Alkali.................................................29 Drugs................................................29 Alcohol and Drinking......................29 Flying................................................29 Magical flight.................................29 Height............................................29 Flying and Weather Conditions......30 Flying inside sylphs........................30 Flying and concentration...............30 Shamanic Flying.............................30 Insanity.............................................30 Creating Insanity Spirits.................31 Disease.............................................31 Recovery From Disease.................31 Downtime and Experience...................32 Session Awards.................................32 Experience and Pow Rolls..............32 Epic Rewards.................................32 The Downtime Round........................32 Permanent Employed Work...........34 Illegal Activities..............................35 Self Employed Professions.............36 Working Co-operatively..................39 Living Costs.......................................39 Extra mouths to feed.....................40 Purchasing Property..........................40 Downtime Actions.............................41 Actions...........................................41 Instruction (Skills)..........................43

Characters teaching other Characters skills.............................43 The Retainer of Trainers................43 Institutional Access........................43 Research........................................44 Researching New Sorcery Spells....44 Business and Commerce...................47 Business Points..............................47 Making a New Business..................47 Spending BPs.................................47 Attending to your business............47 Profit Rolls......................................49 Liquid Assets..................................49 Non-Liquid Assets..........................49 RuneQuest Downtime Activities Record Sheet.................................51 Combat.................................................52 Shooting into Melee..........................52 The Combat Round...........................52 Declaration of Intent......................52 Moving and Attacking....................52 Full Round Action...........................52 Attacking/Defending while moving during the same round...................53 Charging........................................53 Mounted Combat...........................53 Attack of Opportunity.....................54 Surprised........................................54 Drawing/reading weapons.............54 Morale Checks................................55 3

NPC Checks.......................................55 Healing Checks..............................55 Fatigue..............................................55 Weapons...........................................57 Lances............................................57 Knuckle Dusters:............................57 Harpoon.........................................57 Lanterns and torches.....................57 Using Weapons At Below Minimum STR................................................58 General Magic......................................58 Use Pow vs Pow rather than MP vs MP ..........................................................58 Pow crystals/ storage matrix..........58 Spell Fumbles....................................61 Table (i)..........................................61 Table (ii).........................................61 Table (iii)........................................61 Table (iv)........................................63 Table (v).........................................64 Table (vi)........................................67 Spirit Magic..........................................69 Summoning Spell Spirits...................69 Learning Spirit Magic for Money........70 Common Magic Costs....................70 Common Magic Casting Results.....71 Brithini and Mostali........................71 Disadvantages of becoming a Shaman..........................................71 Amount of Spirit Magic a character can learn........................................71

Variant Spells.................................71 Openly Available Spirit Magic Spells .......................................................71 Rune Magic...........................................74 Heroquesting........................................77 Cults.....................................................96 Using Divine Intervention..................96 The Effects of Divine Intervention. .96 Initiates.............................................97 Rune Priests......................................97 Rune Lords.....................................98 Rune Masters.................................98 Hero...............................................98 Allied Spirits...................................98 Great Cult Initiation...........................99 Breaking Geases...............................99 Elementals...........................................99 Gnomes...........................................100 Shades............................................100 Salamander.....................................100 Undine.............................................101 Sylph...............................................101 Magical Items.....................................101 Magical Item Types.........................101 Enchantments..............................101 Dead Magic..................................102 Exotic...........................................102 Trinkets........................................102 Magical Item Limit...........................102 Attunement.....................................102 4

Metals.............................................102 Sorcery ..............................................102 AN OVERVIEW OF SORCERY............102 Who Cannot Learn Sorcery.............103 Learning Spells................................103 Increasing Spell Skill.......................103 Memory Requirements....................104 Casting and Maintaining Sorcery Spells ........................................................104 Commoners.....................................104 Sorcerers.........................................104 Ceremony.......................................105 Resisting/Dispelling Sorcery............105 Spell Components...........................105 Spell Precedence.............................105 Boosting..........................................105 THE ARTS........................................106 Learning The Arts.........................106 Art Vows.......................................106 St. Malkion...................................106 Study...........................................106 THE BASIC ARTS (Intensity, Multispell, Range) Intensity..........106 Multispell......................................106 Range..........................................107 SECONDARY ARTS (Accuracy, Ease, Force, Hold, Permanence, Reinforce, Speed).........................................108 Accuracy......................................108 Ease.............................................108 Force............................................108

Hold.............................................108 Permanence.................................108 Reinforce......................................108 Speed...........................................109 RANKS OF SORCERY........................109 Apprentice...................................109 Student........................................109 Journeyman..................................109 Adept...........................................110 Magus..........................................110 VOWS..............................................110 Learning Vows..............................111 The High Vow...............................111 The Vessel....................................111 Lore Mastery................................112 Other Vows..................................112 SPECIALTIES....................................115 Alchemist.....................................115 Conjuror.......................................115 Healer..........................................115 Enchanter.....................................115 Forest Mage.................................116 Illusionist......................................116 Metamorph...................................116 Monitor.........................................116 Necromancer...............................116 Ships Sorcerer..............................117 Warlock........................................117 Lore Mastery................................117 5

Weather Mage..............................117 SPELLS............................................117 Sorcery Used With Other Magic Types...........................................117 Definitions of Spellcasting............118 RITUAL MAGIC.................................130 Restricted Arts.............................130 Special Enchantment Rules.........130 Enchanted Tattoos and Ritual Scarification.................................130 The Ritual Spells..........................130 SECT SPECIAL SPELLS.....................135 Borist College of Magic................135 Brithini College of Magic..............136 Carmanian College of Magic........136 Galvosti College of Magic.............137 Hrestoli College of Magic.............137 Lunar Magic....................................139 Phase of the Moon Effect on Sorcery .....................................................139 New Art: Lunar Magic...................139 NonSorcerers...............................139 Henotheistic Church of Otkorion.....139 Character Sheet.................................148

6

GeneralExploding diceWhereby when a particular number is rolled on a die (often the highest, but not always) it allows the player to roll another die - which may explode again if the rules allow for it! So... for a d6 a roll of 6 would let the player roll again (if the exploding number was a 6 in this case) and add on.

Character GenerationRolling CharacteristicsRoll 3d6 5 times and record the results, then allocate amongst Str, Con, Pow, Dex and App as wished. Roll 2d6+6 twice and allocate amongst Siz and Int as wished.

Luck Points during character generationEach character receives 3 luck points to use during character generation. They can be used as follows: 1 point allows a reroll, 2 points allows you to select the result (except rolls for characteristic, which cost 3 to select)

Background SkillsAdd 30% to language skills, select them in such a way so that the party can have a common language. Add (Age over 15) x10 to any skills that the play can reasonably agrue their player should have, pay particular attention to new skills introduced by these house rules as they will not otherwise arise by the normal character generation. Typically do not add more than 10-15% to any one skill.

High Magic Points Recovery(MP)Characters with very high POWs (for instance some wind children, certain spirits, demigods etc.) work slightly differently. If a character has a POW higher than 24, then these differences apply. Magic points regenerate at a rate of one point per hour for every 24 POW a character has (rounded up). Example: Cragspider, with a POW of 86, regenerates 86/24=4 (after being rounded up) magic points per hour.

Ablative Hit PointsProvided by things like vigour and strengthening enchantments, and certain chaos features. Ablative hit points are just like normal hit points, but dont raise hit locations. If you have any ablative hit points then, no matter where you are struck, the damage affects the ablative hit points first. When they are used up, damage goes through to the location. Ablative hit points heal at the rate of one per hour.

Hit Points Over 20If a character has (regular, non ablative) hit points over 20, all healing is doubled (whether its from first aid, magical healing or natural healing). Similarly, if it is over

7

40, it triples etc.

Free INTFree INT is the amount of room a character has to fit in spells. Each point of Spirit Magic (and any Charms past the five a character can normally learn) takes up one point of Free INT, and no character can learn more than their Free INT. The Free INT of a character is equal to 10 plus one half the characters INT.

Magic Items LimitVirtually all magic items must be attuned to the user, with only very minor magic items not requiring such a process. However, there is a limit to the number of items that a character can attune to. For each category a character can have only one magic item. When a character becomes a rune level or a shaman, this increases to two for each category. When a character takes a sorcerors Vow, it can increase a single category from a limit of one magic item to two. A character who somehow is both a rune level and a sorcerer, or a shaman and a sorcerer, is still limited to two magic items in each category. The categories are magic point matrix, spell matrix, strengthening enchantment and crystals

QuirksA character can select up to five Quirks during character generation. Quirks should reflect minor twists of a characters personality. For every Quirk selected the character receives a re-roll (one use Hero/Luck points), which can be used at any time after character generation. Once used, they are lost forever. Example Quirks include: always itches their head; addicted to tobacco; a taste for Hazia; continually swears by Humakts name; farts often; favours rare blue cheeses; impotent; obsessed with their own hair; grouchy; lisps; always demands to gamble at the campfire; whittles figurines of the Celestial Court as a hobby; aims to turn yodelling into a form of martial arts; beer puff; averse to swearing; homosexual; never steps in the shadow of a shadowcat; knows all seventy four Praxian words for food; old romantic; lover of poetry; yawns at inopportune moments; despises theological discussions; compulsively keeps their weapon clean; inability to keep oneself clean; absent minded; compulsive liar; has a nemesis; tries to speak New Pelorian to sound fancy, but always gets it wrong. Example: Bob decides his characters quirks are as follows. First, his character is obsessed with learning obscene words in other languages. Hes very bad at cleaning his armour. He is particularly attracted to women with gat teeth. He keeps his toe nails short by biting them after every meal, whether in decent company or not. He dyes his hair with three blond streaks, one for every woman he has ever loved. He notes his 5 re-rolls. At this stage, Bob also realises he hasnt named his character. He settles on Querida Angelo Del Mico a Tinaros

Luck Points/Hero PointsPOW 6 or Less Luck Points 1

712 1318 Each 6 points The Reasons Why

2 3 +1

POW: power is a measure of luck and divine favour; a gift of fate, or the ability to cheat it

8

Luck Points help differentiate heroes from the rank and file. They represent a characters ability to potentially turn failure into success and even cheat death. Every character starts with a number of Luck Points as described above. Luck Points can be used during play and, at the beginning of the next adventure, replenish to their usual value. Luck Points only increase if the POW characteristic increases, or some form of magic provides a temporary increase in some fashion.

Using Luck PointsLuck points can be used in a variety of ways. Only one spend of Luck Points can be used in support of a particular action.

Cheat FateCharacters can use a Luck Point to re-roll any dice roll that they had to roll. This can be a skill roll, damage roll, experience check roll or anything else that has some effect. 2 Luck points guarantee success 3 Luck points guarantee special/critical if used as defence against critical attack

Desperate EffortIf a character receives damage equal or in excess (but not double) to Chest Abdomen or Head or up to double HP for limb and the character wants to be heroic and continue fighting, pay 1 hero point per round fought.

FamilyUnlike every other role playing game, RuneQuest assumes that the character has a family. Indeed, most campaigns will consist of doing things for ones family/tribe/community etc. and, as such, it would be particularly strange if every player character was an orphan! The player may freely create their family as they wish. But every PC should come equipped with some details about their immediate family. Example: Bob decides that Querida is one of four children. His father is a blacksmith who lost his job because during the last war he went with the armies, and when he returned his business had been stolen by another blacksmith. His mother is a housewife, whose relatives consorted with trolls in the east (thus setting him up with contacts with the ZZ cult). One of his two brothers died young, of Brain Fever. His other brother has is an apprentice blacksmith, but no longer talks to his family after he discovered his mothers secret that her family consorted with darkness. He decides he also has a sister, who has married another apprentice blacksmith. She drinks too much, and gambles, and has a penchant for beating her husband on the bad days. With this kind of family in place, and a campaign based in the city he grew up in, Querida is sure to have some interesting familial connections.

Ransom FundIn Glorantha, not every conflict ends in fatalities and the taking or prisoners, and then ransoming them, is commonplace. Characters may take others for ransom, but it also works the other way. A character who surrenders to his foes will likely find himself up for ransom (for just one way to do this, see the Yield action in Combat). Obviously, it is moronic to attempt to surrender to certain foes (broo, ravenous trolls, brigands with nothing to lose and no way to collect a ransom easily) but many cultures will accept surrender well. It is assumed that the character begins with some friends or family willing to ransom him back. Unfortunately, of course, funds are going to be limited. The characters ransom fund starts at 500 pennies enough to ransom the average character back once. Characters who have taken the Status advantage have a ransom fund of 800 pennies. Note that the ransom for the character (given in Money and Equipment) may increase if they have inflicted great damage or need to pay wergild on the people that they have killed. If a characters ransom fund is of the appropriate level, the ransom is paid, the amount deducted and the character returned (although this is almost certainly after the adventure, and they lose any Downtime Actions for that downtime round). If it isnt of the appropriate level, it may still be paid if the PCs find some way to raise the extra cash.

9

A character may contribute to their own ransom fund at any time. Further, events in the game world may increase their ransom fund in any case. Characters cannot generally liquidate their ransom fund unless the funds have been provided by the character themselves. This cash is from the last coffers of ones brothers, sisters and friends, not some Gloranthan equivalent of an ISA.

EdgesFinally, a character may an edge. Edges are advantages that the character benefits from. Every character gets one edge. The only other way to get edges is through playing sessions (say, getting blackmarket contacts by getting blackmarket contacts in game). Often edges can be acquired via HeroQuests

Absolute Direction: The character has a mental compass, they always know which direction they are travelling.They can never be disorientated. Absolute Timing: No matter what, no matter where the character is or how long they have spent unconscious, they are able to accurately tell the time to within about five minutes. If they concentrate, they can be accurate to within five seconds. Accelerated Healing: The character recovers twice as fast from all wounds, and regains an extra two hit points every time they are required to make a healing roll. Access to Sorcery: Characters form a non-sorcery using culture, such as Dragon Pass barbarians or Pentan nomads, must purchase this advantage before buying sorcery. It can only be bought with GM approval, and usually requires a good reason for possessing it. Minor Allies: A character has allies that are willing to risk themselves in some manner to aid the character. Once called upon, they will do their best to help. They may also call favours in from the character, which gives ample possibility for a gamemaster to create storylines. This advantage may even cover a group of individuals rather than a single ally. Minor allies include a group of local city beggars willing to hide the character from time to time. Animal Empathy: The character gains a bonus of +5% on all rolls involving animals. Artistic Ability: The character gains an effective bonus of +15% when required to make a skill roll to do with art. Blackmarket Contacts Blackmarket Contacts: The character has contacts on the blackmarket that allow him/her to gain access to illegal substances and assets i.e. hazia, and other illegalities. The character might like this to be more exotic, such as having contacts with Bagogi mercenaries. Boon: The character has a boon from a local or influential member of society, such as a Count, Governor, Beggar King or local military member. This boon may be used once and once only, and the NPC may or may not be on friendly terms with the player. For instance, the Red Emperor may be in Boon to an Orlanthi for a previous act that helped the Empire. While the Emperor may not like it, he'll have to honour it. Given it is a one time only thing, the Boon should be pretty useful. Breath Underwater: For each level in this advantage, the character can spend longer and longer underwater, and generally hold their breath for longer. When making suffocation roles (whether underwater or not) they start with an extra five multiples. So, a character who holds their breath before running through a poisonous cloud starts rolling their CON at CONx15 rather than CONx10. Bulky: You muscly man meat you add 2 SIZ. 10

Weather-sense: The character gets the same weather-sense as an Orlanthi Wind Lord. They can predict massive weather changes one hour in advance. Cult Friendship: The character is related to a cult in a friendly manner. The cult will offer help, assistance, board and succour to the character, and makes available training at the same prices offered to cult members. This may be due to owing debts, or a great act that aided the cult. The choice of cult could be unusual (for instance the cult of Quatanara, or a chaos cult). Such choices should be run by the GM first. Cult Skill Access: This advantage give the character access to a special cult skill of a cult he does not belong to! So a character may have Sense Assassin without having joined Humakt! This may be a gift, a random blessing, the result of an accident, or a HeroQuesting gift, or maybe the secrets were just plundered! Once the advantage has been bought, the skill must then be bought up normally from a base chance of zero. Destiny: The character has a destiny to fulfil. The character will, at least, vaguely know of this destiny via visions and prophets etc... but may not, at the Gamesmaster's discretion, know the full extent of their path. During any adventure that deals with their Destiny, the character receives a single free re-roll. Detect Illusions: The character has an innate talent to detect illusions and other such chimeras. This is often seen as a blessing of Harmony. The character has a POWx5 chance of detecting illusions/phantasms etc... Double-jointed: The character is particularly supple. They have a bonus of 35% to all rolls involving this ability i.e. contortion. Eidetic Memory: The character can recall all minor details etc... with absolute clarity. Enhanced Darksense: Only available to characters with Darksense. It allows the characters to utlize their Darksense as a form of weapon, a sonar based weapon. Not particulary deadly, it can be used to get rid of bugs, zap trollkin into submission etc It can only be used whilst the sonar receptors are uncovered. It is counts as a missile weapon using a skill beginning at base 25%. It inflicts 1d3 damage, but that penetrates any and all armour. It can be dodged. Excellent Throw: The character has an excellent throwing ability. They may throw objects up to three times the normal range. Fame (Minor): The character is famous, at least amongst a certain type of people. At the minor level they are quite well known amongst their tribe and clan, with everyone in the area knowing who they are. Of course, what they are famous for is up to the character to decide. This advantage can be modified if it applies to a certain group of people, such as a specific cult (such as a Sage famous for mapmaking in the cult of Lhankor Mhy, or the character is known only to the such cases the characters fame should be closer to that of the Major Fame advantage. Fast Draw: The character is hard to surprise. They add 5 to all of their surprise checks. Fearless: The character lacks fear. Reduce all Fear passions by one, and they resist Fear spells, shade fearshock etc. with five extra magic points. Fertile: The character is blessed by the gods of fertility. Whether male or female, the character is three as likely to impregnate/conceive and the children are generally born healthy, unnatural effects not- withstanding. The chances of twins or triplets increases. The character resists all magic damaging fertility as if they had five more magic points than they actually do.

11

Foreign Sorcery Spell Access: Sorcerors who wish to purchase spells from outside their school, for instance a Boristi trying to buy the Brithini Suppress Wizard spell, can buy this advantage. It gives access to the foreign spell, and only that foreign spell. The spell choice must be GM approved. Survive death: For one night only, I will be Wile E. Coyote The character can survive death. Once. They might not survive with all their belongings, hell they might not even survive all in one piece, but they will survive. Scrub this edge off once used. Gift/Geas Gift: This can only be taken if the PC is a member of a cult that accepts gift/geas pairs (Humakt, Yelmalio, Vinga, Thanatar etc....). The character has done some great service, or participated in a particular ritual, or been gifted by the god, to have another gift, and it's appropriate geas. This should be chosen or randomly determined as is normal for the cult. Good Looking: Add three points to CHA. Hang On In There Baby: The character has an unnatural ability to cling on to life. They can fall to minus three general hit points without dying. High Pain Threshold: All CON rolls that are made to do with pain are made at a an extra three multiples i.e. a CON x3 becomes a CON x6. This does not apply to fatigue rolls. Hit Points Bonus: The character's stamina is unusually high. They have an extra two hit points. Immunity to Dehydration: The character has an effective 10 CON to resist dehydration. Immunity to Disease: The character has an extra 6 CON to resist all diseases. Immunity to Heat/Cold: The character suffers one point less damage from heat and cold effects from non-magical sources. The damage can not be reduced to below one point. Immunity to Poison: The character has an extra 6 CON to resist all poison. Immunity to Tap: The character always has 95% chance to resist Tap and Tap-related spells. Iron Grip: The character has an iron grip. They resist when grappling with an extra 5 points of effective STR, this applies also in contests such as arm wrestling. Lightning Calculator: The character can perform complex mathematical problems in an astoundingly short amount of time. Light Sleeper: The character is a light sleeper. At the first sign of danger they instantly awake with no penalty. They also receive Spot rolls to hear anything about them whilst asleep at no modifier. Lock Picker: The character is an excellent Lock Picker. Can add 20% to their effective skill when picking locks. Longevity:This advantage only applies to all further aging rolls made (i.e. those made after character generation). It allows the character to throw three sets of dice for every aging roll and select the best result.

12

Military Ranking:The character holds rank in an army of the area. They have commission, and therefore obligations, a salary and the ability to order others about. This advantage normally makes them akin to an officer. Musical Talent:The character gains +15% effective skill when required to make any roll connected to music. Night Vision (Minor):Character has Night Vision -20. Noble:The character is a titled noble. The character starts with an extra 300 pennies of cash, and owns land (reducing their living costs by 50% to a maximum saving of 500 pennies). Obese: Youre obese. Increase SIZ by three points, but decrease CHA by two. Obscure Skill: The character has access to one of the skills not normally accessible. Check with your gamesmaster whether you can take this edge for a particular skill. Party Animal:The character can stay awake all night with no fatigue effects. This only works if they slept the night before. Pick Pocket: The character is a natural pick pocket. Add 15% to their effective Sleight skill when attempting to pick pockets. Rune Spell Access:The character has either been blessed by a deity, been on a HeroQuest, or learnt ancient secrets. They gain access to a Rune Spell. This Rune Spell is one not normally available to the character, so an Orlanthi may buy access Weaponmight. The access is only ever one-use, but like other one-use spells the spell returns on the high holy day. The spell chosen should be approved by the GM. Skill Affinity (Minor):The character has an affinity to a certain skill. The character has a +5% bonus to their raising rolls with that skill. Skill Bonus (Minor): The character gains +15% to a skill that they have not already added any bonus to, or +5% to Advanced Edges one that they have. No skill can receive the benefits of more than one skill bonus. Smell Death:With this advantage a character can smell the presence of death (such as large numbers of corpses, or if the GM wishes, a single dead body), when powerful Death magics have recently been used, powerful worshippers of Death cults or (again, if and when the GM wishes) the immanent Death of somebody else. This does not locate the distance or direction of the source, only the presence. Spirit Affinity:The character has an affinity to spirits associated to a specific rune. For instance, the character may have Darkness Spirit Affinity, or Illusion Spirit Infinity:The character has +40% on the spirit reaction table when dealing with such spirits. Spiritually Powerful:The character is difficult to possess. Any possession attempt is resisted with an effective 10 POW extra. This includes the Attack Soul spell. Spirit Sense:The character is a natural mystic. They immediately sense the presence of spirits, even if they are possessing another being. They also gain some measure of feeling as to the nature of the spirit (i.e. malign, chaotic, darkness etc..) Status:The character has a position in society that demands respect. It only applies to one particular type of society, someone with status in the Lunar Empire will be treated well there whereas they would be treated with contempt by an Orlanthi. This advantage confers upon them a status akin to a noble, or equivalent. 13

SkillsAutomatic failureIf you roll 96-00 you usually score an automatic fail. There is also a chance of a fumble, where some further deleterious effect takes place. Your chance to fumble is any roll above 95 + your chance to critical (to a maximum of 100).

Chances of success over 100%If your chance of success is above 100%, then two effects take place. Firstly, the chance of failing decreases. Secondly, the character can score success levels higher than criticals. For every full 100% in the chance of success, decrease the chance to fail by 1. So whilst you normally fail on a 96-99, if you have 100-199% chance of success it decreases to 97-99; 200-299% it decreases to 98-99; 300-399% you fail only on 99; at 400% or higher you never fail. Everyone, no matter what, or how powerful, or how many powered weapons you have, fumbles on a roll of 00. The two higher success levels are supercritical and hypercritical. A supercritical can only occur when your chance of success is over 100%, and for every full one hundred percentiles of success, you have a 1% chance of a supercritical. A hypercritical (the best result you can have!) is equal to 1% for every full 400% you have in a skill.

Adjusted chance of Success less than 0%A skill that has a Base Chance (not adjusted chance) of zero cannot ever be succeeded by the character. If they have Ventriloquism of 00%, then they have no chance of succeeding with that skill. If an adjusted skill chance is below zero, but has a base chance of more than zero (i.e. a character with a sword attack of 43% fights in darkness at 75% penalty yielding a final chance of 22%) there is always an 01 chance of succeeding (and doing so critically!).

Opposed Skill Rolls i.e. Sneak vs ScanBoth sides roll appropriate skill rolls, the winner is the succeeding skill roll with the higher percentage value unless one of the sides criticals or specials, in which case either the critical/special rolling side wins or the critical/special rolling side with the higher value wins. If both sides fail then in the case of the sneak vs scan example the sneaker should not be detected.

Encumbrance Penalty for Skills and SpellsUse ENC 5 as a deduction from skills, i.e. the first 5 enc has no penalty and thereafter the penalty is ENC 5 %

14

Team RollsStep One: Advantaged or DisadvantagedIn cases where teams must oppose skill rolls you must decide whether your situation is one of being: Advantaged and Disadvantaged. Your roll is an advantaged roll if having more people makes you more likely to succeed. For instance, lots of characters trying to pick a lock; lots of characters working to brew the same batch of ale; lots of characters trying to keep watch; engaging in ritual spells; engaging in boating down the river; researching specific pieces of information; most downtime job action rolls; tracking; battle co-ordination etc. Your roll is disadvantaged if having more people makes you less likely to succeed. For instance, if the characters are jointly trying to sneak past the guards; swimming as a group; climbing as a group; running long distance as a group etc. It is possible that two teams both roll advantaged rolls, or both have disadvantaged rolls.

Step Two: Calculate Skill RatingTeam rolls are resolved as follows: each team calculates the skill they have to roll against. If your roll is advantaged then it is calculated as the highest skill of the characters involved, plus 1/10th of the skill of everyone else involved. Disadvantaged is calculated as the skill rating character with the highest skill, then for every other character you modify that roll by: ( 100 their skill ) divided by 10 Note that in cases where a characters skill is over 100, this means that there is no penalty but do not add any benefit.

Step Three: Make the rollEvery character then makes a roll. The success level of the opposed test is determined by the roll of the character with the highest skill. But everyone else gets to roll too, and their success level has further effects. If they fail or succeed, nothing more happens. An individual failure is mitigated just as long as the roll of the character with the highest skill makes it. If they succeed, they dont really add to the project (and if the roll of the character with the highest skill is a fail or a fumble, tough titty it seems your characters attempt to aid the team endeavour just wasnt good enough to make a difference). If they succeed, they deserve an experience tick. They can get an experience tick, even if the team as a whole fails. If they fumble, then they screw up. This may affect the whole skill attempt, or just screw over the individual character. For instance, if they are trying as a group to swim a river then they screw themselves over but the group may do okay. If the group are jointly making, say, a sculpture then it screws over the project. If a character gets a special or better, they get some further effect. Firstly, a special by one character can cancel a fumble of another character if they so wish. If they use this option they use up their special and cannot get the second benefit. Secondly, for every special (or better) that is rolled, and isnt used up solving the fumbles of other characters, a re-roll is earned for the character with the highest skill. They can make the re-roll and then choose the best of the rerolls. 15

Step four: ResolutionWith all of this done, compare the final rolls. Then resolve as you would with an opposed roll for two single characters. That is, if one success level is better than another, the better succeeds. If theyre the same, they draw or its whoever made it by the most etc.

Opposed Skills RollsSometimes a team of characters must attempt to overcome one or more adversaries in a contest. In any case where it is conceivable that a team roll is relevant, the Team rules should be used. For instance, if the characters are trying to sneak past guards, its a team roll. If the characters are all on watch, and someone tries to sneak past, its a Team roll. If the characters try to jointly intimidate someone, its a team roll. If the characters try to ascend a mountain together, its a team roll. If the characters head off to pick some pockets, its a team roll etc. Characters do not have the option of picking whether its a team roll or not, and if a team roll could be appropriate then it is appropriate. Team rolls have four steps.

Unopposed Skill Rolls (Team)Works just as above except that when you come to step four, resolution is figured just as you would figure unopposed skill rolls for single cases.

Characteristic Rolls (Team)In the Team case it again matters whether the roll is advantaged or disadvantaged, although in most cases itll be advantaged (in most cases where you think its disadvantaged you should, unlike the skill case, make single rolls). In advantaged cases add of your stat to the highest stat and then make the appropriate roll on the resistance rable. In disadvantaged cases, minus [ ( 20 your stat ) / 4 ].

Aiding RollsSometimes, as described below, one skill can be used to Aid another skill. When this is the case that skill gets to count towards the group roll as a positive modifier (and always a positive modifier, even if the roll is normally negative: for instance, using an Entertain skill of 50 to Aid a Stealth check always adds 5 to the roll). This cannot break the restriction that only three skills can add to the roll. As well as adding to the skill check, one gets to roll the Aiding skill during the skill check. An Aid Skill Can Never Be The Group Roller. One also rolls even when youve already rolled one skill roll you get to roll both! In this manner an individual might end up rolling a group check for a task performed on his own, when it is the case that they are using a skill to Aid another. Example: Hjart sees guards coming and starts dancing to distract them from seeing his allies breaking into the nearby house. He uses Entertain of 60 to Aid the group roll. If his allies were two in number with a Stealth of 60 each theyd normally roll a group roll at 56. However, with the Entertain bonus, this increases to 62. Everyone rolls at 60, with the normal effects of getting a special or a fumble etc. Example: Gerd tries to Evaluate (skill 40) an ancient First Age Sword. He has First Age Lore of 60. He uses First Age Lore to Aid his Evaluate. He doesnt roll on 60, he rolls on 40, plus 1/10th of his First Age Lore, which 16

makes 46. He rolls two dice, one for the group check, at 46, and the other for his First Age Lore at 60.

Additional SkillsAgility skills

Drive [vehicle] (10)With this skill a character can control a wheeled vehicle drawn by one or more beasts of burden. Like ride, this skill represents the users ability to do more than simply let the horses pull the vehicle along; it involves sharp or difficult turns, jumps, bumps, and combat from the vehicle. Driving with only one hand reduces Drive by 20%. Unlike ride, however, the combat abilities of the rider's are limited to the driver's skill, not their own. Common Drive skills are Chariot, 4-wheeeled cart, and coach.

Escape (05)Allows a character to escape from bonds. Each round in which the character may work uninterrupted and he succeeds in an Escape roll allows the character to pit his STR+DEX versus the STR of the binding. Failure leaves the character still bound. The process is easily visible to a guard who can interrupt it and negate the escape attempt. The GM should modify this skill according to the difficulty of the bonds. For instance, rope tied by a child might be easy, with +30 to use, whereas a set of iron manacles may be -20.

Running (25)This skill increases the characters ability to sprint for short periods of time.

Dodge/Tumble (05)Affected by ENC penalty This is the skill of diving and rolling in combat. A successful use of this skill means that the character may move away from his attackers at up to 1 meter per strike rank, and they must subtract the actual successful roll from their attack chances.

Communications skills

Seduction (10)Seduction is used to seduce characters. It is, like most communication skills, a resisted contest with modifiers chosen by the GM (sluts, of the male or female variety, may give the character a +40, whereas trying to seduce virgins sworn to celibacy may give a -75). A success indicates that the victim has succumbed to the character's wiles. A failure does not always mean failure, since if the victim was inclined to bed the adventurer anyway, they might simply smile at his clumsy attempt and do so anyway. 17

A fumbled Seduction roll always indicates that the character has offended his target, and he/she might well relate the failed attempt to their siblings, parents, spouses, etc., with varying (usually painful) results.

Deal/Bargin (05)This is the skill of buying something for a lower price than asked, as well as covering the ability to bribe. It also covers determining which situations are ones where a bargain can be struck, or whether a bribe would be accepted. It can even be used for brokering political deals. With regards to selling items, normally items can be sold for 50% of their list price (if good as new) or 20%(if damaged and battered e.g. armour taken from dead opponents). A successful Deal roll gets an extra 20% on that, 30% if a special, 40% if a critical, 45% if a supercritical and 49% if a hypercritical.With regards to buying items, if the character makes a Deal roll they get 10% off of the list price (15% on a special, 20% on a critical, 30% on a supercritical and50% on a hypercritical).Deal is separate from Convince. Deception can, inappropriate circumstances, be used to Aid Deal rolls. However in some circumstances (for instance, trying to sell a lemon) the Deception isnt used to Aid the rollbut is used as a precursor to making the roll in the first place.If the character fumbles, the attempt to buy an item fails. Either the person or people they are dealing withare outraged, or the whole market place becomes shocked by the dodgy dealing habits of the individual. In some cases, the guard are called, others the item will not be sold at all, and on other occasions the item will only be sold at 150% price. When it comes to bribing, there are modifiers depending upon the amount offered and the person dealt with. As a guideline: 25 pennies = Bribe for semi inconsequential information 100 pennies = Leaving the door of your employer open so someone can get in; getting obviously secret information; doing something pretty illegal (such as not arresting you for theft) 300 pennies = Doing something obviously illegal (such as not arresting you for murder) 500 pennies = Doing something seriously illegal (such as aiding you in murder) 1000 pennies = Doing something lethally dangerous (such as murdering your employer with a chance of being caught and executed) Modifiers are given below for Bribing. At no time will any character do anything stupid because of a Deal. No character would accept a bribe knowing they will be caught, no character will knowingly bargain themselves into a bad position. Example Modifiers: Bribing the corrupt (+40) Bribing the honest e.g. most guard (-20) Bribing the fanatically honest (-60) Bribing with only half the money (-30) Bribing with twice the money (+20) 18

Bribing with five times the money (+40) Bribing with fifteen times the money (+60) Example Reroll Periods and Tests: Virtually all Deal rolls and Bribe rolls take a few minutes, and theres just one chance.

Ventriloquism (00)The ability to make one's voice seem to come from someplace other than the speaker. Normal range for throwing one's voice is the normal range for spoken voice.

Knowledge Skills

Lores (varies)There are many different kinds of Lore. A successful roll for a particular Lore means that the adventurer has the necessary knowledge about an item or situation. A Lore skill does not increase through experience; either the character knows the information or he doesn't. Lore skills assume good knowledge about the native region of the character; Lores are rolled against when the character encounters new animals, plants, peoples, and so on. It is possible to research a Lore, to learn about unicorns, for instance, and in this way increase a particular Lore knowledge (or several, if there are interlocking factors. Unicorns would normally come under Animal Lore, but their horns have certain alchemical uses, so Lore increases in Alchemical Lore and even Poison Lore would not be inappropriate.) Lores can also be further subdivided into regional subskills; a desert nomad's initial World Lore (Desert) would know much about desert weather and the ways of sand, but if he later moved to an heavily forested region, he could gain a new World Lore (Forest) with new research. Alchemical Lore (00) Demon Lore (00) HeroPlane Lore [Plane] (00) Legal Lore (00) Music Lore (00) Poison Lore (00) River Lore (00) Spirit Lore (00) Undead Lore (00) 19

The base chance of some skills are noted on the character sheet, and are normally 05%. Unnoted skills are at 00%, except Chaos Lore.

Alchemical LoreThis lore provides a general knowledge of the principles and practices of alchemy. Successful use of this lore will enable the user to recognise various substances useful to, or produced by, alchemy. Alchemy is useful for creating potions, slaves, and oils that store magical energy, and for creating golems, homunculi, and simulacra. This skill must be used with specific raw materials. They may be obtained with the use of Animal, Plant or Mineral Lores. Healer temples have supplies of such substances and sell to initiates at a cost of 50 pennies per potential POT. In conjunction with Medcine skill Healing potions and medicine (curing diseases) can be made with this skill A successful Alchemical Lore roll transforms the raw materials into a medicine of the appropriate potency. A special success adds 1 to the POT. A critical roll increases POT by one half (round fractions up). A failure means the product was ruined and the raw materials wasted. A fumble means that the resultant potion is useless or even poisonous, but that the maker is unaware of this fact. Medicines can be made to cure diseases. The maximum POT of medicine created is equal to the character's Refine Medicine score divided by ten. It works by matching its POT against the diseases resistance, if the resistance is overcome the patient is cured. The resistance for Mild diseases is 2, Acute is 6, Serious is 12 and Terminal is 20. In the case of possession spirits, the medicine must match its POT versus the spirits POW, if the POW is overcome the victim may engage the spirit in spirit combat and if the spirit is defeated, the spirit is expelled. This lore also represents the ability to concoct both poisons and antidotes to poisons with common (or rare) ingredients. It interlocks quite nicely with Animal Lore (venom), Mineral Lore (mineral poisons, like arsenic) and Plant Lore (plant-based poisons, like nightshade or belladonna). A huge variety of poisons and their antidotes are possible through the use of this lore. A successful roll transforms the raw materials into a medicine of the appropriate potency. A special success adds 1 to the POT. A critical roll increases POT by one half (round fractions up). A failure means the product was ruined and the raw materials wasted. A fumble means that the resultant potion is useless or even poisonous, but that the maker is unaware of this fact. Poisons and poison antidotes can all be made with this skill. One point of poison antidote will counteract 1 POT of poison and is specific to a particular type of creature. Knowledge of this skill does not grant universal access to all antidotes, for instance to create Basilisk Antidote the Healer must have a good percentage in Chaos Lore. Types of Poison: Basilisk, Giant Ant, Ghoul Venom, Grampus Gas, Insect Poison, Manticore Poison, Octopus venom, Scorpion venom, Snake venom, Stoorworm gas, Walktapus gas, Wyvern venom. 20

Chaos LoreThis lore represents practical and scholarly knowledge of the forms of chaos common to one's local region. Orlanthi and other noted chaos haters have 15% base skill, other nomads, barbarians and primitive cultures (plus dragonewts and elves) have 10% base and most other culture, such as the civilised cultures like Dara Happa and Mostali have a base of 5%. Some isolated islanders have a base chance of 00%. Demon Lore: This lore represents knowledge of forms of chaos and chaotic entities that do not exist naturally on Glorantha, primarily those entities which must be summoned here. With this lore a character could tell the difference between a chaotic entity native to this world, and one which is not. It also represents his knowledge of the more commonly summoned demon breeds. It can also be used to determine the needs, weakness' and / or desires of a demon, so that it might be placated, driven off, or slain. This skill has a base chance of 0%.

HeroPlane LoreA rare lore that deals with knowledge about the layout of the HeroPlane, what lives there, how to get there etc... There is a specific Lore for each part of the HeroPlane, so there is Underworld Lore, Sky Realm lore etc... This skill has a base chance of 0%.

Legal LoreThis allows a person to recall the letter of current statutes and to find examples of the law being used in practice. It's specific to the culture where the individual first learnt the skill. Note, this subtly different from Lawspeaking.

Magic LoreGenerally only learnt in the West, it is connected with the God Learners. This is the study of in depth workings of magic. Not just spells, they understand magical theory, and the methods of certain magics. Most people in Glorantha get along quite fine without it.

Music LoreThis lore includes knowledge of songs and singing styles common to one's local region. It might also relate to epic poems, folklore, and various other styles of poetry. A successful music lore roll would allow its user to recall the name, composer, and lyrics of an obscure song, or aid him in composing a song of his own.

[Racial] LoreThis is the equivalent of [Human} Lore, applied to other races. A member of a race has 05% in this lore and 00% in all other racial lores.

River LoreThis Lore skill represents knowledge of river ecology. It combines knowledge of geology, physical effects, animals and plants, and gives information not only on the normal 21

attributes of the river, but also the effects on the ecology from outside changes. It works equally well with rivers in any land.

Spirit LoreThis lore represents knowledge of the inhabitants of the spirit plane. With a successful lore role, a character could correctly identify a type of spirit, know how to summon a particular type of spell spirit,determine the most probable means of exorcising a spirit, or know what sort of spirit is necessary for the task at hand.

Undead LoreThis lore represents practical or scholarly knowledge of the various forms of undead, their capabilities, weakness', and formation.

Numeracy (00)This is the ability to do complicated mathematical procedure including algebra and geometry, but most often used in large-scale accounting and number crunching. Lunar Tax employees are often quite skilled in this.

Poetry (00)Poetry is the knowledge of verse forms and conventions. Characters may create or critique poems with this skill. Short poems such as Kralorelan Haikus can be created spontaneously.

Sense Motive (05)By using this skill, the character gains insight into what motivates a target. Being a sense skill, the level of success determines the quality of the information the Referee gives to the using character. To ensure the character gets the appropriate information without further insight, the Referee should roll the skill in private.

Fumble - the Referee gives deliberately incorrect information. good luck Miss - the Referee gives only obviously discernable information. Hit - the Referee gives one extra bit of info about what is motivating the target character. Special - the Referee gives two extra bits of info, or reveals a motivation that the target character might not even be aware of. 22

Critical - the Referee gives a clear description of what motivates the target, and also reveals what the target may do next.

Swordsmithing (00)Whilst the skill of craft/armouring allows a person to make normal weapons, shields, armour and smithing tools, this special skill allows the manufacture of high quality swords from suitable raw materials provided the user has time and access to the requisite tools. A person's Swordsmithing ability may never exceed their craft/armouring skill. A successful use of this skill creates a sword with +1 ap, whilst a special success creates a sword with +1d3 ap and 10% less ENC. A critical success creates a sword with +1d3+3 ap, 20% less ENC, +5% attack and parry, +1 damage and -1 SR (but never less than one). A skill roll above a person's swordsmithing skill but below their armouring skill still produces a normal sword. A total failure results in a sword with -2 ap, -5% to hit and parry, -1 damage and a 20% increase in ENC, although the sword may be reforged. A fumbled skill roll results in a totally ruined lump of scrap metal unsuitable for forging, and a dangerous accident.

Treat disease/poison (05)Successful use of this skill doubles a victim's chance of success at his or her next disease recovery CON roll. A critical success triples the next chance of success, a fumble halves the next chance of success. Victims of acute, terminal or serious diseases must be tended to constantly to get this bonus. Victims of mild diseases need only be tended for one day per week. When dealing with possession based diseases (see Disease), this skill blocks 2d6 magic points of a disease spirit, reducing the chance of loss of characteristics and giving a Healing Spirit a greater chance of driving the Disease Spirit away. On a special roll, 3d6 magic points are blocked, on a critical 4d6 (on a supercritical or higher, 24 magic points are automatically blocked). Successful use of this skill purges the victim of 2d6 POT of poison, a special roll purges 4d6 POT, a critical success purges all of the poison. A fumble halves the victim's chance of resisting the poison. The skill attempt must be begun before damage has been taken. A skill roll can be attempted only once per poisoning.

Magical Skills

Ceremony/Summon (00)The Ceremony skill can enhance your ability in spirit combat following a summons. Hours are assigned to ceremony in the usual manor prior to the spirit combat allows the character to add to their effective magic points in either attack or defence in spirit combat only, not in casting or resisting spells. The amount of effective magic points that 23

the shaman has available is skill/5 rounded up. For example, a shaman with Spirit Combat 44% may increase their magic points in attacking in spirit combat by up to nine, or their defence by up to nine, or any combination thereof (such as attack magic points increasing by 4, and defence magic points by 5).

Stealth Skills

Assassinate (00)This skill can be used in combination with any surprise attack. It is combined with a surprise attack made by the attacker upon his victim - the attack must be a surprise. In cases where surprise may be an issue, use an opposed roll of either Hide or DEXx5 (as applicable) versus either the Scan or DEXx5 of the target. If the attack roll is both underneath Assassinate and the weapon attack, the location struck can be altered by up to Assassinate skill/10 (round up) and recalculate the attacker's damage bonus for this attack as STR+SIZ+DEX.

Disguise (05)This skill allows the user to disguise himself or someone else. If the person is to be disguised as a particular individual, the chance of success is halved. If the person is to be disguised as a member of another race or species, the chance is 1/4 to 1/10 depending upon the disparity between species. It is impossible to disguise a human as a dark troll, or merman (for example), but it might be possible to disguise one as an elf or a trollkin. On a successful roll the disguise will fool most viewers. Use Scan vs. Disguise roll only if someone is specifically looking for something. On a critical roll, only disguises of a specific person or another race can be detected, and only by someone familiar with that person or race. On a failed roll, anyone may see through the disguise with a successful scan. However, a disguise of a specific person of race might even succeed with a failed roll, if the viewer has never seen that person or race before. On a fumbled roll the disguise is instantly seen for what it is, even by people who would have no reason to suspect a disguise was being used, or who are unfamiliar with the person or race imitated.Example Modifiers: Only got a change of clothes to hand (--)

Got access to a disguise kit of make up and such (+20) Got access to nothing (-20) Trying to look like a specific person (-20) Trying to look like someone very different from you (-20) Trying to look like a specific person very different from the disguised person (-40)

24

Example Reroll Periods and Tests: Putting on a disguise: One minute (-40); Ten minutes (-20); An hour (--); A Day (+20)

Dama geAs per standard RuneQuest plus the following changes. When a location is damaged which is already at double locational hit points, the target one general hit point.

DyingIf a character ends up taking double the hit points they can take in either their head or chest, or fall to zero general hit points, they are Dying. A Dying character will die if not healed by the end of the subsequent round that they end up in the Dying condition. If a character is healed on the very same round that they end up Dying, then they return back the next round. They will most likely be prone, but can nonetheless get up. In all cases, a character who is prevented from Dying loses a long term fatigue level. If the character is healed on the subsequent round then whilst they dont die, they dont return to full activity. They cannot take any actions, and must lie prone. They are effectively out of the combat. If they make a CONx3 they are conscious. Even then they cannot use any actions, not even spell casting, for the effort is too much. This Back to Life sickness lasts for about ten minutes (longer than most combats). If helped up, they could stumble around. They can use Divine Intervention. If a character is not healed by the end of that subsequent round, then they will die. Even a Divine Intervention wont stop such mortal wounds. However, there is a chance of a few last words.

Last WordsA character who dies from anything other than taking too much damage to the head or chest has a chance of making some final last words. They must make a CONx3. If successful they can gasp out some last words before passing away. At this point, even magical healing wont help them though so death is all they have to look forward to.

Long Term DamageYou get 1d3-1 on the first day after taking the damage. You get 1d3-1 on the next Downtime. You then heal ALL the damage at the end of that Downtime but if you had damage that wasnt healed you make a roll on the following charts. (Poison damage: Heals at the rate of 1 per day. If you fumble your resistance roll you take 1d(damage) as long term unhealable damage to general hit points.) Determine the damage remaining on your location, and for each location look on this chart: Damage in that location 1 2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11+ Locations original hit points 1 +50 +75 +125 +125 +125 +125 +125 2 +25 +50 +75 +125 +125 +125 +125 3 -+25 +50 +75 +125 +125 +125 4 -10 -+25 +50 +75 +125 +125 5 -20 -10 -+25 +50 +75 +125 6+ -20 -20 -10 -+25 +50 +75

25

In the case of general hit point damage, roll as many d20 as there are points of damage to be healed. This determines which locations take a point of unhealable damage for the purpose of the next roll. Obviously if you roll the same location multiple times, tot up the points. This can take the location beyond the normal maximum damage, which is why theres a +125 result on the above table. Next, roll for a war wound. Roll a1d100, plus the modifier from that chart. Further apply these modifiers: If you relaxed over the Downtime, -10. If you received immediate hospital aid, such as from a Treat Patient, if you receive it over downtime as well -40 If you receive hospital treatment over the downtime but not immediately, -25 These modifiers arent cumulative With that result, look on this table: 01-50: Nothing 51-70: Intermittent minor wound 71-95: Minor wound 96-139 Major wound 140+ Severe wound

Minor WoundA minor wound is a twinge. The following effects take place, and where a skill is affected the penalty is -20: Leg: Roll 1d8-2 (minimum 1). This is how many skills from the following are affected (if you roll the same skill roll again and pick another one). 1: Running, 2 Acrobatics, 3 Climb, 4 Dodge, 5 Jump, 6 Swim Arm: Roll 1d7-2 (minimum 1). This is how many skills from the following are affected (if you roll the same skill roll again and pick another one). 1: All attack skills using that arm 2: Acrobatics 3: Climb 4: Sleight and Play Instrument 5: Swim 6: All parry skills using that arm Abdomen: Roll 1d2. On a 1, one random effect from the following is applied. On a 2, both are. The effects are -1 to your move rate, or halving all fatigue rolls. Chest: Roll 1d3 and pick as many of those random effects from the following (reroll if you pick the same one): 1: Cant recover fatigue for the one hour of rest per day; 2: -1 permanent fatigue level 3: all fatigue rolls are halved Head: 30% chance of 1d3 CHA loss (even if intermittent). Terrible headaches affecting certain skills. Roll 1d7-2 (minimum 1). This is how many skills from the following are affected (if you roll the same skill roll again and pick another one). 1: Spirit Magic 2: Convince, Deal, Deception and Seduction 3: Devise, Games(knowledge) 4: Lore 5: Spot and Track. If the wound is intermittent then its only a problem when they have a bad day. You have a bad day 25% of the time.

Major WoundAll kinds of bad. Do the above, plus theres stat loss. In each case roll 1d4, and thats how many points off of the random stat you lose. If you roll a 4, theres a 30% chance of it exploding. It can only explode once. Arm: 1d8: 1-3 DEX 4-6 STR 7-8 CON Leg: 1d6: 1 -1 Move level 2 -1 Move Level and DEX loss 3-4 Just DEX loss 5-6 CON. Abdomen: 1d8: 1-6 CON 7-8 DEX Chest: 1d8: 1-6 CON 7-8 STR Head: 1d6: 1-2 CHA (this can be cumulative with the loss from minor wounds) 3-4 INT 5-6 CON These lost points cannot be restored except through the use of the Cure Wounds spell.

Severe WoundsYou survived this serious a wound? You probably will wish you hadnt. Roll for the minor wound, but roll the dice twice and choose the worst result. Roll three times on the Major Wound table and apply all three results.

26

Curing War Wounds Replace Regrow Limb with Cure Wounds. This is 1 POW. When cast the person it is cast, the target (voluntarily) loses 4 POW. The wound is cured. If they suffer multiple wounds, such as from a Major Wound result or Severe Wound result, they will need to lose multiple sets of POW. Hit Points Over 20 If a character has (regular, non ablative) hit points over 20, all healing is doubled (whether its from first aid, magical healing or natural healing). Similarly, if it is over 40, it triples etc.

ResurrectionThe Res urrection RitualWhen a Resurrection takes places, two things must be determined. First, does the spirit successfully migrate into the body. Second, does it do so without contracting death sickness. The base chance of returning to the world of the living is the deceaseds POW x5%. If the character is a shaman, then this should include their fetchs POW. Then add in the deceaseds highest passion that would be served by the characters return to the mundane world to a maximum bonus of 20. Generally this includes every passion except things like Abstain and Fear passions (although even then there are exceptions if youre going to Hell then Fear Hell would be very pertinent!). A resurrection roll always fails on 96-00. Example: Halvart is a simple peasant. He has POW 10 and his highest passion is Love Wife +5. He has a (10 x 5 ) + 5 = 55% chance of returning to life when a resurrection spell is cast upon him, or a Divine Intervention is used to return him to life. Match the roll as a normal uncontested solo roll and check the following table Success Level Fumble Fail Normal Special Resurrection Result The spirit is lost in the netherworld along the way, and almost certainly becomes a ghost. The character is not resurrected. No further attempts at resurrection can be attempted. Only a HeroQuest could restore the character to life. The character is resurrected and must roll for death sickness. The character is resurrected and need not roll for death sickeness

The DeceasedIf a character dies they can be brought back by a HeroQuest, a Resurrect spell or some forms of Divine Intervention (deities which can Resurrect will have that effect explicitly listed in their description). However, for every day the character has spent dead after the first the character permanently loses 1d3 points from STR, CON, DEX and APP. If any of these characteristics reaches species minimum, they cannot be brought back from the dead. The chance of the deceased returning with death sickness is 30% if the character is an initiate (or equivalent); 10% if the character is an acolyte (or equivalent); and 5% if the character is a rune level (or equivalent).

Death SicknessSometimes those who come back are wrong. Instead of coming back whole, they come back with a part of them left behind. Such people are said to have death sickness, becoming listless, and generally lacking their previous motivations. Lovers, hobbies etc. hold increasingly less interest for those with Death Sickness. The character is deflated, less passionate and generally not all there. It is not a form of insanity, but more as if the character is constantly lacking some previous quality they once had. Characters with death sickness are still playable, but the player should bear in mind the above chances to the persona of their character. Mechanically, there are only two changes. First, the characters passions are capped at 10 unless they are passions from a God of Death (Humakt, Ty Kora Tek, Bijiif etc.). With this in mind, many of those with death sickness find their emotional solace by joining such death cults. Second, the character cannot be resurrected again. The next time they die, they are reunited with the lost part of themselves (and their passions restored to normal, should it matter). This does make them harder to turn into undead as well giving them their maximum POW as a resistance rather

27

than their current POW should anyone try. Design notes Engaging in spirit combat to get resurrected was dumb idea. How can dying with a higher POW be a bad thing? And there was always a bind of I try and find a Healer with a better POW so their chance was better. This puts the chance of coming back solely on the persons own character sheet, where it should frankly stay.

The WorldFallingA jump roll while falling allows a character to specify which location is injured upon impact. Height: The height fallen determines the base damage: Height Dmg Bleeding 1 storey (Wall etc.) 1d4* 3% 2 stories (House) 2d6 6% 3-4 stories (Towers midpoint)3d6 6% 5-7 stories (Top of a tower) 4d6 12% Mountainside 4d6 12% Treacherous Mountainside 7d6 21% * Damage taken for falling off of a wall cannot exceed the locational hit points. When falling off of a mountain, this only represents the distance fallen until you hit something that stops you. Obviously to literally fall from a mountaintop and not stop until you hit the floor would be terminal. The damage a character takes is inflicted to a random hit location unless a Jump roll is made, in which case the character can pick the location. Armour (magical or non-magical) protects to a maximum of two points. The damage that a character takes can exceed double the hit locations hit points. The excess damage is inflicted to the general hit points. It is not applied to the location, which can only ever go to minus the normal positive value. Bleeding: Whenever a character falls, there is a chance of bleeding at the rate of one hit point per round. That chance is a percentage chance equal to three times the number of dice rolled for damage. It is listed in the chart above.

AsphyxiationAs per standard RuneQuest except the damage is always 1d4 dmg to general hit points. It cannot be healed until you stop being asphyxiated.

AcidsIn Glorantha acids may be naturally occurring, or magical, or creature created (such as in the case of lesser hydrae, or krarshtkids). Acids can be exceedingly dangerous to people affected by them. Acids have two ratings: their potency and the number of rounds they remain in effect. Here are some sample ratings: Acid Level Weak Acid Medium Acid Strong Acid Gorp POT 1 2 4 8 Rounds 2 3 3 1

Some acids last longer, but only rarely do they exceed 4 points of POT. The Gorp is the exception, but they only inflict damage for a single round. The POT of the acid is applied as damage to whatever it strikes. For instance, if it hits an unarmoured location it inflicts its POT in damage to that location. If a character is wearing armour, then the acid inflicts its damage to the armour first, and then to the location underneath. Obviously armour that is destroyed by Acid does not recover, unless a Repair spell is used. For a Repair spell to be used, at least one point of armour must remain. Damage can be healed magically, but not by the First Aid spell. Acid does burn away magical armour such as Protection spells, Shield spells and the like! It burns away the magical armour first. If it burns away magical armour, it burns away the magic cast on that location only. Recasting the spell restores the armour. Taken internally, they inflict their POT in damage directly to Chest hit points, with any excess damage being taken to the abdomen. Usually this causes immense scarring. Healing of a magical form is effective, whereas First Aid is not.Acid burns for a number of rounds as indicated in its description, inflicting the full damage every round. With that in mind, some characters may wish to remove their armour whilst it is being attacked by acid, or attempt to wipe it off.

28

The length of time it takes to remove armour is indicated in the Combat chapter. Trying to do it faster, say by cutting straps, requires a DEXx2 and if successful leaves that piece of armour useless until fixed. Trying to wipe acid off requires something to wipe it with, or else just roll around on the ground. If you are rolling then obviously you cannot defend yourself. Either ways, it takes a full action. The chance of succeeding is DEXx3 if you have something to wipe it off with, or DEXx1 if youre just rolling around in the bushes.

AlkaliAlkalis act in a similar way to acids except that they do not attack metal. It is up to the GM to decide whether metal armour actually protects against alkali attacks. Leather or linen will be eaten away as normal as will armour straps unless a Luck Roll is made. Alkalis have the same effect on flesh as do acids. Acids and alkalis counter each others effects. If an alkali or acid is applied to the location struck in the same round that the opposing agent struck, the POT of the larger is reduced by the POT of the smaller, leaving the residue to eat away as normal. Thus, if a character is hit by POT 16 acid, he may pour POT 10 alkali onto he location to end up with POT 6 acid. Of course, this involves some preparation and a little risk - is the broo spitting acid or alkali at me?

DrugsAlcohol and DrinkingChoose whether your character is a tee-total or a light drinker; a medium to heavy drinker; or a very heavy drinker. When a character drinks there are three types of session: tipple, normal, booze-up. A tipple has no deleterious effects in the game mechanics. A normal drink has no effect unless youre tee-total/light, in which case you have to make a drinking roll. A booze-up comes in levels (so an evening of heavy drinking is level I, an evening of drinking contests a la Raiders of the Lost Ark is level II, an evening of drinking troll drinks III, a two day bender level IV etc.). For every level, make a drinking roll. A drinking roll is calculated as CONx5. If successful, no effect. If it fails, roll again and keep rolling until its made. Every failure is a -10% to all skills from being drunk and the loss of one long term fatigue level. Light drinks and teetotallers roll CONx3, and heavy drinkers roll CONx7 Every Downtime round, if a heavy drinker has at least one action they must make a POWx3 or spend an action drinking. It takes a downtime action to change from being tee-total to medium, from medium to heavy and vice versa. No roll is required, and I leave it up to you to roleplay being a recovering alcoholic etc. Similarly, one might be a Medium Drinker and never touch a drop because youre a recovering alcoholic.

FlyingMagical flightAt heart the Fly sorcery spell and the rune magic spell Flight are all variants on magic allowing one to travel through various elements, it is really a Travel through Air spell. Firstly, this means it can only allow one to travel in Middle Air, in the area that Umath made by tearing a space between the Sky and the Earth. It is useless for travel in water (you can't propel yourself through a lake with it), the underworld (should you go there) or the Sky (should you go there as well). This applies on practice run HeroQuests as well, so if you follow the path of Orlanth on the Lightbringer's Quest then when you get to the part of the ritual that involves travelling through the Underworld, all forms of flight are ineffective. If one wishes to use the magical flying to escape a different element, such as being trapped in a lake or the ocean, then at least half of one's body has to be out of the element, like the abdomen, both arms the head. Of course there is nothing to stop a powerful, high intensity Fly being cast on a small object, like a dagger, which is held out of the water and used to drag the character out - although few sorcerors have the foresight for such things. Secondly, there are analogous spells for travelling through the other elements. They are rare, but are effectively the same as Fly and Flight. So there is an equivalent for travelling through water, allowing fast propulsion underwater, one for travelling through the underworld, allowing "flight" in the underworld, and the same for the Sky. There is the even rarer spell that allows travel through the earth, where one can literally sink in and walk around. None of these spells bestow any ability to survive the conditions there, however, so you'd still suffocate travelling through earth or water (no-one has to breath in the Underworld or the Sky Realm for Time and all natural laws do not hold there).

HeightThere is a maximum height to which magic can take you. A simple small intensity Fly spell doesn't give you the ability to fly wherever you want. Generally, though, this will not be an issue, as the height from all the spells will not be too important.

29

The sorcerous version of Fly allows one to reach a height of 50m per level of intensity of the spell. This means that limited sorcerors won't be able to fly to mountain tops unaided. Powerful sorcerors, however, will be able to fly very high indeed - it is not inconceivable to reach intensity 50 Fly, or higher! This can be achieve even more height than normal Rune Magic. The Rune Magic spell Flight will allow one to travel to 4000m above the ground, which is stunningly enough, high enough for most purposes. Under certain conditions, and in certain places, this ceiling can be increased. On Orlanth's High Holy Day is increases threefold to 12,000m which is high enough to reach the peak of Kerofinela. The same effect occurs near Stormwalk Mountain, the area itself enchances the magic. However, if you want to travel higher and break the ceiling, travelling far above into Middle Air then you will have to use the Vanganth spell Into Middle Air. The rare shamanic gift that allows one to fly allows one to reach a height of 100m for the first level, and then 200m for every level thereafter. Most other creatures can fly to a height of 2000m, including wind children.

Flying and Weather ConditionsWeather conditions can affect one's performance whilst flying. Strong winds, rain, hail etc... can all be deadly, specifically at high heights such as on mountain tops. Non-divine powered flight has certain problems with winds over a light win (wind STR 18). Once the wind exceeds this level, beings powered by such magical flight get whipped around, caught on the wind gusts and dragged off wherever the winds blow them. Once a wind exceeds STR 18 there is a chance of this occuring, depending upon the intensity of the spell used (for the purposes of the shamanic gift, the intensity is the square of the level of the gift, so a level 5 gift counts as intensity 25 for these purposes). If the character is using a spell with an intensity less than half the wind STR, then they cannot move safely. If the character does have a spell with an intensity higher than half the wind STR then they can move safely. Characters who attempt to move unsafely must, every round, match the intensity of their spell against the wind STR. If they fail, they are whipped off into the wind streams. Sometimes this is just a pain, blown off course. Sometimes it can be hazardous, being blown into buildings and such. In some places it is almost fatal, on mountain tops where the wind blows hard on can easily be blown off into the upper reaches of Middle Air, buffetted about to pieces. Divine Magic flight can safely travel though any non-storm environment, although they will still suffer the usualy penalties for exposure and visibility. In storms they stand the normal chances of damage, unless they use the Vanganthi spell Avoid Storms.

Flying inside sylphsSylphs are, of course, immune to weather conditions. But even they have limits to their power. Sylphs are only minor elementals, capable of travelling about 2000m into the air. The more powerful air elementals can do better, Kolati can go 12,000m high and Umbroli can travel anywhere in Middle Air (good luck trying to summon and command one though!). Sylphs, and other air elementals, can be used as a mode of transport. However, for long periods of travelling the effect is rather the same as travelling in a tumble dryer. It isn't pleasant, and whilst the sylph may not tire of taking it's passengers they quickly will. A sylph can travel 100km in a normal eight hour day, and those who wish to travel via sylph can normally stomach eight hours as long as they have the odd break here and there. This costs two levels of long term fatigue. Of course, the sylph never needs to stop, and so can travel 300km in a single day if it just travels with no breaks. So, travelling across Dragon Pass via Sylph could be achieved in little over a day. However, those who use this method are unable to sleep, and find it even more upsetting, losing 4 levels of long term fatigue.

Flying and concentrationThe sorcerous version of Fly is pretty powerful. It can be on continuously, and allows almost limitless mobility. There are drawbacks. Firstly, it is an active spell, which means that whilst flying the character is unable to cast any other magic. However, there is also the question of concentration. For instance, if a trap opens up beneath a character's feet how long does it take them to activate the fly spell to stop themselves from falling? I recommend that a concentration roll is called for in these circumstances no matter what magical flight method is used. For non-magically flying characters I'd recommend using the Fly skill. It should be slightly more than a mere whim of the magic user that they fly, there has to be more effort than that.

Shamanic FlyingSome shamans, rare shamans, have the ability to fly magically. The following is a gift for Sandy Petersen's Shamanic rules that certain spirits grant. For each level of the gift the shaman can fly at a move rate of 1. He can only take his fetch's POW in ENC with him (and cannot fly at all should he try and take more!).

InsanityGloranthan insanity is caused by insanity spirits. Insanity spirits can also be brought into being by horrific and harrowing

30

experiences. When driven insane a character becomes random, suffering from delusions, often gibbering, and difficult to talk to. (In Glorantha there arent different brands of mental ailment youre either normal or utterly bonkers). The level of disconnection depends upon the POW of the insanity spirit. Spirit POW 1-5 6-10 Level of Insanity Character develops ticks and minor delusions; compulsive behaviours, that kind of thing. Effectively, very eccentric Character develops major delusions, extremely compulsive behaviour, and only rarely manages to have enough self control to act in a rational manner. The characters totally nuts, unable to act rationally, but still capable of saying things (which make little sense) and doing basic activities like eating good and avoiding obvious sources of danger (open fires, the guy with a sword who just struck you) 25 The character is so totally nuts that they are unable to do anything. Their actions are random and make no sense whatsoever. The character is driven so mad he acts in ways detrimental to himself and those around him e.g. attacking comrades, trying to commit suicide etc.

11-15

16-25

26+

Cre ating Insanity SpiritsA character who undergoes a particularly traumatic experience has a chance of creating an insanity spirit. During the experience, resist the characters POW against the number listed in the column. If successful, theyre fine. If not, they lose 1d3 POW. For each point of POW the character loses, the spirit has 1d6 POW. Trauma Entire family murdered in front of you Murdering your entire family Tortured for a short time (days) Tortured for a long time (weeks) Tortured for years Rating 8 12 6 12 18

DiseaseRecovery From DiseaseCharacteristics and skills reduced by infectious diseases may start to return to normal. Recovery requires rest and limited activity. Recovery is delayed or prevented if the victim overexerts himself. A character gets a number of Recovery Rolls equal to the number of successful attacks. They receive them at a rate of one per day, plus one more for every level in Immunity to Disease. The character gets a CONx4 as a Recovery Roll chance, modified by their advantages and disadvantages. A successful Recovery Roll recovers an amount equal to the amount lost in one attack. A failed roll means that that particular loss is permanent. The Rune Spell Restore (Health) can be used to restore various characteristics. This spell can be cast on individuals even years after the loss. Contraction Rolls 31

Third, the rolls for seeing whether the disease progresses or gets better are: CONx5 for being in bed like a parcel, CONx4 is moderate activity (shuffling around, cooking) or being wrapped up in bed in a slum (so in a slum you may as well shuffle around), CONx3 is training and travelling, CONx2 is most adventuring (climbing, fighting etc.) and living in uncomfortable circumstances like being in a cell or forced to do heavy labour whilst ill. CONx1 for something like living in a prison where the guards specifically pick you out for mean treatment and make you sleep naked in the rain. Weeks Finally, change any mention of weeks to Downtime when applying the standard disease rules.

Downtime and ExperienceDowntime is the phrase for all activity taking place outside of adventures. At the end of every adventure, the game enters downtime. Downtime comes in Downtime Rounds.. Each is about two weeks, but the GM should feel free to have some flexibility about this. During downtime the characters may work, train, research and reflect on their experience. Characters can also reap metagame awards.

Session AwardsExperience