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  Simon E. Phipp(Geo Cities)
  Simon E. Phipp(Work - Birmingham)

"Campaign House Rules" Copyright (c) 1997 Simon E. Phipp
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Glorantha is Copyright Greg Stafford and all rights are reserved.

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# House Rules

## Contents

  Encumbrance
  Multiple Cults
  Allied Spirits
  Divine Intervention
  Casting Magic
  Sorcery/Lunar magic
  Combat
  Experience
  Economics
  Shamans/Spirits
  HeroQuests
  Summary

As we play a High-Level campaign, most of the rules we use are geared up towards solving the problems we have. Most rules sets fall down at the high end, and RuneQuest is no exception.

## Encumbrance

The rules in RQ2 worked well for low to medium levels, the rules in RQ3 are too cumbersome and generally do not work.

We tend to ignore fatigue - most combats etc. do not last long enough to tire out people with super-normal strength - most of our PCs can get 30 or 40 STR with no problem. As long as people are not too encumbered (STR + CON + SIZ is my rule of thumb maximum) they can do most things without problems. If they attempt to do silly things, for instance running 20 miles in full armour, then there are penalties to fatigue, hit points etc., but these things rarely happen because of Magic effects.

## Multiple Cults

People can join any number of cults, as long as those cult are friendly or neutral to each other. Obviously, people cannot join Storm Bull and Cacodemon, unless they are Illuminated.

Cult restrictions should be followed for each cult, tithing must be paid on a pro-rata basis so two cults at Rune Lord level would get 45% of income each. Allied spirits would be granted on an ad hoc basis, generally one per pantheon.

If any cult vows are broken, that person is open to excommunication by his Priest, High Priest or whomever.

Illumination protects the person from breaking minor cult vows and allows them to join mutually hostile cults, as long as there are no allied spirits around to cause problems. It is possible to illuminate one's allied spirits, or even all spirits bound to a character, so that they see things in a more flexible light.

All the characters in the campaign are illuminated, some are very illuminated. This means that they can get away with far more than normal characters. Having said that, one character was thrown out of his prime cult, Zorak Zoran for joining Orlanth, even though he was a potential Hero with more than 300 points of ZZ Rune Magic.

## Allied Spirits

These are given to worthy Rune Lords or Priests of major cults. They have a special status and can sacrifice for reusable Rune Magic as if they were Priests of their aspect, so an allied spirit granted by Orlanth Adventurous could sacrifice for Rune Magic as if he were a Wind Lord.

An Allied Spirit can attempt Divine Intervention as if he were an initiate. However, if their master were excommunicated from the cult, the allied spirit could use Divine Intervention as a Rune Lord to return to its deity.

## Divine Intervention

Initiates or higher in a cult may attempt Divine Intervention as often as they want. Initiates in more than one cult may appeal to each of their deities in turn for Divine Intervention. However, once a deity has refused Divine Intervention for any request, he will never grant it for the same request - no repeat petitions.

All Rune Lords of cult have Divine Intervention on a D10, losing 1D10 POW with guaranteed success, or they can use the RQ2 method and have a chance of losing no POW, but a chance of being refused. The GM always has the option to refuse a petition, no matter what the petitioner has rolled.

Rune Priests of cults which own major Runes also have access to D10 DI as if they were Rune Lords. These cults are listed in Gods of Glorantha. So, for instance, Wind Lords and Wind Voices have D10 DI, as do Karrg Sons and priests of Magasta, although Priestesses of Kyger Litor do not.

## Casting Magic

Spirit Magic is automatically cast, as is Divine Magic. Sorcery and Ritual Magic is cast if the skill roll is made, otherwise they fail but count as having been cast.

Divine Magic is cast on the caster's DEX SR, spirit magic and sorcery is cast on the DEX SR + Number of points in the spell. Spells cast from a matrix are cast on DEX SR, unless they are manipulated, in which case they are cast on DEX SR + Number of points in the manipulation.

Spells cast on oneself do not count as spell actions, so one can cast a spell and attack and parry in the same round. Spells cast on others count as a spell action. Only one spell action is allowed in each round.

## Sorcery/Lunar magic

We do not use Free INT, but allow a skill to be used at a value of Skill/5 with a minimum of the lowest of the skill and spell chance, so somebody with Glow 65% and Intensity 70% could cast an Intensity 13 Glow. Multiple manipulations must be contained within the spell chance, so the above example with Range 50% and Duration 40% could cast a spell with Intensity, Range and duration adding up to 13.

Ceremony can be used to add to spell/skill chances, by splitting the skill used amongst the spell/skill chances. Very few of our characters use Ceremony to enhance spell casts as they are all masters of most skills.

## Combat

We use a variation on the RQ2 Crush/Slash/Impale rules, where anyone rolling 1/5th of attack chance rolls extra damage - roll damage bonus twice for a crush, roll weapon damage twice for a slash and add maximum weapon damage for an impale which also sticks in.

Crushing weapons also do knockback - people are knocked back (Damage - SIZ)/5 metres or (Damage - SIZ - STR) metres if braced. If knocked back into a hard object, damage is 1D6/metre of knockback not used, so if a character is knocked back for 5 metres but hits a wall 2 metres on will take 3D6 damage to a random location.

Overhead smashes do knockback damage to the legs - giants and trolls like hammering people into the ground.

Critical hits are made on rolling 1/20th of the skill and do maximum weapon damage + damage bonus ignoring all armour.

Critical special hits are made on rolling 1/100th of the skill, rounded down. They do special damage, but with the weapon damage at maximum, ignoring all armour.

At 1/500th of skill, a maximum damage critical special is scored.

Fumble chances are reduced, the better skilled a character is. As a rule of thumb, the fumble roll is increased by 1 for each 90% skill, so it is 96 for 90%, 97 for 180%, 98 for 270% and so on. Once the roll reaches 100, characters must make a second roll, at 100% which decreases by 10% per mastery level.

## Experience

After playing RuneQuest for many years, we felt that it was becoming a skills chase, with people attempting to do things simply to get an experience tick and the chance to roll for an increase. This was becoming boring and meant that everyone had the same skills at the same level. So we changed things.

The GM would award people a number of experience points depending on how difficult or dangerous a scenario. Each player would allocate the experience points among the skills ticked on the scenario, gaining an increase in skill for each one, with no rolling of dice.

Each skill has a difficulty level, taking a number of experience points to increase the skill, so it is easier to increase Climbing than Flail Attack.

This has the advantage that not everyone tries for a skill use in any situation, people can specialise in their favourite skills and characters become more distinct.

## Economics

I use the RQ3 wages and prices of materials and equipment, with the RQ2 prices for magic and spell learning. This is because the RQ2 prices of armour in particular are too low, whereas the RQ3 costs of spells are laughable.

Spells learned from neutrals cost standard RQ2 prices, spells from associate cults are half price and the price from your own cult is quarter price. Spells are generally only available to 4 points, although a Great Temple may give spells to 8 or even 12 points to special people. Shamans rarely ask for cash payment, but ask instead for tasks to be done or for magic items or services.

Most transactions are not made with cash, but by barter of services, skills or precious items such as jewellery. This stops people having to carry sacks full of gold to pay for spells etc. Most Rune Levels in cults pay for spells from their tithed income, so do not have to spend any money at all. Each character has a Cult Credit from which training costs and expenses are drawn.

Major characters manage to stay in Temples, thus saving money on accommodation. In any case, the more important a character the less they have to pay anywhere - as Terry Pratchett says "Pointy hat, Sir - That will do nicely".

## Shamans/Spirits

These use the Spirit Rules, as detailed elsewhere.

## HeroQuests

These use the HeroQuest Rules, as detailed elsewhere.

## Summary

The rules we use are geared up to a free-flowing campaign. If we can get by without delving into the rule book we are happy. Having said that, there is nothing like finding 1D3 sub-rules to defeat the Gm or to stop a character in his tracks.

In the quest for simplicity, we have tried to get rid of those rules which bog the session down. If things seem reasonable, then they are allowed, even if the "rules" say otherwise.

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