Rules Questions

[Phil Nicholls]

Hi Steve,

Actually, you are right. It would be an advantage to play with complete novice Players, rather than converting established gamers to the narrative goodness of HQ.

Glad to hear you are persevering with the rules, and you are in the right place to receive all the help you need.

Best of luck
Phil

[Steve Hammatt]

A few more noob questions. I’ll be very grateful to anyone who can answer, and I apologise in advance if I’m missing the obvious and/or just being dumb.

p35, point 8 – you can spend points on improving existing abilities, not just buying new ones, and you can buy new keywords and Runes, right? The word “additional” seems unnecessary if I’m understanding correctly.

p63, point 6 – can you spend more than one Hero Point on one dice roll or just one? p60 says that one per dice roll is the maximum but p63 appears to contradict this by saying “any number”.

p136 – 2nd column, 2nd-to-last para. Does this mean that the limit for raising charms for those not in a spirit society is the +1 mentioned in the previous section (2nd column, 2nd para)? It’s not specified as a limit in that section.

[Harald Smith]

“you can spend points on improving existing abilities, not just buying new ones”

Just had some discussion on this in an in-game thread.
If you read the word ‘additional’ tightly, then the additional points can only be applied to the keywords, runes, and previously identified 5 additional abilities.
If you read it loosely/broadly, they can also be used for additional breakout abilities.

I’m of the latter school – if a player wants more named abilities with fewer high point keywords/abilities, go for it!
(Plus that fits in with both the narrative and as-you-go methods that are described in HQ2 but not explicitly covered in HQG).

“can you spend more than one Hero Point on one dice roll or just one?”

In my game, we use the rule on p.60 – one HP per die roll maximum (whether single contest or a given round/exchange within an extended contest). Others may do differently.

“Does this mean that the limit for raising charms for those not in a spirit society is the +1 mentioned in the previous section”

I do not interpret there to be a limit in raising the charm’s ability. However, others (like David Scott who wrote a lot of the spirit rules) may say otherwise.

[Steve Hammatt]

Thanks, Harald.

[Roko Joko]

Jeff said the intended meaning was that you can only use the 12 chargen points (HQG p. 35 #8) to improve abilities and keywords, not add new ones, according to someone I played with who asked him.

[Steve Hammatt]

Doh! I’ve just realised (thanks both) that the “additional abilities” referred to in point 8 is referring to those abilities selected in point 7, I had read it as meaning further (new) abilities not yet created. Thanks both.

[Steve Hammatt]

Another rules question, this time about the example tables on p128, particularly the second one for the resources of Nochet after the siege. Either I’m misunderstanding, or the second table doesn’t match the combination of the text and the previous table.

Here is what I understood, showing who is looking after which resource, their level of success/failure, and what effect I understood this would have based on the first table:

Communication (Orensulva) – Marginal Defeat : 18 (bolstered) -6 = 12
Magic (Vargast) – Minor Victory : 12W (bolstered) -3 = 9W
Morale (Samastina) – Marginal Victory : 18 (bolstered) -3 = 15
War (Karganvale) – Major Defeat : 1W (bolstered) -6 = 15
Wealth (Magatheus) – Marginal Victory : 9W (bolstered) -3 = 6W

Comparing this to the second table, Communication looks right, Magic should be “9W (-3)” and not “9W (base)”, Morale should be “15 (-3)” and not “15 (+3)”, War should be “15 (-6)” and not “15 (-3)”, and Wealth should be “6W (-3)” and not “6W (-6)”.

Or am I doing something wrong?

[Steve Hammatt]

Does anyone have any views on this please? I’d like to check before I submit it for errata.

[Harald Smith]

Steve – here’s my interpretation of the table.
What is not shown is the set of Base values for Nochet resources.
I believe these should be:

Communication 18
Magic 9W
Morale 12
War 18
Wealth 12W

The attempts to bolster the resources yield the following, which is shown in the Bolstered view:

Communication – marginal defeat – no change = 18
Magic – minor victory – +3 = 12W
Morale – major victory – +6 = 18
War – minor victory – +3 = 1W
Wealth – minor defeat – -3 = 9W

The start of the Siege is described with immediate effects on the city’s resources.
Originally, I thought the results of those resource changes were not shown. But I think what is applied is the Resource Depletion results – using those against the Bolstered values I believe the results would be:

Communication – marginal defeat – -6 = 12
Magic – minor victory – -3 = 9W
Morale – marginal victory – -3 = 15
War – major defeat – -6 = 15
Wealth – marginal victory – -3 = 6W

And those match up to what is shown is the state of Nochet Resources after the Siege, which is what is stated in the text: “the siege depletes many of the resources of Nochet, as per the second table below”. The figures in parentheses simply note the difference from the Base level (before bolstering).

Does that make sense? (And I agree it is not real obvious or clear from the description.)

[Steve Hammatt]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh! *sound of penny dropping*

Thanks Harald, that does make sense now. Although in that case I think it’s very confusing putting those figures in brackets on the second table (at least, it confused me, as evidenced above), given that the original scores aren’t shown (perhaps deleted whilst editing?). I will submit an errata for it, suggesting that those figures in brackets really should be removed (they just confuse the whole situation IMHO).

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