I'm really pleased the combat matrices are sorted out. Good news.
But here's another couple of things that niggle at me. One won't appear in everyone's game, and the other is quite important.
Firstly, vampires. This is important to our game because there a major NPC is a vampire. RQM vampires appear to be substabtially weaker than the old RQ3 versions. Magically, mainly. In RQ3 vampires had no POW, but had magic points. Although they could not use spirit magic or divine magic, they could become sorcerors. Not any more. RQM vampires have no magic points and consequently no magic ability. Also, have you noticed how vampires DON'T have the 'vampiric touch' monster trait?
Secondly, and more important is the concept of 'Dedicated POW' for divine magic users. On the surface it seems clear enough. Now, let's assume a character has a POW of 18 and dedicates 2 points of that to divine magic. Dutifully, the PC crosses off the 2 points. But whilst gaming the PC regains 5 POW, taking them up a POW of 21 - species maximum. But then they cast their two points of divine magic. That POW should be returned, but they are already at species maximum. OR is it the case that POW can be no greater than 21 (or species maximum) MINUS dedicated POW? If the latter case then this makes priest extremely vulnerable, even more so when you consider no one is allowed multiple castings of a divine spell.
The rules do not make it clear which is correct. Either way, it's an extremely poor rule because it seriously limits what should be an experienced character (if you remember, early editions of RQ stated it was called RuneQuest because PC quested to master the runes - this took the form of becoming either a runelord or runepriest. As such, priest shoul be seen as the epitome).
There is so much I like about RQM. It was a breath of fresh air for me. But now we've started play silly things keep coming up where the rules don't work. It's not the rules so much - if I was to run a fantasy RPG I'd be more than happy to play RQM. It's just they don't represent Glorantha very well - either second or third age. When I have these dilemmas I just say to myself, 'I'll do it the old RQ3 way'. So it's starting to make me think, 'why bother with RQM, why not go back to RQ3.' Of course, I may only be thinking this as a long-time (over 20 years!) player of Glorantha. I imagine any newcomers to the world will not be feeling like this. It's not even an unwillingness to explore new ideas (roleplayers are an open-minded and imaginative bunch. Mostly. It just doesn't work.
Has anyone else encountered these problems, and what did you do?
But here's another couple of things that niggle at me. One won't appear in everyone's game, and the other is quite important.
Firstly, vampires. This is important to our game because there a major NPC is a vampire. RQM vampires appear to be substabtially weaker than the old RQ3 versions. Magically, mainly. In RQ3 vampires had no POW, but had magic points. Although they could not use spirit magic or divine magic, they could become sorcerors. Not any more. RQM vampires have no magic points and consequently no magic ability. Also, have you noticed how vampires DON'T have the 'vampiric touch' monster trait?
Secondly, and more important is the concept of 'Dedicated POW' for divine magic users. On the surface it seems clear enough. Now, let's assume a character has a POW of 18 and dedicates 2 points of that to divine magic. Dutifully, the PC crosses off the 2 points. But whilst gaming the PC regains 5 POW, taking them up a POW of 21 - species maximum. But then they cast their two points of divine magic. That POW should be returned, but they are already at species maximum. OR is it the case that POW can be no greater than 21 (or species maximum) MINUS dedicated POW? If the latter case then this makes priest extremely vulnerable, even more so when you consider no one is allowed multiple castings of a divine spell.
The rules do not make it clear which is correct. Either way, it's an extremely poor rule because it seriously limits what should be an experienced character (if you remember, early editions of RQ stated it was called RuneQuest because PC quested to master the runes - this took the form of becoming either a runelord or runepriest. As such, priest shoul be seen as the epitome).
There is so much I like about RQM. It was a breath of fresh air for me. But now we've started play silly things keep coming up where the rules don't work. It's not the rules so much - if I was to run a fantasy RPG I'd be more than happy to play RQM. It's just they don't represent Glorantha very well - either second or third age. When I have these dilemmas I just say to myself, 'I'll do it the old RQ3 way'. So it's starting to make me think, 'why bother with RQM, why not go back to RQ3.' Of course, I may only be thinking this as a long-time (over 20 years!) player of Glorantha. I imagine any newcomers to the world will not be feeling like this. It's not even an unwillingness to explore new ideas (roleplayers are an open-minded and imaginative bunch. Mostly. It just doesn't work.
Has anyone else encountered these problems, and what did you do?