[RMS]

Originally Posted by TrippyHippy

No. The new parry table in the Deluxe edition (p54) shows:

- If both the defender and attacker succeed in their rolls, then the damage is reduced by the AP of the weapon.
- If the parry rolls a critical then the damage is reduced by twice the AP.
- If the attack rolls a critical, then the maximum damage is inflicted.
- If they both roll a critical, then maximum damage is applied and twice the AP is reduced.

The opposed contest rule, generally, is clarified in conjunction with this application in combat, on p22 also. The Deluxe book is open in front of me as I type this, and I've played in several sessions with that book, those rules, and my gaming group. That is what is stated, clearly, in the text of the rules, and with the examples given.

Interesting. The Player's Update downgrades rolls exactly like Atgxtg notes, and according to both the authors and everyone else I've asked, the Deluxe version of the rules are identical to the Player's Update. <shrug> It's never been a huge deal to me since the houserule needed to fix it is intuitive and obvious, but it is one of the handful of things that's kept me from bothering with anything new for MRQ: too many issues that need to be sorted because they weren't properly playtested, edited, and written.

With respect, you appear to making a more critical error by not reading the book. Regardless of what may have been argued about on the net, the rules I have explained, in both the new and old books, are precisely correct. The rules in the old book don't work very well, but they do work, functionally, in the Deluxe edition. My preference, however, is for a slightly simpler system still, which is what BRP provides me with.

He's right. The original rules didn't work out of the book since they contradicted themselves. You could put things together three different ways with the rules, as written. The Player's Update fixed some things, but broke some others, like the downgrading of rolls. It just seems to be an endless cycle. I prefer simpler systems too and one of the ironies is that the most complex form of BRP combat is RQ3 which is significantly faster, more fluid, and more tactical (if you want) than MRQ. (It still isn't perfect of course, and I did houserule a bunch of it, so don't think I'm just critical of MRQ! )

I agree that the changes in the rules have caused difficulties in interpretation. We can see this in the free PDF rules on this site, which appear to actually conflate the old rules with the revised ones. My advice, honestly, is to enjoy all the MRQ setting supplements (which are still 99% compatible with BRP), use the MRQ rules as optional rules for certain things (like Hit Locations, character generation, or alternative magic systems), but use BRP for the core rules in most games.

I actually think the rush to publish is the real problem with MRQ, and apparently Mongoose has a track record of problems there, and basic things like proper editing get bypassed. I agree with you, but between the above issues and the printing issues of late, I've been holding off on most of the 2nd Age Glorantha stuff, which I really, really want.