Does the penalty for engaging multiple opponents apply to all of them, or just the extra ones?

Question

The Engaging Multiple Opponents penalty is −3 per opponent after the first, but it's unclear if this cumulative penalty applies to all opponents, or if it applies only to later opponents.

For example, would engaging three opponents at once be at no modifier for the first engagement rolled, −3 for the second, and −6 for the third, or would they all be engaged at −6 regardless of the order you resolve them in?

Either interpretation could make fictional sense to me, but I'd like to be making such judgments from a solid grounding in understanding the rule's intended meaning first.

Answer 1

HeroQuest Glorantha p.86 example shows that the -3 penalty is applied to the subsequent rolls in the same round cumulative. Example:

Karganvale 12W      16W Guard#1
   -3 MOP   9W      16W Guard#2
   -6 MOP   6W      16W Guard#3

So in this example the Karganvale player would first roll against Guard 1 with full 12W and then Guard 2 with 9W (-3) and last Guard 3 with 6W (-6). If the resistances are different you can order them as you like.

Answer 2

As far as I recall (this is going back a few years!), the penalty applies to all opponents!

So, if you have two opponents, you get a -3 penalty to hit either of them. If you have three opponents, you'd get a -6 to hit any of them!