Urban Temples
One traditional British definition of a city is a town with a cathedral. In RQ:G, a corresponding rule of thumb is a that a city is a settlement with multiple distinct temples. A city has too many people for them all to worship together as one community. And unlike a tribal town, the majority of the population are permanent residents, not just visiting for special occasions. So they have no other community to belong to.
The central settlement of a large clan, or a tribe,
As covered in previous blog posts, the RQ:G rules define a fairly complex system of cults, subcults and associate cults. The Cults of Runequest (CoR) series makes heavy use of that rules framework to describe the cults it covers.
This entry covers what that system looks like from the inside; what do initiates of a cult believe to be true?
What is a Doctrine?
The dictionary definition of `doctrine` is, in Gloranthan terms, a belief or set of beliefs held and ta
Speaker in Darkness and the Lord of the Middle World
Dojor the Black is the god who communicates for humans with trolls. He was born on the surface world after the trolls arrived from Hell. In the Darkness Age, Dojor fought and conquered Vestkarthan the Deep and forced the fire god to build the great Black Glass Hall on the Shadow Plateau as a bride-price for Esrola. From here, Kimantor, Dojor’s son, ruled the Shadowlands and brought unity to the diverse creatures and nations of that region
The Eternal Transcendent
Tehri, the Eternal Catalyst, presides over the enigmatic cult known as the Transcendents. Embracing the paradoxical nature of existence, the Transcendents seek enlightenment through the transformative power of death, life, and the ever-changing forces that shape the world. They reject the notion of stagnation and believe that true growth and understanding come from embracing the cycles of creation, decay, and rebirth.
Entry Requirements: Must possess a deep cur
One of the areas of the RQ:G rules that trips up many GMs are strike ranks. In order to properly define the Rivers of Sartar house ruiles, it is important to be clear on what the RQ:G rules as written actually are, especially as many GMs use their own house rules in this area. Originally this explanation was going to be a subsection of the Rivers of Sartar house rules; that ended up confusing the presentation of those rules. so it has been split off.
Purpose of Strike Ranks
In Rivers of Sartar, the secondstep of tactical gameplay is calculating Strike Ranks. This takes a combat and splits it into a sequence of opposed rolls.
Continuing on from the previous entry , we have split off an engagement within the overall combat where one PC is fighting two broo. To keep things simple, an engagement always involve either a single PC and one or more opponents, or a single opponent and several PCs. So a 2 on 2 fight should be split into two 1 on 1 fights. In this
In Rivers of Sartar, the first step of tactical gameplay is Engagement. This takes a big complex combat and splits it into a series of individual fights that, for this combat round, can be processed independantly.
So in the above example, 3 broos face off against 2 warrior PCs and their non-combatant ally. After the engagement procedure, it turns out that the first PC will fight two of the broo, and the second the thrid. The NPC ally is free to heal, buff or just cower.
Starting glory: according to class + Grandfather glory/10
1069 End of grandfather's career "Ordinary year"
1070 Fights the Byzantines "1: Dies from random cause 2-9: Garrison 10-20: Fights the Byzantines"
1071 Drives the Byzantines out of Apulia "1: Dies from random cause 2-5: Garrison 6-20: Conquest of Bari (300)"
1072 Capture of Palermo after a long siege "1: Dies from random cause 2-5: Garrison 6-12: Fights against Abelard (100) 13-20: Conquest of Palermo (300, Hate (Moors
As covered in previous blog posts, the Cults of Runequest series provides rules for virtually all widespread cults of the wider Dragon Pass region. However, even when all 11 volumes are finally published, there will still be room for more player-facing options. Sometimes none of the existing cults match a character or setting concept, or the requirements of a plot.
Unfortunately, adding major new cults to Glorantha can be as problematic as adding a new major city; you are either deliberatel
This blog post is the first in a planned series covering tactical gameplay in Rivers of Sartar. Unlike freefrom gameplay and ongoing contests, it draws mostly from Runequest rather than Questworlds and its predecessors, which have always treated combat as just another form of contest. While some people like that for its elegance, others find it too simple to allow interesting tactical decisions. And sometimes the best story is the one you tell after the fact, to try explain what everyone did.
As Ambros finally wakes up with the sun shinning on his face, still groggy trying to figure Out what happened. As Ambros was finally able to see straight, he realized that he was slumped Over a horse. Confusion sets in very quickly, as Ambros was able to get into the saddle and finally was able to slow down the horse.
Ambros: “Why the hell did you guys knock me out?” as Ambros rubs the cheek where he got hit.
Sir Terric: “You tend to be noisy, since we had to leave discreetly. There w
Character Sheet: Ambros - PK Sheet
As cold weather comes and goes during the winter, many bandits have begun to raid the lands near Sarum as they have prospered under King Constantine. Without a high king many have become restless and bolder than before, as there is no judge to hold them of their crimes amongst each other. Most knights were reluctant to help, as they were worried about what is to come under the new rule of Constants and didn't want to up set the order of things in the curre
440 AD Ambros Character Sheet
PRE - LUE Winter Phase
Winter began like many others, fairly calm and peaceful to many around Britain. As winter continued, day by day the weather started to take a turn for the worst as it started to come down harder. With blizzards hitting all over the country, travel have become extremely dangerous for many. For Ambros, it seems to only get worse as he found out the truth about this winter as his horse ended up breaking his lag.
[Weather]
Us
Early Spring
As the sun starts to rise and clouds start rolling in and light drizzle begins to fall from the skies. With the cool breeze coming in from the windows being left open from the servants, Squire Ambros appears above the blanks to survey what the weather looks like from his blankets. After a brief moment decided it was appropriate to sleep in, since he is now a squire and not a commoner like the rest of his family. As the morning starts to roll through, you can hear someone yelli
Starting the year 439 AD as Ambros becomes of age to become a squire, he has been assigned to Sir Terric. He[Sir Terric] was one of the last knights to try and turn him away as a squire since he is coming from common blood, but Sir Terric did this as a favor to High King Constantine. Many believe this is a huge mistake to allow an Irish commoner to become a squire no less a 7th son to join the ranks. There have been many rumors on how he attained squire hood, but will the truth come out before h
Books:
Cardini, Franco: L'avventura di un povero crociato
Runciman, Steven: A History of the Crusades
Ostrogorsky, Georg: History of the Byzantine State
France, John: Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade
Tasso, Torquato: Gerusalemme Liberata
Howard, R.H.: Cormac Fitzgeoffrey saga, The Lion of Tiberias
Scott, Walter: Ivanhoe
Turtledove, Harry: The Misplaced Legion
Vaglio, Mariangela Galatea: La Saga di Bisan
As an example of Grandfather history generation and as background on the Normans...
Roberto d'Altavilla arrived in southern Italy in 1047 seeking fortune, accompanied by only five knights. He hoped his successful brothers would grant him a fief, but they refused. Determined, he sold his sword to the Lombard princes embroiled in their conflicts and began raiding their wealthy lands.
Among Roberto's original retinue was Ruggero, known as the "Homeless." Ruggero fought alongs
Starting glory: 2500
1047
Robert de Hauteville comes to southern Italy with only 5 knights. The PKs’ grandfather is one of them.
1d20 Result
Event
1
Died of random cause
2-17
Garrison duty
19-20
Raid (50 glory)
Character creation is as per the Paladins rulebook unless otherwise noted.
Step One: Personal data
Name: Norman name
Son number and age: Will depend on the family history and Father’s Class
Homeland: Apulia
Home: all PK currently live in Taranto, but see Father’s Class for place of origin
Culture: Norman
Liege Lord: Boemondo of Taranto
Step Two: Family
The PK all have the same grandfather. Roll each PK’s father’s class. If one of them
The previous blog entry described how clans work in the Runequest rules. However, in Dragon Pass, almost all clans are organised into tribes and tribal federations, which add an extra level of complexity and options. As such, to a clan member, being part of a tribe offers opportunities that a clan by itself could not support.
In Runequest a tribe is an alliance or federation of clans. Tribes typically number in the thousands or more, so it is unlikely for anyone to know everyone. Unlike a c
Questworlds is Chaosium's rules and prep-lite RPG system. Fundamental to it is the opposed roll, in which a skill is rolled against a resistance, using 'highest rolled value as a tiebreak i both rolls succeed. The produces a table of probabilities that looks like this:
This table skill on the left, and resistance on top. Both are unrolled so 22 is 42. This table has 2 key desirable properties:
thanks to the tiebreak rule, it almost always (at least 95% of the time) p
The previous blog entry described Rune Cults in abstract rules terms. This by itself is enough for running an adventure-focused game, where rune cults serve a game function much like that of D&D character classes.
However, many people prefer a community-focused game, in the style of the Red Cow campaign or Six Seasons in Sartar. This requires a somewhat deeper understanding of how the rules portray the setting, in particular what a clan is.
In the RQ:G rules, the term clan is used
For Rune and Spirit Magic,Rivers of Sartar uses a lightly modified version of the RQ:G cult rules that underlay the supplements in the Cults of Runequest (CoR) line. So in order to explain these rules, and justify their existence, it is necessary to first explain how the official rules work.
Hopefully this will also prove useful to those who want to stick with the Rules As Written (RAW), or make their own preferred tweaks.
RQ:G RAW
A PC is born into a clan, which is normally
