radmonger

One thing you often find in scenarios is an old temple that is mythically intact and functional, but has no congregation. In fact, I can't think offhand if any scenarios were there is an old temple that is magically inert. There is also the example of the Maran Gor Shaker Temple near Wintertop that is the bastion of the Tarsh Exiles. And so holding out against the Lunar occupation of Tarsh for decades. I think Old Wind in Sartar was similar. This all suggests that deconsecrating a major or great temple is seriously difficult, even if you have complete military control of the surrounding lands. One way of expressing that level of difficulty it to have it require success at a major heroquest, defeating an opposition with a POW in the hundreds. It seems plausible that that was the Lunar goal, taking down not just King Broyan, but his magical backing in the form of the Whitewall temple wyter. They Lunars could have plausibly expected this to only take down Orlanth Adventerous, the spirit of rebellion, raiding and murder. Instead, they got Orlanth Thunderous , who is not only a weather god, but Ernalda's husband. And the one who resurrects her each Sacred Time. So all the Orlanth and Ernalda temples across Dragon Pass stop working. If you conduct a worship ceremony there, your Worship roll automatically fails, As far as you are concerned, Orlanth and Ernalda are dead. Reactivating any given temple by rebuilding, resurrecting or finding an alternative to the dead wyter are all achievable heroquests. And ones that PCs of that ere canonically did achieve. For truly dead God, such a heroquest would be impossible, as would founding a new temple.

I think that is pretty exactly it. A shaman goes near a temple, discorporates. At one level of remove from the mundane world, they can see the temple wyter. This has properties as described in the RQ:G rules, including a large but, for a minor temple, potentially defeatable POW. If they were to beat that Guardian, without accepting initiation. they could head deeper into both the spirit realm and into the temple. Likely they come to whatever Great Temple the local temple defers to. If so, they would get to see how the local wyter is just a part of the bigger one. And _that_ Great Temple wyter is probably not beatable by anyone who wouldn't have their own counter in the Dragon Pass wargame. But still, they can theorize that if they could, thet could go further. And there they would find a Cult Wyter. or God, who collected together all the different strands. Even from Great Temples widely separated by geography and culture. At no point are you actually imposing your assumptions or decisions on the world. It is just that the process of determing the truth is an inherently destructive one.

I generally use fear as the other side of an opposed passion roll. So you roll loyalty against fear. Sometimes fear is good, in that someone with no fear passion is going to end up getting themselves killed faster than the average Humakti. Note that this is with the quickstart version of the rules, which have working opposed rolls.

But you do specifically need 20 thanes. Few clans will have 20 rune lords available, so not all thanes are rune lords. But a position as a thane mean having a profession of noble, i.e. supported by tenant farmers. As such, it is the end goal for many martial cults unsuitable for leading a clan or higher. Tribal temples likely don't appoint an Orlanthi tribe member as a Rune Lord if they are happy with the current choice. But I suspect an independent Great temple like Old Wind cares more about mythic suitability than current tribal political stability.

Any associated cult would work. Unfortunately, Lanbril has none. I think in some of the Lunar provinces Orlanth is mostly a cult of thieves and bandits, who occasionally claim to be rebels. So the idea of stealing access to a worship site is more suited to that version of Orlanth, given his many associates.

The Valley of Plenty campaign starts with children stick fighting, partly to teach the combat rules. It's not a lesson you want to learn for the fight time when fighting one on one, to the death. There is nothing in-setting that indicates that adulthood initiation, even the hardcore backwoods version the Haraborn use, normally has something like a 25% fatality rate. If it actually is always this bad, the Haraborn are a crazy death cult, and the Lunars are arguably right to destroy them. So I think you need to pick one or more of: you are really not supposed to continue on beyond the pits. You get plenty of warnings not to. If you do, it's ok to have some PCs die to show the warnings were justified. This is the default approach recommended in the text. omens are bad this year, for plot reasons. This ordeal is going to be a lot more for-real than normal. It's ok for some PCs to die, just to show how bad things are, on death, you awake in Orlanth's stead with a headache and a 'fear chaos' passion after the ritual of the pits, you have 1 Rune spell available. Perhaps of your choice, perhaps chosen by GM, perhaps chosen when used. Due to the mythic state of the world at this point in the quest, there is no death. So you can do things normally impossible. Such as cast healing magic after the broo wanders off after they get bored of stabbing you while you lie on the floor bleeding. Any of these is valid if you set expectations beforehand.

7 days is the limit for resurrection, presumably because the soul has not merely left the area, but passed through the Courts of Silence and been sent by Daka Fal to their just fate. If you do that, then you presumably also have to allow it for unconsciousness or incapacitation. This leads to PCs who, once they have a few extra RP, essentially can never lose any reasonable fight, because they can always instantly heal any incoming damage. You end up just rolling to see how long their victory takes. If you counter this by allowing NPCs the same, then fights are long grinding affairs. I much prefer the situation where you can go into a fight with two possible outcomes, the PCs win, or lose but survive. This offers a wealth of meaningful storytelling possibilities; abandonment, capture, escape, ransom, etc. Perhaps more importantly, it keeps the fight itself exciting, because there are stakes. Tactics and luck matter. Realism, mythological and gameplay arguments seem to all align to say the current RQ:G rules in this area are a bad fit for Glorantha. They would be fine for a gritty Bronze Age wargame. One where you you have no reason to care about the difference between 'dead now', and 'unconscious now, dead in 5 minutes'. But in one with either modern medicine or the common healing magic of Glorantha, you do. Note that Chaosium themselves do not use them, as indicated by the RQ:G FAQ answer here. Of course, YGWV. I could see the argument for abandoning realism and keeping beheading, specifically, as an instant kill, for symbolic reasons. Maybe there could be other ways of getting an instant kill. Like stabbing someone through the heart with a cold iron dagger in the shape of a death rune.

Personally I rule that 0 hp, or head severed, is merely clinical death, and is just as reversible as it is in the real world. Actual death, requiring resurrection, happens 3 minutes after clinical death. This is the time for the spirit to leave the area. That time can be extended by shamanic practices, which will involve talking to the dead person and persuading them to stick around. Fully healing some wounds within that time frame may be challenging, and for a single healer may well involve more rune points then a Resurrection spell. So unless a fight happens directly outside the doors of the Nochet great hospital, this make little difference to battle casualty figures.

One thing is that I think there is a practical distinction between actually being a thane, warband leader, clan chieftan, or tribal king, and qualifying as a Rune Lord that isn't always made clear in the rules. You could be either as easily as both. As I understand it, a Rune Lord is examined and anointed by a High or Chief Priest. As most clan temples are to small to have anyone with that cult rank, that means either from a tribal temple, or one of the independent Great Temples. As such, it is something like a public statement saying that that part of the cult hierarchy feels you have the necessary qualities to be a good Orlanthi chieftain. But Orlanthi society is not a clerical theocracy, leadership roles are chosen by those led. Usually cult recommendation is enough; if only one potential candidate for a leadership role is a Rune Lord, they very likely get the job. Other times it comes to choosing between one or more under or over-qualified alternatives. So being a Rune Lord is kind of like being a presidential candidate; you have to spend a lot of money. But noone is actually forcing you to do so. It is just that you will never be President unless you demonstrate the willingness and ability to flash the cash. I guess if you are not seen as pursuing such a role energetically, you implicitly and gradually lose credibility. Bu once you have done such a job, the title sticks around, exactly like it does for former US Presidents. You may even get to keep a retinue of bodyguards.

The details of the way I run combat are here. It's more or less compliant with the rules-as-written, except where noted. I think the key difference with what you describe is that any unengaged enemies get to make their own statement of intent. So someone can stand at the back and cast healing or buff spells without getting into an engagement. But, unless every enemy is engaged, or otherwise dealt with, this is a bad idea. Any enemies with any grasp of tactics will very likely run up and hit them. At which point they are very strongly advised to change their statement of intent to 'I try to dodge/parry/block'. it's normally just 'PC privilege' to get to make statements of intent first, and so pick what engagements happen. But in the case of an explicit ambush, the opposition picks first. It is very easy to be surprised by just how deadly this will be for the typical group of PCs, so use with care.

Obviously that is not a great policy for Questworld fans, including me. But if that really is the policy, it is better it be made clear now, rather than after someone has spent hundreds of hours writing something in contravention of it.

Well, the things they eat start off as sentient, and end up as dead. But I suspect there may be a magical intermediate step which, in their minds, makes it ok. Almost everyone else disagrees. This could even be a reenactment of the survival covenant between two initiates. This decides who is Eater and who is Eaten. Of course, even if this is sometimes true, other times they are just ogres with a cover story.

No, just ones that stay consistent from post to post, and with what is in the FAQ. Currently, the FAQ clearly states that Questworlds, shortly to be published by Chaosium, is an allowed system, distinct from Heroquest:Glorantha. But you here are saying you will 'remove from sale' any supplement that makes use of it.

If you are engaged with multiple enemies, attacking one rather than another is not really a change of statement of intent. Bob kills the broo on the left at SR6, you attack the one on the right at SR7. If you change engagement during the round, the unengaged movement rules do not apply. So you must pay SR to move, starting from at best the SR on which the guy dies (adding DEX SR to that wouldn't be unreasonable). So it would be rare to be able to move and get a different attack in, or switch to a bow. This is where attack spells and thrown spears can come in handy. The way I play it, the statement of intent is not a commitment, it is about deciding who is engaged with who. Something like 'we hold the line against whoever comes to us' can mean you are engaged with all of a horde of broo. If you choose a solid defensive position, not all will end up in position to attack, and you may even survive.

My take is that the normal progression would be to undergo the Ernaldan adulthood ordeal, either on-screen or just as something that happened before play begins. After all, the female adulthood ordeal starts as young as 13, and is not batched up into age groups like the male one. So if PCs are 16/17, some will have undergone it years ago, Either way, in it, they meet the figure representing Zorak Zoran. Maybe they are a courtier, perhaps representing Shargash rather than Zorak Zoran. Or they are an ambassador from the Kingdom of Night. Maybe they even take Orlanth's role, but call themselves Ragnaglar. Either way, the PC is prevented by the rules of Yelm's court from fighting them then and there. They may or may not go further through the standard Ernaldan path after that meeting. Either way, after due confirmation and consideration, the PC decides that fighting that enemy is more important to them than love or motherhood. Copperaxe knows the ritual described, and eventually agrees to go through with it. This might be after the first few episodes of the campaign. So it is what I call a cult confirmation, the completion oi the initiation process, not the start of it. I would guess there other ways to end up in Babeestor Gor. One is being an orphan raised by a dedicated major temple, so having limited other options. Another is being the subject of someone making a political statement, like Harsaltar's Household of Death. Neither seems likely to come up in SSiS, but the ritual would still apply. If this is the first actual adventure, be careful of adding too many tests. As the linked post says: I haven't put a standard Fail condition considering that this is probably the first session for the character, they don't have much power and the narrative possibilities are really not pleasant. The thing with dice rolls is you need to have a plan for what happens when they go wrong. Normally their is a group of PCs, and so that plan can be as simple as 'well, someone else will probably succeed'. For a solo PC, passing three successive 75% checks is nearly 60% likely to fail. One such plan could be that failures give Fear or Hatred passions for some specific group, such as trolls. Wheras the true BG ideal is that vengeance and justice are for individuals who did wrong, not their kin.