radmonger

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.

The real world is actually comparably editable. For example, the 'earth is round' is a well-accepted scientific truth, but smash a sufficiently large moon into it and it would no longer be so. The are larger abstractions, like gravity, that are less mutable. But they are not the things that form the foundation of human existence.

I suspect Chalana would have said 'this is not a wound, I can not heal it'. But she didn't go to the White Lady, but to a different healing Goddess, Malia. The one who lives in the woods, and everyone publicly scorns but many secretly visit. The one who said something like 'I cannot heal your wound, but I can make it not exist'. Or 'become non-existence'; texts vary.

Yes, clan temples are almost exclusively for use by the clan. You might visit, but you would be a vistor. You don't have the assumed right to learn spells at an Orlanth temple in your neighbouring clan, even if in same tribe. Clan temples, especially to long-established clans like the Haraborn, quite often teach spells available nowhere else.

Is there actually a Zebra Tribe as such to have that role split in the first place? I thought there was just the Pavis Royal Guard? If so, they are not a functionally complete society, one that produces its own food and brings up its own children. But a warband that defends and is supported by the city. Most of the members of the guard marry Pavis residents, and eat grain from the city granary. So there is no need a mass membership of Eirithat initiates, of any sex. Instead there are just a few specialist priests, to keep their mounts healthy. If there is an actual Zebra tribe somewhere, in the past, deep Wastes or (my guess) Pamaltela, I suspect they would have a lot of knowledge of use to any ally or enemy of Pavis.

Having checked, you are right; in the Cults books there is an asymmetry between Nanda and Vinga. Vinga is a subcult, Nanda a subservient cult. Six Paths has them both as subcults. Not sure if there is any deep mythical or anthropological difference implied by that fine rules distinction. Perhaps Chaosium just didn't want the flak for calling Vinga subservient...

Not normally, if only because it is impractical for me to run that many solo sessions. Note that by the rules as far back as RQ2, cult initiation only requires a test for outsiders to the cult. And so, as I understand and play it, that means that for non-exiled members of a clan that has a tribal or federation treaty with a temple to that cult, confirmation is automatic, whether in or before play. In my interpretation/house rules a ritual visit to the other side is required to gain any Rune Spell. Normally the stakes are minimal, so repeated attempts are possible. The standard period of 5 days to gain a Rune spell can perhaps be broken down to: day 1. blind attempt, staking all MP day 2: recuperate MP, talk over with instructor what they did wrong day 3. second attempt, again staking all MP. day 4+: repeat previous two days until successful or one party gives up. Because eventual success is normally guaranteed, unless there is extreme tine or resource pressure, it doesn't need to be rolled for, let alone played out. But if it makes logistic and thematic sense for your campaign to run cameos like that, then do so. In any case, it is useful to establish as a thing that happens, if only so you can disrupt it when a Lunar heroquester shows up half way through: In that period, a surprisingly large number of key tribal leaders awoke from their wedding celebrations to find out they were married to a disciple of Jar Eel. Some even survived he experience.

Canonically, the initiation process takes two years, nominally from age 16 to 18. Actual character age varies, and is commonly younger, but if you are going to play through it there are obvious reasons for picking the high end. At the end of it, a PC has a cult, 3 rune spells and full occupational and cult skills. But they lack the 150 points of personal skill bonus granted by step 7 of the character creation process. There are no official rules for starting younger, as in Six Seasons in Sartar. My house rules are Initiation starts with the adulthood ordeal, and ends with cult confirmation. Some people use the word initiation interchangeably for all three; I find that confusing. PCs gain access to their first Rune Spell in the first downtime after the adulthood ordeal (or arguably during it). The first Rune Spell learnt should normally be one available to the clan temple they underwent the adulthood ordeal at; exceptions are rare omens indicating plot. a PC is confirmed into a cult only when they have learnt a combination of spells that are only taught by that cult. Due to the existence of associated cults, this can be the third spell learnt, or later. Examples: Korstaval learns Lightning immediately after his adulthood rite. He is immediately confirmed as an initiate of Orlanth Adventerous. Serenkos starts with Analyse Magic. According to the treaties that established the tribal confederation, the clan has the right to send one teenager from each age cohort to the Lhankhor Mhy temple in Jonstown for free cult training. Serenkos is selected for this role. He spends several seasons there over the two year period, learning Worship Lhankhor Mhy, and gaining Knowledge and Truespeak. Venarg starts with Heal Body, and then gains Shield, the pair of spells associated with both Ernalda and Orlanth. They confirm themselves as an Ernalda initiate when they gain Command Snake. Sarovulf starts with Wolf's Head, a spell from the clan's traditional enemy, the Telmori wolf people. The last time this happened, 5 generations ago, the unfortunate individual was immediately exiled. A PC heading down this path is at risk of the same fate, unless they abandon heir heritage, or can reconcile it with loyalty to the clan. Traditionalist Sartarite clans, including the Haraborn, divide the teenagers by apparent biological sex and have them undergo either the Orlanthi or Ernaldan adulthood ordeal correspondingly. However, the association between Orlanth and Ernalda allows effectively transferring between the cults before full adulthood; this corresponds to the Vingan and Nandan gender-based subcults. In Nochet, the capital of Esrolia, everyone of all sexes initiates at the earth temple. So all Orlanthi initiated in Nochet are first and foremost the husband-protectors of Ernalda, of equal status with her other husbands. So logically, there are likely to be southern clans, influenced by Esrolian practices, who initiate everyone according to the Ernaldan rites, but with a strong bias towards Orlanth as the sole husband-protector. Traditionalist clans may point out this results in rather fewer Humakti, Storm Bulls and Eurmali. But, for obvious reasons, they are unbothered by that.

Would that imply the existence of an Argan Rex subcult that bestows the tribal leadership? Or is it less structured?

The word _belief_ is a bit ambiguous'; I meant it as _justified expectation_, not _faith_. You might get up early on a winter morning in the belief that the sun will rise, a bus will arrive, and that you make it to the office in time. If your beliefs were different, you would not do that. A Gloranthan believes in their god in the same sense a New Yorker believes in the subway. Second scenario in starter box? More generally, the temple size rules strongly suggest that magic is normally retained locally, not transmitted via the god to distant lands where it is needed more. There is no provision for a god to say 'this is a small. but strategically important temple, better make sure it gets all the good stuff'.

I am not sure how explicit the rules are on this point, but as I play it, a Rune Priest is locked into the priest occupation. For a God Talker or Rune Lord, noble is possible for noble gods, warrior for martial ones, hunter for hunting gods, and so forth. Having a matching occupation will naturally fulfill cult obligation so long as you have 90% downtime in your campaign. And if half of your adventures serve community goals, 80% downtime works, and so forth. Cult allied spirits go to only the 'most stalwart and loyal', which would usually be a Rune Priest, but maybe your guy is the best candidate they have? All the other limitations of being a God Talker rather than a Rune Priest are community-focused, like not being able to initiate or exile people. The gap in the rules is that it doesn't say how things work for a shaman. As I play it, a shaman will normally have one of two occupations. They can be a priest, providing magic to the community. Or they can be a noble, supported by the community to lead and deal with external threats. In the Argrath era, you also see shamanic military units, and so warriors. It may also be possible for a shaman to survive as a hunter, working independently to protect the community without its support, or perhaps even knowledge.

IMG sacrifice adds to the power of the cult, not the god. More people who have sacrificed for more rune magic is a more powerful influence on the world; a stronger army, a more productive economy, and more informed decision makers. Which can support more and larger temples with more and larger wyters, who hand out more magic. Apart from that effect, the 'power' of a god has the same relationship to the power of a cult as it does in the real world. When people believe something, they act on that belief. This can change the world. People who believe in the Great Compromise don't study, or quest, for the magic that would break it. Except, of course, as a deterrent, retaliation or preemptive strike on what someone else is doing.

The canonical example here is Samastina, who left Nochet to consult with Cragspider, and later got tangled up with Broyan and eventually became Queen. I'd agree some explicit guidance would be nice. there is a lot of room to expand on the rules in the 'Between Adventures', and in particular make it clear how that relates to cult obligations. But it seems straightforward that Ernalda is the goddess of Esrolian nobility. Samastina would have profession noble. Going on ritual quests of matter of national importance is the job of nobility. So all her adventures counted as cult business. If she had instead ran away to be a sailor, she would have been in dereliction of her duty, and might have suffered from spirits of retribution until such time as she either reconciled or left the cult. If she had instead not been a noble, but a priest, then things would have been much more difficult for her, and she would have been abandoning cult obligations by running off without the consent of her family Grandmother. So a GM running a campaign in which that was true, but who wanted her adventures to happen, would have to have her grandmother decide it was official Family business. There is a profession for full-time murder-hobos, the bandit. Orlanth Adventerous is perhaps unusual in playable cults in that it would consider that acceptable behavior, providing the PC spared non-combatants. took captives, had no dealings with slavers and demanded only the customary ransom. This is abstracted as the tithe cult members must pay, even if they have that profession.

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 clan, a tribe doesn't naturally generate a wyter, or community spirit. This means that leadership at the tribal level will require explicit magical infrastructure to support it. This is described in the Runequest rules as a cult. There are two types of tribal organisation described by currently-published cults: In Prax, the Waha cult teaches tribal khans to summon a legendary founder. In and near Dragon Pass, the Orlanth Rex subcult anoints tribal kings (also know as a Rex). It is likely others exist elsewhere in Glorantha. Waha Tribe The animal nomads of Prax are organised into tribes, where each tribe is a specific type of riding animal (bison, high llama, and so on). As nomads, they have very limited access to temples, which must be portable to move with the herd. So they mostly rely on shamanic priests of Waha, and Eiritha priestesses trained at the single major temple complex of the Paps. Each tribe is ruled by a single individual known as the Tribal Khan. Waha shamanic priests teach the legitimate Khan the Rune Spell Summon Founder, which is both proof of the legitimacy of their status, and a means of enforcing it. In most tribes, it is those Waha shamans who picks the Khan. But in the Morokanth and Sable clans there is a tribal queen, a High Pirestess of Eiritha, who has a a joint leadership role, and a major say in picking the Khan. Dividing the tribe into clans (which raise children) and warbands (which don't) is at the discretion of the Tribal Khan, who appoints their khans. Some clans have a long tradition and a khan would be unwise to permanently splitting them, or appointing an outsider as their khan. Others are just temporary divisions, forced by military strategy, or the necessity of avoiding overgrazing of a single area. Storm Bulls warbands are led by a Storm Khan, and are largely independent of the tribe, fighting their own battles with Chaos. The cults of Waha and Eiritha provide the necessities of survival, and so are the foundations of society. Magic beyond that necessary for common survival is a matter for the individual, and is typically treated pragmatically. The temples of settled people often offer useful magic at a lower price than a tribal shaman would charge. So a tribesman might well be an initiate of Orlanth or Humakt, and it would be impossible for anyone unfamiliar with the tribe to know whether they got that status from a Pavis temple or a shamanic spirit cult. Orlanth Rex Tribe The Orlanthi tribes of Dragon Pass are organised alliances between clans, which are the fundamental social unit. Clans can leave one tribe and join another while keeping their identity. All tribes have a small town or fort, which contains a selection of tribal temples. These temples are available for worship and magical instruction by all clans, and are maintained by the revenues the clans pay to the tribe. This revenue also supports the tribal king and his retinue, and any warband the tribe maintains. Almost all residents of the town are members of one of the clans of the tribe, to which they pwn their primary loyalty. Tribal leadership is organised around the subcult of Orlanth Rex, representing Orlanth's claim to be King of the Gods. The tribal Orlanth Rex temple to is responsible for selecting a tribal king to rule the tribe. Atribal king must worship Orlanth, although it need not be their only, or even main, cult. They receive an especially powerful allied spirit in the form of the tribal Guardian Spirit, even if they are only an initiate. This spirit is typically not a community wyter, as the tribe itself is not a permanent settled community. Instead, it is often bound into tribal regalia held by the Orlanth Rex temple. For example, the Colymar tribe is based around Clearwine Fort. As a traditionalist tribe, the Colymar send their militia to war when needed, led by the thanes of each clan. Other tribes instead organise those thanes into a permanent military formation, such as the Headhunters of the Culbrea. Header image: Cardiff castle mural showing Silurian tribesmen fighting the Roman military. By Steve F-E-Cameron (Merlin-UK) - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2052071