radmonger

To expand on the original point made, a general rule of the setting seems to be the more worshippers a cult has, the more holy days the have. Which makes sense; it's easier to get a crowd for a football match than a less popular sport. However cults surge and fade in popularity too; Chalana Array during a plague, Heler during a drought, Humakt before a battle. This opens the possibility of holding extra Holy Days ceremonies beyond the default. So if you have a crowd of willing worshippers ready to go, roll cult lore. The degree of success or failure tells you whether it is hours, days or weeks until the next known auspicious day for a worship ceremony for that cult. At least one time, Fazzur Wideread was able to steal a march on his opponent by dedicating the day of an obscure 1st age battle victory to Yanafils Tarnils.

That's a consequence of saying Elmal is a subcult of Yelmalio, when it would be just as metaphysically valid to say Yelmalio is a subcult of Elmal. Kind of like saying America to mean the USA, so America is one of the countries in America. Which does rather bring things back to the Monrogh Doctrine. Establishing the principle that all those different temples, even the ones we don't politically control, should share a name. And therefor are all rightly considered independent from the old Yelmic Imperial cult.

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 part of a tribe, and located in a homeland. Default PCs are all initiates, so worship a god via a Rune Cult. This means they have a Rune Pool (RP), which initially has a size of 3. This can be used to cast any of the three Rune Spells they initially know. Rune Cults can be complex multifaceted things, and so many have one or more: magical relationships (cult associations) with other Rune Cults, such as a jointly-run shrine or ceremony. Subcults representing particular traditions of worship, aspects or understandings of the deity. These describe the ways in which different cult temples tend to vary. Subordinate Cults representing other magical organisations run by the cult, such a shrine or ceremony to a minor deity or hero tended by priests of the cult. The description of a Rune Cult is generally written up using either a short form (as in RQ:G) or long form (as in CoR) template. Sub cults usually only have a short form writeup, noting only how they differ from the default. However, a long form writeup of a subcult is possible, for example Barntar in CoR. At the time of character creation, a PC will normally have only dealt with one tradition of worship, and so has been taught by only one subcult. So the cult skills learnt in Step 6 of character creation are technically those of the subcult picked by the PC. In most currently-published cases, these are the same for all subcults. Again, Barntar is an exception. Using skills has no associated costs, and using Spirit Magic only costs Magic Points, which refill automatically. But In order for a Rune Spell to be reusable, they have to have a way to refill their rune pool after casting it. This is done using the worship skill appropriate to a cult that is available to. This means that if they are not initiated into that cult, the spell is 1-use. So it not only goes away after casting, but permanently drops their RP size by the value of the spell. This is presumably true whether it was initially learnt from a cult they later left, or they acquired the spell by some non-standard means. Such means include being a reward for a favor to a cult, or succeeding at a heroquest. A Rune Spell will be available to a Rune Cult if any of the following apply: if it listed as Special Rune Magic in the most recent write-up if it is named as the spell provided by an Associated Cult if it a spell available to any Subcult or Subordinate Cult. Note that available to does not necessarily mean easily available; if a particular subcult is only available in Kralorela, the character must travel there to learn it. It is entirely GM's discretion if such a trip can be assumed to have taken place during the PCs backstory. So there is no rule explicitly restricting Rune Spells taken during character generation to only those available to their subcult. However, they must take at least one, other they would not actually be members. Initiation into multiple cults After character creation, initiation into multiple cults is possible, even if the cults are not associated. However, membership in multiple cults confers additional obligations in terms of donations of income and time, without any correspondingly increased status or reward. For skills and spirit magic, common sense applies; this only changes what is available for training, and at what cost. Things get more complex where Rune Magic is concerned, and the results differ between the case where a Subcult or Rune Cult is joined. In either case, once any preconditions are met and tests of initiation passed, the deal is sealed by learning a single Rune Spell, at a cost of 1 POW. But if joining a new top level rune cult, then a new Rune Pool is needed, corresponding to the fact that the Worship skill is cult-specific. Such split Rune Pools are then tracked separately. This means that, unlike in most previous Gloranthan rulesets, in RQ:G the question of whether two deities with different names are or are not aspects of each other has to have a rule-defined answer. Given that, it is better it be defined in advance than debated during play. More common than multiple cult membership is transferring between cults, often in a way corresponding to different stages of life. For example, the CoR writes up of Asrelia states that priestesses of Ernalda past childbearing age may retire from that role and automatically become a Priestess of Asrelia. Rivers of Sartar House Rules A few minor changes to the RAW are recommended, whether or not you are using the rest of these rules. In the case of split Rune Pools, the CHA cap on the size of a Rune Pool applies to the sum of such split Rune Pools. This avoids multiple cult initiation being not just more flexible, but a stronger route to raw power than focusing on a single cult. When transferring between friendly or associated cults in a way approved by the new cults, access to spells available to both cults is retained. The new Rune Pool has a size based on the number of such spells known. When joining an associated or related cult, the new Worship skill starts not at zero, but at a fraction of the most similar worship skill known, in the same way that related languages work. These changes means that a Priestess of Ernalda who knows Absorption, Hide Wealth, Command Snake, Summon Earth Elemental and Fertilize will, on transferring to Asrelia, start with a Rune Pool of size 5. If they had a Worship[Ernalda] skill of 90%, they now have Worship[Asrelia] 60%. So they are immediately able to function as a priestess, without requiring a multiple-year retraining period late in life. Of course, they still have a lot to learn about the deeper mysteries of the cult. As usual, their other Rune Magic such as Birthing and Bless Champion becomes 1-use. Most priestesses ensure they expend these spells before transferring cults, as afterwards casting them will permanently shrink their Rune Pool size. Others hold them in reserve for some emergency. More relevant to all but the most long-running campaigns, this also provides more flexibility early in life. So a PC might change from Orlanth to Lhankhor Mhy with only a small loss of magic. A warrior might even convert from Humakt to Yanafil Tarnils; while they lose a lot, they do not lose everything.

I think modern canon refers to the last of those as Burger Rex.

Anyone can hunt. If you want to be magically good at hunting, you join a hunting cult. The same applies to secret murder, blood-drinking, cannibalism and other things the Orlanthi consider unforgiveable acts. And if you are going to cast magic that requires a Chaos rune, you have to have it at a decent level. Doing those things, against natural and cultural instincts, will at least provide an experience tick in that rune. Slavery and torture are arguably exceptions, in that the corresponding organised cults are, in all canon I am aware of, supposed to be strictly Fonritian. This suggests some form of spirit-cult worship of Ompalam and Ikadz either exists, or at least is remembered as existing, in Dragon Pass and Prax.

A sufficiently smart Lunar would say: if you want him killed, I can have him killed, no problem. But, to be clear, that violation of the guest rights you freely granted will be on you. This is me clearly warning you about that. Instead, let him compete, maybe he will lose. And if he does win, I will lock him in iron shackles, paid for by me. There, he will be regularly visited by my personal spiritual advisor. She tells me she may be able to cure his chaos taint before the harvest is due, as she has cured others. And if not, the granaries of Pavis will make good any shortfall.

That's not clear. I'd assume to be able to use Sense Chaos, you would need to be an active initiate, typically worshiping weekly at at least a shrine. I suppose you can retire from Storm Bull and become a farmer, perhaps even with the Bull's blessing in the unlikely event of having survived 5 whole years. But I think then you are then an Orlanthi farmer with some legacy one-use Rune Spells. MGF suggests your cult skill might be one-use too... There clearly isn't a Storm Bull temple in Garhound, is there a shrine? Storm Bull is an associate of Orlanth. So there certainly could be, If the clan was rich enough to support ~80 adults who did nothing but drink beer and get in trouble with the Lunars. For a PC, you normally say 'yes, there is a shrine here' anywhere there could be. But in this case, of the many villages available, this is the one that has an ogre trying to infiltrate it. So the logic of the situation suggests no, there isn't one. There certainly is an argument that there should be, because chaos is a more significant threat than starvation, trolls, or nomads. This would have been raised on the village ring, likely frequently enough that they are bored of hearing it. The other option is the clan pays for a proper professional from the Pavis temple, who visits monthly and gives any new residents a sniff. The scenario background notes merely forgot to mention that his visit was overdue by a few days, and his corpse would later be discovered in a ditch.

By avoiding the places where that 1% live. Pavis has a Storm Bull Temple, so does Nochet. I'd imagine Boldhome has one too. But Jonstown, per the Starter Set, does not. So the vast majority of Storm Bulls will be in chaos-fighting warbands, or backwoods clans near chaos nests. Very few are acting as urban chaos surveillance squads. Of course there will be individual Storm Bulls in most Orlanthi cities. But a properly organised cult can easily track, dupe, avoid or, if necessary, neutralize lone individuals.

The Festival The first day of the year is Freezeday of Disorder week, Sea season. This day is holy to Voria the Spring Virgin, the goddess of new beginnings, youth and innocence. In Nochet, this is traditionally celebrated by a mass run. Horns call children, and the young-at-heart, into the streets. There, they simply run until exhaustion. There is no start or finish line, no winning or losing, just run until you drop. Wherever you fall, when you recover you look around for a sign of Voria's blessing. Most participants are happy to go home with just a symbolic token, a pretty stone or early flower. But every year, there are stories of some children who find a treasure. The year is 1617. This is the first such festival since Belintar, the God King, was slain by a mysterious assassin. The Sacred Time omens have been bad, and all the adults are worried. But he has been killed before; virtually no-one suspects he is not coming back this time. That this will be the last year his magics blesses the land, earning it the name Holy Country. Never again will the spring day shine so bright, the race be run so swiftly, exhaustion be so complete, or prospect of a prize so exciting. In the hard times to come, all hope of the restoration of what was lost will be placed in the hands of the Last Holy Generation. This is the beginning of their story. The Cult of Voria In most Lightbringer lands, Voria is celebrated but rarely worshiped. Nochet and other great cities of Esrolia are an exception. There, the cult of Voria is a formal organisation with permanent temples and Rune Priestesses. Those priestess are vital to the agricultural rituals that allow those cities to grow to an unprecedented size. Nochet, with over 100,000 residents, is commonly held to be the largest city in all Glorantha. Note that Earth Goddesses book says that only women may be a Rune Priestess of Voria. However, Nochet follows the Heortling Six Paths gender system, so this is more a matter of definition than restriction. Like the ancient Roman Vestal Virgins, the adult Priestesses of Voria lead luxurious but secluded lives, rarely leaving their temples other than to perform rituals, and never marrying. Becoming a Priestess is an honored and prestigious vocation that few qualify for. Unlike Roman Vestals, those of Nochet are not harshly punished if they break their vows. But they do lose their magic, and their Grandmother will be disappointed. PCs will be old enough to be able to decide whether becoming a Priestess is a fate that they aspire to, or would kill to avoid. Rules The Festival of Voria's Run is run as an ongoing contest. As the race has no winner, and always ends in collapse, what matters is the number of successes each participant scores before then. As with Scenario 1, characters have not been created yet, and so have no characteristics or abilities other than those established during that scenario. This time new abilities should be on a scale of 10 to 65. Those repeated from last time may be increased to 75. The total of all abilities taken, across both scenarios, cannot exceed 350. As before, abilities taken now will have to be paid for in later stages of character generation. So taking many high abilities will restrict the available options for occupation and cult to those that fit. For each stage in the run, the GM describes the situation. The PC describes what they are doing in response, and picks an ability rating. The GM assigns that to a RQ:G skill, characteristic, skill passion or rune, and then sets the difficulty based on how appropriate the response is. While the contest is ongoing, the tie break rule is not used. If a PC picks an action that indicates they are withdrawing from the race, that roll is counted as decisive, uses the tiebreak rule and ends the contest. If at any time a PC has 3 successes scored against them, the next stage is automatically decisive. Once all contestants have withdrawn or collapsed, the contest is over; proceed to handing out rewards. All oppositions represent environmental factors, and so have status inactive. So the opposition does not roll a bonus D20. Stage 1: Before the start Horns call the Runners onto the street, where they await the touch of the Priestess that forms the signal to start running. Normally children are not initiated, and so have no magic. But in the special circumstances of a Holy festival on the last year of existence of the Holy Country, this rule is suspended. So Runes or Passions may be taken as abilities, and may be used to roll for inspiration. Inspiration lasts for the whole contest. A failed inspiration roll means an additional rune or passion would have to be taken to try again. Highly suitable options include Love Family, Loyalty Nochet, Devotion [any God], , or ; these are opposed by a rating of 20. will be opposed by 40. Less suitable options will face a higher opposition still. Stage 2: The Crush As the run starts, the street is packed densely with runners, many of them larger and older than the PCs. There is a risk of being jostled and falling, or being stuck in a group and unable to run freely. This might be avoid by being too strong or large to be jostled, too nimble or lucky to fall over, too popular to be crowded, or tough enough to get back up after falling down. The festival is a situation of low danger, so the base difficulty rating for a highly appropriate ability is 20. As always, this will be increased for less appropriate choices. Stage 3: The Run The crowd thins, and there is nothing to do but keep on running. Base difficulty is 40, highly suitable abilities include dexterity and constitution. This stage can be repeated several times, at a higher base difficulty each time. Stage 4: Lost in the City Running beyond the streets they know, each PC finds themselves in a strange district, where foreigners live who do not necessarily respect the sanctity of the Run. These may be trolls, Malkioni, Kralorelans or Teshnans. They loom in front of the runner. A runner might place their trust in their good nature, or common respect for the Goddess. They might try to intimidate them, trick them, bargain with them, or just outrun them. Base difficulty is 30, highly suitable abilities are homeland or other relevant lore skills. In reality, no permanent resident of Nochet would harm a child during this sacred festival, but the participants don't necessarily know that. Stage 5: The Accident A drastic incident interrupts the run. A cart may be turned over, a horse bolt, or a brawl break out. Someone may be hurt and in need of healing; can the runner find someone to help them without ending their run? Base difficulty is 40, highly suitable abilities depend on the details of the situation. Stage 6: The Blessing Nearly passing out from exhaustion, the PC starts to feel the presence of Voria herself running beside them. Such things can happen in the capital of the Holy Country, where Goddesses walk the streets. If they ask, they may receive Her blessing. This is a simple opposed roll with tie break, against difficulty 50. Highly suitable abilities include , , or Devotion or Worship to any Earth Goddess. If they pass, they receive Voria's blessing. A failure has no effect; it does not affect the state of the ongoing contest. The blessing is a free single-use of the Invigorate Rune spell. During this ongoing contest, it may be cast at any time to cancel out all contest successes scored so far by the environment. Once cast, the spell is gone, as is usual for one-use magic. Stage 7: The Dawn Gate The Sacred City at the heart of Nochet is guarded by three gates. Runners who approach the Virtue or Petitioners gate will be politely turned away. But on this festival day, the Dawn Gate is open. But not to anyone. The runner must convince the Dawn Gate guards that they are a legitimate and serious participant in the ritual. And not a street urchin trying something on. Base difficulty is 50, highly suitable abilities are Loyalty to a high status house, or any abilities restricted to high status professions such as Priest or Noble. Having, and using, the Invigorate spell will be an automatic success. If they have the spell but choose not to use it, they may try to persuade the guards to go fetch a priest or shaman who can confirm its existence using their own magic. Stage 8: The Garden of Heavenly Delights The Garden is filled with many wondrous sights, smells and tastes. Some of which are immensely valuable. It will be a temptation to lie down next to some small desirable object, and so wake claiming it. For anyone permitted entry to the garden, such a claim will naturally be honored. Doing so counts as withdrawing from the contest; use some skill such as bargain or streetwise to pick the most valuable object. Continuing on requires a success against a difficulty of 60; only a relevant passion (e.g. Honor or Devotion) is likely to be appropriate. If any PC makes it past here, repeat Stage 3 with steadily increasing difficulty until they pass out. The Prize Contestants who continued on until collapse subtract 3 from the number of successes scored against them, and then count the remaining net successes. 5+ : +1 to any two or more characteristics, added after completion of character generation. 4 : +1 to any characteristic, added after completion of character generation. 3 : a magical item rolled on the Family Heirloom table of N:AG. This may be planted by their parents, a gift from the Goddess herself, or something in between. 2: a contact, mentor or ally (see N:AG, Common Character Table). 1: a small gift or discovery, worth 10L 0 or less: a small item of no intrinsic value Contestants who successfully withdraw at a certain stage get rewards appropriate to that stage. The value uses the table above, but restricted to a maximum of 1 if they withdrew before stage 3 2 if they withdrew before stage 6 3 if the withdrew at stage 8 Contestants who attempted to withdraw, but failed, get nothing. What Comes After If any contestant received Voria's blessing, but did not use it, they are identified as a potential candidate for becoming a Priestess of Voria. They receive a contact of a senior family member who wants that to happen. Depending on how they feel about that, that character will be either a Current Mentor or Worst Foe. If they do end up fully initiating to Voria, they keep the spell without having to spend a POW; personally meeting a Goddess overrides the usual rules. Anyone who failed to get a reward may try again next year. However, they will not meet the Goddess, and so step 6. The era when Goddesses freely walked the streets of Nochet has gone, and none knows if or when it will return.

I'd say that is an active matter of controversy, as almost everyone with a very high moon rune is illuminated in a way that means they are not subject to that limitation.

Yes, Rules as written it is a flat roll. But what pretty much always works better in game is an opposed roll of some kind. So the ones being detected are those with some residual low chaos rune, not statistically random. Those with a Telmori grandmother, who once owned a slave, or just had lustful thoughts about a married woman. Quick rules hack is to say that the Chaos rune is opposed to all elemental runes, so say Chaos + Storm cannot exceed 100%. Then you oppose a Detect Chaos ability with your highest elemental rune. This has the useful effect that the ones being found out by someone else, before the PCs get there are the less powerful ones, the marginal members of the community. The default role of a party containing a PC Storm Bull will be to prove their innocence, and find the real culprit. If you use my rule racks for opposed rolls and status effects, it all works pretty cleanly. As a minimum, a real chaos cultist will be getting an an inspiration bonus from Devotion: Thanatar or whoever. And anyone doing the same thing for several hours a day, or just strolling in the market, will not be so inspired.

Everyone knows you avoid should avoid eating the calamari in certain taverns when the Storm Bulls are in town. I mean, you could ask them nicely to wait 3 days until you have digested and expelled whatever you ate. But good luck with that...

What would work would be to take a squad of say 12 Storm Bulls, and march suspects into a room with them one by one. Anyone who 3 or more Storm Bulls flag up get sent to a second squad. Anyone who fails 3 such screenings gets taken out and axed. An organised band of say 60 Storm Bulls working 8 hours a day.could process perhaps 100 people a day this way, Which I guess would be enough to keep a small city effectively chaos free. And maybe there is some place that does this. However, everywhere else can hate chaos as much as they like, they just don't have the organisational capacity to deploy an extensively trained band of magical specialists to keep doing a boring task. Especially when the would hardly ever find anyone, as all non-illuminated chaotics without relevant magic would simply leave town. Hence Sense Chaos is not a professional skill. Which in turn means even Storm Bulls who have it above 30% will be rare.

If you were to do triangulation and statistical analysis, then a 30% Sense Chaos would be pretty much as good as 90%. Just keep rolling until you get enough data to have a statistically significant result. Now maybe some esoteric knowledge cultist would actually be able to do that, but it's certainly not going to be widespread knowledge. A stronger objection is that you can't just reroll a failed result arbitrarily. There's actually a rule in RQ:G that you can reroll only once, and at half chance. Personally I'd disregard that, and say a roll is a roll. Fail, and you are never able to detect that chaotic, unless something significant changes. Either way, statistical analysis and triangulation aren't going to work. That means a chaotic in a city merely needs to make sure they never meet a Storm Bull for the first time while alone or in a small group. And if someone does detect them, either kill them first, or leave town.

Glorantha; a magical fantasy world where the Mercator projection is useful:-0

https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/a-sense-of-size-i/ https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/the-size-of-genertela/

One of the three modes of play that these rules support is free-form play, where every contest is resolved with a single opposed roll. For some GMs and groups, this by itself is enough. Many successful campaigns have been run in this way, ever since it was adapted for RPGs from the style of wargame invented by Tom Mouat. However, sometimes you might want a contest that isn't resolved so quickly. One that fills more of the session, one that has several twists and turns that generate an emergent story without the GM having to work too hard. And sometimes you might just want to roll more dice. Chaosium's Questworld SRD has 4 distinct mechanisms aimed at filling that gap (group, chained, wagered and scored sequences). These rules propose a 5th, which in Questworlds terms would be called an ongoing sequence, but we call a ongoing contest. To understand why these rules are the way, we go back to the probability table produced for opposed rolls: We could use the direct equivalent of a QW scored sequence on that table; repeatedly rolling until 5 successes have been scored by one side or the other. As in QW, we use a tiebreak rule of 'highest roll wins'. Without such a rule, the number of rolls required is unbounded, and sometimes excessive. With such a rule in place, every roll moves you at least one step closer to completing the contest. So there can't be more than 10, and are commonly less than 5. This would lead to: This table has several problems. For one thing, it has large areas where the chance of the underdog wining is less than 5%. This is because an unexpected result might occur once, but it is less likely to show up repeatedly. Consequently, it is sufficiently different from the single-roll table that players may be tempted to try and persuade the GM to use this type of contest when it favors them. Worse, it favors them most when they are dealing with inferior opposition, and penalizes them when they are the underdogs. This is the opposite of the typical use of the two types of contests for pacing and drama. The climax of a session or campaign, the crux to be focused on, would normally the harder conflict. The boss fight, not the easier job of dealing with the guards. Things become worse once one or two successes have been scored, and the stronger side now has a 99.99% chance of winning. Unless the GM realizes this and cuts things short, the conflict must still proceed for several more rolls in order to ensure the overwhelmingly likely thing does indeed happen. The solution adopted for ongoing contests is to have two different types of rolls: A decisive roll represents a test to definitively resolve a contest, determining a winner, using a tie-break mechanism if required. An task roll represents a test to see if specific attempt as an individual challenge or task is successful. A contest is complete not at a fixed threshold, but because one side decided to attempt a decisive roll. Typically, this will be because they think they are in an advantageous position. This approach places the climax, the decisive moment, at the end of the contest. Which is where it belongs. As this involves active decision-making, you can't really give a definitive single table for the probabilities involved. The table below comes from using a fixed tactic of 'decisive roll if ahead, task roll if behind but not yet lost'. This has a less steep gradient than the scored contest table, much closer to the original..It has a slight bis to the PC, assuming hey are the ones making the decisions as o what roll to attempt.

When a contest resolves, whether simple or ongoing, if the result is not to any contestants liking, they may reject it. Normally this will because they lost, but a particularly confident contestant might be unsatisfied in the level of success they achieved and try for more. In order to do so, if they are losing, they must accept a number of consequences sufficient to bring the contest back to being a draw. If they were winning, they must give up successes instead. Either way, at this point it becomes an ongoing contest, with both sides counting as having an equal number of successes scored so far. There are two types of consequences: resource loss involves the attrition of some limited resource such as time, money or magic. lethal consequences involve taking damage to a random hit location, following a simplified version of the RQ:G combat rules. Resources Any value that would normally be tracked on a character sheet, but is not an ability, may be treated as a resource. This includes: hit points magic points rune points money gear (supplies, food, water, social status followers Resources are not reduced to any uniform or abstract scale; it is simpler to keep track of having '400 lunars' or '30 cows' than '15 wealth'. In play, they are spent and gained in the obvious way; spending 20L means you have 20L less. Casting a spell decreases magic or rune points appropriately. Resources normally have an associated ability, which may be used to replenish the value when given a suitable opportunity. In addition, new temporary resources can be created based on the circumstances of a situation. For example, if there is a deadline by which something must be done, then the time available can be treated as a resource to be spent. Resource Loss as a Consequence When rejecting a losing contest result, buying one success costs 1 unit of resources. two successes cost 3, three successes 6, and so on. A mixture of resources may be sent to reach these totals. The contestant must have the required resources, an there must be an explanation as to how spending those resources can solve the problem of having lost the contest, bearing in mid the ability used to that resolve it. For magic and rune points, this will normally require knowing a relevant spell, for example some form of healing magic. The value of a resource unit used in such an exchange should be set by the GM based on the logic of the situation. For example, if a hunter fails a ranged attack on a deer, they could merely lose 1 of the 20 arrows they carry. This means eventual success is virtually guaranteed, and so may not not be worth rolling for. If a warband leader with 20 followers loses a decisive battle contest by a margin of 3, they must accept 6 casualties in order to avoid surrender or rout. If a merchant loses a bargaining contest by 1 level, they must take a loss of 10% of the nominal value of the good being traded in order to acquire it. Lethal consequences will be described in a future blog post.

It's hard to answer without quoting canon. Because, while you know your players, skills and taste, lore is the one thing we currently do know more than you. To play into the strengths of a clan-focused game, you should have the players be a generation who grow up together and have known each other all their lives. This is the story structure used in Lord of the Rings. You live in a village, politics comes to the village, you rise to the challenge. What I personally would do is establish the setting as a clan in the Balkoth tribe, or one of their neighbors, in 1625 in south Sartar on the borders of Prax. In that time and place the Lunars are a solved problem, the big issue is getting along with Argraths's ascendant Praxians. They can now range much further into Sartar than they ever did, and consider raiding with much more brutality than is customary to be within their rights as victors. While the Lunar's ruled, the Praxians sold slaves at Pimper's Block. Now the Lunars are gone, but the trade continues. Surely this is an offence to Orlanth? Why does Argrath permit it? So the first priority for the PC's clan is going to be understanding their new nomad allies, and avoiding a situation where they become overlords. Sometimes this may mean fighting them; Praxians do not respect those who do not defend themselves. But even that requires understanding those who you are fighting. So take the RQ:G character creation step 1 and strip it down to only the events relevant to Sartar, Argrath and Prax. Make a campaign plan where those events happen at a specific point in the PC's childhood. In session 0, put each one in context, properly explaining it as something that just happened. Initiation should fit into that. However, it is not necessary to start the game with an adulthood initiation ordeal, especially the split-sex one that Six Seasons in Sartar establishes as canon in traditionalist North Sartar. Maybe your clan follows the Esrolian tradition of paired initiation. Maybe they use the Dundaelos initiation found in Valley of Plenty. Maybe you take those examples and make something up. Maybe it is just backstory and you start the PCs at 18 or 21 (the two options properly supported by the rulebook). Whichever, during the initiation they get an omen that gets interpreted as 'these are the four people destined to find the way our clan must live now. Support and guide them, for they must travel far'. Then launch into a full adventure scenario in session one. If you don't want to make something up, Sacred Earth, Sacred Water is a whole mini-campaign themed around coming to understand how Praxians tick.

Stealing back your branded cattle is considered respectable and boast-worthy for sober men over 25. The ultimate flex is to sneak in, take time to select those cattle with your marks, and take only them. Any cattle raid less perfectly executed than that causes a grievance that a clan may be able to bring to a tribal, national or (less common in modern days) independent lawspeaker. They may make a judgement assigning rightful ownership of all cows carrying a particular brand to one party. This would normally only happen if the other side had been persistently exceeding the acceptable norms of who did the stealing, and what they stole. And lesser sanctions such as monetary compensation, or exiling some individual would be considered first. This judgement can then be enforced by legitimate theft, as above.

I 'd guess in the same way as one or another of the various lunarized Orlanthi provinces. Some people would join Humakt, YT, Yelmalio or some other approved military cult and became full-time professional warriors, joining regiments serving as mercenaries or auxiliaries for the Lunar army. Initiation would happen at the time of joining the regiment, like a bronze age Full Metal Jacket. The logic of collective defense, the law of large numbers, means a lot fewer people are needed for this. Cities would become even more the center of religious life. So initiation would be organised by cults, not clans. It would follow an apprenticeship that taught the skills needed to succeed at it. The idea of sending 13 years olds into the Other Side unprepared would be regarded as a barbarity. Way too many of them emerged as dead-eyed Humakti, others as half-mad Eurmali, and (whispered) some as broo. Any backwoods regions without cities would be left as they were, being without importance.

IMG, Fire Blade and Fire Arrow were until recently cult-specific spirit magic. They became generally available to independant shamans in the Dragon Pass area following the decommissioning of most Elmal temples.

I would be surprised if there is a satisfactory answer taking RQ:G rules-as-written. The rule about all PCs having automatic access to all common rune magic is already an artificial game construct that makes no in-world sense; why does everyone worldwide learn the exact same set of spells? Trying to argue from that rule to other things the PCs could do with those spells is just building taller on shaky foundations. Ideally a second edition of the rules would split what is currently 'common spells' into 'spells universally learnable', 'initiation powers' and 'rune-level powers'. Summon Colt spirit would be an initiation power, command a rune-level power. Anyone can call for aid, and they will help if they judge the situation needs it. But only those with authority can command a cult spirit to do something they don't want to do.

Generally if you approach in a friendly way, say the proper greetings and accept hospitality, you will be welcomed at either temple. Basically, you have to make it clear you are visiting, not raiding. Note that of course you wouldn't be able to freely learn any clan-specific magic the temple has without joining the clan, by adoption or marriage.

There are many BRP-derived, Runequest-inspired fantasy role-playing game systems; ones I am aware of include Mythras, OpenQuest, SpeedRune, SimpleQuest, Revolution D100, Jackals and Legend. This is mine[1]. For people who are not me, it's main selling point is that it is a unofficial adaptation of some of the principles behind the QuestWorld game engine to Chaosium's world of Glorantha. In particular, it changes certain aspects of the QuestWorlds core mechanics to support the direct use of Chaosium-produced supplements such as the Gloranthan Bestiary, Red Book of Magic and Cults of Runequest. It does not have the ambition of being a complete publishable game line, instead referencing sections and supplements from RQ:G whenever I don't feel like writing a replacement. As such, it follows Chaosium Inc’s Fan Material Policy, with the disclaimer: General Description Runequest:Glorantha provides detailed rules for effectively simulating the world of Glorantha. These help in understanding how that unfamiliar world works, but are often ignored in actual play by experienced GMs. QuestWorlds provides fast-handling storytelling rules that are capable of handling any genre, providing only that players and GM already understand that genre. Rivers of Sartar attempts to blend these two approaches to provide the best of both worlds, in a way reminiscent of modern Chaosium BRP games such as Rivers of London. It is always fast-handling, in that it requires almost no arithmetic, table lookup or repetitive dice rolling during play. It starts from a baseline of storytelling, in a way that also allows elements of world-simulation and simple tactical gameplay to be added as desired. In addition to the games listed above, a key inspiration is David Dunham's Pendragon Pass, This set the precedent of mashing together multiple games systems to produce something that could never be commercially published, but was useful to its target audience. [1] Or at least, will be when it is done. image credit: wikimedia.