ZedAlpha

okay, that makes sense now, but it still means that lower masteries are actually less effective than just not having a mastery, until you have enough masteries that you can reliably succeed with them.

good question. Right now, the players' main plan is to separate Harrek from the Bear God first through use of the Infinity Rune, then just murder the pissed-off meat man that remains. I'd imagine that after that, the bear skin would just be a rather warm, impressive cape.

I'm running a Gloranthan campaign on Discord and Roll20 right now, and I have to confess I don't have the foggiest clue how Masteries are supposed to work, even after reading and rereading the book several times. As far as I understand it (and please correct me if I'm wrong): For normal contests, you try to roll under your ability rating on a D20. The lower the better. The GM does the same with the resistance of the contest, whoever rolls lower gets a better margin of victory. Critical successes always happen on a natural 1, critical failures always happen on a natural 20. Masteries, so far as I understand it, mean any score that'd go above a 20. So one of my player's "Death-Sworn Duck Thane" trait of 1M2 means he's got a score of 22. They're supposed to represent great big, unassailable skills and can increase the margin of victory if you have more masteries than whatever you're contesting against. However, according to the rules as I understand it, the number that player has to hit to get a success on that ability is now a 2 or less, where before his score went up and he got a mastery, it was a 19. But whenever he rolls a 2 or less, it's a critical success. How the hell does that make him better at anything, if his margin for victory got that much harder to succeed at? We've houseruled it in our game that he still has to roll under a 19 to succeed, but he gets an automatic critical when he rolls a natural 2 or below. As far as I can read in the rules, that's not how it's supposed to go. As far as I understand, and again, I'm probably misunderstanding, the rules as written say that he has to roll a 2 or below to get a success now that his rating (with masteries) is a 2. Am I reading this right?

When we eventually have the Harrek Must Die session, should I put the recap here, or is that what the blog section of the website is more properly for?

My group has already figured out a way that it can be done, at least in the 'canon' of our own game. The one experienced Gloranthan gamer among us basically gave us that same speech, but we're going along with it 'cause it seems fun. This thread is more about planning/plotting out what would/could happen next.

that still sound so friggin' weird to hear (well, read, but you know what I mean) on the official forum of the actual setting. I'm not used to that anywhere outside discussions of homebrew settings.

Could/should I cheat the timeline a bit so that this is both after the sack of the City of Wonders and the Battle of Heroes, but before Dragonrise? Would that make sense?

Our Heroes get sent to the Isles to re/claim them for Esrolia (and the rest of the Holy Country, of course, but mostly Esrolia), and find some of these magical Chaos monster eggs that attract the attention of the giant monster. The heroes are sent North to get the help of Argrath the Illuminated (who also needs help fighting the Battle of Heroes now that Harrek's gone--or maybe that battle never happens since the Lunars are distracted up North, dealing with vengeful glacier gods?), and by fleeing north with their treasures, the monster follows them. The Dragonrise happens, a True Dragon fights Godzilla, and...I don't know, something happens, but it'd be neat.

ooh, okay, now that's an idea: crawling out of the dimensional rift in the ruins of the City of Wonders comes another kaiju-sized chaos beast, an Anguirus or Gojira to the Red Bat's Rodan. Which better heroes than the Bear-Killers to find a way to slay it, or perhaps even divert it into the path of their enemies?

Harrek already did sack it. That was the inciting incident of the campaign. The Holy Country was grievously wounded, the City of Wonders is gone, the King of Heortland is a traitor, Lunar mercenaries are wandering the place trying to make their own little petty kingdoms, and pirates are attacking anyone within five leagues of the coast. I could see the City of Wonders being a sort of magical plug on chaos, though. It's gone, and now whatever it was keeping the cork on bubbles up to the surface.

That could be a neat way to take the campaign, if the heroes want to stay in the Holy Country instead of going North to Sartar and help the counter-assault against the Lunar Empire or East to conquer a kingdom in Prax. I could see it: the Holy Country splitting six different ways, the futile dream of heroquesting to revive the Pharaoh, Esrolian queens backstabbing each other, the Uz finallly getting close to removing the Trollkin Curse, the traditionalists in Heortland having increasing tensions with the radicals in Dragon Pass....and the volcano worshippers. I don't know much about them but I love the idea, for some reason.

Maybe the PCs, if they survive that long?

This was set the sea season after the City of Wonders gets destroyed, unless I got my timeline wrong.

again, no idea who those people are, but I'll look them up. That sounds good.

That's the version of history that I'm going with, yeah. This was an atrocity, even by the standards of a Bronze Age world. Certainly by the standards of a few kingdoms whose guiding principle seems to have been "There's Always Another Way" for the last few hundred years.

I like that guideline. Since this campaign is set directly in the Sea Season after the City of Wonders was obliterated by the Pirates, then I just outline the next year or so. Got it. I think I can break that down into Immediately After, A Few Weeks After, Fire Season, Earth Season, Dark Season, Storm Season, At The Start Of Next Year, which makes this a whole lot more manageable. So let's go with Immediately After: Gunda the Guilty, if/when she survives, swears eternal Humakti blood vengeance on her friend's killers and leaves with a large chunk of the surviving Pirates. They quest ceaselessly for a way to bring Harrek back to life and then kill the fuck out of anyone who helped kill him. Another chunk of the pirates flees immediately up and down the coast. The few who survive Holy Country naval patrols and vengeful peasants on land end up as mercenaries or bandits. A large number end up in Prax, flocking to Argrath the White Bull's banner. I'm going with the Multi-Argrath Hypothesis that I've seen thrown around here a few times, 'cause I like it. Argrath the Mariner, Orlanthi pirate scumbag and friend to Harrek is different from Argrath the Illuminated, Prince of Sartar, and Argrath the White Bull, Warlord of Pavis. At least in this timeline. The rump of the pirates who survive and aren't immediately slaughtered by the Esrolians and whatever the volcano island kingdom whose name I forgot's navy swear allegiance to the killers of Harrek, giving the PCs some military force that might make the surviving Holy Country's leadership very nervous. I see the trap for the Wolf Pirates as prelude for the Harrek Must Die session that's coming up: the PCs hear that the Queens of Esrolia are massing a force of mercenaries, volunteers, surviving naval regulars, and allies from the Shadow Plateau and the volcano-god worshippers to either oust the pirates or die trying. While the fight with Harrek is going on, I can describe the naval battle to end all naval battles in the background. I like the plan that the queens decide on a general anti-piracy campaign and tap the heroes who killed the unkillable man to do it. Not only does that rally the common folk in support of the plan, it puts these ludicrously deadly and ambitious people far away from the Esrolian capitol where they can do any damage. We can call that the In A Few Weeks plan: the heroes get summoned to the capitol, feted as heroes, given honors, and one or two of them are let in on the plans for the future. While they're preparing to go to the Three Step Isles, all sorts of weirdoes pop out of the woodwork trying to use them to further their own cosmic shenanigans, or to just come at them fantasy gunslinger style. This'll be the Fire Season plan; while the PCs are in the Three Step Isles and establishing themselves, Gunda the Guilty and her allies are questing to bring Harrek back to life; meanwhile, the Bear God will be freed (more on that below), and his worshippers will be looking to find the PCs and reward them--presuming that they can keep Harrek from enslaving him again. Meanwhile, Argrath the Illuminated loses a potential ally against the Lunars, but will possibly reach out to the PCs after the Dragonrise happens next year. Earth Season and Dark Season can be spent adventuring around the Three Step Isles, looking through old ruins for magical artifacts, forging alliances with the locals, and doing all that neat stuff that @Eff mentioned above. I like it. It'll be a neat change of pace, and hopefully I can make it as exciting as the first four sessions of the campaign so far. Oh, he will be, and when he comes back, he's pissed, but will probably be seperated from the Bear God, and thus without much of his power. He'll quest to get it back, and the followers of the White Bear God will try to stop him by entreating the Bear-Killers (the PCs) to counter-heroquest against him and keep it from happening. That's Next Year or Storm Season stuff, though. I don't know what most of these words mean, but they sound cool and I'll look them up. Well, as far as powers of destruction go, the party's Humakti Duck player has said that long-term goals for his character involve rallying the surviving Durulz (and other beastfolk) to his banner and wreaking "apocalyptic revenge" on any clan, tribe, kingdom, or person who's ever so much as ruffled a Duck feather. With that drive to slay and burn, I could totally see Waddlestomp the Bloody-Beaked (for so he is named) be that icon if he survives long enough. I love this idea and am stealing it wholeheartedly. Storm Season's plots will be Rathori emissaries contacting the PCs and begging them to counter-heroquest against Harrek and keep him from re-skinning the White Bear God in the God time. If they succeed, they gain a lifedebt from a big, pissed-off ice bear god, who will then be free to rally the other ice gods against the PCs foes; perhaps the Lunar Empire has to fight a war on two fronts now? In the south, against Sartar, Prax, and the remnants of the Holy Country, and in the North, against billions of tons of angry ice? Can the glowline stop a glacier with a grudge? Then, next year, there's the Dragonrise, which throws everything into disarray. Sartar is freed, the Lunars are in chaos, and the Heroes of the Three Isles (if they survive all the magical shenanigans going on) might get called by Argrath the Illuminated to help hold the line against the inevitable Lunar counterattack. Or, I don't know, maybe Sartar invades Tarsh while the Lunars are distracted up north and the PCs go help with that or something. Anyway. That was way too long and should have been separate posts. Sorry. Thank you all for the ideas. How do they work as a rough draft? Edit: I was typing this up as @jajagappa was replying up there. Sorry, didn't mean to ignore you.

Seriously, though, how far out in the world and the timeline do I have to plan all of the repercussions? Is this something I can plan out a basic skeleton for and improvise the rest? I don't want to burn myself out on the game before we have our fourth session, lol.

This. This is exactly how I can explain Illumination to the Trickster’s player. Thank you!

I like silly. The other players like silly. Duck player also enjoys silly more than he lets on, but tends to be a tad more deadpan.

like, if you've never heard "I WILL ENJOY DRINKING YOUR BLOOD, LUNAR SCUM!" shouted through a crappy microphone in that voice, I'd seriously recommend the experience. It's the hardest I've ever laughed in any game.

hey, in my headcanon Hueymakt is the original, but the player doesn't agree and thinks that's 'too silly.' he says this after reciting Old English insults in his best Donald Duck impression.

all this talk of heroism and apotheosis is giving me ideas for a certain Humakti Duck in a campaign I'm running. His player has often (loudly) complained that the Durulz don't have any real deities of their own.

Thank you!

Thank you! That answers a lot of my questions and gives me some ideas.

As an aside, I love how LGBTQIA+ friendly this setting/this community is (even though there’s some antiquated language about it here and there) compared to a lot of other fandoms.