Kargzant

Reading the Cult Compendium I noticed that there's a Cacodemon Rune Spell called False Form that lets Ogre worshipers appear to be unremarkable humans. I don't think it erases their Chaotic taint, but it does mask their cult tattoo and make it a lot easier for them to pass as human for a season. Technically any worshiper of Cacodemon can use it, but it's definitely most useful for Ogres.

Hey all. One of my players is creating a Shaman of Oakfed and I want one of the perks of their devotion being the ability to summon Oakfed himself. Does anyone know a template that I could use to make a spirit that is stronger than a salamander but weaker than a god? I would like the shaman to have to bargain with Oakfed rather than using Command Cult Spirit and make concessions to get him back to the spirit world through roleplaying. What would be a good offering to a spirit like Oakfed in exchange for service? I don't know if anyone has experience with Oakfed as a focus of worship, but I would appreciate some advice.

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

Boiling oil seems to be an invention of over-active cinematic imagination, on par with flame arrows in field battles.

Dropped rocks and tossed ones figure even in the battles around Troy - IIRC one of the Ajaxes did a mighty toss.

Thank you for the info! I know that Runequest is a fantasy game, but I'd rather pull from Homer than Hollywood in this case.

3 hours ago, JRE said:

The defenders have limited resources, unless they can smuggle resources from outside. therefore it may be important to audit the number of projectiles, food and water. Depending on the state of the tower, the buiding itself can be used as a projectile. Hot or burning oil is impressive, but it is a one use trick. It might be better to use the oil for signaling, and to safeguard against surprise attacks at night. 

Who are the besiegers? May they build siege weapons? Build a contravallation? 

I'm going to be running a Borderlands campaign, so I have a few spoilers for a couple of the scenarios in here.

I was wondering if anyone on this board knows about how a group of warriors holed up in a tower or keep would fight against a siege. I assume that bows and javelins are a given, but what about boiling oil or trapped moats? Is all of that stuff too Medieval? I only know so much about siege warfare and I'm wondering what would be appropriate for a relatively Classical world.

I haven't been able to find a writeup for Zola Fel and I'm planning to write one because he's the main water deity of the area. I assume that a lot of the Spirit and Rune Magic that Engizi offers would be suitable for ZF as they're both regional river gods and there's always the Book of Red Magic to flesh things out. What I'm wondering is Zola Fel's relationship with other gods in the region. All I really know he's subservient to Pavis although he's worshiped as a standalone deity as well. Is there anything else I should know about associated and hostile cults?

On a more logistical level, I found the Five Eyes Temple mission interesting but daunting to run. Does anyone have tips for how to have the players deal with 20+ Newtlings without it becoming a slog? I'm thinking of having them encounter friendly NPCs in the various tunnels and use Battle rolls for some combats, but I'd appreciate advice on how to make it shine as the climax of the campaign. I'd also like the PCs to be able to deal with some of the Newtlings non-violently if possible even if those aren't the leaders of the temple complex.

There's some very good advice in this thread. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to let the players generate characters but stop at 1620 or 1621. It would lose the characters options to grow passions, but at the same time it would let them start off as new adventurers and let me use the Raus household as written. I will definitely have to spend time adjusting encounters still, but the RQG Bestiary should help with that with nonhuman encounters.

13 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

You could always run Borderlands at its original date, rather than the standard RQiG date of 1625ST.  Character family history would have to be different but there is an early family history available on Jonstown Compendium for a good price.

That's very interesting. Do you know the name of this product? I've bought some Jonstown Compendium books before and I've found them helpful, so I'm more than willing to pick up something to smooth over the process.

Edit: I found the Early Family History on Drivethru and it seems promising. I'll purchase it and look it over.

27 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

If you care about a modicum of game balance, yes - RQG starting characters are extremely strong compared with RQ2 ones. Also, some of the magic may make a mess of a scenario - Fly will make the Condor Crags play out very differently, for instance.

I've been pretty good at keeping up with everyone's Rune Magic. I don't want to forbid any spells and I want to make sure that everyone has a use for their magic, but at the same time I should probably have contingency plans for some situations like Fly no-selling Condor Crags. It might be worth it to keep the Dream Dragon from the 5 Eyes Temple in reserve to help the condors.

Would it make sense to have the settlement be a Pol Joni outpost that got a nod from Argrath? There would still be plenty of room for tensions with Nomads and Morocanth without involving the hated Lunars.

Hey all. My gaming group and I ran through the starter set, and I thought about moving over to Prax to run the Borderlands campaign. I've had a few questions about modernizing it because of the system and story developments since RQ2.

Most characters from Sartar of Prax are going to be going to react negatively towards Lunars. It would be interesting for the characters to work for a Lunar Duke, but I need a good reason for him to be given a corner of Prax to settle.

Will I need to update the statistics for enemies? I figure that it won't matter too much at first since the starting mission has little combat and my PCs aren't particularly bloodthirsty. Still, I expect that the encounters might be too easy as written without some tweaking to more powerful RQG PCs.

The module has advice to move towards Balazar and Griffin Mountain afterwards if the GM decides. Still, it's possible that my group would prefer to renew their contract with Duke Raus after the campaign, especially if one of them is his new guard captain. Are there any RQ3 books that I could buy to flesh out this corner of Prax? Does Shadows on the Borderlands have any connections with the Borderlands material? It has a significant price tag, so if there's a connection I want to make sure what my group plans at the end before I pick up a secondhand copy.

I would appreciate any advice that people have on running Borderlands in the new system. I know a lot of people here have been playing and running RQ for years and have experience that I lack.

I read on the Glorantha wiki that Arroin aided Kyger Litor once. I would assume this had something to do with healing, but I don't know any more about this and I would love to know more. Trolls for the most part dislike Lightbringers, but is there some room for peace or compromise between Kyger Litor worshipers and healers of Chalana Arroy? Or does the fact that Arroin has no magic make him a special case? And what did he do for the Troll Mother anyway?

Hey, all. I'm planning to make a Chaotic Earth deity in my campaign and I want some information about cults that require human (or other sentient being) sacrifice. If I remember correctly, the rites of Hon-Eel produce maize if there's blood sacrifice, but I don't know any more than that. Does the victim need to be worthy in some way? Do they have sacrifices on every holy day of Hon-Eel? Why does this cult require human sacrifice in the first place? How do the communities rationalize this?

Thanks in advance!

On 12/30/2021 at 2:14 AM, davecake said:

Chaotic ancestor worshippers are just the same - a family of ogres might know all their ogre ancestors, and get good help from them (the ancestors probably like a little blood sacrifice and to enjoy a little incarnation for food and torture every now and then, but that’s expected). 

3 hours ago, dumuzid said:

It's not something a campaign's villain would use on their own, but one option for a broo heroquest is the Cleansed One story:

He was a broo who became aware of the horror inherent to the broo condition, and sought to drown himself in the Zola Fel river to end his existence.  Rather than drown him, Zola Fel gave the broo the ability to walk on the riverbed and breath water.  The broo followed the river to the sea, and somewhere out in the deeps he was purged of his Chaos taint by the powers of Water.  He is now a demigod of the Zola Fel, and incarnates the river's power to oppose Chaos.

If your heroes can help bring about an existential crisis in this broo villain, the Cleansed One offers them the potential for healing and redemption.

You know, I can see a tough but non-influential Broo deciding that their gang-mates have no future and looking to be cleansed so they can survive. Broos as a whole are going to be the bad guys as long as they follow their gods, but the idea of a path to redemption for some disillusioned Broos is appealing to me.

I got mine earlier this month. I'm getting a group together and I plan to use the pregens and starter rules to gauge their interest in a game.

Thanks for the answers, all. I just thought of another question about Broos and other Chaotic creatures - do they have Heroquests? Which gods would have the most relevant Heroquests for a potential campaign baddie? And what kinds of things could a Broo hero accomplish through successive Heroquests? I'm planning out a campaign and I want to think of ways to best use Chaotic creatures.

I was reading Cults of Terror today and I noticed that Daka Fal gives cultists of Thed Summon Ancestor. What I'm wondering is if it's possible for Broos to engage in ancestor worship in addition to the worship of Thed or Mallia. Does Daka Fal have any specific prohibitions about being worshiped by Chaotic creatures? How far do the ties between Daka Fal and Thed go?

I have a question that I haven't quite been able to find an answer for. When one adventurer is in combat with a spirit, what can other members of their group do? Can multiple party members be in spirit combat with the same entity? If they cast spells at entities in a spirit combat, does it count as casting into a melee? I want to set up scenarios involving spirit combat and I would like to get this sorted out first.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I've taught my mother and brother the basics of RQG, and to encourage them to deepen their connections with their deities (Chalana Arroy and Humakt, respectively) I'm planning to give them POW checks every year at Sacred Time so they don't have to cut into their skill modifiers when they want to gain new Rune Magic. That would help them explore options like Idrima. I'll reread some of the options for spirit cults to see how they would work in this case.

I really like the idea of letting them found a cult and raise it to importance as part of an overarching narrative. Both of my players were really happy with how they ended the adventure. Are there any products that I can buy an official PDF of that have rules for Heroquesting? I'm willing to do the work to convert HeroQuest books or other products to RQG.

Hey, all. I finished running The Broken Tower for my family today, and I was wondering something about creating subcults or cults for gods not in the RCG core book. Our group chose to appease Idrima in return for protection from Chaos, and I was wondering if anyone who played the adventure ever dealt with Idrima as a cult or subcult afterwards. The adventure recommends using her as a subcult of Maran Gor, which no one in our group really worships. I could see her teaching some skills like Earthspeech or Spirit Combat in return for cows. Would it make sense for someone in our group to become an honorary priest of Idrima for their part in reviving tribute to her if they're alright with the Earth Rune? And would that come with any powers or restrictions? I imagine that she's not going to be as strong a deity as Ernalda or others, but she probably has something to offer for payment.

I hope my questions make sense. I'm trying to make a fun adventure for my family, and I think giving them rewards and opportunities for their actions would help them become invested in the game I'm running.