svensson

So, I was a medieval reenactor for a long time in the era B.I. [Before Internet 😁]. Back then you had to do your own research with whatever sources you could find, gather, and borrow. My primary interest was the period before 1200, basically from the First Crusade on backwards. I'd read an account of Alcuin speaking of a battle on the Franconian March [the border with the Czech-Slovak region, which was still Pagan at the time] where several women donned armor as part of the markgraf's levy and were killed in a border skirmish. The bishop accompanying the force wrote to Charlemagne calling it another 'Massacre of the Innocents' and saying that women were needed to bear the next generation of warriors and therefore shouldn't be soldiers. But I read that reference almost 30 years ago and those notes are long since gone. It was in a book at the University of Washington but I no longer have access to the library there.

There WERE female war leaders and combatants in the Middle Ages. The historical record is absolutely clear on that point. There is speculation that there were even Christian Saxon female thegns to go along with the Norse/Dane shield maidens. That one is still be argued about, however, and I don't know of any conclusive proof of a any equivalent to a Christian woman knight. We also know from the writings of Alcuin of York that Carolingian women took part in combat... not merely protecting their village but as armored semi-professionals. That and modern sensibilities allow for female knights. Yes, the Christian ideal is the cult of Mary 'maiden, mother, matron, crone' archetype, but there's room for a 'Dame Aelgyfa' in the Round Table.

Well there is a 'Conan-ish' Legend [BRP variant] milieu set in Xoth, a very REH /ERB milieu. You can get those books on Mongoose's website as pdf only d/ls under the Legend heading.

They tried that already. There's a d20 version of Conan produced by Mongoose back in the day. The system is, well, d20. If you like it, then it's not altogether bad. It's a bit overpowered for my tastes personally, and I tend not to like 'ding! I leveled!' systems much anyway. But there was some solid milieu writing in it. It's kind of like MERP that way.

Yes, when you acquire a new passion, it begins at 60%. Whatever modifications begin there, in your Praxian's case, 'Loyalty [Clan] 40%' And welcome to the board!

First off @Mordante welcome to the board! I have to preface this by saying that I have experience with medieval combat [the SCA the largest medieval reenactment group in the world], so my view of combat is very much different than most game systems. Let me also note that the system for BRP /RQG was designed by people who'd been in the SCA in the early years of the group, so the differences are not all that much. 1. I simplify head protection. A heavy cloth cap/hat is 1 AP, a leather or fur cap is 2 AP, a nasal or skullcap open helm is 4 AP, a helm with cheek plates [the classic Roman legionary helm or the Sutton Hoo] is 6 AP and a full helm with neck protection [the classic hoplite helm, a barbute, or great helm] is 8 AP 2. I pay attention to facing. While I don't go full d20 'sneak attack damage' with it, I do pay attention to what is happening. If a combatant is fully engaged to their front and someone gets around behind them, it'll be MUCH harder for them to Dodge. This is a situational adjustment to their skill. 3. Also regarding facing, a shield may only block adjacent hit locations. You can't block your head, chest, and left leg with a small shield, for example. I ask the player if they're blocking 'high' or 'low'. The number of shielded locations depends on the size of the shield, just like in the rules. For example, Medium Shield blocks the shield arm and two other locations. If the character is blocking 'low' with a medium shield they block the shield arm, abdomen, and legs. If they block 'high' it's the shield arm, head and chest.

So, for those that don't know, fireworks are a thing during New Years. That's what my PTSD comment was aimed at. There's just nothing a person with violence-related PTSD loves more than random **BOOM** sounds all night. So as you might guess, there are some holidays that many of us just love. In the US, those are Independence Day and New Years, but my Canadian friends tell me they have similar problems around Canada Day so it's not too far fetched to think other countries have similar problems. And what makes it even MORE fun is that if you're out West like I am, there's also a slew of Indian tribes that start selling fireworks two weeks before the Goddamn holiday, so you can spend half a month spazzed out either anticipating the next random explosion or coping with the last one. This not only makes life hard for you, the PTSD patient, but also for your family. And here's my own personal gripe about that: I'm lucky enough to have a family that still loves me. THEY didn't sign up for John Wayne School for Maladjusted Youth. I did. So my family shouldn't have to put with me tripping out for six weeks out of every year. I do my best with it [therapy, meds, etc.], and I've learned to accept some symptoms of the disorder, but the random explosion thing is something none of us 'get used to'. It sets our paranoia off and we become pretty difficult to live with. And we're not that easy to live with to begin with. HOWEVER, COMMA, BUT I will happily give my neighbors a lot of credit where it's due. This particular NYE was pretty sedate when compared to others. Maybe the weather kept them inside. But they started their nonsense at 10pm and were done by 1am, and without ambulances being called this time. And nothing at all yesterday... there's usually a few left over for the day after the holiday. I'm starting to calm down a full three days earlier than normal.

What a year it's been, huh? It's easy to gripe and say that nothing but idiocy and cruelty reigned this year, but that's not entirely true. If people in the Ukraine and Syria can find something good about the year, then I certainly have nothing complain about. Like most years, this one has had good and bad in it. I hope the good outweighed the bad for you and yours. Happy New Year and stay safe. And for my PTSD brothers and sisters out there... well, I can't make it stop. I wish I could but that's not how it works, is it? When it gets bad, CALL SOMEBODY. Even a few minutes on a phone is better than bunkering up in your bedroom with the lights off. If you can spend the night with understanding friends, try and do that. You are NOT 'being a little bitch'. Asking for help on a tough night is part of recovery. May we all have a happier, healthier, better year in 2023.

Regarding tattooing, as I said, there are several ways to handle it. 1- You can have a 'marriage mark' tattoo that signifies marriage into a clan; 2- You can rule that tattoos have a magical component once applied and will change to reflect loyalties; 3- Some combination of both. 4- Not worry about it [that's a personal favorite] 😁 You're right that there are many different types of marriage in Heortling /Orlanthi culture. A Year Marriage would require no change insofar as tattoos or other symbols go. Everybody who needs to know is aware that the arrangement is temporary. But a permanent arrangement would require introducing the spouse to the clan wyter and 'adopting' them into the family. From a character sheet mechanics standpoint, it would do several things... Love Family applies to BOTH the family the spouse came from and the new family they have in the new clan. Loyalty Clan would have to be opened; any failure to show a minimal loyalty to the new clan could possibly be seen as an oath sworn in bad faith [a Very Bad Thing for Orlanthi cultures]. OTOH, it DOES make a good plot point. History is rife with women [mostly] who marry into a family /clan to destroy it from within. Roll your Illusion Rune, Margaret 😅

Not to be a downer, but Mythos figures are kind of a niche market, especially in this age of 3d printing and so on. That's not saying it can't or won't happen, but I don't see it as particularly likely.

Harrek killed his Hsunchen people's founding spirit-god, Rathor.

I don't know about outright worship, but I could see the Pelt of Rathor being a 'tribal wyter' for the Wolf Pirates. It's a valid question, what with how the Lunars treat Jar-Eel, but Sartarites don't worship Argrath directly, so we have examples that go both positive and negative. Other than that, I can see a [very] variety of magics used by the WP's. Every ship has to have someone who can use the Open Seas Sorcery spell for one thing, and everyone who chooses to join the pirates brings the beliefs/magics they had ashore with them. Then, of course, there will be a large slice Sea Pantheon worshipers... likely Magasta and especially Wachaza converts. And I can see Humakt having a significant influence with Gunda being the Sword.

We were just outside of Glamour when Illumination took effect....

Nothing too bad here in the PNW... rain, sleet, overnight ice. But folks in the Midwest, and one presumes Prairie Canada, got trucked. Holiday greetings to you and yours.

Yeah, that works in a sense.

Harpies, being creatures of Chaos, are no more 'Beast People' than Broo are, whereas Minotaurs, Manticores, and others are.

Speaking as football fan... Have I shared with you my testimony about Our Lord and Savior [insert team here] and their Free Agency prospects after this season? 😄

Okay, we have two rules in RQG that really help in instances like this: - Rule 1: Maximum Game Fun. Whatever makes RuneQuest more fun for you or your players is just fine. - Rule 2: YGWV. Your Glorantha WILL Vary. No game system or game setting survives contact with players or referees intact. Every game session somebody will do something that isn't in the book. And that is totally fine. My Glorantha is gonna be different than yours and those will be different than anybody else's. Now, as for your question, if it were at my table I would say no, a PC should not be a member of two clans at once. When a two people from different clans are married in Glorantha, one of them becomes a member of another clan. This depends on the customs of the region and status of the partners. For example, an Esrolian Ernalda priestess is going to have a higher local status than her groom, so he becomes a member of her clan. Since you're specifically asking about Sartar, have the couple choose who moves. But even when a spouse from 'Clan Red Bull' marries into 'Clan Black Berry', they're still blood-kin the family left behind. They have parents, brothers, and sisters still there. If relations within that family are good, they will think highly of Clan Red Bull and seek to keep ties with them via trade, marriages, fostering children, or other arrangements. As to the tattoos, that's a YGMV decision. Some referees think the tattoos are simply mundane markings that identify someone. Some think that the tattoos bind a person to the clan wyter and are therefore magical. In the first case [tattoos are mundane] you can rule that there is a marriage tattoo. In the latter [tattoos are magical] you can rule that the tattoos magically change over time to more closely match those of a native.

Welcome to WallyWorld, JP!

This is just one example of the multiple lines of authority and responsibility in a Sartarite clan. At the top you have the Chieftain, who most often represents their cult in addition to their role as Priest/tess of Orlanth Rex. Then you have the Clan Ring, which usually contains the leaders of several cults present in the clan. The ring will ALSO usually represent the different groupings in the clan... i.e. the carls, the herders, the craftsmen, etc. These might be individual roles [the most successful farmer representing the carls even though he's not a cult Rune Level, for example] or they might be someone with multiple roles [a Rune Priest of Heler who also represents the carls]. Then you have the family head or stead holder. And lastly you have yourself, because 'nobody can make you do anything'. Every decision in the clan happens along multiple lines of authority and influence. If the Chieftain worships Humakt, they also represent Orlanth Rex, the interests of the thanes, and the interests of the clan war band as a whole, the fyrd. If a Ring member is a Rune level of Issaries and the clan has a temple to that god, that Ring member also has multiple lines of influence... they represent the clan's reputation and diplomacy and the crafters. And several temples will maintain a small cadre of professional warriors for use by the clergy, both ritually [taking the role of protector in cult rituals] and practically [caravan guards for the Issaries merchant or Babeester Gor worshipers for an Earth temple]. Now these warriors may not be quite up to the standards of thanes. They may be part-timers who tend hides of land part of the time with their family /steading and military temple duties part of the time. But they're still a significant cut above the average farmer in the shield wall.

My wife joins me in wishing everyone on the board a happy, safe, and uplifting holiday, no matter what holiday you're observing. May your celebrations be full of love, food, surprises, warmth, and peace. Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Blessed Solstice, and any other observance that I have neglected to mention. Submitted with respects and regards, -- 1Lt. CR Hicks Jr -- Co. C, 4th Infantry Regiment -- Commanding -- Ft. Steilacoom, Washington Territory

We have reached the threshold where we cannot believe what we see, hear and read. And if someone thinks that this isn't being used to manipulate the populace into buying more this or that, voting for x or y, or psychologically preparing for war, they are sadly mistaken. It used to be that it was a fairly easy thing to tell the difference between fact and fiction and to identify the hype and hyperbole of propaganda. Now it requires a skilled technician to validate an image, sound or printed page. Even the slang terms for this kind of stuff is misleading... 'gaslighting', 'deep fake', etc. I'm not a Luddite by any stretch of the imagination, though several failed products have led me to not be an 'early adopter' of most technologies. But at what point will we finally decide to value the human-created over the machine?

@mfbrandi But when Persival accepted the Grail quest, does that not suppose that he accepted a HeroQuest? To use your analogy, the brother knew he'd dropped acid so he's just waiting for it to kick in. Sir Percival knew that he was on a great undertaking and CHOSE to enter into myth, even if he didn't know when or where he would find it. Even if he was never translated into the Mansions of the Lord and come into the presence of The Christ, encountering the Grail at all is a significant sacred moment that Percival chose to attempt. And no, I'm not confusing him with Sir Galahad. Sir Percival, the least worldly and most innocent of the Ko/tRT, also swore to the Grail Quest. For that matter, one would be hard-pressed to find a greater quest in Christendom [at least the highly idealized no-faults Christendom of the Ko/tRT] than the [Hero]Quest of the Holy Grail. And if at this point you hear Indiana Jones saying, 'This is the cup of a carpenter's son.', you're on the right track 😁

Good questions, though I really do think that RQ3 is probably too 'granular' or 'ticky-tack' to do HeroQuesting with. I personally like the RQG Runes and Passions to help manage the various ebbs and flows of a HeroQuest in addition to the skills checks. But that's just me, YGMV and what not. I really like your basic question of 'Is it possible to be an 'involuntary hero' in a HeroQuest?'. One would presume that in order to enter into the Gods Plane as the focal point of mythic interactions one would almost have to accept the burdens and challenges. But this brings up a question that might be a bit of a digression from your original intent. Please bear with me... - We have several examples over multiple editions of player characters or narrators encountering people who are 'on a HeroQuest' but are still present in and interacting with the Mundane Plane. Specifically, Biturian Varosh in 'Cults of Prax' when he encounters Rurik Runespear, first in a ritual reenactment of the Three Blows of Anger myth and later, 'with the light of HeroQuesting in his eyes' asking about the armor Biturian won that day. Then we have the encounter with Jardarin the Sun Lord in 'The Pegasus Plateau' who is specifically stated as 'being on a HeroQuest' but is still interacting with the player characters on the Mundane Plane. But we also have outright statements in multiple editions that speak of a given hero actually going to the Celestial Realms [Kallyr Starbrow] or physically traveling the Hells [Sarostip Prince-Killer in RQG, and the Hands of Hofstaring HeroQuest from 'Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes' the HQ game system]. All this begs the question, "Is 'HeroQuesting' a mental state [sort of a religious fugue state], a physical passage to the Gods Plane, or both?". If HQs are in the physical world, then certainly someone could involuntarily find themselves part of the Quest. If it's transporting oneself to the Gods Plane, I can't see how a 'Hero-conscript' could be transported from one plane to another without consent. That doesn't mean it can't happen, of course.

I like the art draft!