svensson

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.

12 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Let's think about how this applies to the various types of marriage.  What do you envision in the case of a Sartarite year marriage?  Both the spouses have the option to end it in 42 weeks.

Does the spouse who moved, now have to be re adopted into their old Clan if they want to go back?  Do they risk being clanless?

Tattoos are pretty permanent.  What do you envision for tattoos fir a year msrriage?

 

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.

Just now, Squaredeal Sten said:

I found it: Glorantha Sourcebook page 205.  ",,,became a Hero when he killed and bound his people's God. The White Bear..."

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.

2 hours ago, metcalph said:

I think Harpies are no more Beast People than Wind Children are.  IMO Harpies are Wind Children thta have become corrupted by Chaos.

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? 😄

On 12/20/2022 at 11:15 AM, jo77yroger said:

Hi, I am currently playing a french campaign that is about creating and managing a new clan then probably become a tribe.
 

I just need your opinion on this:

Our group of players are all from the Ernaldori clan of the Colymar tribe. We are now clan leaders of a new clan based on former enslaved Dundealos and a new territory.
My question is: Can we belong in both clans ? Our parents, family are all in the Ernaldori clan. If not, do we have to remove our Ernaldori tattoos ?
Is it possible to have our new clan join Colymar even if the territory is not close to Colymar (Like Alaska belongs to the US 🙂) ?

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 😁

On 12/16/2022 at 10:41 AM, Erol of Backford said:

I am curious if there is a Hero Quest Challenge and the opponent doesn't wish to accept the challenge does it not happen?

Where is there a description as to what is wagered and if Hero Points may be added to influence the outcome?

I like the idea of running RQ3 with Hero Quests integrated but am worried it'll turn out as an operator's error...

I have the sorties/myths/paths etc. for several Hero Quests but what is the most basic one that is spelled out like ABC's and has the Hero Point stuff detailed as well? 

(Please move this post to wherever it should be.)

 

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!

Yeah, I can really appreciate this. My wife is an artist and art-apprciater, and has explained to me the issues about this. And writers of my acquaintance have told me that we're VERY close to AI created novels... and the combination of the two [art and writing] is just terrifying. The whole point of art isn't just to illustrate, but to augment those who experience it... to challenge preconceived notions, to expand perceptions, and to offer ideas in addition to informing and entertaining. Without the human element in the creation of art [ALL art], we'd be left with some bland 1984/Farenheit 451 'beige reality' where original thought and individual experience is devalued and diluted.

@Shiningbrow

I'm thrilled to see an RQ game in actual working development. And yes, the Rhino Rider in my heart loves seeing action in Prax.

But you're right, I'm REALLY hoping this isn't some looter-shooter Borderlands /Destiny /League of Legends clone. The whole idea of an RQ game that doesn't deal with RQ themes is a complete non-starter for me. Don't get me wrong, if you're into that kind of game, do your thing. Just don't put an RQ name on it.

What I want in any so-called 'RPG' title:

- Deep character building

- More than one way to meet goals [combat, magic, stealth, negotiation, whatever]

- Open World

- Single player, co-op strictly optional

- No. Fucking. Microtransactions. DO NOT try and sell me 'Assassin's Creed: Dragon Pass'. That would be an insult to every single designer and player who has shepherded Greg's vision.

What I want in an RQ game:

- The Runes to matter as much as they do on paper.

- RQ themes... Cattle raids, the Lunar Occupation, etc.

- Your cult to matter as much as your tribe.

- Making Rune Level to be real work

- HEROQUESTS!

And anything less than that will be DnD with the serial number filed off. Don't get me wrong here... I too am looking forward to BG3 [August 23 release date]. But I want a RuneQuest game...

In a perfect world, I want a game that is as gorgeous and open as Skyrim... with a deeper story, more RuneQuest elements, and a sense of achievement when you're done.

As I imagine an Orlanthi tribe, a 'thane' is both a warrior of the tribal 'crown' whose upkeep is the responsibility of chief or king/queen through a landhold, a salary, or combination of the two.

However, comma, but, it is entirely possible to be a warrior of a temple whose upkeep comes from temple lands and who is rated as a thane for purposes of status, prestige and ransom. Many Babeester Gor worshipers could rate such a position, if devoted and skilled enough. The difference is that the thanes are at the beck and call of the clan, while the guards are solely responsible to the temple clergy.

I'd like to see some Sea pantheon Mythology. For example, the destruction of the Spike is likely to be even more catastrophic for Sea peoples as it was for landbound races, so how does Magasta's Children view it?

Then there's all the practical stuff:

- Sailor Profession

- Net combat

- Ship types /Maritime technology

- Making a living from the sea [oceanic trade goods where magic is reliable would be interesting]

- Naval warfare at the fleet, ship, and personal level; For example, do some Gloranthan ships carry siege weaponry [ballistae, etc.], if so whose?

- As @metcalph said, some paragraphs about the Sea races beyond the Ludoch [who are relatively familiar]

I'd like to see something like the Baran the Monster Killer chapter of Strangers in Prax, where it discusses how landsmen see sailors and how sailors see lubbers and the culture of the sea.

41 minutes ago, Leingod said:

Sometimes it’s both; an item you get in the Heroquest becomes the source or focus of the power it gives you. The Lawstaff Quest gives you the Lawstaff, whose powers you use, but only you can use it, because you’re the one who earned it. At least, that’s how it worked in the HeroQuest system, which in fairness doesn’t draw a hard line between items and abilities mechanically.

That's one of major problems with HQ as a system. It treats items, status, reputation, and everything else peripheral to a character the precise same way it treats the character's Strength characteristic. It's just glosses over too much reality for the sake of telling the story. In HQ, everything is a handwave. It's one of the reasons why I much prefer RQ to HQ.

Items are possessions... they can be picked up and put down. They can be stolen. Your cult could demand possession of it, something I could legitimately see with an item like the Lawstaff. Any Knowledge Temple who knows of it would want it, working or not, as a holy relic. I get that some cult relics will have user restrictions on them, but the mere possession of such an item as a focus of worship is the kind of thing that could propel a relatively minor Knowledge Temple like the one in Pavis to a MUCH more prominent and credible position. And that credibility brings in pilgrims. And pilgrims bring in cash, donations, and power. It was true in the Middle Ages and it's true in Glorantha. The same is true for items like the Windsword or the Yelmalion Everburning Torches that contain their god's very blood! And let's face it, if any cult in Glorantha were to measure a worshipers worth based on whether or not an adventuring cultist 'donated' a high prestige relic, it would definitely be Yelmalio.

In any event, I see an inherent ability [like Kallyr's Star on her brow or Sarostip's Eye Bite] as being more powerful than just the possession of an item.

On 12/12/2022 at 5:54 AM, Morien said:

Lion in Winter is excellent. I happened to watch the two-part TV movie first, and I am honestly torn which version I prefer. Patrick Stewart did an excellent job as Henry II, and I think I prefer his less hammy portrayal to Peter O'Toole's (although O'Toole's Angevin rage is better). That being said, Katharine Hepburn will always be my Eleanor. 🙂

I wouldn't worry too much about the grittiness. If the style fits the GM and the group, it is all good. I deliberately downplayed some of the fantastical stuff during the Uther Period, so much so that Merlin performed no magic 'on camera'. All his 'shapeshifting' could have been just clever disguises.

 

Yeah, I don't want to get too 'Game of Thrones' with it... They don't call them the Dark Ages for nothing, but there's a difference between acknowledging that the brutality existed and reveling in it. There's no need to get all 'gore-porn' outside of combat.

Kate Hepburn will always be my older, angrier Eleanor of Aquitane, but I'm somewhat sore put to think of someone I'd cast as younger woman who stole Henry II's heart. Strong-willed and intelligent, certainly, but it's difficult for women in Western movie making to come across as strong willed and intelligent without being written as embittered bitch. It's a serious flaw in Western story-telling that we all got from the Ancient Greek tragedies.

Looking forward to the finished product, Ian!