svensson

Initiates are part of god's hierarchy, though not part of the church. Initiates have donated POW, made the commitment oaths, and have some dedication to the faith. They are not ordained but they can conduct worship if no Rune level is available. They can cast Divination [it is a Common Rune Spell] but only via their cult connections. For example, an Orlanth initiate cannot use Divination for information that would rightfully belong to Yelmalio, etc. Just because an opposing Yelmalion initiate breathes Air does not mean that Orlanth knows what he's up to - - this works vice-versa of course... Just because an Orlanth initiate is working under Yelm's light doesn't mean that a Sky pantheon initiate knows anything about him either. So, yes, Initiates can get Divination and/or prophetic dreams from their deity, but they may have to consult with the priesthood to understand the meanings [aka 'failed the Cult Lore skill roll to understand the allegories'].

Well, Glorantha has sabertoothed tigers [aka 'sakkar'] still extant. I'm fine with a hunting cat species that can hunt with humans. I mean, they're not as weird as morokanth, right? 😆

Did someone say 'wild alynx'?

In reply to a PM, there is a recent US federal statute forbidding public access to legally kept big cats ['legally' as defined by state laws]. That means, for example, that big cat keeper cannot allow the public to pet big cats or help feed big cats, as some irresponsible keepers have done. But big cat rescues, private zoos, and so on are calling for a US national law requiring federal standards of environment, enrichment and care and for a federal standard of certification for big cat keepers. I guess people are tired of wealthy idiots keeping big cats in their mansions and then abandoning their care to paid staff [as in 'my housekeeper feeds my tiger']. That was the law I was referring to in the top post.

A lovely but very short clip to give you an idea of the size of a captive lynx. I say 'captive' because lynx are wildcats. They cannot be reliably domesticated. In my home state, it's illegal to own one and we're not alone in this. There is active pressure for a federal Big Cat ownership law instead of the patchwork by state that we have now. Nevertheless, this vid gives you an idea of the size of a healthy, well-fed, and sheltered lynx and a sense of scale for all you Orlanthi and your shadowcats.

I kept them out of armor for two reasons: a] I thought of them as leading a worship ceremony and not under threat. While Orlanth has no objection to war or conflict, he is really more of a cultural god... he provides the virtues, laws, and codes of behavior; more of an Odin than a Thor figure. b] I was still learning the Heroforge system and I was trying to get the tattoo decals to look right. More skin means more tattoos.

So I have posted about the value of archeological midden pits -- the garbage dumps where a society discards it's unwanted and unneeded items. These are literal snapshots of a society, what they wore, what they ate, and so forth. This video is a woman dressing for cold Northern maritime temperatures in the 800-1000 AD timeframe. She includes recreated clothing that came from grave goods and midden pits and assembles them into an everyday wear outfit. I thought some of you might find this useful.

"He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian." Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day." ... [snip] "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whilest any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day!" -- Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3 I also tend to apply 'scars and disfiguring marks' in certain 'epic' circumstances. And I've been known to joke that the reason why Orlanth initiates can tell the weather a day in advance is because their old wounds and joints act up the day before it rains! 😁 As to whether these wounds might have in-game consequences is a matter of discussion with the player. For example, I had a player go down when a troll hit a crit on his arm and chest. He was saved [barely] by a helpful PC and we discussed the consequences of that 'near death experience'. I ended up giving him a 1d6% rep increase in exchange for having a -1 Strike Penalty and a really ugly scar.

Interesting stuff. Welcome to the board, and I hope the guys have been helpful.

Well, insofar as Brother Dog goes, the Agimori are NOT part of Waha's Covenant. They are an accepted Lesser Tribe on the Plains because they came to fight Chaos and preserve Genert, but they have nothing whatsoever to do with the Paps or any of the more specific Waha mystic traditions. In my mind, this tends to militate against the use of Waha-tradition justifications for Agimori using dogs. I should also like to point out that a great many Earth societies ate dogs instead of using them as companion animals. That argument goes both ways.

To the OP: IMGU, it depends on the killing blow. Head and Chest blows are instant-kill. With other locations, or with general HP loss, I give a CON roll 'countdown' at SR 1... CON x3 the round after the killing blow, CON x2 the second round, CON x1 the third. But I'm also very careful to explain that RQ is a deadly system and that 'adventurer' implies a very risky lifestyle. If you wanted 'safe' you could have stayed back on the steading... I 'encourage' all my players to armor the head and torso and I remind them that RP and MP are renewable resources and that they should 'power up' before a fight if at all possible. Every one of my players gets this speech from me: "RQ is not DnD. There are no 'warm up fights'. The only HP you're ever going to get is on your character sheet right now and any permanent increase in those HP is both very rare and takes a bit of work to achieve. Even then it won't be very many HP, 1 or 2 at most. Last thing: while some opponents are more powerful than others, there are no 'kobolds' or 'goblins' against whom you are impervious. Even the lowest creature in the game can get lucky and kill you no matter how powerful you get. You have an outright 5% chance of being instant-killed in every single fight you're in. Don't start fights that you don't want to win and don't treat any fight as trivial."

Welcome to the board @Oiscout! I second @Mugen post in that there is a large selection of BRP family of games that can get you off the ground pretty quickly without having to fully consume the Wall of Text that is the lore for many of them. There are quite a few RuneQuest in Glorantha [aka RQG, the current edition of RuneQuest] adventures that don't require buying a bunch of sourcebooks just so you can understand the adventure. The same goes with Call of Cthulhu [CoC] and other franchises. OTOH, if you get bitten by the RQ or Lovecraft bug, well, we got you covered 😁 You might also do a search for 'd100 games' in DriveThru for licensed games that use the basic BRP mechanics in different environments. There is an excellent sci-fi setting called 'M-Space' for example. And, as always, if there's any way the rest of us in Gregg's Geriatric Grognard Gang can help you. just let us know. This board is pretty active and you'll probably end up with more answers than you need. I also encourage you to check out the Chaosium Facebook Page.

I'm gonna agree with you @Darius West, I don't think that the Men-and-a-Half use dogs either. You bring up a very valid reason insofar as the cultural importance of the hunt to Agimori, and they don't use mounts much either. There is an implication that they do use them to an extent... my guess is laboring beasts pulling travois or hauling tentage, etc. But dogs as hunting assistants runs counter to the impression I've always had of them.

In a word, WOW!

Because Aldryami life-sparks /essences/ souls/ whatever go to Aldrya and Uz go to Kyger Litor. Logically Mostali 'essences' would return to their creator, Mostal for whatever processing he directs. Aldryami and Uz can be resurrected, either by use of a spell or Divine Intervention, so logically there isn't any reason why Mostali cannot either. The differences in specific terminology come from the absence of the Fertility Rune in Mostali dogma. It is an important theological point to them that they are Made, not Bred or Born. Sources going back to RQ2 clearly state that that dwarves are created beings intimately tied to their creator diety, that they are uncomfortable with biological processes [ESPECIALLY reproduction], and that their world-view is directly tied to the World Machine and is industrial in nature. IMGU, the effect is the same... a Mostali life essence returns to its material form... but the actual mechanics of the spell in question are known only by the leaders [Diamond Mostali or whomever] of the enclave in question. By the way this means that other casters cannot return a Mostali to life via the specific Resurrection spell, IMGU. If a player plays a Mostali, the corpse must be returned to their home Mostali enclave to be resurrected. And no, I have not suss'ed that out in terms of all the various heresies as yet.

[Just leaving these here for inspiration's sake 😁 ] First is a Storm Voice of Orlanth and the second is a Wind Lord

I'm hearing a Russian accent in there for some reason.... 'All religion vaz inwented by Babsboonz in Mother Rushah!' 😆

Morocanth are of the Covenant. The Agimori and Baboons are accepted Lesser Tribes, but are not of the Covenant. The Pol Joni are neither accepted nor part of the Covenant.

I concur with most everyone so far. Clay Mostali, what Humans call 'Dwarves', are living beings who are conditioned by their society to be robotic in behavior. While Mostali casters might call a spell to bring a faulty unit back to life 'Refurbishment' or some such, it most likely is identical to Resurrection. [My initial thought was to call the Mostali spell 'Recycling' but that term has consistently been used to describe when an errant unit has been sent 'back to the vats' so to speak.]

@Nozbat I'm glad that you've missed out on an unfortunate aspect of the internet, vis-a-vis atheism. That has not been my experience. I've had to verbally smack more than one vegan and atheist for their commonly-held conceit that anyone who doesn't believe exactly as they do is unethical /immoral /stupid /etc. I have no issue with how anyone conducts their private life. Your faith [or lack of it], your empathy [or lack of it], your relationships... none of that is my any of my business. I don't have the right to dictate to you how your conduct yourself in your private life, barring certain commonly held minimum standards and staying within the laws applicable to where you live. But there is a certain subset of society that is a canker on the ass of Western civilization that firmly believes that it is their right and responsibility to interfere with your life because of their beliefs. These are the people that I am pointing at. It is not a specific religion or belief that spawns this nonsense, it is a certain personality type that I object to. It's that sense of entitlement that allows a person to judge or condemn another person because they've made different decisions than someone else. Let me be pointed and blunt about it: Getting on your high horse just let's everyone see the horse crap on your boots. As for political parties, I stand by my statement. One political party is no more virtuous, truthful, or worthy of power than any other. I've watched political theater since Nixon was POTUS and I would rather a child of mine be an ambulance chasing injury lawyer than a professional politician, or worse, a party apparatchik. It's more honest work. And I am equally disgusted with the Left and the Right and I firmly believe that anyone who believes a political party's hyperbole should have their head examined. As for your comments about 'majority rules', you make a point... BUT [!] coalition governments made up of 6 political parties who each control 8% of the vote don't work either. Democracy has been called 'the best worst form of government possible' and I believe that to be true. One party rule is fascism, but having too many parties devalues the individual vote to the extent that a taxi cab or trucker's strike can bring down the entire process of government.

The only thing worse than a born-again vegan is a born-again atheist. But it's close. If 'ignorance is bliss', why are there so many pissed off stupid people lately? The only difference between a Republican/Tory and a Democrat/Liberal is the audience they lie to. Feel free to add your own.

@Ian A. Thomson describes it slightly differently, though not much. And he's very clear in his writing that this is not 1000% RQG 'canon'. However, I find it all [Ok, most of it but not all] to be entertaining enough to be included IMG. I really like the idea of PCs adventuring into the Dragonrise era. Hagran is portrayed as a hireling, an acceptable tool, and very little more to Sor-Eel and the Lunar administration. Hagran's job is to hold down the zone of the Rubble immediately adjacent to the New Pavis Wall so that they don't have to garrison it with Lunar troops. So far Hagran has performed adequately, if only just, but a party of PCs could bugger that up in a tick. The Lunars' focus in the Rubble is the revenues of the salt mines and the plundering of the magical and mythical legacy of Old Pavis. BOTH focuses are important, but it depends on who you ask as to which the priority is. For the bureaucrats, the salt mine is just about the only way they're going to get this province to pay for itself. At least, until Raus can get the Grantlands 'running properly' and Sor-Eel can fully pacify the Upper Zola Fel basin anyway. To the temple authorities, the priority is the marriage of the City God Pavis into the Lunar pantheon, which will open the Rubble to a full looting operation. Who knows what God Learner secrets are buried in there? And that's not even getting into the benefits of having the Flintnail Dwarves available to the Empire.

And prices and profit margins will become correspondingly higher.

Using Ian Thompson's Pavis 1620 books as a reference, the 'Pavis Royal Guard' are the bandits... thugs and mercenaries hired by the Lunars under command of a Zebra tribesman-turned-brigand. The so-called 'bandits' in the Rubble are actually Zebra Tribe loyalists who resisted the Lunar invasion and had to disperse when the city surrendered.

I wholeheartedly agree. And Kiku being the little manipulator instead of 'the happy hooker' she is portrayed in the book as. I think Naga is pretty spot-on... a young man with a legendary father trying to make his own mark without the wisdom necessary to do so I also like the characterization of Blackthorne a lot. He's portrayed as a desperate man playing a lousy hand of cards with every trick he knows. As for Shogun and RPGs, I'm a big fan of the Legend of the 5 Rings RPG [though oddly enough not so much the card game]. When the game was at the top of its popularity John Wick [the author and designer, not the assassin] was asked about an L5R movie. His reply was classic... "How could we possibly make a 5 Rings movie? Master Toshiro is dead..."