svensson

So, I'm teaching my niece and grand-niece how to play RQG from a standing start. The only experience they have with tabletop gaming is computer games and books. Now, this is also a new experience for ME, because for the first time in my life I have a table of nothing but women /girls. My wife is playing the role of 'grognard' in that she's played RQ games before and has a solid understanding of the mechanics. It's not her favorite system ever, but she's still having fun. The way I've 'sold' the game to my two newbies is by showing them that anybody can do anything, that you can develop your character in any direction you want. I explain that the game doesn't have classes or roles... everybody has to fight, how well you fight depends on you develop combat skills. I explain that everybody can fight a little, heal a little, sneak a little, has minor spells that can help you or hurt the bad guy, and so forth, but that you can decide if you want to be party 'talky guy' or 'weird skill monkey' or the font of sacred power, etc. So far they really like the idea. For me, it's a bit of struggle working out themes that appeal to them. The party is not made up of Conan [or Red Sonja] wannabes 😁. In addition, my grand-niece is just turning 13-14. I'm working very hard not to fall into the 'hooker-housewife-hag' fantasy trope and keep sexual relations in the background. This means, for example, that while 'Troy' might be great idea for movie inspiration, the women depicted spend half their time nude. I have to admit, several illustrations in the Weapons and Equipment Guide help with that a lot... Putting the idea in the head of a girl that she doesn't have to pretty or sexy to be taken seriously. So everybody at the table is learning something.

@davecake I too am more and more convinced that cetaceans are probably sentient, but if so it's a VERY different kind of intelligence. David Brin and Doug Adams anyone? 😁

In Osprey Warrior 121: Soldier of Pharaoh [Middle Kingdom Egypt 2055-1650 BC] there is discussion about a massive expedition to find and exploit copper deposits in the open desert. You might find this early attempt at industrialization of interest. A good magazine of general Egyptology interest is KMT Journal, which is focused on Pharaonic Egyptian archeology and society. I think of it as the 'Military History Quarterly of Egyptology'... a 'middle level' research magazine for those who are read in on ancient Egypt and have a firm basic knowledge but can now understand the opinions and suppositions of the experts. Link below. https://kmtjournal.com/

Has anyone wondered if Vinga Red Ladies ever become Storm Voices in Orlanth? Queen Leika of the Colymar is her clan's Orlanth Rex [Regina?] priestess by dint of her election as queen, but I don't believe I've ever seen reference to a female Orlanth Thunderous priestess. What do you guys think?

Anywhere there is Orlanth Adventurous, you will find the Red-Headed Thane-Woman, it's just that simple. HOWEVER COMMA BUT... Vinga Rune Ladies are somewhat harder to find on the ground than Wind Lords. In my Glorantha, many Vingans had to flee Sartar after Starbrow's Rebellion, with many naturally finding refuge with Praxian Tribes, with the Hendrikings, or in Esrolia. I strongly feel that Vinga adventuresses have a mutual support network that helps Vinga women find Rune Ladies for training, spells, and mentorship at least on a regional basis. And it's a sure bet that an ardent Lunar resister like Krogar Wolfhelm would know what tribe or steading a Rune Lady of Vinga was hiding out at. Once the Dragonrise occurs and Vinga can worship again in Sartar, a great many of these women will naturally return home. But some will remain in their homes of exile, having made lives and families for themselves. And naturally, many of these questions [and probably most of suppositions] will change significantly once Gods of Glorantha /Proserpaedia comes out.

Well, if King of Dragon Pass is any indicator.....

I had asked about a genericized RQG rules set suitable for Questworlds or other milieux a few months ago and was told quite emphatically that nothing like that is in the works. This isn't altogether bad, however. BRP is the generic d100 system and it's relatively easy to module in any specific mechanics you like to create your own take on things. It's one of the great things about d100 - - you can add or subtract elements of the system without having to completely rewrite a game system.

Phil, you're missing the analogy. Knowing how smart you are, it's likely on purpose. Yes, Glorantha is a fantasy world, but ALL fantasy worlds are based to some degree or other on the common human experience here on Earth. Glorantha is no more devoid of the human storyteller traditions than Middle Earth is. There is a commonality of themes, conflicts, and resolutions of story in most traditions, from Yakut to Bantu, Han Chinese to Irish Gaelic. My end point is this: A hunter with a sakkar as a hunt companion would be as unusual to a Gloranthan as a person with a puma as a pet in your community on Earth. It's possible, but is so unusual as to be commented on and gossiped about.

Sure. In another discussion, we dived into the question 'Is there a Grandmother Bat?' I personally came down on 'Yes, there is and she's MIGHTILY pissed off at the Crimson Bat's corruption of her people.'

I disagree... a lot. I strongly feel that alynxes and house cats are both present and VERY different critters. Humans on Earth tamed several breeds of small, rodent-hunting cats as pest-controllers and it's entirely reasonable for Gloranthans to have done the same. This question showed up tangentially in the 'Awakened Pet Heritage Boon Table' discussion. The table [RQG Core Book, pg 83] allows for a SIZ 1 or 2 animal to be awakened to full sentience as a companion and friend of the PC. The animal has normal physical statistics, but an INT, POW, and CHA of 3d6. Cats, lizards, snakes, etc. were all mentioned as examples. Now, alynxes come in a SIZ 3-4 where house cats are generally SIZ 1-2. The discussion digressed into 'can I have an alynx for my awakened pet instead of a house cat'. I pointed out that several very tough SIZ 2 cats exist... the Pallas cat /manul or ocelot for two examples... and so your awakened cat is probably NOT an alynx, unless it's the runt of the litter. Then the question is: 'Why spend the POW to Awaken the runt of the litter? Wouldn't common sense lead one to spend that effort on a larger, more capable animal instead?'

Well, real world, no lions and tigers [oh my!] are NOT 'cats'. They are apex predators fully capable of taking down a healthy and resisting human. Even an alynx would have trouble with that criteria, and they are semi-wild whereas your average barn cat is not. They are felines, certainly, related in the same way that otters and wolverines are related. But that's a WHOLE different breed of critter. Neither can be treated as the other because one has evolved a very different lifestyle and ecological niche. A tiger is not an alynx is not tortoise-shell house cat. And don't give me that 'Born Free' I Have A Pet Large Cat video nonsense. Those particular pets are singular animals, raised from a very early age to be pets. Turning them loose into the wild alone would be death sentence for the beast. It would be just as strange for a Gloranthan hunter to have a sakkar [smilodon] 'pet' as it is for someone in your neighborhood to.

So, to the OP, I've converted several plots from other games, but that's entirely separate from an 'apples-to-pears' full conversion. I've long since given up on d20 games, so I tend to gravitate towards the more off the wall game systems. Some of these are great for setting and writing, some have interesting mechanics to go with the writing. From Columbia Games' 'Harn' setting and and HarnMaster system, three adventures have plots that are eminently suited to RQG adaptation: Two are HarnMaster [the game system] QuickStarts, 'Field of Daisies' and 'Dead Weight'. The first is looking for a missing child with the complication of a cursed knife. The second is a shipwreck with a cargo of plague ridden dead. This plague can make the victims undead. The last one is '100 Bushels of Rye' about a village needing the help because they're under nighttime attack by a mysterious murderer. The local knight who holds the fief [insert 'thane' here] isn't prepared to deal with an enemy that won't fight him in open battle [the knight is a famed jouster, but tracking something in the woods is beyond him] and has retreated to the bottle. The villagers have responded by not sending their annual taxes to the knight's overlord. All three of these adventures are available at drive thru.

Missed that detail. Oh well. Just a little revenge for those Crimson Bat attacks then.

@Joerg Leika knew she wasn't eligible to be Prince, that Kallyr was dead, and Sartar needed a leader desperately. Without the unity that a Prince can bring to the tribes, the Lunars would take the country a piece at a time. The only reasonable candidate was Argrath. Sure, he was defeated at Second Moonbroth, but then he formed the White Bull Society, sailed the Giant's Cradle to the Sea despite everything the Lunars and the Sun Domers could throw at it [including the Lunar's Mission Impossible team, the Lunar Coders!], and then summoned a True Dragon while utterly destroying any Lunar of any note South of Furthest and better than 90% of the Sartarite collaborators to boot! I submit that that last act alone, probably the greatest single act of magical mastery since the Birth of Sedenya, erased any and all previous failures. And let me point out that the advent of the Scarlet Harlot took 7 people and multiple HeroQuests. Argrath appears to have summoned the Brown Dragon by himself [this is probably not the case, but the optics are good for him]. Argrath's reputation was absolutely secured at that point, but then he re-lit the Flame of Sartar at his coronation. Any doubts that Leika might have had are completely dismissed at this point. Even a hardened warfighter like Leika ought to be thoroughly impressed with Argrath at this point in the proceedings and Argrath's obvious qualifications to be Prince fully justified Leika's torching of Kallyr's bier. Sartar needed a leader. Leika provided the conditions for that leader to take his place as Prince. The Lunars have just realized that it's a whole new ballgame now. Tatius the Bright is probably losing a lot of sleep lately.

There were many Sartarite tribes that didn't like Leika at all, thinking that various factors made them the 'obvious' choice for Prince. But whether or not any given person can or cannot be Prince, the House of Sartar has had more than one scion who was a figurehead for more powerful groups in the kingdom. Temertain was just the latest and most obvious one. And Leika doesn't have the kind of backing needed for the power-behind-the-throne position either. This is why I believe that she lit Kallyr's pyre for two reasons: - 1. A gesture of respect to a 'friendly enemy'... Leika did not like Kallyr, but she respected Kallyr's efforts. She would have done it a different way, but they shared the same motives. - 2. To break the political deadlock in Sartar. Leika's wartime experiences showed her that the Lunar's imperial system could replace losses incredibly quickly when compared to a system of tribal levies like Sartar's. If Sartar didn't act FAST to secure her borders, the Lunars would start biting pieces off the edges while more reinforcements came South from the Heartland Corps. Either that, or whole sections of the country would devolve into banditry. Either way, somebody had to establish control or else the war would go on indefinitely.

The problem with 'empire' isn't the WINNING of the empire, it's KEEPING it. Especially when your empire is trying to impose a common set of laws, customs, and religion across its entirety. The Romans, British and French found this out to their very great discomfort. The Mongols were more successful because they DIDN'T change local cultures or religions. They had very simple laws with clear and absolute punishments for their violations, but Russians followed the laws and customs of Russia, Chinese followed the Chinese, etc. In Gloranthan terms, the Lunars are trying to be the British Empire with a large slice of the Umayyad /Fatamids thrown in. They are not only driven by access to resources, but by religion and the absolute conviction that their way is the only right way to organize a society [despite all the evidence to the contrary]. They are a 'crusading' culture that ran up against a collection of races and people just simply refuse to be conquered. And now they're paying the price.

One of the small joys of this hobby is finding interesting information in odd corners. On today's wikipedia front page, there is a VERY interesting article on a prehistoric village on Cyprus by name of 'Tenta'. It discusses the tools, food, and lifestyle of this very early attempt at settlement. I'm thinking that more than one referee will find something of interest here. [link below] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenta,_Cyprus

Well, even RQ doesn't 'control' weather all that much. You can Call or Clear cloud cover, and establish small areas of local weather conditions for short periods, but at the cost of major expenditures of Rune Points. It would be a serious expenditure of RP for, say, a Heler Rune level to cause rain in an area larger than 100 sq. meters, and even that's a gentle life-supporting rain, not an 'everybody-get-inside' downpour. The same goes for a Valind Rune level [who are **significantly** rarer on the ground Helerians in Sartar] causing snow, although they ought to be able to cause blizzard conditions more easily I should think. I'm pretty sure that much of this discussion will be significantly changed with the release of God of Glorantha in any event. That'll have detailed writeups on all the 'weather gods' including special rune spells that will probably go beyond just Cloud Call, Cloud Clear, Rain, Sunripen, etc.

Well, all this really depends on the PC's and the various tribes' experience with Kallyr. Because Sartarite leaders are more meritoriously selected than Lunar or Dara Happan ones, there are a great deal more personal relationships to go with the political opinions. More people have a hands-on workaday experience with 'Chief Bob' and know Bob's leadership style. If Bob is an inspiring lead-from-the-front kind of guy, that message will get around pretty quick. If Bob is more a Bolthor or Kangharl type, that message will get around too. Leika's rep is as mixed as Kallyr's was. She suffered much for the cause of Sartarite freedom, and made a lot of mistakes on the way. Like Kallyr, she made a lot of enemies. What's more, Leika's administration is pretty new as the campaign starts out of the RQG GM's Pack. She's only had the Chiefship for a couple seasons since Dragonrise. She had previous experience, of course, and the tribe is happy to have the Black Spear back home, but her administration is still weak and the people are looking to see if Orlanth and Ernalda favor Leika's return. That's gonna take a couple of Sacred Times to sort out.

Not having cultists who deal specifically with weather issues [Heler, etc], I assume that the weather is 'average' for the season until a plot requires otherwise. Something I learned in the Army that helps with the adventurer mindset is 'The job has to get done no matter what the sky is doing. Bring a coat and a tee-shirt and get back to work.' Of course, when the weather becomes a threat to life and limb, the job is postponed... but that means that something else that needed to get done won't be done. The trick to the whole thing is managing the jobs so that the ones that are inevitably delayed by weather are the jobs you can live without.... Thatching the roof rather than fixing the fence, that sort of thing. I say all this because adventurers [or at least players, who are not feeling the frostbite soak into their feet] often push harder than a senior NCO with a big inspection coming up... forced marches become routine, working their animals to death ['Well, he's gonna die in a couple of years anyway" said one PC in my game], pushing their tenant farmers as hard as they push themselves [but remember, Player Character Bob... all that extra work only enriches YOU, not them], etc. etc. etc. I've even had one PC look at me and ask, completely seriously, "How many toes does 'Regrow Limb' grow back?" when the stupid SOB didn't get the hint and marched three days in a blizzard wearing sandals thereby losing all the toes on one foot. Jesus, you'd think somebody could take a hint, but.... Fortunately, I have a far more sensible group of players now. They [usually] take the hint when the weather socks them in. I have also learned to tell them when the weather is part of the plot. And I am VERY careful to manage their movement and 'tasks completed list' for weather conditions as well. You just don't get as far towards your goals when it's too hot or too cold or raining or whatever else have you, and I've 'taught' my players to factor that into their planning.

OK, first off, that was a great way to involve the PCs in the main storyline. Nice work. However, Earth Prime history isn't very kind to those who are the Doers Of Very Bad Things For Those In Power. For every Francis Walsingham, who retired honored, rewarded and in favor with Elizabeth I, there are 10 G. Gordon Liddys... who died [just last year, in 2021] a broke nobody who had to resort to using his infamy to host Wrestlemania and schill gold on late night TV. The danger of doing the will of your prince [inferring your sworn leader here] without their specific order to do so is that you can easily be scapegoated if the politics demand it. With EXTREMELY fatal consequences.

Certainly Leika sees herself as the logical replacement, but she knows that there's powerful tribes in Sartar would resist her rule without the immediate threat of a Lunar counterattack. The Colymar are a powerful tribe, but Leika is simply too disliked in equally powerful quarters and she knows it. That said, she gave Kallyr's spirit every opportunity to re-inhabit its body. Three weeks is a long time to wait for a resurrection, and everybody in Boldhome knew it. They were hoping for some post-Death Heroquest miracle [which is certainly possible in Glorantha], but while they waited the Lunars were already moving reinforcements to the Provincial Army. The Sartarite political impasse HAD to be broken so somebody could become Prince and lead the country back to independence. Leika knew from fighting with Broyan that an unconsolidated victory is indistinguishable from defeat, so if not Leika herself, she knew that Argrath had the lineage, the following, and the power to lead. And none of that was going to happen while Kallyr lay on a bier like Baby Jesus on a Christmas manger display.

I suspect that some tribes were royally pissed off... especially the Boldhome-centered Quivini. Some would think that Leika was trying to become Prince, but if that was the case she and the Colymar would have stayed in Boldhome. Some tribes would think that Leika was just doing something, ANYTHING to get things moving again. More than anything else, I personally think she did it to get the thanes of all the tribes back to their own lands.... The Lunars had been driven back, but not defeated. And the Lunars could replace losses much faster than the Sartarites. I think she wanted the troops back where they could defend their lands instead of waiting on funeral for an entire season. But that's just my opinion.

The way I do such things is have the players make an INT or POW 'luck' roll. Usually it's Stat x 5, but it could be Stat x 3 if it's something they've been warned about repeatedly in the past. If anything, such a roll will get the players thinking 'what did I miss?' and sometimes that helps jog the memories. If you want RP the whole thing, have the players take part in a ceremony or festival and have them announced as 'Bearers of the King Beneventos' Panoply!' If that doesn't ring the bell for them, the players really do need to suffer the consequences. Glorantha is world where the gods and spirits lie very close to the Mundane Plane and such beings do not take well to false promises. I know it's harsh for your players, but part of the wonder of Glorantha over, say, the Forgotten Realms is that there are no Elminsters to fix it for you. Humanity has more agency in Glorantha, more ability to change the world. The great danger of the Lunar Empire is their ability to conduct 'HeroQuest Offensive Operations' a'la the God Learners. So if humans can reassemble a deity and HeroQuest new powers and force a place in the Sky Dome for her, it's perfectly appropriate for PC's to suffer the consequences for failing to making good on a promise to a powerful spirit /almost-wyter... especially since that spirit provided the tools, HIS tools, that gained the party fame to begin with. It's not 'harsh' as a GM to rule that Consequences Have Arrived. It's harsh if you are vicious or cruel with them, like you're some 13 year old power-gamer munchkin style GM in junior high school. But the scenario states that the party's clan suffers the -25%. Once that happens, divinations will be made and the cause will be identified. The sum total penalty is the clan has a rough year and the party takes a major REP hit [it IS possible for your reputation to increase for all the wrong reasons -- just because people have heard of you doesn't mean it was complimentary]. So it's not harsh to adjudicate that penalty, no more and no less.

As for awakened animals joining cults... We have RQ3 canon references of mounts joining cults, but it was so unusual as to be specifically referred to. In Strangers In Prax, one of the Lunar Coders wyvern mounts had enough mental ability [CHA, POW and INT] to be initiated into Seven Mothers. This was so unusual that a plaque stating this fact was permanently stitched to its scales. Now, I grant you that a wyvern isn't an alynx and RQ3 isn't RQG. But Glorantha is world where the wonderful happens on a fairly regular basis [with luck and hard work] and there are more possibilities than here on Earth. Having said that, I also think that most animals wouldn't be drawn to a human cult as much as they would to a cult specific to their species. An alynx would be drawn to Yinkin, for example, or Hykim and Miyakh. But since the Rune spells of said cults are designed for humans [The Head, Claws, Skin spells], obviously some adjustments will need to be made. I could honestly see a 2 pt Rune spell that gives a pawed animal human hands and the ability to manipulate items for the duration ['Behold, the power of THUMBS!'].