svensson

Blister in the Sun, maybe? 😁

Either that or Scotland the Brave. It's your choice really....

It's called 'Cold Wind Over Sartar'. It was in the RQ3 Sun County book, in the scenario 'Melisande's Hand' We only have one verse that survives in the chronicles: "What good is our youth when it's aging?, What joy is an eye that can't see?, When there's cool wind, laughter, and flowers, But only our rivers run free..."

Besides, Hunters get shorted on skill points compared to Farmers anyway. Adding Survival +20 to their Occupation Skills isn't gonna break the game.

Folks, we're kind of beating the dead Sable here. I posed a thread about this myself and so far @Jeff, @Nick Brooke, @Rick Meints and others have been clear and consistent: - There is no rivalry between the Call of Cthulhu and RQG sides of the Chaosium 'house'. They Are All Us. CoC simply has a large backlog of artwork, handwaves, and text that they have to update... which is a lot easier than trying to write original material, as RQG is doing. - The logjam is the Gods of Glorantha and Proserpaedia book set, - Additional issues include artwork and converting Greg's concepts into a consistent mechanical form for play, - Add to this the worldwide shipping and production issues. Right now, Jonstown Compendium is carrying the torch while the RQ staff at Chaosium put in the crunch time. And what a good job they're doing of it, too! We do not lack for play materials. We have everything we need to keep a campaign, ANY campaign, going provided you keep things in Central Genertela. Sure, if you want to adventure in Ralios, Pamaltela, or Carmania, you're going to have to wait. These regions have always been 'outlier Glorantha' anyway, and there are greater priorities. As I understand it, and I'm not guaranteeing that I'm 100% right, the upcoming projects for 2022-24 are: - Gods of Glorantha /Proserpaedia - Heroquesting 101 - An official Guide to the Lunar Empire. In addition, there is long wish list of stuff that we fanboys have suggested, things like a Sorcery sourcebook. But the at-the-end-of-the-day point is this: Chaosium is working on it. Hard. Some things are out of their control and they are doing their damnedest to manage those things that are in their control. Please be patient and have your money ready when you get to to the ticket booth 😉

Maces have one HUGE advantage over swords and axes.... you don't have to worry about the striking angle. You don't have to bend your elbow or wrist in such and such a way as to put the edge on to your opponent. ANY strike with a mace hits with striking surface. Another advantage to it is that any stupid peasant farm boy could pick it up and kill any knight in Christendom. It is for this reason that the Pope declared the Flanged Mace to be 'Unchristian' and 'unsuitable for use in Christian warfare'.

Plus, the idea of an angry Storm Moose is just plain too good to pass up....

@Runeblogger You're looking at it the wrong way, man! Yes, I'm sorry the moose is hurt and I hope that some rangers tranqed the poor guy and got him treatment, but he got hit by lightning and LIVED! Given that option two was 'died', I'd say that was net positive!

OK, I don't get on Reddit much, but my wife uses it as brain candy... something to look at when she's too tired to actually think. She came across this. For the record, Storm Moose are now an official part of my house rules......

Well, Prince Kallyr Starbrow DID Heroquest for major powers, even to the point of almost divorcing herself from the Storm pantheon she's sworn to defend, and she's not a Hero either. @Jeff has been very clear about that in previous comments. I don't know what exactly is required to become a Hero, but destiny certainly plays a role in the process. Not everyone has the favor of the Gods to such an extent as to have the opportunity to Heroquest for Major Hero status. But again, all my suppositions will probably go right out the window once the official Heroquesting rules come out. But that's a couple-three books down the road.

Frodo was Samwise's pet.... 😆 Seriously, Aragorn had the great High Destiny in the story. Elrond had the great High Tragedy. Everybody else was a bit player in the tale. The story of the Hobbits was the showing of grit and determination while living the blast zone of forces greater than themselves. Understand, everyone is the central character of their own story. We live our lives very self-centered, things matter because they effect us. But do you think that Frodo had the wherewithal to spend 100 years questing, mostly alone, all across the known world to defeat an evil demigod and his only happy ending was breaking the heart of the elf-lord he thought of as a father? That's 'Egil's Saga' or 'The Odyssey' level stuff right there. And while Frodo Baggins, the Ringbearer, was a hero... much as player character acting as an agent for Argrath is a hero... Aragorn's journey was simply above his weight class.

And all this is why I maintain that RQG Player Characters are not playing in the same league as 'Heroes-with-a-capital-H'. PCs are not Aragorn, or Conan, or the central figures in the story of the Hero Wars and the defeat of Red Goddess. They are the side characters... They are Legolas or Palamedes [one of King Conan's loyal barons]... or Merry and Pippin. If Queen Leika Ballista, Prince Kallyr Starbrow or Jarostep Prince-Killer are not Heroes, than PCs definitely aren't. Fazzur Wideread isn't a Hero, and he's spent 30 years playing a quarter of Genertelan continent like a puppeteer! Maybe this will change when we get the official Heroquesting rules and when the Hero Wars supplement comes out. It would be nice to see the players able to go toe-to-toe with the big kids in the yard. But as things sit right this minute in 2022, that's just not the case.

OK, fishermen who are trying to feed a steading don't use hook and line or spears. They use nets. But we're also really over-thinking this. We don't need to obsess over the minutiae of Farming or Herding, so let's skip it with Fishing as well. A successful Fishing roll means you caught fish. If you're using hook-and-line for two hours, you got enough to feed 1-4 people. If you're out in the bay using a net and you're out there all day, you got enough to sell at a profit. Boom. Done.

And charcoalers! It's not a pretty job, but it's absolutely vital once you get beyond the subsistence village level of organization. Charcoal is a MUCH more efficient heating source than plain firewood [last longer, produces more BTU] but it requires hardwoods... the *same* hardwoods that shipbuilders, spear-makers, shield makers, and masons want.

So, make a Fishing skill. For a Fisherman /Boatman substitute the basic skill for Farming or Herding. Simple.

Well first off, WELCOME! Always room on the RQ Party Duck 😁 As for solving your combat problems, there are three solutions: 1. Avoid combat [Running or staying to fight is a choice. Choose wisely.] 2. To quote Herger from '13th Warrior', 'Grow stronger!' [i.e. develop your combat skills, buy better armor and spells, etc.] 3. Generate a designated meat shield to handle some of the heavy lifting. The other advice is more tactical: - Dodge or Parry. A lot. - Magic in RQ is THE lifesaver. 'Power up' before fights [Bladesharp, Protection, whatever], don't be afraid to use your Rune Points, and look at the uses for the Common Rune Spells [Cure Wounds will keep you alive]. - Augment skills with Passions and Runes. - If all else fails, Divine Intervention can also help you out. There is an excellent solo adventure on the Chaosium site called 'The Battle of Dangerford' that will show you many of the rules that are unique to RQ. You can play it from your browser, and I suggest that you do. Again, welcome. All us grognards are here to help... even when we're not helping 😁. And at the end of the day, Your Glorantha WILL Vary. The only way to do RQ 'wrong' is to not have fun with RQ.

Yeah, there's a big wide difference between tragedy in pursuit of the story and using character backgrounds as a scourge against the players. Even in a more gritty 'no-holds-barred' kind of game, it's incumbent on the ref to warn the players before he starts taking an axe to their backgrounds. That doesn't mean that their backgrounds are sacrosanct, however. Just going through the family history process in RQG, your ancestors have a 33+% chance of dying for stuff before you even had time to learn what they looked like! But refs shouldn't victimize their players in any event. Like with everything else at the table, a balance has to be struck based on both the story being told and personalities of the players.

Well, my supposition here is based on a very civilized but decadent culture. Thieves could be members in good standing with official cults and still have access to spells that are unexpected and rarely prepared for. I'm just suggesting an avenue into Sorcery as a magic form for both the Earth Pantheon and criminal underworld. The benefit of being a loyal cultist of whomever and a criminal sorcerer should be obvious... You have a large cult that vouches for you as a law abiding citizen, but you don't need to spend POW on spells. You have access to most of the benefits of theist magics AND access to sorcery that aids you in your more nefarious activities and that you can use more often than, say, the Dark Walk Rune spell.

Good point! I initially didn't think of public spectacles and 'circus' games in a matriarchy [institutional violence tending to be testosterone driven after all], but a city of a million people will need something other than theology and politics to entertain them. What would be fun is if they chose to use strange and oddball team sports as their focus... lacrosse /field hockey /hurley or the old Azteca 'ball game' for example... instead of chariot racing or gladiatorial matches. For that matter, a great way for males to burn off all that energy is perhaps a gymnastika decathlonoi type competition where each team has a contestant in each decathlon event and the points are made up based on where each contestant placed in their event. Something that complicated would be VERY conducive to side-betting and associated gambling rackets by criminals.

All of this is sort of what I was getting at.... Treat Nochet like ancient Rome: a million people jammed inside the walls and stacked like cordwood. There isn't any policing as we know the term. There are hired thugs who protect homes, streets, or districts to put the beat down on anyone who isn't supposed to be there after dark. Undoubtedly there is some kind of 'Mother of Public Order' or some such who is responsible for crime and fire services, but they don't have a whole lot of power. But the 'Grain Mother' in charge of getting enough food into the city sure as Hell does.

Well, the trick with sorcery is that the average mook isn't getting access to the grimoire. If a gang member proves themselves to be an 'earner' and both smart and clever, THEN they might get access to the magical secrets.

Enlo tend to have very low IQ and POW [only 2d6 each], making them kind of stupid and weak-willed. These enlo are usually categorized as 'worker' and 'food' by their uzdo masters. The ones you want for guard duty are the top 15%... the values and warrior /hunters[IQ and POW above 10]. These are also the ones that are prized by the Argan Argar cult because they're capable of independent decision-making [they're less terrified of their bosses]. There's a lot of demand for that 15% of capable enlo. As for enlo in the Humakt cult, I would think that the matriarchs of an Uz clan would think three times before allowing enlo to initiate into an outsider cult. For one thing, it gives the enlo too many ideas about personal capability and self-worth, and that is definitely against the best interests of the uzuz and uzdo that are running the show. And that's not even getting into enlo getting weapons training outside clan control! I do agree with you about Humakti being employed as guards or patrols though. They're watchmen, not policemen. All in all, I see the maintenance of public order in Nochet to be rather similar to ancient Rome... when in doubt, hire your own muscle.

Lanbril and the Black Fang make good examples of criminal organizations that have enough mystical power to engender spells for themselves, kind of a 'regimental wyter' for a criminal gang. For that matter, there's Eurmal and Orlanth... both have Thief aspects. And Nochet is a large enough city with enough wealth [because 'large' and 'wealthy' are NOT the same thing] to support several gangs or conspiracies with enough followers to enable some kind of magical power. If you were feeling REALLY ambitious, you could even try to cobble together some Sorcery spells for them... that has the benefit of not requiring POW from a large group of worshipers. Because 'large group' and 'potential snitches' ARE the same thing 😁 As for the legal authorities, that gets more complicated. Nochet is the capital and chief city of the Earth Queendoms of Esrolia. Logically, their beliefs would take precedence over others. Asrelia, Keeper of the Wealth of the Earth, would naturally have an interest in preventing thievery, as would Issaries and Argan Argar. I suppose that Humakti could run a pretty profitable mercenary guards business that could patrol the streets for obvious crime, but I definitely don't see these as the guys who could run an investigation. They're more likely to spot pickpockets and burglars. Speaking of Uz [and taking a page from Pavis' book], I could see groups in the city paying a night watch of trollkin in certain districts, but I doubt that even a couple of Uz clans would want to devote their entire stock of enlos to patrolling the streets. Remember, to the Uz, trollkin/enlos are an abomination, but they're also a resource to be exploited and a food source. And no Uz will willingly part with a food source if they can find a way to avoid it. I do see Nochet having a Shadow Quarter or Uz District... There is a long history of Esrolia and Shadow Plateau cooperating and both are matriarchies, there's more common ground than you might see at first look.

'Plot HARPOON'.... 'The meaty *thwack* you just felt was the plot harpoon sinking in, Bob....'

Tragedy and disaster are the things that make heroes. Very few adventurers come from happy, fulfilling, contented home lives. As a general rule, something happens to send them down the road to blood and glory. And sometimes those things happen in play. In one campaign I played in, our characters had made ourselves quite the nuisance to a Very Bad Man. After awhile, the VBM decided that he'd had enough of our crap and 'sent a message'. The message was having our paladin [it was a d20 game] kidnapped by cultists of the milieu's God of Greed and Murder, tortured and sacrificed. The paladin's soul was annihilated, no resurrection possible. And there was absolutely nothing we PC's could do about it. We'd searched all over for our missing comrade and came up empty. And then the VBM sent us a dream that detailed the paladin's fate in gory detail. Divinations with the clergy of the paladin's god revealed that he was dead and his soul had not been received by his afterlife. Now the referee had gotten with the player and worked this fate out with him in exchange for certain 'gift of the gods' benefits given to the replacement character. But the event really changed the tone of the campaign from one where we thought we had things under control to one where we felt threatened and very much on the defensive. To put it another way, 'message received'. This is admittedly extreme, but 'tragedy' is very much part of the adventurer's life. Sometimes it's prosaic and 'normal' [parents die of disease]. Sometimes it's really nasty [see above]. But it's something that every player character has to have happen to them at least once.