svensson

Bill, I'm glad it's all better. But I do think it's fair to point out that the vast majority of answer were 'YES, spells have a visual component. Here's why....' What I mean to say is that nobody had lost sight of the OP's original question. If there is one place on Terra-Funda for all us old grogs to spool out all of our ritualistic reasonings and mythical mumblings, this is the place.

As to the OP's question... IMG, all spells have a visual component. Rune Spells have a greater visual effect than Spirit magic or Sorcery as the caster is actually incarnating a portion of the Gods' power in the Mundane World. Thus, seeing a Storm Lord of Orlanth [that is, a Rune Lord /Priest] cast Lightning Bolt is truly impressive. His physical shape seems to triple in size for an instant, but not actually occupy more space, thunder rolls as the lightning leaps forth from the mythical storm clouds that have gathered briefly around him. The sadly incomplete Prince of Sartar web-comic does a very good job of showing of magics... You can almost tell what type of magic is being cast in the artwork. I suggest looking at the last chapters during the battles aboard the Cradle to see what I mean.

And now I have this vision in my head of Barathos rousing a bunch of Western Malkioni... "....and wizards now abed in Malkonwal will hold their manhood cheap! Whilst any speaks who fought with Us, on Saint Gerleth's Day!"

In the very first game I played a guy decided he wanted to be an Ogre and was so happy when he rolled a Chaos Feature.... Ok, my smartass brain just went to Audie Murphy...

All valid points, and I'm not saying you're wrong. But I do think we came away from the same source material with a different sense of it. As with all things gaming, your mileage will vary.

I don't know about that Joerg. Most Uz material is pretty clear about how males are not important insofar as lineage or inheritance matters, all of that descending from the female line. It doesn't matter that a male has never sired a litter of trollkin, only that a mother has never given birth to one. Beyond that, how can it really be proven that holds fatherhood in so little importance? Females of breeding age are kept safely at home either doing their work for the clan, pregnant or actively caring for young. Trolls don't even have a marriage ceremony the same way that Orlanthi think about it. I think I'm more inclined to believe Jajagappa's theory that male Uzuz are not seen because they 'adventure' in the underworld, only come out at night, or are otherwise tied up in cult tasks. Jeff points out two Uz male cultural heroes in Gore and Gash, and I would add a third, the Only Old One of Shadow Plateau [all of whom I should have thought of in the first place]. Other than those, I don't know of any other Uzuz males that have gotten 'famous'. As for Arkat-as-troll theory, it is possible that he was adopted as a troll [as in the Kyger Litor ceremony] but he was always still considered a human by virtually every other source. You almost wonder what it must have been like as an Uzuz male during the Gbaji Wars, being out-Karrg-Son'ed by a squishy human... lol! Remember, in the First Age an Uzuz was a heck of a lot closer to being a mythic Hero than even most famous and legendary humans. The average Rule Lord level Uzuz could pair off against a major human cultural Hero like Heort and it would be 60-40 and pick 'em as to who would win.

And get their HeroQuest cred built up...

So, I have the GoG and the Glorantha Sourcebook. I also have TrollPack from RQ3. And nowhere do any of these sources answer a question that just occurred to me after 40 years of being a Glorantha fanboy... Are there any Mistress Race males, and if so, what are their roles in Uz Society? One presumes that they are too important to go bashing about like some Karg's Son Rune Lord.... I can see this being a bit of controversy for Uz-ish theology, but there doesn't seem to be a solid answer anywhere I looked.

The Guardian reports that the British Museum has finished cataloguing the Southend-on-Sea burial. Article link below https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/09/britains-equivalent-to-tutankhamun-found-in-southend-on-sea?utm_source=pocket-newtab

The Guardian reports that the British Museum has finished cataloguing the Southend-on-Sea burial. Article link below https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/09/britains-equivalent-to-tutankhamun-found-in-southend-on-sea?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Most of the canon contradictions are because the information is presented in a cultural context. The history of Dragon Pass is WAY different when a Lunar tells the story than when an Orlanthi does or when a dragonewt does. This explains many discrepancies right there. Even the Middle Sea Empire of Jrustela failed to construct a Monomyth for the Gods Age, and they spent centuries HeroQuesting for those answers. And at the end of the day.... canon is whatever the referee says it is. So long as it's consistent, there's no problem.

Welcoming. OF COURSE we should be welcoming. RPG gaming will always be under-cut by video games, and the more we make the table welcoming the healthier our hobby is overall. I'm gonna make a couple comments about this that may just get a few noses out of joint. I make these comments for the sole purpose of making our hobby a welcoming place for everyone and not as an attack or even a criticism of anyone's issues or personality. Keep that in mind. -Leave your issues at the door. Not every struggle in society needs to be reflected at the game table. Your causes, concerns or issues are not the same as my causes, concerns, or issues and mutual respect and courtesy demands that we not engage each other in those debates if they are not game related. We are all Us, 'us' being defined as gamers. -Lore is supposed to add to the game, not detract from it. All us old grogs need to remember to keep our comments about lore to a minimum. We can easily overwhelm a new player with our grognardic lectures and that's not a good thing. If you're not the referee, remember that your presence at the game is your agreement to play in that referee's vision of Glorantha, not yours. -Don't be a complainer. We all have stuff we don't like. I'm a football fan, for one example. Ask me how I feel about the Dallas Cowboys and you'll get an earful. But we don't need to constantly bitch about this trend in gaming or how you don't like that 'thing', whatever it is. As an example, I am not a big fan of Fantasy Flight's habit of buying franchises and converting them to their SAGA special dice system. They recently did that with an IP that I used to love, Legend of the Five Rings. But there's no need to flog that pony every time I talk about gaming, right? -Keep the 'fan service' to a minimum. Nobody likes a Mary Sue. You know what I'm talking about, so we'll just leave it there. Now, as I've mentioned, I'm guilty [as Hell] of some of this stuff myself. I'm an old geek but I still have make room for new geeks. Why? I don't want to be the last generation of geek, that's why.

The Legion did not deploy into France en masse in 1914. France still had colonial campaigns ongoing in North Africa and needed troops there to keep the native Berber and Tuareg tribes in check. In the reorganizations that followed the declaration of war, the Legion formed two large regimental task forces [that unique French construct, the 'regiment de marche'] consisting of troops from all Legion regiments and the wave of foreign volunteers. Germans already serving in the Legion were given a choice, remain in North Africa in what was sure to be hard service or deploy with their comrades to Metropolitan France. In the end, most of the NCOs in the Regiments de Marche de Legion Etranger were Germans by descent.

In 1914, Germany was still very new at the whole 'empire' thing. The region we think of as 'Germania' was still thought of as almost a 'confederation of kingdoms' where the various states payed homage to the Kaiser but often thought of themselves as semi-independent. Nowhere was this more prevalent than in Bavaria, who kept her own sovereign crown, her own army, her own officer's seniority list, etc. And many Bavarians thought of themselves as Bavarians, not as Germans, who had a common language with Brandenburg-Prussia but were as different from Prussia as the Irish are from the English. So, about your specific question of 'where did you get your info on the Foreign Legion's German makeup', a good starting source with a great bibliography is Osprey Publishing's Men-at-Arms 325 'The French Foreign Legion 1914-1945' and Men-at-Arms 461 'The French Foreign Legion 1872-1914', both written by Martin Windrow, a former Legionnaire himself.

So yesterday I finally was able to acquire my copy of the RQ Slipcase edition. Yes, I could have bought it online, but I'm lucky enough to have not one but two FLGS within a reasonable distance and I like to support them. Now, this is important to me for a sentimental reason. Last year a friend of mine was attending GenCon and picked up a copy of the RQG Core Rulebook for me. Jeff Richard and Greg Stafford were there and signed my copy. Then, sadly, Greg passed away. 😥 Until now I've been very careful with the signed copy and held off buying a 'bash around' copy until the slipcover came out. Then I showed up to my FLGS [shout out to Gabi's Olympic Comics and Cards, Lacey WA] only to find that they were having their spring sale! 20% off all new games! And no, I had no idea this was coming up. FUCKING SKWEEEE!, ok? It's a pretty good day at the office when you get a $160 item for $120. So I bought the Glorantha Sourcebook too 😎 There is much Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! at my place right now.

True, Jean, but to be completely fair about the whole thing France was spoiling for a fight with Germany ever since 1871. While Germany was the one to declare war, France didn't object to it all that much in 1914.

Certainly, an AlsaBian [German spelling] is possible. I've done some research into the Legion Etranger and in 1914 a significant percentage of the NCOs were actually Bavarians who joined the Legion to avoid service with the Imperial German [read: Prussian] Army. At the time there was a large cultural divide between the largely Catholic, generally permissive Bavarians and the stodgy, largely Protestant [Calvanist] Brandenburgers. I'll look up the comic book. That's a new one for me and everything is grist for the mill Thanks for the input.

Don't it just? hehe

IMO it would depend on the nature of the breaking. *Was the worshiper under unconscious or magical compulsion? For example, 'Never ride a horse on [x] day'... was the worshiper KO'd or Stupified and had to be transported over his saddle to get aid? *Did the worshiper do it as a survival measure? [especially the dietary ones] *Did the worshiper do it simply for convenience? etc. At minimum, under the more favorable circumstances, the worshiper would suffer the temporary loss of the Gift and access to Rune magic until some kind of formal atonement is made. If the breaking was egregious or specifically Rune related [Both Yelmalio and Humakt embody the Truth rune so wilful lying would be very bad], then the worshiper might suffer the penalties of the deity's Spirit of Reprisal until they made atonement and their conduct would most assuredly come up if the worshiper wanted promotion in the cult. And among Yelmalions and Humakti on active service some geas-breaking wouldn't count that much against them. The 'exigencies of service' sometimes require the violation of a geas to get the mission accomplished. For one example, it would be a real pain in the ass for a commander or chieftain to have to manage who couldn't ride a horse on which day of which week during which season when he needs someone to get on a horse to deliver a message or go to battle. Note that 'active service' in this context means serving as a temple mercenary without temple support, especially among Yelmalions who require a Sun Dome temple for much of their worship.

Playing a few pages in the PbF game, I can see where that works well. At a table, where you're managing personalities and RL experiences, Battle skill can also allow a neophyte tactician to run an experienced Gloranthan warrior type. Which is WAY different from running a DnD '5 foot shift' fighter type. You want the real truth... it's actually harder for all us SCA-types or ex-infantry types to not chime in when we're playing, say, an Issaries trader or Odayla hunter [who by rights ought to know diddly /squat about running a real battle]. Battle skill is a good mechanic to allow the novice tactician to set up the battle [presuming he has the time and the initiative] to consult with the table brain trust. [note: I call out the SCA types and ex-grunts cuz I R wun... I know very well what we're like]

Battle skill seems to be a mechanic for off-table battles. Were I to use it at the table, Battle would be used for those players who don't have practical experience in tactics to get ideas on positioning [high ground = good, high ground with concealment = better, high ground with cover = best].

Greg and Jeff seem to bend science to make the magic work quite a lot. Take, for example, all of our various discussions on Rune metals etc. when we're asking 'is Gloranthan ur-metal really iron, or is it just Glorathan equivalent?' Insert long grog discussion /debate /argument here... The world works the way the ref says it does. Just so long as there is consistency, we all just roll with it.

No offense taken. We hate you right back 😘

No, but he's petted the cat....

Yeah, my copy of the RQG rules was signed by Greg. Now I wish my damned FLGS' distributor would get off the stick and stock the slipcase edition so I can retire the signed copy to the preservation it deserves.