svensson

1 hour ago, TerryTee said:

Thanks for lots of good input.

Seems like stuff that can be healed with battle magic (spirit Heal as we play RQ3) often will not lead to wergild.

As for compensation for an injury from a honour perspective, I'm uncertain. My first thought is at demanding payment for a (low cost) healable injury may seem whiny and cause the injured party to loose face even more. But of course,  circumstances will vary widely.  

Historically, there were two scales when considering weregild: the level of injury and the loss of ability to make a living and the level of insult and loss of reputation.

Now, the injury gets whole lot more nebulous in a world where magical healing is available, but the Orlanthi are a simpler people than the Esrolians or Dara Happans. If you injure a person [and the gender makes no difference; among Orlanthi keeping a house and tilling a field are held in equal esteem], you are bound to attempt to make right your error as Orlanth did during the Lightbringer's Quest.

If you unjustly injure a man but immediately heal him, you still are held liable for the injury because you shouldn't have hurt him in the first place! Certainly you won't pay as much as if you cut him and left him to die, but you will be held to account for your actions before the clan ring. This is done to keep the hotheads [of which Heortlings have more than their fair share] under some kind of control. No man wants to be hauled up before the clan ring time and again because he pulls his sword too casually... he might find himself indentured to the family he injured all through Earth Season harvest time [and thereby not be able to help his kin harvest his own crops] if he makes too big a habit of it.

My point here is that just because there is magical healing doesn't mean than offense was not committed. Now, a lot of this will depend on reputation, popularity, and clan ring's attempts to put the matter to bed without hard feelings, but the essential justice and social controls are still present.

Well, this is just the thing we've been needing.

I got HeroLab for my Pathfinder Characters and it's been a huge help given Paizo's release schedule. But I won't lie, that crap ain't cheap. So I can really see the need for this utility. Like I said, THANKS for all the hard work.

Wow. Good stuff and clearly a lot of work. Nice job @Cgeist7

44 minutes ago, klecser said:

I actually thought you were being coyly political about DND by using strikethrough.  😜

And I take spreading the hobby and keeping it inclusive very seriously and always have. I think one thing that a lot of gamers just don't understand is that popularity and engagement follows the kind of experiences new players have. And you can break a game's community when it becomes too toxic. Boards where experienced players seem more annoyed and standoffish with questions or insights (or don't respond at all) aren't helping their games.  😕

That said, I've decided I'm going to go ahead and post a series of videos about detailed character creation in RQG on my YouTube Channel (RPG Imaginings). I'm not pretending to be an expert. I think it's fun to see new players working through something for the first time. It will not be definitive or the best. I'm doing it because people are more likely to dive in when someone helps them. The first of a multi-part series for each character creation step will go live later today.

1. Nope. My wife used to work for WotC and DnD. If you own any 3.0 /3.5 stuff, her name has a good chance of being in it. As we used to joke, 'Dirzzt Do'Urden was our sugar-daddy'

2. Yeah, I'm also one of those 'all aboard' type people. I shy away from the word 'inclusive' because of the political correctness overtones, but I still hate bimbo armor and excessive perviness out of peeps at my table.

3. If you've got the personality to do video, do you thing! I'm a Civil War reenactor who does a lot of school demos and I used to do stand up comedy, but for all that I don't video worth a damn. The camera just hates me.

4. You'll find that this board is very helpful. Actually, we're kind of like Civil War reenactors in that if you ask us a simple question, you'll end up finding out WAY more than thought you were going to

Wereguild [Blood Gold] is the custom of compensation for those who were killed or injured in the various fights that happen in Orlanthi society.

The rates quoted in the books for ransoms are often a good indicator as to what their wereguild will be.

As to when someone is only injured, the compensation is adjusted depending on the extent of the injury. A permanent wound can result in full compensation if that wound bars a citizen from making a living. However, it is not unusual for the wereguild to be the price of healing a major wound... Did you accidentally cut someone's leg off? Then you might be held liable for the price of a Regrow Limb spell.

Dueling is another matter. If duel happens because of somebody's hot temper, then both parties might be liable for wereguild depending on the results of the duel. If a duel is the result of a clan feud, or to settle an argument between clans, then no wereguild is awarded. Actions in declared wars or cattle raids never result in wereguild, and it is considered crass to demand it.

As to 'where the Hell has RQ been', well, it's been languishing for the most part. Just like with sci-fi games that have to compete with sexier IPs and franchises with movies and TV behind them, RQ has been the victim of the elephant in the room, DnD.

Now, God bless DnD. Without it we wouldn't be where we are. Without WotC pulling us kicking and screaming out of our mom's basement and actually popularizing the hobby, tabletop RPGs might very well have died under the weight of computer games. They had the money to spend, the vision to make gaming popular, and the will to see that effort through.

But with that success comes the problems. Everyone sees FRPGs in a DnD /World of Warcraft light. Other engines and methods of gaming get drowned out amid that noise. But be glad you found BRP, CoC, and RQ. Encourage others to find them. There is more than one way to skin a dire lion and the more we show other players what those ways are, the more converts we'll make.

[PS, Sorry about the line-through crap. I have no idea where it comes from. It pops up on my posts now and again and I can't seem to get it to stop. Yes, I've tried the button at the top of the tool bar]

40 minutes ago, klecser said:

Are my examples of use of the Moon ruin kind of on the right track for creative use?

A player can pick ANY Runes they wish. However, their cult will require Rune affinity at certain levels, usually a minimum 50% in one of the Runes a deity embodies. Had your character chosen Moon, Darkness, and Earth in that order and didn't put any extra points in those choices, they wouldn't be able to be an Initiate of Orlanth. And given the political situation in Sartar at this moment, that could have some real social consequences for them. 'Lunar lover' is not a nickname you want in a country that's recently been liberated.

But there are not hard and fast rules about that. If the character were a member of a cult that was at least non-hostile to the Storm pantheon, then they could avoid all that.

4 minutes ago, klecser said:

Clearly I need to do a more thorough reading. I think that my DND background is causing me to unintentionally disrespect this setting. Looking back at pages 44-45, I see that each rune has that list of suggested "augments." 

A mechanic example might be that I use the Moon rune to try to augment my Spirit Combat?

Partner, you ain't the first person to let DnD tropes and expectations send your character generation sideways You ain't the first person that's happened to today.

Just remember one very important thing about RQ character generation and parties... there are NO '4 food groups' in an RQ party. You don't divide the party into 'tank, blaster, healer, skill monkey'. In RQ, EVERYBODY tanks at some point, everybody is a skill monkey, everybody has some healing. Sure, a Chalanna Arroy is gonna be way better at healing, but don't sell that Heal 2 Spirit Magic spell short. It can and will save your life.

Oh and about those pre-gen characters...

My first reaction to them was 'Damn! Why aren't half of these 'toons Rune Priests already?'

In previous editions you'd be lucky if your main weapon attack was 60% at age 21, but in RQG you can easily generate a Rune Lord in character generation if you knew what to focus on.

In RQ2 and RQ3, there was a certain pacing to an adventurer's life. You generated as an Initiate, usually with low-ish skill levels. You then adventured until you made it to Rune Lord. At that time the cult's time and monetary demands would seriously erode your time. When you adventured at that point it was usually for cult goals, not your own. By the time you hit Rune Priest or Rune Lord-Priest, the cult requirements were such that it was just about retirement time. RQG has flipped that pacing on its head and I'd need to play a character to the point of reaching the upper tiers to see the effects of that on a given career.

Just now, klecser said:

I see what you're saying. I'm not opposed to challenge driving creativity and role-playing. As I've said before recently, this group of gamers doesn't seem like the type whose going to say *scoffs* "you've built this wrong!" I've encountered that kind of gamer frequently and I'm a bit sensitive to it. 

Next question: Picking Runes. Clearly there is some "back planning" that is involved with this, right? I picked "Moon" for one of my high-level runes and I'm not finding many Moon focused Rune spells for Sartar/Orlanth. I have Air, which seemed obvious, and I picked Movement as one of the 75s. But it looks like Moon isn't going to really do anything for me. So, the actual question/realization is: Characters should be picking Runes that are aligned with their culture and deity so that they can actually use them. Correct? 

Moon provided you with a bump to your POW when you generated your stats. Furthermore, you can use Moon to inspire almost any magical action you care to undertake. Is your Orlanth Adventurous attacking a Seven Mothers Initiate? Use Moon to put some *oomph* behind the spells you use on him! Nothing quite like using someone's own basic rune against them!

Air is pretty much required for a first or second rune for a Storm worshiper [Storm is the pantheon Orlanth rules over], so no harm done there. The same would be true if you were worshiping a Dark deity like Argan Argar for example... you 'd need to take Darkness as the first or second rune.

7 minutes ago, klecser said:

Woah. I'm surprised no one else mentioned this. As a Call of Cthulhu player, I was not aware that you can gain characteristics. And I now see that POW has a check box! I'll read some more.

Thanks to everyone above for responses!

My current plan is to complete my character and I'd like someone to check it, if possible. Like, not a detailed point-by-point check, but just look at it for glaring errors. I'm looking at the numbers for pre-gens and my characters numbers are WAY lower than the pre-gens. I don't know if this means that I'm leaving out bonuses or if I'm just picking kinda random choices that should be more "stacked" bonuses. I picked Hunter for my Occupation and I see that this is not recommended for a Sartarite.

Relax, my friend. Sometimes 'glaring errors' are what makes a given character fun! I once put together a 'thief' character that couldn't open locks! Turned out that he was a smuggler [and a devout member of both Issaries and Eurmal, thank you], not a second story man. He could talk you out of your boots in a snowstorm, but couldn't sneak for beans.

1 hour ago, soltakss said:

Sounds good to me. It looks as though you have got Character Generation about right. 

Thanks! I appreciate it. I have a bad habit of over-thinking things so the encouragement is helpful.

7 hours ago, Richard S. said:

POW in Glorantha isn't really willpower like it is in CoC, so it's not tied to a sanity stat or anything. It's more of a measure of how in tune you are with the universe or how much the gods favor you, which translates to more powerful magical ability and luck. Sacrificing POW is pretty common in Glorantha, especially for initiates of gods who can gain Rune magic from doing so. It's also the easiest characteristic to increase.

POW is easy to increase with the right spells.

POW is increased in two ways, the slow way and the fast, risky way.

The slow way is to wait for your seasonal or annual holy day ceremonies and attempt a POW gain then. However, in order to do that you must be in a consecrated place with a full priest of the deity. Not every adventurer can schedule their travels for that, especially in a party full of mixed cults.

The fast but risky way is to learn and use spells that attack another being's POW stat. If you succeed in that attack, you gain a skill check on your POW stat just as with a skill. The stereotypical Spirit Magic spells for that are Dispuption, Ignite [if you light a target's hair on fire -- see spell definition], and Sleep. Of those spells, only Disruption is offered in Orlanth Adventurous. Ignite is easiest-found among Yelm [NOT Yelmalio] worshipers, and Sleep is a cult secret spell for Chalanna Arroy, and they will not teach it to those who they believe will do harm to someone with the spell [which is pretty much describes almost every other cult]. Another way to learn these spells is to find a shaman and do him enough favors that he'll teach you the spells. I know from experience that that can be a long painful process.

Insofar as sacrificing POW to your deity, that is part of the compact of being a bonded worshiper. Lay worshipers get limited social benefits, Initiates get most of the social benefits and limited magical benefits, Priests and Lords get the full menu. In exchange the worshiper must abide by certain restrictions. But it's a pretty piss-poor initiate who doesn't have 5 or more Rune Points [in RQG terminology] by the time they're 30. The Gods offer you wonderful Rune Spells that are much more effective than Spirit Spells via that POW sacrifice, and most cults think you'd be fool to pass up the opportunity.

[Inserts long litany of old SCA sheep, uh, 'farmer' jokes here]

Just now, seneschal said:

Originally, Traveller was a humans-only situation, much like Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” setting.  Yeah, there were weird cultures out there but the aliens were us.  The non-humans got added later.  In fact, three of the official aliens — Vilani, Solomani, Zhodani — are human.

But the great thing about Traveller was that Miller, Ford, Chadwick, the Keith Bros. and co. specifically constructed the humans with distinctly different cultural imperatives. And, by the by, the stereotypical Evil Humans were from Terra!

Miller commented that as the aliens were introduced, they got weirder and weirder... the uplifted canines of the Vargr, then the Aslan 'lion-samurai', then the militant vegetarian K'Kree, then the stagnant, caste-driven Droyne 'bug-bats', and lastly, my personal favorite, the Hivers. And I don't know of one major sci-fi IP with a major race as absolutely weird as the Hivers [aka, 'the Squigglers']

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Unless they have only the budget for slight latex add-ons to the faces, like Star Trek. The Ewoks of Star Wars are the equivalent of the ducks in Glorantha - diminutive, ridiculous, mean.

 

No matter how clever they are at log rolling, I just can't take a teddy bear with the linguistics of Jar-Jar Binks seriously. At least H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy Sapiens had a culture.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

The Other Suns "aliens" were just cheesy.

True words, man. If you want a definition for 'phoning it in' just look at OS' race and culture stuff. Which is sad because political and naval stuff wasn't bad.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

The Kzinti are part of Niven's Known Space universe. Anderson had various cat-like humanoids encountered by Dominic Flandry (complete with primate-like mammalia in one case, IIRC), and also earlier a Cynthian ("dog-sized, bushy tailed and white furred except for a blue mask effect around the eyes") as one of the three crew members of David Falkayn's ship.

Whoops. My bad. Got Poul Anderson and Larry Niven mixed up.

15 minutes ago, seneschal said:

 

2 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

I have looked into Tekumel, actually. It's quite the beast. Sadly the published material for it is somewhat lackluster, and ditto on online resources.

It's OOP now, but if you can find it the Guardians of Order FUDGE system Tekumel book is a very good start.

Remember, MAR Barker was writing as a technical writer back in the 50's and 60's... that's why much of the Tekumel stuff looks rather like old Morrow Project material. Granted that the presentation is the absolute definition of Wall Of Text [tm], but if you can dig into it it's worth your while.

@Sir_Godspeed And if you really want to take a left on all the tropes, give Tekumel a try!

The problem with that is that players can't go any farther than 'Aztec with tech'.... Tekumel has a steep learning curve, more so than Glorantha, but even that can be surmounted.

"I was once acquainted with an officer of Royal Artillery. The man owned a tom-cat that he'd named 'Imperial Cavalry' because, he said,  all the damned thing ever did was eat, drink, fornicate, and groom itself..."

--Rudyard Kipling

But to your main point, yes, EVERY sci-fi franchise and IP seems to have anthromophic species in it. Cat-, Dog-, Bear-, Ferret-, Whatever-'people' that we're all supposed to take seriously.

Fair being fair, Anderson's Kzinti [and Traveller's Aslan for that matter] do not behave as cats beyond some surface behaviors any more than humans behave like monkeys [although you could make a real argument for Facebook being the 21st Century's equivalent of baboons throwing poop....]

25 minutes ago, seneschal said:

It is all Buck Rogers’ fault.  He had cat people human enough to tempt interspecies romance decades before Andre  Norton’s “Plague Ship” or Batman’s Selina Kyle or Japanese animation or “Cat Women of the Moon” or Cheetara on Saturday mornings.  And his imitator/competitor Flash Gordon introduced Lion Men.  It’s a legit science fiction trope.

At least the Kizinti aren’t cute and snuggly.  (5d6+12 STR, 4d6+10 SIZ ???  You gotta be kidding me!  Even real-life sabertooth tigers aren’t that tough. How do they cram themselves into a spaceship cockpit? A giant plunger?)

Well, my main impression of the Kzinti is of a mangy group of derps-in-space in an old Star Trek Animated Series episode...

Kinda hard to take them real serious after that.

5 hours ago, Sid Vicarious said:

Being a relative newcomer to Runequest myself, I found that because the setting and the rules are so intertwined  and so exhuastive (runes, cults etc) , you do need to acrue a good deal of knowledge about both before the RQG penny (or bolg) drops. If you're  not overwhelmed, you're  not paying attention. I'd bought all the RQG books, the quickstart, the source book, found the online comic, found the wiki,  and  read them all. But it wasn't until I got the King of Sartar in recent drivethrurpg sale that I was comfortable enough to feel consciously ignorant, and start thinking about taking the finacial plunge for the guide. In other words, just read everything until it clicks. Good luck!

RQ is like the Forgotten Realms, Traveller, L5R, and other games... the well of lore and canon is a deep as you want to swim in. For a lot of people, this is pretty daunting. They worry more about being lore-correct than actually getting in there and playing.

That is the absolute wrong way to approach Glorantha.

Just find a small out of the way corner... Apple Lane, for example... generate some characters and jump in. Introduce the lore in small chunks. The players don't need to know all the meta-plot stuff at once, just what is relevant to them and their adventures of the moment. Let's face it, an expedition to the Rainbow Mounds [a bandit lair in the Apple Lane adventure] has about as much to do with Orlanth and the Red Goddess as stealing mushrooms from Farmer Maggot's Farm does to Sauron in LOTR.

UPDATES:

1. Characters:

Decided that the military guys will be one each British, French and German. The Tommy and the poilu are separated from their respective patrols. The Tommy is bringing along the German, who was recently captured. Plot twist: The 'Frenchman' is a Foreign Legionnaire from Bavaria. He knows the German POW from school... "Klaus?! Is that you???" "Uh, they call me 'Claude' now, Hans..."

The civilian characters are a refugee farmer, a Red Cross medical volunteer, and one wild card... a teacher or some other mentally focused character.

2. Scenario:

It wont be specifically Cthulhu Mythos, but will include mystical elements. A band of deserters [mostly French and Germans] have taken shelter in the monastic basements. They're all more than a little paranoid and with the recent battles in the area, they've been drinking water that's been heavily polluted with arsenic. There are, however, several grains of truth to their paranoia. Firstly, if they get caught by the authorities there is a very good chance they'll be shot. Secondly, the crypt really is haunted by the ghost of a Knight Templar who was denied shriving and Christian burial when he wouldn't give evidence against the order. The scenario involved both dealing with the desperate and somewhat half-crazed deserters and putting the spirit of the Templar to rest.

[This is me not going into a tirade /rant about catgirls, Omaha the Cat Dancer, fuzzies and anime pervs...]

[This is me reminding myself that my beloved Traveller game has a long history of 'dog people' in the Vargr and 'cat-ish' people in the Aslan]

[This is me recognizing that all this is all somewhat hypocritical, but also acknowledging the *ick* factor]

[Your mileage undoubtedly varies]

Nice of you to say /support.

Since I'm writing the scenario for an American audience, I'm using American terminology for it. The Great War /'War One' didn't effect America the same way it did England. While we suffered frightful casualties we didn't lose an entire generation to the meat grinding abattoir of the trenches. Therefore the War doesn't ring in our consciousness the same way it does for England, France, and Germany.