Topi.242

@radmonger That could be very much workable if I decide to run the initiation in the temple rather than as a journey from Haraborn tula to Clearwine delivering the message. Or maybe as the finale of the rite, with the journey being kind of the opening of the senses and then that would be the teaching of the first Issaries rune spell and finishes the initiation. 🙂

@Joerg I was thinking first of the Spare Grain also, but again, very little info in the Lightbringers book about it. @mfbrandi Yeah, this is something I was also thinking of, but there's some really good ideas you mentioned. I had also totally forgot the psychopomp aspect of Issaries which could be worked into the events nicely. Also, before time when Issaries saw first Death and then Chaos spreading into the world and went to search for Light of Communication could be worked in nicely (since chaos was involved in the tragic events), but there's very little in the Lightbringers book about it. Don't have the new Mythology book yet, nor the old Book of Heortling Mythology so can't draw upon those either...

Hello 🙂 In my current Six Seasons campaign one of the players wanted to play an Issaries character, so we decided his character is the son of the local Goldentongue priest. Some tragic events have happened to him in the storyline recently and these could be used to kickstart his initiation rites from lay member to initiate in the Issaries cult. And since some of these initiation heroquests in this campaign (and Company of Dragon) have been written to be actually played rather than just settled purely in rules, i would love to do this in his initiation also. I tried googling for Issaries initiation heroquest ideas but could not find much. The cults book for Lightbringers gives some very general ideas how to do this, but i would love to hear more. I could also come up with the ritual with the player, but since I am the only one in the group with previous RQ experience, might be easier if I come up with these first heroquests and ease others into it gradually. Also extra campaign stuff that could be used as part of the heroquest (maybe spoilers for Six Seasons here...?): The player characters are currently going on a small journey to deliver some very bad news for the merchant father of the player character who is currently in Clearwine on a trade trip. Will be just a small journey with a quick combat encounter on the way back and some camping in the woods. None of the characters are currently initiates in any of the cults but they most likely are going to be two Orlanth, one Odayla and one Issaries. Thank you!

I also would love to hear about this. Grazelanders are propably my favourite culture from the ones in the rulebook.

Yeah, the lunar occupation in the previous editions of Runequest (or at least in the official material) would definitely have given the place a very much different feel. And yeah, the fact that there isn't really any description what it feels like standing in one of these places is where I guess most of the differences would come up.

While going through stuff about Jonstown and other nearby locations I began to think how much our Gloranthas actually vary? Already when it comes to Heortling/Sartarite culture there are so many different things to emphasize when describing various locations, not to mention many of the lesser described cultures like Fonriti, Doraddi or other Pamaltelan areas. So, especially the gamemaster, would be interesting to hear how you all would describe Jonstown for player characters stepping into the city for the first time. Jonstown of course is the obvious choice here thanks to the Starter Set. So, here is how I see that city: "As you leave the gates of Jonstown and enter the city, you are shocked by how hectic and full of life the city is. Even compared to Nochet or Dunstop, though much smaller, it is just as or even more hectic and busy. The streets are surrounded by sturdy looking stone buildings with blue murals running across them and many of the buildings have stone or just wattle and daub additions build next to- or on top of them. Clotheslines hang in the alleyways between the houses and there are small paper lanterns hanging by the sides of the building lighting the streets as the sun begins to set. There is a strong intoxicating smell of incense, spices and roasting food floating around you. The streets are full of people in the move, coming or going to markets, temples or other gathering places. As some of the people walk past you or bump into you they stop to say something in Heortling, but most of them don't even bother to stay put and listen your response. There are also small groups of Lhankor Mhy scribes and philosophers gathered in small groups having lively debates while Issaries traders peddle their wares and Eurmali tricksters perform circus tricks and illusions for coins. There is also an old man sitting by the side of the road, completely nude and covered in blue body paint lifting his arms towards heavens in ecstatic prayer. Constant chatter, shouts, music, sizzling of roasting food and various indescribable noises fill the air with relentless cacophony. Livestock wander the streets freely, with herders occasionally nudging them forward towards the city gates. Even with all of the dizzying scents, sounds and movement there seems to be a kind of comfortable unspoken order amid all the chaos in the city. Just like the independent and unruly nature of the Heortlings inhabiting the city, this city is very much alive and full of energy." So yeah, to me Jonstown (and Wilmskirk and Svenstown) is kind of like a bronze age Heortling Varanasi. An unruly, disorderly, but at the same time very much sacred city constantly full of movement and change. In my Glorantha all of the four cities built by prince Sartar are sacred places of the Sartar (and thus Orlanth Rex) cult and similar apart from Boldhome because of its locations and the fact that it is the seat of power in Sartar. So yeah, how does your Jonstown look and feel like? (Sorry if there's mistakes since English isn't my first language...)

I have always seen Yinkin as kind of a mixture of a hunter and a trickster. Lone wanderers who can be social within cities, but whose wanderlust will take them back on the road and to the wilderness on regular intervals. Kind of similar to what French Desperate WindChild said above. I have once had a Yinkini in my campaign and he was kinda like Aragorn if he had chosen Hazia instead of the One Ring quest. Was a cool character 😄.

Heheh, yeah, I was more worried for my players since they were much more beginners. But everything flowed smoothly. The Strike Rank Counter table in the Starter Set is a great tool and visual aid to figure strike ranks out. On top of that I also explained the combat as less of a "Attack roll = 1 attack" and more like "Attack roll = 1 combat situation". There was acually even some praise for the combat mechanics. Another aspect that got a lot of praise was the character creation how deep and realistic it is. Altough there was complaints also how long it takes and how much stuff there is to track especially with magic.

Thanks all for a warm welcome! The way i've been thinking of running the starter set and GM screen scenarios is to start with Rough Landing and Fire In The Darkness. Then based on how badly the players mess up their social standing in Jonstown (and based on previous CoC campaign it will propably be very badly), i either keep the games centered on Jonstown and add more political intrigue and scheming around the Malani tribe and the Issaries temple or use the Cattle Raid scenario as a devise to get players out of Jonstown and into Apple Lane. And I have to say i am a bit of a grognard myself as I started with the RQ3 and have quite a bit of material for it, which is also why I DM. Rest of the players apart from one are completely new to RQ and kinda new to roleplaying games overall. This was the first session with this group and my second session with the RQG rules overall (ran the Smoking Ruins on discord during pandeming). Actually even though I really love all the new published material for RQ I kinda am also looking forward to getting to modify stuff like Trollpak or Sun Dome County to RQG with all of their absolute weirdness. 😀

Yeah, I tried to put some sections into spoiler sections but it was tough to find clear spoiler areas so I just put the spoiler warning on topic and that's it. But I can hide some sections if needed of course!

One of the reasons I am especially looking forward to the Fire in the Darkness is that one of the characters is a Lunar Tarsh lesser noble and a firm Fazzur loyalist travelling incognito in Sartar due to assassination attempts against him in Tarsh. Should be fun to see how he interacts with the Seven Mothers cultists in that scenario.

Hi all! First time posting here and though i'm not usually very good with forums, i decided to stop just lurking here and joined in after an amazing first RQG for our current group. We are playing the Starter Set and Gamemaster Screen scenarios starting with Rough Landing and we were able to reach the point where the Krarshtkid makes an appearance and stopped there for a cliffhanger. All the players are from my former Call Of Cthulhu group and we just finished Horror on Orient Express and switched to RQG and everything has been running smoothly, except the intense brutality of the combat surprised us all. None of the characters are pure warriors nor do they have much armour, so they have been very fragile and taken lots of damage. Still with the help of a large Dehori they have killed four scorpion men which is pretty good for mostly non-combat characters. When it comes to rules it actually surprised me how smooth the combat was to run even with the heavily increased complexity from very rules loose CoC to way more crunchy RGQ. It really was a blast and can't wait for the next session and to introduce more social interactions with the downtime between the campaigns and in the Fire In The Darkness. But anyway, was an amazing session 1 and massive thanks to Greg, Steve, Jeff and others for an awesome game and fantasy world to explore! 🙂 EDIT: Typos