whitelaughter

(apologies for double post) Thinking about the magic, I think the simplest way is: Laiquendi and Dwarves have Rune Cults; the Dwarves for Aule, the Light Elves for any Vala. Grey Elves have spirit cults: The Sindar have Maia, the Falathrim have Osse and Uinen. The Dunedain have a limited worship of the Invisible God, Worship possibly granting visions on a Critical success. However even Aragorn's abilities are more easily represented by skills: Plant Lore tells him he needs Basil, Survival where to get it and then Alchemy to prepare it. The Istari may be the focus of Spirit Cults; Radagast for the skinchangers such as Beorn, Saruman provided blasting powder to the orcs - yes, likely just Mineral Lore + Alchemy, but maybe more. The Blue Wizards were supposed to have founded magic cults. For any cult, spells are flipped, with enchantments serving as Common Rune Magic, and the usual Commons added to Special Rune Magic. Don't think there'd be spirit magic. Dwarves would get a limited form of sorcery through their cult. The Druedain though need a way to construct their golems.

Obvious? Certainly the Morokanth will not. Be worth using a Divination spell to find out; and whether barding needs to be provided.

There's a notable shortage of usable beasts; but the riding beast the Founder rode during life might have grown large enough over the centuries to be worth riding!

Call Founder is the nuclear option for the Praxian tribes: as a 6 point one use spell, it is usually better to use it as a deterrent than to cast it. This is turn means a lot of effort needs to be put into ensuring that the threat is believable. Firstly, the spell needs to work – important given it take a day to cast. And it uses the Man Rune; Eiritha and Storm Bull provide spells using the Beast Rune. But the flip side to it taking a day, is that Worship(Waha) could be used as an Augment – boosted by magic points, sacrifices etc the skill could hit 480% easily, providing +50% with a Critical 25% of the time and +30% from a Special 70% of the time. EDIT: On further reflection, the possibility of a critical success - and so losing no Rune Points - is going to make them insist on the highest possible score. 100% + Augment + Ritual time. This is ideal for deterrent purposes, as the longer spent in Ritual practice, the more tempting casting the spell becomes. And it isn't just the 6 points for the spell, there's also the points for Extension to be saved. Since the Founder has ten times the STR and SIZ of the summoning Khan, most Khans will seek to maximize these attributes – and being Rune Lords, can use Divine Intervention to increase them to maximums. Excluding the Impala and Morokanth, all tribes would expect a Rune Lord to have both attributes at 21 before being entitled to the rank of Khan of the tribe. The Impala though might go the other way, and require the tribal Khan to be a shaman who has sacrificed his Size down to 1*; then the summoned Founder will have a SIZ of 10 – perfectly average for an Impala Rider. He will still have an impressive damage bonus (12D6) but be able to use normal sized equipment, including the magical items available to the tribe. All Founders will have insanely high Manipulation bonuses (+252% just from STR, between +30% to +120% from POW) but the Impala Founder will have an equally high Agility modifier, and so be able to Dodge nearly anything. An Impala Founder might be Called for a year, and spend as much time teaching and socializing as defeating the tribe's enemies. *Edit - re-reading the rules, I see that attributes cannot be sacrificed below racail minimums. However, a Tap Size would work. For the other tribes though, equipment is the major issue. It is one that can serve as a deterrent, as the equipment can be shown off to visitors. Linen and leather armour can be dual purpose, designed to serve as tent material for the cult. The haft of a spear can double as the tongue of a wagon, arrow shafts, axe handles and so forth can also be dual purpose (and so ensure that there are always replacements available). Possibly wagon wheels could serve as shields (the vast strength of the Founder allows for a heavier design that a usual shield) or as insets for a Turtleshell cuirass? As it takes a day to Call the Founder, the tribe has a day in which to assemble the equipment, allowing for considerable flexibility. A composite bow though cannot be subjected to day to day wear: its only other use is for display. The Khan's tent would likely to be arranged to display the bow to maximum advantage. Bronze also needs care. Possibly a dual purpose head could be forged, serving as a spearhead for a normal warrior but as an arrowhead for the Founder - but the warriors of the tribe will be expected to assist the Founder, they will still need to be armed during the crisis. So rather than having practical uses, primary uses of expensive bronze equipment would be for display and worship. The Morokanth require some special consideration. Firstly, they have higher SIZ and STR maximums – 30 each, allowing for a Founder with 300 in each, and a damage bonus of 36D6. Secondly, the Founder may prefer to use his claws rather than a melee weapon; his base D6 is doubled by his racial martial arts. Despite his natural armour, he would still want normal armour as well though! Also, any Founder of any tribe is going to want to focus on thrown weapons, to take advantage of his insane Damage bonus. None are listed for the Morokanth, so I suggest the discus; this weapon could be 'skipped' across the ground, striking multiple times, and each time hitting multiple targets. A discus is still ideal against opponents of a similar size to the Founder. The final advantage for the Morokanth though is humans as food. The Founder could slap around the local giants to get them to listen to him, and then offer them herd-men as payment for serving as mercenaries. The shock of multiple opponents of this sort of size should cow all but the most insane invaders. [EDIT] Forgot to include long term boost on the caster! If the casters STR or SIZ are increased, frex through Strength, Bear's Strength or Bear's Skin, this might increase the Founder by 10 times as much. Strength will need to be maintained by a Shaman; the other's require Odayla Initiation (possibly for the Founder as well as the Khan!)

Dwarves, dwarves, and more dwarves. Whenever we get references to multiple magical items, the dwarves are involved. Smaug's hoard and Bilbo's party are the two big examples; when Thorin and company find the secret door they use multiple spells trying to get through it. The elven smiths of Rivendell are capable of reforging Narsil to create Andurial, and are presumably keeping the elves well equipped. Galadriel's maidens should be equipping the soldiers of Lorien. On the flipside, it you wish to justify a lower magic LotR, the barrowblades may have been completely mundane, but relied on the Witchking's own magics to work - his 'ever blade shall perish' shtick could have released toxins (or if the blades were made with say radium, even radiation) from the disintegrating blade! Also, the Istari were supposed to learn their arts, they were forbidden from using their full power (until Gandalf gets a remit once White). Radagast is just as likely to have learned his art from Beorn as the other way around. Be happy!

Yet starting PCs can set themselves up to have a functional 42 strength: Bison Rider + 2ndry darkness rune serving Odayla or Orlanth with bear's Strength+4 levels of Extension, or CHA 40 with anybody serving Ernalda, Eurmal, or Yinkin with Charisma + 4*Extension.

Then next time you read it, notice the explicit praise of inter-racial marriages. Pretty much all of those described! Galadriel is descended from all 3 races of Light Elf, marries a Sindar, their daughter marries a half-elf, who marries a human. Elrond traces descent from two different races of men and three different races of elves, plus Melian the Maia. There are two strawman defences of racial purity: 1) Faramir bewails the mingling of his folk with 'lesser' men....only to fall head over heels for a barbarian warrior woman. 2) a claim that marrying a human is beneath an elf...given by our halfelf, Elrond! Even within the hobbits, Harfoot Sam Gamgee(yes, check, every reference to his skin colour is brown) marries into the local Fallowhide gentry (allowing a blond daughter). Then the description of Bree, praising the men and hobbits for respecting each other. The friendship of Legolas and Gimli. ----------------------------- Magic in LotR is actually pretty common. There are lots of references to items in passing; many of the toys at the birthday party are clearly magical. The barrowblades are magical, and forged by Dunedain. The Old Took has magical cuff links from Gandalf. Apparently there are minor rings floating around, though we only see the one Saruman has (possibly having made it himself). There is a theme that you can't do the same magic twice; Feanor can't duplicate the Silmarils. But the POW cost of Runequest is pretty good for reflecting the cost of magic. Enchantments should be common, actual spells rare. [EDIT] The way to cover Elves is to remember that their race is fading, they're growing weaker. Start them with a base 200% in most skills, but their experience checks are to determine whether their skills go down! Then elves are deadly, but desperately trying to avoid doing anything with an experience check box. They'll happily use Lores for you, or Alchemy, Read/Write - but you'll need to trigger a Passion to get them to do anything else.

You can choose to be left-handed, and all training is in righthanded weapons. So your starting training grants Offhand, and so you gain the 1/2 proficiency when used righthanded. High levels of Bludgeon or Bladesharp allow for experience check farming. Say you have a short spear; OH Parry, 2H Parry, 1H Parry, then Throw: 4 checks for one round of combat. Summon (Disease Spirit), possible with spirit magic but ideally done with sorcery, allows for POW farming. Summon it somewhere that you are the only possible target: if it is deadly, Spirit Block yourself (also remember that Create Market gives you some protection, and is available to Lhankor Mhy). Acquiring the spirits True Name allows you to summon it again, after you've weakened it. Spend the POW to Inscribe your spells, and in addition to an extra point of Free Int you have +20% Component bonus for each item. Then just crank up your Enhance INT Inscription until you can have an INT of 95. [edit] Of course, in any believable village, the Ernaldi will have Enchanted Bless Pregnancy to about 80, ensuring that the median attribute for the next generation is 21. This should be the case throughout Glorantha!

Well, if it is a Cult Spirit of Yinkin, it gets the ability to auto-join the Orlanth cult as part of its Yinkin Initiation. So at least some of the time it must be possible.

yet work for a centaur or a duck. A giant is just a large human. Now, real world a giant makes no sense because mass is increasing 3 dimensionally, while the application of strength only increases in 2 dimensions; the tallest ever human could only walk with mechanical assistance, and those braces ended up killing him. A real world giant at 6 metres would break his hip every time he tried to take a step. But in Glorantha, that isn't the case. And no, it isn't because giants are different; a size 6 Impala Rider and a size 21 Bison Rider use the same STR and CON rules.

Interesting, but giants aren't very big; 15 metres at full growth. Wind instruments are going to have tubes about the same size as a church organ.

Surely Transform Self to Bat is just a specialized form of Transform Self? Have the entire Bat cult simply be a prank by the local Eurmal, who has spread the word to the other temples. Whenever the party turns up, the local Eurmal temple redecorates itself (Illusions are so useful) as a Beastfolk(Bat) temple, and puts the group through whatever lunacy amuses the local priest. Go more insane every session, until the PCs twig to what is going on...

That could *add* to your reputation under the right circumstances; the Shieldless Iron Shield.....

ranged healing basically means either a Sorcerer throwing Mend Flesh, an illusion of bandages for a temporary but instant First Aid roll, or a spirit swooping in to 'touch' your character. A Vigour spell could be cast on you before the combat, and might be enough to keep you alive (or if things go pear-shaped, allow you to win the battle!) Have you considered the Alchemy option? The raw ingredients of a healing potion costs 50L per POT, but it's cheaper than getting raised. Have a friend yell at you that the gourd bit your mother, and that you should kill it by eating it... You could improve your Ernaldan's courage by throwing your axes at the enemy towards the end of the fight, then she's only risking fist damage.

Here Lhankor Mhy has an advantage in that both the Logician and Logical Clarity spells are taught by the cult, and suppress Passions, allowing the Scribe to interact with the Humakti in a similarly dispassionate way.

Suspect that this semi-rule has died a horrible death. For starters, you can strip 1D3 POW off a Disease Spirit when you defeat it, going into your personal POW; having it clobbered during a Worship ritual would result in it 'sacrificing' the POW and so going the cult. For non-intelligent spirits, there simply isn't an intellect to 'chose' whether to spend POW. Even if you couldn't directly force the POW expenditure, if you know the drives of the spirit, you could set up situations where following its nature requires spending the POW (frex ordering a Shade to stay in the sunlight until it has done so). For fixed INT spirits, skills such as Understand Herd Beast can be used to work out how to get agreement. For normal INT spirits, all of the options available for recruiting human initiates are available. Additionally you can make them spend all of their magic points to get a 95% chance of success at Worship, and so get an experience check for Worship, making Cult membership more tempting. Ordering it to Augment with a cult Rune also mean an experience check that pushes it towards your cult. The priest will be using Orate, you can use fast Talk, and if you are a bit of a psychopath or dealing with a spirit too dangerous to let go, back up Intimidate with the threat of ordering it to fly into the maw of the Crimson Bat. Thed Cultists would probably order a spirit to use opposed Power Runes, and Fumble them, clipping 1D10% from them, and so adding 1D10% to the desired Runes. [EDIT] Ernaldi of course will simply use the Arouse Passion spell; Devotion(Ernalda) 80% will ensure the spirit says "Yes please" to Initiation.

Thanks to everyone for courteous and constructive quotes! Will try and work through them all!

Oh yes, but the smart thing is to expect and plan for him doing something naughty; it has to be in keeping with his myth as well, after all. Given the protagonists now have superhuman CHA, adding an undesired admirer to the mix is the obvious way to go.

If the cultist is an intelligent creature, then a refusal to dodge or parry would actually violate that oath...

A consideration for many Initiates is how few Rune spells they have access to – a total of 5 for Odayla, 3 of his own plus two from associated cults; Foundchild only offers 3 total! While they can increase their selection with Enchantments by becoming Rune Masters, that isn't easy, and surely every cult would like to increase their power base. I'm most interested in Lhankor Mhy, so I'll show what I'd do with one of his cultists, but any cult has similar possibilities: The obvious move is to create formal relationships with Friendly cults; shifting from Friendly to Associated. One example is already in the setting (at least, was in the boxed set) – Ernalda is always wife of the ruling local god; and the local ruling god is whoever is worshipped by the local king. Becoming a king is a worthy goal for any PC, and since the entire cult benefits if you succeed, you should gain the support of anyone in your cult. Of course, check first whether someone else is in the process of building a kingdom – while you don't get to be king, you do get a new spell sooner if they succeed. (The Sorcerers of Lhankor Mhy would want Ernalda to offer Absorption, given the high magic point costs of sorcery). Also, being Husband Protector makes members of your cult valid targets of the Bless Champion spell, which is a massive advantage. (The simplest way to get subjects is to help people fleeing from the Lunar Empire to avoid being eaten by the Crimson Bat: they're already on the border, are desperate, and smart enough to act in their own best interests. Saving their lives is a great way to earn their loyalty. And if enough people flee, there won't be enough sacrifices, and the Crimson Bat will go on a rampage through the Lunar Empire!) Given the gods are outside time, you can't create a truly 'new' link with any cult; you have to build on something from the past. Fortunately, there are multiple tools for collection raw material for assembling a legend that can be used in Worship ceremonies. Everyone has Divination. Sorcerers should have Logician, allowing them to boost useful Knowledge skills. And there are many such skills: Celestial Lore; Cult Lore – both yours and theirs; Customs; Homeland Lore; Library Use if you've access to a library; Bureaucracy when dealing with either priesthood. All of these skills should be boosted and rolled to collect information and allies for building the Association. The Lightbringers are the obvious starting point for Lhankor Mhy – a massive collection of shared legends, and already Associated with several. His Stasis Rune is probably why there isn't already a link with Mastakos. However since Guided Teleportation always returns to the same preprepared spot, an Association based on maintaining those spots has potential; an announcement that these sites may be established at any library/temple, and will be maintained by the LM cult, should create an Association. (Of course, many Bureaucracy and Fast Talk rolls will be needed to get this to happen!) Eurmal already offers a spell to both Lhankor Mhy and Issaries – that is functionally useless to both cults. Clever Tongue requires either Illusion or Disorder; Harmony is required for the Associated spells from both Issaries and Chalana Arroy. The Doylist explanation is that the writers screwed up, but I prefer the Watsonian explanation: Eurmal is being a pain. As Eurmal provides Glamour to Orlanth, as a fellow Lightbringer, it would be worth consulting the Orlanth cult, or even Orlanth himself, to get Eurmal to provide Glamour to all Lightbringer cults. (Or, Reflection, the only other spell Eurmal offers that isn't dependent on Illusion). As leader of the Lightbringers, Orlanth could decree that this happen, and the Lhankor Mhy in return provides Find(substance): currently the only LM spell that doesn't require the Truth Rune. Orlanth and Find(Substance) bring us to two other considerations: Firstly, it is possible to have multiple trades with the same god, via different subcults. Orlanth Thunderous and Orlanth Adventurous gain and offer different spells. And there are four Orlanthi sub-cults! Secondly, Find(Substance) is functionally an unlimited number of spells, so would be particularly tempting to offer the Foundchild, Odayla and Yinkin cults. As hunters, Find(spoor, salt, freshwater) would all tempt. Find(Blood) would be perfect, but if the restrictions on Detect spells also apply to Find, then the substance cannot be alive. (Ideally, a Find(substance) spell could be requested that performs differently depending on which Rune is used to power it; frex a Find(elemental weapon) spell would find swords if cast using Air, spears and bows if cast with Fire, etc). Odayla is a particularly tempting cult to gain an Association with, given that allows your cultists to be targets of the Bear's Strength spell. Even if he lacks the power to grant a spell, that alone would justify being Associated. And as Orlanth's son, treating him as 'nephew', being son of a friend/leader, should be a basis for an Association. Next: Command (Cult Spirit) and Summon (Cult Spirit) are common spells, but require Cult Spirits to summon: so it is possible to increase your selection simply by acquiring these spirits. For Sorcerers, the Summon(species) spell is the way to go here. Acquire their true names, either by overcoming their magic points or by then casting Identify Otherworld Entity, and then resummon them with extra duration with orders to spend POW to Initiate during a Worship ceremony, and you have a new spirit. Lunes and Selenes are particularly tempting to offer to Eurmal; with Illusory(Sight), his cultists can create the moonrocks needed to Summon these elementals, and they can be Summoned using the Moon Rune rather than the Truth Rune. Finally, increasing the Lunar Empires hatred of Eurmal is tactically wise. As Eurmal is composed of multiple subcults, offering Lunes to one, and Selenes to another, in return for Reflection and Glamour respectively, is an option. [EDIT] Another option I missed is upgrading existing spirits. Frex priestesses of the Ernalda cult could all summon earth elementals within a sorcerer's Protective Circle, and then have a single Gnome to Gargoyle spell cast, backed by 5 points of extension; then for the next year, whenever they summon that elemental, they get a gargoyle. Probably get Issaries to arrange trades, so that six priestesses are losing 1 spell each - and 5 of them getting their spell back at the end of the year. Some gods 'own' a Rune – it isn't clear whether that helps in any way, but it is probably worth seeking to help your god acquire that. For Lhankor Mhy, that's the Truth Rune. The only other gods with the Truth Rune are Yelmalio and Humakt, both of whom provide mercenaries, so the starting link would be acquiring troops for your kingdom. The only spell that Yelmalio offers that uses the Truth Rune is Command(Hawk). On the upside, he teaches Detect(gold) so would probably like to have Find(gold). Humakt has no Associates, but his mistrust of others could be used as a basis for an Association. Suggest that he offer Oath, with any Sage taking it having to use it to swear an Oath to never betray or deliberately mislead a Humakti. Some Humakti are Gifted weapons that do extra weapon to a species of their choice – providing extra benefits to any who choose a Chaotic target species would be appropriate for Lightbringer cults. Finally, Apotheosis: surprisingly easy. You only need a friendly Shaman and 10 worshippers: and spirits presumably count. As a member of your cult, you are already in a relationship with your god, creating an Association. And godkings are an established part of the bronze age – normally you'd become a king first, but looking at the comparative difficulties, being a godling may be your stepping stone to kingship!

Yes indeed, and that's what I suggest using as a partial solution. Just as you can.... ....hmmm, can you? Does 1H Spear act as a default to 2H Spear? I assumed that, but is that the case?

Yes. If the rules aren't what they say, then they are pointless. If you are judging them by some other standard, then simply use the other standard and throw the rules book in the bin.

Was looking through the Bestiary, and struck by the thought of what Giants could do with their high Manipulation % (typically gaining 15% for every 2 Metres in height). Yes, on average, giants are stupider than humans, but the handful who are smart will explore their capabilities. Sure, they can fight, and makes arms and armour: but there's another old giant trope that doesn't get explored much in RPGs - the giant musician. Both Craft(instrument) and Play(instrument) will start high, and then go through the roof with experience; a centuries-old giant might have skills of >480%, effectively ensuring a Special Success...that can be heard for miles. Of course, Giants also have a Disorder Rune of 95%, so just because it is good doesn't mean it is calm. A human kingdom could be woken in the middle of the night by a giant three valleys away rocking out the bronze age equivalent of 'Highway to Hell' on his bagpipes. Cults might like the idea of a Giant to provide music for Worship ceremonies, given that an entire city will hear the music. Of course, the cults that Giant will be interested in will be those with the Disorder Rune: Eurmal, Maran Gor, Black Fang. So this may make things even worse...