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Geoff R Evil

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Everything posted by Geoff R Evil

  1. Before we go deep into how to use the dead place, back to my original question. Given that any broo met in the dead place would have been there a while, then any disease spirits connected to them would have long since been left behind. So are broo in the dead place devoid of disease? I think so. The only angle I was thinking was that maybe when this first happens to the broo, the disease spirit turns into some form of chaos slime, the broo could then dip their weapons into it. The effect of this might be that those wounded at first notice no ill effects necessarily. But when they leave the dead place the slime turns back into a disease spirit and initiates an attack via the wound. Remember in the dead place no wound can be magically healed. So first aid is your only hope to heal a wound and stop bleeding. Maybe a crit or special cleans the slime out as part of the healing. In my game the players have an NPC shaman they work for, they had brought some blessed mud with them, and the shaman had made it into a non magical salve that could cure a few hp and seal a wound. Otherwise sending in a PC to the dead place who meets an armed foe could be death from a single wound that a first aid fails on and they bleed to death. Maybe this mud cleanses the wound, maybe it seals the slime in? Only time will tell….the point is any wound in the dead place is potentially fatal if serious enough.
  2. Thx @Scotty, although I did mention the dead place in the original post, but generally agree with your follow up answers. The players clan were involved in sending them into the dead place… loosely following the beer with teeth Lifethief scenario but adjusted to fit my own campaign arc. So the PCs were forewarned of dead place dangers, they are well prepared…and entering in storm season, so dust less of an issue, mud a definite issue, and the alkaline effects were warned and they are prepared … but nothing stops all that damage, and one is still wearing his dwarven plate armour….
  3. I would add that, even if a gm allows shamanic contact with a god it would only be if there was strong runic alignments….or if the god wanted something from the shaman….beware Gods with an ask!
  4. Hmmm, well for those that like to have some form of explainable logic so when they do weird stuff like I am and send players into the dead place we can make reasonable judgements on what happens. Certainly my players think diseases are passed by disease spirits much as you say. So I think the answer to my question is that in effect broo cannot pass on a disease in the dead place. Any disease spirit that is created to facilitate this, either cannot exist in the dead place, or if somehow it appears, it immediately turns to some form of gorp sludge….however chaos features do work in the dead place….so I could just play the “it’s chaos” and ignore all logic have disease infection still occur. Now however, if I follow that logic, my players may figure out that the ideal way to rid oneself of any possession spirit including disease spirits, is just enter the dead place. Of course, they would also lose any bound spirits too, unless they had a friendly shamen nearby, which is what happened to be the case in my game, to hold those spirits for them while they enter the place.
  5. I have just been running a fight with Broo and some chars have been exposed to a disease. There is confusion as to what type of attack this is. The rule book focuses a lot on disease spirits, noting a person killed by a disease manifests a disease spirit. However the rule book implies there are many types of disease, including infections. Now Broo don’t carry multiple disease spirits so each wound they inflict passes on another spirit I believe. So in fact they are carrying an infection? I assume this is not a spirit? Reason for my question. My characters have entered the dead place where no spirit can exist (there is in effect no spirit plane here) and is forced to manifest. E.g. an elemental spirit has to manifest as its element. So if Broo carry disease spirits they are forced to lose them and be disease free as they become piles of sludge or similar. But if it’s an infection they pass on when they wound someone then this aspect of their attack is still something to fear. So….the key question is what form is the Broo disease that it carries?
  6. Thanks for these, makes me wonder if there should a map download thread created, maybe in the VTT thread…
  7. Agree. In 6 seasons game I am playing in, our group just had to go into Prax to negotiate release of some clan thralls, and I ended up trading my complete plate armour set to a Bison Khan in exchange for 8 clan Haraborn thralls. No one told me not to and bugger any Sartarite lord that tries to tell me I should not have done so.
  8. Maybe in your Glorantha. But realistically not all tribes are represented on the Pavis Council, in fact only one, and although that one represents the White Bull, he does not speak for all the members of all tribes or clans. In addition almost all White Bull Prax Ian’s went with Argrath to Sartar. So in my Glorantha that weak Praxian leadership has had little effect on control of most Praxians left behind. The Pol Joni were not called upon by Argrath, and arguably (YGMV) cannot join the white bull as they were never in the covenant. So few sacked Paris and even fewer follow Argrath to Sartar, in fact, the fact so many Praxians have done so, gives them a chance to establish control of better grazings. The offer of Pavis County, is different, no tribes claim grazing rights there as a main wander area of the roaming nomads. So I feel it’s a strong offer and at least some Pol Joni will bite on the opportunity.
  9. That’s a very Dragon Pass centric view of the world. Post Argrath kicking out the lunar from Pavis. The Pavic ring now has a problem on its hands, despite many Praxians heading off to Dragon Pass, many are left behind with access to Pavis itself now. Most don’t hang around long, cities are alien to them, but they certainly will like the look of all that lush Pavis County land…and in my campaign do, as some tribes start to raid in that area, disrupting harvests, and creating an existential crisis for Pavis as the food supply to a largely increased population is tapering off fast. Armour and weaponry is a central concern in this, as is the need for a fighting force capable of dealing with Praxian raiders. In my campaign the Pol Joni come to Pavis’s attention, Historic friends of the now rather small zebra rider tribe, that need to be bolstered and reformed fast. so in my campaign the Pol Joni players have shown their worth and trust to the Pavic Council, and have been rewarded…with the offer of grazing in Pavis County plus a tithe from the farmers if they move their clan, and perhaps tribe, to the county area. The idea being they can work with the zebra clan, act as a rapid response force, and with the tithe giving them reason to protect sartarite (Dorasor followers and like Sartar friendly to the Pol Joni in principle due to aligned god worshipping) farmers. How this goes who knows, my players are now back with their tribe, reestablishing their worth to the clan they had left for several seasons, and getting ready to present the Pavic offer to the clan ring. Moving Pol Joni clans en masse might be hard, but my players have already been awarded a thaneship in a Pavis County village, so might get their clan to shift, others may follow…of course, the big question is, do the lunar worry about this? Have they given up their plan to marry Pavis, they must have had a strategic need, so will they try and disrupt things? Clever bastards that they are they may be way ahead of the thinking of Pavis and the Pol Joni. weaponry access and bronze access may come into play, it’s short now as so many weapons went to Praxian hands and off to Sartar… so certain mining assets become key….
  10. Well I don’t have an initiation rite. However the rite is basically the year of solo survival in the wilderness. But the gm should look for opportunities to have a key event per season that is Yinkin oriented, based on his myth. It’ s a pain but could be run in a single session covering the whole year.
  11. Um…where did that come from, not that I don’t accept the underlying logic of it, but is this canon or your Gloranthan manifesto, which I will download as it’s free pdf @Nick Brooke
  12. The zebra tribe does not subscribe to the Praxian patriarchal matriarchal role split…Pavisites learned long ago anyone with the right skills can be anything. That said Eirithan priestesses have to be women.
  13. In Ian Thompson multi volume series there is mention that there are two eirithan priestesses at the fort, but no stats, and there is one vingan with stats who started life an an eirithan lay member. No stats I could find. However Ian’s cult write up of Joraz Kyrem does include some zebra breeding spells if you want to roll a priestess up
  14. I have been running a Pol Joni campaign for about a year, sessions every week. So I have had to deal with a lot of this stuff and fill in the gaps in canon, which there are many. I also disagree with some aspects of canon. canon I do not agree with. The first is that there are Pol Joni Waha and Eirithan worshippers in the tribe. If there are any, they are exiled individuals from other clans, probably lost their mounts, and have not found a path to Ernalda or Orlanthi yet, or refuse to quite give up their Praxian covenant ways. They are NOT Pol Joni except by adoption or practical possible temporal integration. Perhaps for example, as traders. This is because Pol Joni horses are not in the Waha covenant, this is the root cause of the issue with Praxians. As @joerg says the paps has a cattle connection, but no high priestess. Maybe just maybe there are a few Pol Joni Eirithans but they are cattle focussed, definitely not horse. As has also been highlighted by @Joerg the Waha accepted true zebra is a war zebra, this has been accepted by the paps and slightly less willingly by Waha as a special case riding creature that was not part of the original covenant, but is ancestorally traced back to wild zebra that were, hence the fudge that makes them acceptable, brokered by an especially clever Issaries. In my campaign my party of PCs has adventured in and around Pavis and gained acceptance there….long story but they plug a political hole left by Argrath after kicking the lunars out. Along the way an Issaries Pol Joni joined the Herald Goodword subculture affiliated with Pavis and through this decided to swap to a war zebra to better follow that path. He just got back to his clan, who are not exactly happy, but are learning to accept his decision. Bottom line in my Glorantha under certain circumstances a pol Joni swapping to a war zebra is OK, but far from the norm and does require a commitment to the Zebra tribe to make the sale acceptable to the zebra tribe. Whether that player can navigate the demands of two tribes remains to be seen. It’s also worth noting breeding war zebra requires magics only available to that clan. So that’s scotches your pol Joni zebra breeding ideas I think, unless a deal with that clan can be done, but it might risk their position in Prax if they become a buy your way in tool….so probably won’t be allowed. also just a comment on war horses in the pol Joni. Their breed of horse is not generally, with average stats, ever going to be a war horse, check out the enc issues. Heavy cavalry may use them, but without barding and no additional carrying capacity an adventurer needs. Unlike Praxian tribes, I believe most pol Joni warriors will have two horses, one cavalry for combat and one for equipment. That said an exceptional horse could be a warhorse. This makes them especially valuable. In my campaign the groups top warrior just got one after a year of adventuring and kicking the lead thanes butt in an honour duel. So basically…rare as gnats bollocks.
  15. There is loads of great advice in this thread from experienced GMs, and I agree with a lot of it. But the original question was from a new GM. For your first few games I would suggest don’t outnumber the party, and keep skill levels below the characters in your first fights, use it as training for you and the players. Experience the deadliness, it will happen, let PCs discover combat tactics like ganging up. Then as lessons learned by players and GM you can start with new encounters such as the big bad monster with high damage. Get PCs to learn how important understanding lore is, that lore can make the difference between success and failure. and always allow for the run away or negotiated end….this is not dnd where killing everything is a goal...chaos excepted, which is why they are dangerous. Even then running away and seeking help is accepted, in fact, often assumed. Also remember, a series of fights over time are very weakening, allow recovery time.
  16. I will get my GM to look out for book @Godlearner as my wolf private just made captain of a ship, and it’s wyter is a dream dragon…actually two…but we won’t go there it might be confusing. But my char is discovering some cool dragon magic they have access to, so would be nice to see some more stuff on that and for draconic culture too….my char is draconically illuminated so on the path to enlightenment.
  17. As a GM be aware that ALL pre written scenarios are set assuming age 21 generated chars, multiple rune spells, and some skills well in excess of 75%. Couple that with the speed of development for characters is quite slow, even at low skill levels. So either be prepared to write a lot of your own stuff, or modify pre written ones a lot, many are hard to do so. Either that or find ways to allow large tracts of time for training and ways to pay for it for the chars. In the game I played in, our GM introduced a minor hero quest that allowed us to accelerate some key skills. We focussed on fighting skills. That has left us unbalanced though, because outside of combat we struggle a bit, but we are closing that gap now. It does mean my 17 year old Humakti is able to kick much more mature NPCs. Also I don’t advise initiating all PCs to Ernalda. Unless your rites encompass men. Even then the runic alignments needed for that don’t match well with many other cults outside the earth cults. Also initiates have to give up one seventh of time or money, which is substantial. In general players are not meant to initiate in more than two cults either, so while it aligns them in one way it delimits them in another. YGMV.
  18. This is definitely one of those issues where out of game concepts like werewolves have influenced in game abilities, without being clear what the implications are. As @Squaredeal Sten says the rule says immunity to bronze weapons…but it also says only damaged by enchanted weapons and magic, but not fire blade. Also follow on rules state natural damage still hurts the creature. So for me, given that PCs should not be metagaming werewolf knowledge this is all good. They are not knowledgeable of Telmori. They MIGHT have heard fireside stories of weapon immunity, the MIGHT have heard of a drowned Telmori, or one dying after falling off a cliff. Telmori are generally wild ill equipped hunters. The weapon immunity is their main strength that strikes fear when met in combat, especially for the first time. Does a mace cause damage….well good question, if it’s made of bronze, no, but wood yes? Seems weird. I like the idea crushing weapons do damage because they don’t break the magical skin to do damage. But then if you have ever been hit by a dull sword, you know that hurts like hell too. I like RQs combat realism in my games. So in my Glorantha I will decide as follows All crushing weapons do normal damage all non enchanted slashing weapons do half damage and do not ever cut the skin…so no con rolls on a slash result, but half damage rolled twice all non enchanted piercing weapons, half damage, no skin break, cannot impale. Impale is half damage rolled twice. This leaves effects of blade sharp or speed dart to consider, and this is harder to resolve. In theory the magic can break the telmori skin. So does that mean the slashing or piercing damage can now follow thru? I think no if bronze, so no change to the above rules. If wooden or flint…still no, it’s not enchanted ….I realise that’s a bit weird when allowing natural damage….but hey nothings perfect.
  19. An initiate is just that, as the word implies, somebody who seeks to embody their god, but has yet to demonstrate the skills, knowledge or magical connections that show they ARE the embodiment of their god. Very Big Difference. I am sure that those that wrote the rules never meant rune levels to be immediately retired as unplayable. same applies to shaman. With 254 days a year, that leaves 25 days to yourself as a shaman or rune level using your rules above. What it does do, as I said earlier is massively restrict what adventures you go on to those that relate to your god or responsibilities to community god or spirits. For example, in my game right now, the clans shaman has been away for 4 weeks already as an NPC but what he is doing relates to protecting the clan, and also sets up a need for my PCs to go help him.
  20. The devil is in the detail of what 90% of your time in service to your cult means. To me it’s obvious. You are the embodiment of your deity or spirits in Glorantha. So what it’s saying is that OK there is some time needed on the ritualistic and community care components of the role, and these link to community, but basically acting as your god did 90% of the time is to me ‘in service’. The other side of this is that the shamen priest gets to decide what that means, they are not out ranked. As others have highlighted, certain customs maybe prevelant in your community and they may bind you, but equally you can change them as your deity’s representative. Embodying your deity is in service. 10% of the time you can indulge in personal whimsy. Waha did many things in godtime, all to the greater good of survival in the darkness. You are assumed as a priest to have the same goals….what you do to achieve those goals is up to you and your gm and getting tied up with spell teaching time is just a GM being pedantic. It’s up to the GM to set campaign needs that force that balance between nurturing new blood in the community and meeting campaign goals your deity wants to be addressed. It’s the GM that ultimately sets the campaign needs that out rank short term community direct service. There are no rules for this, because it’s a campaign contextual decision. Personally I would hate to see rules for this. Maybe some guidelines on how certain cultures have traditionally interpreted what service means, but they will all vary even within the same deity and definitely should vary in your campaign.
  21. Yeh our chars are friends with Harrek, he seems to like us. My char is a fallen illuminated Humakti Sword who then followed the path of Ygg, accompanied by a storm bull Minotaur and a Magasta and Zola Fel newtling alchemist. So we are wolf pirates already and we’re commanded by Harrek and King Broyan. Officially we know nothing of Pennel Ford battle….and in fact we are about to rewrite it, so hopefully our gm will rewrite, greymane may stay as an ally, something completely different will happen. YGMV
  22. Might be about to define that…our GM is about to run Pennel Ford as a battle in which our rune levels just disrupted the yelmic rituals the day before. Now preparing to fly over the battle and seek to use Battle skill to follow the fight, so if we spot Greymanes defection we will be dealing with it….happy to define here what happens, if anything. Should occur next week or the week afte I hope.
  23. Sorry don’t agree. First it’s easy enough to scale adventures, second you have hero quests which as others have shown there is enough information around to write those, and they are world changing. Then there is the fact much of the mythology is based upon war games, so eventually chars need to evolve to be able to lead large numbers of chars and there are already skirmish models for RQ. More than enough to run campaigns for years, and I know several that have run that long.
  24. Good rules @svensson although you don’t discuss what happens to magic items and other loot. In my view, that’s all lost to the captors. I like heirloom items being returned, that seems honourable, and ransom only works between honourable combatants really. of course keeping lots of valuable gear means it’s probable the captive will return once ransomed if they can. Also you assumed salvers is likely … many do not support slavery. But that does not mean someone is not kept as a thrall, a low grade non combatant honour bound to serve their captors in return for food heat and shelter. A degrading role that many would pay their ransom to get out of.
  25. YGMV but in general every temple has its own interpretation of how to assess and qualify priests and wind lords. So feel free to come up with a reason why yours accepts these skills. Maybe it’s a clan that survives by hunting. adheres more to the idea of the ambush and thus perhaps is less of an adherence to honour codes etc etc. Maybe it generates a story in which Orlanth won through via stealth….maybe using the dark magic weapon, dark walk. Have fun, and best of all, make it fun for your players.
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