Malin

Funny really, me (and many with me it seems) have been buying into Esrolian propaganda, that surely they have all the best foodstuffs... 🌶️🍅

On a separate note, sunchokes are delicious, I love them!

5 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

surely the tomato exists as a Lunar-associated veggie?

Isn't tomatoes an Esrolia thing? Or did I dream that?

And I think the reason why potatoes are a point of contention (at least for me) is that they are a core staple crop that yet somehow has not left any greater mythic trace in Glorantha. Potatoes are just not another root vegetable; where they become cultivated, they become a bit like rice, community-bearing crops that can feed large amounts of people on more marginal soils without tools other than a pick or a digging stick. Very space efficient too. Unlike beets, carrots, and other roots, they become a core part of food culture. The main calory provider.

I don't think it's a question of "american continent foods," Maize is here, but it also has massive mythical underpinnings so it becomes obvious how important a part it is of Lunar culture. It's not a question of being so entrenched that it can't be removed by "purists," it's a matter of actually fitting into the setting just because it is so entrenched in myth.

And meanwhile, the potato... nothing.

One might argue it's the same for any vegetable, but the potato is more than a vegetable.

tldr: Glorantha cultures are the old fertile crescent grain-based cultures lacking any potato myths.

Oh no, are the potato wars the new Yelmalio/Elmal frontline? What did I stumble into?

Yeah, I've seen the forum threads too, just wasn't able to parse any modern answers for them! Thank you though, this leaves things nicely open for a possible potato heroquest eventually...

Perfect! That was what I was hoping to hear. I've been living with Cults of Prax in my head so long that it's been hard to sort out what is current and what is not. And thank you for spotting Thilla, I love her already.

Alright, my search skills have failed me, so I put my trust in the forums. And please, I am mostly asking for official facts, not how it is in your glorantha.

1. Do potatoes exist in Glorantha? I have seen it referenced in passing, but never as more than an aside in adventures.
2. Are potatoes mentioned in current Chaosium RuneQuest: Glorantha material or only in past editions and third-party materials?
3. Where is the origin of potatoes? Is one mentioned?
4. Are there any mythical connections? Is there a potato goddess like there is a grain goddess?
5. In fact, who is the goddess of root vegetables? Is that Asrelia's domain? Does she have a bunch of little "bulb babies" in her arms that she lets people pull up?
6. What is the distribution range for potatoes? Is it a Lunar thing? Pamaltea? Esrolia? Sartar?

The reason why I am asking is that it feels like potatoes tend to become a big thing in most cultures once introduced, at least if they are not ideal for growing grain, and yet I see no myths about it. Right now, my impression is that potatoes fill a similar role to beets and other root vegetables, something to put in the pot for poor people, but only as an addition to the main staples of grain/bread. Or that the mention of potatoes has simply slipped into adventure modules of the past because it's such a big thing in our society that it becomes a natural thing to add but nobody really gave it any thought or context.

To go more to our world: A preacher tending his church and holding sermons, confessions, marriages, and funerals is a 90% commitment (because people will talk, phone, and treat you like you are on duty all the time.) A missionary going door to door or traveling to other lands to spread the word (regardless of what we think of that practice) would also be a full-time commitment. A mystic spending their time in meditation at a holy site, same thing. But at the same time, this might be true of someone running a homeless shelter or outreach, or running a free clinic, or spending most of their time trying to get donations to help keep things funded. There are many ways to serve their faith and cause.

9 hours ago, That_Old-Hammer said:

I always imagined that there were rogue shamans living in the wilderness communing with the Spirit World far from the trivial matters of Man like a hermit wizard. Or a shaman being cast out of their community and coming back for revenge against them with an army of spirits.

Quote

A shaman only adventures when it is necessary to the tribe or cult.

I think for me, when it comes to weird hermit shamans and outcasts (which I love), I take note of the tribe OR cult. Perhaps the Shaman's first obligation is to his spirit cult; that's why he's out there. Maybe he was an outcast of his tribe but struck a bargain with the Spirit of the Cracked Rock, and started a cult to it, and now that spirit is what protects him from retaliation of his ancestor spirits. Maybe the Shaman was an outcast at a young age, and the only tribe he knew was the old Shaman master to trained him, and now that the master is dead, he's the only one carrying on the traditions. Maybe the shaman's clan was slaughtered by enemies, and she is the only one caring for the clan's ghosts and memories, alone and hiding from whatever terrors did that.

I think, like with many things, you need to think of a reason why something strange is happening rather than accept it as normal. Why does the farmer leave his fields and go fight in wars? Most farmers don't, but this one is special (a player character, a cool npc). Why is this shaman alone? Most Shamans are serving their tribe, so this one must be special.

That being said, I don't understand the part of removing the fetch, either. Reading the description, it seems that awakening the fetch changed the Shaman for good, and its death kills them both. However, if I think of it as binding or suppressing the fetch, it makes more sense.

10 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

If you leave a nice review for Crimson King, I will do all the layout chores for you.

Done! But I wont hold you to that promise (but will perchance ask once it is time). Writing reviews was fun, I need to go through my very long lost and do that...

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

If you leave a nice review for Crimson King, I will do all the layout chores for you.

Did one for the Black Spear, will do one when they let me for the Crimson King. Beware what you promise, it's gonna be a beefy book... 😉

44 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

Ask @MOB if you can leverage major events appearing in his fiction, from after the Cradle through to Moonbroth. And if you’re doing a Sun County book and want help with layout, just let me know: I’d be delighted to lend a hand.

I sent a DM right now! Good call, I had already planned to use that timeline, but I hadn't asked officially yet (I wrote it yesterday, so hadn't gotten around to it). And, hopefully I'll figure the layout out, but if you fancy having a look at the text once we've reached the "probably all is here now, time for editing) I'd love to send you a document! I love your modules (read Crimson King last night).

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

Quick Adventurer Background

I can't believe I had not thought of that. Thank you do much, sometimes I truly overcomplicate things. Thank you!!

Life and Traditions Under the Sun Dome (still a work-in-progress title) has now passed 150 000 words, and I'm sat here trying to assemble inspiration images for our cover artist. Finally folded and added updates so it's also easy to use in the 1625+ timeline. Loving this project, but will hate having to layout it. Haven't done that since the late nineties... 🙃...

Still so stuck on what to do about family history. I've not touched on it yet, since I love the one included in Sandheart and plugs that module for those things, but now that there's also a 1625 option it would be a good idea to have an updated one to cover those interesting ten years. Ugh. Not sure what to do about that yet, I suppose that's always the problem you run into when you try to make things compatible across other supplements.

16 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

My psychedelic epic mini-campaign Black Spear is currently 40% off in PDF; I've thrown in a 20% discount on the print editions, because I'm nice like that.

I spent 88 bucks on the sale, and by far the funniest reading experience so far (not finished with everything) is the Black Spear. Everything from the preface (which I had to read out loud to my partner) to the art to the situations to the way it is written is absolutely wonderful. Dunno if I'm ever gonna play it (hard to see a situation where either of my groups can be in that situation), but I sure as hell will reread it again and again and plunder it for parts.

Kudos, I bloody love it 💚

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

I like this take from Drew: The White Bull.

Hah! I see he's been doing similar vibes as I am doing (but not exactly) with Argrath illuminated since his initiation. Love it, thank you for linking!

Let's not forget that these stories of Umath's birth are told by people who were not present at the time, but were crafting them untold time after the fact. By this time, Orlanth already had the lightning as one of the more imposing weapons, so it would make sense to apply the same to his father.

Another thought is that the "thunder" in Umath above is the sound of dry thunder, not the bolt that hits the ground.

12 hours ago, Joerg said:

Not a fix, more of a want - something to enable a modicum of movement inside the Strike Ranks in a melee situation.

Honestly, RQG combat turned a lot more fun for me when we removed movement from the strike ranks in most circumstances. We use SR as a more predictable initiative for the type of attack you do, with free movement (up to the limit) unless it is important. What I mean by important are things like: Can I run out the door before getting shot? How many shots will I face before I reach the bowman with my sword and so on. In most other cases it really doesn't matter.

When it comes to melee combat, I've found that letting people move freely stops that paralyzing freeze that leaves some people standing still and fighting statically as they fear adding SR to their attacks. It's just a lot more fun for us.

Also, I am totally stealing the non-physical intimidation pushback. That's my experience from fights too.

I think it also is important to consider that many of the more philosophical/weird things in Glorantha do not really have a clear answer in game, it is still an ongoing philosophical debate between different factions (gestures to the forum). We can't know exactly what the Void is, and how/if it is related to primal chaos because the only ones who would know are the people who have become enlightened enough to return to it, and they are not coming back. Even if a Dragon would be friendly enough to try to explain the full concept, the barrier of language would still be there. No human can have a perfect enough grasp of Auld Wyrmish, and I think part of it is because we cannot grasp the core concepts of certain words.

It is a bit like trying to picture the fourth dimension, we can mathematically simulate how a hypercube would interact with our three-dimensional world, but we can't picture how it would look in our minds. We are not equipped for it.

That's one of the things I love about Glorantha, the more you learn, the more questions there are. There's no secret guide to answers anywhere.

8 hours ago, bronze said:

ave wondered Orlanth has taken these powers from other gods, or held immanent power over them.

I know certain Yelmalians who would swear that Orlanth took the power of lightning from them when he defeated Yelmalio (with unfair means, of course) at the Hill of Gold and took away Yelmalios weapons. And that the spear was lightning. They would also point to Orlanth's shenanigans with the Sandals of Darkness and the Scarf of Mist as proof of how untrustworthy those violent air gods are. Thieves and robbers the lot of them. And can we really trust that the Shield of Arran was freely given?

Of course, this is a very biased way of seeing mythic events, and who can know what the truth really is?

(And the Yelmalion would point that their god holds the Truth rune, and so they should be trusted.)

I loved character creation and the detailed supplements, but I don't think I ever played a single session that wasn't hacked all to hell with other rules systems. We were very into that around that point in time, eventually devolving into almost going rule-less (sorta pre-hero wars style). So this thread had me "oh, yeah, that was in the rules" often.

34 minutes ago, Richard S. said:

The RQ2 Lantern was apparently variable, with each point increasing the duration by 120 seconds

Isn't this exactly like recasting the spell though? Apart from not having to make the cast roll, which is rarely a big issue outside of combat.

Look. I tend to focus a lot on how things actually feel in the world and not just on specific game effects in the rule book (because such a rule book would be a nightmare). Thus, I let things like a person with cat's eye not get negative modifiers on scan in bad light, light cast in certain ways being likelier to blind or reveal people than cast in other ways (for example, casting it on enemies gives a better chance of not being the biggest target for missile fire during a night fight) and so on. I am aware that this is not specified in the rules, it is just my interpretation of how certain spells differ from each other. I have way too many homebrewed rules for shit like that, just because I like wilderness adventures to feel like they are wilderness adventures.

EDIT: I don't feel that the Yelmalian in my campaign is underpowered compared to the Babeester Gor or Orlanthi.

EDIT: The Farsee thing will annoy me forever though...

I always saw it as a way not to blind everyone behind you too. The direction helps with keeping night vision somewhat intact. Not a massive difference, but this is how I use it in game:

Light: Easily cast on things like a tree branch, an enemy's shirt, the tip of a long spear held up high and so on. Very good for spreading ambient light in battle, makes it easy to pick out enemies while still keeping somewhat hidden in the shadows. More like a lamp post, it needs to be high not to blind people and rob them of night vision.

Lantern: The big flashlight. Good to cast on the shield of the person who walks first in a tunnel, making sure everyone behind them is not blinded. Good for traveling, underground, and to make it less easy to spot from behind. Good to travel with, like the headlights of a car.

(guess who have spent way too much time out in the dark swedish coutryside/forests and who is running a campaign with Yelmalians...)

1 hour ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

How does it help with travelling?

Well, we're currently in the middle of the wastes/plateau of statues and it gets dark at night. There have been several attacks/night raids, as well as scouting the enemy during the night, where catseye have come in handy. The danger with light and similar is that it also makes other people see you... (I did not literally mean walking or riding faster, just that on the road, you are often put in dangerous situations during the night, where you might just have a torch or a campfire with some embers to light the way. Especially in a tree-scarce area like the Wastes). A bit like comparing someone with nightvision goggles vs someone with a flashlight.

Catseye is super worth it, we have a character with it in our campaign and it is very handy while traveling and keeping watch