glarkhag

46 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Yes, I've answered in the Q&A:

 

Excellent answers, thank you!

I play that gaining rune magic from a god is facilitated by a priest (or Lord) with instruction and a "hand-wave" ritual. Mechanically the instruction would be the talking through the (fractional) Cult Lore of the magic and the ritual would entail Worship (deity) if I were to roll it I suppose. Thinking about the mechanics of it came to me in considering how to gain rune magic from cults or sub-cults (particularly folk-hero cults) that have no priests or lords. Orgorvale Summer from the Gamemasters Adventures book for example, or the forgotten hero sub cult I have created in one of my own adventures.  With no spiritual leader to guide the way this feels like it ought to be a bit trickier and not necessarily a "hand-wave". I'm curious to hear what other people do around this. A simple cult lore and/or a worship roll? Do you make them do a minor heroquest to anchor the spell? Handwave some personal instruction from the divine being over a period of a week perhaps? Given Priests and Lords have POW and CHA of at least 18 respectively then some sort of abstract characteristic roll?

Assuming this is possible what are the implications for cults where priests and lords do exist and characters started learning stuff on their own..?  The second question coming from that is perhaps how much of the cult hierarchy is middle world driven - the work of the cult hierarchy - as opposed to deity driven? Does Orlanth care if an initiate sacrifices POW and learns his magic without the aid of a priest or lord?  The hierarchy might care - the political leaders of cults could very well feel undermined by independent spell learners!

Also is there an official response on this?

And you could inspire skills that will help you escape, like jumping across that ravine or riding your horse fast...swimming across the river etc etc 

I've not got my rule book to hand but I'm sure it talks about fear passion making people avoid the subject of the fear. I play it like a demoralization if the fear wins (succeeds) but as pointed out oppose it with something else (devotion to orlanth, for example, because courage is a virtue of Orlanth). 

41 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

Any ideas on how to handle sudden fatal blows near the end of a melee round? It sucks if it happens, and can really put players off. I’m comfortable with playing a deadly game, but not everyone is.

Resurrection, DI.

But your suggestions work. If you just want chance for last words allow that but there's nothing that can be done for them except DI. Just because they are conscious and (barely alive) doesn't mean normal healing magic or first aid will work. You might even allow it for fatal head injuries. I've read countless stories of people with fatal head wounds being conscious. The brain can continue to swell after the injury for example and eventually crush the critical parts.

If you all agree that its not instant death then why not? As long as NPCs get the same benefit....😈

5 hours ago, Nozbat said:

I always go back to what a melee round mechanic is.. it's a series of thrusts, parries, feints, dodges, etc to try and get an opening with one opportunity to damage your opponent and to parry in the 12 seconds of time....

Actually I think you have hit on something really important there. Effectively if you attack on SR6 (without having moved or cast magic)  you start your attack on SR 1 so it takes 6 strike ranks to potentially hurt that target. So for me, if they go down on SR5 you take a SR to review for a new target (battle or INT or whatever) then any movement necessary, then your 6 Strike ranks of attacking starts. So chances are in this example you wouldn't have time to move *and* attack.

On 3/28/2024 at 4:35 PM, PhilHibbs said:

In the core rule book, seven times.

and 7 times in Weapons and Equipment (Guilds, magic items, ships, crystal attunement, magical effects of songs and poems).

4 minutes ago, svensson said:

Where is the GMs Book /Guide /Whatever 'teased'?

Here in the forums, the GMs Book has been mentioned as an idea for after the Gods of Glorantha series is done. There hasn't been a proposed date, author, or list of content or anything. I have seen no cover, content discussion, or literally anything saying the GM's Guide is upcoming any time soon. 'Back burner' is the closest description I've seen.

Now, the Gods of Glorantha project HAS been held up by that bane of editors everywhere, artwork. Add to that COVID, economic hassles with China, and shipping backlogs. The wait for GoG HAS been significant. And GoG is supposed to be a 10 volume set, which is not yet at the halfway mark [the Lunar Pantheon is Book 5].

Meanwhile, Jonstown Compendium keeps us their stellar work keeping you supplies with adventures, locales,stat blocks, cultural descriptions and other material. Quite frankly, it's one of the most active 'third party fan content' milieux on DriveThru.

And given the GM's Pack content, the Glorantha Bestiary content, and so forth, I'm not really seeing what a GM's Guide could add to the body of material already available.

 

There are references in other books to material that will be in it. Heroquesting and NPC reactions are two that most readily spring to mind. Battle rules too. 

There are all sorts of things they could expand on that world help GMs, especially new ones. 

On 3/30/2023 at 12:33 PM, radmonger said:

The glorantha bestiary doesn't have an entry for mummies, so it is not clear this works there. But I would have thought the whole deal with the Necropolis in Esrolia had the implication bodies suitably prepared would remain recognizable.

 

 

I know this is an old thread but I can't see that anyone picked up on this...  The Revenant in the monsters section of the bestiary aligns with a mummy. 

16 hours ago, Geoff R Evil said:

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.

A minor story like an ambush in the Auroch Hills perhaps...

Hi,

In times gone before one could become a Wind Lord by having Hide and Move Quietly amongst your mastered skills. These skills are specifically discounted for initiates in RQG so I presume they are considered cult skills. What is the reasoning behind not counting them for Wind Lord status now?

thanks
Rich

Well, the latest on this is the tidying up is a bigger exercise than I expected. The transcripts are absolutely awful representations. I can't even guess what some of the transcipt means without listening to the segment. 😕 

I think what I'll do is get the transcripts up as-is (which is the easy bit) and then work at tidying them (easy but laborious). So series 1 episode 1 is attached with some editing done.

Yes Argrath has some interesting transcriptions: Our Graph, Our Growth and Agra.

If I tidy them up and people are interested (and Chaosium ok with it) I can post them up here as I do them.

Does any body have transcripts of the white bull campaign videos? 

I'd like to be able to search for specific content and thought I'd ask before I try to make my own.

Thanks

25 minutes ago, glarkhag said:

when did this feud begin? I'm playing in 1615...

ok seen the reference for this - a long time ago!

12 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Varmandi are in a state of feud with the Orlevings who control the valley Greenstone occupies, which makes pilgrimages or passage quite problematic unless they follow a non-feuding leader as sworn followers (if only for the trip). You don't usually grant hospitality to feuding foes, except when they come under emissary signs.

when did this feud begin? I'm playing in 1615...

I'd like to get some views on how well received cultists from one tribe or clan would be in the temples of another tribe or clan. Does tribal/clan prejudice get put aside or does it create intra-cult politics?

Specifically, I have characters from the Varmandi clan planning to travel to Two Fort Ridge via Greenstone. Two of the characters are Earth cultists and it seems likely that they might want to pay their respects at the Earth temple there. I don't have a sense for whether typically the tribal rivalry would create tension or cult association would trump that. And further still there is the idea that the cult might demand equal treatment but of course not everyone does what is expected of them...

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if this article: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/an-ancient-dawn-age-document-from-brithos/

was originally posted somewhere else? I had not seen it in the places I currently look and want to make sure I'm not missing out on a valuable source. 

Thanks

10 hours ago, Zit said:

In the scenario, it is written that killing one rat disperses the whole pack. So using Disruption is a good solution. It is a spell widely used to hunt small preys or fight small pest.

yes, except it give no mechanics for how many points of damage to do with disruption to make a pack disperse. For me giving mechanics for something that could take as much as 200 dice rolls to resolve is leading the GM down the garden path.

and that for me is the point - I've been roleplaying for long enough and have enough experience in the RW to improvise or polish rules, override mechanics that just don't work etc, or to offer my players suggestions and assorted mcguffins. I'm not here for tips on how to play. I was exploring whether this was bad rules or I missed something.

However, Rainbow Mounds is an introductory adventure. We could have a first time GM running it for first time players.  Yes, it's old school (or lazy depending on your perspective). I love this game/world to death and I think this version is the best ever. I'd still like to see the RQ writing community walk in the shoes of a newbie more often though. It's easy to forget how much we "old-timers" know about RQ, Glorantha and RPG in general. And also there is a lot of collective knowledge of RW history and mythology etc in the community and I suspect most players and GMs don't have that wealth of background information to tap into. Newbie GMs don't need help understanding the genealogy of the Lightbringers (well they do but...); they need help with how everyday adventuring things work. And the problem is a lot of game mechanics actually don't make sense (to people who live on Earth) so it makes it difficult to understand if there is some esoteric basis underpinning it or it's just poor mechanics. And for me this is an example of poor mechanics. Why go to the trouble of making up some rules that you really don't expect people to follow through with? And if you expect them to be followed through why haven't you modelled out the possible outcomes. and if you have modelled out all the possible outcomes how can you think this rule was MGF?  RHetorical questions, I hope I don't have to point out - but the fact I am pointing it out speaks volumes. 😉

There have been some great little explanations of things on Well of Daliath or Facebook or the various forums but they're not particularly accessible mid-game. Not always especially accessible pre-game but hey ho. Maybe someone could develop an app that scrapes all the various forums into one place?  Generative AI I suspect will help us out with that soon enough. Anyone tried writing game mechanics with ChatGPT? Oh, wait you already did? 😁

Oh, and heroquesting... We could all use a little help with the mechanics of that. Even if it's just some basic mechanic principles to get us launched (crossing over)- but that is another thread entirely 😁... maybe tomorrow.  And seriously, I don't need any tips on this - we're a long way away from serious heroquesting in my campaign. I've deliberately started with 16 year old characters in the hope that heroquesting rules get published before they die of old age, I mean before they get serious about heroquesting. Although it does sound promising that 2024 could be the year that we see mechanics for Heroquesting in Runequest. 🤞.  

PS. I am available for playtesting mechanics if anyone is up for some equal measures of robust scrutiny and pedantry.

And disrupt would still only have 5% chance of killing the last pack...

Yeah ignite sounded good until a character was smothered with burning rats...

So one pack is indeed 5% and killing the last pack could take 20 melee rounds (or more) if they have 100% attack.

That's pretty tedious. 

If fighting them is not really the intention why not provide mechanics for what is intended? 

Although I've played RQ since 2nd edition I never played or GM'd Rainbow Mounds until now!

I want to check something because I must have misunderstood the intent.

Fighting rat packs...

It states that if you hit you have number of packs x5% chance of doing enough damage to kill a pack. Example given of five packs and 25%. This percentage is also the chance of being hit by the packs.

So if you have 1 pack of rats, you roll to hit (let's say 50% to hit) and if successful you now have 1 x5% chance of killing the pack? 

So broadly 2.5% chance of killing the pack per round ...

Have I misunderstood or is this going to be a dice rolling pergatory?

I would have thought a few HPs per pack would have been neater...but perhaps I have missed the spirit if not the RAW of this? 

10 hours ago, jajagappa said:

A couple hundred Lunars is 2-3 years worth of coin - perhaps that is enough to change your life?

It is true, but it also pays for less than 4 weeks evening classes or a single dose of POT 10 venom antidote (damn those pharma companies!!). But let's not turn this into an economics discussion, because that, I believe, would be a thankless task 😭

10 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

Which is what we want, right? The characters fear such complications, but the players would feel cheated if there was no “mummy’s curse.”

If you were getting life changing riches... Not sure I'd trade that for a few hundred lunars.