David Scott

Wow you made magical people rarer! 5000/100 = 50 by my guidelines. Another standard breakdown we use is for populations - half are children and then the remainder 50/50 men and women. It too is a useful guideline. So Orathorn’s 5k population gives us 2.5k adults. Let’s say half of them practice sorcery that gives us 1250 sorcerers. 1 in 100 is a powerful mage, so roughly 12-13 “Magic” people - oooh, that’s a mysterious Council of 13 that runs the city of Orathorn. You are welcome as before to fudge the numbers to suit, but personally I believe my mysterious Council of 13 trumps your 5 sorcerers on the MGF front.

While I agree for the Ernalda numbers, I don't quite agree with the numbers for the magical combat defender cults like Humakt or Babeester. By their very nature, such cults are more magical. As I said it’s a guideline that we use and you may want to increase some of the number. if you want to produce actual numbers go ahead, although I’m not sure it’s a useful exercise. When looking at a general overview 1 in 100 works well in practice. The numbers work very well with Babeester Gor, only large Earth temples will have rune levels or devotees and they are likely to be mobile. I suspect the main centre for the cult is in Esrolia. In the Wastelands, there are only 55 initiates. Please also note that these numbers never include PCs, so at some point there will be a devotee of Babeester Gor in the Wastes.

This is very much my understanding of Glorantha too. These aren’t extra obstacles, they are what happens when the world is magically alive. Everything then has a spirit/soul/essence that manifests in the world in some way. This is also the correct way to view Glorantha in my opinion, problems are magical problems and not on top of mundane or scientific problems. When you start to introduce a scientific answer to a Gloranthan problem you’ve missed the point. Take for example infant mortality in Glorantha. Why is childbirth dangerous in Glorantha. We know the real world science reasons for this, but that’s not Glorantha. Is childbirth actually dangerous there? Disease spirits always lurk, that’s always going to be an issue. Birth defects? Blood loss? Is there a fundamental magical issue, such as the soul/spirit staying in the child’s body at birth. Is it an interaction between the life and death runes. Be clear, I’m not talking about the physical discomfort/pain of birth, I’m talking about do babies die, and if so why magically

Great Winter = -20% population in Sartar, Old Tarsh, Grazelands; -10% population in Esrolia, Lunar Tarsh and Prax. These are the figures we are using and not just Orlanthi.

I certainly don't disagree with this although old supplements do provide us wth some good examples, times have moved on. Using Sartar as a starting example and looking at RQ2 & Cults of Prax , to remain an initiate of Orlanth means you have to tithe 10% of your income to the temple. This income is likely to be in the form of goods as service is 6 weeks a year. Goods will be food, animals, clothing anything to support the priest in his work, likewise service will be assisting in rituals, and the ruling of the temple, being in the fyrd, etc. As for magic - I'd say some of this service is learning magic - it benefits the temple and it's members, and likewise training. Every adult will know at least 1 piece of magic. Ignite, repair being perhaps some of the most common. The next being the free magic, the next reduced cost magic. RQ3 had the right idea saying 1pt per 5 (or what ever it was) years as it gives us an average to work with.

In HeroQuest terms they are the 11W levels - Devotee, shaman, Mage and positions like Khan. In RQ levels they are Rune Lords and Priests, Shaman and what ever your sorcery school has for Mages. Calculations are per relevant initiate group - Initiates, Spirit magicians, school member etc. e.g. using the data from Sartar-KoH, Cults of Sartar chapter: Babeester Gor 250 = 2-3 Magic people Ernalda 40,000 = 400 Magic people Humakt 1000 = 10 Magic people - As the 1 in 100 figure is just a guideline you may want to increase a figure like this. But don't forget that lots of people remain initiates all their life and can be very powerful.

Not much time for a full response, but one of the ideas we work with is that the magic just raises Glorantha to Earth norms. Without out it everything is worse. However magic can clearly do things we can't do on earth. For example if a great leader dies in a crisis, they can be resurrected in Glorantha, avoiding a power vacuum that could make the crisis worse. Common and rune (to use your definitions) would only confer a slight advantage over Earth mainly due to the time the effect works. This slight advantage is still an advantage, however. Using the basis we use for "magic" people - 1 in 100. Given a population of 100 initiates is one healer's magic enough to avoid illness and death in glorantha considering their rarity. We actually have percentages for Sartar for cults in to look at numbers.

Waha & BasmolThe Basmoli had barely survived the Great Darkness - their battle rage their saviour would also be their end. Waha knew they would always be trouble and allowed himself to be captured to take part in their Battle ritual with others less fortunate. As the Lion God appeared, he saw Tada's spear amongst the dozen presented and slew Basmol as Tada did. As is the Basmoli's custom, he was released and given the title of Tada, Murderer of Children. Any khan who has completed this Task may take the title Tada instead of Khan and many choose to carry a lion baton instead of the more traditional kind (you can read about the ritual in Tales 14 if you are lucky to own a copy). http://blog.britishmuseum.org/the-lion-man-an-ice-age-masterpiece/

Was in an old White Dwarf...

Personally I'd steer away from Balastors Baracks, it hasn't aged well. Pavis is a great starting place. Mike Cule's Rumble at Tin Inn moved to Gimpy's was always a good starter for me. Or any well planned (by the GM) bar brawl. The Rainbow Mounds is still a favourite of mine. I always got them to do it as payment for messing up Gringle's Pawnshop and RBM is a dungeon after all.

The relevant paragraph says nothing about five treasures it does say: So it can be assumed to cover any of the effects mentioned or similar, it’s not a single thing but a combination of actions, people, artefacts and rites.

You are seriously overestimating the carrying capability of an ancient warship. As for rainfall or fish - you are surely being facetious. In rain, the crew will be bailing water overboard, and if a ship slows to fish it won't get very far. May I suggest this excellent document - https://www.jstor.org/stable/25165176 registration required but it’s free and unlocks a valuable resource: Vessel Volumetrics and the Myth of the Cyclopean Bronze Age Ship Christopher M. Monroe Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient Vol. 50, No. 1 (2007), pp. 1-18 Published by: Brill Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25165176 Page Count: 18 20 tons being the maximum cargo of these ships. I’d scale it all down...

Can't but help feel there's something wrong with this amount of iron in one place. Given, it's anti-magic properties when unenchanted, no one will want kilos of the stuff all at once. No one would want to put it on a boat/ship as no one could use any magic.

We use a 1% rule when determining how many "magical" people in a cult. So for every 100 humakti (initiates) there is 1 devotee/rune level. There may be more there maybe less but it's a good ballpark figure.

http://www.princeofsartar.com/comic/2-the-uncles/ for onlookers Firstly, it's a comic, not a film or book. It's going to show scenes to convey the story, not the boring stuff. Just like a film that's edited out. The clan members aren't dressed up, they are the gods themselves, participating in their sacred role of grabbing Orlanth and taking him to the Strange Gods. If they were just clan members it would just be kidnapping and assault. The text accompanying the comic tells the full story. Imagine it's like a school nativity play, outsiders looking in see children dressed up as Joseph, Mary and donkeys. Those in the play are Joseph, Mary and the donkeys. Baby Jesus isn't a doll, he's real to all. The audience of parent's are the clan members in the initiation. They remember when they did this and how wondrous it was at the time. Unlike the real world where suspension of belief is the mechanism of theatre, in Glorantha it's replaced by an actual shift in to the otherworld generated by all the participants.

Is it? For HeroQuest, the community magic rating is't specifically the Wyter. Page 123 tells us: The Wyter can be asked to help, but as it says, there are risks to that. According to that paragraph, it's not the Wyter. It sounds very much like the clan teaching rites to everyone.

Given when they were written they were based on what was known at the time. Sandy's sorcery (v2 1998) was based on RQ3 and that suffered from the whole mediaeval christian model for the west and didn't involve any runes. Likewise RQ4 (1992) was based on the same RQ3 model, again no runes and still saints etc. Nearly 20 years later from Sandy's rules we're finally getting a proper Gloranthan system based on runes and texts which Greg wrote on sorcery. The new era for sorcery didn't really start until Sartar KoH in 2009 when the Lhankor Mhy cult was rewritten to include sorcery.

The initiation isn't chosen, it's the event that everyone in the clan knows how to participate in. In harmast saga the story begins as old but unfolds into the actual initiation for those who are the participants. The men and women in the clan know their roles, as it's an established drama. Like a play, it won't be the same every time as the actors are different and everyone has a slightly different idea of how it works as a whole. So it's none of the above, it's the clan who defines the initiation, by the myths told and the stories that the previous participants tell. Orlanth did this... On my initiation this happened... No two will tell the same stories as it's personal, but the outcome will be the same. I Fought We Won is a universal myth in Glorantha. It doesn't always have this name and is told from different aspects. It's about surviving on your own against overwhelming adversity. I'm sure that many cultures have this aspect in their initiations, just not the same name or gift at the end. Replace Star Heart with what ever cultural understanding is more appropriate,

I think there is a difference here, the Praxians have a culture hero who shows them how to live. For example Raiding is part of the culture but war isn't (except against foreigners). Orlanthi have a different model with a different limiter.

Sorcery was always interesting its just that the rules previously sucked. RQ2 absent, RQ3, not really Gloranthan. It wasn't until we found things like the Xeotam Dialogues that we understood fully how to implement a true Gloranthan feel. Pavis: GtA really let us set the scene for sorcery, then the Guide and now RQG. You'll be able to play sorcerer from the start - my players leapt at that.

Yes. Although to play a sorcerer I would always suggest starting with an INT of 18 and making sure you have you have Fire/sky as your primary rune for +2 INT so your starting INT is 20. There is also a spell that increases INT Enhance INT and therefore Free INT of the target. For the Malkioni, you get a bonus by obeying school cast restrictions. Break them and you loose them forever. Lunars spell point costs vary by moon phase so they can get up to effectively double Free INT on the Full Moon and half at Dying/Dark phases. I suspect other schools (not detailed in the core book) have similar techniques, but Enhance INT would normally be the first port of call.

While that's certainly an idea, I think that both sides aim to wound, just not kill. An incapacitated praxian is more of an immediate burden to attackers or defenders. Yes there's healing magic and everyone knows it's limits. But they are just avoiding fatalities, not wounding - no head shots, aim for limbs, dismount them, trampling is out, etc

Eaten long ago - a bit like chicken wings but bigger. You need to create a horse sized ritual pair from spun gold and feathers, that will do. Perhaps the wing bones exist in ZZ's trophy room...

Yes and weirdly one isn't visible to me! The first disappeared with out trace so I foolishly made another... I will track it down and kill it.

Vesmonstran section discussion here! Don't forget Colin Driver's epic maps and the artwork. https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/6863-guide-to-glorantha-group-read-week-16-ralios/ https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/6864-guide-to-glorantha-group-read-week-16-deep-discussion-ralios/ https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/6843-guide-to-glorantha-group-read-week-16-corrections/