David Scott

This is a common confusion - Orlanthi & Orlanth worshipper. Orlanthi is the cultural grouping, within that Orlanthi worship a range of gods associated with the pantheon. Orlanth and Ernalda are the dominant deities within the pantheon, but there are many more including Daka Fal. An Orlanth worshipper doesn't have to be an Orlanthi. Other people / races can win the cult. A troll from Dagori Inkarth can join the cult of Orlanth, but that doesn't make them an Orlanthi. I think there maybe a bit of language confusion with this (with the addition of the i) as this is not the first time I' ve come across this. Your Daka Fal shaman was likely born in Sartar, within the culture so he is an Orlanthi. He is not a member of the Orlanth cult, but it's fine as Daka Fal is a member of the Orlanth pantheon. Orlanthi have ancestor worship, it's normally done through Orlanth, but there's no problem doing it through Daka Fal. Orlanth has many ancestral hero cults, Vingot and Heort to name just a few. Look at the cult compatibility table Daka Fal is Hostile to Orlanth (Orlanth broke the World).Relations are strained, and the historic tension precludes peaceful dealings. There are difficult moments when hostile cults meet. Orlanth is neutral to Daka Fal. (Daka Fal has his place in the world). Such cults act according to present circumstance. Trouble may occur, but the spark must be deliberate, not caused by minor squabbles. They are not enemies - These cults know no compromise. Members fight if they think they can win, or flee if they fear they will lose. No one expects or will give mercy. Yes, this is an excellent story at the crux in the relationship between the two cults, especially in the Hero Wars.

Tales of the Reaching Moon said in issue 8 (1992): Ive just looked through it and would say that calling it RQ IV is rather erroneous as it was just RQ3 updated fully with Glorantha, so RQ3.1 is a fair description. The only real difference was character generation that was points based. There's nothing you would see that would be new to RQ or BRP.

I've just dug out my copy. Looks like I got it 1994 (likely at Convulsion). I didn't realise I had a play testing credit in it (doh). I couldn't remember having it until you mentioned yours. The version floating round is a scan as it contains all kind of rubbish not present in the original (added unrelated colour images) and is missing the appendices. It's dated 2003.

RPGnet have the info and explanation of the history. https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=5136 and a review: https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/classic/rev_5223.phtml

I playtested it. It was firmly in the "more complex is better" RPG ideology. Most of the "improvements" complicated he system, some of the new stuff like point based template characters were interesting - but only at character generation. I adopted 2 things from it into my RQ3 games. A simplified version its complex fatigue rules and some of the Sorcery rules that made more sense than RQ3. Search through the list here using RQIV : https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/ It did have its own list somewhere. The version floating around has clearly been tarted up and produced much later (2000s?). the reality (the internet in1992 wasn't sophisticated), I had raw text files in individual emails and never the whole thing in one go - others might have: This was all in 1992-93, 28 years ago. It happened at the time we were riding the RuneQuest Renaissance wave - I was involved in the Convulsion conventions in the UK, Tales of the Reaching Moon and Sun County had just been published - fortunately these were much more exciting. Overall it was a dead end, that was never official or published. The memories of it have merged into thousands of hours of games and been fortunately forgotten.

Although blindingly obvious once I'd seen it - I watched a youtube video last night where two violinists played all of the different sizes of violin available. From standard to 1/32 (for three year olds). It would mean that weapons could be made for different sizes. A greatsword for a duck would be a short sword and one for a pixie would be a dagger. Smaller weapons could be made in the same style as their normal size ones, but just do less damage. Likewise weapons for larger creatures. A Giant's greatsword could perhaps do 2D10 or 2D12 damage. Wasn't that why Bilbo's sword was in fact an elvish dagger.

I use the NPC and Squad sheets in the GM Screen Pack, they are pretty straightforward.

Imagine an average Farmer (Orlanth initiate). He's married (Ernalda initiate) with 2 children. Together they farm their land near Apple Lane. Regardless of their rune points, Orlanth initiates get to renew their magic twice per season (hopefully the floating days are evenly spread out RQG p300) and during sacred time. RQG p300. Ernaldans, ignoring the minor holy days get 5 seasonal holy days, sacred time and 2 others RQG p293. Initiation on page 275 says you get 1 special rune spell, so what does an Orlanthi farmer choose for rune magic? Pick well as to get more you need to pay 100L per point (page 275) 100L is 5 cows. Look at what's available for farmers, Orlanth is rubbish. Personally I believe flight is the best, it lets you fly to the holy peaks on holy days. but really they are all Weather or Air based or only useful in a fight. Thunderbolt is likely the best otherwise. Ernalda initiates? Bless crops wins every time. So what about the common rune magic? Divination - what are farmers going to ask about? causes of sick animals, crop blight, where is my lost brother, will the harvest go well, should I buy Bert's spare bull... Warding - what are you going to ward - likely the cows, but that's fine, that's what it's for. You don't get the RP back until it expires. So that puts you down points. Likely you only do it when treble is expected. Heal Wound is the single most important spell, it's what reduces overall mortality from simple problems (no one normal bleeds to death, through normal accident or childbirth issues). This an important thing for Glorantha as a setting I believe. The only other one that i believe is of any import is Multispell, as it lets you loose off multiple healing and disruption. The rest are very specialist. Overall your family can benefit from rune magic every few weeks but I don't think they use it very often. Most save it up for an emergency. should I cast divination or save it just in case of an accident. so I don't think they do, unless they are specialists. The farmers above use thunderbolt. Most farmers rarely fight. Divination is still unreliable and people will likely put off using it except in emergency. Yes, it's now a fantasy world where accidents don't kill you, but combat still can and is why no one squanders their rune points. If you have the rune points and choose well. Adventurers on the other hand are entirely different.

Unless you mention it, no one will know.

The simple answer from Greg when I discussed this with him was that dogs amongst the Praxians were camp dogs not hunters or herders (likewise in the same discussion was that the Morokanth don't use hyenas at all). Brother Dog's is a spirit cult is contactable by shaman and associated with Foundchild in the upcoming book and teaches Understand Dog (communication skill) and the Conquer Beast special rune spell (This spell causes the caster‘s effective POW to be increased by 50%, for purposes of offensive and defensive spirit combat and spell resistance only. This bonus is only received against four-footed mammals and beast-spirits, including riding animals, wolves, etc.) Remember that for a Foundchild initiate to access associated cult spells, you need a major temple, so most will need to access Brother dog through a shaman as a spirit cult. In Prax the spirit cult is most often associated with Helpwoman shaman as a camp guards. Waha & Foundchild Hunters are not so common amongst the Praxians - roughly 1% amongst the tribes. There's some more over here from Greg's notes: I don't see any reason why you couldn't include dogs with the mounted Praxian hunters in your games if you wanted. No doubt throughout Praxian history there's been the occasional hunter /herder with one or more trained dogs.

Throughout Greg's unpublished novels (small parts have be published), there are mentions of initiation tattoos. In a personal letter he said: In Glorantha the Game (an unpublished playtest) you got to draw on tattoos. Greg himself was tattooed. Have a look at these: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/glorantha-2/cultures/orlanthi-initiation-rites/ https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/glorantha-2/orlanth-makes-a-ring/ These tattoos are actually drawn by Greg, https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/websites/moondesign-com/jeffs-old-blogs/draft-character-sheets-sartar-2/ Ultimately it's up to you to include tattoos. They look cool in art, but at the table you likely need to describe them. Bear in mind that the more clothes worn the less visible they are: Have a look at Jeff Laubenstein's art for the Guide: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gallery/jeff-laubenstein-2/

Can you explain why?

I made it up. In my mind it's a 1 pt spell as it has to take up CHA and so 1 point will clearly summon one dog, so 4 points will summon 4 dogs. I'm more than happy in my games to make up any kind of spell or spell variation. If you look at NPCs in published materials, they often have stuff not defined in the rules. As the rules say: Presenting players with fun stuff is key to the game. Likewise Jeff and Jason say the rules are not definitive https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/publishers/chaosium/runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha-players-book-print/cha4028-runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha-qa-by-chapter/ Thats how I would play it.

In world I think there are a few approaches. Such as discovered in hidden grimoires, lost to all. Created by trial and error research, mixing runic techniques and invocations, god given (LM, IO, Busarian, etc) It would also depend on the sorcerers point of view - cause or effect first. (Personally I just make them up (or my players do)).

This one lets you summon up to 4 spirit dogs at a time.

This is corrected in my copy and PDF. You might want to update your PDF if you have one.

Yes In the context that text is in the Spirit Combat section of Spirits and the Spirit World chapter and is on of its subsections. This is just the first paragraph not the whole subsection (page 369) Normally refers to the section it's in - the spirit combat section. It's not in the combat chapter. It also means that it uses the spirit combat critical & special rules and the spirit combat fumble table.

No one has mentioned: 13th Age Monthly - #9 - Mounted Combat Praxian Mounts: Bison, Bolo Lizard, High Llama, Impala, Rhinoceros, Sable Antelope, Unicorn https://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/mounted-combat/ It's only £1.95 (also available in Monthly Volume 2)

Yes. You've clearly never watched any nature programmes about lions 🙂 Remember that everything in Glorantha is made of runes, they are its building blocks. Everything likely contains a bit of every rune. Lion's teeth and claw undoubtably contain some iota of Death rune. Sure. It's likely that there are vast swathes of spells yet to be discovered. Ward against Beasts would likely keep an area around you free from all kinds of beasts. Ideal for a grain silo. Would probably work on SIZ. Yes. the game has a shield skill for offensive use. Yes, it's physical damage. However there's a point when the damage is so high that it will break through. With a herd of stampeding bison, one will get you. Yes. Depending on the size of the rock it likely doesn't matter. I can think of few reasons why I would have this happening in a game. It's not a random event I would choose to include, however if it was part of a storytelling element that would be different and someone / something likely caused it. The sorcerer in our game often uses the spell, we boil it down to physical or magical damage. In a stampede he survived three attacks before escaping. The cattle were rolling badly, their hooves are certainly weapons (check for nature programmes of herbivores kicking things). At your table you may decide differently, in the heat of the moment we go with the flow and MGF, we don't stop to debate rules.

Resolving Spirit Combat on page 368 doesn't work like normal combat. It's opposed roles with compared levels of success. Here's a spirit combat example using Vasana, imaging her an broadsword is enchanted: Using Ghost from the bestiary, POW (4D6) 15, CHA 3D6) 10, spirit combat 75%, 1D6+1 damage, Ancestral Spirit Spells (9 points): Dispel Magic 3, Summon (spirit dog) 4, slow (1), Mobility (1) Vasana is currently POW 15, CHA 19, Broadsword 90%, 1D8+1 damage. Damage bonus doesn't count in spirit combat All happens at SR12 Round 1 Ghost 18, success, Vasana 55, success, tie. Round 2 Ghost 76, fail, Vasana 51, success, Vasana wins. Rolls 6+1 = 7. Ghost has 8 mp left. Round 3 Ghost 01, critical, Vasana 68, success, Ghost wins. Critical - Roll twice 3+1 & 5+1= 10. Vasana has 5 mp left and takes 1 hit point damage to her left arm. Round 4 Ghost 94, fail, Vasana 60, success, Vasana wins. Rolls 1+1 = 2. Spirit has 6 mp left. Round 4 Ghost 66, fail, Vasana 04, critical, Vasana wins. Critical - Roll twice 6+1 & 8+1= 16. Ghost has 0 mp left. Victorious, Vasana chooses a spell that the Ghost knows, Summon (spirit dog) 4.

No, it has to reach the body. It's a Ward against Weapons, poison needs a delivery system to get to the skin. For example a Wolf Spider's bite does 1D6+1D4 + poison, so the poison happens only if the damage passes the spell. No. "Neither armor nor spells that protect against physical damage are effective against this spell, though Countermagic works." It's a magical not physical attack. Yes. "Only the target’s thinnest armor protects against this damage; spells are ineffective". It's a physical not magical attack. No. "This spell damages the target’s body...This damage is not absorbed by armor." It's a magical not physical attack. (there was an an argument for yes, but then it's POW vs POW, then roll damage, then D3 damage vs the spell strength. Fortunately we realised It's a magical not physical attack.)

One of my players has WAW, so we use the following two rules interacting together: A critical success ignores armor and does maximum special damage plus damage bonus. (page 200) The total damage done to a protected creature or object must overcome the strength of the spell using the resistance table. If the damage overcomes the spell’s strength, then the full force of the damage affects the target. The target’s armor then absorbs as much of the damage as it can. (page 401) So a broadsword would do maximum special damage (1D8+1 so 2D8+2 = 18) vs the Spell strength (my player normally use 12 points), so it's 12 vs 18 so normal 80% chance of getting through. If it succeeds then it ignores armour, but any other magical protection counts first as usual. Just as with the rest of the game, criticals can be very lethal. As a sorcerer, the character has very basic armour and so avoids combat, casting this on other party members with a duration of 4. It's very useful in combat as long as there are no criticals. A special will on average do 11 points, so 45%, while a normal hit does about 6, so 20%. Overall it's a very handy spell, your milage from it may of course vary.

Thanks, but I don't believe the horned man is draconic in the south. Langamul is Earthmaker and this is where the serpent / snake problem arises, the word is also associated with the elements (Earth, Water, fire, serpents, etc) and not always draconic. Noruma clearly makes Amuron then when the spirit world is defined, becomes the great shaman, changed by the experience. In some of Greg's unpublished material. Amuron is summoned by Hunralki the Great, the living Horned Serpent, Supreme manifestation of Noruma. Amuron rises into into the world from waters that turn into a great burning serpent. He swims to Argrath as the Southern Dragon, but he is In my mind Amuron can clearly be conflated as Draconic, but he is actually something else, a different power, the Horned Serpent power. On the outside in this case looking Draconic to most viewers. With Amuron in the world he's a manifestation of earth, fire and water (likely the others too) the Horned Man incarnate, but not a dragon.

I'd like to hear some in game examples. In play I've seen all but Morale and Bless Crops used. At no point did they disrupt how the game worked.

What's the reference for this?