PaulJW

I suppose an underground steam train linking dwarven strongholds is not so unbelievable as it might sound. Such technology is not really so advanced as many people think. People worked out that steam power could be used to make an object rotate (the aeolipile) in early Roman times. Variations on the device are described by two separate scientists of the period - Heron and Vitruvius. Heron actually described it, literally, as a 'steam engine'. The only 'advance' from that discovery to the steam train was realising that you could attach that technology to a wheel. However, the likes of Heron and Vitruvius appear to have regarded it as a kind of party trick or novelty device. The aeolipile was first described in classical works dating to 30-20 BC, however the aeolipile itself was based on principles first described in a treatise on compressed air and the use of pumps, written by a Greek mathematician named Ctesibius (285-222 BC). So, in reality, if someone had spotted the practical application of the aeolipile at the time, the Roman Empire could have had steam trains! So, an underground train system for dwarves is not so unbelievable. An extensive network of tunnels would have faced the problem of how to vent all that steam and smoke however. That was probably a bigger technological challenge.

I suspect the next offerings, now Dragon Pass is out, are likely to be Solar Cults, then Pavis/Big Rubble, then Darkness cults. After that, I'm not sure what's likely to be next.

Indeed, spoked wheels were very common in our bronze age during the mid-to-late period. It was the age of chariots after all & illustrations from the period show them with spoked wheels. I think the earliest surviving spoked wheel from our history is from 2000 BC (which is late neolithic/early bronze age).

Actually, in medieval London, the main streets were kept reasonably clean. Posh people tended to live in houses on the more important streets and they paid servants to keep their street clean. The filthy streets (and they would have been very filthy) would have been the side streets in the poorer neighbourhoods. So it is not so unrealistic for an ancient city to have kept its main streets reasonably clean.

Raise Ghoul used to be a specialist Vivamort spell back in the day. I suspect it will be again when the relevant cults book eventually comes out. I would imagine that trolls avoid Ghouls because they are chaotic. Zombies, Skeletons and Ghosts are not.

I'd say that items cannot be illuminated. Therefore, if they are tainted with chaos they can be detected. If a character possesses a magic ring, it will detect as magic even if the character themselves is not inherently magical and may not have cast any spells upon themselves. The ring will still detect as magic however. It's the same scenario.

My approach to rolling up more experienced characters is: 1) Give the players broad guidelines that relate to rolling up characters suitable for the scenarios prepared. 2) Let them do their own thing. 3) Vet the end results and weed out anything silly. So, laissez faire. As long as the PCs end up with broadly suitable skills and abilities for the scenarios they will be experiencing, anything goes.

All religions in the our own history work at two levels - the ideological and the practical. The ideology may teach certain things but the reality amongst those people who subscribe to any religion is that many (probably most) do not conform to the ideal. If you take the Hindu caste system as an example. Many academics now believe that the caste system never existed in a pure form except in Hindu mythological texts. The reality was always that caste rules were bent and frequently broken in practice. Many people who were not part of the warrior caste fought in wars and were often recruited in large numbers into the armies. Those people who were of the warrior caste held a special privileged position, were highly trained and had access to the very best equipment. This certainly set them apart but, when war came, they were never the only ones who fought. In my opinion, even a fairly devout dronar butcher would pick up a meat cleaver and fight if a wolf pirate kicked in his door and threatened his family. In many ways it is the potential gap between ideology and reality that interests me most about western religion in Glorantha. As to magic, I'd agree with the general feeling that non-zzaburi caste westerners would generally join cults. These are likely to be regulated such that only some cults are suitable to some castes and that certain castes may not rise to rune level whereas others must aspire to. The more henotheist a sect it the more the boundaries will blur and the more you are likely to end up with something more hybrid than truly western. Only the pure Brithini would reject all cults and all forms of shamanism across all castes. In their society only the zzaburi perform magic and they only perform sorcery. They are the only sect that rigidly adhere to the letter of the lore of a purist caste system in my view. But, then again, that is probably why they are dying out. They are desperately clinging on to a way of life that essentially became impractical as soon as time dawned. In practical terms it is worth saying that most medieval societies really struggled to raise large armies as a proportion of the total population (even without any caste restrictions). Historians argue over the numbers but the English army at Agincourt was around 8,000. Now, it had taken a major national effort to field that many men on foreign soil (and the ramping up of big debts). The population of England at that time was 2.5 million. 8,000 out of 2.5 million is 0.3%. The total number of titled nobles in all England at that time was around 100 men (i.e. people with the title of king, duke, earl or baron). The total number of actual knights were no more than around 1000 tops. So the nobles and knights of medieval England, in total, accounted for 0.04% of the population. If you throw in the gentry (untitled manorial lords, from amongst whom you'd get your men-at-arms) you get up to maybe 0.5% of the population. That said the medieval English economy could support a lot of clergy - around 1 in 50 adult men were members of the clergy in some capacity or other (about 2% of the adult male population). So, in reality, in medieval England, 2% or 2.5% of the population might possibly have been classified as nobles, knights or priests, or members of their families and hence potentially members of these 'castes'. That means around 98% of the population would basically have been 'dronars'. In a medieval society where agriculture was not as efficient as it is today, you needed a very large rural labour force just to keep everyone fed. And that is just in medieval times where we have reasonably comprehensive documentation of what everyone did. Back in a bronze age society, at which time agriculture was certainly no more efficient, you would need a dronar population of at the very least 95% I would say. Anything else isn't really realistic. So out of 100 people in a western society, maybe 2 or 3 might be a fully fledged talar, horali or zzaburi (and that's probably being generous).

The more astute among you may have noticed that my house rules for family history creates a little problem in character development in so far as it is asking characters to potentially make track or devise rolls before they have calculated any bonuses they might get from profession or cult. For that reason I re-jigged the order in which the different steps in character generation occurs. As a result, I use this as our steps in character generation these days: 1) Roll base stats (p51-52). Note in pencil on rough paper as these will need to be altered depending on final runic affiliations & homeland. 2) Pick you homeland (from choices on p24-26) 3) Pick your occupation (from choices on p63-73) 4) Pick your cult (from choices on p73-79, plus additional allowable selection) 5) Pick and calculate Rune affinities (taking account of cult requirements & the homeland you picked), p45 6) Calculate final stats & characteristics, p53-60 7) Calculate Homeland cultural skills, p60-63 8 Calculate Occupational bonuses & passions, p63-73 9) Calculate Cult bonuses & passions, p73-79 10) Calculate Past Character History bonuses and passions (see homerules) 11) Calculate Personal Skill Bonuses, p79-80 12) Calculate Other Info, p80-83 That allows any rolls done in the past character history bit to include bonuses calculated for occupation and cult. I also get players to pick occupation and cult before calculating the bonuses from them, so that they can make sensible choices when they pick their runic affinities.

For base stat rolls I generally go with the best 3 of 4d6 approach. That works fine for us. My players are generally fairly happy with that. However, the one aspect of character generation my players have moaned about is the Family History part of it. More specifically their objections are: 1) It takes too long and 2) They want to generate their own character backstory (or 3) I really don't care about grandpa). I don't see anything wrong the the Family History bit personally. However, in the interests of a peaceful life I have replaced it with an alternative. Basically I let them write their own backstory/family history based around the history/culture they belong to. They can pick a passion or raise a passion based on some event or other they make up in their own backstory (as long as it makes sense). I also let them pick ONE from the following list (which I am still developing): You have a famous ancestor who died heroically in battle: o +1d3% reputation o You have the option to gain Honour Passion Spoke/told stories at several tribal or clan moots, feasts or festivals. +5% Orate. Make Oratory roll: o Fumble, your efforts largely created a negative impression, your speeches are dreaded, -1d3% reputation. o Success +1d3% reputation o Special or crit, +1d100 Lunars, +1d6% reputation You have often performed (acting, singing, dancing or playing an instrument) at clan festivals. +5% to any one of these skills. Make a roll in this skill: o Fumble, your efforts were mostly poor. Your performances are looked forward to with some dread by those who know you. -1d3% reputation. o Success +1d3% reputation o Special or crit, +1d100 Lunars, +1d6% reputation Fought in important battle(s) or skirmish(es). +5% Battle. (see below). You have the option to pick Honour as a passion. Make battle roll: o Fumble, receive a distinctive scar o Success +1d3% reputation o Special or crit, +1d100 plunder, +1d6% reputation Rid your community of an evil spirit. +5% Spirit Combat. Make spirit combat roll. o Fumble, your still have occasional nightmares about your experience. o Success +1d3% reputation o Special or crit, +1d100 reward for service to your community. +1d6% reputation Participated in your clan’s summer games. +5% in one of Climb, Drive, Jump, Ride, or Swim. Make a roll in that skill: o Fumble: Injured during the games, receive a distinctive scar o Success +1d3 reputation o Special or crit, +1d100 prize money. +1d6% reputation You worked at your temple for several seasons. +5% Worship. Make a worship roll. o Fumble: -1 pt of spirit magic from your cult at start. o Success: +1d3% reputation o Special or crit, your devotion earns you +1 pt Rune point from your cult at start. +1d6% reputation At some time in your past, your community endured a desperate struggle for survival (due to floods/crop failure/raids/ harsh winter). +5% Survival. Make a survival roll. o Fumble: You suffered malnutrition. -1 STR. o Success: +1d3% reputation as you assisted others to survive the hard times. o Special or crit, your efforts to keep your friends/family alive earn the blessings of your god, +1 Rune point at start. +1d6% reputation. If you are a thief belonging to the Lanbril cult, you were involved with an (in)famous burglary. +5% Devise. Make a Devise roll. o Fumble: You were (and remain) outlawed by the Lunar authorities. o Success: +5% thieves’ argot o Special or crit: Gain d100 Lunars of swag. +5% thieves’ argot. You participated in a hunt for a ferocious wild beast (rogue wild boar, Sabre-toothed cat, Bear, Lion etc). +5% Track. Make a track roll. o Fumble: Injured during the hunt, receive a distinctive scar o Success +1d3 reputation o Special or crit, you gain a necklace made from the claws/teeth of the beast you slew, worth 75L. +1d6% reputation You spent several seasons in an archive, working on an important research project. +5% Library Use. Roll Library Use: o Fumble: You miscatalogued something important. Librarians are reluctant to allow you access to important documents without a successful Charm or Oratory roll. o Success: +1d3 reputation o Special or crit, you gain a Lhankor Mhy mark (equip p126), +1d6% reputation So, those are the house rules I now use in place of rolling for family history. I probably would not have introduced them were it not for pressure from the masses, but I think they work well enough & add colour to character generation. The downside, of course, is that I have to be careful to police the family history background the players come up with to make sure nothing too silly slips through the net.

Whatever way they end up doing it, its very easy to see them getting to the 15-19 detailed write-ups that feature in the other cults books very quickly. One way or another I suspect at least some of the things that the likes of Nevermet are hoping to see covered are going to get missed out/only covered fairly superficially.

Well the other cults books so far have 15, 16 and 19 cult write-ups respectively. So, I guess we can expect write-ups for around that many IG/Malkioni/Sorcerous sects. The only question, then, is which ones. Just listing possibilities off the top of my head: Brithini, Vadeli, Rokari, New Hrestoli, Castle Coasters, Borists, Galvosti, Trader Princes, Idovanus, Proven Appearance of Arkat, Black Arkati, Chariot of Lightening, Arkat Kingtroll, maybe various other Arkati sects, Aeolians, Malki, whatever nonsense is going on in God Forgot (the people there, Jeff informs us 'are not and were never “just Brithini.') That's easily up to 17+ right there.

I had kind of picked up on that. In the case of the Brithini, I read this as the Brithini effectively being something close to atheists in a modern sense. I see them as regarding what other Malkioni term as the "Invisible God" to be simply a superstitious anthropomorphising of primal cosmic forces that are ultimately unthinking forces of nature. "Worship" is therefore pointless since you are attempting to interact with a collection of powers that want nothing from you and have no desire to do anything other than simply be. Hence, the 'Invisible God' can't "answer your prayers". I can see the Vadeli being very similar in that sense. I can see them regarding the 'Invisible God' as nothing more than a collection of primal powers and forces for them to understand and manipulate for their own ends. I suppose, in that sense, both the Brithini and the Vadeli ultimately recognise no real higher power than themselves. In that sense I would agree that the Brithini (and Vadeli) are special cases. They stick to their castes (which they interpret in admittedly different ways) not because of any allusions regarding spiritual purity/benefits but for the simple practical reason that by doing so they remain immortal. Their religion/belief system is therefore non-spiritual and involves no worship or spiritual experiences. It is simply about 'being' in the here and now and about maintaining that state of being through orthopraxy.

One other question that occurred to me recently concerns the Vadeli. Are they actually Malkioni or are they something else; similar maybe but not part of the Malkioni tradition? And, do they even worship the Invisible God at all? I noted the other day that in Mythology, on p110 concerning the Battle of Treason we are told the Vadeli betrayed the dwarves and 'submitted to the Devil' ,,, so ... could this mean they became devil worshippers?? It certainly implies quite different outlook from the Malkioni.

I have only ever seen them used by idiots. I was not really familiar with the 'correct' fighting techniques for such weapons but I did assume that what I was witnessing was not it.