davecake

IMG the potato is linked with the blue moon (as it has always been said to be). So it is known to the Veldang. Their sense of agriculture is somewhat undeveloped, as is that of the blue moon trolls. So while it has the potential to be transformative, it is not. 

Her followers took it to many places across the face of Glorantha in the Gods Age, including Mernita. 
But it was despised by Solar gods, and the nutritional values of this (outwardly poisonous!) plant are mostly obscure, and the knowledge that it is potentially a hugely transformative crop is one of the many secrets of Annilla that she refuses to share with the lovers of the Sun (including the Grain Goddesses, and thus almost everyone). 
it is comparatively less good as a crop for multiple reasons, but one of them is that the Blue Moon was able to bless it as ‘her’ crop, and this was part of the foundation of the Artmali Empire, but she lost that power with her downfall. And as an underground crop, the Bless Crops spells of solar deities do not work on it. 
 

King of Sartar is a lot more than just Argraths Saga etc. The report on the Orlanthi is still one of the better sources for many things about Orlanthi society - I hope this will change soon, but it remains the case. So it’s well worth reading for almost everyone interested in running an Orlanthi based game. And similarly regarding the Grazers, except there are fewer updated sources, making it probably still the best we have. 
 

As for the history, and the future legends too - I agree with @Nick Brooke, it’s marvellously full of ambiguity and potential. Don’t treat the ambiguity as a puzzle that must be solved for you to ‘understand’ KOS, embrace it as a smorgasbord of inspirational possibilities and ideas. 

On 12/10/2023 at 8:12 AM, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

Maybe there are Broo Heroes who have the legendary Make Peace Gift or the Eat Bread Gift.

Maybe Ralzakark is such a Hero? 
Or the Cleansed One? 

12 hours ago, Joerg said:

If Delecti or his Dancers in Darkness were Vivamorti vampires, where is their cult of living minions?

Keeping an extremely low profile, like most Vivamort cultists?

There are a few interesting questions - like if Vivamort recruits exclusively pale-skinned beautiful women, where does he recruit them from? And does Delecti keep captives in the marsh to supply them, or must they hunt in the surroundings of the marsh? But there is no indication they don’t follow a fairly minor variation of the standard vampire cult.

Though they certainly have multiple unique tricks up their rotting sleeves. The magical Blackthorn trees that expand the marsh are created by vampirising dryads, and I expect it opens up some ways to drain magic points from the marsh, too. And regardless of whether you think Delecti is a necromancer hero of the Vivamort cult with vampire followers, or a vampire necromancer hero of the Vivamort cult with vampire followers, he clearly knows a lot of necromancy beyond the level of the vast majority of vampires. 

On 11/26/2023 at 7:26 PM, soltakss said:

In my Glorantha, Delecti created the Upland Marsh to protect the people from the True Golden Horde.

More likely Delecti created the Upland Marsh to protect himself from the True Golden Horde. And draconic vengeance. And later vengeful nonhumans.

On 11/26/2023 at 2:07 AM, soltakss said:

He can cast Create Undead spells using his Magic Points instead of POW and can raise hordes of undead from the ranks of the newly-slain.

Many of the more powerful undead creation spells do require POW. As do enchantments, and much potent sorcery (including mastering Runes). Conveniently for Delecti and friends, thanks to Vivamort and the wonders of Vampiric sorcery, it doesn’t need to be the sorcerers own POW.

On 11/18/2023 at 6:23 PM, Joerg said:

Delecti uses Vivamort, about as much as he uses the zombie generation power of Zorak Zoran.

So, assuming the Vivamort cult write up that will eventually appear in the Cults of Chaos has changed little from earlier drafts - core abilities, and core followers, are firmly in the Vivamort camp. Not only are the Daughters of Darkness a variant of vampires, spells like the black oaks that spread the marsh are Vivamort sorcery spells.

While it’s possible that he makes some use of Zorak Zoran zombie magics (I think he does have a bunch of undead Zoraida Zorani that work for him according to WF15), for the wide scale zombie magics that he is famous for, it seems more likely that he uses the Vampiric sorcery zombie creating magic known to the Vivamort cult, given the general presence of many vampiric sorcerers, and rather less Zoraida Zoran members, temples to Zorak Zoran, etc. 

On 11/18/2023 at 6:23 PM, Joerg said:

Follower? Maybe once upon a time,

Like every other hero, but especially every other sorcerer hero, his relationship with his otherworldly source of power grows steadily less subservient, but I meant it more in the sense of an enthusiastic practitioner of the methods of Vivamort. 

On 11/18/2023 at 6:23 PM, Joerg said:

although his method of continued existence in Undeath is rather distinct from the Vivamort pyramid scheme presented in RQ2 Cults of Terror.

but I think in the new Cults of Chaos book, the corpse hopping methods of Vivamort will be included as another Vampiric sorcery ritual, another option available. 

On 11/18/2023 at 6:23 PM, Joerg said:

I think Delecti is a similar case with his association with the Vivamort cult.

Well, it’s certain that Delecti is an innovator in the world of vampiric sorcery, but I don’t think that means he is something other than a follower of Vivamort. 

On 11/18/2023 at 6:23 PM, Joerg said:

The typical weaknesses thwarting Vivamort - direct sunlight, holy symbols of Death and Separation, flowing water - all don't seem to apply to Delecti

The Dancers in Darkness are products and expressions of Delecti’s magic - and this is outright false for Death runes, and I suspect for sunlight too (why they stick to darkness). The marsh, of course, can be seen as a large scale project to stop the water flowing, and otherwise corrupt it. 

On 11/18/2023 at 6:23 PM, Joerg said:

His possession of dead bodies reminds more of ghoul spirits than of vampires

Noting that not only is his possession of corpses something possible with Vampiric sorcery - but so is possession of corpses by ghoul spirits, and has been a known vampire power since Cults of Terror. 

On 11/18/2023 at 6:23 PM, Joerg said:

Delecti was a master shaper of flesh during his (long) lifetime in the EWF. He seems to have been one of the lead developers in the project that populated the EWF with token creatures of long-extinct mythical creatures in Remakerela as part of the scheme to provide a Proximate Holy Realm to the center of the EWF power. This ability to shape or mold flesh seems to extend to the dead bodies he occupies,

Yes, Delecti seems to combine the body stitching of live bodies of Remakerela with the necromancy of Vivamort. He certainly is a unique Hero level practitioner of creepy sorcery, and doesn’t limit it to the common or garden Vivamort classics. 

On 11/13/2023 at 7:09 PM, Nick Brooke said:

Delecti isn't "a vampire": he's the Necromancer. Delecti makes vampires, he rules over vampires, he creates new kinds of vampire. He himself is something entirely different. 

He is a Hero level follower of Delecti, who has created several new Vampiric sorcery rituals and much more. He is a vampire, but that is a small part of what he is. 

“She selected or constructed Rufus, the Red Emperor. It was a trick of Hers, with parts and powers joined together from an apparent defeat.“ (Lives of Sedenya)

The Red Emperor is a composite entity. But one of his parts is a body that was once a mortal man. Once it was the same body returned, now the masks differ. But it is only one part of the Red Emperor. 

On 10/21/2023 at 8:27 AM, bronze said:

How immortal are the Vadeli compared to their kins? It seems they partially relinquished their immortality for fertility and propagation. For instance, it is said the Vadeli need to eat their own children to maintain their accused immortality.

The Vadeli carefully maintain their caste rules, though they also exploit loopholes in them (mostly relating to naval law). So they are as immortal as the Brithini as long as they do so, for the same reason. Like the Brithini they can choose when to breed, and may often not choose to do. However, while Brithini generally keep their population within the level sustainable with the resources they have, the Vadeli may  instead push to expand the resources they have by slavery and conquest. 
There are many vile rumours about the Vadeli, and not all of them are true. It is not true, for example, that they must consume (physically or magically) their own children to maintain their immortality. That doesn’t mean they don’t consume their own children for other reasons, though! 
Also, only two of the Vadeli castes, the Brown (Dronar) and Red (Horali) survive. So they have had to learn to survive and adapt their customs to the absence of the others. Brown and Red both use sorcery, though their caste laws still restrict which spells they can caste. And neither is able to act as Talars. So Vadeli government, such as it is, takes advantage of loopholes around commanding ships at sea, and modern Vadeli rulers are always Captains or Admirals. They sometimes accept outsiders as Judges, notably beginning with Hrestol. 
 

On 11/7/2023 at 12:23 AM, Joerg said:

Is Pinchining still entirely a mortal soul after having accepted (and reacted to) Urrrgh's worship?

Nothing recovered back to true life from the underworld (other than via reincarnation) is truly a mortal afterwards, is always a bit something else (maybe a kaelith). 

On 11/9/2023 at 7:37 AM, Erol of Backford said:

to gather at Monkey ruins (like Burning Man in Prax)

I always figured Burning Man in Prax happened in the middle of a harsh alkali desert playa - so the Dead Place - so it’s at the Winter Ruins. One of the ways you banish the power of Winter is with a big burning figure. 
But the Monkey Ruins are all connected, clearly. The big wooden effigy on fire is clearly Oakfed burning all the ancient forests to save us in the Darkness, right? 

I use Scrivener, but if Obsidian predated Scrivener I probably would use it, and for similar reasons. 

6 minutes ago, metcalph said:

That's not really munchkinism but rather Standard Operating Practice of the Malkioni Wizards

Yes. I consider it one of the flaws in the current rules, with its obvious corollaries - Fire sorcerers are naturally the most powerful of all sorcerers, due to the natural advantages they have in the Enhance INT bootstrap schemes which are the obviously most advantageous strategy for any moderately sized sorcerous effort. 
 

10 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Alternatives are to Lie in order to get other enchantments - of which you can get some nice Stackable Rune spells...

Yeah, going on the aforementioned ‘Lie is Eurmali illusion mayhem, not for formal project initiation’, that is just never happening in my game.
You may interpret ‘munchkin’ to allow such gratuitous and unlikely things if you want - but besides the general verisimilitude issue, there is also ‘if this was practical, NPCs would have already done it and the PCs would be dead’ principle. 

36 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

I can only presume you're referring to the sorcerers of IO... cos almost no-one else would!

I literally just said LM would want that spell - and it’s one of the few spells they have easy access to. And IO and LM covers most of the sorcerers we are likely to find in the current adventuring areas in any numbers, and that we understand the rules for. So practically any group of sorcerers you are likely to encounter. 
 

41 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

necessary and appropriate. If necessary, our munchkin could simply say to keep it secret (Lie).

Once again, the idea that Eurmali magic is a good way to create reliable, organised, projects that go to plan… 

On 2/24/2023 at 3:59 PM, Dr. Devici said:

My reading of the RQG rules is that bound spirits cannot cast spells on their own, though the wording is a little vague. Pg. 366 has: "The binder of a spirit can use any spirit magic the spirit possesses and the magic points of the spirit to fuel spells." I wish the wording were more clear (it is in RQ2!), but I still comfortably interpret that as the binder casts the spell, using the MP and knowledge of the spirit. This would cut the Rune Lord's action economy in half.

I generally treat bound spirits that way, but allied spirits are a different story, and can and do cast magic themselves - so your rune lords generally do have a spirit that casts magic on them in combat at least, and if in a creature rather than an item fully independently targets magic. Having an allied spirit is a big bonus.
Pacted spirits for shamans often the same, though not quite as proactive. 

Balancing battles is hard, and should be - tactics make a huge difference in RQ, and you can never be sure what your players will do, and how effective they will be. If, for example, PCs have the enemy attackers have to walk into a volley of missile fire, they can decide the battle very quickly. But if a PC charges the enemy with out backup, they can succeed gloriously, but more often get themselves in bad trouble quickly, taking an injury with no backup to let them get a chance to heal or regroup. 

One of the games I run is a Sandheart game, where the PCs are mostly trained to fight in a pike phalanx, and can be very effective when they do, but it’s also very impractical most of the time. Often how generous I am to them about their tactical situation is more important than how tough the opponents are. 

Having your PCs think about their tactical choices among themselves quite a bit is IMHO a very RuneQuest thing, part of the fun. 
 

My general practices:

I try to have stats done before hand, but I’m awfully good at improvising by now. 
If I have a little bit of time to prepare, all you really need are hit points and armour per location, and effective weapon % and damage, and you can improvise things like spells. 
for enemies that are organised, like soldiers used to fighting together with a smart commander, I like to have squad character sheets that take into account tactics (eg if they are in a shield wall, indicate armor per location including passive shielding), spells pre-cast (and listing weapon attacks with all the magic etc included) etc. The ones in The Cradle are an example. Also a couple of notes on tactics - will try to cast Demoralise if unengaged, or will open with a Speedart volley. 

I have a single sheet of paper or text file that keep track of bad guy combatants.
It starts usually blank. Once an enemy enters the fight, then they get an entry on the sheet, which may say something like hoplite 4 or scorpion man 1, or big broo. Or their name. 

On that you record things once it starts happening, including hp loss per location per location. So after a round or two it might say Soldier 2 Demoralized, -4 R. Arm. I used to sketch out a hot location chart for every opponent, but I seldom bother. I may note temporary things like ‘can’t attack next two rounds)’ or just remember them. I only record general hit points if it’s not just from wounds. 

That’s pretty much how I do skirmishes up to small battles. 

- for one on one duels, use all the rules, and adjudicate and improvise on the fly the details of fumbles, terrain effects, etc. let your players try to use tactics like feints and deception, encourage inspiration. 

for a battle big enough that there are too many on either side to keep track of, I either use Battle skill and treat it like Battle in Pendragon - you do somewhat abstracted individual combats against presentative enemies - or treat it as a chain of smaller skirmishes. 

I usually go full theatre of the mind and we just discuss what’s going on, sometimes we add some mud maps, we usually aren’t bothered with using minis or VTT etc. works well when we do. 

 

37 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Also, I seriously doubt that "inform(ing) a colleague" would do much, given the example of Yelm not rising tomorrow morning (until tomorrow morning, or a Divination (which one would assume is because the priests would be asking "why?")

Unless they have magic that can cancel the effects of Lie, as we’ve just established they likely do. Or can simply talk them into a slightly different interpretation of what they should do. Lie isn’t a perfect command spell, it’s a one off blast of belief that must then stand on it’s own. 

40 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

It's Eurmali - it's supposed to be used for outrageous situations!

Exactly! Not initiating large complex self-interested projects reliably! It’s Eurmal magic, it’s for initiating bedlam! Not project management initiation meetings! 

43 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Besides, if the Red Emperor declared it should be done, it would be something no-one would question (although, they'd probably complain about).

If the Red Emperor ordered it to be done, it would initiate the large machinery of Empire. You would be able to order resources as needed, have details confirmed and supported by many others (rather than just act weird in a way that might have others try to talk you out of it etc), regularly reminded of the reasons to keep doing the thing (like the threat of demotion or arrest) even if you found yourself lacking enthusiasm or harboring doubts. 
 

20 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

RE: SotLM - hmmmm.... for 2 points you get complete immunity... I don't think that's how sorcery is supposed to work! I would expect a MP v MP challenge - and so the Lie could be boosted. (given that our Eurmali is also an IO worshipper and sorcerer, this would be known.)

Yes, but your proposed use isn’t really how Lie is supposed to be used either. It’s an instant spell that might take full effect only for a round - when being asked for something as extreme as giving up POW for an enchantment, it might be reasonable to, say, inform a colleague who might then realise something has gone on and step in. 
FWIW, I figured Lie was more ‘mental confusion’ than ‘mind altering magic’, so countered by Logical Clarity not Solace of the Logical Mind, especially as Madness counts as the former, but it’s obviously a question that could do with some rules clarification.
But yes, immunity to being influenced by Orate, Charm etc for 2 points seems fine, but immunity to Madness for 2 points seems a bit unbalanced, I’d expect a point comparison or roll to overcome in there. But then, Lie has always felt like it should have some sort of roll to affect others too. 

(those two spells definitely change the game balance a bit, and make your LM sorcerers vital - offering defenses against the most powerful Lunar attack spells, ones which otherwise are almost impossible to deal with once struck)

20 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

I'd also counter your argument with the fact that this is being cast inside (or near) a central congregation - why would any sorcerer have that spell up while in their home city? Especially with the (possibly debilitating) lack of augmentations (useful for helping cast their sorcery).

Why would a Lunar sorcerer in a society that includes Dart Competitions and similar skullduggery want to make themselves immune to Madness, one of the major attack spells of their colleagues? Not to mention immunity to Lune accidents too (and Lune ‘accidents’). Or maybe they just hate it when their colleagues talk them into things and always cast it before faculty meetings - or even want to dampen their own Passions, because they are sick of finding themselves doing very foolish things due to their Loyalty (Family) or whatever. 

(aside - making yourself immune to Madness, then fighting from inside a Lune is a pretty handy way for your Lunar sorcerer to give themselves some defenses against barbarian attackers)

I don’t think lack of augmentation from Passions is very debilitating for a sorcerer - most will be able to augment with Runes or skills (dance, sing, etc) much more reliably. 

On 10/20/2023 at 3:49 PM, Shiningbrow said:

This line of argument is completely irrelevant - because Illuminates are no longer restricted to having to trade-off opposed Rune percentages!! So, yes, 89% in both Truth and Illusion!

It’s just non-trivial to achieve, takes a few years at least. 
But your scheme relies on Lie being so powerful that hundreds of sorcerers will give up POW for enchantments based on one Lie spell, despite the sorcerers being Truth magic masters with access to Logical Clarity, which would defend against Lie.  So whatever, we clearly aren’t engaging with any practical considerations here. 

I’m very slowly working on a general RQ Python library, starting with a monster stats generator, then a character generator. I’d also be interested in collaborating with others. A standard character format (probably in JSON) that multiple programs could use was one thing planned. 
When I have more to show I’ll open my GitHub

On 10/9/2023 at 6:00 PM, Shiningbrow said:

You only need to have one of the cult's Runes at 50% - so, you could have your Truth/Illusion sitting at that.

I said effective. I don’t consider having your Rune magic only work half the time as very effective. 

On 10/7/2023 at 4:05 PM, Shiningbrow said:

What cults do you join in what order to make the most heinously OP character? - the answer is "Eurmal", and probably Irripi Ontor (as @davecake has said above!) Two steps - finished! (the sad thing is, it's actually probably quite easy to do this...)

It’s fairly difficult (but possible) to do both effectively. To be an effective Irripi Ontor, you want a high Truth Rune. To be an effective Eurmal you want a high Illusion Rune. Now, Illumination does allow you to increase Opposing Runes ( that is, not treat them as Opposed), but you only get to be Illuminated after character creation, and increasing Runes can take a while. 

I think this rule both somewhat reduces the ease of many of the obvious ‘munchkin’ uses of Illumination, and has a lot of interesting flavour to it. It’s obviously useful for the 7Mothers to have access to both Death and Life Magic, for example (your follower of Yanafals Tarnils can Heal Body in a fight, for example), but it requires a lot of effort to have both runes at a high level. 

(it is my feeling that many of the Illuminated members of Irripi Ontor do try to gain understanding of Illusion, and the Illuminated inner circle of the cult teaches sorcerous Mastery of Illusion at least, following the example of IO himself the master of Glamour - but this is a flavour thing, rather than something that greatly changes their magical effectiveness.)

The most ridiculous combat character doesn’t even require Illumination, IMO. it’s pretty hard to go past a Mastakos worshipper who has a friend who is a Maran Gor cultist. Command Dinosaur and a few points of Extension, and it’s pretty easy to get a dinosaur to hold still long enough for you to cast Meld Form and gain the ability to turn into your chosen dinosaur. 
And the Maran Gor can trivially kill a city. Shake Earth just needs a bunch of magic points, it’s exponential in area of effect. 
None of this has much to do with Illumination.

Though if you want a cool Illuminated magician that is probably the best magician in the game practically available - Irripi Ontor (already like Lhankor May but with devastating combat magic like Mindblast), go for sorcery and learn no spirit magic yourself to maximise Free INT, when you become a Sage and get an allied spirit, get that to learn all the spirit magic you need. Once you become Illuminated, join the Red Goddess cult, and learn Red Goddess magic (which also uses your maxed out Free INT). You also have the option of learning Cyclic INT on Full Moon days, and casting huge duration sorcery spells. Now join Jakaleel and become a shaman. 
And this is all stuff that the cults themselves don’t even object too. In fact, it’s basically just a few steps on the road towards becoming a Major Classes Magician from the Lunar College of Magic. Join Deezola and get some good elementals and healing (Heal Body) maybe?