davecake

There appears to be some terminology here that is confusing me. In HeroQuest Glorantha, everyone has access to 'Basic Magic', simple magic that is done by the heroes own power. Its a fairly simple form of magic (though it can be potent) and more or less available cross-culturally. And Spirit Magic is the name for magic performed by spirits, usually dependent on someone with the Spirit Rune to mediate with the spirit world. You get a spirit, put it in a charm, and then you have access to specific magic from that spirit. You need to be part of a Spirit Society, have access to Spirit Magic specialists (usually a Shaman), etc. It sounds like new RQ is planning to use the term Spirit Magic (and also charms) to refer to what used to be called Battle Magic in RQ2 (or Folk Magic in RQ6), and we've gone back to RQ3 terminology for RQ, even though the terminology in HQG is quite different? Or to put it differently, is the plan for RQ and HQ to use two different sets of terminology to refer to magic? Terminology in which most of what would be Spirit Magic in RQ would not be Spirit Magic in HQ?

Looking at the Dragon Pass counter list, the only good heavy cavalry in the Sartar Free Army there are probably Praxians - the Twin Spears and Bullocks we know are Praxian, the Sword Brothers I think are almost all Praxian. The Sartar City Militia cavalry units are OK, the equal of the Tarsh cavalry, but not as good as the Praxian or best Pelorian units. such as the Antelope Lancers and Char-Un or elite Imperial Bodyguard units.

I love the standards art!

Fwiw, I've tended to think of the Lunar phalanxes as mostly following a conservative Greek model, and the Sun Dome Templars as more like Macedonian phalangites, using a longer spear. Innovation hasn't simply dragged all units to the same standard because of the natural conservatism of Gloranthan religiously enhanced units (don't vary your tactics if it might hurt your magic). The Sartarites I'm not sure have great heavy cavalry. Their horses are more like ponies, and I do think they train for proper lance charges etc - mostly they use similar weapons mounted as they do unmounted. What cavalry they have will mostly be from Elmal worshipping clans (Redaylda is the actual most important deity here, but Elmal likes to take the glory). Some Praxians do have powerful heavy cavalry, of course, and some of them are in the Sartar Free army. Super heavy cavalry like cataphracts are not known to the Sartarites and they simply don't have horses capable. The Loskalmi and the Carmanians do, so you might see some in Lunar forces. I don't think anyone in Glorantha fights quite like Roman legions.

I very much hope the Kolat write up for HQG gives us some ideas for what me might get - shamans with a very wide range of possible magic depending on what spirits they are able to access, which is all tied in to a complex web of spirit relationships. One of the things that RQ6 absolutely got right was focussing the shaman/animism rules on a really interesting menagerie of spirits. But it's true that mechanically it would be great to vary shamans own abilities a little as well, make spirit combat or spirit plane exploration a bit more mechanically interesting, and give the shamans fetch a few more abilities.

Thanks, mistake corrected. Ezok might be a word meaning something like transformation then.

I'm with Peter on this one. There might be good reason for Theoblanc to have issues with particular alchemists or particular alchemical practices (undoubtedly lots of different ideas have crept in from non-Malkioni sources), but alchemy itself is ancient, the Ezokite school dates from the dawn and was part of the Zzaburi era magic that the Rokari want to emulate, and IMO serves an absolutely vital part in magic theory. Theoblanc may keep a close eye on it, but of course it will be supported.

I don't find anything in either East Isles orthodox mysticism or the Kralorelan Dragon Emperors to suggest that they are nihilists. The Empire does a few highly dubious things, but that is true of every empire. Perhaps the Easterners are on to something. Or if you want to get really conspiratorial, they maintain their facade much more skilfully and effectively - effectively enough it stops them from actually doing too many bad things. But skepticism about Arkat, the Lunar Empire, and Argrath would all appear to be somewhat warranted.

If you start hunting humans, yeah, there are people who already have that power. And they are not nice people. But there is heaps of story potential here. A hunter villain that starts using his spirit trapping magic on sentient beings must be hunted down. Or a hunter PC learns how to do it as a way to defeat a difficult to defeat enemy (say, a spirit that keeps possessing people) - then discovers he has tapped into a nasty ancient secret, and now cannibals want to confront him to preserve their power.

I think its interesting that the Illuminates all seem to acknowledge that Illumination is potentially very dangerous and disruptive, though. They all realise it is philosophical gunpower they are playing with.

I have quite a bit of experience travelling through the dry arid parts of central Australia, and the river beds are very stable and distinct, even if they are entirely made of sand and rock and might run only every few years.

Remember Lhankor Mhy uses sorcery, which is very respectable. And there are other sorcerers not very far away, such as the Esvulari and some of the Black Horse Troop. It's not just Lunars and such. Though yes, some of the bad guys, such as vampires, are quite fond of sorcery.

I think EvilRoddys thesis is way overstated. Which isn't to say that no one believes it. Though chopping up the established order is, of course, something that many people needs to be done now and then. The Dragon Emperors explicitly are stated to behave pretty much the opposite of this in Kralorelan sources - Daruda could have attained enlightenment and united with the void and left the world, but he did not to compassionately aid the spiritual life of others, and future (legitimate) Dragon Emperors have followed this example, and expliitly bind society together for its own good and keep it stable over long periods. Of course, the Dragon Emperors would agree that the version of Illumination practiced over there in Peloria, or by Sheng, is clearly every bit as evil and terrible as claimed. Or by Sekever. It is characteristic of Illumination that every school of Illumination seems to agree that Illumination is dangerous and terrible, but only when done wrong by the other guys (but of course they are the one group who knows how to do it right).

Species Max POW increasing via heroQuest seems a pretty reasonable mechanic to me. Linking it into your Rune Affinities also seems like a good idea. It helps ensure Rune Affinities remain an important thing to increase for shamans and sorcerers.

To distinguish between giants, perhaps we could use the Gods War terminology and refer to Genert (and Pamalt) as Titans? I think Peter is on to something with Generts rune being Power. The Power rune is really about social power - Pamalts big power is to convince everyone else to act together. It is true that the Rune doesn't seem to have any relevance to Genertela. But perhaps this is because Genert is dead, and so the Power is absent, so the gods fell to squabbling rather than acting together (even the enemies of Pamalt like the elves and trolls and Artmali would act together with him when necessary) and so that is why Genertela is regularly ripped apart by War, and Pamaltela is not? Which is not to say that Pamaltela does not have wars - but they all come from external sources, ultimately.

Some great fun stuff in your list David.

Look at the Odayla spirit trapping powers that he can use to create charms from the spirits of slain animals in the Sartar Companion. It is very plausible that Foundchild has access to similar magic. Now just extend that to beings other than animals, so you can also defeat and trap the spirits of other beings and turn them into charms, and you have something powerful and a bit scary. But isn't it something powerful and scary that resembles the Cannibal Cult, which also takes power from their slain prey/enemies, just a little too much? Perhaps there is a secret of Foundchild there. And its not a very nice one.....

I like the idea of the arts of Memory. I think there is quite a lot of rich potential in the idea that interaction with the 'Essential plane' begins with the sorcerers own memory palace.

Moon accessible only to Lunar sorcerers makes sense (and of course, its probably the only element accessible for most (all?) of them). And presumably they use it to 'fake' access to other runes via their phases as they do in HQG. And no respectable member of the major sects would be interested in Chaos rune sorcery, but it is not a surprise that it is out there. I'm surprised that Magic is not included, because one of the few schools of sorcery we knew about, the Malvonian school, was described as a Magic rune school - and also because it is easy to see how all sorts of classic magical effects (dispel magic, protective wards, sensing and investigating magic, etc) that are already in the game in one form or another would naturally fall within it. It seems to me to be useful enough that there are more potential problems that stem from not having it than from having it. I can certainly imagine what Dragonnewt, or Mastery, or Fate or Luck etc Sorcery might be, but none of it sounds like something that would be accessed by the major Western cultures. Some of it may well be useful later, when we get around to looking at non-Western sorcery traditions such Kralorelan sorcery. (eg Path of Immanent Mastery could potentially be reinvented as a bunch of Combine Dragon and Man spells).

Yes, the Lunars have an afterlife. But what happens to your in the Lunar afterlife is dependent on your embrace of the Lunar way and its insights, as judged by the goddess. Not by how non-Lunars might view the morality of your actions. And the Lunar afterlife itself is evidence that the Lunar way can include torture, slavery and chaos when necessary.

I think Nysalorism is generally an immanent tradition (everything is god, including them), but ascetism only really comes into it a lot later, post-Sheng. I don't think the Lunar approach to Illumination is ascetic, but they support the Order of Day (which is ascetic) as the approved path to Illumination for those who are not part of a Lunar cult.

My personal bugbear - I quite like the skill check mechanic, and have no issue with it, but even though the POW gain roll mechanic is very similar, I've come to really dislike it. The difference is that the POW gain mechanic gives players a strong incentive to *decrease* their personal power. The optimal strategy to become powerful in the long term is to voluntarily decrease your personal POW, keep it relatively low by sacrificing it for Rune Magic (or use it for Enchantments, etc), and thus get much higher POW gain rolls. This is what I call a perverse incentive - the 'right thing to do' known to the player is different to that understood by the character. Its not a big game breaking deal for me. But I suspect I'll have some sort of workaround house rule for POW gain, perhaps involving Runes or passions or something. Maybe get a point of POW every time your Rune Affinity hits a certain level or something.

According to GROY, there is also the SunStand formation - form a circle, plus a group in the middle, forming a fire rune shape. Not a formation that useful to fight other phalanxes or similar heavy infantry, but useful to fight very mobile enemies, including some flying enemies, or that can be used to defend a group of magicians in the centre.

And as close as I can get to summarising mysticism in a single line is 'mystic magic is something you transcend'. Or a 'limit you have overcome'. Or event 'something you aren't'. its considerably subtler than other magic - and most people in the mystic areas East Isles or Kralorela use other magic (all three forms, animism sorcery and divine worship) for the day to day and mysticism is more of an aspirational goal that shapes their magic use rather than a practical day to day form of magic. Illumination as described in earlier RQ, and HQG, is more or less mysticism as understood by theists (this isn't a statement about the nature of Illumination, rather the limited rules understanding of it we have currently).

I think Ernalda is fine for a starting PC, as long as you are happy not to be much of a physical combatant. They get excellent healing magic without the challenging pacifism of Chalana Arroy, attack magic (especially elementals are always dangerous), and other magic that is useful to a party (especially buffing). Plus they have a fairly easily understood and important social position. If you want to play a character that is magic focussed, they are one of the best choices. And I agree that Xiola Umbar would be a very unusual cult to be found separate from other Darkness cults, which is most Orlanthi - but not that unusual where darkness cults are already worshipped (including the Torkani and Bachad) though it would still be a cult for a very small minority of specialists rather than widespread (just like Chalana Arroy). The Kitori are they other common group of human Darkness worshippers. I agree Eurmal is not an easy cult for starting PCs. In general, they are not just thieves or comedians, Tricksters would generally these days be classified with a mental illness or personality disorder, and are reckless and untrustworthy even to their own party. Lanbril for urban professional thieves, Orlanth or Yinkin if you want a sneaky scout type but who is not necessarily a professional criminal. Personally, I also think Heler is under rated, but I agree that the support to play them isn't really there except in HeroQuest.