Tywyll

1 hour ago, Kloster said:

I remember of some Eurmal's mushrooms that have random permanent magical effects, not all beneficiary, but I don't remember in which RQIII module.

Also in Rainbow Mounds.

2 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

I do, fully, understand that you choose not to play in Glorantha (but missing out on the fantasy element of ducks, broos. Dragons, etc is sad - but your choice), but wonder why you're playing Runequest and not BRP, Mythras, etc instead???

I'll address this comment alone. 

Ducks can die in a fire. I have zero interest in Daffy the Duck or Howard the Duck in my rpg. It was a ridiculous idea in the 70's hyuck hyuck phase of rpgs, and is ridiculous now (ymmv and all that).

Broos/Beastmen have always been a part of my setting, but that was via Warhammer (which I know took them from Glorantha) way back in the 90's, so no I'm not missing out there.

Dragons? Why would I be missing out on Dragons?

BRP doesn't have Battlemagic/Divine Magic (not inherently).

I don't like how the modern RQ systems have changed the POW economy, nor do I particularly like the Stat+stat for base skill system. It's not awful, just don't like it as much. I think RQ2 was pretty ace and I basically use RQG as supplementary material for RQ2. I do have some BRP influences though and use the BGB for some things. 

2 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

RQ2-Glorantha, RQ3-Glorantha, HeroQuest-Glorantha, RQG-Glorantha, 13th-Age-Glorantha, these are all the same game world. It doesn't change depending on what game system you are using. We had this discussion in my old RQ3 group when we started playtesting the Jovanovic RQ4 rules, "If he can't cast all his spells with a duration of 6 weeks any more, my character would notice the change!", which I reject entirely.

Out of curiosity, why do you reject that idea? At what line would you say that a system's change would impact a character's capabilities and therefore change the character? I mean, what if a new rules set did away with RQ3 sorcery and replaced it with Luner Sorcery from GoG, that would have a drastic impact on someone's PC if they had been a sorcerer. Why shouldn't that be a noticeable change? Similarly, though perhaps more absurd,  if someone was playing a weapon master and then the new rules changed or removed that weapon from play, or prevented that character from reaching those levels of skill...how does that not impact the player and their vision of the character?

Note, I realize I'm arguing against my own interests here as I've had this same debate with my wife...she hates it when I convert characters to new systems and things change (even subtly). I'm just interested in hearing another DM's rationale for making my argument.

Clearly there is an unexplored market there then!

Are there any other adventures or modules that do things like the Rainbow Mounds, where characters gain permanent magical benefits (i.e. the permanent armor points from killing the great lizard mother)?

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

You should have said that earlier - at least I was arguing from "this doesn't fit Glorantha".

I've said it in other threads. But even if I were playing in Glorantha, I would probably still go down this route.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Personally, I don't worry much about cultural appropriation. It's not like it doesn't happen in the other direction, too.

Whataboutisms never ever justify anything.

Marginalized cultures are forced to adopt culturalisms of the dominant culture, so it isn't the same.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Adapting RQ to other settings to make the magic fit is quite a different proposal than houserule one's Glorantha game.

Sure...but not? If I were running Glorantha the metaplot could all die in a fire and I would have little interest in adhering to some kind of academic rigorous attempt at adhering to Greg's vision or whatever.  

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

 

I am content with the knowledge that this was written by someone who was practicing those beliefs and who wouldn't treat them disrepectfully.

That doesn't stop it from being appropriation. Intention doesn't absolve action.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

With the current bunch of rules. The other end of the power scale (the black of the Moldvay D&D boxes) hasn't been published yet, probably not written yet either.

With none of the RQ rules have that end of the scale been written. It's been 40 years, I'm not interested in waiting any more. 

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

 

If you mean clearly distinguishable and quantifiable deities, yes, that's a refusal. That is inherent in the mythology approach to the world building.

Among other things. Refusing to detail historical events is another.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

 

It took me about four years of playing RuneQuest before I played in Glorantha, back in those days when the first German language RQ was published (too little way too late). I am still happy with my Viking Age themed fantasy setting I created for my game.

 

Yeah, I started with RQ3 and generic fantasy earth so that was more my introduction to the rules and mechanics of the system. Wish I still had my RQ Ninja boxed set.

On 5/20/2019 at 7:35 PM, Jeff said:

Knock 40 POW off that wyter and that wyter is going to be terribly magically powerful until some big ceremony could be held to replenish its POW. If I was the GM, I'd probably say that needs to happen during Sacred Time or the high holy day of the wyter. This isn't the sort of event that should be done casually. 

That would be great, if the rules say that somewhere. Otherwise it's open to interpretation. 

Edit: Okay, I saw the new piece that was written.

Also, how does the POW of the Wyter weaken or strengthen the community? What are the exact pros and cons here? Right now, none that I can see. Protecting from invading spirits, yes, but otherwise?

29 minutes ago, Crel said:

So do you use the actual RQ cults then, or do you have your own? I've been reading prior posts as using the same cults in the Core (though probably with setting differences due to your remarks in passing about shamanism).

For the time being, I have matched the cults to my setting's own gods. Since my setting only has 9 true gods, they have subcults (like Orlanth). So for example, three of my players worship the same god (the Lawful God of War) but mechanically one is in a Humakt style cult, one is Yelmalion, and one is Storm Bull. It's quick and dirty, and given more time I would probably build correct cults of the individual gods, but I really wanted to play with the system asap so...this was the compromise. Since only two players have ever played rq and for both it was a long time ago (during RQ3...I'm not even sure they played in Glorantha), this doesn't really cause any problems. Most of them have zero familiarity and no attachment to the core setting but they have played other games set in my world, so that is familiar to them. 

4 hours ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

Not to mention in the RAW as far as I can tell there is literally no reason a Humakti being attacked by a Spiti in spirit combat couldn't fight it with his iron sword with truesword and basically annihilate it instantly.

Yup, characters with enchanted and or iron weapons wreck spirits. Much quicker to stab a ghost then try and defeat them in spirit combat!

13 hours ago, Crel said:

Just wondering, what are these reasons? Knowing what you're avoiding might help in futzing with how this Road to Rune Mastery works.

There are a lot of reasons, but none of them have to do with the mechanics of the game. I hesitate to even mention these because I imagine I'm going to get a lot of grief, or people trying to talk me out of them, and frankly I am not interested. These aren't really up for discussion. 

They have always felt like cultural appropriation to me, even before I understood that concept. That makes me uncomfortable. Like if this was written by a bunch of indigenous people in an attempt to share their culture and beliefs through an rpg, that would be one thing. But it isn't. That's the primary reason.

Along those lines, since I have little knowledge of native tribal cultures, I don't really want to put them in my games (except in the broadest of strokes) because I don't want to rely on potentially harmful stereotypes in their portrayal. Of course any fantasy culture is going to be based on half-knowledge and stereotypes, but when I'm playing fantasy Europe/Mediterranean  I'm messing with my own ancestry so I don't have an issue with that.

While I find Glorantha fascinating, I don't actually set my games there. There are various reasons for that, but its incompleteness (in the sense that you can only really play on the low end of the power-scale officially) and the refusal to establish objective facts about the world and its overreliance on metaplot are all big turn offs as a place to run the game. On the other hand, it has one of, if not the, best religious magic systems and I love how everyone can use magic. So since I am using it to play in my home setting, and shamanism has never been a thing there, really. Druids are about as close as you come and they are basically just Earth worshippers. 

However, the new rules provide a cool suite of powers to a character type I will never use. That's why I want to repurpose them for my game. 

1 hour ago, gochie said:

As I said before, I like the idea. But now that I think about it, why not just do a table of gifts and geasa for every god? 

Someone did some for several gods (I remember making an Uroxi with starting 90% in greatsword) many years ago as a house-rule that my GM adopted. It's a different power level than what you're going for, but it's probably easier in some ways to tailor to each cult, and still keeps a hard line between initiates and runelord. 

I'd love to see it if you could point me at a copy. That would be very cool. I think the lack of gifts and geas for every cult is a giant missed opportunity (and honestly I never understood why some gods had them and others didn't).

Regardless though the reasons I don't are:

a) I don't have that kind of time, sadly. This is the big one

b) I don't have a problem with gradual advancement in lieu of the all or nothing approach currently in use (I don't feel the need for a hard line between the ranks)

c) I want the shaman powers to see some use in my game (though I suppose I could do that via gifts)

d) It allows more player facing choice rather than random rolls that potentially screw their character (yes, geese are in this system but players don't have to take them and can still get some of the powers). 

Buuuut...if I had infinite time, I would love to make gifts and geas for all cults.

51 minutes ago, Crel said:

Well, my players haven't reached this point yet, not the normal hit for 30+. And there's no strengthening enchantments in RQG (yet), nor have they gotten to doing enchantments in general. But I doubt such enchantments could keep up with the above-described Humakti.

I'm happy to pull them from earlier editions. I don't think there is any reason not to.

51 minutes ago, Crel said:

IIRC, the generally best AP you could get should be something like: Large Shield (16) + iron plate armor (9) + Protection (let's say a RL with 21 CHA, so Protection 21 would be possible, albeit unlikely in an actual game) + Shield (CHA 21=RP, x2=42AP) = 67AP. I don't know of any other published modifiers which would stack--and it should be noted that this combination both requires finding a crazy big Protection, and reaching maximum human RP and spending all of that on a 15 minute spell. So entirely infeasible for actual play, whereas Hresht's examples are from actual play.

Don't forget your leather padding for 1 or 2 extra points! But yeah, that sounds about right (actually wait, you missed something-16+9+2+21+42=90ap). Wait, does boar fat stack with armor?

So, constant high points dismiss magic are really the only possible way to combat this sort of thing. That or allowing magical natural armor boosts like from the Rainbow Mounds to be fairly common?

51 minutes ago, Crel said:

Maybe a solution would be to introduce a Rune spell which adjusts the dodge matrix--successes can dodge specials, etc.--or a "Trueshield" spell to double a shield's AP. I guess Trueshield for 1, or Earth Shield for 3?

Oh, I like Trueshield! That's a good idea. 

1 minute ago, Kloster said:

If you're a true munchkin, do both.

Oh sure thing! I don't even think its munchkin...I think that anyone who could do it, would do it!

I feel like I remember reading somewhere that you automatically know what spells are bound into a spirit spell matrix. Simply touching it tells you what the spell is.

Am I making that up? Is that something from an earlier edition? If I'm wrong, how do you identify spell matrices?

1 minute ago, Kloster said:

In RQIII, yes, but beware to the Criticals that ignore armor. That's why we tended to put the enchantments on the shields themselves: You always substracted the AP of the shield to the damage done.

I think Soltakss had the right idea, keep pumping it into general HP (which spreads to limbs). Better to have the buffer internally then rely on weak, weak armor!

Just now, Kloster said:

This is what Reputation is for. But in RQIII, no Reputation.

I wouldn't have done it as a mechanic, I'd have just dropped hints or roleplaying clues, same way I might drop hints that a chest is trapped in a dungeon or whatever but ymmv. 

PCs relaxing in an Inn when they overhear, "The Black Fangs are in town! Those guys are unbeatable. I heard they killed a dragon before it even had time to take a breath!" or whatever. It wouldn't always be appropriate, but Strangers in Prax gave a good example of how to react/be aware that someone extremely powerful had just showed up in town.

4 minutes ago, Crel said:

Earth Shield if you got it. Pricy at 3RP, but infinite AP for the shield parries. Also dodging, but if they special or crit you're likely in trouble fast. But yeah, don't wanna be taking that damage and I don't think there's an equivalently-strong protection you can set up in advance, 

Ah yeah, forgot about that spell.

Definitely a flaw in BRP that offense outpaces defense so quickly.

Do your players every do strengthening enchantments on themselves?

On 5/20/2019 at 12:48 PM, Crel said:

1) Poo on you, I like RQ3's familiars.  Of course we did some really weird stuff with them, which definitely wasn't in RQ3-base. I may have turned an AD&D miniaturized iron golem into my familiar and dumped way to much POW into it...

2) More seriously, I like the quoted idea. It makes a lot of sense to me to tie fancy new abilities to character advancement. Honestly, maybe you should think about foregoing the sacrifice, and it's just an opportunity to get X ability for Y geas? (It's not a taboo, only dirty primitive shamans have taboos!) Set it up so there's five or six abilities to pick for each deity to start from, something like that. You could even phrase the basic Rune Lord benefits (D10 DI, POW21 resist) in that way--when you've assembled all five powers, you're now that deity's RL. (IDK if that's a good idea--I'm musing.)

Based on @Crel's comment above, I got to thinking. I don't use shaman in my game for various reasons, but I like their abilities and want to use them in game. So I thought they should be folded into Rune Level Characters. Here's my first stab at Rune Priests and God Talkers

This is a dramatic change from the default and provides characters with access to those abilities but in a 'tiered' method. The nice thing is that even thought it can provide a wide variation in what RLs look like, they can simply take the default powers and leave it at that (i.e. no changes are necessary when using pre-stated NPCs...just assume they went for the standard abilities and no additional sacrifice). 

So, rought draft here, be gentle (literally I just wrote this over my lunch break)-

Road to Priesthood

Initiates who are not Rune Lords or Rune Priests of other faiths can gain new abilities as they advance towards Rune Priest status within their chosen cult. A character can ONLY gain abilities on one of these two roads...a character who chooses the Priestly path cannot pick up a few Rune Lord abilities when they Master some skills and vice versa. When a path is completed, if their faith allows, they can attempt to become Rune Lord-Priests but that does not provide extra opportunities at sacrifice.

Unlike Rune Lords, Initiates who want to become Rune Priests do not need to master skills, but before they can gain access to any of these abilities, they must have made certain investments in the Cult. To unlock these abilities, they must have a minimum of 3 rune points, POW 16+ and possess Worship (Cult) at 50%. This unlocks a character’s first ability.

They can teach any other member of their Cult spells (as per 281-this is a one point ability without additional levels), They may choose to sacrifice for additional levels of the following abilities: Magic Attack, Magic Defence, or Spirit Affinity.

When they gain a second cult skill at 50%, they gain the ability to use rune points with their Divine Interventions (as a one point ability) and can sacrifice for additional abilities from the following list:

Second Sight (as Shaman), Hide Soul, Power Within, or Spirit Defense. To gain the ability, the character must attend a week long ceremony starting or ending on a holy day of their god. A character gains these abilities without geas or other cost, however they may choose to sacrifice attributes once for additional levels in any of the above abilities. So, for example, RL masters a skill, worships, gains a free ability, sacrifices 3 POW for 2 extra abilities, takes a geese and then sacrifices 1 Dex for a third. Next time they Master a skill, they will need to sacrifice 2 attribute points for additional abilities (unless they immediately take a geese).

When they gain a third cult skill at 50%, and have at least 4 rune points, they gain Access to Enchantment Spells. They may sacrifice to improve earlier abilities or gain new ones from the following list: Expanded presence, Spell Barrage, or Spell Extension

When they gain their fourth cult skill at 50% and have a POW of 17+ they gain an Allied Spirit (first level grants standard allied spirit, each additional level grants the spirit +1d6 CHA or +1d3 POW). They may sacrifice as above and can pick from Discorporation (a one point ability) or Statistic Expansion.

When they gain their fifth cult skill at 50%, have 5 rune points, and a POW of 18+ they gain the Priest’s easier POW gain ability. They may also sacrifice for Self-Resurrection (rune points can be sacrificed in place of POW) and Soul Expansion.

Once they meet the criteria for their fifth ability they are a full Priest and gain all the social limitations and benefits.

Note: God Talkers follow the same path as a priest. However, they gain no ability at step 4 (though they may sacrifice for Discorporation or Statistic Expansion, but they cannot gain an Allied Spirit.

I modified the Taboo chart to be a bit more generic and a bit more theistic-

Taboos/Geas

D100 Taboo/Geas

1-4    Blessed (no Taboo)

5     Never eat meat you or a RL of your Cult hasn’t personally killed

6–9     Never eat herd animal meat.

10–12 Never eat avian meat.

13     Never eat any meat of any animal sacred to your cult.

14–18 Remain celibate during Sacred Time.

19–23 Remain celibate during a given season (usually corresponding to the rune level’s strongest Rune).

24–26 All celibacy requirements above.

27     Total celibacy always.

28–29 Speak only Truth to everyone.

30     Attack <enemy race> on sight.

31–32 Always/Never show mercy to a surrendering or helpless foe

33–34 Always play <instrument> while spellcasting.

35–36 Always dance while spellcasting.

37–38 Always sing while spellcasting.

39     Only use <Elemental> speech while casting spells.

40–41 Sleep outdoors one day every week.

42–43 Never let an animal sacred to the faith suffer needlessly.

44–45 Never wear leather armor.

46–47 Never wear metal armor.

48     Never wear any armor.

49–50 Never wear anything on the head.

51     Never wear any clothes but religious vestments.

52     Never use any shield.

53–54     Never use any axe.

55–56     Never use any bow.

57–58     Never use a flail or whip of any kind.

59–61     Never use any spear.

62–63     Never use a sword of any kind.

64–66     Never use any weapon but Cultural and Cult Weapons

67–69     Make pilgrimage to a Holy Place each Sacred Time.

70–72     Make pilgrimage to a Holy Place once each season.

73–76 Drink no alcoholic beverages

77–79 Double magic point sacrifice each holy day

80–82 Challenge all <pick enemy god> cultists on sight.

83–85 Never speak to or help followers of <pick unaligned God>

86–88 Never speak to or aid <pick race> in anyway

89–91 Never love any but <aligned cults>

92–93 Never take a slave

94     Make a blood sacrifice to god every holy day (animals will suffice)

95     Never eat the meat of horses.

96     Surrender any children you bare/sire to the Cult.

97–99 Roll twice more.

00     Roll thrice more.

22 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Avoid or be amputated/killed. If you are a rune lord, use Divine Intervention. If you are a heroquester knowing the backdoor out of Hell ending up dead, return some time later, probably in a new body.

That's a pretty costly means of dealing with an average hit from an equivalent opponent!

22 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Heroform before entering a fight at these stakes. If you are able to take on a stature equivalent of your opponent, you will be able to take such a hit while in that form. Unfortunately, the rules for such heroforming (along the lines of Greg's story "Morden Defends the Camp") have not been published yet for RQG. Already Hrestol's Saga talks about entering the divine realm and becoming like unto a deity.

I vaguely know what you are talking about (heroforming-taking on the aspects of a hero?), but I don't know anything about Morden defends the camp or the Hrestol Saga. But I'm guessing they are even more examples of narrative characters accomplishing things that are impossible to PCs to pull off?

14 minutes ago, Kloster said:

In RQG, I don't know: I've never been part of a group with such powerful characters.

In RQIII, most of the time, they discover the other group is as powerful when somebody draw a weapon. Power level is not tattooed on the face, even if there are hints (iron weapon, for ex.). When a high power level is mutually discovered, most of the time, nothing occurred, because each group was gauging the level of the other, trying to guess the level of protection. This was a time for speakers, and one of our players (a Yelmalio Rune lord/Issaries acolyte) was at his best in such situations.

Meh, I would expect such great heroes would be known by their deeds already.

But to a degree, power level is tattooed on a character since magical bling can raise your charisma, lots of obvious magical doo-dads and power items do give a 'tell' of a character's potential danger level. And if the characters are running around killing all the Lunars in the area, eventually they are going to send bigger guns after them. Yes of course social skills can help get you out of a pinch, but sometimes the swords come out. If your default power level is so high, I would expect opposition of similar or greater levels to occasionally come your way. 

8 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

A) I don't see any logical reason for the Spell Barrage & Multispell to be a multiple effect, rather than an additive. Ie, both just allow an extra spell to be cast at the same time -ie, they do the same thing. Therefore, at best, Spell Barrage 1 combined with Multispell 1 should allow the Shaman to cast 3 (and only 3) spells for every casting of a spell... not 4. SB/MS 2 adds another spell, not multiplies the lot by 2...

Yeah, I agree. The only thing that Spell Barrage lacks that Multispell has is the interaction with Disruption... A character with 2 SB and MS2 could maybe throw 2 3d3 Disruptions for 6 mp, instead of the usual 1 you'd get via MS. Otherwise I don't see them multiplying.

8 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

 

E) As soon as the enemies see those guys charging (especially the decked out Humakti - probably blowing (see the related thread 😛 ), Dispel Magic will be flying!

My question, beyond Dispel Magic, what do the players do when they encounter a group of characters of equivalent power? How do they resist a hit doing 40-50 damage in one go? 

11 minutes ago, Crel said:

Game-wise, I think this is reasonable. World-wise, I'm a little hesitant because RL Resistance is a god-given gift. I'm not sure it would stack with something internal to the RL. That being said, you could hand-wave it as "Lesser Resistance" and "Greater," or maybe once the RL gets Resistance they can take an extra geas or sac an extra attribute to bundle their previous Magic Defense in with the rest.

I see all of these abilities as divine in nature, so I'm not sure I feel the world distinction. I suppose it could be defend with POW of 21 or Magic Defense+Pow, whichever is higher, but honestly that just makes MD suck even more. 

Thinking some more about it, it might be best just to dump those from RL and leave them in the Rune Priest toolkit.

11 minutes ago, Crel said:

It's important to remember that RLs only resist with POW 21. And I feel like they probably aren't running around often with full POW 18+ on tap due to enchanting, DI, maxing out RP, etc. Even if they are, a few points of Magic Attack could give the vital advantage in a magical contest between RLs.

No that's certainly true. But lots of spirits and demons out there will have POW 21+

11 minutes ago, Crel said:

Hrm. Probably 3 or 4, depending on how it's colored. I feel like the ability isn't inherently crazy--especially since theist characters aren't likely to have good skills in Spirit Travel, Spiritspeech, Spirit Lore, or Spirit Dance when they gain access to the Spirit World. If you phrase the fluff as "we can go visit the gods and pay homage in their world!" or "sort-of their world!", then this is definitely a tier 4 ability, and one which would be really important for a priest to have. Likely part of their magical role during worship services, like a defining feature in shaman-less Glorantha. In terms of raw power, I feel like it's probably around 2, maybe 3, until the adventurer's skills get good enough to use it properly.

I like that description of the ability! Also agree about the Priest needing it. I'm have some trouble doing a similar conversion since priests have such low skill barriers to entry. I'm trying to tie the steps with POW and Rune Points as well, so they feel a bit more limited. 

11 minutes ago, Crel said:

You get to mindlink the allied spirit in a way which is more powerful. You get to perform multiple actions per round without needing a Control (entity) or Command Cult Spirit spell cast, and without needing to take a full round off acting to give a new command. Your allied spirit can initiate into your cult and give you a second pool of Rune points. It's pretty strong.

Oh, no doubt they are powerful, I'm just not sure that they are that much more beneficial then having a bunch of bound spirits. 

Still, you are probably right, so how about this:

Upon Mastering their second skill, they can choose to either increase the previous abilities they gained, of pick from the following:

Access to Enchantment Spells (one point ability), Cure Disease, Second Sight (Enhanced)-you must have Second Sight to take this power, Show Spirit, or Spirit Mastery. As above, a character gains these abilities when they master the skill and attend the religious ceremony. Each mastered skill requires a different ceremony for its ability, and each ceremony allows the prospective candidate to sacrifice for additional levels as before.

Upon Mastering their third skill, they can choose to either increase the previous abilities they gained, of pick from the following:

Allied Spirit (first level grants standard allied spirit, each additional level grants the spirit +1d6 CHA or +1d3 POW), Expanded Presence, or Power Within. Learning these abilities requires a ceremony as above.

11 minutes ago, Crel said:

However, if you'd like allied spirits to be earlier, maybe you could downgrade them for tier 2, and upgrade into the full mindlink and shared RP pool at tier 3?

I'm sorry, maybe I wasn't clear on all of my confusions. Initially, I read your text as "Only Rune Lords can take geese" and that each time they master a skill, they get a free ability. Then in the same ceremony, they may sacrifice characteristics for abilities. They can't sacrifice any more characteristics (or gain more abilities) until they've mastered another skill (they aren't allowed to do the special ceremony until then). Once an adventurer is a Rune Lord with five skills mastered and T5 unlocked, they can undergo the ceremony whenever they choose. How accurate is this?

That is pretty much correct. However, its not exactly that they can do it any time they want...they must still master a cult skill or wait till the High Holy day. After all cult skills are mastered, then they can do it every seasonal holy day. 

11 minutes ago, Crel said:

Yes. Yes it would...

Too much work for me...I'm out!

2 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

TBH, I'm be against such an idea. Purely because it makes HQs a lot less worthwhile (unless you're intending to simultaneously increase the rewards from HQs).

It's been said above that most starting characters will have at least 1 abiility, and I'd even go so far as to suggest that a few would have 3 or 4 - certainly if you're a Humakti (weapon skills are relatively high from Cultural Background, plus the Warrior occupations, plus the Cult skills... ). A large portion of people in the world are going to be getting these abilities just by dint of being alive and doing their job every day... certainly by age 30, your typical farmer, fisher or herder ought to have a couple.

Except that the majority of people aren't initiaties, so no, they wouldn't gain these abilities. Certainly not your average famer, fisher, or herder. Also, only gaining a roll to advance once a season, I wouldn't expect that to pan out at all (granted, I could be wrong about the math). Even if they did, they would gain one, two at most, and unless they are willing to sacrifice part of themselves, they are going to be able to have very minor benefits...not much stronger than they have from ubiquitous magic and unlimited access to common rune spells.

So it just makes the process a bit stair stepped rather than an elevator, and it doesn't change the setting or anything. Everyone has magic woo hoo. 

15 hours ago, Joerg said:

Those geese tend to bite you, or at least natter loudly at you at the slightest movement. Vicious things, plucky as hell, better bring pliers.

But then, those cultists you are supposed to lead by example can exhibit the same nasty traits, and they would be less tasty when roasted.

Nasty, nasty creatures!

15 hours ago, Joerg said:

 

Seriously, I don't see spirit mastery or spirit plane travel as normal rune lord powers.

The backdoor from Hell quest and jts stakes and cost should be written up for both RQG and HQG, and it might well include some permanent loss of rune points when necessary. It is far more convenient than normal resurrection, as you don't need your old body to return (as proven by Belintar, who returned a couple of times after his body had been destroyed or eaten). You might have to hunt for your old body up and immolate it properly, or something like that, similar to the quest of that unlucky dragonewt (in Griffin Mountain, IIRC) hunting down the skin of its previous incarnation which had been made into dragonewt armor.

Sure...I HOPE it gets written up. But who knows when the GM guide will be available or if that particular HQ will be covered? I don't have any interest in waiting...it's been what...almost 40 years now for proper rules? I'll make do with Self-Res unless something better comes along. 

You know I find it sad that 13th Age Glorantha has proper HQ rules before RQ does. D&D does it first. But that's neither here nor there. 

11 hours ago, g33k said:

You are right!  I totally missed that!  

Apologies to the OP.

No problem!