Ian Absentia

UGH. !i!

This way lies madness. And tedium. Yawn. !i!

Yeah, I didn't mean to seem accusatory. Take that as the general, communal "You" and not a personal "you". The production values behind RQG have gone to some length to promote Maximum Gaming Fun and put to rest the old school penalty phase of adventuring where the GM/PC divide is assumed to be a hostile and adversarial relationship. "How can we both have fun with this game?" !i!

First, no - No rule should be assumed as a means of minimising player fun. If a GM interprets it that way, you may be playing with the wrong people. And a GM shouldn't be dropping loot boxes that are too powerful for players to grab in the first place. Second, I'd assume this is an example of a compound fee, though your temple leaders may see it differently. Humakt is your primary devotion - to his temple goes 90% of your accumulated wealth. Orlanth is of secondary importance, though still prominent in your community, and to his temple goes 10% of what's left after Humakt's take. Your player character is left with 9% for personal support...unless the temple of Orlanth gets greedy and decides to make the argument for the full 10% of everything. Then your community has a dispute and potential inter-temple rivalry on their hands. Bear in mind, it's not in the temples' best interest to totally impoverish their flock, especially their heroes. Humakt may claim 90% of your wealth, but the temple may also bestow gifts upon your character in support of your adventures. Why lock a magic sword away in a vault when one of their heroes can take it out in the field and put it to use against the undead? !i!

There's method to the madness. Trying to manage a milling herd of...anything...while carrying on a fight makes for crazy excitement. One of my most exciting moments, personally, in the last few years was fighting off a 3 AM raccoon raid while trying to protect a flock of panicked chickens. It sounds funnier than it was (in the dark and at close quarters, raccoons might as well be bears), but as an exercise in multi-tasking it was a real challenge. The fight's the thing, but maintaining home and hearth are what set the Sartar adventures apart from wandering-hero games. !i!

Are you sure this isn't the message you intended to write from the outset? The real-world-parallels chestnut is bait that brings out the worst in the grognards, and recent developments in Glorantha have purposely steered away from more concrete comparisons that bog down in argument instead of play. A skim through the art in the book gives a strong flavor of the cultures in and around Dragon Pass in dress, weaponry, and mythology. And the sections on homelands provide succinct summaries of the cultures. I find it hard to miss, especially going into it already knowing what to look for. It's too bad that you assumed that grousing over minutia on a message board typified the new edition of the game. It's also too bad that you decided to engage in it yourself. Message boards are too often distractions from actual play. Best of luck playing the games you enjoy. !i!

Embrace the Aspirated H... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_h (...but ignore the vowel structure.) !i!

At this point, there's really nothing left but to suggest you find a copy of The Last Ringbearer online, download it, and read it over the weekend. Enjoix. !i!

I'm currently having a grand time playing a fanatical devotee of Orlanth who has a POW of 6 -- it's clearly an unrequited spiritual relationship. He generally makes up for it with his smokin' INT and CHA, and augments from his rune scores. When everyone's a hero, sometimes the outliers tell the story of what sets your character apart from the others. !i!

Aren't we all on occasion? Sympathy for the monkey. !i!

For ages, my RQ go-to (and HQ, for that matter) has been a variation on Jack and the Beanstalk, minus the beanstalk. As Bill and Simon suggest above, it's stripped down to the basics, in terms of both mechanics and setting. A young cowherd is tasked by his father to take a couple of cows to market for sale, his first real almost-adult job. Sartar or Prax works fine, but it could be anywhere in Glorantha -- I've used hunters from Balazar and Teshnos taking furs to market. En route, he encounters a troll (or dragonewt) with a human princess in a bag slung over his shoulder. What do you do? Features for a new player? Familiarity of a typical fairy-tale set-up. A provincial yokel is largely naive to the details of the broader world, though they may have heard wild rumor. Limited skill- and power-set of a young character -- nothing fancy to get hung up on. Combat, assuming it occurs, is limited in scope. Monsters talk? They can negotiate? They have legal standing and can pursue legal recourse? Follow-on play hooks galore. This scenario is generally a 1-on-1 experience, but can handle maybe two players with little adjustment. For more players, maybe run a couple of similar quick "pre-sessions" like this with other fairy tales. (I've never tried Hansel and Gretel! Who'd be the witch in Glorantha?) In general, though, look to classic fairy tales, lay down the Gloranthan template for setting, and keep the details simple. !i!

I see where we were at odds. I'd wandered off trudging through sewers in particular and into general "dungeon" tunnel environments. In addition to combustion (from, say, adventurer's torches and cooking braziers), CO is also found in volcanic gases that might be encountered in some scenarios. Too true -- there's an unfortunate overlap between the amount of oxygen we need to breathe and the amount needed to make certain gases explosive in the presence of ignition. I should clarify that lots of ventilation is your friend. !i!

Post this to the thread in question and I'll gladly clarify your assumptions. !i!

Okay, pulverised reeds in adobe and thatched reed roofing instead of straw. Good and likely points in New Pavis. And theyll still go up like matches in a sufficiently hot conflagration, natural or spiritual. Perhaps less so in Storm or Sea Seasons, moreso during Fire Season when they're thoroughly dry. Dang, now I need to add fire hazards to my environmental gases supplement. !i!

It really depends on the specifics, but New Pavis might be a fine example. As mentioned earlier (and as you suggest re: thatch), there's flammable material inside fire-resistant construction. A fire will often leave an empty, charred shell of stone and brick that's ready to collapse. Is the brick fired or sun-dried? Adobe and wattle contain significant amounts of straw or similar binding material. Firing brick will burn out the impurities and make them generally more fire-resistant, but it takes more time and effort, and therefore money. As is ever the case, wealthier people have access to better building materials, leaving less affluent communities more vulnerable to mishap. Civic planning, permitting, and maintenance have a huge impact on safety. The ramshackle of Badside, and probably Old Town and the Farmer's Quarter to lesser degrees, is ready to burn at the drop of a match (pun very much intended). As long as we're talking about neighborhoods, privilege, and access to resources, more affluent neighborhoods will be defended against calamity more readily and vigorously than poorer neighborhoods. While Old Town burns, a line of civic volunteers and magical resources is drawn at Riverside and Rich Hill. I hope this doesn't seem too pedantic, but I think the real world phenomena are fantastic things to game, and there's so much more to carry over into fantasy than combat simulation. !i!

Off the cuff, I'd take a look at the Battle skill (RQG p.176) for an abstract approach to dealing with an urban fire, including the "Battle Results" table. The "battlefront" would shift from district to district, with new sub-plots in each new neighborhood -- some quick 1D6 tables for obstacles and opportunities regarding people and events would be great. !i!

I was being cute, sure, but in addition to exciting scenarios regarding urban fires, but what about a scenario involving a stead -- or the entirety of Apple Lane -- facing the onslaught of a natural wildfire? This is where the magical nature of Glorantha would really shine. A communal sacrifice of POW for a Divine Intervention might be the only way of directing the fire around your home, though probably not stopping it. And how about a wildfire in the chaparral in Prax? Controlling the stampedes alone would be insane. !i!

That's nice, but I'll lean into some communally-POWered Divine Intervention for something on this scale... !i!

Beware the "Yes, but magic..." solution to life's great obstacles. Magic is another form of technology that allows improved control over the environment, but never total solutions. Just as magic-augmented warfare still relies on frontline grunts, civil works will still rely on laborers, engineers, and technicians. That said, I'd definitely want some Fire rune allies on my bucket squads for control and Water/Air rune allies for suppression. I don't believe I've ever encountered an urban fire scenario in any fantasy game I've ever played (or a flood, for that matter), and it sounds like a great opportunity for both heroism and dastardly deeds. We're all familiar with the competitive firefighting crews of early 19th century New York, right? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/early-19-century-firefighters-fought-fires-each-other-180960391/ As for structures made of stone being impervious to fire, think again. There's plenty of superstructure that's flammable (roofs, rafters, interior walls and paneling, doors/shutters, flooring, etc.), not to mention all the stuff of everyday living inside. Whether or not a city is prone to fire has a lot to do with what you do inside of it, not just what it's made of. !i!

This, above all else. However anthropomorphic the gods may be, they're gods and our characters are (at this point in the game) just people. As a GM, I wouldn't portray a god as reacting favorably to lawyering from one of its worshippers. Between me and the player may be a different matter. Aside from revoking the geas-related gift, Spirits of Reprisal are on the table, a geas-related curse to skills or abilities, penalties levied against the relevant rune(s) -- the question shouldn't be "What's a reasonable punishment?" so much as "Where does the pain stop?" !i!

Yeah, the hole I'm headed down is more of a general BRP-thing. I got started on it, though, when I was adapting my Thieves' World boxed set to Glorantha (New Corflu!) and found myself shaking my head at the sewer tunnels running beneath Sanctuary. Too many Health & Safety violations. !i!

Well, I'm going off the deep end now. I've been drawing up a table for incremental POT zones for various common gases, including POT-X (explosive/flammable potency) for the more volatile types. I'll keep you all apprised. Did I mention that I deal with these sorts of things for a living? There are perfectly good reasons to bring along "bird in cage" and "10-foot pole" when dropping down a hole.

With regard to enclosed sewage tunnels, GMs should be encouraged to keep a variety of gases up their sleeves. Confined spaces are great places for the accumulation of gases and terrible places for people to crawl about in. Carbon Dioxide - Nothing exotic, but an oxygen-poor environment that'll make you confused, sleepy, and weak. Denser than air, so it settles into low points and can displace breathable atmosphere. Carbon Monoxide - Just plain poisonous and all-too-common. Slightly lighter than air, so it rises toward breathing height. Methane - Combustible and explosive, depending on concentration. Lighter than air, so it'll bubble up out of fluids and collect in ceiling spaces. Hydrogen Sulfide - Another common "swamp gas" (along with CO2 and methane). Poisonous, flammable, and stinks to high heavens. Heavier than air. These gases don't accumulate at dangerous concentrations everywhere in sewage tunnels, but they're common enough to make me give the ending of The Shawshank Redemption the hairy eyeball. Used sparingly, they make great natural traps to employ against intrusive adventurers. Ventilation is your friend. I recommend the following link as a jumping-off point: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/confinedspaces/hazards_solutions.html !i!

Right, and this is the issue I've been dealing with over the last week or so -- a vehicle-mounted minigun, which fires 33 rounds per attack (all autofire, no "controlled" bursts). My feeling was, on a successful hit, to roll 3d10+3 for the number of hits, then roll 2d6+4 once as the standardised damage for all hits in that attack. !i!

Two such rules work for me: Superworld Actions - Superworld used a system of Full, Semi-, and Quarter Moves, combined with action-rank-like multiple moves based on your character's Dexterity. For each multiple of 10 in your DEX (rounded up), you received an action. For each action, you could perform either a Full Move, or a combination of Semi Moves and Quarter Moves. In effect, it played a little like GDW's Snapshot combat rules for Traveller. Simplified Criticals - In Greg Stolze's Unknown Armies, which also used a similar d100 roll, criticals were determined quite simply by doubles. Let's say you have a skill rating of 70%. Rather than calculating a percentage of your skill level and trying to roll low, you'd simply note the doubles of 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, and 66 as critical successes; rolls of 77, 88, 99, and 00 would be critical failures. Nice, neat, and tidy. !i!