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Yes, he probably should have. I suspect the only reason why he failed to was because it has been conquered by the Ottomans in 1453 and was something of a sore spot in Mallory's day. Might as well includie the Medditerrainian in there and perhaps Alendanger's empire too. M ost of it can go wild during the wasting anyway. I think the lash Hurrah was probably with Aetius. THat's the last time Rome really looks like it has a chance of making some sort of comeback. After than it's really just going through the motions. Yes it does. IMO I think that is whole point of the Roman Conquest. It "showed" Arthur to be as great as a Roman Emperor. Which is great if you are a medieval noble, and keeps up with all those "holy Roman Empire" Emperors.

That's what the promised the Trollkin at breakfast. Still, why'd he name him Lunch?

I'll discount all sexual activity beyond that needed for procreation. It's not about what two consenting whatever do in the private or elsewhere, but what happens to a population that doesn't replace itself with new members. The modern world has a lot of things that let us get around a lot of the difficulties associated with all this. Now maybe a fantasy game world could as well. Maybe it sometimes should. But I think we need to consider the ramifications and any such changes, and if they would fundamentally alter the cultures. Hmmm, I wonder how many points SUMMON STORK should be? Can it be multispelled? Would the delivery animal change based on cult familiars? Would worshipers of the Red Goddess summon a bat? I don't know about Glorantha, but it would be an interesting to pursue all those stories were were told as to the origins of children back when we were younger, and make them true for a game setting.

No, but I do assume that without pregnancy the populations won't be self sustaining.

You're beating a dead horse ( I wonder how it turned out, I sure hope seneschal killed someone.). But there are a lot of ways to run with an idea like this. Spend a weekend binge watch Twlight Zone, Night Gallery, Kolchak, any of the Tales From series, and your bound to come up with some ideas. How about one where all the PCs get murdered at the start of the game, wake up as dead, ghosts, etc. and then have to solver thier own murders so their spirits move on into the afterlife (the question is on the application)?

Five mile long dragons can defend themselves.Besides they ate the guy we sent over to ask them if they wanted to be defended. It seems all they want is ketchup. Yes you could. Should you? By that I mean does that fit the setting? I think it is far more important to be true to the setting. As long as female warriors fit the setting and culture then fine, if not then too bad. For instance, I don't believe there should be many, if any female warriors among Mistress Race trolls. They are just too important to risk that way. I don't know about Mostaili. I haven't read enough of the lOre on them to know if they are made, born, or have gender, or even if gender might be from attachments. Especially when there isn't a animal husbandry skill. Of course with Pensdragon it's pretty much dull playing anything but a knight, anyway, as the game is designed around knights. But I do not believe the game should be changed to accommodate peasants either, or merchants or much else. It's fine for an Arthruian game to be about knights. That depends on what else is going on , and frankly can apply to any sort of RPG, not just sci-fi. Old time D&Ders will be familar with the phase "Room, Monster, Treasure." and some campaigns are all about the PC going into rooms, killing monsters, taking the treasure and repating the process until they level up, get better magic, and do it all over again.

No, not quite. Much of it is in public domain, apparently everything sold to Weird Science should have been in PD a lot sooner that it was thought to be, but some other things are in questionable status. Plus companies have managed to get the CW laws extended well beyond their intended purpose and will probably will continue to do so again. Still, from the viewpoint of RPG a lot of it was in the PD since 2008, and I doubt Arkham House would risk their house of cards going after an RPG and possibly having their stuff all declared PD. It's not a bad idea though for someone to track down something that is definitely in public domain and based an RPG on it. At least, it if is something good.

THere is probably a HeroQuest for that. Seriously, Arkat became a Troll, right?

Yes you can have a society where the sexes are not as dimorphic as on Terra. But I think it you did you'd have to defend it too. But the big problems are ususaly ones of ecomomics and chidlbirth-at least in settings that actually do something with economics and cultures. In D&D where the PC are travelling outsiders who find vast sums of wealth tucked away under every mountain and subterranean complex the money isn't an issue, and childbirth less so. In a society that actually has some sort of economic structure, arms, armor and the traning an practice time required to gain and maintain proficiency with them aren't cheap, and it takes alot of people working in the fields to support one person who doesn't. Now Glorantha does have a lot of magic, and females a lot of fertility magic, so that might offset the food production, but the child birth issues could probably due to some help as well. So either the female warriors are somewhat celibate or they will be out of commission at least sometime due to giving birth. Some sort of "Surrogate Parent" spell might be the solution here. I think that depends on what game you are playing and who is running it. Pendragon goes out of it was to enforce status. Mind you players are always knights. Or at least almost always. Still I wonder by that reasoning if making all player character male would accomplish the same thing? Are we all just snubbing the poor because in RPGs we never really are poor. In fact most PCs I know are much better off financially than their players are in the real world Look at Trollpack. There PCS can be trollkin, and BTW, Superior Trollkin are generally food-class for being too smart ("Uppity"). You can't get too much lower of the social ladder in Glroantha than a trollkin while still retaining intelligence.

Probably due to Lovecraft's work entering the public domain, and therefore open to use by anyone. Now companies have lobbied for and gotten copy write duration extended several times over the years, and RPG game mechanics are not copy-writable (but the text used to present them is), but even so a lot of older stories and setting are open for use.

Well we disagree. Hopefully that view doesn't infect Pendragon, as it would destroy it.

LOL! Don't you mean istory?.

No I haven't, thankfully! I'd be more amazed if it did. Again we are loooking at loyalty very differerntly. I see it as a Passion similar to what it means in Pendradon, actually loyalty, not, as it appears to be in RQG, Quid Pro Quo.

I'm not so convinced. I There is another thread where YGMV is under attack for being too intimidating or something. Well there are some concerns with such a fantasy society: Problems with the economics ( full time warriors are expensive and rare), biology (on average men have greater upper body Strength and are not hindered by pregnancy), which would need to be dealt with in some way. Then there is this risk of making all the cultures too much alike-although that depends on what else the cultures a ll agree on. I think that if people try to shoehorn every culture to fit one set of beliefs they are going to wind up with every culture being the same culture. I'm surprised though that while people do bring up gender a lot, and sometimes race, no one ever seems bothered by the class structure inherent in most FRPG settings.

Or how about the differences between Western Christianity and Greek Orthodox, or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and why it was dropped. My point is that there is this push to design all RPG settings under present daty ideal and morals, and that is just bad gaming. In a game, we need differences in cultures both to avoid blandness, and to allow for and showcase conflict. It we model every culture on 21st century ideals of equality and tolerance, then why aren't they all just getting along and having a good time? There is nothing left to have adventures about. It's the same reason why we need villains to be bad people. If everyone is nice a reasonable and willing to work out a deal, we have a great place to live, but a lousy place to adventure.

No, not really. Especially when considering Lovecraft and his own sensibilities and biases. He was a recluse who might have had a mental breakdown if his postmen happened to have been of African-American decent. His stories are the onles with the least amount of hope., and everything is at least somewhat more positive under other Mythos authors. But then, considering that the Mythos pretty much states that reality as we know it, isn't real, maybe the SAN rules shouldn't be real. In game people are open to all sort s of thoughts being projected at them by Cthulhu and other strange beings. What's real a bout that? Hopefully nothing.

Do you see a point a matriarchal fantasy societies? Sotakss is right of coruse we do. It's about diversity. If you just run all the cultures as the same then then it really isn't all that diverse.

Not necessarily. Look, with any discussion there are going to be conflicting viewpoints. It better to be aware of them all before modifying rules and running the game. For instance, if players (and NPCs) can flash fry someone per firestarter, or teleport 1000 meters into the air, or whatever, then the GM needs to be aware of how easy that will be to accomplish, and how that will impact the campaign, or even it a campaign is still possible. Or it psychic powers will need certain safeguards and restrictions. The setting makes a huge difference on how the powers impact the game too. Something like mind reading and teleportation could greatly affect any sort of mystery adventure. There are lots of things to consider, especially in the contest of a campaign. One thing I'll point out is that any sort of exceptional ability tends to paint a target on someone back in combat. Just like how in real combat the guy carry the flamethrower tended to get shot at more than guys carrying rifles. So the GM will need to factor this into things for both he PCs and NPCs.

Not unless you want to claim that more can do so on Harn than in Glorantha. But Orthodxy in one form or another is a big part of Glorantha. It is a worth that is literally drived by reglion and gods. HArn is more medieval Europe with a facelift.

I did say FRPG, although a case could be made for Star Wars being Space Fantasy. But Star Wars culure is so cosmopolitain (or so oppressive deepening on the place and time), that culture isn't all that important. You really don't need to know all that much about Star Wars peoples and cultures to play it. It's basically one big culture. Thats why in any Star Wars RPG you don't usually need of both with things like homeworld for characters (even Senators) and just need a profession. There probably is as much detail to the Star Wars universe now, after decades of various authors adding to it. It certinaly asn't all that detailed prior to WEG. Even so, much of it is contradictory, or has been rectonned out of existence (ie. the entire EU), and Lucas'retconning the original trilogy is much less popular that any changes brought about by "Gregging". "Han Shot first!" rings with Staw Wars fans in a way that "Yelmalio not Elmal" never did. Yet..most of the detail was in the EU, which Lucasfilm never adhered to. So if you were to stick to the canon, then it wasn't all that detailed. And was does exist tends to get glossed over by big events. We d on't know as much about sand people as we do about Agrimoril for example. But the EU was big, so maybe. Trek certainly had more detail than Star Wars, and it was more significant too, as the setting was more culturally driven. Also, there is a whole lot more of it than there is Star Wars. Even ingnoring the various bits that were retconned, rebooted, or just plain messed up there is still hundred of houses of primary source material plus a lot of non-canon (in Trek only what is on screen counts and even some of that isn't supposed to). I'm not sure I'f I could call it a FRPG setting though but letting that slide. Most of Star Treks depth and detail is superferouls to the game becuase, much like with Star Wars, the main setting is very composition, and you don't really need to know it. Trek ruyns just fine without knowing much a bout the Deltans, Caitains, or even the Gorn. A GM does need to know about the Federations, Humans, Klginons and Romulans, and maybe some of the other major powers, but most Federation memember specials are civil towards each other and culturally accepting, and most that aren't tend to be one shot appearances. Trek probably hints more at a culture than actually fleshing one out. We got entire episodes about 20th Century Rome and even a planet run by Nazis, but neither setting had or needed much detail beyond linking it to the historic cultures used for the episode.

HArn isn't as detailed. It's a rich world, I 'll grant you, but it's reglions and cultures don't have anywhere near the same depth. Harn is mostly a medeival society with a little customization, and Tolkien fantasy races thrown in. Show me one HArrinc hero or dietiry with as much written about them as , say Humakt.

I'm not, I'm merely try to explain YGMV to you. I've been playing in GLorathan since the 80s too. Name one setting with as much detail, other than Middle Earth or Tekumel. No, but when you do have a grasp of the scope it is, and most Glorathan games in the YGMV era usually have a section on Glorantha and how Greg started creating it long before there were RPGs and how there is so much lore about it. THat is also combined with the fact that Glorantha is very differernt from most other FRPGs in that it is not derreived from the typical Tolkienesque psuodo-fantasy Europe Model. No it doesn't. For someone who has also been playing in Glorantha since the 80s new players and GMs notice Glorantha is different in several ways: It's cultures are not Middle Earth or European based. It is a bronze age world, not an steel based one. Everyone knows and casts magic, not just priests and wizards Ties to culture and religion are more important than ties to the "Adventuring party" It's species aren't typical FRPG fare either. Dwarves and Elves are not the same sort of races as seen in Middle Earth, there are no hobbits or orcs, and there are a bunch of races unique to Glorantha. No all of these things were very off-putting to players back in the 70s and 80s, making it harder to get people to play the game, and was one of the reasons why RQ3 took RQ out of Glorantha. No, it doesn't. Could you provide some example of it? I've already covered it in terms of not being intimidated by the setting it, but you claim another sort of use. How is that an "issue" of YGMV? The changes would have happened without YGMV, just as changes happened in the shfit from RQ2 to RQ3. Now if you want to start a thread about "Gregging" that a whole different topic. You sure you been playing Glorantha since the 80s? Back then and even today, just getting most gamers to try anything that isn't a D&D based system is very difficult. Getting them to try to run it is almost impossible. Back when we had local RPG conventions any non D&D adventure was written by the same two or three GMs every year (we'd switch off games), and 80% of the players who "tried RuneQuest" at the convention typically grabbed a character ignored all the magic and tried to play it like a D&D fighter. I don't know why you'd find it intimidating. I wouldn't find it intimidating if applied to art, food, or much else. But then, until this thread, I've never run across people actually discussing it, not have I found YGMV to be all that helpful either. Exactly, and that is where YGMV helps. When you buy a typical RQ/HQ rulebook, you get some information of various cultures but you do not get the same amount of depth and detail to know the setting "as is". Not all of it. At best you might know enough about one or two of the main cultures to get by, but that are not covered in the core book. YGMV was designed to let them know that okay, and they can just get by with what they know. Okay, prove it. Show me another FRPG out there with the same depth and stuff written about it. Something other than Middle Earth (although that is both better know to to the main stream public and to mainstream FRPGers as it is the basis for D&D), or Tekumel (which has many of the same problem with accessibility).

Definately. A conclusion that I reach long ago a bout CoC, is that Investigators are better off without the skill. The longest lived, most successful Investigator in out local area was a character of mine who had the good fortune to never be in the wrong place at the wrong time to get a look at a Mythos creature (with maybe one exception, but that might have been another character), and who never read and refused to read any of the Mythos books discovered. Basically, Mthos skill costs/limits SAN, and reading the books can give access to spells that can lead to more SAN loss and m ore encounters with life and SAN threatening creatures. I wouldn't say the information was all that useful. All it does is give the main characters in the story just enough information to get them killed, and to be aware that it is going to happen before it does. The short story is actually a good example of why the world of H.p. Lovecraft isn't such a great setting for an RPG. Anyone suspected of having any Mythos knowledge gets hunted down and murdered by the Cthulhu cultists.

The way it usually works is that the rich people either already have a loyalty to the organization when the donate, or don't have one but do not end up with one, but could end up with a tax break.I can think of no examples of someone gaining a loyalty to an organization by giving money to it.

You'd be sure if you looked at the amount of background info to Glorantha compnared any any other RPG out there, especially at the time. As far as fantasy RPGS go only MIddle Earth and perhaps Tekumel are as detailed as Glorantha, if even they are. I don't think you are aware of just how much lore there is on Glorantha compared to other RPGs. Show me one FRPG deity that has an much written about their myths and legends as any one of the major Glorantha deities. Then look at that and remember that there is a whole world with gobs on information on it. So much that Chaosium has, at times, published pages of it over the years as throwaway scraps. Now I run more Arthurian based RPGs (mianly Pendragon) than Glorantha based RPGs, and I'm more familiar with Arthurian literature, of which there is a good amount, and it generally covers more information than what you get in most RPGs, being written over many centuries by many differernt people and still being expanded upon today, yet Glorantha is far more in intimidating. I've sever seen it used as a selling point. Not in any print advertisements, or by sales staff at a store. I've only seen in in print. Either in an official book as both a remember that GMs are free to alter things as they see fit, and to remind them that their game will never be the same as the "offical" one even if they try, since the circumnstances are not identical, or on a site like this to settle any debate over a game rule. Heck Jeff used it on my earlier today, because it didn't like buying up "loyalty" in RQG. Wiw! I've never seen it used that way, and frankly I wouldn't think much of as a selling point. "Here, try this great game, but don't worry because you game may vary" To me that sounds like a pretty left handed compliment. If the game is good why would you want it to vary? Taken out of context it sounds less like a selling point and more like an apology. It's in HeroQuest The earliest I recall the YGMY, which I think at times was Your Glorantha Must Vary, was in Hero Wars. It was latter added to RQ, and to help new GMs as I noted previously as well as to maybe soften some of the changes being made to Glorantha and RQ at around that time. The change from RQ to HW/HQ being one such change, "Elmal' and other changes to the mythos, and then later all the 2nd age stuff introduced by Mongoose. About the only change it didin't smooth over was when Orlanth got a Chaos rune association. I've never see it used as a selling point of any kind, not could I see it being a valid selling point. It has been used mutipletime by Greg and other on forums when one GM dislikes a rule and states he doesn't want to use it, or wants to use a houserule. Needed? I don't think it is needed. Is anything needed? Does it help, yes. As yest in the form that it appears in print and in the proper context. If someone is using the phase out of context, then I don't see how removing the phase would help, as they could just as easily make up something else. If you are familiar with D&D is Rule 0 necessary? That is basically what YGMV means. Only YGMV came out first. And BTW, speaking of Rule 0, try banning the various prestigue classess, races, feats, and items that popped up for 3rd edition in a campaign. Players feel that anything in an official book is something they are entitled to. Oh, if you go back before YGMV, compn aies just told you how to run the game and if you didn't do it the way they instructed you were doing it wrong. Go look old articles from Gary Gygax on AD&D. It does that. But that wouldn't help. Look at it this way: Let's say you are a new GM and you are impressed with Glorantha and would like a run a game set there, but you don't know that much about it, and find it all very intimidating. Sure there could be a two page intrdocution that tires to explain it to you. Or maybe a 200 page introduction. Niether one would be all that conclusive, and the more stuff you need to remember the harder it will be to run. So you decide not to and stick with something easier to understand. YGMV basically tells you that it's okay to give it a go with what you know, and that is is okay if it doesn't match up with the glorantha othe rpeople expect. I think you got you timeline a little skewed. YGMV didn't exist in RuneQuest in any form until. In keeping people from being too intimated to play the game, or from causing strike when they game that someone else runs doesn't match their expectations. What I don't understand is what harm it causes.