soltakss

Dorastor, either the official RQ3 Book, or my website. 🙂 Also, Lords of Terror and The Book of Drastic Resolutions, long out of print. I seem to recall reading it somewhere, but can't remember where. Maybe Borderlands, or Elder Secrets. Broo are also in the RQG Bestiary, which is probably now the definitive version.

It's not a lie from where I'm sitting. What are these "awful lot" of RQ3 rules that you're referring to? There's an entire thread (that I started) on "how much RQ3 is in RQG?" and the answer boiled down to "not a lot, and that was a deliberate choice". Here are some examples: RQ2 Battle Magic is called Spirits magic, same as RQ3, and uses POWx5% to cast, same as RQ3. Skills are generally RQ3-like. It has First Aid, Dodge instead of Defense, Lores as RQ3, Craft as RQ3, Devise, Scan and Search, as RQ3 Cloud Cover is as RQ3, Wind Strengths are as RQ3 Experience is more like RQ3 than RQ2 INT/SIZ are as RQ3 not RQ2 Don't forget that a lot of RQ3 rules are essentially the same as RQ2 rules, anyway, so are common between RQ2/3/G.

Yes, but for the cults that were not described in RQ2, we used the RQ3 spells for our RQ2 Campaign.

Wait for Merrie England: Age of Crusade? 🙂 In my opinion, you can treat Greater Angels or Demons in two ways: They are just powerful monsters that can be interacted with and killed, if necessary They are all-powerful beings who cannot be attacked or killed There are good and bad points for both approaches. Treating them just like any other Monster demeans them slightly, which is fine and dandy, but might not get the feel that you are after. treating them as untouchable NPCs is very frustrating for the Players, as they might have come up with a plan to defeat them. What I tend to do is make them really powerful, quite strong and difficult to kill, but not unkillable. However, killing them just banishes them to their Celestial/Infernal home and they can be resummoned again. In order to properly kill a Greater being, you have to travel to its realm and kill it there, or need a special artefact to use to kill it. However, attacking and killing Greater Demons and angels is sort of missing the point. You are better off negotiating with them, making deals with them, gaining information from them, perhaps even worshipping them, or at least gaining them as a Feat which gives you power.

Making more Broo, bringing pain to the world, killing things, spreading disease, befouling nice areas, spoiling wells, that kind of thing. If Broo find feral Broo, i.e. those born without nearby Broo to guide them, then they normally adopt the ferals and bring them up as educated Broo. Don't forget that some people become Broo by various means, for example taking on more Chaos features had a chance of transformation into a Broo. Such Broo might have their own, previous, agenda, which wouldn't be Broo-like. Of course, they'd probably want the above as well. Ralzakark's Castrati Broo have a different agenda as well, to Serve Ralzakark and Bring Honour to Humakt. The Lunars accept Chaos as part of their official doctrine and beliefs, so they accept Broo. Obviously, they don't want Broo kiling things and spreading disease, except when it suits the Lunars. Some Lunars are also Priests of Primal Chaos and have an affinity with Broo. They use them as shock troops, as assassins, to destabilise society and so on. The Broo are willing pawns, as they get to rape and murder without being chased by the authorities. Lunars have some control over Snakepipe Hollow and the Footprint, as they cause Chaos Eruptions from them as distractions in the Hero Wars. As has been mentioned, Praxians sometimes hire Broo mercenaries. There are examples of exotic Broo, for example Bison Broo, Rhino Broo and even an Allosaurus Broo, or was it a Triceratops Broo, I forget. In my Glorantha, Broo normally keep small flocks of goats, to provide breeding stock. They also mate with any flocks or herds they encounter in their travels. Praxian Herd Beasts are good prey, as they are normally in large herds, so are easier to sneak up on and attack. Oh, they normally leave the animals to take care of themselves, as Broo-Birth is more frightening when it apparently spontaneously happens in a herd or flock. They often come back around birthing time to see if they can collect and adopt the young Broo. There is a Cure Broo Birth spell, from Hero Wars, available to a subcult of Chalana Arroy, so that is a possibility. Cure Chaos Wound also cures Broo-Birth, by killing the Broo larva. I would say that farmers would either cure the afflicted animal or kill it. nobody wants to see their animals torn apart from the iside by a baby Broo eating its way out of their body. Sense Chaos normally works, as could a good Animal Lore, if the beast is distressed. They'd have to know what to look for, though. Praxians would probably know the signs, as Broo are fairly commonplace, not sure about Dragon pass, though, except around Chaos Nests. They definitely stealth-fuck and leave, coming back again later. It's a common terror tactic that Broo use. Talk about job satisfaction. Sometimes they do this. Ralzakark has tried to get a Pure-Born Broo, by controlling the mating of Broo with certain animals. He is aware of some prophecies, I think, according to Dorastor or Lords of Terror, so is trying to breed certain Broo for that. Broo can also do this on HeroQuests, go to find a magical beast, mate with it and collect the offspring. For some reason, Broo mating with humans produce animal-headed Broo, often reverting to goat-like Broo. I suppose they could mate with Herd Men , as they are Beasts and could produce a Herd Man Broo that looks human. Certainly a herd Man Broo who mates with Herd Men or Humans could produce more human looking Broo. I'm not sure if they could pass for Human though, as Broo tend to be quite set in their ways. Yes, exactly that. Yes, that happens, Muriah does this in some of the Praxian scenarios, for example. She's a Human Malia Priestess, but commands a clan of Broo. I have had them infecting wells, polluting streams, mass-mating with a whole herd of beasts, but calming them with magic and casting Forget on them afterwards, so they don't know about it. I have also had them capture intelligent NPCs, mate with them in their sleep and release them all healed up, so they didn't know about it, only to explode in a Broo-Birth later on. all this takes some planning and access to specialised magic, though, so probably aren't for normal Broo. Yes, absolutely, animals are expensive and should be cured, if possible. Part of my Cleansed One HeroQuest involves talking with someone infected by Chaos and trying to persuade them to go on the Cleansed One HeroQuest themselves. There is a group of Praxians that can heal Chaos-afflicted beings, possibly the Three Bean circus, but I forget. The Wild Healer of the Rockwoods is a Chalana Arroy Broo who is not Illuminated, as far as I know. It is a special case. However, Ralzakark has some Chalana Arroy Broo who are dedicated Healers and help his Humakti Regiment. They might be female, as Thed does not allow female Broo to worship her, so they need to find another cult. Oh, it makes sense. They feel pain and misery and want everyone else to feel the same pain and misery. They follow the Raped Goddess and the Mad God, every act of mating honours both their Father and Mother Deities, an act of worship each and every time. Not necessarily. Storm Bullers are not stupid and will happily let Chaos Monsters on their side fight Chaos Monsters on the opposing side, as Chaos killing Chaos is always a good thing. They might think about mopping up afterwards. but the Waha Khans normally keep them in check. Especially if the infected beast is male. I think it means that a Broo Mating will produce one Broo offspring. I just assume the Broo larva eats any other before birth. It probably eat any unborn foetus as well. The Broo of the Wastes are quite organised, I think, so many Clans can get together and provide a military unit. They are bought in the same way as anyone else. Someone comes to their representatives, makes an offer and they are told to expect a Broo army at a certain place and time. I am not sure if the Broo Warriors are paid, or whether they serve out of the joy of killing and spreading terror.

We used the cults that were not in RQ2 Cults books. As I recall, we especially liked Second Mouth and Vomit Acid. Was it? I remember some very good scenarios that did not appear in Borderlands, although one appeared in White Dwarf years before. No, it's used for other things as well. The example I gave, with fear/Fearshock/Madness was because they had different effects if you succeeded/Specialied/Criticalled. It wasn't great, but had some good things in it. I liked Her Points, how they did Enchantments, how they did Crafting and adding abilities to weapons, Legendary Abilities and so on. MRQII was a lot better than MRQI, of course. Or even Classic Fantasy, or 13th Age in Glorantha, or 13th Age using D100 a bit like Classic Fantasy. Oh, I don't know, I ran a Campaign in Prax that lasted for 13 years, playing weekly.

Sorry, I was confusing the mountains that Lodril threw up in Pamaltela with Aurelion's Breakwater, conflating Aurelion with Lodril.

I had a plot where the Giants had a Death Cradle, one where a Giant baby was born and waited to sail down the River of Cradles, but it never happened, so they withered and died in the Cradle. If anyone took it down the Zola Fel, it would awaken the souls of those babies that died in the womb, whose mother died before they could give birth, or who died as infants, to rise up and join the Death Cradle. Then, one of our Players told us that his wife was expecting, so I shelved the idea, as I didn't want there to be any possible chance of causing upset. I eventually used it, in a modified form, but without the souls of the Unborn. Similarly, I had a creature that was a swarm of chaos worms, dropping off the Giant Worm in Snakepipe Hollow, but one of the Players said that she had a phobia of swarming things, so I didn't use it again. Some people would have used them again and again, because they knew they would cause offence, but I'm not a dick so wouldn't do that. I can totally see the point of the X-Card and would have it in a Convention Game. In our weekly games, I just steer clear of subjects that might cause problems.

For me, I think we are clear. Aurelion threw up the Breakwater in Pamaltela, to stop a flood of Chaos, this was him demonstrating Earth Powers. Caladra was always the fiery lava pool, the throwing of lava bombs and the lava stream, demonstrating her Fire Powers. When they met in Jrustela, they combined, recognising each other's Powers are being part of the Great Volcano, so Aurelion was the Bodty of the Volcano and Caladra was the Fiery Heart of the Volcano. Personally, I am not at all keen on the idea that Caladra was originally an Earth Deity and Aurelion was a Fire Deity but they swapped powers. There is no evidence, as far as I can see , for that. Also, it is boring - Earth female and Fire Male, just like everywhere else. I like the idea of Earth Male and Fiery Female, as it is interesting and unusual. It depends on how to you look at Deities in general. There is a school of thought that Lodril is Caladra, Aurelion, or they are just Aspects of Lodril, in the same way that Barntar or Vinga are just Aspects of Orlanth. In the same way, Lodril is part of Aether Primolt and Orlanth is just part of Umath. There is another school of thought that the children of deities are deities in their own right and have nothing to do with the powers of their parents. I see it as somewhere in the middle. Deities Devolve, so Primal Deities are all about one thing, by and large, but they Devolve that One Thing to their children, who each concentrate on one Aspect of the One Thing, then they Devolve into children who concentrate on one Aspect of their parent's Aspect and so on. So, Umath devolved into Orlanth who devolved into Urain, or Umath devolved into Vadrus, who devolved into Valind, who devolved into Inora. Where things get complicated is when two deities merge and have children, so the devolving is more complex. So, Umath devolves into Orlanth, Ga devolves into Gata , who devolves into Ernalda, Orlanth/Ernalda devolve into Barntar, who is the combination of Male farmer and Female Earth, in particular Farmers working with the Earth to grow crops. Similarly, Aether Primolt devolves into Lodril, Ga devolves into Gata and Genert, who produce Esrola, Lodril/Esrola produce Caladra, who is Fire Within Earth, and Aurelion, who is Earth Containing Fire. You can trace the mythic origins all the way up the tree and say that Caladra is just part of Aether Primolt, or Barntar is just part of Umath.

Rune magic is different from Spirit magic, isn't it? I'm not good on the actual rules, I've just noticed that discussing spirits versus deities is a topic that pops up with some regularity. RQG has the old RQ2 concept of different levels of Deities, very roughly speaking, So, you have spirit Lords, Heroes, Demigods, deities and Greater Deities, although they are not explicitly defined like that. There was an old Fanzine article about Spirit Lords, which was excellent, basically the idea was of Spirits that were quite powerful, so powerful enough to grant Rune Magic but not powerful or important enough to have fully-fledged cults, so were contacted by Shamans who had loose spirit Cults around them. RQG has examples of these, Frog Woman, River Horse and Black Fang. Spirit Magic is the equivalent of RQ2 Battle Magic and the same as RQ3 Spirit Magic. It is not RQ6/Mythras Spirit Magic, which is a very different thing. So, powerful Spirits can teach Spirit Magic, sometimes standard ones but sometimes cult special Spirit Magic, as well as some Rune Magic, again normally Cult Special magic with some Common Magic. Heroes can normally teach their own special spells and often do so through Sub cults of more important deities, sometimes as Sub cults of several deities. So, Yelmalio and Yerlorna both learn Horse Archery from Kuschile, for example. Hero Wars had the concept of a being being Animist, Theist or Sorcerous, which introduced a lot of problems, in my opinion. The idea of the Three (Four) Worlds colliding was a clumsy one, in my opinion, which didn't really reflect how RQ2/3 Gloranthan Deities worked. I much prefer the idea that every Being from the God Time is just another person, in effect, the same as everyone else from the God Time. What benefits you get from following that Being are based on how you follow the Being. So, a shaman could contact a Being and learn magic from it, as Spirit Magic or Rune Magic, or could set up a Spirit Cult that teaches its followers the same magic; worshippers of a Being in a cult get taught skills, Spirit Magic and Rune Magic; Sorcerers might learn Sorcery Spells from a particular Being, or might listen to the Being's teachings and philosophy and gain insights from that. The difference is in where the spells originate: Spirit Magic is internal to the caster, they are things the caster can learn and use, but all the power comes from the caster. Rune Magic is a part of the Deity's power that has been shared with the worshipper, using it doesn't cost Magic Points, although it does cost Rune Points sacrificed to the Deity. Some of the confusion is caused because most deities or Beings that are contacted for worship grants some Spirit Magic and some Rune Magic. Lay Members can usually learn Spirit Magic, but cannot learn Rune Magic, because Rune Magic is not available to casual members of a cult. Only Initiates and higher can learn Rune Magic, but they can continue to learn Spirit Magic.

I don't think so. Pavis, Big Rubble, Trollpak, Griffin Mountain, Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, Borderlands, Snakepipe Hollow, Apple Lane, plus some more stuff I don't recall off the top of my head. RQ2 had an awful lot of very good Gloranthan material, but so did RQ3. Elder secrets was good, Gods of Glorantha was good, the Praxian/Pavic supplements of Sun County, Strangers in Prax and Shadows on the Borderlands were excellent, even Griffin Island was a good scenario pack and could be used to provide extra info for Griffin Mountain. We used Gods of Glorantha spells in RQ2, before we moved to a single-GM RQ3 Campaign.

You have a greater than 100% at higher levels, so that gives you a higher Special or Critical chance, which is useful for things like Fear/Madness/Fearshock. It's a simple change, but one that I really like. Preference is very personal. Although there are some things in RQG that I would Houserule, perhaps back to RQ2/3 or using other systems, it is, probably, the best version of RQ, in my opinion. I would use Hero Points, though, as I really miss them when playing in Convention RQG games.

I am not sure about the official Chaosium line, we'll have to wait for a new Pavis book for that. My guess is that some Lunars will be killed, especially military and rulers. Some will flee down the Zola Fel to Corflu and travel to the Holy Country, some will flee up the Zola Fel and try getting to Sartar and back to the Lunar Empire, some will just hope for the best and hope that refugees aren't slaughtered and some will flee into the Big Rubble and hide. Certainly, Gim Gim flees into the Big Rubble, as he comes back to fight Argrath. The Praxians probably hate the Pavisites more than they do the Lunars, due to long-held grudges. Storm Bulls might hate the Lunars more, though. In any case, I can see some Lunars paying Newtlings to transport them hidden in boats.

I have heard that and never understood it. Soltak Stormspear rolled up with POW 18 and dumped POW into one-use spells as soon as he joined Orlanth Adventurous, every time he increased his POW. I think he had nearly 10 points of Runemagic before he became a priest, having spent a few points of shield and a Teleport, to save his life. After he became a priest, he got a lot of Runemagic, I'd have to check his character sheet, but he had at least 30 points, probably nearer 50.

Orlanth abducted nymphs, rolled goddesses and so on, until he met Ernalda, then he was enamoured with her. There were occasions where he carried on a-tupping, but they were much rarer.

Yes, I tend to say Clan when I mean Bloodline.

Aurelion has the Earth Rune and Caladra has the Heat Rune (or maybe Fire, I'd prefer Heat). both are children of Lodril and are worshipped together as the Volcano Twins, but neither are Lodril. Female storm Khans could marry a Priest of Caladra & Aurelion, if he followed the Aurelion subcult.

Ah, you've got me there! It could certainly have done with a lookover by someone who knew RQ2 and RQ3 and knew the differences between the rules, to stop, for example, both RQ2 and RQ3 Species Maximums being used in different places. RQG has sold better than any other version of RQ, or so I am led to believe, so it is certainly getting there. The RQG rules are quite serviceable. many of the percieved problems are due to the mix of RQ2 and RQ3-style rules sometimes being done without as much care and attention as might have been. I find that if you look at them with an RQ2 or RQ3 hat on, most of the problems go away, as we solved those issues in both versions, as Players and GMs. Of course, you can port all of the best bits of RQG into RQ3, then you'd end up with something that looks like RQG. Passions came from what Greg Stafford wanted to put into RQ3 but didn't have the space for, or so I am told, so he put them into Pendragon. Some version of Passions were in Griffin Mountain and in Dragonewts, both for RQ2. Personally, I played RQ3 almost as soon as it came out, probably in 1986, having bought it in 1985. I played it, with some RQ2 things, until I started adding bits and bobs from Hero Wars, HeroQuest, Mongoose RQs and RQ6, so it became RQ3+, but still held on to it as my main game system, albeit houseruled. RQG was the closest thing to an official RQ that suited the House Rules that I had been using, so it suited me fine. I am sure that other RQ3 fans would hate some of the things in RQG, though. What people like is very personal to them.

RQG is a good mix of RQ2 and RQ3 rules with some better stuff added on. There is an awful lot of RQ3 rules in RQG, don't believe the lie that it is just RQ2+, it is really RQ2/3+. What extra rules are in RQG? Off the top of my head: Runes are used well Passions are really good The Sacred Time Economy is excellent The Resistance Table is better than before The way that Runemagic and Rune Pools work is really good It is slightly harder to lose a limb in RQG than in RQ2/3 Sorcery is redone, probably better than RQ3 but I am not sure, as I haven't really grasped them and won't until I play a Sorcerer Shamans are a lot better in RQG than in RQ2 /3.

Thanks for the mention. Yes, Land of Ice and Stone is Palaeolithic Southern Europe, but could easily be used for a Mesolithic setting. What I did was keep things very simple. Everyone is a version of Primitive, so I used different types of people, so we have Red Men (Neanderthals), Long Men (Cro Magnon) and Short Men (Modern Humans), each with subtle differences. professions are similarly Primitive in nature. I can see what you are trying to do, but can't really see the point. What I would do, in Mythras, would be to have everyone use similar weapons, or have each Clan have its own weapons. So, one clan might use Spear and have the Keep Distance Special Effect, but another might have Spear with an Impale Special Effect and so on. There are limited weapons, so one clan might use spears, another might use clubs, another the jawbones of wild asses and so on. I am a firm believer in the clans being specialised, as in Raquel Welsh's One Million Years BC. Also, having a limited number of weapons isn't really an issue. You need one weapon to keep things at a distance while you hit them (spears), something to throw at them (thrown spears, bows/arrows, slings) and something to hit them up close (Daggers, hand axes, jawbones of wild asses). Anything else is a luxury and, pretty pointless. Sure, you might have a club or even a mace, although they tend to be neolithic, but what's a club going to do that a hand axe or spear doesn't? As for an Adventurer Kit, I'd include the things that you mentioned, but they would just be equipment. You wouldn't need a separate skill to use them, Survival should be enough to make a fire or do some fishing, or mend a net. Have a look at Land of Ice and Stone, it has damage for Legend, which is pretty close to Mythras. I think I dropped any +1s and ignored any other things. So, a spear is a spear is a spear, whether tipped with stone, bronze or iron. I used self bows, short spears and clubs, I think, from memory. Land of Ice and Stone touches on this as well. Shamans are Wise Ones, who can contact the spirits and bring back some gifts. There are rudimentary deities, Great Mother, Moon, Sun and Hunter are the main ones. The stars are the Campfires/Hearths of the Ancestors. All magic is Common Magic, Folk magic in Mythras. No Sorcery, Divine/theistic Magic and no Spirit magic from Mythras/Legend. Why no Spirit Magic? I think that is quite advanced animism and am not convinced that the Palaeolithic people had that kind of knowledge of the Spirit World. What I did was make everyone effective Primitive, but with variations. So, those who live on the shore might use dugout canoes and might be able to fish and swim. Those on the Great Steppe would be good endurance runners and good at making camps and so on. Those living in the great marshes have access to ways of hunting wildfowl and so on. Not all of those ideas are in Land of Ice and Stone, but that's how I'd do them. Scout is fine, as it is a form of hunter who ranges far and wide. I used a form of Merchant that I might have called a Farwalker. Wise Ones are like shamans, but less powerful. Crafters include all kinds of people who make things, for example stone knappers, canoe makers and so on. Pillagers and raiders would tend to be later, in my opinion, as most people are struggling to survive instead of making war on other clans, although you could have a mad Clan who did this. However, the Mesolithic is far less hostile than the Palaeolithic, so maybe they are OK. A Thief is, perhaps, OK, but he would be chased out of so many clans that he might find it hard to survive. In some respects, knowing how to jab fish with spears is just a Survival roll. Knowing how to make a fish trap is a Craft roll and knowing how to go out in a canoe with a net to catch fish is a Craft (Fisher) roll. However, you can use whatever roll suits your PC best. I don't have sails in a Palaeolithic or Mesolithic setting. Dugout canoes are fine, perhaps with outriggers. They are fine for island hopping or going across short stretches. They were enough to reach Australia, for example.

And that, for me, is the problem with BRP-style Super Heroes. You have STR 90, so you can pick up SIZ 78 vehicles. that means that you have a massive damage bonus and can punch through almost anyone in one blow. Spider Man can't do that, yeah, he is strong, but he is not Hulk or Thing strong.

King of Sartar, The Guide to Glorantha, the Red Cow Supplements, The Barbarians Rising series for HeroQuest. At some point, I will try and write up what our PCs did in the Hero Wars, perhaps as a scenario pack, which might give an idea of how such a campaign might work. You can interact with them easily enough. For example, in my last Gloranthan Campaign, which people are probably tired of hearing about, the PCs were River Voices and wanted to marry Zola Fel to a suitable candidate, having done the Yelm-Oslir Quest several times and become the river's husbands, but then the Red Emperor appeared and performed it himself, with the PCs as opponents, they did it from the angle of "We are the Husbands of Zola Fel" and fought him to a stalemate, so he agreed to return in 7 years and marry her, if the PCs had not married her to someone more powerful. They decided that Genert was a more powerful deity, but he was dead, so resolved to bring him back and marry him to the Zola Fel to prevent the Red Emperor her. Now, they had no beef with the Lunars and had helped them before, but were peeved that the Red Emperor muscled in on their territory. As River Voices, they found a Waertagi Dragonship, bigger than any they had seen before, in Hell, when they rode the Cradle down Magasta's Pool, buried in the side of it was a Golden Barge, belonging to an original River Voice, so they tried to bring the ship back and instigated the return of the Sky ship, speaking to Dragons on the way. They resurrected Pavis and drove the Lunars out of Pavis, basically because they were tired of the Lunars arranging marriages on their turf and wanted to stop the Red Goddess from marrying Pavis. They fought the Crimson Bat as it was sent against them, and turned it inside out, freeing a True Dragon in the process, which then rose in the Dragon rise, that wasn't planned, it was a side-effect of killing the Crimson Bat. Mello Yello entered the contest to become King of Dragon Pass and succeeded, with a lot of help from his friends, so they made Harrek Duke of the Upland Marsh, to keep him out of the way, but helped him attack the Lunar Empire. So, they did a lot of the Hero Wars scenarios and events without particularly planning to.

I like to think of it this way. I was brought up in Thatcher's Britain, with the Miners' Strike, Falklands War and so on. as someone living in rural Northamptonshire, I saw about these things on the TV and read about then in the newspapers, but they didn't really impact our lives at all. The same could apply to Sartar during the Hero Wars. Yes, someone heard that a Dragon rose, we all saw the Boat Star reappear, for some reason, the surrounding clans seem to be struggling with the Lunars, but what does all that matter? The Brittlesticks Clan is still trying to steal our orchards, the longhairs are after our sheep and we are trying to grab a prize bull from the Noserings Clan. Ethel Fairhair is still the prized trophy in the Summer Fair and all the boys want to win to spend time with her. Oh, and my cousin's cousin just came from Pavis and said that the Lunars were thrown out and some chap called Argrath is now king. My mate's mate satys the Lunars are really upset, as they were all eaten by the dragon, but I don't believe them, as I've seen a dragon and they couldn't eat an army. The metaplot only affects you if you are doing things that it touches on or are the kind of PCs who want to take part in those events. Some Players like to do that and some don't. There are several ways of doing this: Have the PCs take part in the events and become part of the events. I did this in two of my Campaigns, one where one PC became the King of Greater Balazar and was adopted by the Red Emperor, where the Orlanthi in the party took exception to a jumped-up chap called Argrath and killed him, sending him to a Lunar Hell, and the Troll in the party did the same to Harrek, albeit unintentionally. in the other Campaign, the PCs were determined not to get sucked into the Hero Wars, to the extent that they avoided anything that smacked of the Hero Wars, but they ended up bringing back Orlanth, Pavis, Tada and Genert, then kicked the Lunard out of Prax and Dragon Pass, became Queen of Prax, King of Dragon Pass and, finally, one became the Sun Dragon Emperor of Dara Happa, leaving Argrath crying into his mead, saying "I could have been somebody, if it wasn't for those pesky River Voices". Have the Hero Wars events happen in the background, as news items, or things the PCs see, or have some idea of. Have the campaign concentrate on the things that happen as a result of the Hero Wars events. Lunar refugees escape from Pavis and make their way back to Dragon Pass. Infighting among the clans happens as their leaders vie for favour. Chaos eruptions from Snakepipe Hollow and the Footprint cause problems. Have the campaign pretty much ignore the Hero Wars and concentrate on local Clan issues. All of these work and are all good ways of coping with the Hero Wars. If you are the GM, you have control over what flavour the Campaign takes and what generally happens. If it is a Sandboxy Campaign, the Players take more control and do what they want. If they don't want to play in the Hero Wars, they don;t have to, but can if they want. As a GM, if I think "There's no point playing in Hero Wars Dragon Pass", then there is no point playing in Hero Wars Dragon Pass. If, however, you think of all the opportunities for roleplaying in such a setting, it becomes less daunting. That could work, but most of the Clans of Sartar and Dragon pass are not involved in the Hero Wars. That works as well. I started small. In the First Gloranthan Campaign, I inherited some high level PCs and took them on a journey where they become Kings and Heroes, but they didn't start off as Kings and Heroes, they started as Rune Level Adventurers, trying to make themselves known in the politics of the land. In the Second Gloranthan campaign, they were members of a street gang in Pavis, became Earthkin, then Sun County Militiamen, then River Voices, then Constables of Sun County and Pavis, then Heroes, then Kings and Queens. It was along, involved journey over a very long period in real time, 13 years playing pretty much every week. A lot of their activities were not part of the Metaplot, they only really became involved when they brought back the Cradle, then brought back the Boat Planet. They pretty much lucked into doing the same things that Argrath did, partly due to my conniving and plotting, but partly due to their own decisions. Yes, buying the old RQ2/RQ3, HW and HQ supplements will only enrich your Glorantha. I think the Cults Compendium is one of the best non-RQG Supplements out there and thin k the cults have lasted very well. We did that in our HQ Blue Storm Dancers campaign, that was set in the Far Point. We had a great time, until the Clan Chieftain died and they wanted to bring him back, so roped me into running the Full Lightbringer Quest for them. I think it lasted a year of weekly gaming. The campaign ended when they brought him back, as they thought they couldn't top that. It did nothing with the Hero Wars and was none the worse for that.

Sorry, I am mainly talking about the British Isles, which were heavily forested and were deforested quite early in many places. Places such as Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley had very different experiences. It's more a case of "Why bother?" Sure, you could clear massive expanses of forest, but that would require a lot of effort and would destroy a good resource. If you couldn't plough the heavy soil, then why deforest? You would be better off hunting in the forest, using it for firewood and materials, as well as picking nuts/fruit/mushrooms/etc than clearing it for farming.

Exactly. In English, sodomy and buggery are mostly the same, but buggery and bestiality can be the same. There's a lot of overlap. Where else could we have a serious discussion about buggery, sodomy and bestiality in all seriousness in a RPG context?