soltakss

The Design Mechanism and Alephtar Games have a number of Mythic settings, including Mythic Britain, Mythic Constantinople, Wind on the Steppes (BRP Steppe Nomads), Merrie England (RQ/BRP/Revolution), Stupor Mundi (BRP Medieval Southern Europe) and Crusaders of the Amber Coast (BRP Medieval Northern Europe).

Many of these can be used for a more traditional Medieval-style game that is compatible enough to RQG to be used with whichever rules you prefer.

I don't know about the Western Marches, but Prax is a perfect Sandbox setting.

You have Borderlands, which is a localised Sandbox, then a number of scenario packs written for Prax in RQ3, plus various locales written up across a number of fanzines. So, if you have those then you have a ready-made Sandbox.

Without them, you have maps with various places that you can use as a Sandbox and make everything up yourself.

We use M, as used in Mythic Russia.

For us, the idea of the Mastery at the end just makes sense. So, a skill of 5M2 means "Your skill is 5 but you have 2 Masteries" and could be written as 5MM.

For me, I like the idea that Lunars brought Gin to Sartar, as was described back in the day. 

In my Glorantha, Aldryami have a lot of alcoholic drinks made from various plants.

Fermented Sap - Birch, Maple and other trees have sap that can be tapped, using spikes driven unto the trunks and collected in flasks, the sap can be fermented into a strong and sweet drink

Berry Wines - All kinds of berries can be turned into wines that have varying strength

Cactus Drinks - The cacti of Prax can be used to make very strong drink with hallucinogenic properties

15 hours ago, EpicureanDM said:

For the veterans, was this sort of thing common in past RQ games? How many groups reached this level of play? To me, it looks like people discussing high-level D&D play: often theorized, rarely practiced.

Investing 18 POW on Enchantments? Happened a lot in our RQ3 and River Voices Campaigns. 

Sometimes they used it for Special Effects. Derak the Dark Troll was turned into a Living Lead Skeleton in our shared RQ2/RQ3 game, so he enchanted three Wraiths into his skeleton, with an Area Enchantment limiting them to the skeleton, so they constantly whirled around inside him, just to intimidate opponents. I think that cost 10 POW.

On 3/6/2019 at 7:41 PM, EpicureanDM said:

Thanks for sharing your experiences from the table, Ultor. Did you throw Small and Medium elementals or spirits at your party before they graduated to Rune Level? If so, can you share what the relative strengths were of each side? Any disasters or near-TPKs?

Elementals can be devastating. The above use RQ2 Elementals, as I can't remember the differences between RQ2 and RQG Elementals.

A Shade with a high POW can Demoralise a whole party, if you are lucky, sometimes taking them out completely. Same with a Lune (Befuddle).

A strong Gnome can break the legs of all the party members, if they are close together and standing on earth. It can also be used to undermine the foundations of a building or move through the earth.

A Salamander uses Heatshock that can kill weaker PCs. It is good for the initial attack, but then has to be moved out and moved back in to Heatshock again.

Undines are less effective in combat, as it takes a while for them to drown PCs and they can be attacked while doing so, making it unlikely they will last long enough to drown a PC.

Sylphs are good for flying and can through a PC up in the air and cause Falling damage, but are unlikely to cause a TPK unless you are on the edge of a cliff.

I can't remember what Selenes do, but they might have drained fatigue, so were not really combat-oriented.

For us, Shades, Lunes, Gnomes and Salamanders were dangerous in combat.

On 3/4/2019 at 9:45 PM, g33k said:

On 3/4/2019 at 9:16 PM, EpicureanDM said:

So who were the powergamin' RQ ninjas who were running epic battles with spirits flying all over the place?!

How 'bout @soltakss's River Voices campaign?

https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/7919-our-runequest-gloranthan-campaign-the-river-voices-legend-of-the-arganauts-has-come-to-an-end/?tab=comments#comment-111784

https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/8098-the-tale-of-ambassador-king-emperor-mello/?tab=comments#comment-114684

Not much spirit combat in the game, to be honest. We had a Shaman, but rounds and rounds of Spirit Combat not involving anyone else was boring, so we rarely had it.

Shan Agar, our Shaman, used Spirits as offensive shields, just to take opponents out of combat, or as things to confuse the enemy. 

On 3/4/2019 at 5:12 PM, EpicureanDM said:

How did old RQ2/3 GMs go about introducing spirit combat to their games?

In RQ2, Spirit Combat was deadly, as 0 POW meant permadeath. Experienced Rune Levels would cast Spirit Block and run away when confronted with a fairly powerful spirit.

In RQ3, you lost Magic Points, same as in RQG, so it wasn't as deadly.

Shamans can be powerful, as they can unleash a host of spirits to attack. 

We generally played that Spirit Combat was an Action, so you could attack/parry/cast a spell/engage in spirit combat.

On 3/5/2019 at 6:00 AM, Julian Lord said:

That wasn't my point -- and Voriof is Storm, not Earth, and so has nothing much to do with those triads -- my point was that if you have Voria, the cult for girls, you need Voriof, the cult for boys.

I think that far too much is made of Storm Tribe and Earth Tribe. Cults such as Voriof and Barntar belong to both Tribes.

What I would do is to only use Difficulties when they are really important.

So, for example, why would you use a Hard Difficulty in HeroQuest? As HeroQuest 2 assigns ratings based on the narrative, something is only Hard if you say its Hard. By not saying it is Hard, you avoid the problem that the Helerite often fails. 

Personally, I have no sympathy for Hero Point Hoarders, the mechanic is there to allow Hero Points to be spent, if the Helerite chooses not to spend Hero Points and would prefer to fail very often, then tough.

1 hour ago, The God Learner said:

Does it count as myth if it happened after Dawn?

Absolutely, yes.

Pavis has Myths but only existed after the Dawn, same for the most of the Lunar deities. 

In my Glorantha, each mythical event makes a mark on God Time and it is that mark that can be accessed by HeroQuestors and Initiates. 

So, for me, events that happened after the Dawn but which form part of a God Quest are indelibly marked on the God Plane. Things like the Sunstop, Battle of day and Night, Battle of Castle Blue and Nights of Terror are all massive God Time events that happened within Time, as they gouged out parts of the God Plane and made them their own.

42 minutes ago, womble said:

As I remember RQ3's Multispell, it specifically treated Disruption as separate spells with separate rolls for location affected, which makes the difference explicitly stated in RQG that multispelled Disruptions stack their damage into one location a significant one.

RQ3 did not have RQ2's Multispell, instead it was a sorcery skill. RQ3 did not have an equivalent of RQ2 Multispell.

3 hours ago, Crel said:

And this inadvertently highlights another great point--how and why particular things are dangerous changes a lot. I never played a game high "level" enough to worry about Multispell 4, so that much Disrupt wasn't something in my mind!

Soltak Stormspear was blown apart many a time by Multispell III Disrupt barrages, normally by two or 3 Priests targeting him at the same time.  RQG makes Multispell a stackable spell, which makes sense, so you can have higher Multispell than 3.

16 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

The "Dark Earth" goddesses are usually not associated with fertility, and don't seem to have children in at least the most generic lineage trees (for example the God Learnerish genealogies in the Sourcebook). I seem to remember that Ty Kora Tek has at the very least a husband associated with Darkness, though. And Maran Gor has her incarnation in the form of Sorana Tor (right? I'm not misreading that relation?) who does spawn a dynasty in Tarsh.

Maran Gor was the mother of Quakebeasts, at one time, so she was not infertile.

I hadn't thought about Sorana Tor, as it is unclear about where she comes from. A child of Maran Gor makes as much sense as anything.

19 hours ago, Crel said:

The big danger of Disrupt is that it ignores armor.

The big danger of Disrupt is that Multispell allows it to do more damage to a single location, so Disrupt with Multispell 4 does 5D3 damage, enough to shatter most limbs.

22 hours ago, womble said:

Another difference between previous RQs and RQG is the duration of Spirit Magic. It's dropped from 5 minutes (25 or 30 rounds) to 2 (10 rounds), which makes the long buff sequence and pre-combat maneuver RHW describes for Korgo and his chums impracticable.

It was 10 rounds in RQ2 and we buffed up anyway. If it takes 3 rounds to buff up, then some spells will last for 7 rounds of combat, more than enough, normally, to get the benefit.

2 hours ago, Aprewett said:

How do I rule on this situation.

Success but the ref.

Failure by the player, bumped up by mastery, to a success.

How do a work out highest dice roll on a tie with the degree of success/failure, from a bump up/down?

Highest roll wins on a tie, same as normal.

18 minutes ago, womble said:

4 hours ago, Jeff said:

Heroquesting will likely be about a third of the GM Sourcebook. 

Woohoo! Hurrah! Caloo! Calay!

Ditto.

We have been waiting for a full treatment of HeroQuesting for so long, I am pleased to see that it is coming.

4 hours ago, Jeff said:

Caladraland & Aurelion

Or Caladra & Aurelion, unless you are including a full writeup of Caladraland as well, which would be great

4 hours ago, Jeff said:

I am still debating about whether to add Horned Man, Triolina, Subere, Wachaza, and Voria to the list. 

I would like to see Horned Man, Subere, and Voria, but not so sure about Triolina and Wachaza, as they have limited use outside a Seas campaign.

11 minutes ago, Joerg said:

While it may be nitpicking, but I am not quite convinced that it was Gbaji who cursed Kyger Litor - that was Nysalor, the Bright One, all on his own, without any need for Chaos.

Oh, I agree.

Trolls, however, think that it is Gbaji, the Deceiver. Arkat was a Troll who fought and destroyed Gbaji the Deceiver, to avenge the wound caused to Korasting. Gbaji, the Deceiver, seemed weak and innocent, so the Dark Eater consumed him, but then he revealed his true nature and burned/ate his way out through Korasting.

We think of Gbaji and being Chaotic and Nysalor as being bright and good, with the Dark/Light side of Illumination. For trolls, however, they are one and the same, for they are but two masks for the same being. 

35 minutes ago, svensson said:

Monster Man? Don't know that one.

It was in the Lodril writeup in White Wolf magazine, I think. I liked the writeup, but some people didn't. 

Lodril Priests can sacrifice to Monster Man if the peasants are being oppressed. Once Monster Man is invoked, his POW builds up as more and more peasants join him/sacrifice to him, until he becomes a demigod who challenges the Lords of Dara Happa in a Peasant's Revolt. When he is no longer needed, he disappears.

23 minutes ago, svensson said:

Is there a difference between the Glorantha Sourcebook and the Guide to Glorantha two volume set? I glanced at the guide at my FLGS, but upon seeing the same artwork repeated I just assumed I had the information in the larger set.

The Gloranthan Sourcebook is for 13th Age Glorantha and is the introduction to Glorantha for that. For us old fogeys, it is mostly a rehash of previous material, with a fair amount of new stuff, but for people new to Glorantha it is far more useful and approachable than the Guide to Glorantha.

I'd recommend getting the Gloranthan Sourcebook first and then, if you like what you see and want to know more about Glorantha, get the Guide to Glorantha.

14 hours ago, RHW said:

No takers?

Soltak Stormspear

Cults: High Priest/Rune Lord of Orlanth Adventurous, Associate Priest of Storm Bull, Hunter, Issaries, Argan Argar, Humakt, Initiate Sister Cat, Illuminated

STR 16 CON 16 SIZ 16 INT 11 POW 14 DEX 22 CHA 21

RH Bastard Sword (1D10 + 2 + 1D4) SR 4 255%/40% (30) 
LH Bastard Sword (1D10 + 1 + 1D4) SR 4 135%/45% (25) 
RH Long Spear (1D8 + 1 + 1D4) SR 3 155%/80% 
LH Dagger (1D4 + 2) SR 6 95%/115% (30) 
RH Whip (1D4) SR 0 85% 
Medium Shield (1D6 + 1D4) SR 5 40%/195% 
Quarterstaff (1D8 + 1D4) SR 2 90%/95% 
Self Bow (1D6 + 1) 135% 
Thrown Rock (1D4) 100% 
Wind Hammer (4D6) 110% 

Skills: Defence 95%, Evaluate Treasure 100%, First Aid 75%, Treat Disease 35%, Treat Poison 65%, Disguise 50%, Map Making 90%, Hide Item 90%, Pick Locks 105%, Set/Disarm Traps 100%, Climbing 110%(+20%), Jumping 115%, Riding 95% (+10%), Swimming 100% (+10%), Rowing 80%, Peaceful Cut 105%, Carting 55%, Listen 210%, Spot Hidden Items 135%, Spot Trap 110%, Sense Chaos 110%, Improved Defence 105%, Improved Parry 30%, Hide in Cover 125%, Move Quietly 85%, Camouflage 60%, Oratory 70%, Bargaining 95%, Fly 35%

Languages (Speak/RW): Sartarite 105%/90%, Stormspeech 95%/90%, Darktongue 90%/90%, Tradetalk 90%/90%, Beastspeech 80%, Lunar 45%, Kersen 15%, Feline Speech 10%

Alchemy Skills: (Gained on a HeroQuest to rescue a healer Heroine) Healing Potion 20, POW Restoring Potion 15, Poison Gas Antidote 21, Scorpion Venom Antidote 21, Spider Venom Antidote 21, Wyvern Venom Antidote 21, Herbal Poison Antidote 21, Mineral Poison Antidote 21

Battle Magic: (Soltak) Countermagic 9, Demoralise, Disruption, (Stormpuss) Dispel Magic 9, Healing 6, (Spirit 1) Befuddle, Multimissile 4, Detect Spirit, (Spirit 2) Strength, Mobility Fanaticism 3, Speedart, Extinguish, Darkwall, (Spirit 4) Farsee, (Spirit 5) Detection Blank 9, (Spirit 6) Detect Life, Glue 5, (Spirit 7) Detect Magic, Detect Enemies, Firearrow, Vigour, Mindspeech, Xenohealing 3, (Not in Mind) Bladesharp 4, Repair, Coordination, Fireblade, Food Song, Ironhand 4, Lantern 2, Protection 4, Spirit Binding, Spirit Shield 4

Battle Magic Matrices: Shimmer 4, Befuddle, Protection 2, Detect Traps, Jumping 4, Bladesharp 4, Detect Undead, Detect Spirit, Spirit Shield 4, Dispel Magic 2, Repair

Rune Magic: (Soltak) Shield 8, Spell Teaching, Multispell I, Extension 1, Divination 5, Spirit Block 5, Mind Link, Summon Small Sylph, Telekinesis 2, Teleport, Guided Teleport 2, Heal Constitution, Analyse Magic, Lock, Create Market, Spell Trading, Berserker 2, Defend Against Chaos 4, Face Chaos 2, Summon Small Tumbler, Truesword 3, Catseye (One Use), (Stormpuss) Teleport, Telekinesis, Shield 2, (Traded Spells) Shield 8, Defend Against Chaos 2, Telekinesis

Rune Magic Matrices: Flawed Berserker, Truesword, Berserker, Boots 

Special Abilities:

Species Max:  INT 20, POW 23, DEX 23 
Immune to: Detect Gold, Detect Life, Reverse Chaos, Farsee, Detect Detection 
Immune to Chaos Features: Appears Extremely Dangerous, Absorbs 1 pt spells, Reflect up to 4 pt spells 
Take half damage from Fire, Cold, Lightning 
Move 9 
Rage of the Bull (1/season, doubles STR and CON, lasts for 2D3 rounds) 
Double Damage (1/day can specify that a weapon strike doubles penetrating damage, can specify after damage has been rolled) 
Heal Body (1/week can cast Heal Body on self) 
Double Attack (1/day can double attack chance against broo, lasts 15 minutes) 
Double Attack (1/day can double attack chance against scorpion men, lasts 15 minutes) 
Double Damage (1/day can specify that a weapon strike doubles penetrating damage, can specify after damage has been rolled, only works against broos) 
Double Damage (1/day can specify that a weapon strike doubles penetrating damage, can specify after damage has been rolled, only works against scorpionmen) 
Fly (Costs 1 MP per point of SIZ per melee round, allows the user to fly at Move 3 if he makes a Fly roll, user loses all hair, which can never grow back, his skin becomes slick to the touch and glows faintly) 

Magic Items:

Crystals: POW Storage Crystals Total 357, POW Enhancing Crystal 9, POW Enhancing Crystal 4, Flawed Healing Focussing Crystal 6 (Adds 1D4 to Healing), Bladepower Crystal (Allows user to exchange + 10% attack for + 1 damage and vice versa when casting Bladesharp, so Bladesharp 4 can be + 0/+60%, +1/+50%, ..., +6/+0%) 
Fireblade Box (Spirit casts Fireblade on a weapon touched to the box, Spirit POW 14, 12 POW Storage) 
Jewellery (Allows Soltak to interact with elemental creatures without CHA loss) - Lead Earring (Darkness), Aluminium Sharktooth Necklace (Water), Tin Nosering (Air/Storm) 
Aluminium Torc (When put on and POW 12 overcome and 2 POW lost, cannot be taken off, for 10 MPs allows the user to breathe water for 10 rounds) 
Gold Wand with Crystal (On command, glows as daylight, radius 15m) 
Spirit: (INT 6, POW 19) tied to Soltak, comes back even after death, can cast its own spells, acts as an ally or magic spirit (Knows Detect Spirit, Befuddle, Multimissile 4, spells cannot be changed) attuned to POW Enhancing Crystal 4 
Lightning Band (As Plunder, except does 3D6 Lightning damage 1/day, metal armour ineffective, no POW cost) 
Hauberk (Unknown metal, 0 ENC, 8 AP, immune to acid, can be worn while swimming at no penalty) 
Bastard Sword (0 ENC, Iron, +10% Attack/Parry, + 2 Damage, + 3 AP, immune to acid) 
Stormfist's Sword (Iron Bastard Sword, 1 ENC, cannot be damaged, returns to owner's side at dawn each day) 
Elasticated Ring (When put around a weapon, mends 10 AP/round, incompatible with Repair) 
Helmet Plume (4 MP / hour, plume acts as an umbrella) 
Storm Bull's Ear (Base Listen 90%, + 15% Sense Chaos, + 1 CHA) 
Storm Paul's Ear (+ 10% Listen. Sticks out and Looks Silly) 
1 Pair of Slave Bracelets 
Scabbard (For 1 MP, allows user to draw a bastard sword with 2 SR penalty not 5 SR) 
Sword Pendant (Allows wearer to cast Truesword 1/day) 
Quarterstaff (Permanent Crush 1/2 + 5 % Attack, + 1D2 damage) 
Riddle Book (Stormspeech, gives + 5 false INT when asking/answering  riddles) 
Small Bronze Horn (0 ENC, when played can be heard up to 25 miles away, at the same volume as nearby) 
Lightning Gauntlet (LH Tin Gauntlet, cannot be removed, POW 10 to attune, user loses 2 POW when attuned, allows user to cast low-power lightning bolts 2^N MPs do (N+1) D3 damage, so 1 MP does 1D3, 2 MP 2D3, 4 MP 3D3, 8 MP 4D3, 16 MP 5D3 and so on, 100% chance to hit, damage is done to location hit unless target fails CONx5 in which case it affects Total Hit Points. When lightning is cast, a loud thunderclap is heard. Lightning will set fire to dry, inflammable materials. If a lightning bolt or thunderbolt is cast at the wearer, he can catch the lightning bolt on DEXx3% and throw it back at DEXx5%, this is a reflex action and does not take an action. The gauntlet does not conduct electricity to the wearer) 
Wind Cloak (Cloak, made from woven shadow cat fur, runes of Storm, Mobility and Mastery on back, takes 1 POW loss to attune. Wearer is immune to any winds, if desired. Cloak billows as if affected by wind, but will not blow away. If the wearer is flying or on a sylph he can use full Defence) 
Storm Sword (Tin Bastard Sword, ENC 1, AP 25, matrix for Bladesharp 4, provides a Wind Blast 1/day STR 50 vs SIZ, success means target is knocked back (50 - SIZ)/5 metres. Casts Dispel Magic 8 with POW 15 at any Protective Chaos Magic it hits) 
Wind Hammer (Iron Throwing Hammer, bursts into flame when thrown, does 4D6 damage on normal hit, 4D6 + 1D8 + 2 on a crush (1/5 chance), 4D6 + 10 on impale (1/10 chance) and 4D6 on critical. Rune Lords start at 90% with Wind Hammer. If used by a Wind Lord, teleports back to hand on impact, match damage vs SIZ for target to fall over, cannot be magically enhanced) 
Gauntlet of Fearlessness (RH Gauntlet, made of unknown metal, 6 fingers on hand, long and curved fingernails, black, overcome 12 POW to attune, lose 3 POW. Wearer defends with species max characteristic when defending fear based spells or effects such as Demoralise, Fear, Fearshock, Terror, Panic, Fear Spirits, Hideous Chaos Features. Wearer defends Rage causing spells or effects at half chance, so Spells such as Fanaticism, Berserker need to overcome 1/2 POW to work, coming out of Fanaticism needs INTx2.5, coming out of Berserker needs INT /2%. Cannot be removed. If removed, hand is permanently skeletal - STR 3 grip, -90% to RH skills, must be mended with Repair not Heal)

Windfoot (Shadow Cat spirit, gained on a HeroQuest, always bound to Soltak, returns after death and can be rebound into a familiar, returns after Soltak has died. When bound into a Shadow Cat, grows wings that are useable after 1 season, can fly, knows Bladesharp 4, Detect Enemies, Detect Life, Detect Magic) 

Notes:

Soltak was born as a woman, Sabrina Spearsister, but was changed physically into a man on a HeroQuest. She asked Orlanth to change her back, but was refused. After this, Soltak has had a hatred of his new body and has sought to change it, so he has replaced his ears, eyes, penis (but that was cursed, so he changed it back as he didn't want to rape women), lost all his hair, gained a furry blue skin and casts no shadow. People think this is strange, but he just shrugs. What he wants is to return to his original female form, otherwise the body is as alien to him in a normal form as it is in its present form.

Soltak became Illuminated on a HeroQuest, having answered no riddles, and learned riddles on meeting Nysalor on the HeroPlane. He joined Humakt because he wanted Humakt's Iron Will to counter the freedom gained through Illumination. He joined Issaries because he gained a number of taverns on a mission. He joined Storm Bull to better kill chaos. He joined Hunter and Sister Cat (Yinkin) on HeroQuests. Among his many achievements, he gained partial control of Duck Pond and created a temple based around the Orlanth Hill there, he became a member of Stormfist's Honour Guard, Stormfist being an Orlanthi Hero who lives within a Stormcloud,  and left his shadow behind when he gained one of Stormfist's Swords.

Soltak has an abiding hatred of anything chaotic and almost killed himself when he became Illuminated, but decided that his honour was more powerful than the chance of becoming chaotic. He owns a number of taverns, butcher's shops, villas and farms, all gained on scenarios.

He is based in Duck Pond and has become the High Priest of a Temple there, deep within the Upland marsh, which he uses to harry the Lunars in Sartar.

Soltak has many other minor magic items and abilities that are to many to mention.

Congratulations