soltakss

Now, that makes a lot of sense. It isn't far off the way I do it anyway, so that makes me feel a lot better. Thanks for the summary, that is very helpful.

Pretty much, unless he shoots his bow while on guard duty, of course.

Very nice thanks. I don't think we met, unless your real name isn't PSullie, of course. I ran a game, with 2 kids below 10, played a Cthulhu Hack game that I enjoyed, went to Greg's Seminar and did not have any time where I thought "Oh no, why am I here ...". Bit of a nightmare getting back, but booking a local hotel seems to be the way forward in future.

Good to hear. Have you heard about Runemasters? We are a bunch of Gloranthan GMs who commit to running at least one Gloranthan game at a convention under the Runemasters brand. It's just to get more Gloranthan gaming at conventions. Send me a PM if you are interested in knowing more about this.

If you like super gross, there are lots of things you can do with insects. Some wasps bury their eggs in hosts, for the larvae to eat their way out, so you could have those in a trap, some even try to take control of their hosts. Insect swarms are always good, the classic "Wasp Nest hanging on a rope that gets cut by a trap" is always good for a laugh, especially in a tight tunnel where you cannot just run away, a sliding door containing an ant swarm is a good one as well, as the PCs get covered in a blanket of biting ants. If you have ever watched I'm a Celebrity Get me Out of Here, you will have seen the various challenges involving bugs, just multiply those by a hundred and you get the idea of what trolls can do. What I sometimes do is to check out insects on Wikipedia, or something, find out what they do and work out the game equivalent of the standard and giant-sized insects. Aldryami do similar things with plants in the Garden. They are nowhere near as inventive or developed as the Poisonthorn or Hellwood Aldryami of Dorastor, but still have some cool stuff. Dwarves are far more boring. They rely on pits, falling blocks of masonry, crossbow bolts fired out of walls and the occasional poison gas trap. One of our PCs was a Great Troll called Masher, he was in a dwarven complex when they set off a trap and a block of stone slid down to block their exit, Masher being Masher rushed forward and grabbed the bottom of this 20 tonne slab of rock, trying to hold it up, but all that happened was that it hoit the stone floor with a satisfying Splat, leaving Masher with two bloody stumps.

If you were at Dragonmeet yesterday, you might have had the chance to see Martin's book. It is a very nice piece of work. The layout is so clean, it makes everything look sharp. The illustrations are superb, the descriptions informative and the whole things feels as though it has been put together with care, rather than being a mishmash of various people's work put together. It is also a brick, a huge thick book, thicker than one of the Guides to Glorantha. The white cover really adds to the loom and feel, as that aesthetic carries through the whole book. I was seriously impressed. Shame I didn't get to meet Martin, maybe I will get the chance at another Convention.

Many traps are common. A pit trap can be made by almost anyone and works against almost anybody. What would trolls do differently? I think they'd use their special stuff. One of their special stuff is Insects and other critters. So, you put spikes in a pit trap with centipede venom on the spikes, you put some poisonous biting insects at the bottom of the pit and wait for people to fall in, you hang poisonous giant insects above a door and have them fall on people, you use sticky gunk from a Giant Slug as a glue to slow people down, you use a spider web to trap people, that kind of thing. There's also the story of the Yelmalians who went on patrol in the Big Rubble. They saw a trollkin peeking out of a ruin and sent a couple of guards to sort it out, but none returned, then they sent half the patrol out and none returned, sending back for reinforcements, they sent out 10 men, then 20, then a hundred, but none returned. Finally, they saw a wounded Yemlalian crawl out of the ruin, shouting "It's a trap - There are two of them".

How do they work in HQ2, then? I have looked through the original HQ2 book in the past, but couldn't see how Extended Contests had changed. HQ2 Glorantha just confused the hell out of me and I could not understand pretty much anything it said. Not at all - I can usually tell ...

Oh, I don't limit augments in HeroQuest. Originally, in HeroQuest 1, there was a problem where the PCs had too many skills. So, you took the Warrior Keyword and expanded it to 5 or 6 skills, then could augment with those skills. I don;t do that, instead they get a Warrior skill and can have Breakouts from that, they can use the Warrior skill to augment. So, someone with SlimeSlicer 5M (Cut through Chaos +1, God-Forged +1) and Warrior 1M (Sword +1, Broo Tactics =1, Bladesharp +1) could use his Warrior 4M when fighting Broos and using Bladesharp, giving him a +2 Augment, increasing SlimeSlicer to 7M. That's probably not how you do it in the rules, but that's how I play it. Where other PCs augment, it gets a little bit more complex. The standard rule is "One thing, one augment", so each Skill is One Thing and each PC is One Thing. However, Magic can be used to augment slightly differently. So, a PC with Death 9M (Truesword +1) could cast it on SlimeSlicer, giving a +3 Augment. A Donandar Cultist with Drum 1M (Inspire Comrades +1) and Good Voice 2M (Battle Song +1, Rouse Anger +1) could use Drum 2M to augment Good Voice 4M, increasing to 6M, providing a +2 Augment to SlimeSlicer. All together, the 2 other PCs add a +5 Augment, increasing SlimeSlicer to 12M.

I can see some of them making sense, for example Bladesharp and Fireblade, but perhaps the skill-boost of Bladesharp might work with the Firebladed weapon. Countermagic/Protection.Shimmer make no real sense to me, to be honest. Speedart/Firearrow probably should behave as Bladesharp/Fireblade if you allowed that combination. Firearrow/Multimissile might make the arrow burn but the multimissiles as normal arrows, again I have no real problem with that. Yelorna has the Shooting Star spell that provides a Firearrow/Multimissile combination where the Multimissiles have Firearrow, but that is fine as it is a Runespell, but I wouldn't want that to be available as a Spirit Magic option, as it devalues the Runespell.

Troll Wind Lords would probably like that Maul. But, it is a good point. It makes no sense for a bunch of trolls, that you have killed, to have a +10% Sword, where a +10% Maul would make more sense. Sure, you could throw it away, or you could go to the local market and swap the +10% Maul for a +10% Bastard Sword that a troll Rune Lord has got. Neither of you ask any difficult questions about where they got the weapons and everyone walks away happy. Alternatively, you just give those spare magic items to your cult, who give them out to people who can use them, lock them away in a vault or go down to the market and swap with other cults doing the same thing.

And they would have succeeded, if it wan't for those pesky PCs.

An argument can be made that Argrath gained some of his Draconic knowledge when he stayed in Pavis before its liberation. He could then go and look for the EWF Banner, cause Dragonrise, gain the Dragonteeth Warriors and so on. Possibly. I am sure that Pavis cultists will argue that they made Argrath, leaving aside the White Bull Society, as that is just nomad bull. It makes more sense that Argrath used to live in Pavis, had a lot of connections there and that the Lunars in Pavis were cut off by a long supply line through Prax or by the recently-established Lunar Holy Country possessions. I tend to think that Pavis was the easiest place to liberate and, with the Red Goddess courting Pavis as a husband, that gave him a HeroQuest that he could interfere with to break the Lunar influence. Breaking that courtship undermined the Lunars, allowing a rebellion to start and kicking the Lunars out. I like to think the Trolls were involved as well.

There may well be hidden EWF schools in Pavis, long-forgotten by all but a small number of Pavic Survivors. Don't forget that Pavis was under Troll domination for centuries and only recently opened up. Those who stayed in Pavis often went underground and survived as isolated pockets of people, many dies out, but some survived. One of the best things about a Pavis campaign, in my opinion, is to piece these together and tease out the forgotten magic/lore. So, a clan might have some EWF knowledge, but it just manifests as a wyter, or the surviving handful of a Pavic Family can cast a Draconic spell, or knows a story about a White Dragon.

Initiation can be difficult. Some people like their PCs being Initiated into one Cult, others prefer multiple Initiations. I prefer no restrictions, so like my PCs to initiate into multiple cults, where appropriate. As for the Starting Rune Points, my preference would be to allocate them across the cults your PCs is Initiated into. So, a PC belonging to both Orlanth and Donandar could split 3 RPs as Orlanth 3/Donandar 0, Orlanth 2/Donandar 1, Orlanth 1/Donandar 2 or Orlanth 0/Donandar 3. For me, it really makes little difference, except if you are playing a one-shot and, even then, it doesn't really matter. For me, and again I emphasise that my answer is how I play, not how other people should play, being initiated into multiple Cults adds flavour and emphasis to the PC. So, for example, a PC initiated into Orlanth Rex is different to one iniated into Orlanth Adventurous, that is obvious, but two initiates of Orlanth Adventurous have similar goals, cult-wise, so how to differentiate them? Initiating into Orlanth Adventurous and Storm Bull means that you have emphasised the Chaos-killing aspects of Orlanth, whereas initiating into Orlanth Adventurous and Lhankor Mhy means that you have emphasised the Sword Sage part of Lhankhor Mhy. Membership of Cults is not all about the spells and skills they offer. Sure, you can say "Wow, Humakt teaches Bladesharp for free, I'll join", which can be a minimaxing aspect, but many people in poorer parts of the world, even in poorer parts of the USA, join the military for the wage and education provided, which is the same thing for me. A Cult's spells and skills are part of the recruitment spiel, if you join Cults as just something to belong to. The Orlanthi idea of undergoing an Initiation HeroQuest and choosing a Cult as part of that is a deeper thing, as that is what your soul reveals to you. In essence you are showing what your Inner Self is. Similarly, Mello Yello's longing to belong to Yelmalio isn't because it has big spears, shiny armour and Sunbright, but because Yelmalio calls to him and he knows that, in his heart of hearts, he is a Yelmalian.

It came from the Alien Nation film, but "Your Mother mates out of season" works as an insult for many Hsunchen.

Nope, it was a campaign, made up of scenarios, each Station was a Scenario and consisted of a lot of conflict, trouble, friend-making, enemy-making and so on.

I've used the +n Sword in RuneQuest and it works really well. Basically the sword is enchanted with a Bladesharp N permanent effect, that is compatible with Bladesharp and other weapon-enhancing spells. So, a +2 Broadsword would do 1D8+3 and have +10% to hit, RQ2 Truesword would double rolled damage, so rolling 5 gives 8, doubled to 11 (max sword damage), but RQ3 Truesword would do 2D8+6 damage. SlimeSlicer was a +4 Bastard Sword that did double penetrating damage against Chaos, in RQ2, so it did 1D10+5 damage, RQ2 Truesword meant the damage was doubled, up to 15, so rolling anything higher than 2 meant it did 15 damage, so everyone said it was too powerful, but nobody wanted it removed from the game.

To be honest, I have never played HQ2, or HQG. HQ2 confused me and HQG, which was meant to make it simpler, confused me even more. I think I'm easily confused.

Yes, exactly, a Long Contest, I like that term. It suits things like a long seduction, or political jockeying, something that has a series of events that build up to a conclusion.

Mongoose tried it, but it never really got anywhere. It would be interesting to see how this could work.

Jeff's a pussycat really, I'm sure he won't mind.

Threads like this make me wonder if I'll ever care!

Unless you are a Wind Lord who has challenged a Fire/Sky Priest to a Riddling Contest, you'd have to kill yourself, then your opponent. Soltak StormSpear used to love asking Yelmalians Nysalor Riddles as part of the Orlanth-Yelmite Riddling Contest.

Exactly. I can do anything I need with HeroQuest without Extended Contests and haven't used them for years. In fact, I ran a LightBringer Quest for around a year using HeroQuest 1 with no Extended Contests, traipsing through Hell.