soltakss

In our RQ2 game, one of the PCs had a set of Power Arrows, which bumped the Level of Success up one level, i.e. from a Failure to a Success, Success to Critical and Critical to a Special Critical, which did Impaling damage direct, ignoring armour. For that reason, I have always split up Impaling damage from Critical damage, so in my games, a special does and Impale, a Critical does normal damage but ignores armour and a Special Critical does Impaling/Crushing/Slashing damage but ignoring armour. 

This doesn't relate to the exact rule as written, but is our in-game rationale.

16 hours ago, womble said:

Why do you need the extra MP to break the Countermagic? There are already 13 MPs-worth of Penetration (2 from the Rune Spell and 11 in the additional MP) in that spell, aren't there?

We played that the Rune Spell is a package, so the Heal Wound Runespell is a 1 point spell that contains the MPs within it. Magic Points used to boost a spell go outside the Package and act to boost the spell's strength.

Sure, why not?

In the HeroQuest game, I normally have a HeroQuest ability with breakouts fir the HeroQuests, or HeroQuests as abilities with Breakouts for particular things.

In RQG, it looks as though you get a HeroQuest character sheet that records how much you have got in HeroQuesting. A HeroQuest Rune or Ability makes sense in that context.

On 10/21/2018 at 10:43 PM, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

So if another PC needs a Heal Wound urgently I have to:

• move to their position (round 1)
• Cast Heal Wound, say with 10 MPs, on SR 11 of round 2?

Even if I can move there in (say) 6 strike ranks I can't cast the Heal Wound on Round 1?

Does the MP used on Heal Wound not count as "boosting"? The spell says "The caster must simultaneously spend magic points equal to the points to be healed" which sounds as though they don't count towards the casting time. (Psullie said this above).

The definition of boosting on p248 seems to read that "boosting" is only done to overcome Countermagic etc, similarly for sorcery p387, but the section on Strike Ranks p255 does say that the SR of a spell is DEX SR + additional points of spell + boosting magic points for Spirit Magic (although the Spirit Magic section doesn't mention boosting as the other two do).

EDIT: Just went back and read the discussion in the Rules thread and it does indeed say SR1

We used to play that Rune Spells went off on SR1, including any Magic Points (Temporary POW in RQ2, but Magic Points is a much better term), but any extra Magic Points used to boost the spell added to the SR.

So, casting Heal Wound with 11 MP, to heal an 11 point wound, goes off on SR1, but casting Heal Wound with 11 MP and a further 6 MP, to blast through Countermagic 6, goes off on SR 7.

That's why spells such as Cure Chaos Wound or Cure Ironburn are useful, as they provide all the MPs needed for the Heal Wound.

On 10/21/2018 at 11:24 PM, David Scott said:

They are out there already the 15 volume "Roots of Glorantha" series of unpublished Gloranthan monographs written by Greg Stafford. Each printed volume is approximate100 pages in length were part of the Guide Kickstarter. 

Thanks, not much use to those of us who only buy PDFs though.

In our recent Gloranthan campaign, the Boat Planet was a True Dragonship, a Dragonship made from a True Dragon, so was several miles long. That is probably non-canonical, but our players were awed by it. 

34 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Once you realize that there is no 'good' or 'evil', that all morals are in fact relative, apathy is a natural result.

Nah, once I realise that there is no "good" or "evil", it just means that I can anything I like without impunity.

I think that Dark Walk used to work against darksense as well - Otherwise Orlanth would not have been able to hide from trolls.

46 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Sure - and apart from first contact problems, a species like the one I described above would fit the description when seen in connection to its host organism. It would be tool using (or the space encounter with the armored/upgraded host organism would be impossible), and it would be tool using to communicate with others. It might be possible to break the host organism down to "environmental suit" size, allowing interaction with individuals (or very small collectives) of this species, that would be playable. It wouldn't be any worse than the tripartite symbiotic race encountered by Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn encountered.

Sorry, Joerg, I wasn't commenting on your excellent description, just making a general comment.

Be careful with the Create Shadow and Dark Walk combination, it suffers from the same problems as Mist Cloud. You see a blob of darkness that moves around. Sure, you can't be seen inside the Shadow, but people can see the shadow moving around. I have used Create Shadow to link two areas of shadow, allowing me to move between them with Dark Walk.

Dark Walk is a funny spell, in some ways. "So, I can't be seen when it's dark? But it's dark, so I wouldn't be able to be seen, would I?"

14 hours ago, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

So does the caster have to concentrate to move it? Can they do something else at the same time?

I would say they probably have to concentrate to move it, but could do something else as well, perhaps with an INTx5 Roll.

If the Shadow is like a Shade and has intelligence, the caster could simple give it an order to move to a certain place.

14 hours ago, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

The wording is odd, it says "allows the user to be totally invisible and soundless in darkness and shadow to anyone within range. Blend-in is total". Cults of Prax says the same with the exception that is also says the spell is stackable to 2 points for double duration. The way it reads to me is that is cast on the caster ("the user" but it could possibly be "the target") but makes you invisible and soundless to anyone within 160 metres.

I think we used the "That's silly" rule for that in RQ2 and treated it like Invisibility. 

8 hours ago, AutumnDawn said:

Hi! First time poster and newbie to Glorantha.

I've made or helped make a few different characters and my latest one has Moon as a Primary Rune. Character creation does not allow you to choose this time for a birth date. I see that the week runes for this time are not on the character sheet and figured why this was not on our list of choices. My question is this: what happens to the babies that ARE born during this time? Seems like it could be a very interesting and possibly very dark answer.

There was an article in Different Worlds that gave you a "Lawful feature" if you were born in Sacred Time, basically roll on the Chaos Feature Table, reroll any obvious mutations and that gives you a permanent Blessing.

Now, obviously, that took the game mechanics of the time and used a version of those to give a random Blessing. We can probably do better than that.

I think anyone born during Sacred Time has the chance of having a permanent ability. 

In Revolution d100, it would be easy, as you would just get an Innate Power, however, RQG does not have such a concept.

Sample Abilities:

• Casting a specific Common/Spirit/Battle Magic spell without spending Magic Points (Can't remember the term that RQG uses)
• Never Tire
• Use of a specific skill is always one level of success better than rolled
• Special connection to a specific deity (Maybe automatic Rune Pool = POW)
• Roll on Chaos Feature Table, ignore obvious mutations, don't sense as Chaotic
• Gain a power of a specific animal (E.g. See in the Dark, Track by Scent, Speak to [Beast])

I think there is a difference between alien life and playable intelligent alien life.

Sure, we can have all kinds of alien life, as the equivalent of animals or plants. Why not have something that is just a blob, with no sensory organs and moves by being picked up by another creature? It wouldn't lend itself to be playable.

For me, having an intelligent playable alien means:

• Mobility - It has to be mobile
• Tool Use - It has to be able to use tools
• Sensory - It has to have senses that go beyond touch
• Communication - It has to be able to communicate with its peers

34 minutes ago, Joerg said:

And I thought we wouldn't talk about waste baskets any more...

http://glorantha.temppeli.org/digest/gd5/1997.07/0100.html

Ah, but that is Tolkein's waste paper bin, completely different to Greg's works in progress. 😉

14 hours ago, Thoror said:

About this new topic, I find kind of interesting that Nysalor never seems to do anything evil directly. His followers were the ones who created the plague in the West, or turned into vampires in Tanisor, or "misinterpreted" his philosophy in order to create the Make Me a Duke movement. Just like the Unholy Trio released the Devil into the world after being Illuminated/Occluded by Rashoran.

That is what makes Nysalor so ambiguous; I don't really know if he ever was Gbaji, or if Gbaji was more of a nasty side effect of his/Rashoran's teachings.

He did try to curse the Dragonewts and successfully cursed the Trolls, just because they did not support him. That was definitely Nysalor and not Gbaji.

Maybe it is far too soon, but is there any chance at all of getting PDF copies of the unpublished stuff that Greg Stafford was working on? 

I know that it would take a lot of work to turn them into Stafford Encyclopedia-quality works, but just scanning them and making them available might be possible.

After all, raiding JRR Tolkien's waste paper bin has kept his son in gainful employment for years.

I like the "do not copy" instruction on your copy!

On 10/20/2018 at 10:26 AM, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

Create Fissure (p324) : Are all dimensions multiplied by the number of points in the spell, or just the depth? If you create it underneath a target do you have to overcome their POW or does it just work? Why DEX x 3 rather than Dodge to not fall in?

Dodge is to doge an attack, a DEXx3 is a general balance roll. I would allow anything like Jump, Acrobatics or similar skills to work just as well.

On 10/20/2018 at 10:26 AM, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

Create Shadow (p235): Can it be cast on a target and move with the target (earlier versions were immobile AFAIK, but this version says it has a movement rate of 12 - so how does it move? Or is that a maximum if it is cast on a target?). If One point is enough to allow Dark Walk - does that mean I can cast both and become invisible and soundless for 15 minutes while moving around even in daylight (well there will be a bit of haze)?

I think it has to be commanded by the caster and moves according to the caster's wishes. After all, this is not just a piece of darkness, it is a living shadow.

On 10/20/2018 at 10:26 AM, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

Dark Walk (p235): This is really a range Self spell isn't it? The implication is that it works on the caster. I guess it means that anyone attacking gets -75% to hit etc as per total darkness? Anyone more than 160m away can see the target normally if it's not night?

Why Range Self? I could cast it on someone else 30 yards away.

I think the way that these things work is that the Range is the furthest distance the spell can be cast, but then the spell just works. So, if I cast it on some 160m away, they could move another 100m and still be under the effect of the spell. 

On 10/20/2018 at 10:26 AM, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

Summon Elemental (p342): Can I summon an Elemental directly on someone within Range? Do I need a POW vs POW roll to do so? How much Create Shadow do I need to summon or maintain a darkness elemental in daytime: one pt, two, or more? I'm guessing two from the Create Shadow write up since that blocks daylight on Cave Trolls and Trollkin, or maybe one since that's enough for Dark Walk to work?

You need the element available to summon the elemental. In RQ2, you just needed some of the elemental and could summon it anywhere. In RQ3, the element became the body of the elemental, so you summoned it into the element.

As a GM, I would always ask for a POW vs POW roll if you cast a magical effect on someone, including summoning elementals. However, summoning a Shade a metre away from someone and then moving it to attack is just fine and doesn't need a POW vs POW roll.

I would think that 2 points of Create Shadow is enough to summon a Shade.

Personally, I have never used the BRP Rules, as such, as my main rules.

For years, I have based my game on a heavily-adapted RQ3. Now, I am basing it on an RQG-Revolution hybrid.

Mythras or Legend are better options than BRP, for me, because of the way they handle combat.

The BRP rules were, for me, an uneasy mix of Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu and RQ3, with too many options. I know that some people used it, but it was not easy to write for or GM for.

1 hour ago, g33k said:

Are you the GM, or "Player 2"?

Eternal GM, I am afraid.

Also, please treat the rules as guidelines rather than things that must be slavishly followed.

In my games, Strike Ranks go something like this:

GM: Ok, so we have had the Statement of Intent, lets get to combat.

GM: Strike Rank One, Two, Three, Four

Player 1: Oh, I'm on Strike Rank 3 ...

GM: [Does the combat]

GM: Strike rank Four, Five, the NPCs attack [Does the Combat]

GM: Strike Rank Six, Seven. Eight

Player 2: When does my Befuddle go off? 

GM: What's your DEX SR?

Player 2: What's that?

GM: It's on your character sheet and you've been playing RQ for 20 years

Player 2: Oh, right, it's 3

GM: Then your spell goes off on SR 4

Player 2: OK, I befuddle the NPC that has just attacked, do we take time back

GM: NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Arrrrrgh!

On 10/17/2018 at 6:12 PM, SDLeary said:

And, IIRC, more money that Trif has to pony up.

He's loaded though, he just sells a few trollkin ... 😉

Sure, there are several races of Giants.

• Gonn Orta's lot are True Giants, in my Glorantha. They grow to hundreds of metres in size.
• Lesser Giants are the ones who only grow to around 16m.
• Jolanti are Stone Giants made by Mostali.
• Grey Giants are from Pamaltela, if I remember correctly.

Only Gonn Orta's Giants send Cradles down the Zola Fel. These are the ones who had a war with True Dragons deep in the depths of God Time.

On 10/17/2018 at 6:11 PM, PhilHibbs said:

Splitting off into a new thread in order to avoid topic drift.

I wonder if anyone's figured out what is up with Hardral, Balarzak, and Arkat, all of whom went into Dorastor, and then later on we get Ralzakark.

I just assumed that Greg was as bad as thinking up names as the rest of us.

On 10/18/2018 at 9:08 AM, Harrek said:

I've been reading GtG and ToRM #15 about Tunneled Hills and Plateau of Statues. I'll send my players there and I'd appreciate some help.

Both GtG and ToRM #15 give an overall picture of the place. However, I'm interested if someone has made more precise maps, descriptions of places, session notes etc. about either Tunneled Hills or Plateau of Statues.

The Tunnelled Hills and Plateau of Statues is, for me, almost as big and nasty a Chaos Nest as Dorastor. 

He didn't figure in our campaign, to be honest. I had him as the father of many of the chaos of the area. I saw him as a Fiend/Broo hybrid who could control any creature of Chaos.

We had it as one of the cities of the ancestors of the Oasis Folk. 

So, lots of earth shrines and long-forgotten earth deities. Lots of secrets about the oasis folk just waiting to be discovered. Lots of ogres, scorpionfolk and broos.

On 10/18/2018 at 9:08 AM, Harrek said:

- Whose place was Plateau of Statues? In ToRM #15 there is a description (p.59) about party going in to Plateau of Statues. It's good but what else is there? Any more info would be nice.

In my Glorantha, it was Genert's Palace and the Statues were the servants of Genert, or his enemies, turned to stone.

We had Genert's Hall in the middle of the Plateau of Statues and within that was a giant bed and a throne. The throne contained a Faceless Statue, identical to the one that Pavis found.

The bed was used to resurrect Genert, in our campaign.

On 10/18/2018 at 9:08 AM, Harrek said:

- Weeping Valley seems to be the worst place of Tunneled Hills, what is there and why it is like that?

We had it as the Place of Atrocities, where atrocities had happened again and again. The Atrocities were never described, just hinted at as being so horrible that nobody remembered them.

On 10/18/2018 at 9:08 AM, Harrek said:

- Has someone thought more about Than Ulbar or Only Safe? Maps, description, people of note etc.?

We used the Thanatar Temple at Than Ulbar. I think it had a full temple to Than, Atyar and Thanatar in my game, so three Great Temples in one. It also contained Major Temples to other Chaos Deities, so was a good place for an adventure.

It had the Crystal Skull, which was the head of Tien, which sent anyone who looked at it insane.

It also had the Broo with a Thousand Heads, a Thanatar Hero with 1,000 Thanatar Heads, providing him with as much Divine Magic as I could think of. Basically, he had access to all divine spells. 

I think we had Only Safe as a Storm Bull Great Temple, like the Bull Pen near the Footprint. Storm Bulls used to gather there and then march into the Tunnelled Hills as a great Storm Bull Army, never to return. It was a safe place for the PCs, if they could reach it.

On 10/18/2018 at 9:08 AM, Harrek said:

In our campaign the demon child is The Big Enemy #1, who's going to awake Wakboth again. There is going to be a huge Hero Wars clash between chaos and Pavis/Prax. I have some ideas to my own questions but I'm looking after another perspective and ideas which I could use in the campaign.  

That makes sense, as he is Wakboth's grandchild.

We never got to awaken Wakboth, as our campaign stopped before that, but it was very much on the cards. I planned on having several groups of chaos HeroQuestors each trying to awaken Wakboth, one from the Tunnelled Hills, one from Dorastor, one from the Lunar Empire and one from the Big Rubble, each fighting against each other and trying to get to be the First. If they had worked together, it would have been easier.