soltakss

I'd say this was another one of those places where it depends on where the PC is coming from.

The Young Elementals exist and serve the Red Goddess. Lunar Cults are associated with the Young Elementals, so all Lunar cults can gain powers from them using Rune Magic. Lunar Traditions also get access to the Young Elementals, so Lunar shamans can gain spirits from the Young Elementals and can cast Battle/Common/Folk/Whatever Magic from them. Lunar Sorcery also has access to the Young Elementals and they can use Grimoire Sorcery spells to control/use their powers. 

Don't forget that there isn't a Young Elemental of Storm, so you are restricted to Darkness, Water, Earth and Fire/Sky. However,  you might also be able to control Lunes and Selenes, although not part of the Young Elementals, if you are learning to summon Lunar Elementals, then those should be part of the learning.

Is this available in PDF form?

I have lost my hard copies of this comic, during several house moves. 

It was very atomspheric and the Uleria Temple was very inventive.

On 10/3/2018 at 11:45 PM, Grimmshade said:

It sounds like the soon to arrive, apocalyptic Hero Wars are pretty important. Is there more info about them somewhere? As GM I'd like to prepare for what my PC's are in for.

The best source for the Hero Wars is King of Sartar. The second best source is the Guide to Glorantha.

Unfortunately, neither really is good as a template for scenarios. 

There were a series of supplements for HeroQuest, called Sartar Rising, that looked at some of the events of the Hero Wars and I thought they were pretty good. I used them in my River Voice Campaign that recently finished. However, I had to make a lot of stuff up and fill in a lot of gaps, for the other events. I based them on the information in King of Sartat and Guide to Glorantha.

On 10/1/2018 at 10:06 PM, PhilHibbs said:

Has anyone else noticed that the title on the cover is not centered?

No ...

In my Glorantha, every kind of plant, fruit etc has a deity/spirit that created it or a hero that brought it back from the God Time. Normally, they are descendants of the Grain Goddesses, perhaps through an Elf Hero, Dryad or descendant of Flamal.

As Jeff says, the Grain Goddesses probably have these under an umbrella, perhaps with the individual demigoddesses/Heroes worshipped as sub-cults.

So, you could get cabbage magic that only works on cabbages, or you could get magic that works on lots of different crops, depending on who you sacrifice to.

49 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

Well, they can't be "disbelieved", that is explicit. Illusions have always been temporary reality. That's always been how Gloranthan illusions have worked.

So, an Eurmali who creates as Illusionary Hole to go through a wall actually creates a hole in the wall, then goes through it and then pulls the hole through itself to close it. I like that, from both a Gloranthan and toony viewpoint.

Well, that just ate one of my posts.

On 10/1/2018 at 7:04 PM, jeffjerwin said:

In 1449 Sheng Seleris invaded the Moon and he ruled much of Peloria until the Battle of Kitor in 1460.

I think the campaign between Sheng Seleris and the Red Emperor took a lot longer than that.

On 10/1/2018 at 7:04 PM, jeffjerwin said:

I'm looking for thoughts about the period. His brother is said to have attempted the Ten Tests (Fortunate Succession). It seems that Kazkurtum is used instead of whatever divine name AgartuSay or his Brother (?) chose. Any information on this and the nature of the Celestial Empire - how it supplanted the Lunar Empire for instance - would be appreciated.

Don't forget that Sheng Seleris was a Demigod himself, I seem to remember him being called "Son of the Morning", implying a relationship with Theya, maybe son of the child of Theya, which puts him within 4 generations of an Emperor, Sheng Seleris, Goddess of the Morning, Theya, Yelm. I think that Sheng Seleris put his brother forward as Candidate in the Ten test to rule as a Proxy Emperor in Sheng's place. If his brother was also a son og the Morning, then he would also be within 4 generations of an Emperor and would qualify. The Red Emperor HeroQuested as Basko to defeat the Red Emperor's brother and the other candidates.

In my opinion, Sheng Seleris was trying to reimpose the mythical "Horse Nomads Ruling Peloria" event, so was effectively a HeroQuest, or series of HeroQuests to that end. He was within 4 generations of an Emperor, invoked the name of an Emperor (Kazkurtum was an Emperor of Dara Happa) and wrestled with the Red Emperor to steal some of his Rulership Power. He then performed a series of HeroQuests, first to build his powers, then to kill the Red Emperor and invade the Red Moon and finally to rule over the Lunar Empire. He probably did some of it while off in Kralorela, Teshnos, the Wastelands of Prax, but the History of the Wanes doesn't care about those places and did not mention them.

The Red Emperor was killed and then came back, but lived in hiding, while he fathered Hon Eel and Yara Aranis, killed Sheng Seleris' brother and slowly built up his power again. 

The whole Sheng Seleris vs the Red Emperor story is a series of Strikes and Counterstrikes, with a lot of power-building in the meantime.

Krarsht has Assassins, Black Fang is a cult of Assassins, Blue Moon had Assassins but I can't think of any more.

We played Humakti Assassins in Balazar, in RQ2 days. We were always honourable, generally didn't ambush or use poison, but we kiled people for money. Humakt is the god of death and killing people, after all.

We always played that heal Wound only healed a single wound. Similarly, Heal only affected a single wound, unless Multispelled.

14 minutes ago, styopa said:

Is that your ruling, or in the rules m

Divine illusions ARE tangible, if temporary things.  But otherwise, it seems odd that illusions which are by their nature "trickery," would affect the caster.

If course they would affect the caster, otherwise how would the caster know where they were or what they were doing? The difference being, the Caster knows they are illusions and other people don't.

7 hours ago, Joerg said:

You'll discover the disadvantages of playing a centaur as soon as you have any inside scenes in your adventure. Your centaur player better had a sidekick for such situations.

Or a block and tackle, as my Centaur PC used to carry with him at all times.

On 10/5/2018 at 1:57 PM, DeathFromAbove said:

I come from the Harnmaster system, where every roll divisible by 5 is a critical success/failure, and I love this mechanic, as it is simple, and come into play just enough.

I was wondering if the success degree mechanics for the Runequest is fast enough to be used on the table.

the 5%/20% thershold for critical success/special success is easy to handle?

Anyone adopted other methods?

For Mythras/Legend, I just use the tens part of the skill as the Critical chance, makes it easy and saves having to round up or down.

For RQ2/RQ3/RQG, we just work out a fifth and a twentieth, but normally, we divide by ten and double or half, again fairly easy on the fly, but you have to round.

Nomrally, we roll and see if it is worth working out. So, a roll of 70 on a skill of 80 means it isn't worth working out the chance of a cpecial/critical, but a roll of 18 means we need to see if it is a Special, a roll of 10 needs to see if it is a Critical.

18 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

In the real world that would be a very bad idea...

But, very funny.

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

The Crimson Bat episode in Sartar Companion makes it very clear how sacrificing the souls of the victims is deemed wrong.

Sacrificing people to the Crimson bat is wrong because it is Chaotic and devours their souls, never to return.

The Volcano Priests in the Holy Country used to throw unwilling sacrifices into the Volcano to stop it from erupting, make it erupt or because it was a groovy thing to do. Then the Pharoah came along and became the person who was sacrified, he was thrown unto the Volcano, found a way out and reappeared in the Temple at the Vent, to the surprise and horror of the Priests there. He stopped the sacrifice of people by making himself the sacrifice. Until then, it was an acceptable event.

1 hour ago, RosenMcStern said:

Let us say that you must have offended the gods of licensing somehow, because the whole story reminds me of Poseidon vs. Ulysses.

Hey, what has this to do with my time? You write it, we publish it.  Ok, a couple hours to review it, but that's all.

That's great. I was thinking of layout, proofreading, editing and artwork, but the RPG Fairies must do that all by themselves.

I'll get cracking then ...

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

One way to play this, if you don't want the Necromancer figure to be "evil", is to use Ty Kora Tek, the dark earth deity who is the Keeper of the Dead (and ruler over the Necropoli, particularly in Esrolia).  She knows the ways to Prepare Corpses and how to Speak to the Dead, and how to Free or Bind Ghosts.  In the Esrolian lands, once per year (a Day of the Dead), the dead ancestors come out of the Necropoli and go along the Sacred Way to the cities to visit their relatives.

Unlike Zorak Zoran undead, the skeletons or mummies of Ty Kora Tek would still have their soul, but would be bound by the ways of Ty Kora Tek to never speak (except on the Day of the Dead).  Potentially a priestess of Ty Kora Tek might have a reason or mission on which to send one of the dead (perhaps as a guide or guardian to some living being, most likely an Earth priestess).  Ty Kora Tek does not like "undead" though - the soulless constructs of Zorak Zoran or evil sorcerers or chaos.

That's the beauty of Glorantha, it can turn things upside down.

So, Necromancers are not always evil, for example.

Our RQ2/3 high level campaign involved mobing to Dorastor, so the PCs built a Battle Wagon, to mitigate chaos attacks. Because it was big and heavy, they needed something to pull it, so the Zorak Zorani Death Lord hitched 4 Bison to the wagon, as Bison are strong, for protection, he covered them in barding, all over. They were good Bison, as they just trundled along, never seeming to tire, never needing a rest and they were very strong, so could pull a heavily laden wagon. The Humakti thought something was wrong when they pulled the wagon through a river and were submerged for several minutes before reappearing on the other side. He did the normal checks and realised they weren't breathing. Enraged, he cut down the 4 Zombie Bison, slicing their heads clean off. Then they realised they were in the middle of Dorastor, on foot, with a heavily laden Battle Wagon that they couldn't pull ...

Oh, and MERH has the Village Idiot profession. I wanted to include a couple of visiting Village Idiots, from the Ramnsbottoms, two hamlets close together, just for the dialogue "I'm Cedic and I'm from Lower Ramsbottom", "And I'm Aelric, I'm from Upper Ramsbottom" but I must have forgotten to put them in.

Merrie England has suffered in the past from the vagaries of Licenses. For various reasons, the licences for RQ and BRP were pulled, meaning that Merrie England was left out on a limb a couple of times. Now, as Revolution d100 is OGL, that should not happen.

Merrie England: Age of Eleanor (MEAOE) was written as a response to Paolo not being interested in writing a supplement for Stupor Mundi based in England, which is fair enough as Paolo isn't English. Part of me wanted a medieval D100 supplement set in the times between The Anarchy and King John and part of me wanted to see if I could write a full supplement.

Merrie England: Age of Chivalry (MEAOC) took MEAOE and expanded it, adding in things around the world, some demonolgy stuff and some different scenarios. As it was for BRP, I converted spells etc to BRP versions. It is more complete, but touches on the Crusades, Outremer, Heaven and Hell, Demons and all kinds of things.

Merrie England:Robyn Hode (MERH) is more focussed than MEAOE and MEAOC, as it looks just at the period of Robyn Hode, in late Henry II, Richard I and early John. There is no campaign, but instead there is a sandbox around Sherwood Forest, with lots of scenario hooks. It loses the esoteric stuff, so no Heaven and Hell or Demonology, but keeps much of the generic Medieval roleplaying guidelines. It introduces Guardians as a type of mythical entity, just so I could include Herne the Hunter from Robin of Sherwood.

I would like to produce more for Merrie England. Age of Crusade, covering the Second and Third Crusades, Outremer, the Reconquista and Military Orders is something I have wanted to do for a while, who can't like the Order of Lazarus, an Order of leper knights? Heaven and Hell was covered in MEAOC, but I have ideas on how to do demons and djinn in Revolution d100 and they would work a lot better.Finally, the Merrie England Balladeer would be a campaign based on old British Folk Songs, with a mythical bent including Fae, witches, warlocks, dragons and so on. However, each one takes a year to write and then whatever time Paolo has, so it will be a slow old process.

My take was that Votank was abandoned as a baby by Durbaddath and found by Hearth Woman, who then raised him. He then becomes an aspect of Foundchild, hence his hunter magic.

I think that the time taken for a Giant baby to grow to maturity means that she comes out of Hell way after the end of the Hero Wars period. Unless, of course, she is magically aged.

16 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

I'm also tempted to associate High King Elf with Yelmalio/Elmal, but aside from being a watcher in the dark, I don't know how much that holds water. High King Elf doesn't seem to hold any solar or fire associations, and his ability to stay active in the Darkness can just be seen as being due to him being a Green elf, for example (is his type ever mentioned explicitly?)

High King Elf is a friend of Yelmalio, but is a distinct deity.

16 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Man, I wish we had an elf or dwarf equivalent of the Troll Pak.

MRQ had an Elf Pack and a Mostali Pack, both were pretty good.

5 hours ago, Grimmshade said:

I'm thinking maybe a necromantic cult that is an aspect/relative of the fertility cult existing in the Necropolis.

The Necropolis is a good example. There is bound to be a cult who creates zombies and skeletons as guardians of the Necropolis. They aren't undead abominations, instead they are good cultists who serve after death. Maybe Maran Gor might be a source of these, or Ty Kora Tek. I know thay Ty Kora Tek is the goddess of the dead and normally doesn't like undead, but I can see a subcult of hers acting as guardians of the Necropolis. After all, if that is a taboo place for the living, only the dead can guard it.

5 hours ago, Grimmshade said:

How many cults are there in Glorantha? 

Lots and lots and lots. Hundreds, probably thousands or tens of thousands if you count Subcults/Hero Cults/Spirit Cults.

5 hours ago, Grimmshade said:

Enough to justify reskinning a cult (or creating a new one) to fit what a player is looking for? (In this case a Necromantic cult)

Definitely.

What kind of necromantic cult are you looking for?

Zorak Zoran, as has been mentioned, raises zombies, skeletons, mummies and wraiths.

Vivamort is connected with vampires, but also raises ghouls, zombies and skeletons, I think.

Gark the Calm makes zombies.

Subere controls wraiths, ghouls and ghosts.

The Spolites seem to have used undead.

Cacodemon used to create undead, but that might have changed.

What I would do is to describe what kind of stuff you want, then see if there is a Gloranthan equivalent,. If there isn't, then make them up.

Here's a secret - All the Gloranthan cults are made up!

3 hours ago, Darius West said:

A fair point.  I was merely making the conjecture, that given the apparent favor of Mralota, and the proximity to the Tusk Riders, that there may have been some sort of historical connection.  I have no doubt that the votanki hunters find all the pig shit in the foul smelling citadels both disgusting and hilarious, and no doubt they wonder how people can live in such a state.  On the other hand, I would imagine that wild boar would be spiritually powerful, plentiful in Balazaar, and a good catch, but of course they have a lot of other totems too. 

In my Balazar, Mralota was given to all Votanki. The citadel dwellers farm pigs. The hunter clans hunt them as wild boar. So, their Peaceful Cut allows the souls of Mralota's boar to return to Mralota.