soltakss

Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett, had the same kind of idea. The best sacrifice for gods was bacon and sausages, as the smell of them frying wafted even unto heaven and pleased the gods mightily. It also allowed the priests to have a good fry up.

It appeared in TradeTalk, in a revised format. However, it was never repeated.

Please do not follow this advice, especially if you have had a warning over this kind of thing. Employers do not have a sense of humour where this kind of thing is concerned. Do you want to lose your job on a point of principle of reading a RPG book at work?

Umm, no, still accursed lawyers ...

And suddenly the thread becomes far more serious and important. My answer would be not to read any games material at work. Seriously, if I bring a PDF for a games night on a tablet, then I would not dream of reading it at work. Better safe than sorry, in my opinion. Also, sorry about your particular situation, it must be a very difficult situation to be in.

So, we have an illustration in an official, canonical supplement and that is still not good enough? What is wrong with you people? Clearly, barding is a thing in Glorantha and is used. Now, Pentians might use different types of horse armour than western knights, but I'd guess they would use cuirboilli or leather armour, at least, maybe scale or ring armour.

Thanks! I can now use them with the greatest of pleasure.

Shield Countermagic stacks, so we always played that Warding Countermagic also stacked. So, the example would have a Countermagic 14 effect, 4 from the Shield, 6 from the Warding and 4 from the Countermagic. A 10 point spell would bounce, a 14 point spell would bounce and blow down the Countermagic 4, leaving Countermagic 10 and a 120 point spell would blow through the Countermagic, have an effect and would leave the Countermagic 10 effect running.

It's a shame if that is the case. Cthulhu Invictus was backed as a KickStarter and looks pretty nice. I would guess the same people would back a Cthulhu Dark Ages Kickstarter. I would and I don't like CoC at all.

The HeroQuesting Principle: HeroQuests are not just for the magically powerful or the elite. Anyone can take part in a HeroQuest for any reason. Not every HeroQuest is a world-breaking one. Most HeroQuests support cattle raids, chaos-killing raids, troll-slaying raids, peace-making attempts and so on. Want to marry your childhood sweetheart but can't because people from your clan can't marry people from her clan? Use a HeroQuest. Want to break into an impregnable fortress? Use a HeroQuest.

I did, they are really useful, both as an aid to generate Treasure Hoards and as a way of working out how strong an NPC Party is.

And a wall of armour covering the lower part of the body (leggs and abdomen). And height advantage against horse riders. And big scythes on the wheels to cut people down (Cinematic of course, not historical).

In our old RQ Campaign, the PCs freed Baroshi and he gained a cult. As he gained more worshippers, they gained the secret of his Thunderstone Sword, so gained a spell that was like the Bless Thunderstone seplll from RQ3, but allowed the worshipper to bless a Thunderstone sword, giving it Thunderstone powers for 15 minutes. He also gained the Great Parry spell from Babeester Gor. In fact, a lot of Babeester Gor worshippers joined Baroshi as a subcult, for his skill at fighting Chaos. I think I also gave him Face Chaos, as he never retreated from Chaos.

Thanks Joerg, that saves me a long post! Generally, creatures with big Damage Bonuses, lots of armour or multiple attacks are more dangerous than normal oppnents. Skill isn't that important, unless it is vastly higher than 100%, an opponent at 60% is not much worse than one at 80%, in my opinion. Having magic makes an opponent much stronger, depending on the magic. Having an NPC:PC ratio of more than 2:1 makes the NPC Party dangerous, but anything less than that isn't really much of a problem. By the way, sorry about the multiple posts. I don't generally check the forum until Saturday and then read through the threads, posting replies.

Thanks. Treasure factors in RQ2 work in a similar way, I suppose.

Saying that RuneQuest is not a game about combat is false, in my opinion. I know that you aren't saying that, but replying to that kind of view, but I am replying to you in this case ... Back in my RQ2 days, we regularly had combats that involved a hundred NPCs and 10 high level PCs, including setting up the combat and then cursing and removing the 5 Invisible Until Attacks NPCs. Sometimes a single combat would last for two sessions and we'd have to draw the combat onto a sheet of A4 to put it back again next time. I can tell you that such combats were not balanced. By the way, what are CR Ratings? Are they like the Treasure Factors mentioned in the OP? I generally like the idea that a scenario says that it is for low-level, mid-level or hi8gh-level PCs, as that makes it easier for me to judge how many changes I need to make to the NPCs. But, in RuneQuest, the addition of even 1 PC makes the party a lot stronger. A party of 6 PCs is a lot, lot stringer than a party of 3 PCs and encounters should be judged accordingly. Yes, an NPC party with roughly the same skill levels will be comparable. However, RQG uses skills that have a lot of variability, so you just cannot use straight combat skill to work out how good an NPC is. A highly skilled Elf warrior with a 0 Damage Bonus would not be as dangerous as a low-skilled Giant with a 4D6 Damage Bonus, for example. RQ2 Had Treasure Factors, which actually did this in a reasonable and simple way. I have used them to guage the strength of NPC Parties for years. Of course, as I am a tinkerer, I have changed how my TFs work, mainly to cope with high level PCs. Don't know what CRs are, so cannot comment. Perhaps that is true. I haven't been a beginning GM for a very long time. Here's a radical opinion - It doesn't matter how strong the NPCs are. Seriously. If the NPCs are too strong, you realise and run away. If the NPCs are too weak, you steamroll over them. If the NPCs are very strong, you might be able to just about defeat them, which is a great feeling for players. I have had examples, in my recently finished RQ campaign and in a previous RQ campaign, where I have joked that I am happy that a high level NPC lasted more than a round in combat with the PCs. No matter how hard I made them, no matter what abilities they had, the PCs would chew through them. I am talking about monsters with 100 APs and 50 HPs in the head, for example, so how balanced is that?

Generally, as a RQ GM for over 30 years, I don't really balance combat. I have found that a seemingly simple combat has been pretty deadly, with criticals and impales, combined with missed parries and fumbles, taking out most of the party, with the party only surviving because of a couple of lucky blows by the remaining standing PCs. I have also found a vastly overwhelming party of NPCs being taken out by a set of lucky blows. So, balancing combat is difficult. As I have just mentioned, in another post, I like to self-balance by not having all the NPCs fighting at one, having some of them hanging back, some fighting in pairs or alone and so on, which gives the PCs an edge, If the PCs are doing very well, I call in the reserves, if they are doing particularly badly, I get NPCs to tie them up or restrain those who have fallen, just to take the NPCs out of combat. For me, Demoralised NPCs hang around at the back, but Demoralised PCs take part in the combat, even that gioves the PCs an edge. If the NPC Party takes more than 50% csualties, it will probably fall back or just plain run away. Balance is always interesting, as I have found that a PC Party can kill a Big Bad Boss NPC fairly easily, but someone else warns against using Big Bad Bosses as they can wipe out a party. I suppose different people have different views on what makes a balanced encounter. Back in my RQ2 days, I used to pride myself on a high level group of PCs finishing a Clearing Out a Chaos Temple scenario by using the last few Magic Points. Balancing a whole scenario is a lot harder than balancing a single encounter.

Treasure Factors is a useful way of doing this. However, my rules of thumb are: A PC Party can usually defeat an NPC party of similar skill level/numbers A PC Party often defeats an NPC Party of similar skill and slightly higher numbers A PC Party often defeats an NPC Party of higher skill and similar numbers A PC Party sometimes defeats an NPC Party of similar skill and much higher numbers A PC Party usually defeats a single NPC of higher skill Making the NPCs tougher, by making them trolls, giving them better armour, just increases their effective skill. I generally self-balance by making the NPC party not as disciplined/organised as the PC Party, so they use sub-optimal tactics. That really gets pressed home when the PCs meet a well-organised, disciplined NPC Party with good tactics, then the PCs wil probably struggle. Don't forget that, in RuneQuest, running away is always a good option. PCs don't always have to fight to the last PC, better to run away, lick your wounds and come back again at a later date. Old supplements, I am afraid. RQ Glorantha (RQG) doesn't yet have a back catalogue of supplements with examples of such NPCs. Stangrers in Prax has The Coders, a high level group of Lunars. Dorastor and Lords of Terror have examples of high level Chaos NPCs. RuneMasters has some high level Rune Lords, Rune Priests and Rune Lord Priests. Griffin Island has some high level NPCs, they might also be in the Gloranthan Classics Borderlands supplement. All are fairly compatible with RQG and RuneMasters is still available, I think.

Many thanks, free scenarios are always appreciated.

That's what makes it so interesting.

Because some people like to nerf powerful characters. Only Rune Lords can exceed 100%, Rune Priests are restricted to DEXx3, only certain professions are available to certain backgrounds. All nerfed in the past, all discounted by me, as a GM.

One way of reading the Wooing of Erbalda is "Ernalda was held captive in Yelm's Court. She saw a young, simple godling and realised he was her ticket out of there. She seduced him, letting him think he was doing the chasing, let him prove himself to her and then let him take her out of Yelm's Palace.", so it was all Ernalda's Plan.

There are different ways of telling the myths, concentrating on different things. Aggressive, domineering Orlanthi will tell it in a different way to Ernaldans. Yelmalians will tell it in a completely different way, and, yes, they do tell the myth of Orlanth, the Bad Husband of Ernalda. Peace and War Clans will tell the versions that suit them best, but also the myths that suit their time and place best. Myth is flexible, there isn't just one telling.

No, I'd love to send commands by email - More Books Quicker!

Yes, it makes sense, as not every ball hill hit a target. You also neeed to decide who gets hit in a crowd. Do you randomly decide, or does everyone get hit once until you run out of hitting shots?