soltakss

This is the place to come for awesome feedback. And endless discussion of minutiae ...

Sounds like a good basis for a Sartarite campaign. Sounds good. For me, a clan tula is probably a single hex on the Dragon Pass board, with the surrounding 6 hexes considered clannish lands, but maybe with overlaps to other clans. Have you given any thought to where the other clan tules would be? That can generate scenarios straight off. Have you looked at the Judges Guild RQ scenarios? I have used Duck Pond and Duck Tower very well in Glorantha, around the Upland Marsh. I always thought that Hellpits of Night Fang wasn't that good, but it fitted in to a Pavis campaign very easily and would work well in Dragon Pass. Broken Tree Inn works well in Dragon Pass. The HeroQuest Sartar books have already been mentioned. I would try to get the Dragon Pass Gazetteer, as it drips scenario hooks off every page. As for Dungeons, Snake Pipe Hollow is a classic. The aforementioned JG RQ supplements work very well. Every place marked as a ruin on the Dragon Pass Map should have at least one Dungeon, but they might not always be your classic "Cave System/Underground complex filled with monsters" kind of Dungeon. The Upland Marsh should have a lot of EWF ruins, if there aren't any then just make them up. Even temples might be built on older temples, perhaps long-forgotten, delving into these ancient crypts and sub-temples might be good. Chaos Temples make good Dungeons and can be put almost anywhere. In fact, enemy Temples make good Dungeons. How to introduce Orlanthiness to players? Hospitality - This is very important to Orlanthi, when you are accepted as a guest in a clan, you are under the protection of both the Chief and the Clan, so attempts to insult you or force you to break the rules of Hospitality are good for roleplaying. Travelling through other clan's lands - Entering another clan's tula means engaging in a lot of ritual posturing, which might make for good roleplaying, especially if the other clan is hostile to the PCs' Clan or to the PCs themselves. Cattle Raiding - Nothing says "Orlanthi" like a spot of cattle raiding, especially if you kill one fo the guards defending the cattle, or are attacked by raiders trying to get your cattle Foul Slime - Orlanthi have poetry for everything, in fact Orlanth is the God of Bad Poetry*. Meet a Yelmalian - There's a poem for that. Meet some Chaos - There's a poem for that. Meet other Orlanth - There's a poem for that. Sure, some are only for Wind Lords, but there's no reason you can't all join in, we used to and had a great time reciting Orlanthi poetry. Violence is Always an Option/Nobody can make me do Anything - Orlanthi are stubborn and unpredictable, so treat them that way. If not the PCs, then NPCs might use those forms. At the end of the day, if endlessly talking something through isn't working, then drawing your sword and saying "Enough Talk!" normally works. * He isn't, according to Gloranthan Lore, but you know what I mean ...

I wouldn't use shields with dragonewt formations. Stick with Klanth and Swordbreaker. If you wanted shields, make them look like the Beast Rune, which is based on the Dragon's Eye.

It's more a case of devolution of language. The first Elemental languages (Darkspeech, Seaspeech, Earthspeech, Firespeech and Stormspeech) were partly magical in nature, as was Draconic, or Old Wyrmish. As other languages sprang from them, they became more mundane and less magical. So, Theyalan came from Stormspeech and then devolved further into Heortling and then further into things like Sartarite, each becoming more mundane and less magical. Earthspeech and Stormspeech sort of combined to make various Theyelan dialects, again each less magical than their parents. Firespeech became Dara Happan, which then combined with some heortling language to become the language of Sun County. New Pelorian seems to be an attempt to retrofit Pelorian into the Lunar Way, by adding "lost" magical parts to recreate a non-existent parent language.

Passion Spirits and a form of Greed both work as possible rules mechanics of why someone becomes addicted. I don't think there should be a single way and that multiple ways are far more interesting. Addiction could be the result of a Curse of some kind. It could also just be a property of the thing consumed, perhaps a POT vs CON roll on the Resistance Table to gain a Passion for the substance.

We had sea dragons, plesiosaurs, giant sharks, giant squid, giant octopi and that kind of thing. Sometimes, the boats were just grabbed by giant tentacles, with no idea of what they belonged to.

Definitely not human milk, as that is only for babies and infants. They drink Herd Man milk, as that is their own Herd Beast. They also frink the milk of other Herd Beasts, as Praxians keep herd Beats of different types, mainly for exchanging with captured Beasts of their own type. I think that all Praxians know how to tend and milk other Praxian Herd Beasts, as all are children of Eiritha, but they know more about their own Herd Beast type. Sorry, forgot this wasn't the Praxian Thread ...

We simply played that swimming in the Styx would kill you, unless you had very, very strong powers of Darkness or Death.

In my experience, when a discussion/argument resorts to "You said/I Said" then it's time to stop. Two people are not going to admit defeat, especially on something that is as nebulous as "generic".

If the PCs have a good reason to have a shotgun with them then they should have one. However, would you board someone else's yacht carrying a shotgun? Probably not, as that is a good reason to get shot at yourself. Point that out to your players. As for satellite phones, there are enough sea-based, and land-based for that matter, horror tales where phones just don't work. Either there is static that cuts them off, or they just hear a creepy voice repeating a message over and over again, or all channels are dead. Just because a PC has one, doesn't necessarily mean it works. Nothing. I'd put a padlock on the hatch, nothing wrong with that, It gives them a chance to find the key. Again, point out to them that smashing the padlock is fine, unless they meet the ship's master or crew, in which case how are they going to explain a broken padlock? Have them find the key at the right time and they will probably follow the flow. Having said that, I am never keen on making PCs follow a certain flow. If they do go into the cargo hold first then let them. Either fudge it so the encounter is somewhere else, or have them encounter the monster and deal with the consequences.

True. We have used Crack and Vomit Acid to destroy weapons. The Krarsht Sweat Acid is similar but involved touching an item to destroy it, so not so useful, but makes a great weapon for Krarshti Courtesan Assassins, though.

We played that if an item was held or worn, then you had to overcome the POW of the wearer/holder. If an allied spirit was in the item then you had to overcome the Allied Spirit's POW. Otherwise, the spell just works without a Resistance Roll.

Oh, yes we do. Greate Trolls serving Cragspider make excellent Zorak Zoran Death Lords, even though they tend to use Greatswords, not Troll Mauls. I agree that Great Trolls don't make good Kaarg Sons, as they don't represent the right sort of troll.

But, if CHA uses the standard rules for Species Maximum, Tusk Riders have a maximum CHA of 7, if they roll on 1D6, so cannot become Rune Lords. I know that CHA can be increased, but only to Species Maximum levels. It always seemed strange to me that Tusk Riders are always perceived as having low CHA. Normally, the -10 CHA for different Species applies, so an average Tusk Rider with 3D6 CHA would appear to have CHA 1 to non-Tusk Riders, but 11 to Tusk Riders, this also allows them to be Rune Lords, as they can achieve CHA 18, but be treated by outsiders as having CHA 8.

Probably. It's a bit of a grey area, though. If the intent is to increase an attack chance, then it is offensive. Can be. If I cast it on myself, I used to get a Shimmer effect due to the dazzling light. Is someone under the effect of a Demoralise spell forbidden from casting Offensive Magic? Similarly, is someone under a Fanaticism spell forbidden from casting defensive magic? I'm fedeling far too lazy to look them up, but it strikes me as spells belong to Offensive or Defensive camps for the purposes of all these spells.

Somewhere down south, yes. I seem to remember that Ldril did something in Pamaltela, Caladra in Genertela, so it makes sense that Aurelion did in somewhere in between, so Jrustela. I was working from a faded memory, anyway. The point stands that Aurelion has history of casting up great swathes of land to block a flood. In the Hero Wars, Aurelion cultists could band together and perform a HeroQuest to do exactly that.

In RQ2/3, you lost the spell when you traded, as you gave away the casting. You could trach an adventurer by when they cast the spell and when it came back to you. Don't you lose the use of the Rune Points in a spell trade? If not, I'd houserul that to be the case. We played that an Issaries Trader could charge double and would cast the traded spell immediately, thus allowing it to be regained, so that worked as more of a Gift Spell than a Traded Spell.

We used to play that Defensive spells were those that were not cast on someone else and which did not increase your attack chance with weapons. So, things like Strength or Coordination are not defensive, as they increase your attack chance, albeit as a side-effect. Demoralise, when cast on yourself, perhaps to counteract Fanaticism, is defensive, but not when cast on someone else. To make things easier, we just said it is an offensive spell. In my experience, as soon as you have a list of spells that applies, someone will publish new spells that are not in the list and you have to start over again. If you have a general rule, then you can apply that rule to new spells. There are some grey areas, of course. Sunbright in RQ2 is a defensive spell, but demoralises some creatures of darkness, so it that an offensive effect?

I suppose it all depends on whether you classify Dehori as any old darkness spirit or as descendants of Dehor. If Dehori are descendants of Dehor, then Kyger Litor is not a Dehori. If they are generic darkness spirits then she could well be called one of the Dehori.

Tradetalk was inherently magical, as Issaries created it to be easily understood by anyone. As for a spell that allows anyone to be understood by anyone, sure, it is possible to make up such a spell. As to who would have it, I am not sure. A Communication Deity, maybe Herald, maybe someone new. However, a party meeting another party without a common language is a good roleplaying experience and it would be a shame to just have a spell that overcomes that.

Or a Zorak Zorani HeroQuestor with gifts of Double Damage against Humans and Double Damage against Humakti on his Troll Maul, with a few dollops of Crush.

Aurelion made Aurelion's Breakwater in Pamaltela in such a fashion. Time for the Volcano Twins to shine.

Oh, why couldn't you have posted this a couple of months ago? I could have had so much fun with the Block floating away and a gigantic gnarled hand breaking the surface of the waters.

As would Asrelia's Cavern. I can see a lot of cults working desperately to stop the Flood (The Thunder Brothers stopping Worcha, for example) and many cults mitigating the effects of the Flood. Burying things in the ground, hiding them in magical protection areas, covering buildings with an upturned boat, all could be used to prevent the floodwaters from affecting a certain spot. The Tricksters have a capital city that is effectively a huge dome that stops the waters getting in, perhaps all you need to do is ask Eurmal cultists to protect your town, what could possibly go wrong?

Thanks for this. It was about a month too late for our campaign, as the PCs stopped the iceberg from blocking Magasta's pool and moved it to the Creater instead. Harrek wanted to sail up the Oslir, for various in-game MGDV reasons, so the Flood would have reached the Oslir watershed. In the end, the River Voices were so appalled at the idea that they decided to do something very magical to stop it and ended the campaign.