soltakss

I really liked Excalibur and Arthur and the Britons way back when. I watched Merlin and spent almost all of the first episode saying "Well, that isn't right, that isn't dark ages, that looks odd" and then forgot about all of that for the rest of the run, as I thoroughly enjoyed it.

On 7/4/2018 at 8:31 PM, Pheres said:

I am reading RQG since few weeks and it seems that gods and other spiritual entities are taking a very important part in the game background and character life.

I think that having the capability for a player and his character to make a deeper link between his character and this entities could be a very important thing.

So i would like to know if the greater entities, especially like Hykim and Mikyh that are associated with Yinkin, will be describes in the future book about cults?

About Hykim and Mikyh: i have tried to find some informations about them, but found very few things. So if someone can tell me more, he will be welcome.

I would be surprised if they are described in detail.

However, Hykim and Mikyh are thought to be dragons who mated with each other and a lot of deities to produce the beasts. Hykim is traditionally male and Mikyh is traditionally female, presumably except when they are not. Some people think they are one hermaphrodite dragon. It doesn't really matter either way. 

Most of their myths are origin stories of how such and such a beast came into being, normally through mating with one or the other.

The Hsunchen are beastmen/werebeasts who worship the children of Hykim and Mikyh and they are probably the ones most likely to actually worship them.

Sorcerers and shamans might try to access their powers in different ways, but their children are easier to access and grant more specific powers.

On 7/3/2018 at 3:35 AM, SteveMND said:

Okay, so, I'm planning on running a RQG campaign later this summer, and none of my potential players have played RQ before (or even heard of the setting apart from my random reminiscences over the years).  They've been looking through my sizeable (but hardly exhaustive) collection of RQ bits and bobs I have been accumulating over the last 40 years, trying to see if there's anything that catches their fancy or engages their gaming spirit, since there is soooo much lore to potentially deal with.

One of the players always had soft spot for shepherds-of-the-dead-type gods, so he kinda latched onto Ty Kora Tek fairly early.  Unfortunately, as a (comparatively) minor goddess, there's only so much written on her that I've been able to come across, and most of the stuff I've found online have been the occasional references to her roles, but little in the way of actual priestess-y custom, rituals, activities and the other day-to-day approaches to her priestesses and followers.

Any suggestions from people who may be more versed in the lore than I?  

Ty Kora Tek is normally the province of post-menopausal women, so past child-bearing age, but not necessrily old. I suppose barren women would be OK as well. However, I am not sure if men can join the cult.

What do they do? Bury people and make sure the funerary rituals are done properly. This has the benefits that the deceased person does not come back as undead, their ghost is not inclined to haunt the living and the Ty Kora Tek worshippers get a nice little income. I see them as being professional mourners at funerals, tearing their clothes, covering their head with ashes and wailing on cue.

Ty Kora Tek worshippers are also effective against Vampires, as theie cult shovels damage them and cannot be regenerated, also they can bless a Vampire's coffin earth and render it ineffective. I can see younger cultists going along with Humakti on vampire-killing missions, armed with a copper shovel and holy earth.

On another related vein, he wanted to play a follower of Ty Kora Tek, but of course, actual priestesses have to be older, and the player characters in my upcoming campaign would likely be younger (as my first foray into RQG, I'd like to include as few 'house rules' to the default game rules as possible until I've gotten a better hand on the whole system).  He doesn't mind playing a younger character with aspirations later in life, but the question I then have is, are there younger 'followers' of Ty Kora Tek in that sense?  Do you have young women teaching and training all their lives in anticipation of becoming TKT priestesses once they pass beyond childbearing age?  Or, as I rather suspect, are they instead just priestesses/adherents of Ernalda who just kind of 'migrate' to that associated cult once they get to a certain age and feel so inspired by the goddess to do so?

Just let barren women join the cult. They are associated with Dust (Dry Earth, or Earth without Fertility, which used to be one of the ty Kora Tek runes).

Also, if a girl goes through the Adulthood Ceremonies and ends up worshipping Ty Kora Tek, there is nothing wrong with that. She would be unusual, but a lot of PCs are unusual.

Any suggestions, references and/or links folks might have would be greatly appreciated.  We could, of course, just kinda 'make it up' as we go, but I'd much prefer to have a more solid grounding in the 'reality' of the cult and its place in the mortal world if possible, given the richness of the accumulated Glorantha writing already.

It's your game, it really is, so do what feels right. As soon as you start playing, you go against the accepted Glorantha anyway, so why not make minor exceptions to make the game flow smoother?

On 7/2/2018 at 12:39 PM, metcalph said:

You should learn to give page numbers and base your citations on that rather than make special pleadings.

Asking Joerg to be more nitpicky is not always such a good idea. 🙂

On 7/5/2018 at 2:09 PM, JonL said:

GMing an expedition into the Big Rubble for my young cousins at a family reunion, at the same table where I first played D&D back in '79.

HeroQuest, Glorantha, & the Future indeed.

Which one are you? 🙂

21 minutes ago, styopa said:

I'd love to see it too, but if I were a publisher I wouldn't touch those subjects with a 20' pole.

One of the PCs in the Temple of the Wooden Sword campaign was pregnant and gave birth during a troll attack on the temple. 

No reason not to include some guidelines somewhere.

22 hours ago, Joerg said:

RQG p.298 claims that Lhankor Mhy cultists may only marry inside the cult.

I recall quite clearly that earlier cult descriptions had the requirement that Lhankor Mhy cultists were only allowed to marry light cultists, emulating LM's partnership with the Lady of the Light of Inspiration (who may have been Ourania, Mistress of Heaven). It was quite hard to find female light cultists among the Orlanthi, unless you allowed Mahome as lowfire.

Did it? I canot remember seeing any marriage restrictions on Lhankor Mhy.

RQ2 Cults of Prax says "They (Sword Sages) may never marry an Initiate priest or a Lord of an elemental deity. Spouses must become at least a lay member of Lhankor Mhy." and "The Sage Priest must follow the same restrictions imposed on the Rune Lord of Lhankor Mhy. Furthermore, he is expected to give ¾ of his time to teaching and research.".

So Rune Levels must have spouses who are lay members of Lhankor Mhy, Since lay membershoip is not onerous, I would expect LM spouses to become lay members.

Then there is Broosta, Daughter of Pavis (the only female one) and Lhankor Mhy initiate, married to Fleeter Nemm, also a Daughter of Pavis. Does her priesthood in the Pavis cult override her LM marriage restrictions?

On the other hand, Broosta gives a model how to get your prospective partner accepted by the cult if only marriages inside the cult are sanctioned. The prospective partner has to become literate and a LM initiate on the side, wearing that weird veil, etc.

The spouse just needs to be a lay member, not too bad really. Also, LM Rune Levels may not marry an initiate or higher in an elemental rune cult, but nothing is said about those initiates already married who then become Rune Levels. Do they remain married or must they divorce? Yelmalians muct divorce, as shown in the Three Strikes of Anger note in the Yelmalio writeup.

(I wonder whether henna tattoos or permanent ones on the chin, possibly in elaborate patterns, may serve for the "fake beard" requirement...)

Almost certainly, at least, I would allow it.

Also, it adds to the fun when a different temple does not allow it.

On 7/4/2018 at 5:49 PM, creativehum said:

Apparently the RQG text doesn't include the limits imposed on the use of this spell outlined in Cults of Prax.

Let's say my players and I have never read Cults of Prax. Should such limits apply? Are we supposed to read Cults of Prax to play RQG?

And more importantly, are there other details and ideas included in RQG that longtime players of RuneQuest or students of Glorantha would know how to handle well... that some of without such experience will simply be confounded the current rules or uncertain what to do with them?

No, you do not need any of the books from years ago to play RQG.

However, a lot of us old-timers are quite happy to use rules from previous editions, or magic items, or spells, when they have not yet appeared in RQG. So, if I wanted to use Powered Crystals, I'd use the ones from RQ2 or RQ3 Elder Secrets, at least until they appear in the GM's Sourcebook, then I'll use those.

RuneQuest has always had various levels of depth and you can play with whichever level of depth suits you.

I know people who still will only use what is in the RQ2 Rulebook, I kid you not, they say they don;t need anything else. Other people use rules found in Wyrms Footnotes, spells found in obscure fanzines and so on. Whatever suits you is fine.

If all you have is the RQG Rulebook then you can run a decent game. If you have the new supplements that are about to come out, then you can run a much richer game. If you include the things in RQ2/RQ3 that aren't included in the new supplements, then you can run a richer game still. However, there is no need to use them at all.

This all sounds very interesting.

Any chance of uploading the finished document to the Downloads section for all of us to enjoy?

Looks as though a lot of people will just houserule this, which is fine by me.

It always used to be unenchanted iron, as enchanting iron takes away the penalty. I would expect the same to be true in RQG.

Personally, I think the Lunars would also resupply by taking food from the locals, thus increasing their starvation chance.

Why send an expensive Moonboat when you can take all the grain from a farmstead's cellar or take all their chickens?

Obviously, they wouldn't drain a single farmstead dry, but would take a lot from each farnstead.

Moonboats would be for the General's personal supply of Pelorian Brandy and other such essentials.

24 minutes ago, Pentallion said:

Lets make this simple.  Bob has a sword (70%) and a shield (60%).  4 bad guys attack Bob.  Bob decides to only parry.

What happens?

Bob can parry with his Shield at 60%, 40%, 20% regardless.

However, the confusion is when he parries with his Sword after his Shield.

My gut reaction is that the Sword is its own weapon and uses a Sword Action, not the Shield Action, so should not suffer a penalty, so the first Sword parry should be at 70%.

So, Bob could Parry with Sword at 70%. Shield at 60%, Sword at 50% and Shield at 40%.

However, if the rule of -20% applies to all subsequent parry after the first, regardless of weapon, his first Shield Parry is at 40%, so Bob could Parry with Sword at 70%, Sword at 50%, Shield at 40%, and Sword at 30%. That just doesn't feel right to me.

Lets make this simple.  Bob has a sword (70%) and a shield (60%).  4 bad guys attack Bob.  Bob decides to only parry.

What happens?

Bob decides to swing with his sword and parry with his shield.

What happens?

I tentatively assume if Bob attacks with shield and sword then he cant parry at all.

Bob can parry with his Shield at 60%, 40%, 20% and then is stuck, so cannot parry the 4th opponent, unless you use the rule that he always has a 5% chance, in which case he parries at 60%, 40%, 20% and 5%.

I tentatively assume if Bob attacks with shield and sword then he cant parry at all.

Yes, only 2 actions a round, so having 2 attacks means he cannot parry.

25 minutes ago, Richard S. said:

Eh, probably. To me though it makes it seem like there's parts of the setting reserved for "exclusive members".

There always has been, or has been for a very long while.

I just accept it and move on.

Yeah, I remembered the Heron-worshipping peasants, but really included them in the Lodrili, but they should be separate. However, they are not particularly Lunarised, either.

13 hours ago, Joerg said:

There also was a specific subcult which had the benefit of making resurrection impossible - IIRC the one tied to the Lead Cross heroquest which slaughters White Healers. Details in Tales of the Reaching Moon #5 (the only issue that ever was reprinted).

Which means it was possible for other Humakti.

The same applies to Humakti geases and obligations. Some Humakti have the geas "Never participate in an ambush", which means that Humakti without that geas can participate in ambushes. Similarly, Humakti without the relevant geases can use poison, tell lies and so on. It always amazes me when people play Humakti as though they all have every geas going, even though they don't.

12 hours ago, Joerg said:

Impressive that it could advance despite this very serious entanglement... or did it regress to scout stage?

As I said, in the RQ2 days, we didn't have the nuances that we later had. If you played it with the knowledge we have today it probably wouldn't work.

No such things as dragonewt mysticism or entanglement in the RQ2 days, until WF12, and even then not many people had WFs so didn't know about it.

13 hours ago, Richard S. said:

I don't think it's meant to let you roll random runes (though you can if you want), those are probably just on there for decoration.

So, why should I buy these rather than a plain d20?

Ok, on the plus side, it looks pretty and allows me to roll a random number between 1 and 20 or a random rune.

On the downside, it would be a nightmare to read, with all the stuff below the numbers and what advantage is this over a normal d20 and a list of runes?

Having an iconic adventure can be good.

I was hooked onto RPGs and Glorantha with Apple Lane.

Now, Apple Lane is a good introductory adventure, but is it iconic? Snakepipe Hollow is more iconic for RQ, as is the Cradle.

Fortunately over the years, we have had iconic campaign packs rather than single adventures - Borderlands, Pavis, Big Rubble, Trollpack and Griffin Mountain for RQ2, River of Cradles, Sun County, Strangers in Prax and Adventurers on the Borderlands for RQ3, all had interconnected scenarios and encounters that brought Glorantha to life.

The individual scenarios had less impact, for me, Apple Lane/Rainbow Mounds, Snakepipe Hollow, the SoloQuest books, all were good in their ways, but are nowhere near as good as the campaign packs. Even the Judges Guild books, Duck Pond, Duck Tower, City of Lei Tabor, Hellpits of Nightfang and Broken Tree Inn, were good as individual scenarios and, on the whole better than all of the above single scenarios, except for SnakePipe Hollow.

On 6/26/2018 at 6:06 PM, KeeperXav said:

But, they are right, though.

On 6/27/2018 at 12:42 AM, Mechashef said:

If you want to be a real pedantic Rules Lawyer (just like players when they want to be) then this could be interpreted in an interesting way.

One point of Multispell allows a Disruption spell to be combined with itself "doing 2D3 damage to one hit location".

I'm sure we would all agree that two points of Multispell will allow that process to happen twice, apparently allowing 3 Disruptions to be combined, but the description clearly states "doing 2D3 damage"

it doesn't actually say that the damage rolls from the two spells are totalled together (obviously that is the intention), but as written it states "doing 2D3 damage to one hit location".

So you can combine ten Disruptions if you wan't but as written there is an argument that it only does 2D3 damage.

A nasty interpretation of the rules, but perhaps one to use if the players are big fans of "that is what the rules say, it doesn't matter what was intended"

 

I think that is because this assumes another point stacking. In RQ2, Multispell 3 allowed you to do 4D3 damage. I assume the same is true for this version of Multispell.

It would have been nicer if the rule had said "Each point of Multispell allows a Disruption spell to be combined with itself doing an extra D3 damage to one hit location", with an example of Multispell 2 doing 3D3, or whatever.

On 6/27/2018 at 2:51 AM, styopa said:

Question for the group....the RQG canonical sheets (as with most RQ sheets historically, iirc) use HP countdowns: sequences of numbers that you use to register your hp.

Most D&D sheets don't (obviously because you have a much larger variation on hp).  What do you personally prefer?

I'm working on layout for an alternate RQG sheet and have the MP and HP countdowns on the right and left margins, respectively.

Pros: 

• It's easy to keep track of.
• Because they're along the margins, players can actually use paperclip sliders instead of constantly erasing.  
• The sliders also make it easier for me, as a GM, from the end of the table to quick see who's in trouble in case I need to (not that I ever(?) fudge rolls for them, more as a time for me to remind them to remind each other).

Cons

• Not terribly attractive, sort of obtrusive.
• On normal paper, it's too flimsy and they just work like the standard countdown lists.  We use light cardstock for character sheets and that works well but I'm not sure everyone has that resource.

 

Opinions?  Comments on the specific concept of countdowns?  They can be packed almost anywhere on the sheet, in any shape, if you like them.

For me, countdowns are a complete waste of space and I never use them.

I prefer a box, maybe a wide one, that I can write in the HPs and rub them out or cross them out as they go down and come back up. 

Similarly, countdowns in Hit Locations drive me mad as a waste of space.

Revolution has Life Points along the side of the sheet, again a waste of time, but at least it doesn't take up much space.

I always think of there being several types of people in Darra Happa:

Traditional dyed-in-the-wool Sun worshippers, who belong to the Old families and stick rigidly to their ways. They have accepted The Red Emperor as thei Emperor because he is and because he has proven himself to be the Emperor depite any moves against him. They don't adhere to the Lunar Way but are not particularly opposed to it.

Lodrili Peasants - As peasants everywhere, they don't fundamentally care about who is in charge or what beliefs they bring, but carry on being oppressed and taxed until they call on Monster Man to help them.

Pelandans - Always a bit of a mystery to me, they probably continue with their deities, who live on a mountain, paying lip service to the Lunars.

Provincials - A mix of people sticking to their old ways, people accepting the new ways but keeping many of the old ways and people gleefully accepting the new ways with open arms.

Lunars - People who have accepted the new ways, or whose ancestors have accepted the new ways. They find the new ways liberating, as they can break caste, gender and social taboos and restrictions, improving themselves in new ways.

I am sure there are many other groups who behave in many different ways.

What is clear to me is that not everyone in Peloria is a Lunar, in fact, true Lunars may well be in a minority.

On 6/28/2018 at 9:12 AM, Furry Fella said:

On the contract the weather Will impact away into the marsh reducing its threat and greatly improving access and "safety". The wetland is as said above a treasure trove all year round for hunter gathers. The whole threat gain equation changes so dramatically - more food, more fuel,  less cold,  easier to travel / less treacherous, easier to access. The extent and intensity of the pressure goes way way up  - this has to impact on the hostile response. These sorts of things harm the target / defender at least geometrically and often exponentially due to the spread and frequency and intensity of events. Of note it will be the edges of the marsh that are most attractive as well as the most vulnerable / claimable.

For normal marshes, yes. However, the Upland Marsh is filled with undead, who are not affected by the cold, and ducks, who are. Neither would be particularly happy with hunter-gatherers coming in and pinching stuff. They would simply add to the ranks of undead guarding the marsh.

The Pale Daughters could probably expand the Marsh, by using their magical staves, but would they want to? Sure, they could take advantage of the problems caused by the Windstop, but they are normally opposed when expanding the marsh.