soltakss

Dragonewt rebirth and evolution takes a long time, centuries even. 

How many Inhuman Kings have there been? A Handful, I think.

Most Priests have always been priests, or at least to human eyes. Some immortals might have been able to track a single dragonewt through the various stages, but that would mean keeping a relationship with a dragonewt that was capable of progressing over many centuries.

Back in our RQ2 days, we faced a necromancer who was guarded by hundreds of dragonewt zombies, some Crested, some beaked and some Tailed Priests. It turned out that he had slain and skinned a dragonewt and it kept coming back, only to be made into a zombie each time it died. We helped it return again and kill the zombies and get its skin back. OK, it was RQ2 and perhaps the GM didn't have the nuances that we now know, but it was a good idea at the time.

11 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

I love the Hellwood Hill of Gold version where at the end, Yelmalio turns Krjalki. 🙂

http://www.soltakss.com/hog1d.html

Thanks!

Mt RQ2 box fell apart years ago. Although I still have the battered RQ2 rulesbook and Apple Lane book, I don't think I bothered keeping the BRP Booklet. Would anyone have scanned it? I am not sure.

When I read it, I thought "This is just a watered down version of RuneQuest, why would anyone bother playing it?".

On 6/24/2018 at 10:00 PM, PhilHibbs said:

That's because the magical laws of this world don't work that way. Glorantha's nagical laws clearly do. A Humakti's religion prevents resurrection, for example.

Does it?

I know that Humakti cannot come back as Undead, but wasn't aware that they cannot be Resurrected.

This is one of the very, very few occasions where I wouldn't bother with Hit Locations, except as a general indicator where someone was hurt. Nor would I bother with combat rules.

Some skills would be low, others would be high. Kids would be good at stealth, being small and dextrous and having played Hide and Seek (Hide and go Seek for Americans). 

I'd actually have a completely different set of skills, not like the BRP ones, to reflect what kids know and can do.

4 hours ago, simonh said:

Some religious people believe it is wrong to do blood transfusions. That would make it very difficult to be practicing doctors in certain fields. Similarly some real world religious beliefs are pretty much incompatible with functioning as a palaeontologist or evolutionary biologist, yet might even go to the same church as people who have a more allegorical than literal faith don’t find any such incompatibility.

Sure, they are incompatible with their beliefs, but that does not stop them being able to do it.

Someone with a religious aversion to blood transfusions is not physically incapable of having a blood transfusion.

Similarly, someone in a theistic cult that bans sorcery is not incapable of learning sorcery, it is just forbidden. The fact that it is forbidden means that it must be possible, otherwise why go to the trouble of forbidding it?

6 hours ago, Archivist said:

Were these House Rules based on HQ 1 or 2?

HQ1.

I have read HQ2 but don't see much in it that I would like. I like fixed mastery levels and really don't see the point of having relative difficulty ratings for narrative purposes. I am sure that it works, but it isn't for me.

Something similar was used for Vikings of Legend and Pirates of Legend. If not exactly the same, they are very similar.

13 hours ago, Toadmaster said:

Yeah, it gets pretty beat up for historical inaccuracy, but it is still one of my favorite fantasy movies right next to Arnie's Conan the Barbarian.

Agreed.

Hope you are feeling better, by the way.

13 hours ago, simonh said:

Maybe the suggestions in Heroquest of how to think about the three forms of magic can help. Spirit magic is something you have, rune magic is something you are and sorcery is something you know. Having something doesn’t say a lot about who you are, what you believe or how you think, so spirit magic should be usable by anyone. Being something is pretty fundamental to your identity, beliefs and values. It’s hard to see how a character can be more than one thing at a time, so many different theist religious practices are likely to be fundamentally incompatible.

Spirit Magic is something you have - If you can get it you have it, so this is easy for anyone to gain, assuming they have access to whoever teaches Spirit Magic.

Rune Magic is something you are - So, you can become, changing what you are. A Sorcerer could join a theistic cult and learn runemagic, if that cult accept sorcerers, or people who know sorcery.

Sorcery is something you know - So, if you can learn it then you can know it. The trick is getting someone to teach you it, not being unable to learn it.

Again, these are cultural and philospohical arguments as why people don't learn these types of magic, rather than why it should be impossible to learn them.

2 hours ago, creativehum said:

Soltakss, do you have a write up of how you run HQ anywhere?

This is the closest I have. It is from 2006, though, so is 12 years old. 

Having read it,  I think that my views have changed and that I would have simplified it even further. For instance, in that, I say "What he couldn't do is say "I am a warrior, so that will scare people away", as Warrior is a keyword and can only be used to augment.", but now I would just allow it, as my new principles include that All Skills are the Same. I think it was a staging point, to make HeroQuest lighter and faster. Now, I have simplified it even further. SuperHeroQuest is a bit closer to how I would do things, but even that gets bogged down with Gadgets and Bases. 

I suppose I should write up how I play HeroQuest Lite now. So much to do, so little time.

On 6/19/2018 at 12:25 PM, metcalph said:

The effigy is destroyed just before the enemy arrives.    If the enemy is on foot, then the summoners may receive five minutes warning and the ritual is still in effect.  If the enemy teleports, well, the summoners are going to have some difficulty.

Our PCs used the Summons of Evil in a HeroQuest game, effectively to lance a boil, but Granny Keeneye possessed the effigy and went apeshit on them.

It can be a useful tool, but can also summon very nasty foes directly into the clan hearth. It is one way that Chaos HeroQuestors can get inside an Orlanth Clan, they simply hijack a Summons of Evil and insert themselves in, so the clan members are expecting Gnorri Badgut, the local Broo thug, but instead get Ralzakark King of the Broos, oops!

On 6/19/2018 at 5:40 PM, Mac said:

In the mail to ajs!  The Thread is dead!

Long Live the Thread.

On 6/19/2018 at 4:41 AM, Richard S. said:

We know that most of the major elder races hate each other as a group, but on an individual basis humans have been able to interact with and sometimes even befriend trolls, elves, dwarves, and even sometimes dragonnewts, but could a situation like this occur between non-humans? Now I know that there's probably some  bigger underlying mythical reason for this, like since humans only having the man rune as their defining racial rune they can relate to everything with it, but I think it would be pretty neat if we could maybe have some sort of Gloranthan Legolas/Gimli relationship between a young elf not yet settled in his forest and an openhandist or individualist dwarf, or maybe a dwarf/troll team up to clear out a nest cave underground Broo, or even something like a troll dragonfriend.

We had trolls, elves and dwarves adventuring together in our RQ2 days. The elf was a Yelornan Unicorn Rider with an obscene Elf Bow skill and Power Arrows that bumped up her shots by one level (Normal to Special, Special to critical and so on) and a huge INT and DEX. The trolls included Derak the Dark troll, Rune Lord Priest of Zroak Zoran, Masher, Rune Lord priest of Zoran Zoran and head of Derak's complaints Department, and Spidertroll, a Priest of Aranea who was overshadwoed by the other two. The dwarf was a Humakti, with a small H, who was attuned to a Godling Bone, so when he died, he wasn;t really dead for a number of days, so he could be brought back without breaking any Humakti taboos, once he "died" and left standing orders that he be carried back and Resurrected, so one of the trolls in the party, Derak the Dark Troll, offered to carry him back, every so often we could hear munching noises that would suddenly stop, it turned out that he was taking "little" bites out of the Mostali as "He's dead anyway and darves are really tasty".

Sure, they challenged each other, distrusted each other and had differing objectives and cultural.cult oppositions, but they found a way to work together.

A friend of mine calls it the Brasso Movie, as they were all in dull armour until Lancelot shows up, then they are in shiny armour, as though Lancelot brought a case of Brasso.

On 6/19/2018 at 10:00 AM, Furry Fella said:

Odd you mention the Rock Lizard Mother. Just 2 moderate characters can take her - the Quirk is good shimmer spell. More characters makes her more dangerous as more attacks.  Actually the 3 Ghosts are the likely killer as they are POW 20, 16 and 14.

The bit I think people are missing is the Rune Spell Sanctify as a common spell. Worship cam be conducted in a sanctified area. Equally the Rock Lizard Mother is in a sacred place following the general tenor she should be or have some priestly power(s).

We found that she was actually quite hard to kill. She regenerates, from memory, with a good chunk of skin armour and a fair number of hit points. The ghosts certainly don't help, as Spirit Combat in RQ2 could kill you. The Rock Lizard Mother is actually a Demigoddess, or an Avatar of Mother Rock Lizard. She is definitely in a Sacred Place and would count as the equivalent of a Wyter in the RQG rules, except that she has no worshippers. Her Spirit has been broken, hence the Ghosts, so she is effectively the unintelligent Beast Aspect of Mother Rock Lizard, trapped in a GodTime Bubble, or Short World. So, that is why I wouldn;t give her Rune Points, as such, but would probably give her Temple Defences instead.

On 6/19/2018 at 2:54 AM, Ian_W said:

The second thing they need to think about is how generous they want to be with "in support of another" - will you let Eurmal get away with 'I do interpretive dance to look like I'm summoning a spirit, to allow my friend Orlanth to shank them'.

Oh, absolutely. I would definitely allow that.

We have used Distracting Puppies in HeroQuest, an ability of a well-endowed female PC to distract opponents with her charms. Mello Yello has Harmonius Dance, in our current campaign, which he uses to devastating effect as a distraction and also to seal Harmony Rune stuff.

Also, Ducks used to live in Ganderland, a great and powerful Empire. Now, they live in hovels along the edges of rivers and in marshes. They have such an inferiority complex, it is hard to understand. Orlanth/Yelm cursed them to be Flightless (Probably both, in my opinion), they were used as scapegoats for the Starbrow Rebellion and their Bills were removed to collect the rewards. They are a vicious, spiteful, vindictive and petty people, with the biggest short-person syndrome ever. Everyone laughs at them and they can't do anything about it. 

This makes them great to roleplay.

On 6/18/2018 at 10:49 AM, Tigerwomble said:

I have a friend who does not 'get' Gloranthan Ducks. He, quite rightly says that they have no heroic provenance (Howard the Duck notwithstanding).
It's a good point. They have never been part of the mythic landscape, unlike other birds such as Crow and Hawk. For me, Ducks represent
the kind of creative thinking that makes Glorantha special. But they can be quite a hurdle to overcome for some players new to the game
and difficult to avoid excluding so as to reassure those players.

How have others coped with this 'duck problem'?

In our RQ Game, we had a Humakti Rune Lord Priest, Pektok, who was a typical dour, humourless, "cut you if you laugh at me" Humakti Duck. He was vicious. Once, the players of Pektok and Derak the Dark troll went to someone else's game and played each other's PC for half the game, then switched and played their own PCs for the rest of the game. In that game, a PC Centaur, who hadn't met Pektok before, laughed and saod something like "Oh, a Humakti Duck, isn't he funny/cute?", to which pektok simply walked between his legs and gutted him with his Greatsword.

Ducks can be humorous or deadly serious. I like them being deadly serious, as that makes them even funnier.

In my game, they took shelter with Delecti in the Upland Marsh after the Dragonkill. Delecti saved the Ducks and even likes them. If it wasn;t for Delecti, the Ducks would all have been killed by the Dragons. He knows it, the Ducks know it, but the Ducks don't like it and don't talk about it. They even embraced the worship of Humakt and went against Delecti, knowing full well that they are going against their saviour. Delecti doesn't mind this at all, as Ducks will be Ducks.

So, treat them seriously and all will be well.

Duck bandits are good in water and can be found along the Zola Fel.

Duck Humakti bear a grudge and should never be crossed.

Duck entertainers have a natural advantage that they are entertaining.

Duck Lovers are funny because I cannot imagine how a Duck can be a famous lover.

On 6/19/2018 at 11:48 AM, Ian_W said:

To Orlanthi, sorcery is something that has happened inside Time - it isn't part of any of their core myths.

Well, yes and no.

It is true that Arkat gave his Malkioni Relics to Orlanth when he joined the cult of Orlanth and that was in Time. I'd say that gave some Orlanthi the ability to learn Sorcery.

However, Lhankor Mhy was always from the West and was probably always some kind of Sorcerer, although it was never given much prominence before. RQ2 didn't have Sorcery, RQ3 basically said "Divine Magicians can't be Sorcerers", then tied itself in knots explaining those that were. Lhankor Mhy only really explicitly gained Sorcery in HeroQuest.

I haven't got a problem with it. In fact, I can think of no good reason, not a single one, why a Theist cannot learn Sorcery. Your god might frown on it and there might be cultural reasons why you don't, but no reason why you can't. A spell is a spell is a spell, it's just a different type of magic to me.

On 6/20/2018 at 10:42 AM, Aldaron said:

Hi folks. I think I'm going blind or something 

Anthropowanking will do that.

In the case of Scan vs Hide, I play that the Scan is active and the Hide is pasive, so the Scan is actively trying to see the passive Hide. Ona tie, the Scan is not victorious, so doesn't see the Hidden Adventurer.

Nothing wrong with that. 

Some people don't like Ties, as it is an unresolved roll. Personally, I don't mind Ties. Not everything necessarily has a clear-cut winner. 

I'm English. We watch Test Cricket. Sometimes, a game is tied after 5 days of glorious Cricket.

On 6/20/2018 at 4:51 PM, creativehum said:

And so... if I want the rules for HeroQuesting I buy the GM Pack?

Nope, the GM book. Jeff said it's going to be awesome. 

For odd little things that maybe didn't work in RQ2/RQ3, we used a little thing called Common Sense. It worked wonders.

22 hours ago, MJ Sadique said:

hey Atgxtg ..... What's a FOURMS ???

It's like a fivems, just not as good.