soltakss

I like the idea of the Dragonewt Gap in their Personality Traits and use it in my games.

So, whereas a human might have Brave 01-70/71-100 Cowardly, a Dragonewt might have Brave 01-69/70-71/72-100 Cowardly, thus introducing a gap. If the Dragonewt rolls against Brave/Cowardly and rolls inside the gap, then it has behaved correctly, according to Right Action, and can choose whethwer to be Brave/Cowardly/Neither, otherwise the Dragonewt is forced to be Brave or Cowardly and should do something later to correct actions.

As a Dragonewt gains experience, the gap can increase, meaning it has more control over emotions. In my Glorantha, each Stage much challenge and master a number of pairs of emotions, in other words having a gap of 90 or more. Once those emotions are mastered it can progress to the next stage where it must challenge and master another group of pairs. A Ruler/Full Priest Dragonewt has mastered most pairs, an Inhuman King/Dragonet has mastered all pairs, so almost always follows Right Action (01 or 100 still counts as failing in this situation).

On 1/13/2018 at 1:17 AM, Yelm's Light said:

So Orlanthi would just lay down for a baboon KoDP?

Yes, but Tarkalor and several others also entered the Contest to marry the FHQ and lost to Mello, so mythically they were trumped. At the moment, the River Voices have put a Harmony spell over Prax and Dragon Pass, binding them all into a single unit of Harmony. All the clans agreed to join, when the River Voices kicked the Lunars out of Prax, Dragon Pass and The Holy Country, then established Harmony across the region through a number of HeroQuests and Rituals. They have installed mythic rulers of the areas, Tada for Prax, Sartar for Sartar, the Only Old One for the Holy Country and so on, but they are all subservient to the River Voices, as they brought those demigods back. 

On 1/13/2018 at 1:17 AM, Yelm's Light said:

And I suppose he married the FHQ too?

Yes, he won the contest to marry the FHQ, ably assisted by his Companions. He was, of course, helped by the fact that Yelm adopted him as a son, allowing beast men following the Mello Yello cult to join Solar cults such as Yelmalio, in essence Mello Yello became a subcult of various Solar cults, Beast men would join the Mello Yello subcult and be part of the main cult.

4 hours ago, dracopticon said:

Hello Soltakss! Is it possible for you to send both parts of the adventure to my address too? Kindest regards, Erik.

I am not sure if I have your email address 

It is advertising and showcasing that people outside our little workd like the games.

Nothing wrong with that. I read it and move on.

For me, Elves are as much influenced by the Man Rune as the Plant Rune, as they are the combination of Man and Plant, so I am not overkeen on very woody/planty elves.

Runners, for me, would look like the images shown above, as they are based on the Plant Rune.

Dryads would also be the same, as they are Plant based without any Man Rune Influence, but I still have the sneaking suspicion that the naked dryad bursting from a tree is how I will always perceive dryads.

Pixes are just made from leftover magic and were made to make Aldrya laugh, so are not really planty at all.

I was introduced to Pushing rolls at a convention and we tried and liked it. However, when we started using Hero Points, pushing became redundant and we don't use it any more.

On 1/9/2018 at 11:08 AM, Ufnal said:

Does that make sense at all? Is it a common (or commonly discredited) theory I never heard of?

It makes perfect sense to me. There are almost certainly other things at play, for example "Nobody can make me do anything", "Violence is always an option" and so on, reflecting the Orlanthi disrupting any Empire they find, but Unification vs Individuality makes a lot of sense.

I see a shaman's fetch as his Spirit Self, so not a separate entity, but that part of the shaman on the Spirit Plane.

So, a shaman moving on the mundane plane normally drags his fetch along, in the same way as dragging his head along. As he can see on the Mundane Plane, he can see on the Spriit Plane using his Fetch's eyes.

Spirits who see the fetch could attack, in the same way that a PC wandering through trolltown could always be attacked by trolls. However, I just treat this as the Shaman seeing what spirits are nearby and interacting with them. In a town, do the PCs talk to everyone they meet? Does everything they meet interact with them? No. In the same way, most spirits will ignore a shaman walking through the spirit plane, or will treat the shaman as just another spirit.

On 1/11/2018 at 4:50 PM, Rob Helm said:

I'm working on adventures that depend on events in Sartar between Dragonrise and the end of 1625. What happened then?

This is the period just before the start of the upcoming game Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.  It must have been something between total bloodbath, and Lunars and sympathizers quietly slinking off. But how did it play out?

For example: the Colymar Tribe had a pro-Lunar King (Kangharl "Blackmor") that was eaten at Dragonrise. Who had he left in charge? How did the tribe find out he wouldn't be coming back? What happened then?

In our current campaign, the PCs brought back the Dragon, having freed it from the Chaos Void within the Crismon Bat. They also brought back Sartar and Tarkalor, installing them as King and Warlord of Sartar, but Mello yello is currently King of Dragon Pass, so I doubt this will be even close to canon. Basically the PCs have installed puppet kings in the Dragon Pass area and give them a good kicking if they interfere with the Harmony that they are creating in the region. 

I would expect the pro-Lunar clans to suddenly decide that being pro-Lunar is a bad idea, so they would chuck out their Lunar symapthisers, or those pro-Lunar clansmen would have a change of heart and say they were always Orlanthi but were trying to infiltrate the Lunars to undermine them and look how well they succeeded. When the Lunars come back, they will say how well they infiltrated the Orlanthi ...

This year ...

I recently realised that I only have this in Spanish, but if you want a Spanish copy then PM me your email address.

I never really accepted the Three Otherworlds approach as it just didn't feel right. My take has always been that the deities are what they are and that people interact with them in whatever way they understand, so sorcerers dominate or revere them, theists worship them, animist get spirits from them and so on.

The worst thing you can do in HeroQuest, in my opinion, is to have a rule that says "[Someone] cannot do [Something]", for example "Shamans cannot use Sorcery". HeroQuest is all about being flexible and doing that is just plain wrong.

Troll shamans can use sorcery, Arkati can certainly use Sorcery and some troll Arkati could be shamans. 

Now, for Pent, some of them follow the Kargzant Tradition, which makes them animists, but I have always given animists access to Divine and Common Magic for no other reason that it makes sense to me.

Yes, the Axe was an earth weapon before Zorak Zoran used it to cut down Flamal, so some Elves could use them, especially if they foreswear fertility.

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

We also don't know much about life in the Stinking Forest.  It was part of a greater elf forest, but clearly has been impacted by the presence of the Tusk Riders.  And trolls going from Halikiv to Dagori Inkarth are most likely to pass through there rather than going up Snakepipe Hollow.

Well, it's called the Stinking Forest because of the number of trolls there, at least it used to be. 

16 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

A carving of a Rock Dwarf?  Or an Andim Demon?  Or maybe some figure from the Kingdom of Ignorance?

 

For some bizarre reason, "Simon Bray in a freeform" immediately sprang to mind!

Sorry Simon! 

18 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Perhaps a pair of dragons from an EWF ruin.

 

Or horses with a tail-sucking fetish ...

I'd probably restrict it to melee and thrown weapons. Why? Because it feels right.

If you are fanatical you have a blood lust, albeit not as strong as Berserker, so you are not going to be able to calmly take out an arrow, string a bow, aim and fire at a target. You might, however, be able to grab a spear and hurl it at a target, as that is a simpler action.

11 hours ago, Tindalos said:

How I see it is ideally an Orlanthi stead should occupy a rough square, an Earth Rune.

There are a lot of other influences. An Orlanth stead in Heortland will be different to one in Sartar, or Tarsh or Aggar. Geography influences the shape of a stead, as does local culture.

13 hours ago, waltshumate said:

So we should ignore it and chalk it up to a tight artwork budget?

Personally, I always ignore artwork, as it represents a moment in time, what one person thought part of Glorantha looks like at that time. This varies over time and by artist, so I simply use artwork as a guide.

Currently, Revolution d100 Backgrounds and Professions have Traits of the form:

• Close Combat [One of Brawl, Spear and Shield, Sword and Shield, Dagger, Staff]
• Communication [Insight, Language: British]
• Knowledge [Home Region]
• Stealth [Hide]

or

• First Aid, Healing, Herbalism, Insight, Persuade
• Pick Three: Magic, Surgery, any other knowledge, any appropriate power

But, it might be better to have:

• Pick 5 from Close Combat [One of Brawl, Spear and Shield, Sword and Shield, Dagger, Staff], Communication [Insight],  Communication [Language: British], Knowledge [Home Region] and Stealth [Hide]

or

• Pick 8 from First Aid, Healing, Herbalism, Insight, Persuade, Magic, Surgery, any other knowledge, any appropriate power

So, which do you prefer? Having some Traits as required with some extra chosen traits, or having 5/8 Traits chosen from a long list?

3 hours ago, Al. said:

And don't Dryads have control over all creatures born in their glades?

In my Glorantha, powerrful Dryads have pregnant bears/wolves staked out in their glades, so they give birth there. Also, dinosaue eggs can be placed in Dryad Groves, so they have control of them when they hatch. Power-Gaming Dryads? Oh yes.

22 hours ago, Archivist said:

It seems like NPC's are built exactly like PC's - skills, stats, hit locations, etc. Is there some approach for building simplified antagonists?

I use a spreadsheet that allows me to quickly stat up NPCs. Basically, I choose Background, Profession, each of the Traits, weapons and Magic from drop-downs and it spits out a character sheet. Very useful when statting up NPCs for supplements.

There is a quote from RQ2 Big Rubble, I think that answers this exact question, when asked why the elves of the Garden have not been attacked and killed by the larger numbers of nearby trolls, the Wood Lord says something like "Simple, we each fire 10 arrows".

Aldryami are normally defensive in nature, defending the forests from troll attacks. In the forests, they can hide and shoot, they have magical plants to help them and have magic that helps do this. The tangled forests confuse Uz Darksense, throwing up echoes everywhere and just showing a tangled mess. Most trolls are, in fact, trollkin and trollkin get spooked very easily, also an Elf is better in hand to hand than a trollkin, in RQ terms they are about the same size and strength but are far more intelligent and dextrous. So, you turn Darl Trolls into pincushions, then scare or chase the trollkin away.

Merry Christmas everyone and have a Happy and prosperous New Year, hopefully with lots of new gaming stuff.

6 hours ago, Yelm's Light said:

Data is ephemeral, no matter how redundant your backups are.  Hardcovers are not.

Unfortunately, if I buy any more hardcopies, my wife/marriage will be ephemeral ...