soltakss

We had several PCs per player, except for two players who only had one PC each (Zorak Zorani Dark Troll and Yelornan Elf).

One PC group had trolls, the minotaur, Morokanth and some Storm Bull humans, the other had the duck, elf, centaur and more humans. So, it was rare that the trolls and elf joined in the same scenario.

To add complication, the Duck was a Sword Drake of Humakt, two of the trolls and the Morokanth were Death Lords of Zorak Zoran, the Centaur was a Light Son of Yelmalio, the Elf was a Unicorn Rider Rune Lady of Yelorna, the Minotaur was a Storm Khan of Storm Bull and the Dwarf was a Sword of Humakt. So, the Humakti, Yelmalians and Yelornan could eaily play together, the Orlanthi could play with both sets of parties, as long as they challenged the Yalmalians to riddling, the Zorak Zorani and Storm Bulls worked together well and could tolerate Orlanthi.

It got a bit tricky when players with one PC played together. That meant that you had a Zorak Zorani Dark Troll and Yelornan Elf in the same party. Fortunately, they were both Illuminated, so could tolerate each other. The Yelornan had a Unicorn that could have been a rune lord itself and had a very sharp horn, she also had Power Arrows that turned normal hoits into impales, implaes into criticals and criticals into critical impales and wasn't afraid of using them against uppity trolls.

When the Humakti Duck played with the trolls, things got interesting. He always killed any zombies or mummies that the Zorak Zorani raised, for example.

The party were climbing a staircase when they set off an arbalest, which hit the lead PC doing 19 damage to the chest, ignoring armour, Pektok the Duck was in front, followed by Masher, the Great Troll, Masher's PC laughed at the Duck getting creamed, until Pektok's player argued succesfully that the arbalest would have been set up to hit a human and miss a duck, so it would hit the second person in the party, oops!

Once, the Dwarf was travelling with the trolls. Even though he was a Humakti, he was attuned to a Godling Bone, which kept his soul bound and allowed Resurrection without losing skills due to the delay (We played that Humakti could be resurrected but couldn't ask for Resurrection through Divine Intervention, otherwise they were unplayable in a long and deadly campaign), so he had a handle built into the back of his plate armour, in case he was killed. Needless to say, he was killed and taken back to a temple to be Resurrected. Derak the Dark Troll offered to carry him back, to show there was no ill will between Zorak Zoran and Humakt. As they went, they could hear Derak eating noisily and assumed he had a packed lunch, it was only when they reached the temple when they discovered the dwarf had a lot more bite marks on his arms and legs than before. When challenged, Derak's reply was "Well, Dwarves are tasty..."

In my Glorantha, each Temple of the Reaching Moon has a daughter of Yara Aranis, effectively a nymph-avatar, who lives in the temple. 

On 7/23/2017 at 10:25 PM, scott-martin said:

Love it. Dangerous! Any time someone pauses and realizes, this is like that one time god did something similar, the walls around the worlds open out.

Exactly. That's why HeroQuesting is so much fun. Think of a myth, lay it on the world and go on a HeroQuest. Easy-peasy.

On 7/26/2017 at 5:23 PM, Psullie said:

The weekly discussions relating to the Guide have highlighted the alien nature of the Elder Races. I've always stuck with humans as PC's in my RQ games as there is enough cultural diversity for me in Glorantha. 

Broken dwarves, aldryami scouts, exiled dragonewts not to mention all the beast men offer interesting role-playing opportunities. However I often found that as written in RQ2 they lacked a truly alien appeal, they were the same as human but with a slightly different Characteristic spread and perhaps an aversion to iron. They really were no different than elves & dwarves from D&D. I hoping that RQG addresses this but I though I'd like to through it out to the community too.

So, what have you done in the past that worked or not when having an Elder Race PC? Also, has anyone ever played an entirely Elder Race group?

When playing a non-human, I look to the examples in the many Gloranthan supplements. The mythic background and cults give some ideas about how they react/act, Elder Secrets and Troll Pack give a lot of information about the Elder Races. Anything else can be made up and thus becomes canon for that campaign.

In our old RQ2 campaign, we had a Morokanth, a Duck, a Minotaur, an Elf, a Dwarf, a Centaur and several Trolls. They behaved how the players thought they should behave. It seemed to work for us.

12 hours ago, Yelm's Light said:

And what else floats?  ...

Burning water.

On 7/26/2017 at 0:40 PM, Akhôrahil said:

Does wood burn because it contains elemental Fire that's released as part of the burning (like phlogiston, or caloric), or because Fire brought to it starts to eat it to grow?

Because Oakfed gorged on the Forest of Prax.

Aldrya was born of Ernalda and Flamal, no Fire there. Shanasee was a love nymph, so no Fire there. 

On 7/25/2017 at 7:05 PM, Jeff said:

The Man Who Came From The Sea rode the Kings Highway and took a face from the gallery of mirrors, asked his future self what his past had done. He walked down a hall and came to a door and looked inside.

Probably the most useful comment about the Pharoah.

On 7/24/2017 at 7:10 PM, Joerg said:

Electrons might be a thing - amber rubbing on wool should raise hairs, and plasma/flame/lightning might be the separation of electrons from cores. If we can find a different explanation for these effects which might have a better magical feel, I'd go for them if they aren't too silly.

When Umath was born, he lifted Aether Primolt from his earthy bed and spun him around. Where the two met, they rubeed together and a new goddess was born, Entekos the Upper Air. Entekos was the Sky Air and the Air Sky, a buffer between Air and Sky, keeping the polluting Air from the Sky Dome. Because of this, when a piece of wool is rubbed against a sheet of gold, the wool sticks to the gold, as Entekos sticks to the Sky. Amber is Entekos' jewel, so the same applies to amber.

8 hours ago, Mankcam said:

I've toyed with using a *, a #, and a ^ ,but you could even just go with a capital 'M

Which is what Mythic Russia did. I use that notation all the while nowadays.

Thanks for these. It is always interesting to see how people use BRP/d100/RQ for SciFi games.

1. Yes, Earth priestesses are nothing if not pragmatic

2. Yes, of course,the Tarshite Earth temple worships Ernalda, as well as other deities such as Dendara, so they have common ground

3. Yes, Sartar and Tarsh are still alike in many ways. Although Tarsh has taken on a lot of Lunar ways, some Tarshites still have clan connections with northern Sartarites. There are still Orlanthi ideas amongst the clans of tarsh, although some have moved to Lunar ways.

The problem is, in Tarsh the Earth Temple does not rule. Tarsh has a governor and a King, I think, neither of whom are friendly to the Sartarites. Orders come from above, from the Red Emperor, who is definitely not keen on Sartarite rebels.

Also, making advances to the Tarsh Earth Temple will also really annoy the Tarsh Rebels on Wintertop. They have earth powers of their own and would gladly stomp all over the PCs in order to stop such an alliance.

On 7/21/2017 at 3:45 PM, Ian Cooper said:

How many of you use the relationship-map as a techinique to run sandbox adventures. For those who don't know what an r-map is, or want be sure what I mean, the definition I use would be this one: http://sgcodex.wikidot.com/relationship-maps

No, I don't use relationship maps. I toyed with them for a bit but they don;t help me much. One of our players loves them, though. so I sometimes sketch one to help him out, but that is a very quick map and not used for anything else.

So, I suppose I do and I don't ...

If you do use r-maps, I'd like to understand:

• How you use them? As a game aid for a plotted scenario, or campaign, or as the driver for the game i.e. in other words do players frame scenes with characters on the map, or do you frame all scenes and just use the r-map to give context? Do you update them in play as relationships in play?
• How do you create them? The GM creates the map and shows the players? Or do you collaboratively develop the r-map as part of setup. (Games like Fiasco, Questlandia, or In A Wicked Age have a setup step where you create PCs and the NPC R-Map at the same time).
• Do you mix both plotted (on rails, branching or not) sessions with r-map sessions, or is it exclusive.

As a game aid, to work out the relationships between PCs and NPCs.

I draw some, players draw some and we mash them together.

No idea! My experiences with relationship maps is as a pretty picture than can be useful in mapping relationships. Beyond that, I am lost.

If you don't use them, I'd like to understand why:

• I have never heard of them.
• They don't suit my group's style, they prefer plotted 'on rails' material
• I have heard of them, but I don't really understand how to use them to drive play, so I just use them to explain the key NPCs and then drive with plotted material.

I have heard of them.

They are useful to a certain extent, but only as a game aid.

I definitely don't understand how to use them in play to drive play. Can they be used that way?

And in both cases, do you think that advice on how to use them to run a Heroquest game would be valuable?

Absolutely, yes.

The more advice/examples of different techniques we have help us to learn new techniques that can be used in games.

Not just HeroQuest, either, they should be usable with RuneQuest and other systems as well. The relationships between NPCs and PCs are not rules specific, or am I missing something?

It shouldn't matter which system you are using for the rules. 

If you travel through the Lunar Empire, why should the rules matter?

RQ spells and HeroQuest Abilities work in essentially the same, way, at least I have always thought so. Sure, HQ allows things to be used more often, but Detect Enemy is Detect Enemy, a clan wyter is a clan wyter and so on.

7 hours ago, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

A minor point but in RQ2 if you split your attack the separate attacks had to be vs different targets (p23 Splitting Attacks)

We houseruled this to allow multiple attacks against the same person - A high skill should mean that a master should have the advantage over a less-skilled person.

2 hours ago, Dogboy said:

Aldryami archer up in the branches, done in pencils. Gave it away to another artist, years ago, and haven't got a copy of it any more  

See the little Elf Lord sitting in a tree, K-I-L-L-I-N-G

9 hours ago, davecake said:

My favourite thing about this chapter is the opening sentence is contradictory - it calls the dragonnewts 'the eldest creatures', then says they are descended from dragons, which would make the dragons the eldest. An excellent way to start. 

This just means that dragons are not creatures ...

Is Alanthore the Bronze Sword Prophet who was mentioned in the Gloranthan Encyclopedia?

5 hours ago, Zit said:

no, you're right, a penalty is better, but the chart says "one Consequence". (even if the text below says "Penalty")

We changed from Penalties to Consequences halfway through, as Penalties seemed too harsh. Obviously I didn't change it everywhere.

The French line in the table should have a Penalty for Occitan.

5 hours ago, Zit said:

ok, I won't mention pages anymore, I only thought it would help. But I mentioned the sections as well.

Please mention them. If they have Page xx then they are clearly wrong and we have missed them. 

When writing them, I use a word processor without illustrations and page numbers will not match the final document, which is why I normally don't use Page xx. I think this might have been introduced in an editing phase and wasn't caught in the proofreading.

5 hours ago, Zit said:

"Diseases and Illness" -> "Wounds & Infection": the last sentence is cut.

Probably best to remove ", and even if the", as I cannot remember what I was going to put there. My document has the half sentence. I probably meant to have a Consequence or Penalty to the wound, but that might be overkill.

5 hours ago, Zit said:

Do you want to start an errata thread ? I've already seen 2 :

- p.11 language table: any French shall speak any Occitan with a penalty (not a consequence)

- p. 35, Corn Dollies: a page reference is missing "see also p.xx"

Thanks.

Is Occitan so close to French as to only have a consequence? I thought it was a bit further removed than that.

I hate page references in RPG books. I much prefer referring to sections or chapters.

Is that a Dark Troll and a Great Troll?

On 7/11/2017 at 5:20 AM, 10baseT said:

Hi Folks, who runs the Bullpen? Is it Aeolian knights or more traditional Storm Bull and Orlanthi?

In my Glorantha, Bullpen is the second largest Storm Bull place, after the Block. It is a temple complex and acts as a garrison. It guards against the chaos that erupts from the Footprint. Every generation or so, some Storm Khan gets the Storm Bullers fired up and they march off to the Footprint to purge it of chaos, with varying results. Interestingly, the Storm Bullers of Oxhead also get fired up once a generation and march off to fight a crusade against Chaos in Dorastor, but they very rarely come back and, even then, don't come back the same.

And now that the Red Moon temple is gone from Sartar... did these battles get rid of Queen Jab or is her Queendom still present. (Wondering if the Bullpen is still watching for incursions from the print.. well, those may always be there but curious about the Queendom). I appreciate the help. Thx, Gil

Queen Jab is not really connected to the Lunars, I think. Sure, they try to ally her and she could probably be persuaded to help the Lunars, but she has no loyalty or allegiance to them. At some point, chaos erupts from the Footprint and Snakepipe Hollow to assist the Lunars, but how much is through allegiance and how much is merely the manipulation of Primal Chais, I don't know.

On 7/13/2017 at 3:43 AM, Evilroddy said:

So my question is how likely can a party of politically hostile but passive Lightbringers cross the heart of the Lunar empire without running afoul of Lunar magical and spiritual defences, if they are disguised, circumspect and furtive in their crossing? They all but one speak some Pelorian and two are quite fluent speakers. They are flush with money, so need not rob and pilfer their way across the Lunar Empire. Given that clan wyters can detect the presence of foreigners on clan lands does the Lunar empire have magical and/or spiritual mechanisms for detecting aliens crossing its territory remotely or must it rely upon military patrols and interrogation of intercepted foreigners to secure its sovereignty?

Get them to jump on a boat. They can travel along the Black Eel River, from Balazar, up to the Oslir River to Alkoth, then down the Erinflarth to Dorastor.

If they pay enough, they might even be able to get a small ship that is enclosed. Dress in robes and wear masks for religious reasons, seclude themselves for some ritual and that gets around being seen. 

It might not be the most exciting adventure, though ...

On 7/11/2017 at 5:37 AM, Tcneseleis said:

Lodrilli villagers live in houses made of mud-brick, reeds, or timber, depending on the local resources. Village houses are small and tightly packed together, often forming clusters of adjoined houses with the rooftops used as pathways, and the dwellings accessed by hatches in the ceiling using ladders or stairs.

Sounds like Çatal Hüyük

It's a picture. Doesn't have to be accurate or realistic.

7 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

2. The history of Sartar is (perhaps surprisingly) not to any large extent one about aggressive external wars. Sartar himself is a builder and a peace-maker. In fact, parts of King of Sartar can be read as a comparison between Sartar and Argrath, where Argrath comes out looking awful. Sartar solves the Telmori problem through diplomacy. Argrath solves the Telmori problem through wholesale genocide and butchering the corpses for magic. 

Argrath is a PC ...