soltakss

For me, having veggie Morokanth doesn't make much sense.

The Survival Covenant meant that the Eaters gained the ability to eat the meat of the Eaten, who in turn gained the ability to eat the harsh plants of the Wastes.

Now, maybe both sides already had the ability to eat both but the Survival Covenant enhanced that ability.

In my Glorantha, Morokanth primarily eat Herd Beasts but also eat some vegetables, herbs and so on. They would not eat the harsh chapparral of Prax as that would mean that they identify as herd beasts, which is against the Survival Covenant.

I read somewhere that female broo tend not to reproduce as they always undergo broobirth, with the baby broo eating its way out.

My view of broo society is that of the weakest broo being the butt of all the others, so to speak.

On 5/12/2016 at 8:19 PM, g33k said:

As an aside... has any Gloranthan publication ever assigned stats/etc to Cacodemon?

RQ3 Elder Secrets - He's big, he's tough, he's surrounded by 1D100 Fiends and he lasted under 3 rounds in combat with both high-level PC Parties in the campaigns I have run.

3 hours ago, MOB said:

Just wondering if anyone has played (or read through) Greg Stafford's RQ Classic scenario The Sea Cave yet and what do you think - has it stood the test of time?

In my opinion, let's just say that RQ scenarios have advanced a lot over the years.

It is, however, a good example of early Chaosium RQ scenarios, before the heyday of Pavis/Big Rubble, Borderlands, TrollPack and Griffin Mountain.

On 5/11/2016 at 2:00 AM, TRose said:

First time I played we got two monsters and I drew a Goblin(Great biggest wimp in game) and a Basilisk. So I put the Basilisk in a bag and had the Goblin wander around with the bag  and when ever some human guards showed up the goblin would sit down and whimper  , Its mine , its mine don't take my precious. And of course when the Guards grabbed the bag and looked inside...

I did the same thing with a peephole in a wall, behind which was a basilisk. The PCs just could not help looking through the hole ...

6 hours ago, Mugen said:

Here is how I see RQ-related games, restrained to Chaosium-published ones:

I can't see that RQ3 derived from BRP. RQ3 clearly derives from RQ2. 

I can see a relationship between BRP and CoC, but I am not sure which came first. I had a copy of BRP in my RQ2 Boxed Set back in the early eighties (Wikipedia says RQ2 was released in 1980 and CoC in 1981 but it doesn't mention the GW RQ2 Boxed Set).

4 hours ago, Pentallion said:

But did Ganderland always exist in the God Time or is that a GL construct?

Why would the God Learners construct Ganderland of all places?

Most people ignore it, hide its existence or dismiss it as irrelevant.

Don't forget that Ganderland existed in the GodTime, a mythical homeland for both Durulz and Keets.

I read somewhere that some Ducks of Dragon Pass were brought back by EWF HeroQuestors trying to recreate the GodTime beasts. I don't know whether all Ducks are descended from them or whether there were already Ducks in Dragon Pass. I cannot remember reading about Ducks in the First Age.

5 hours ago, creativehum said:

Hmmmm... I have a feeling Jenx, jajagappa and I are pretty much on the same page and that I might not be making myself clear. And so, the following:

1. The portion of HQG that I'm talking about

And then, of course, all the passage that follow about the three runes you choose that:

1. "reflects the dominant aspect of your soul"
2. "defines your dominant temperament" 
3. "your magical temperament"

And then the next section discusses how "Your Runes have a distinct impact on your personality..."

So, that's the stuff I was talking about above.

Those are guidelines, nothing more.

I see the runes as shaping not defining, so they shape your behaviour but do not define it in the sense that they govern things.

PCs with the Death Rune may behave in a certain way but the Death Rune does not force them to behave in the same way. Worshippers of Humakt, Storm Bull, Zorak Zoran and FoundChild would be expected to act very differently, even though they all have the Death Rune.

2. There Should be Tension With Behavior Expected  of Runes and Gods

What Jenx wrote right there, I love that stuff. Characters should go against the expected behavior of Gods and Runes if that's what they want. That sort of stuff is awesome.

What I'm not keen on is the stuff from point 1 above. Yes, I understand that one can make a roll against it if one wants to "act in a manner contrary to the Rune." But the point is, it's not just a Rune, it's who you are, as defined in the points listed in 1. In such cases the PC is always acting against himself or herself because the Runes, as described in the character creation section, are innate in the PC and the default. This is different than Traits in Pendragon, in which a Knight is never determined to be one side of the Traits or another, but can move in a fluid manner over to time to have a higher value in either direction. 

But, a Rune is just a Rune. 

Your relationship with your deity is more important than the Rune itself.

Your innate nature is more important than the Rune itself.

So, a Troll might have the Darkness Rune, as might a Star Witch in Prax, but they will behave differently.

My rules of thumb regarding combat are:

• A PC Party can normally defeat an NPC Party of the same skill level and numbers
• A PC Party can often defeat an NPC Party of the same skill level but slightly superior numbers
• A PC Party can rarely defeat an NPC Party of the same skill level but far greater numbers
• A PC Party can normally defeat a single NPC Boss regardless of skill and level

The last one might need a bit of explanation. A tooled up PC Party that knows what it is doing can work together and defeat a single stupidly-powerful NPC by using clever tactics, teamwork and so on. Two powerful NPC Bosses might prove tricky, though.

4 hours ago, creativehum said:

Third, with all that in mind, I have an answer to the question from my first post: "Are the runes PCs start with in HQ:G the same runes that PCs once sought out in RQ? That is, do the PCs start with what they once had to work to get? Am I understanding this correctly?"

The answer, in terms of pure fiction, "Yes, sure." In a practical sense for RPG play, the answer is "No." The Runes one starts with in HQG are about one's soul and temperament and can be used to Augment mundane Traits. The Runes one gets by Initiating into a cult (as one got them in RQ) allow all sorts of other abilities and powers. (Even if the lists of benefits is short and incomplete in the text of RQ, those magical benefits and Rune magic are still there.)

I think the runes to be used in the new version of RuneQuest will be the same as the ones in HQ:G, so going forward there will be a high degree of compatibility.

5 hours ago, creativehum said:

I must have a weird edition of the book. I'm looking at it right now and I see Orlanth Rune spells on page 69, Kyger Litor Rune spells on p. 72, and Black Fang Brotherhood Rune spells on 72. Note that I'm not claiming any kind of comprehensive list of rune magic (clearly not). But it does seem to be there.

In RQ2, cults have runes and deities grant runemagic, but the magic they grant are not always rune-based.

9 hours ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

No it didn't. Whole section on Runic Affinities and cults defined by their runes.

No it didn't; see above.

OK, thanks, it has been a long time since I read RQ5/RQ6.

11 hours ago, creativehum said:

Hi! And thanks for the replies.

i'm not sure of the above statements are true -- at least as they regard RuneQuest 2nd ed

In RQ 2nd once one becomes initiated one has access to runes and those runes give you access to specific magic. (At least that's what I saw when I read the rules this morning.)

 

Are you looking at Mongoose's Second Edition? If so, that is RQ5. If it has Legendary Abilities of Combat Manoeuvres then it is RQ5 not RQ2.

RuneQuest 2 said that Rune Priests tried to master the Magic Rune and Rune Lords the Mastery Rune, but that is as far as it went.

RuneQuest 3 pretty much ignored Runes, except where they concerned cults.

RuneQuest 4 (Mongoose RQI) had a Rune Chase that was a nice idea but didn't really work.

RuneQuest 5 (Mongoose RQII) ignored Runes.

RuneQuest 6 ignored Runes, I think.

The runes in HQ:G are new and very different from how Runes used to work.

In previous versions of RQ, you joined a cult and became loosely associated with the runes of the cult. They didn't really give you any benefits.

In HQ:G, there are fairly rigid rules about what runes you can have. I would be far more flexible as a GM.

However, all this is from a faded memory and is all in my opinion, so is most likely wrong.

Personally, I have never bothered balancing out characteristics - Trolls are bigger and stronger than Halflings, tough! That's life!

RuneQuest and all other similar systems have a Previous Experience system that is, by and large, independent of characteristics. Sure, some skills start higher or lower depending on characteristics, but the amount you add to the skills is the same, assuming all PCs are generated at the same level.

RQ/BRP/Similar Systems are more skill-based than stat-based anyway, especially as Mythras/Legend/RQ6 use skills rather than Characteristic x5% rolls. 

For a point-buy system it might be more problematic, but if you accept that different races get a different number of points to spend then it's OK. If you insist that all races have the same points to spend then you are creating massive problems, in my opinion.

15 hours ago, 1970 said:

What if I'm not reasonably competent ?

Competent 50% should be enough.

In the writeup of Doburdan, he was a husband-protector of Ernalda, but gave her up when Orlanth came back.

I'd just have it as a Language as it makes things easy to use.

You can use most of the versions of RQ together fairly easily.

Resilience, Persistence and Common Magic are the three big skills that are not used in earlier RQs.

HPs, APs and weapon damage vary slightly, but you can shrug that off as being flavour.

Many skills have been rolled into one, so Perception instead of Spot Hidden/Spot Traps or Athletics instead of Climbing/Jumping but that makes things easier.

You should be able to run Mongoose RQ scenarios with RQ2/RQ3 fairly easily.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

One major difference between Mostali and Moties is their reproduction drive, though. Thankfully the Mostali are not subject to the curse of procreation or painful death, rather the reverse, with good maintenance they are potentially immortal.

Fortunately, according to Elder Secrets, grinding away with mortar and pestle for hours or days at a time is rather unpleasant for Mostali, thus explaining their low reproductive rate.

I thought the Piscoi breathe water and the Cetoi breathe air.

I thought that most merfolk breathed water, just a few types breathed air.

When the Storm tribe conquered the waters, there was a lot of looting and taking of Naiads, the children of these matings became the ancestors of the air-breathing mermen. Some Naiads voluntarily aided the Storm tribe but most did not.

Water-breathing mermen are the descendants of Water Gods and Naiads - There were a lot more of them than the Storm Tribe.

Surface dwellers probably see more air-breathers as they are the ones who have to come to the surface more often. Water-breathers don't need to come to the surface at all.

28 minutes ago, muminalver said:

Simon did you get my answer?

I'm planning a Demonic year, between Rq 3, RQ 6 and Magic World and Drakar och Demoner... do I have almost too many Demons..

 

Sorry, was working late last night and was in our weekly RQ game afterwards. I'll try and send you some stuff tonight or tomorrow.

I have sent you a PM