soltakss

3 hours ago, Baron said:

http://www.soltakss.com/fanpol01.html

OK, now I'm going to bed.

"Now that Glorantha is on a high, Issaries seems to be turning its back on Fan-based publications and seems to want more official material. Since I know of at least 4 people who have stopped producing non-Issaries material, I can see the wealth of material we have had in the past not being carried forward in the future. What will happen in five years when Issaries shoots itself in the foot, as has happened consistently in the past of Glorantha? Where will the fan communty be? Who will carry Glorantha when that happens? Somehow, I think the answer will be: Nobody. The fan community has carried Glorantha too many times and this Fan Policy may well be the thing that kills off all support for Issaries and Glorantha. In my opinion, it is a mistake."

OK, if I said it then I must have thought it true at the time. However, it was 11 years ago and things have changed since then.

Although I am honoured at being quoted for truth about all things Gloranthan, that statement was just my opinion on the fan policy at the time. 

I would be grateful if people didn't use my comments to score points or to support positions against Moon Design/Chaosium/Issaries/The Design Mechanism/Mongoose/Alephtar Games/D101 Games or any of the other great companies who are supporting D100-style games.

My opinions are that of a glorified fanboy and nothing more. Treat them the same as you would someone in your gaming group or someone you meet at a games convention. You wouldn't quote a conversation you had with someone at your gaming table, so why quote me?

5 hours ago, Baron said:

Sharing is good. I've also heard rumors (for those who might be relatively new) that a lot of fan-made material was ordered removed from the net by the powers that were at the time. I always cringe when this type of topic comes up in a forum. It almost always reveals a treasure trove that then disappears a week later. A word to the wise: if you want access to the creativity of fans, it might be clever to ask quietly, and not in an open forum.

If you have a fan licence then nothing should be taken down. The fan licence is very simple, fair and easy to use.

In the 20 years I have had a Gloranthan website, I have only been asked to take down one thing.

I suppose that people who don't want to sign a fan licence would have to take everything down, in theory, but I haven't a clue as to how many people that has affected. In my opinion, if they don't want to sign then they can't complain too much about having to take material down.

15 hours ago, Joerg said:

I wonder if an Orlanth-worshipping Praxian could use the Plundering of Aron instead the Waha quest to regain stolen herd beasts, and whether he would have to have done the quest beforehand in order to get the appropriate magic for his This World task, or whether quest and task are one and the same.

Sure, whichever works best.

One of the benefits that Arkat had was that he joined multiple cults and learned their HeroQuests, enabling him to realise that many of the HeroQuests had common factors/places/events, allowing him to jump from one HeroQuest to another.

Different cults have different HeroQuests that can be used for the same sort of thing. Waha frees Herd beasts to make them part of the clan, Orlanth steals them as a raider. The end result is the same, the herd beasts belong to the raider. However, the herd beasts freed by Waha would belong to the clan in an entirely different way, they wouldn't want to escape, would obey the raider and so on. The herd beasts stolen by an Orlanthi using the Plundering of Aron would be chattel, belongings, not really part of the clan and not integrated with the raider. The clan that the herd beasts were stolen from might decide to raid the Orlanthi in revenge but not raid the Wahan because the Waha Quest legitimised the taking of the beasts.

A Zebra Rider, exiled from Pavis but who wants to wander.

A Yelornan Unicorn Rider who wants to remain apart from the Yelorna Temple in Pavis and the Unicorn Tribe.

An Oasis Folk farmer who has the sudden and inexplicable urge to adventure, even though he is patently unsuited.

Both of those fit my idea of Orlanthi, thanks.

Everyone's experience of HeroQuesting varies.

1 hour ago, Steve said:

I dunno, this is contrary to how I understand a This World heroquest working. I totally respect that YGWV, and I also realise that for a long time there was no published information about how heroquests are supposed to work. But I have a lot of problems with the above approach.

Most importantly IMHO, a heroquest is supposed to have a mythical background and you're reacting parts of the myth in the mundane world if it's a Real World heroquest, attempting to bring back a benefit for your community from that heroquest. But the approach above seems the other way around, it seems like trying to do something specific in the mundane world, and then trying to force a myth onto it - e.g. if you want to steal something in the real world, then you find a myth where your/a god steals something, and you declare that this is the heroquest you're doing. It seems like the wrong way around to me, you're deciding what you want in the mundane world and then shoving a myth on top (and I don't really get why if you want to steal something, you don't just hatch a plan to steal it rather than making it a heroquest).

The Waha Quest in Different Worlds works exactly in this way. The PCs perform a HeroQuest to rescue some herd beasts. They can use the HeroQuest to rescue herd beasts taken by another clan.

Whoever said that HeroQuests are random events?

HeroQuestors don't randomly stumble upon HeroQuests, in fact they normally set off on HeroQuests do achieve certain goals.

The Magical Weapons HeroQuests of Orlanth generally involve stealing things. You could get a magical weapon out of the HeroQuest or you can steal a magic item owned by an NPC. The actual results depend on how the HeroQuest was done, what was invested in the HeroQuest and what happened on the HeroQuest.

If you want to steal a wife from another tribe or need a magical weapon, there are other ways of doing this apart from HeroQuesting. However, HeroQuesting can be used, especially if there is a HeroQuest that your deity performed that can be used.

1 hour ago, Steve said:

I also see a number of problems with doing a raid in this way. Firstly, it's made clear in HQ:G and S:KoH that there will be a suprise or two along the way. The stations may not be what the players were expecting. So this is surely going to throw a spanner in the works if the  players were planning this all out in real world terms. S:KoH says "Locations that are not under the full control of the participants increase the risk of an unpredictable surprise that could threaten the success of the quest and the lives of the questers." 

Sure, there can be surprises.

You might expect a couple of Sun Domer guards and actually get a Sun Lord with all his retinue. Instead of Zorak Zorani guards in Sazdorf you might get Humakti guards. You might expect a station where Orlanth meets Gore and Gash, but instead get ambushed by a group of Zorak Zorani led by a Death Lord enemy.

1 hour ago, Steve said:

The ideas that you mention make it sound like the players have full control over what sort of stuff goes on in this Real World heroquest. I can't find the source right now, but in one of the books there's a description of how a hero in RWH who is interacting with a river spirit/god may appear to mundane world inhabitants that he's just thrashing around doing strange things, so surely the players run a very high risk of being vulnerable - e.g. in their planned raid then who's to say that as they were hoping to sneak up on their opponent's hideout, they don't have some sort of unplanned encounter that causes them to make a load of noise and draw a lot of attention to themselves, which they don't have any control over, and in the mundane world their opponents can attack the party while they're vulnerable.

Of course that can happen.

However, PCs can set the HeroQuest up in such a way as to probably stack the odds in their favour. If Orlanth meets a troll, then get a friend of the PCs to play the troll on the HeroQuest. If Orlanth raids Yelm's Halls then get the guards drunk before the HeroQuest.

1 hour ago, Steve said:

I just don't buy the whole idea of getting a RWH to neatly match to something you want to do in the real world, without very great dangers and unplanned things happening. It sounds very God Learner-ish to have it all mapped out. I may be missing something, of course. And as I said at the start, of course I accept that YGWV.

HeroQuests are dangerous and different things can happen.

One of the good things about HeroQuests, from a gaming point of view, is that the consequences of the HeroQuest can have a very big part to play in the campaign. Fallout of HeroQuests can drive scenarios for many sessions.

1 hour ago, Steve said:

I don't really see how references to "attacks", in terms of a heroquest, make sense.. You can't go and "attack" another clan as part of your heroquest, although you could go on a heroquest that involves a myth that is something to do with that clan, though that still wouldn't mean you "attack" them. In a This World heroquest, you're still acting out part of your myth, not just going on a random raid.

Such attacks happen all the time.

An Orlanthi performing the Scarf of Mist HeroQuest might go into a nearby lake, find a water nymph and force her to become his wife/concubine. He is effectively carrying out an attack on the Water Tribe in the same way that Orlanth did. The fact that the water tribe is a family of nymphs doesn't matter. 

The same Orlanthi could perform the Sandals of Darkness HeroQuest against a troll clan and steal some magical sandals from the High Priestess. This mimics Orlanth stealing from Kyger Litor and substitutes the troll clan priestess for Kyger Litor.

Another HeroQuestor could then use the Scarf of Mist HeroQuest to steal the first Orlanthi's wife away as he would be targeting her as a member of the Water Tribe.

1 hour ago, Steve said:

The thing about others being pulled into a heroquest against their will - you can't "choose" who those people are going to be, particularly as you normally have no idea what your enemies are doing heroquest-wise. If you did find out, perhaps someone spied their long-running preparations, then the only thing you can do is bear in mind that the "best" matches for opposition in that heroquest may be pulled into it, which *might* be some of your nominated people. But it's a very long shot in my view, those opponents really could come from any time and place.

If I perform the Sandals of Darkness HeroQuest against the Sazdorf Clan High Priestess by sneaking into the Sazdorf Caverns and stealing her magical sandals then I am pretty sure that the participants are going to be Sazdorf Clan members. I have chosen the HeroQuest, the time, the place and the targets.

However, if the guards turn out to be troll Humakti instead of Zorak Zorani then I might be surprised and might have to deal with them differently. If the guards include a visiting human Sword of Humakt then that would fit the Sazdorf Clan mythically but might cause my HeroQuest to fail as I don;t have anything useful against Humakti.

38 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Similarly you cannot go back to the Founding of Pavis before it became the Big Rubble - there is no time travel.  But you could sail into the Puzzle Canal in the Big Rubble on the right day and find yourself sailing on the River Styx in the Underworld as there is some occasional connection or gateway to the realm of myth there.

However, if you go on a GodTime HeroQuest to the Founding of Pavis then you can go to the mythic point, as the Founding of Pavis is a Mythic Event. Changes you make are only reflected in Glorantha after that point, so you couldn't change history, but you could change the nature of Pavis itself.

That is what Gbaji did to the trolls - he HeroQuested in time but created a Mythic Event in GodTime. When trolls try to stop him, they travel to the Mythic Event in GodTime, or use that Mythic Event to overlay on normal time. 

1 hour ago, Paid a bod yn dwp said:

And I suppose that these Golden mostali dwarfs that interact with humans are the ones most likely to be distracted by the contact with the outside world, and in rare cases swayed away form their Mostali beliefs to become mortal. Either that or a dwarf who can't except the discipline of mostal belief.

Except that Gold Mostali are very old, very experienced and very magical so are not the kind of Mostali who would be influenced by outside influences.

It might be that the Gold Caste Mostali also include the ones who are learning, progressing towards Gold Mostali status, in which case they might be ripe for new ideas.

I tend to make a distinction between GodTime HeroQuests and Otherworld HeroQuests.

God Time HeroQuests are where you go to the God Time/God Plane and make changes to the Myths. These are what Heroes do to make themselves Heroes and Gods do to make themselves Gods. Effectively, they imprint themselves on the God Plane, shaping it to have a place for them and a myth their cultists can follow.

Otherworld HeroQuests are where you go into places that are not really of this world, magical places, sometimes places that no longer exist. You then HeroQuest in these places and interact with the denizens of those places. So, you might go to the Palace of Black Glass, which no longer exists. What you do will not make a difference to the original myths, but you can access the place as a place of power. 

2 hours ago, Ebaninth said:

 

I still have problems with this "sensed" HQ where creatures can be "pulled in" to a Otherworld HQ.  Assuming it is not a This World HQ, then I could see cults putting up there best players (or at least finding a way to) during times of high risk of Other World HQ's against them - to aid with defense. MOB's Sun County has those four 30-40 POW Spirits (North, South East & West) I presume they are the protectors against HQ's whilst a Sartar Clan would have its Wyter.  When a clan comes under threat would its Rune levels 'share' guard duty with Wyters and such to help?  As it is a Other World, they cannot get killed only weakened.

If you are not talking a "This World" HeroQuest, then someone is making a direct attack on your clan's wyter, its mythic basis. In this case, the priests, lords and HeroQuestors of the clan will know that something is happening and will be sucked into the HeroQuest as opponents.

I have never been of the opinion that you cannot be killed on a HeroQuest. I am quite happy with people being killed on a HeroQuest in the same way they can be killed normally. This idea of bouncing out of the HeroQuest when you are killed is a namby=pamby way of doing things, in my opinion, although it has its place in Dream Quests and the like.

If someone HeroQuested against Zorak Zoran to take the fire powers away from Amanstan then I would expect Zorak Zorani HeroQuestors to be alerted to it and to HeroQuest against the attempt. 

In IT you get those denial of service attacks, something akin to a HQ attack where you get your best people working on the problem.

For the 200 years of Hofstaring Treeleaper, was his clan free of Chaos attacks as he 'aided' its mythological defense.

Esrolia's Building Wall Battle was probably undertaken on an earth cult High Holy Day, when the Lunars were at a low wane.  

In the case of knowing the antagonist you would help your wyter on the High Holy days of the opponent surely.  

Blue Moon trolls keep there cults high holy days a secret to prevent enemies (or targets) from guessing when something might or might not happen.

 

In the case of "This World HW" you don't get pulled in you would seem to just walk into "trouble" ie Bituarians.

Sure, people are very wary on holy days as other HeroQuestors use these days for attacks. Biturian was involved in a HeroQuest when a bunch of trolls raided an Earth Holy Day ceremony, for example.

On Holy Days, your clan is prepared for attacks as everyone gathers in the temple. On Holy Days of enemy cults, your clan is probably prepared for an attack as well.

The danger is on other days, not necessarily holy days but days with special meaning. The anniversary of a Hero's first heroQuest or the anniversary of another clan's raid on your clan, for example.

The problem that we have is that people interpret HeroQuesting in different ways. The way I do it is internally consistent but is probably different to the way that someone else does it. Both versions might work well but behave differently.

1 hour ago, Baniak said:

Hello everybody, this is my first post to this forum, so be gentle with me
As I read "ATtoH" will be set in Arkham in 1930. Is it possible to switch to another city (like Boston) and time (e.g. 1920s)? Or is it necessary to run the campaign in that specific place and time?

I am not sure about the specific scenario, but I have often changed the location and time of scenarios in the past.

Generally it isn't a problem. One lunatic asylum is much the same as another.

If, however, a scenario involved climbing the Empire State Building then you would have to find another tall building to climb if you moved the scenario from New York to another city.

I tend to sway between dwarves being 1970s Trade Unionists to being like those of Discworld, all boring and work-oriented while in the mines but beer-swilling maniacs when outside.

PC Dwarves might have an element of Working for the World Machine (Jobsworth, Working to Rule, Knowing your Place) and being out of the Mostali Realms (I can do what I want, Nobody is watching Me, What are they Doing, That Seems Like Fun).

All in my opinion, of course ...

4 hours ago, Ebaninth said:

Lets say your Sartarite characters undertake a Heroquest with Sun Worshipers as the antagonists.  In the quest they(Orlanth & some Thunder brothers) travel to Yelms palace to steal an item, and during the process they have to fight 4 palace guards or a Yelmic guard deity (one does not spring to mind). 

Assuming they succeed, they start in Sartar and pop into the gods world to undertake an "Otherworld Heroquest".  Who do they end up fighting/defeating/killing, and what happens in the "This World".  Is it the case that the 4 guards in the four corners of the Sartar Sun Dome are found dead at their posts the next morning?  Do they remember have bad dreams on guard the night before? As the "Otherworld" is before time, someone was pulled into the Otherworld Heroquest and they will eventually die from it?  Some Sundomers (as representatives of the guards in the HQ) somewhere in the past or future die?

In my Glorantha, an OtherWorld HeroQuest means that you go to the place in Myth to the place in question. So, you go into the Sky, into hell, onto the Red Moon, into Cragspider's Castle and so on.

So, if your Orlanthi are going on an Otherworld HeroQuest then they physically go to raid Yelm's Palace and bring back something from that fantastic place. The guards met are angels and Yelmic Heroes. Killing those mean that they die permanently.

If, however, your Orlanthi perform the HeroQuest in this world, they might raid the local Sun Dome Temple or a Yelmic mansion. In this case, the guards met might be Yelmalian Temple Guards or part of a Solar Count's bodyguard. I think this is the kind of thing you are looking for.

In my HeroQuests, we overlay the HeroQuest in the real world, to get the benefits of the HeroQuests against real-world opponents. I think many HeroQuests are like this.

The opponents on the HeroQuest are real opponents. Sometimes they are other HeroQuestors, drawn into the HeroQuest, sometimes they are just whoever is available at the time. So, in your example, you might be raiding the local Count's Mansion to get the Sun Crown that contains a clipping of Yelm's fingernail, so the guards you face will be the Count's guards. It may even be that a rival HeroQuestor is defending the Count, senses that something is happening and joins the HeroQuest as one of the guards.

What I don't think happens is that some random Sundomers die because of the HeroQuest, as you fight some real opponents.

4 hours ago, Ebaninth said:

If there is a heroquest "Orlanth goes raiding" why don't (when they hear that the Lunars are invading in 1602) all warthanes throughout Sartar and Heortland start undertaking the heroquest to whittle down the attacking army as they move towards the Sartarite muster.

Well, many of the tribes supported the Lunars, many ere neutral or didn't care and many fought the other tribes because of past conflicts. When the Lunars invaded, they were not faced by a united Sartar.

However, I think some of the Thanes performed HeroQuests. There is an example where Minyarth Purple attempts a Magic Road HeroQuest from Cragspider's castle to get south in a day, but he fails to start the HeroQuest so many times that CragSpider herself comes down to him and advises that this isn't what the Gods want. I assume that some of the Orlanthi performed some HeroQuests against the Lunars. The children of the Royal Household formed the Household of Death and took on terrbile geases to fight the Lunars, this was clearly a HeroQuest. 

4 hours ago, Ebaninth said:

I understand the "This World" heroquest (a good example being the Biturian[Cults of Prax] account with the Sundomers) is just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the "Other World" confuses me.

Biturian's Three Blows of Anger HeroQuest is one where the HeroQuestor needed some opponents so rounded some up. However there are many more types of "This World" HeroQuests:

My HeroQuest - This is where I perform a HeroQuest, probably aided by the other PCs in my game.

Accidental HeroQuest - This is where the Pcs are brought into a HeroQuest without any planning. Perhaps they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Targeted HeroQuest - This is where someone directs a HeroQuest at the PCs

Sensed HeroQuest - This is where the Pcs sense that a heroQuest is happening and choose to join it.

4 hours ago, Ebaninth said:

Can you pop into an "Other World" HQ to get away from someone.  Then go nowhere waiting and pop back out once time passes and the threat has passed.

Frog Woman has a Magic road HeroQuest where her cultists can jump to another place, they disappear and end of at the destination a day later, there is no reason why her cultists cannot jump to the same place, effectively disappearing and reappearing a day later.

As a general point, you don't just go to the otherworld unless you have some kind of way to get there, so I would think it was difficult. However, if you have a heroQuest that takes you to a certain place then you could go there, wait and return.

On 3/14/2016 at 2:57 PM, Joerg said:

Two facets of the Irish heroic age have made it into the Orlanthi canon. Cattle as currency (not mentioned in any sources on continental practices - the iceland saga instances of wergeld which we assume to have carried over from the continental Norse use bags of silver measured by weight instead) and the wergeld catalogue (which basically adds a price tag to Old Testament's "an eye for an eye").

I thought the old Irish currency was based on the Slave Girl. 

Regarding the Elder Secrets descriptions, there is a big difference between the Clay Mostali (Dwarves) and the metal Mostali. Metal Mostali are pretty much to dwarves as Mistress Race Trolls are to trollkin.

Clay Mostali are the equivalent of humans, but created to serve the World Machine. Metal Mostali were also created, but in a different way, as they were formed from vats individually, I believe.

Even the different levels of Mostali are just very skilled/magical Clay Mostali, so Diamond Dwarves are Clay Mostali who have gained some of the powers of the Diamond Mostali.

What does this mean in practice?

Clay Mostali make good PCs, True (Metal) Mostali don't.

Dwarves (Clay Mostali) can be played as cogs in the machine, but I think that isn't the best way to play them. The true cogs wouldn't go out adventuring or leave the Mostali realms. Damaged cogs, slightly imbalanced cogs, free-wheeling cogs, they are the ones who go out and interact with other races. So, PC Dwarves are the unusual ones almost by default.

It makes some sense to have PC Dwarves coming from one of the heresies, Pavic Dwarves or Openhandists make sense as they are used to dealing with outsiders.

However, dwarven PCs might be on a secret mission, sent out into the world to achieve some things, which would make a good basis of a campaign.

A 50% fighter is likely to defeat a 25% fighter and is likely to lose to a 75% fighter.

In my experience, a 50% fighter is fairly average.

7 hours ago, Questbird said:

RQ had that cult (from RQ3 Shadows on the Borderlands) which steals knowledge - literally wiping books and scrolls clean, and storing the spells in mummified heads which the cultists would collect. It's not exactly cannibalism but it's pretty grotesque and it would make a good enemy cult.

Thanatar - Groovy in so many ways.

Your first spell is at SR 1. Your second spell has a 5 SR delay as you need to ready that spell (the fact that it is Disruption doesn't matter as it is a different instance of the spell) and you have to add your DEX SR, so this adds 6 to your original SR, so you cast at SR 1, 7, 12.

I don't have the new RQ Classics rulebook to hand, but I thought you could do 2 things per round, out of attack/parry/cast spell, so you probably couldn't cast 3 Disruptions. Missiles are slightly different as they go by DEX SR, so you can shoot three arrows (Prepare/Fire, Reload/Fire, Reload/Fire).

11 hours ago, g33k said:

"Can be played" is different from "meant to be played from RAW, without extra work" (fwiw, btw:  there was a Dragonewt in my 2nd Glorantha campaign back in... 1981, that must have been)

We had human, elf, dwarf, dark troll, great troll, minotaur, morocanth, centaur and duck PCs in our RQ2 campaign. The campaign before that, before I joined, had ogre, broo and vampire PCs. All the PCs worked well without any extra work.

12 hours ago, MOB said:

Here's something interesting: unlike RQ2, Heal-6 will not put a severed limb back on. For that you need what Jeff calls "big healing magic" (Rune Magic like "Regrow Limb" or "Heal Body")

As soon as RQ3 came out, we houseruled it so that you needed a Heal that was the strength of the HPs in the limb to reattach it. So, a 6 point limb needed Heal 6, a 4 point limb needed Heal 4 and a 10 point limb needed Heal 10.

Orlanthi are Orlanthi and should look like Orlanthi.

Vikings are Vikings and should look like Vikings. Celts are Celts and should look like Celts. Same goes for Dark Age Germanic tribes. 

Orlanthi shouldn't look like Viking, Celts, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, Franks or whatever.

I appreciate that some people build up a mental image of what cultures look like, but my mental image of Orlanthi is of wild men with tattoos and trews, normally carrying a spear/sword/axe and shield. 

54 minutes ago, Dudemeister said:

Now I am very eager to get the new campaign going. Hopefully the players will feel a smooth transition into, what I would describe as, a more forcussed game. 

Since you all wrote the interesting parts I wont bore with a wall-of-text on every entry, though know that I really appreciated what I've read. 

By the way is this board the place to discuss houserules? The campaign will get some and I like to have someone look over it.

PS: I feel legit now since my hardcopies have arrived. Difficult to get in Germany.

Those are good books to start off with - You have a lot of magic there and can write up cults very easily with the Magic Book.

This is definitely the place to talk about House Rules. Fairly often people have tried and used/discarded many house rules, so it is worth raising things for us to say what worked for us or what utterly failed for us.

Having now understood the question rather than being too literal ...

Make sure the party has plenty of healing, whether healing magic, potions or whatever, BRP is quite deadly for people used to D&D or other games and it is very easy to underestimate the attrition of many minor hits, if using general hit points, or a big hit if using hit locations.

Numbers count - if you are badly outnumbered then you are generally going to lose, so move around a lot to reduce any advantage the NPCs have.

Missiles can be deadly - A good archer can take out your whole party in a few rounds, if they are lucky. Get missile weapons yourself and use them. Hide behind shields or run zigzag to avoid being shot at.

Magic is key - forget the idea of only wizards or clerics using magic, in some settings everyone uses magic. Learn magic and you will prosper, don't and you will fade away/

On 3/11/2016 at 2:18 PM, g33k said:

Sentient animals -- baboons, ducks, morokanth; those seem to be "intentionally" PC'able, meant to be played in core Glorantha.  Is that a correct impression?

Any others in the "core"?  Any others "meant to be" (originally overlooked, didn't fit pagecount, or planned for a later expansion) in the core?

 

Any sentient creature can be playable, even the notoriously excluded dragonewts or chaos creatures.

All you need are background/profession bonuses for previous experience and a culture for magic/cults, but in reality you don't even need those.

If you are talking traps involving pits, there are several types:

• A fall onto a hard surface (standard pit) - Does falling damage
• A fall onto a dangerous surface (Pit with stakes or jagged rock at the bottom) - Does falling damage plus the damage of the stake, normally +1D6 or + 1D8
• A fall into a pool of acid (Pit with acid or a gorp at the bottom) - Does acid damage to all locations
• A fall with a wailing void or something similar at the bottom - Adventurer vanishes never to be seen again

They all involve a Spot Traps/Perception roll to see and a Jumping/Athletics roll to avoid. For me, they lose their interest after a few goes, as with all traps.