Gryphaea

For the record there is a Character Sheet for RQG on Roll20 which does have some automated functions included including the ability to roll fumbles. This has been done by a member of the community and is a work in progress but it has pretty much all the elements you need to play a Human character, and can store all of the information from the character sheet. Roll20 is sensitive to the amount of play a system gets, and will support a game accordingly. At present all forms of RuneQuest account for less than half a percent of the games played in a Quarter, so RuneQuest is not on their radar, which seems fair to me to be honest. As Roll20 is free to use, perhaps more of the community could give it a try and raise its profile.

Another thought on this topic is how long is human gestation in Glorantha? Is that recorded anywhere? As the Gloranthan year is shorter than a Terran year should human pregnancy be shorter too? Say about 4 seasons - or 32 weeks (rather than 40) With a Gloranthan year being 280 + 14 (sacred time) days it is pretty close to the roughly 280 days of Terran pregnancy - so perhaps all year, but what are the mythic/time consequences of getting pregnant? Can you get pregnant during sacred time? Can you get pregnant during a HeroQuest? Would bringing a fetus conceived in God Time into the mundane world have cosmic consequences? Is there a kind of Gloranthan Astrology - your fate is influenced by when you were born in the year? The original topic is important and needs consideration in the context of a wider, diverse game that respects and draws from different experiences, and I think we do need to seriously think about that. But, also, you know, whole new Gloranthan rabbit hole!!!!!!!!

I very much agree with the above, slowly working through the book has given me the impression that it is not a bad introduction to the glorious sprawling mess that is Glorantha. Remember the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, and RQG has done a reasonable job in serving up palatable servings. On a less serious note... you don't have to have seen the Python Old Yorkshireman sketch to need to be told that things were always a lot worse back in the day.

I absolutely think that this is a topic were someone who has actually been pregnant should get to have their say on the matter and anyone who hasn't hold their council. However... since no one has brought it up yet it may be worth mentioning the Xiola Umbar Speciality Rune spell Couvade (It can be found in Troll Pack and Troll Gods). It would certainly help out any pregnant adventuring lady. I would guess the RQG conversion would be: Couvade 2pts Fertility or Harmony; Touch, Duration (Pregnancy) Non-Stackable. Cast upon a pregnant woman and the father and transfers all of the pains and sickness of pregnancy to the father. Both must be present and consent. Father may be incapacitated with pain, but suffer no lasting injury. Must be cast during the first trimester of pregnancy. Re-reading the spell after all these years an evil GM thoughts occurs... the wording is father not 'husband' or 'partner', so I could imagine a few awkward moments if the spell fails for some reason. A whole world of plot hooks and plot twists opens up. I think it also goes some way to explain why Trolls are so accepted in the Holy Country. In a society were the most powerful people have all given birth, anyone who can cast this spell is going to have a lot of influence.

I must admit that Ty Kora Tek is a favourite of mine to, I hope that you have an interesting game incorporating her. First some more suggestions on a young PC joining the cult - could she be connected to the Shaker Temple? I feel that there would need to be a community of Earth Priestesses with some taking more specialised roles other than worshipping Maran Gor. The whole pantheon of Earth Deities would need to be represented at high festivals and it is possible to imagine an initiate or acolyte being the understudy to the Ty Kora Tek priestess there. Also Ty Kora Tek would have a different feel in the context of a cult site to Maran Gor which is dedicated to the destructive aspect of the earth and already has associations with the death rune. TKT would be much more of a partner in the bloody business of fertility as opposed to how a TKT cultist in an Orlanthi clan in Sartar would be perhaps viewed as the older lady who prepares the bodies of dead before a funeral. I think there is a case for a specialist TKT priestess being resident in the Paps as well. Cults of Prax suggests that the site links to the God Plane and worshippers 'can view the inert corpses... of their deities.' This very much sounds like the realm of TKT and requiring her cultists to be intermediaries as part of the ceremonies. The narrative about the Paps in CoP even talks about an attack by trolls during a ceremony; which has resonance with the Ernalda myth where the dead/sleeping goddess is attacked while in TKT's house by a darkness demon, and TKT bluff them into leaving her unharmed. I have a third suggestion - which is an initiation of an older priestess gone wrong. I am very taken with the imagery of a from the A# game King of Sartar were the tribe re-enacts the stories of their mythos in the mundane world using masks and costumes, and these can form a connection to the god plane with various degrees of potency. We see the same idea in the comic Prince of Sartar with Argarth's initiation as an adult. But there is always the possibility of these events going wrong, or a participant finding that they have strayed from an ordinary ritual into a more magically powerful event. What about the PC being a participant in the initiation of a new TKT priestess that has gone wrong? The ceremony repeats the story of the sleeping/dead Ernalda being hidden in TKT's cave, while an creature of darkness or chaos or undeath seeks to steal Ernalda away. The PC is perhaps a beloved granddaughter or family member of the priestess, perhaps she is playing the role of the 'flower maiden', but something goes wrong and the candidate for priesthood is incapacitated or killed during the ritual and the PC has to take her place to complete the ritual and avert disaster, gaining a bond to TKT in the process, perhaps physically transforming her. This could even be something that all the PCs participate in, with most PCs guarding the cave/house of TKT from an attacking enemy attracted by the ritual.

Yes that was me, I got a sense that they 'guy' may have had a few issues interpreting social mores - but it was contained and we moved on. However it was a learning experience and I have amended some of my practice to be a bit more explicit about the behaviour that I expect.

For the sake of clarity I have just reached out and asked the question about Character Sheets so that we know were we stand. I'll update when I get an answer. Waltshumate - thanks for your contributions already with the mods to the character sheet. I was not aware of that, and will try to get access to the amended sheets. I made a comment of your sheet was 'far from an optimal solution' to play RQ:AG, I apologises if this inadvertently caused you any offence - I was not trying to disparage your work which is of high quality and far more that I feel I could achieve. I merely wanted the comment to make folk aware that none of the character sheets at the time of launch of the Quickstart enabled you to easily automate all the features of the game.

It's nice to see some discussion about RQG and roll20 starting, I hope that more people feel able to chip in and that some kind of specific community can gather together. Pentallion, I was sad to read about your experiences with Roll20 and AetherCon, but you seem determined to persevere. I ran the Quickstart for Roll20 con and enjoyed myself and the game seem well received, but everything was improvised and it felt really rough and ready. I didn't feel motivated to try for AetherCon using my own dodgy set up and thought I would give it a miss. However... If I had know that someone else was trying I would have been more than happy to share the fruits of my own (very limited) labours and experience. (Hmmm... community) Reading between the lines of the revised publishing schedule for Chaosium, their staff resources seem pretty well committed to the jobs they have in hand (which is fair enough) - and that things like Roll20 character sheets and other materials will need to come from the community rather than Chaosium. I suspect that the ball is in our court.

The old RQ supplements can be cannibalised fairly easily with a scanner and the liberal use of the Microsoft paint app eraser rubber (or something better if you have the skills). It not pretty and you may need to scrounge some additional artwork, but they are functional. Dungeon Paint Studio is on steam and though a little fiddly and still a work in progress you can get usable maps which you can use on Roll20. Also you can buy maps and supplements. I am a fan of Forge Studios and support him on Patreon, you can check out his work on DriveThruRPG. There is of course the amazing Dyson Logos as well...

I would be happy to give it a go, I am on UK time and Sundays are OK. The best advice is to post a listing on Roll20 and just give it a try - I have found the community to be accepting and happy to support you and give technical advice as you learn the ropes and work out if you like it. The technology for Roll20 is simple but functional. I would suggest its a more visual medium than tabletop - but that may just be me. You need to work out how you will do the audio, many use Discord. I have had mixed results with the Roll20 audio, I know some people who don't have problems with it, others who refuse to use it. What ever you use for the audio be prepared to have a back up plan if it goes down. At least one of your potential players will have opinions on the best audio, and you may find that a good deal of the early part of the first session is actually devoted to getting everybody up and running on the same audio system The big potential difficulty you may have with running RQ on Roll20 is finding a Character sheet that works for you. Roll20 works very well if you are using an integrated character sheet as all the information is there for you as a GM and your player and on the best Character sheets the dice required for a roll are integrated into the character sheets as macros which roll the dice and work out success, failure and criticals etc. There are Character sheets for RQ3, RQ6 and Mythras, there are no sheets for RQ2 or RQAG. If you are wanting to play RQ2 this is means that you won't see Roll20 at its full potential. I have tried playing the Quickstart RQAG using the RQ3 sheet, which was the best fit, but is far from an optimal solution. Getting a workable character sheet for RQAG would be a important step forward and really good idea to have ready for the full launch (if anyone is listening...) If you post a invitation to players on Roll20 you will probably fill it before the week is out, but be aware that not everyone who applies will actually end up turning up for the first session and if you get more that 50% of your initial players beyond session 2 you are doing well. Its nothing personal, its just the way it works. Despite the vast majority of the players on the platform playing D&D I think you will find interest for RQ and Glorantha and goodwill from people on the forums for offering a game. I would strongly recommend asking a few simple questions as part of an initial application/screening process- eg time zone? do you own the books? have you played before? and also an open ended question, perhaps to facilitate an amusing answer (an example would be - If you could choose a chaos feature to have in real life what would it be?) If they can't be bothered to give the answers to a few simple questions they really aren't committed to making a commitment to a game. Also don't invite the first people who apply wait till you have a decent short list to make a choice from - don't panic enough will apply eventually, they always do. Good luck and I hope it works out for you

The Falco novels by Lindsey Davis are well written and fun, and there are plenty of them if you find that they are your thing. The BBC dramatised the first few books in the series and you can pick those up on Audible if you prefer to listen rather than read. The early books are a knowing pastiche of the Private Eye genre set in Rome in the years following the death of Nero, the series goes on to develop a life of its own but retains the crime/mystery theme. The characters travel to most parts of the Empire and the author has thoroughly researched the period and brings it to life in a very accessible way, most books have a chapter at the end where she discusses her sources and research. The Romano-British Arthurian setting has plenty of writers putting novels in the period, not least Bernard Cornwall who published a trilogy of books about it. Also there are RPG source books for 1d100 and other systems. The difficulty is that the history and archaeology is sparse and open to many different interpretations, so don't expect one writer's take on the matter to match up with another. This can be frustrating if you want to base your campaign on more than one source. If you want to watch some actual play The DiceStormers, an Australian group of Lets Play You-Tubers, have put out a short series of VODs of a CoC game set in Northen England a the very end of the Roman period. The Vids are of good quality and the GM is an academic who has published on the period, which shows through in his love of the setting. If you feel the need to consult an actual historian about Rome, you may want to have a look at Mary Beard's SPQR which is pretty recent (ie 2015) and has graced the best seller lists which is good evidence of how readable it is. Her book on Pompeii is also worth a look.

Session run online using Roll20 as part of their Roll20Con. 4 players, 2 Gloranthan Vets and 2 with no experience of the setting but some knowledge of d100 play. I already knew one player from other games but the other three were completely new. I was already aware of the potential for massive Gloranthan Lore Dumps disrupting play and being a barrier to new players so managed to avoid them in this session. I did find it possible to play with only the occasional 2 sentence explanation of concepts when required, and I think agreeing at the start with the vets that is was a potential issue to be avoided was a help. I think the artwork and presentation was of an excellent standard and helped convey the settings atmosphere. I feel that with on line play you are reliant on visuals more than with face to face play, and I could adapt the materials provided into player handouts. A humble request would be that the artwork could perhaps be made available as separate files and the maps provided without the GM information on them. I thought the Rune Affinities were the major thing to take away from the game. I tried to encourage the players to use them from the start, and to describe in a narrative sense how accessing their Rune’s power and Rune affinity assisted them in a skill check. All the players used them in an imaginative way by the end of the session. For example, the Earth priestess was able to call upon the maternal and soothing power of the earth to help calm down the maddened and freighted Greydog in the ruins of the Goddess’ compound. Also, the Issaries cultist was able to use the Harmony rune to give a boost to a group effort to topple the temple alter in the sanctuary. Rock Lizards were an easy combat, but this was possibly because they were more interested in the cow and very nearly killed it before being driven off. The session lasted for 5 hours, which is a long time online, and I had to rush it at the end to get it to finish. I prefer 3 hour sessions for an online game and think I would want to run the Broken Tower as 3 three hour sessions and go at a more leisurely pace. As I am UK based I ran the session 19:00- 24:00 BST (GMT+1), there was plenty of interest from US time zones and I would think that if someone else was to offer sessions in a later time slot on Roll20 they would easily be able to attract players.