Joerg

Use a control spell to get the spirit out of its shell, cast its spells as many times as required, and then return to the crystal. Use the spirit's own MP to do so. This is the only real use the "control (species)" spells really have in the hands of non-shamans (or other folk who can discorporate and wrestle down spirits). A spirit overcome in spirit combat is useless for at least half a day if you trap it before it loses visibility (and otherwise gone for the day), and the victor may well be weakened significantly, too. Embodied beings are prone and unconscious. Dissuading players new to RQ from taking "Control (Species)" is a common task for the GM.

Earlier attempts to describe Ethilrist's troop went about their way to make them a Malkioni community, which is where the name "Atroxic Church" comes from - a concept that in all likelihood won't reappear under that atroxious name, if ever. If you want to read up on this, get a copy of the Hero Wars rules (nowhere available in pdf, last I looked, but if you speak German, the remainder of a print run printed in France still is available) and turn to the character creation chapter, p.94 in the English original, following the Lunar character generation entries. (That text has his arrival in the Night of Horrors, and his claim established against any Grazer dissent by 1545, i.e. during Palashee Longaxe's reign.) Following the Night of Horrors, the main military exploits of the Empire appear to have been with Orlanthi barbarians under Provincial Overseers Phargentes and then Appius Luxius, and skirmishes with the Pentans in the Redlands. Ethilrist wil have seen most of his service in the Provinces, as his troop was too big to be hired for Dart Competitions. The HW write-up has replacement riders come up through the rank of the footmen that Ethilrist fields from the peasantry of his estates. These may well be vendref inherited from the previous Grazer overlords, or these may be the camp followers that he drew towards his troop during his time as mercenary for the Empire. HW has all of them as mandatory followers of Ethilrist's Malkioni sect which demands strict obedience (what a useful cult for self-aggrandizement, right?). For RQG, I would flip this into mandatory hero-worship, with prospective riders initiating to the hero cult and leaving behind whichever previous (vendref?) cults they may have had. Other than his unswerving demand for absolute obedience, Ethilrist probably doesn't care much what cults his peasants follow. Barntar and Ernalda are good to keep his troopers and the "horses" fed. Yelmalio cultists might have a problem with all the hell stuff going on. Orlanthi will feel uncomfortable in the presence of the Hound. These are the troopers, prior to the boost ups from Ethilrist's sorcerers and priests. I would bet there will be some way for the dominant of the horse-rider pair to get Shield, possibly through the standard (the wyter). Sorcery might affect the standard with a protective circle, with Neutralize Rune for Storm, Earth, Fire, and Moon. I don't really see the black horses and their servants coming at you with Fireblade on their lances (although preventing impales might be worth it on less armored opposition). Ethilrist's magicians will probably send shades or other Hell spirits against their foes. And possibly the ghosts of riders who died in the saddle, with handy Hate passions. The riders are more or less puppets of their horses, a way for the horses to aim their lances. Shield or similar may be cast by the standard on those groups facing the enemy champions, with after-battle donations of POW to bring the standard back to full strength. The horses may have spirits to heal first themselves, then their riders. WIth the standards' sorcery negating many of the most typical elementals and magical gunnery like Lightning and Thunderbolt, rune lords will be limited to individual prowess. And yes, Humakti may go down in a blaze of glory, taking along dozens of riders.

Yes. ILH1 was from a period before Greg changed his mind back. Check the Guide p.310. "They resemble the sleek, oar-driven galleys often seen on the Oslir and Poralistor rivers, but without oars or a mast." There is no way that one could row a reed boat with lateral oars like a galley has (the steering paddle, if attached to a stable frame, may be ued to row one gondola-like). If you want to keep reed moon boats in your Glorantha alongside the canonical superseding one, they may be a rare hold-over from one of the other two clans who were wiped out along with their knowledge how to make alternative moon boats. Or you can ignore canon. YGWV anyway. On the whole, the idea of flying boats has been around for ages, much like the idea of flying chariots or steeds. The liftwood of Mars is probably the most iconic in modern fantasy. Maybe that reed boat phase was an attempt to ward off the accusation of plagiarism. Tying the lift to the phase of the moon is something I haven't seen before I encountered it in Glorantha. All of this past can remain available to canon, just make the clan (all but) extinct. Where the "all but extinct" would make a great campaign theme.

Most of the worshipers in a cult aren't initiates. That's true for Orlanth and Ernalda, cultists of each of whom are associates of the other and visit each others' rites, along with all the other associate cults. Even if the turnout is slightly lower for the associate cults than it is for your own rites, those associates will usually be in the majority. Practically everybody worships their ancestors, although the cult of Daka Fal is written like a jealous organisation "What, you sacrificed POW to a deity? Sure, we'll contact you in your afterlife, but we won't let you sacrifice POW with us or call up an ancestor to guide you." That's one of the weirdest ruling in all of the Gloranthan cult structures. I wonder how much Glorantha has the Cult of the Invisible Friend for children, and what entities actually server here. Is this the remaining realm of Tylenea?

Isn't that sort of the premise behind quite a lot of the Gloranthan stories? Harmast Barefoot, Valare Addi, the son of the Stickpicker, the street waif from Torang? Part of the problem here is that you start out playing (or reading about) doing ordinary things in a mostly ordinary environment. There is an intro (or flashback) you have to work through. And then there is the question how you avoid the exceptional things being railroaded and scripted. Doesn't HQ fit that role already? Any old ability can be used for conflict resolution. And that's conflict in the sense of Robin Laws's Drama System (which fulfills that role even more). Have you seen the Dramatic Interaction Masterclass video from this year's Kraken?

Tyram the Sky Tyrant/Terror/Horror is the one major Chaos foe that Orlanth actually won against. Think about it: Orlanth defended the lower sky against the Chaos invasion.

The curse of being a GM... But better than to bring that curse other people's gamemastering. (Unless giving them pointers how to make the most of their precious monsters) There is one Humakt rune spell which may be anti-climactic in spirit encounters: Release Ghost. The question is, whether that spell works on other bound spirits (like Urvantan's Guardian Spirits - which btw is a name mis-appropriated from Daka Fal ancestor worship There is a third command that can be given - to leave the crystal and ... e.g. attack its former master in spirit combat. The condition is that in order to to take MP out, either from the spirit or from the storage, someone has to touch the crystal. If it is an enchantment, for an extra POW you can add a restriction as to who may use the enchantment (or who may command a spirit in the binding). No such option with a dead crystal serving as temporary housing for a spirit. And you can take out MP only to fuel spells - there is no way to re-distribute stored MP. A spirit may be ordered to put its MP into a storage rather than to give them directly to your magic.

The typical adult Ernaldan as per Adventure Book has 3 rune points. E.g. Arndala, p.105 The high priestess of Ernalda in Clearwine (a major temple to Ernalda) has 12 rune points. (p.26) Where did you get the idea that you could bless a crop five times in a year? I would expect the ritual to take place at the time of sowing. If you allow summer grains and winter grains, that's two occasions a year to cast the ritual. An Ernaldan with 12 rune points will be an important person in the local temple. YGWV

That's the Pelorian way, if my extrapolation of RQG's wyter rules and the statement in the Guide are correct. The Pelorian priest must deliver, or his temple wyter won't be able to support the necessary magic. Yes, this is sort of a return to "single use initiate rune magic", only now it comes from the priest who uses the POW donated by the congregation to cast his blessings on multiple members of the community - making "Bless Pregnancy" better served via the wyter and one-time POW sacrifice of a couple of people than blocking the priestess's ability to cast magic on behalf of the congregation. Whether and how using Bless Crops or similar magic via the wyter is possible hasn't been explored yet.

While a rune spell's duration is ongoing, the rune points cannot be regained. This is stated explicitely for Extension, but applies to all rune spells. Yes, Bless Crops doesn't block the rune points, and neither does Bless Animal. They simply use up rune points which then are unavailable for Bless Pregnancy. Not allowed: And anyway, you want your pregnant daughters-in-law to be available for all manner of work on the stead all the time.. Unless we see a return of Mindlink, I would rule that the rune points for any single Bless Crops need to come from a single source. Enchantments are the only ritual spells that we know can pile up POW from different sources. That unusually holy woman will probably get serious political problems if she would deprieve all the other households from her blessings. A thane's household would have probably 10 hides that require a blessing. That's where this unusually holy woman will be called to do her magic.

With 7 out of 9 points for the bonus, three hides were affected. That will take care of at most 3 dozen people (including children, herders elsewhere...) A hide is what a single farmer can plow. Most steads are the home to a number of farmers and tenants, and not every stead will have a holy person able to bring 9 points to the blessing. Or it explains how a farmer with 50% skill can feed his family through a couple of years without excellent harvests. I might be persuaded to cap the benefit at again the farming skill of the farmer, possibly with the modifiers included. Bless Pregnancy and Bless Crops are in direct rivalry for attention - Bless Pregnancy blocks all rune points used there for a year. And in Sea Season (not Fire Season) the rune points will be used up for the future harvest, and rune points regained on the High Holy Day will be used for Bless Animal (meaning a season with reduced or no rune points). Either Bless Pregnancy is an extravagance, or the agricultural blessings will suffer. Your average farming stead will have two or three pregnancies in a year. So: where do your rune points go? I agree. But then, we have never had wyters that would take POW sacrifice/gifts from their congregations. Such donations will affect the reputation of the donor.

That must have escaped me somehow. I have played one non-initiated Orlanthi under HQG rules - a spirit worshiper (who had a spirit ally in the shape of an owl, sometimes visible, sometimes in the spirit world). That was all the magical power that character could field. (But then the whole party was a bunch of boys just fresh out of initiation, tasked with keeping a significant part of the clan herd, and up to weird rituals improvised by horny boys wishing to summon the earth women. What in the world could go wrong?) I don't see lay members in HQG learning affinities from the cults. Gaining them as heroquest rewards is a different proposal. It is possible (even advisable) in HQG to use your personal runes as the basic abilities from which to take breakouts (my owl in the example above was one such, and a sword ability may be broken out of a storm rune affinity if you wish). RQG allows Runic Inspiration only as an augment, similar to how HQ1 treated an initiate's affinities. HQG makes a great step away from HQ1 and HW here, where affinities could only be used for augments by non-devotees/rune levels. That HW/HQ1 is obviously different from any form of RQ where rune magic and even spirit magic can be used by initates as an active means of subduing an opponent (e.g. Demoralize, Befuddle). Observing your cult holy days basically means going to your temple and participation in the worship rites (renewing your rune points). That aspect is pretty much identical in both these systems. HQG doesn't specify the time requirements for rune levels as a percentage, instead it says "all consuming".

"Non-lethal" weapons still can cause death, even if that is not the intention of the user. Including lariats and bolas on head hits, at least for humanoids. P.24 of the Bestiary introduces the Whipstick for the Runners: This obviously works only because the stick is a living plant, but it isn't hard to conceive a weapon based on some sort of "insect on a stick" doing a similar job for trollkin or insect herders, or a tentacled thing on a stick for underwater attacks (e.g. a sea anemone with its poison). Both The Rattling Wind and The Whispering Ruins give their main baddy a flexible, entangling weapon a lot harder to destroy than any of the stuff mentioned earlier here. The grappling rules leave much to be desired, but they exist. But then, I haven't found any good way to simulate throws and holds and how to counteract them anywhere else, either. The Mythras combat styles might cover something like that, but that system is not really compatible with RQG combat.

I have seen these in the headlines of these threads: at least when visiting those pages or in the representation on the All Activity page. They are quite the attention grabbers.

I thought that the adjective mostly used with ducks is "twagic".

Bolas and lariats basically are thrown weapons, much like harpoons with attached lines are. Same with thrown nets. I'd add the grappling hook or a ball-and-chain which allows you to lengthen the flexible bit under such rules, too, even if they otherwise may be using the rules for flails and morning stars. Nets or cloaks slung around the arm rather than being tossed are a different proposition. Ball-and-chain or grappling hooks aren't too different if the extra give on the flexible part is limited to the length of a normal cloak, either. Nets and cloaks may have to be weighted on the edges for this sort of application. Pole lassos are mostly rigid weapons, but with a similar goal. We have a similar weapon with the entangling clubs of the runners in the Bestiary, although you don't usually strike out with the rigid part of a pole lasso. A grappling hook on a pole (basically a hooked flail) might be used in this manner, too. But then, so do the hooks on a number of pole arms I don't know the proper names for. Basically, this might be a skill for an entangling pole arm, and one way to model this is to take the example from the RQ-skill Martial Arms which is a secondary mode skill (not requiring an extra attack roll when combined with one of the unarmed attack or parry actions) that comes into play if the die roll is both under the (modified) attack roll and the (ideally also modified) additional skill role.

There is nothing to stop you from house-ruling limitations on these weapon trance spells, or on the rules dealing with skills beyond 100%. As long as you are the GM and the players are told of these house rules, you have full control over this. If you come as a player to a table that uses the RAW, you can of course submit the suggestion to house-rule that before insanity arises, but there is no obligation on behalf of the established (or establishing) table to humor your suggestion. If it is the only game in town, you have the choice to suffer this, or remain abstinent. This goes for any house-ruling, whether weapon trance limits, modifications to how combat between characters with skills of 100+ are resolved, variant movement rules, variant Strike Rank or initiative systems, whether to have sorcery and if, how exactly, etc. As long as you remain in your agreed environment, arguing from and about house-rules may be done with authority. When you enter the open field like convention games, online games or a forum like this, being used to a house rule is an acceptable excuse for trying to apply a mechanic other than RAW, but other than a critical success in Fast Talk to convince the GM to give the house-rule a try won't get you the experience you prefer. We have had a number of cases where different people have read the RAW differently than intended. Weapon Trance without the trance effect for instance. The need to learn the Magic Rune as a sorcerer. (If you haven't learned it, can you substitute it with any other rune? Will that double the MP cost? Or do you need the Magic Rune to cast Neutralize Magic?) I have caught flak for being a spoilsport against Humakti earlier, and now I am pouring out suggestions how to limit this extremely unbalanced cult again. I happen to like more balanced games as those lend themselves to a campaign game, and to add a building game on the side - become a wealthier and more influential member of your society, or take on a new and higher responsibility (e.g. in Apple Lane or the Long Home), or rise to the inner circle of Argrath, pushing him aside when something hugely heroic has to be undertaken (that will be credited to Argrath anyway). That means that balance-breaking characters may experience the see-saw effect of likewise unbalanced response, which may make playing a one-trick-pony Humakti or a dedicated Trickster a less fulfilling experience under my story-telling, world-building and GMing.

Despite this being the Glorantha rather than the RQ forum, I'll argue from the RQ rules here. Under RQ3, the assumption was that farmers would sacrfice for non-reusable Bless Crops or similar blessings and stack them onto what their priests and acolytes (who were the only ones with access to reusable Rune Spells) could manage to churn out. RQ2 had the same mechanisms but didn't provide much consideration for the farmer's life and livelihood. It was first and foremost an adventuring game, and that probably explains its greater popularity. RQ3 Gamemasters Book with its guide to world creation was a big step forward for the RQ system, and one completely absent from any RQ2 product I have seen. Only one of the very last RQ2 publications, the RQ Companion, introduced/established widespread Barntar worship for Esrolia and Heortland, but only as setting information, without any rules support like a cult write-up. Griffin Mountain comes a short step this way, but the setting only allows pig herding, hunting and gathering as primary production activities, maybe some gardening, but no effective farming. RQG is trying to cater to the RQ2 vibe in terms of popular activity while retaining the farming spirit of the Seattle Farmers' Collective that @Jeff was a prominent member of. But without these one-use rune magics to limit the magical growth of the rural yokels, there is a question indeed what will keep your average farmer close to retirement age from having his full CHA in rune points. RQG p.316 mentions one-use rune spells, and there are a few spells listed as such: Call Founder Gnome to Gargoyle Seal Soul In addition, some high-powered spells which are reusable to the owner of the rune (and very close associates) may be one-use for other cults who have the magic. Speaking of Resurrection and Sever Spirit here. Possibly Sunspear if any deity other than Yelm might provide it as non-associate magic, and likewise Thunderbolt (possibly as a Tolat/Shargash magic - I haven't seen GaGoG). But then, there is the option to gift POW to one the wyters one follows, or to donate it to enchantments. That will keep even your average Joe Orlanthi from sacrificing for rune points up to his CHA maximum. And that is how non-initiated Pelorians gain access to rune magics cast on their behalf, with a cost-balancing option of the multiple target rules for rune spells cast by the wyter. Basically, the POW economy of the game needs to provide an outlet for POW that makes more sense than increasing the individual's magical might. The RQG rules do provide at least the kernel of such rules to make the framing parameters of the setting sensible. What we need now is some publication showing this in action.

Possibly. But then, there might be ways to kill a powered crystal and make it a dead one. Taking the blood from a dying deity should provide dead crystals. But yes, this is probably the kind of heroquesting God Learners (and before and after them Hrestoli Men-of-All) engaged in routinely. Bonus points if you can take the role of the god's slayer and earn some nifty hero power from that, too.

I needed to check out Cults of Terror (actually the Cults Compendium p.257, but RQ3 Lords of Terror would have worked, too) to find the exact rules. Basically, if a disease is killing you, you can sacrifice 2 points of POW and become a carrier of the disease that will infect others, but you are no longer dying. This is called an involuntary initiate of Malia. You aren't required to infect anyone actively, and your propitiary initiation has already feld Malia with twice the permanent POW voluntary initiation would have cost, and you still are infectious - a win-win for Malia. You can still go to a Chalana Arroy priestess once you have stopped your lethal disease this way, but be prepared to pay a higher price for the cure, and to be tossed into an isolation cell for a prolonged time while the Arroyans cure time-critical patients. But it beats losing lots of points in the affected stat, or exploding from Thunder Lungs or similar fun diseases.

A spirit in a dead crystal can be ordered to (partially or completely) fill another dead crystal, or to provide its MP directly to spells cast by the person in possession of the crystal. Not at all, apart from the fact that finding a crystal doesn't cost you (or another creator's) POW. A spirit might be ordered to leave the crystal, fill it up and then do its thing, but it would do so weakened by the amount of MP poured into that crystal, making it less effective. As this is a serial command, doing that requires you to use a Dominate, Control or Command Spirit spell prior to releasing it, costing an extra point of magic (or two, for Dominate, with Command costing a valuable rune point). The bonus is that you can command the spirit back into its holding item at the end of the commanding spell's duration - unless you made it fill the crystal with MP and didn't have a chance to use them yet. But then, there will probably be some healing to be done four or more melee rounds into the game. That's little different from having the spirit power a spell or two before you release it to harrass an opponent without any spell, and resummoning it later. Crystals can be harvested from mythical sites, too - and if the mundane site has already been plundered dry, go visit the myth and dunk a rock or three in the still warm blood of a wounded deity. Of course, whatever has wounded that deity will still be around...

An involuntary initiate of Malia doesn't receive a Chaos taint. Neither does a normal victim possessed by the spirit or the disease it caused. The ultra-strict interpretation by the usual suspect that you cannot worship any entity that turned to Chaos at some point without becoming chaotic creates a quandary for worshipers of Arkat. If any form of Arkat always is an aspect of Arkat the Chaos Monster, then 80% of the Safelstrans are chaotic, and not just some outliers like the Guild of Chaos Monks or the high Register of the Boristi. And by the same logic, worship of the Seven Mothers automatically makes you a Chaotic because it gives you access to the spell Chaos Gift. But the logic seems to be that you have to be a recipient of the spell Chaos Gift in order to gain the taint. What deities do we know that converted to Chaos? There is of course the Unholy Trio, but did Mallia actually take on the Chaos taint? Probably from proximity, similar to anyone unlucky enough to enter the environment of the Maggot in that infamous tunnel complex in northern Dragon Pass. Vivamort got captured by the Devil, and sacrificed his soul. And we usually learn that the Esrolians equate their evil Death coming for Ernalda is equated with Vivamort. However, I think that the invading Death deity Tada hid Eiritha from by burying her under her hills was a non-Chaotic Nontraya. His encounter with Ernalda on the other hand may have fallen already after his encounter with Wakboth - but not necessarily so. This leaves a lot of the undead horde of Nontrayan subservient spirits beings of the Underworld but not actively Chaotics.

Sending demons against your foes is always a destructive use of magic. Does ordering chaotic beings make you chaotic? Then you shouldn't shout a "stand back!" at a group of broos approaching your rescuee. Does it have to be a magical command that makes you chaotic? Then don't use "Dominate human" on these broos (yes, with the penalty for being the wrong shape, but still works). So you are the leader of a mercenary company serving as auxiliaries with the Lunar Empire, and general Roan-ur has made you the leader of a raid which also includes some of his special forces - broos, ogres, or whatever else chaotics he may have contracted. Does this make you a chaotic when you send these forces against an enemy? Does a shaman capturing a disease spirit before it can infect anybody make this shaman chaotic? Does the shaman register as being chaotic while his fetch holds a captive spirit which is chaotic? Does holding a chaotic spirit captive taint the fetch (and thereby the shaman) with chaos? It is possible to use disease spirits against broos, even broos who are initiates of Malia, as long as they have not become carriers of that disease. They may decide to become carriers after suffering a first consequence of that disease, but that will cost them 2 points of POW, which is a form of damage, too, making them easier to target with spells or other spirits. Now, would such a use of a captured disease spirit count as being chaotic? All of this is a closer brush with Chaos than is comfortable for most people, but I don't think any of this leaves an indelible chaotic taint with the practitioner. There is one type of Orlanth's spirits of reprisal, the impests, which is functionally a form of disease spirit.

If a hostile spirit is bothering the party, it is already visible, so in order to attack it, the shaman or any subservient spirit sent by one must be discorporate and visible. Which leads to the standard spirit combat ploy - the attacking spirit envelopes its victim, eroding its resistance pretty much like an amoeba or a gorp feed on their victims. Most elementals attack this way, too. Go ahead and swing at this enveloped character. If you want to save the spirit's victim, you need a healerl to repair the wounds the spirit's victim receives, which may be a little less than those the spirit suffers because of armor, but this approach risks crits or specials and lopped off limbs or heads or stuck weapons, or instant death.u An agile spirit might just drop visibility before the Humakti connects, leaving the physical damage to the rescuee without incurring damage to the spirit. Baiting the Humakti that way may be a way an intelligent spirit might attack (like e.g. the guardian spirits employed by Urvantan). Dropping out of the spirit place right "on top" of the Humakti or even better, her sword handle, is of course the way to prevent the Humakti striking at it. Basically, your iron sword-tranced Humakti better had some form of spirit screen on, as she will be the most logical target for spirit attacks. Does it tell us how long that takes, how quickly and how accurately it can move between modes of visibility? There is nothing to keep intelligent spirits from tag-teaming, remaining sufficiently stronger to exit spirit combat while they still can, with your characters striking back and causing the occasional damage, but in the end being brought down to zero. Casting magic inside a spirit combat had better be done from magic point storages. Adventurers without those devices are limited to rune magic if they don't want to weaken their fighting strength. While casting spirit screen gives you a breather for 2 minutes, an intelligent spirit will just sit out these two minutes and then resume its attack. Which leads to the economics of the spirit popping into and out of visibliity. What are the cost? I go a step further and compare it to wrestling or engulfing. The attacked non-spirit can just "harden" itself, hoping to abrase the attacking spirit, while the spirit can effectively digest its victim. Like just below the ceiling of the room, or even inside it, and same with walls. If the Humakti can reach that high, she will do collateral damage to the environment and potentially dull her sacred object. Except if there is a cost to that. Using hard surfaces as cover is another trick. Now, can a spirit manage to get into that plate cuirass while attacking its wearer? Now the Humakti needs to overcome the victim's armor to harm the spirit (and the victim), which means hit and heal means an even greater risk to the victim. How many lesser spirits can attack a single physical being? Can visible disembodied beings overlap with one another? Can a ghost or a wraith hide inside a shade or a lune?

Cave troll in a lab coat, strumming a guitar, right? Well, I don't regenerate damage... Yes. For 500 MP storage , you would need 50 10-point crystals (if you have that many, 10 points will be your average). Even if you manage to fill 2 per day, that's almost four weeks of bottling and sleeping only. The spirit-heavy encounters in TSR make a player-controlled or allied shaman almost a basic necessity. But if you think of discorporate shamans and assistants or other discorporate company vs. the rest of the group, it is netrunning vs. standing guard. Or you have an arsenal of spirit hounds that you can send against the incoming spirits and act as the commander in a battle rather than as a participant. In a way, sorcerous spells are magic constructs like temporary spirits - hence the "MP in the spell vs. POW or intensity" rolls.