Joerg

11 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

EDIT: Although coming back with the Bat may make the “full victory” over chaos-as-evil ironic and make the “I am the Devil, now” reading tempting. Maybe.

According to the Redline History of the Lunar Empire, only the foes of the Red Goddess perceived her flying steed as the Crimson Bat. The faithful Lunars perceived a purple hummingbird as her steed instead.

Which is why I expect a lot less bat symbology and a lot more hummingbird symbology in Lunar temples serving the faithful.

48 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

But if we want an explanatory theory, it needs to work for Wakboth, Ragnaglar, and certain other cult-not-currently-possible dead Chaos gods (but not Thed and Nysalor), as some Chaos heroquests do work — take a bow, Sedenya.

Against me with my pretend-Jeff hat on, I was reading HeroQuest Glorantha, yesterday, and that seems to suggest Sedenya did encounter Wakboth on her quest, even going so far as to have her say, “I defeated Wakboth and exchanged places with him” (p. 182).

(IIRC, Wyrm’s Footnotes #10 doesn’t identify the demon as Wakboth and has its defeat before she binds Gbaji — which makes sense, I think: dismiss/defeat your demons first, then push on to the emptiness of Nirvana.)

In "The Lives of Sedenya", this Chaos entity is not identified with the Devil, but rather with primordial Chaos. The coded script is fairly crucial to understanding the difference between say Vivamort accepting Chaos and the Red Goddess accepting or rather embracing Chaos. It also is different from how Arachne Solara embraces Chaos, although there are more similarities there than with Vivamort's conversion.

Wakboth is a convenient label for Moral Evil Chaos, and thereby a convenient label to pronounce a particular expression of Chaos as moral evil.

The Lunar Way recognizes the seduction into moral evil for those Illuminates who become Chaotic by choice, and the almost unfailing depravity that follows from non-Illuminates who become Chaotic by choice. The examples are plentiful - Parg Ilisi, Tatius the Bright, his Spolite replacement as Dean of the Imperial College...

Shamans can (and will) conduct propitiatory services to chaotic entities (like e.g. Thed) and even contract them for magical tasks without (necessarily) becoming chaotic themselves. The typical caveats about deals with the devil remain, and there is always a risk when approaching Chaos.

5 minutes ago, Ynneadwraith said:

Man borophagines are rad! Epicyon even means 'more than a dog'. Why stop at rhinoceros' when you could have rhinoceros-and-a-half as well?

Oh, anyone else looking for some other weird prehistoric animals to sandwich in somewhere should look at chalicotheres, entelodonts, early proto-whales like pakicetus, or thylacoleo the marsupial lion (or thylacosmilus for an animal that better fits that description, because thylacoleo just weird). Dinosaurs are cool and all, but prehistoric mammals are every bit as weird and cool.

Prehistoric mammals are what populate the Pamaltelan Veldt, too - and I did not specify the sizes of rhinos in the Veldt. There is a reason why the Six-Legged Empire hired designers from Remakerela to create the Rascullu rhino centaurs. "Ice Age 2" had plenty pleistocene critters which may have been extinct for millennia by the time humans entered their habitat zone.

14 hours ago, soltakss said:

flute and other gentle, refined instruments.

Flutes stop being grouped as gentle refined instruments if you have siblings practicing the recorder with at most a single wall in separation. Percussion can be less grating on the ear.

Yelmic music might well have been closely related to Mongolian throat singing since Jenarong took over the semi-abandoned metropolises and brought them civilization from the steppes in the Gray Age.

Murharzarm's dinotopia Dara Happa did have the harp as its signature instrument, possibly with synaesthesia effects of colors emitted when plucking the strings (after all the medium for music was the previous celestial plasma of Aether alongside that new-fangled Storm). Birdsong would provide colorful choirs.

Alkoth had its Underworld-originating drums, making the shadows answer the beats of the drummers, already whe Sshorga invaded the Good Land of the fluffy dinos and their birdheaded and early made-human tenders.

Anaxialian Dara Happa did continue the harp tradition, but may well have lost that synaesthesia quality. Flutes may have entered the picture as the birdsong of the dinos and other feathered entities like the sun horse got lost.

This does sound like a dog-and-a-half that could have been hunting rhinoceros in the Pamaltelan Veldt.

If I understand this approach correctly, you treat superior mundane manufacturing with the same system as magical, super/psionic or technological powers added to the item in order to determine its price, possibly with the inherent flaw of the weapon being unpowered.

A narrow area of power will allow a greater effect. A Vorpal Blade might increase the chance to land a decapitating blow in a number of ways - it could adjust the hit location probability, it could add penetration to neck strikes only, it could remove the usual penalty for an aimed blow to the neck, or (at exponential cost) a combination of these.

You don't seem to have planned rules for manufacture of such items, but to me this sounds like weapons made from (or at least including) powered materials (whether elemental essence, special celestial body material, Vis as in Ars Magica, or powers immanent to the creature the material was removed from) would aid in bestowing these powers and providing these might reduce the cost of manufacturing.

Scarcity (of materials or manufacturing opportunities) might affect price and immediate availability.

Do you have a concept how an item with several powers that don't or only partially stack would be priced/rated? Say a blade of superior manufacture that can have either a fire or a frost power, each of the three worth rank 2?

11 hours ago, RedCrestedSlayer said:

Hey all

This is my first time posting in the forum, and I'm curious about building custom creatures & races in BRP. I've got some experience DMing and playing, including in both DND and Call of Cthulhu, and I've familiarised myself with how the BRP system works from a theoretical level.

But I am wondering if there's a set method or easy way to build creatures from scratch. For example, I've been thinking on running a Warhammer Fantasy-themed game, and although the BRP creature list contains stuff like Orcs it doesn't contain goblins.

Depending on your definition frame of goblins (e.g. outside of the AD&D frame where there seems to be an evolution of goblinoids) you may wish to adjust the characteristics of goblins.

The BRP stats of orcs are derived from the stats for elves undergoing a re-design at the will of Morgoth (or some other demon lord relevant to your setting). That explains their super-human dexterity.

Goblins are not known for super-human stats, except possibly fertility. They are stunted humanoids - which makes the RuneQuest stats for trollkin a good starting point.

11 hours ago, RedCrestedSlayer said:

Say I know the 'narrative' aspects of a creature, like its height compared to a human, intellect/sapience and other basics, is there a good method for translating that into a stat-line? Or would it be just taking examples like for halflings and tweaking it to fit another being?

The easy way is to take the closest example you find, take off its special abilities (like e.g. halfling toughness), and apply. In most settings the human stats are the default.

The trolls in RuneQuest are a good case study on how to modify basic human stats to produce variations in various terms, including the stunted trollkin, the huge but dumb great trolls and the demigod mistress race trolls. For less humanoid creatures, the dragonewts offer such a range of variations. Rather than human 3D6 (or 2D6+6), superhuman stats could add a D6 or two, or add a +3 or +6 (or several) to adjust for more powerful entities. On the lower end, you might substract a die, or maybe replace it by a straight +2 or +3 if that is too much of a change.

12 hours ago, RedCrestedSlayer said:

Off the back of that, what do you usually consider for making a creature feel 'different' and unique?

Not so much the ways a creature's stats are rolled up, but its memorable specialities. Adaptation to its habitat (which usually is somewhat hostile to humans) is a major factor. Immunity to certain toxins or physical challenges of its environment easily tips the balance towards the native creature. Weaknesses resulting from such adaptation may equalize this a bit. Swamp critters usually don't cope well with dry heat or with sub-zero temperatures.

Creature behavior and tactics may make them different and even unique. Different modes of communication like olfactory messages or color changes may make communication harder and possibly memorable.

Some of the most memorable critters include the Hokas by Pouk Anderson and Gordon Dickson , about man-sized teddy-bears which are fascinated by all things human, willing to imitate (selected aspects of) human culture and ideas to the extreme. They have a bear-like body plan, are furred and a little stronger than your average human, and otherwise not very different.

7 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

As i re-read the Rune cults chapter of RQG, I don't see any reason that there should be a fixed number of Rune Lord positions at any temple.  Not as a general requirement, though who can say what might be in yet-unpublished cults books?  If you play it that way, YGWV, but it would be too bad if any third -party reader were to take a Rune Lord office count limitation as canon.

A Rune Lord yields 90% of his income to the cult but in turn is financed by the cult. That's the limiting factor - how many rune lords can (the local chapter of) a cult maintain in the dignirity and readinesss they require?

Create the clans like you create RuneQuest cults and redefine Rune Magic as Blood Magic.

17 hours ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

All sheep have ancestral memories of Voriof being defeated by Yinkin “Murdermittens” Kerofinson, and are thus wary of getting on the bad side of even Sleepy Timtom.

Heler (Tarhelera) was one of Yinkin's earliest "wives", giving birth to the cloud cats/cat clouds. Sheep are thus in-laws of Yinkin.

Shadowcats sound like stealth hunters, solitary stalkers which explode from cover to jump on their prey. At least there don't seem to be any prides of shadowcats hunting cooperatively. Turning these into herders may sound improbable.

There might be something else going on, though. Our household tom Max is one of the few household members respected by our household Jack Russel terrrorist Moritz, and is able to enforce some obedience (and definitely right of way) from the dog. A similar reign if not of terror then of grudging respect might be held over herd animals.

1 hour ago, Zit said:

For your lizard-like creatures, you may want to have a look at the RQ's dragonewts.

Or rather at the Slarges (which come in two different sizes, at least the larger of which might fit the upper range).

1 hour ago, scott-martin said:

This is best seen when we compare the rhymed "realms of beauty were lost" construction common to Pamalt in RM and the original Orlanth cult writeup to the doomy Jrustelan epigrams that survive. ("Too late too late / to save the dreams.") Prove me wrong! Point me to something authentically cyclopean in the textual evidence or archaeology that we can use to date the historical collapse a full millennium before the Close.
 

How about Avanapdur's reign of illusionary plenty in the East? No archaeological evidence (for obvious reasons, illusions don't leave any artifacts behind) but textual evidence with that keet sage to whom the survivors complain about the loss of those islands of plenty in Revealed Mythologies.

1 hour ago, Ironwall said:

However they do worship Foundchild who is associated with brother dog. So dogs could have a mystic justification for a dog presence among the Agimori. 

I wonder whether they really worship Foundchild or whether their neighbors call their ancestral worship of Rasout "Foundchild".

31 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

 

Anyone have Hero Quest stations for Magasta's Pool and a dwarven Hero Quest down there,

If you check the "other islands" chapter in the Guide, there is Halway Island on the border between the world of the living and the underworld, a rock sticking out into the Maelstrom where refugees from ships caught in the Whirlpool have ended up as castaways, and on the opposite side of the Maelstrom (perceived as "above") there is another island, apparently inhabited by Mostali. When the castaways shaped a huge human effigy from loose rocks on their islands, the inhabitants of the opposite islands sent across an iron ballista bolt, directly into its head.

That dwarfen promontory in the Pool might be the place where they work on recovering or reconstructing (parts of) the Spike. It will have a tunnel connection to some dwarf colony connected to the surface world, but it is unknown which.

17 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Did I miss it? Do dwarves bleed and what color is their blood? No source for dwarvish zombies... Do they have skeletons?

Dwarf skeletons are canonical - the founder of the Individualist heresy was so pious (despite his heresy) that his bones had turned to metal by the time of his demise (at a ripe age of a millennium or so).

18 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

I wonder if Dwarves are made similar to Jolanti? Where are the molds... If a PC found the recipe for Jolanti (Different-Worlds-21 p.30) and then somehow modified it via alchemy to make it create dwarves somehow they could make a dwarf army... what fun.

The original Iron Mostali sort of fit this description - they were created by a conclave of the eight previous castes, but without the participation of Mostal (or Stone). They were designed for mass production, but not noticeably as a self-reproducing workforce.

With the development of the Clay Mostali, the Iron Caste apparently recruits a significant portion of those proto-dwarf modules as their caste may suffer the highest attrition rate amont the castes. The original Iron Mostali recipe might be retrievable, and a deep quest into the neighborhood of Magasta's Pool might be able to unearth some ancient vats that might replace the original Iron Crucible after the destruction of the workrooms in the basement of the Spike. Between the Nidan and the Slon decamonies there might be enough highest-level diamond dwarves and remaining Elder Mostali to attempt new batches of original Iron Mostali. It isn't quite clear whether those original Iron Mostali were superior to highly-trained Iron Caste Clay Mostali, though.

Are there domestic dogs on the Pamaltelan veldt? If so, in what role? Guardians, food, hunting companions, manslayers?

Quite a bit of the Pamaltelan fauna consists of megafauna - e.g. rhinos. There are only a few species of ungulates known to cope with the unique fauna of the veldt, including oryx antelopes and the milk antelope that occurs both as a Hsunchen animal and as domesticated source of milk at oases. Are the Agimori (Doraddi) lactose tolerant as a rule?

The Men-and-a-half of Prax are descendants of the elite chaos-fighting warriors who followed their god(s) (identified as Lodril rather than Pamalt) across the dry ground (dead yellow elf forest after Pamalt's victory over Filth Which Walks?) of late Lesser Darkness into the desolation left by the Death of Genert, possibly by way of Teleos. They don't seem to remember much of their migration history, or at least they don't share much of that. I wonder how their reaction to the Agimori who joined Harrek's Wolf Pirate Fleet in Laskal would be as the Wolf Pirates participate in the liberation of Pavis and the occupation of Corflu.

3 hours ago, Karlak One-eye said:

Hi folks,

The various RQG books and multiple products from the Jonstown Compendium give us excellent and atmospheric example of youthful initiations but I cannot recall seeing anything on what happens when our heroes take the big step of becoming rune level (in our campaign we call it "Taking your rune". Obviously each cult will be different but has anyone got any thoughts?

The Biturian Varosh story for the Pairing Stones (in Cults of Prax, Orlanth Cult) gives a lay member insight on the ordination of a Storm Voice.

"I'll attack the hostile melee participant in range, which currently is NPC X."

Clay dwarfs should be susceptible to undeath, thanks to their origin that used the "men (and women) made of clay" blueprint copied from say Yelm and his friends or Pamalt and his friends, or (most likely) copied from Vimorn and his brothers as mentioned in Middle Sea Empire.

1 hour ago, Ali the Helering said:

I am puzzled.  Ludwig was Roman Catholic.

Justus von Liebig worked in Gießen, in Hesse(n), but "Mad" King Ludwig was a great admirer of scientific progress and chose to ennoble him for his achievements making the dreams of alchemy come true. Liebig may well have been a Lutheran.

1624, after the Battle of Pennel Ford and the plundering of the City of Wonders:
The liberation of Pavis

IIRC before the Dragonrise (because there were sufficient Lunar forces and magicians available):

The second battle of Moonbroth

At roughly the same time: Broyan killed in Heortland, leading a force of elites into Sartar, by a Kitori demon for allowing the plundering of the City of Wonders.

At the inauguration of the New Lunar Temple:

The Dragonrise 

Same season, possibly same week:

The Liberation of Boldhome

Quite likely not much of an event, as provincial forces had been occupying eastern Tarsh even before the inauguration ceremonies:
Tarsh siezes Alda Chur

The Battle of Dangerford

The betrayal of Fazzur Wideread by the king.

News of the betrayal reached Fazzur in the middle of the battle, leading to Fazzur withdrawing his household forces and abandoning the planned crossing. The date is in the Starter Box.

Kallyr's Short Lightbringer's Quest

Sacred Time indeed.

24 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

To propitiate seems a simple — and perhaps a rational — decision to make, but in this brave new world in which worship is a skill, maybe it is not so simple actually to do it. There is a trick to it one may fail to grasp. The village wants to propitiate Mallia and avoid the plague, but it hasn’t got the knack and she cannot hear. When she turns a deaf ear, a particularly piercing and intricate prayer is required? 😉

Propitiation may not work on the first try. The Heimskringla has a nice episode about the period they settled Jämtland, with three consecutive years of bad harvests. In the first year, they sacrificed some beasts, but the harvests remained bad, so in the second year they sacrificed a slave. Harvests still failed, so they sacrificed their king (aka chief priest). When that still failed, they got the hint and moved onward.

A bit outside of the original question, but just about any holy person should be able to lead propitiative worship to whichever entity that requires it, whether lowly spirit or overpowering otherworldly entity.

Propitiative worship doesn't result in spells being offered or feats being understood, but it would be a common task.

2 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Oh I agree

i was talking about the goddess herself who tried (or not) to heal chaos 

In my view she had no enemy (aka no one she wants and tries to wound/kill)

She has two antitheses she wants to undo - Death and Disease. Also suffering (Wakboth).

1 minute ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

oh I was convinced that CA try to heal everyone even chaos. But you're one of the lore master, I will not challenge you 😛 

Not speaking with my lore master hat on, though. Vivamort and Malia are special foes, personal foes of CA, IMG, embodying the antithesis of herself.