Joerg

I would prefer something Jurassic rather than Cretaceous. And I imagined them to have much mor musculous upper thighs on their hind legs. Ronance and movement: His connection to the magical roads is well documented. He doesn't cause fertility, but helps find it in the Wastes. His chariot wheels are movement runes.

More thoughts on the bola: It attacks by attacking the mobility of the target. I suppose that magical bolas would be able to capture a target's movement and transfer it to the rider. Maybe a standard Mobility charm among the Bola riders.

The bola is the physical manifestation of the movement rune. Do you think that the Bolo Riders have a special connection to Ronance (after all a god with reptilian associations and the movement rune)?

If you want to adapt more recent dinosaur lore for the bolos, please keep in mind these "design" restrictions based on the Nomad Gods boardgame: - they are herbivores - when running (on two legs, ostrich-like) they extend their heads on their long necks horizontally to the front and their tails horizontally to the rear, allowing their riders maximum freedom to whirl their bolas about. I'd make their tribal element earth and refrain from giving them downy feathers. The beasts aren't supposed to be intelligent, that's what they have their riders for. Like the ostrich riders, bolo riders are rather territorial for Praxians since they have to guard their nesting sites. Bolo lizard eggs ought to resemble dragonewt eggs more than ostrich eggs, with quite leathery, not very chalcic shells. The used shells might be a good material for Praxian armor. I don't think that they have any relation to Storm Bull other than through the Waha chieftain lineages that probably married into the tribe at the time of the Covenant. IMO the lizards are beasts of the Covenant and can be ridden by Impala Riders, Ostrich Riders and not too large Sable Riders, or by children or midgets of other tribes. Bulls/cocks are ridden or slaughtered, while cows/hens are kept for laying eggs.

Zebra riders are tolerated - Olgkarth, the zebra chief who accompanied Dorasar to Pavis, lived among the Pol Joni with his tribe. Given the reliance of the Zebra riders on horse mares to breed their cavalry zebras, I would expect a small permanent presence of Zebra riders among the Pol Joni.

There is a way around the marriage rites. A lot of the fertility festivals include a period of divine licence even for married couples, not necessarily restricted to the re-enactors of the rites. A good marriage will use these opportunities to make children within wedlock, an infertile marriage (including homosexual relations) will take this as an opportunity to overcome their biological restrictions. In Orlanthi society there are no (non-ritual) marriages within a clan, except for widows (who are from another clan in most cases) remarrying in order to stay with their children. The person who joins the marriage partner's clan will bring a dowry which is used by the pair while the marriage lasts, and when it ends the person from outside of the clan will be re-imbursed this dowry from the host clan. It doesn't really matter which sex the mobile partner of the marriage had, or which sex the clan member had. Whenever a household (formed by marriage) is dissolved, the household property is distributed according to the dowry, the (few) personal belongings of the involved clan member, and the hosting clan, whose council might re-distribute the accumulated wealth to other households in the clan. While a former carl is unlikely to become a stickpicker due to a divorce or widowing, massive loss of available wealth might be a consequence of a separation.

True old timer - not quite. While I read about RQ when I started roleplaying around 1984, it wasn't before the Games Workshop edition of RQ3 that I got my hands on the system (around 1989), which led me to translate it to German. Then I met Lutz Reimers who had already finished his translation at STARD convention in Hamburg, which led to me attending part of the first German RuneQuest convention 1990 in Cologne, and after my return from a year working in Norway (1991-1992) joining the Deutsche RuneQuest-Gesellschaft and taking over their magazine Free INT for 6 issues. In 1993 I was still a newcomer to Glorantha, with about three years of reading and a bit of Gloranthan gaming (mostly Dragon Pass and very few Gloranthan convention games) and the tentative beginnings of my Glorantha index (started in the solitude of northern Norway to reconcile the RQ3 Genertela Box data with the Pavis info, then including data from King of Sartar) under my belt when I joined the RQ Daily. That means I missed 15 years of RuneQuest/Glorantha activity... I do admit to having been one of the most prolific writers in the early years of daily mailing lists, but RQ2 and all its supplements were mythic tomes back then, unavailable in provincial Germany. In a way, this late entry (compared to the RQ2 clan who are the real old timers) into the Glorantha tribe may have sharpened my awareness about how difficult it can be to start with Glorantha. Back in the early 1990ies, things looked rosy for Glorantha, with the RQ3 Renaissance, King of Sartar and an active community on the internet, a number of Glorantha-themed conventions all around the world (Leicester, Baltimore, Melbourne, Germany). In fact, 2016 may be the first year since the mid nineties which offers more specialized convention activity than those years. Some things have changed. In those early days of the Digest, we felt that we could still shape the official Glorantha with our ideas, and I guess that we managed to influence some of those bits. Now we have this huge body of canonical Glorantha in the shape of the Guide to Glorantha, which I personally think of as "a good start". We also have a huge backlog of not so canonical any more Gloranthan publications with great ideas still worth using in your campaigns. Now we no longer try to fit material into a temporarily static 1618-1621 setting (or harkening back into historical periods) but we can take the info from the Guide, warp it with events vaguely described in the prophecies, and produce heavily altered settings for gaming in the era that we first visited with the battles in the Dragon Pass (or even White Bear and Red Moon) boardgame. In my advice I forgot one component for getting familiar with Glorantha which helped me a lot - exchanging GM info with other GMs in adjacent areas. I was involved in several such cooperations, such as the Wilmskirk Tribal Federation info exchange which had campaigns for all four tribes putting together their data, or the Whitewall Wiki. As a narrator I felt a lot more secure about presenting a living world by getting feedback from the other campaigns in the neighborhood, discussing scenario ideas and outcomes. So if you want to have a review board of other Gloranthan GMs, go networking. One of the most recent technologies are private G+ groups where GMs invite interested people to have a look at their campaign and current scenarios. Even if you should get no new input to improve your campaign (an unlikely case), presenting your plans before actually playing them out will make you focus, formulate and fine-tune your ideas. You don't have to be a GM with 20 years of Glorantha experience. Some of the people who comment or listen in are bound to be, make use of their experience.

Use a clan which includes fairly orthodox Yelmalians - in the Yelmalio cult these things are pretty much a controversial issue, up to having geasa specifically prohibiting such activities.

This is a Big Change to conceived knowledge. Do the other Praxian myths (like descent from the Spike, following Storm Bull) still apply? Or will we find similar revelations about the other Founders? So the Storm Bull descent comes only indirectly through the Waha Khan dynasties (which make sense as such, given that the majority of the Sable Riders started out without Storm Bull as ancestor. Nowadays one can expect every Sable Rider to have some Waha Khan as an ancestor, but at a guess 2/3 of them not through a direct male line. (Compare the genetic evidence for direct male line Cohanim descent in the Jewish population, as cited in one of the Science of Diskworld books.) How did the female appearance of the Twinstars at the gates of Glamour come across? Shamanic gender uncertainty (vaguely remembered from another thread on the Hungry Plateau Sables)? And what is the chance that the Twinstars are offspring of Storm Bull?

x: Fertility Rune e: Earth Rune t: Death Rune Correct?

The Orlanthi have several somewhat accepted roles for non-standard sexual behavior. Vinga is of course the butch daughter of Orlanth, protector and fighter, the role for women in the Orlanth cult. Heterosexuality isn't necessary in this role. Then there is Nandan, the role for males in Ernalda roles. Heler stands for sexual mutability, up to physical gender changes as the mood demands (in especially magical people), but any kind of sexual orientation can be found in this cult. Yinkin is known for rampant sexuality, not necessarily about crossing gender borders, but almost anything goes. Humakt accepts anyone, regardless of gender, so do the Lightbringer cults Issaries, Lhankor Mhy and Chalana Arroy. Note that it might be considered "straight" to interact with some of these above in their adopted sexual role even if the person bearing that role doesn't have the gender for it. Overall, the Orlanthi care about marriage, but not so much about sexual activities as long as they don't contradict marriage (e.g. sexual activity in cultic activities doesn't count against marital vows, but many such are forms of the lightest form of Orlanthi marriage.)

The MP spent definitely add to the strike rank - just like boosting the spell (in order to bypass Countermagic) or similar extra MP expenditures do. It is still better than Heal - you can do a Heal Wound 10 to restore a leg, chest or abdomen wound from -5 to +5.

How much is water/thirst an issue for a troll or trollkin presence in the wastes? I am still thinking about a heroic rebel trollkin civilization somewhere remote if a troll society should decide to get rid of those weaklings.

The compromise isn't about friendship, but about grudging toleration. The Solars don't have to like the fact that the sun isn't in the night sky, and the uz don't need to be happy about either being tormented by the unbearable brightness of Yelm or knowing that he keeps devastating their former paradise every night. Kyger Litor's honor (as far as that is relevant to uz society, as opposed to her hunger or her fertility) demands revenge on the Bright One who damaged her womb, reducing her fertility once more - the first such damage was when dead Brightface caused the Mistress race to give birth to the stunted uzko. Uzko doesn't translate as dark troll, but as hurt troll or burnt troll. And referring to a thread in the Glorantha group over on G+, maybe part of the hurt was the loss of all shape adjustment for the males, and much of it for the females of the uzko: https://plus.google.com/u/0/108824867722453475707 Luckily the previous experience of Zorak Zoran with Aether inside Gata's womb gave them a viable though somewhat hurtful template to reform. There was no such template when D'Wargon invaded the Black Eater, resulting in the parody of uzness that the enlo are.

Might some uz greet sunrise as the sun fleeing from Wonderhome? Sunset is when it invades Wonderhome again (and again and again).

Not sure my google-fu is stronger, but try this: https://www.google.de/search?q=map+%22zola+fel%22&biw=1431&bih=715&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqk4Lc2avKAhVEtg8KHWkYBowQsAQIXw I happen to own an extra shrink-wrapped copy of MOB's Avalon Hill book Sun County I'd be willing to part with (sale or swap), if you're interested. Location is Germany. The maps from Borderlands/River of Cradles probably still are the gold standard for the region.

I know that the gang I played RQ with enjoyed their gritty combat since it gave them tactical options (and spotlight) even while I tried to play through stories. About killing someone with a tea cup - that's not weapon use, that's death magic, range touch. Can be done in any simulationist game. Weapon porn or skill porn is part of the "roleplaying" experience for a considerable subset of the gamers, even outside of munchkinism. For many players, roleplaying is about the personal experience, about shared memories in overcoming obstacles or achieving goals. These get embedded similar to personal memories if the gaming experience was good, regardless whether it was a narrativist game or a game of crunchy simulationism. So: the initiative to identify the enjoyable parts of the rules you are using is fine. The selections may be subject to personal bias, though, and only the compromise as per gaming group will result in increased enjoyability. My bogeyman could be my fellow gamer's holy grail.

Getting an antelope lancer to go native with the Sable riders probably would require contact with other phratries (or what are those sub-tribes with their own queens called) than the two currently allied with the Empire. The relations between the Hungry Plateau sable riders and those Praxians are best caught in the old joke "What has six legs and an asshole on its back?" - this is told by the Lancers about their arrogant Praxian allies. Not vice versa. Of course, there is always cherchez la femme as a good reason to go native. I even applied that to my Storm Bull NPC Hrut the Thirsty who had the hots for a Paps priestess. And the Paps would be the most likely place to encounter sable riders from those other sub-tribes, especially female ones. The guide names the powers of the Twin Stars as Eloquence with Barbarians and Deadly Distraction in Crisis. Neither are really useful for soldiers in the Antelope Lancers, and I would expect them to be a women's cult rather than a male cult on the Hungry Plateau. I don't see the importance in letting the Antelope Lancers have Lunar magics over conventional (probably spirit charm) ones. As a non-magical cavalry unit (according to their stats in the Dragon Pass boardgame), their business magics are likely to pertain to fighting with their lance and for dealing with their steeds, plus protection for steed and rider. The magic of sharing the same ancestor is useful on a regimental level, but not on an individual level unless you carry one or more along in your charms. If Gerendetho displaces Waha as the everyman's patron on the Hungry Plateau, then I guess Gerendetho would be the default rank-and-file denomination. Spears and antelopes seem to fit his portfolio.

FWIW IMG Sun Hawk is the Praxian version of Yelmalio. The full fiery glory of the sun may have rested with Splendid Yamsur, but Sun Hawk never was the Golden Age sun, only its perception.

Dernu and Gernu appeared in the Sartar Rising campaign. Their heroband is described in Orlanth is Dead, and in the third volume an attempt was made to show how it transformed into the Eaglebrown Warlocks - at least that latter attempt is not canonical any more, but I see no reason why the characters themselves should have become ungloranthan. That fox episode was in KoDP from the beginning, and gave you the choice between hard times for growth or for magic. The elurae fox women are classed with the beast folk - part human, part beast - but have a different, eastern origin. The percentage of intelligent beasts ("less than one in a thousand") was in the Zola Fel cult write-up since Cults of Prax. Another stab at animal sentience was made in the sperm whale text which mentioned the occasional sentient giant squid as their opposition. The Goldeneye horses of the Grazers probably are sentient in their own right. The Praxian ritual to reverse the covenant in order to make herd beasts sentient might be regarded as unnatural magic if you see Waha's Covenant as defining what is natural, or might be regarded as undoing a huge magical change to return the beasts to their original, Golden Age state that Waha's Covenant upset (in order to let them survive at all). There appear to be Hsunchen/Fiwan beasts that only rarely take human shape. The Tanuku milk antelope of Pamaltela is grouped with the Fiwan, their human shaped counterparts were first mentioned in the Guide, earlier on the only info we had on them (in the unfinished work Missing Lands) was that they served as domestic beasts of the Doraddi. The eastern Golden Eagle participates in the Korgatsu rites (as per Anaxial's Roster). Regardless whether an animal is sentient or not, hunter cults treat it as a person.

Also add Chaosium's ElfQuest, the swedish Drakar och Demoner, FGU's Other Suns. Is Superworld part of this list already?

Plenty of sentient animals in full animal shape around - lots of sentient fish in the Zola Fel cult, sentient foxes in the King of Dragon Pass computer/phone game speaking for the Wild, sentient deer in the Purendi myth (in Anaxial's Roster), and in Hsunchen lands the high probability that e.g. a deer is actually a shape-changed human (or, in their view, a human in his true animal shape). There is the famous Alynx rebel Dernu (with his mute human sidekick Gernu). Ducks and other keets actually disqualify from your list because of their anthropomorphic bodies. If you include demonic beings, how about the Crimson Bat or Ethilrist's Hound and horse demons?

No idea why - independent city states at odds with one another, with gradual differences in their deity etc. fits the bill for the Bronze Age cities on the eastern Mediterranean or in Mesopotamia. The tradition of hiring Greek mercenaries may date back into the Bronze Age, too - Lyon Sprague de Camp wrote a nice story about a veteran from the siege of Troy (don't recall which one right now) taking service in Egypt - so the omnipresence of mercenary companies in Safelster appears to fit, too. Let's add the fleets on the lake, which may be a bit too advanced for Bronze Age, but emphasizing extremely sleek rowed vessels for war on that hardly roughened body of water. The Arkat mysteries deserve some more exposition - I know that there is some material which hasn't seen publication yet, except maybe a few public readings. The "Rise of Ralios" freeforms did some exploration of that area, so did Ingo's "King's Funeral". The Orlanthi both of Vesmonstran and of East Ralios were the subject of campaigns, e.g. David Dunham and Jonas Schiött in East Ralios or Nikk Effingham in Otkorion. Reports on these can be found in the Glorantha Digest archives. I myself took part in a play-by-email game by Jose Ramos set in Kustria which had us heroquesting using RuneQuest 3 rules - ask me or Paolo about details if you're interested. All of these had a distinct Gloranthan look and feel.

For many years the Pavis/Big Rubble setting was the best entry point for a Sartar campaign, having the best information on how Sartar (and especially a Sartarite city) worked. I guess what really made feel Pavis so alive were the Griselda stories as samples of (solo) play.

I was pointing towards Ignorance since that is where a lot of Kralori bad deities are projected. You are of course right that more often than not a parent-child relation between deities means that the child is an aspect of the parent. Like Orlanth in the shape of the Thunder Brothers. But how does this manifest in Yara Aranis? She can be approached as the daughter of the Pentan (enemy) demon, or as granddaughter of the Red Moon. We know her as the guardian of the Glowline, the magical border that projects the surface of the moon magical reality onto the Lunar Empire, Tatius exploited that role for his New Lunar Temple (and it backfired, probably not quite related to Yara).