Joerg

I beg to differ - Knight Fort is part of the Esvulari lands, like the Bandori valley and the southern part of the plateau. The Esvulari combine Malkioni and Orlanthi traits, and they imitate the Westerners and their heavy cavalry, aka knights - hence the name. The marches are a place to send malcontents and dissidents to cool off in the constant skirmishes against Praxian braves.

What about RQ2 Snake Pipe Hollow and Apple Lane? Or RQ2 Trollpak? Unlike the RQ3 editions by Avalon Hill, these copyrights should still be with Chaosium, correct?

As kids, my younger sister and I used the Lego city and railway stuff for projecting characters in a modern (well, 1970ies) world not really distinguishable from diceless roleplaying. We didn't have those moveable arms and legs back then, though.

On the other hand, why not borrow from the Leicester convention (I think Loz was involved in) and talk about a RuneQuest Continuum?

The colliseum (a so-so mix of pregenerated fighing encounters and gladiatorial stuff)

The vikings box - excellent stuff 

Griffin Island - ripped out of the Elder Wilds

Land of Ninja - by the author of Bushido, reprinting most of the Vkikings campaign, otherwise brilliant

And two later, highly flammable products I won't go into detail about, one a ruined city setting with a few merits and original rules bits, and the other a scenario book that somehow saw print.

This almost sounds like "Sword Fighting is a limiting ability for the Humakti's Death Rune ability" - while the Humakti gains the special advantage to have a Sword Fighting ability equal or higher to his death rune ability, he alway has to raise his Sword Fighting ability before being able to raise the Death Rune ability to the same level.

Unless it is an "Orlanthi all", meaning "it is extremely frowned upon in Humakti circles to have a Death Rune ability greater than the Sword Fighting ability."

The Karn, as in Vampire Legion of Karn, as in Karn's Stead, or something else? Where is that term from?

The Tusk Riders probably still call themselves Aramites, regardles of their changed appearance.

One old theory was that the son of Harand Boardick that was given to Jogo Zaramzil might have been a missing link to the Aramites.

I discussed a possible sidestep to the trollkin curse when the nature of the Kitori was discovered on the World of Glorantha yahoogroup - a troll mother mating with a (full) Kitori would give birth to a dark troll shaped Kitori half-breed, never a trollkin birth. The problem with this was that the offspring somehow was not reckoned to be a descendent of Kyger Litor, if I understood Greg correctly:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/WorldofGlorantha/conversations/messages/5831

and

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/WorldofGlorantha/conversations/messages/5839

So, while this specific troll mother wouldn't spawn trollkin, she neither would spawn valid heiresses for her lineage from Kyger Litor, as far as I read this exchange.

By becoming something else than Kyger Litor's spawn, the uz cease to be uz. Their shape or size is meaningless compared to this loss.

The Aramite method (relying on a darkness demon which Gouger had been sent out to kill) might enable a troll mother to give birth to tusked aramites. I don't see how that would be any more desirable than it would be for a non-aramite human woman.

According to the Tusk Rider side story in David Dunham's King of Dragon Pass, the Aramite traits can be acquired through an initiation/rebirth rite at the Ivory Plinth, and they breed true when an Aramite couples with an Orlanthi woman. (Although the ability to spawn a child at all may have resulted from the father being a converted human rather than an Xth generation Aramite.)

On the other hand, both Cragspider's Great Trolls and the half-Dehori Pikat Yaraboom are counted among the uz without any problems. Maybe it is that iron tolerance that breaks the ancestral bond?

Nope. But one AD&D group that I visit occasionally uses smurfs instead of minis.

Maran has these only above the belt, unlike Dendara's dark sister.

I am intrigued by the mythic Saxons (living in the lands of the Saxons and working in the lands of the Angles before their emigration to Britain).

Will this include their activities that gave the gulf of Biscaya the name Litus Saxonicus? Does this include the Nerthus cult as mentioned by Tacitus?

One reason why I doubt the connection between Tusk Riders and Uz is the fact that they don't have any trollkin. The Aramites of the Dawn Age had ordinary human appearance, even though they were darkness worshippers already back then. I have theorized a descent from the Harandings of Maniria or an Entruli background. The Aramites don't appear in Vingkotling tales, but are present in the Heortling tales of Dragon Pass.

The epithet "halftroll" appears to be of Orlanthi origin. It is also applied to Urrrgh the Ugly (an individual suggested to have ties to the House of Sartar and/or to the Kitori tribe).

The first Aramite called Halftroll is Karastand, the warleader of the Stinkwood forces in the troll wars during the early years of the Inhuman Occupation (described in King of Sartar). Their tusked appearance already spread during the EWF wars, when they were fighting in Ralios, even before the machine wars. In any case, the tusks seem to appear after the trollkin curse.

The only surviving nest outside of Genertela is on Teleos, and it isn't a functional nest with an Inhuman King, either.

Dragons are known in the history of the Vithelan lands (e.g. Dogsalu), but have a different origin story there. The Kralori have a different view and might regard Dogsalu just like Sekever as an enemy dragon.

Dragons do hibernate elsewhere, too, but don't show much activity there. For the Dragonkill, dragons flew in from all corners of the world.

I still think that that the Aramites managed to get Tusker blood into their folk. I doubt that they are connected to Kyger Litor, although they qualify as darkness creatures for an easier rite of adoption.

I suppose that the sexual frustration of her daughters feeds her magic. Her three named sons are heroquesters or magical leaders rather than major H Heroes, IMO.

I think that Yolanela has a few matches in the Guide, though:

In the Empire, there is Feathered Eye Woman, the Satrap of Darjiin who sent Harrek to kill Ignifer. While her offspring hasn't received a named mention, she has proven herself as deadly enough. As the mistress of the Dorkath rites, she is about to add another mask to her list...

Not sure whether it would be fair to count Moralatap of the Anger, since he's currently male again.

Bazkalia Oskor of Ralios is a shamaness who already was active as bounty hunter against the last God Learners at the end of the Second Age.

The Orlanthi candidates still wait for Argrath to draw even: The priestess queen of Greenstone, Entarios the Supporter, has quite a bit of magic at her disposal, and did play a major role in the recent history of Sartar. Samastina has vast potential. (Inkarne isn't named in the Guide yet, but she easily outdoes Yolanela.)

There appear to be a few alibi heroic fighter women in the Guide - a virgin Woman of All in Fronela, a martial artist in Kralorela

There is a "spoiler thread" in HeroQuest Glorantha, p.68.

Griselda and her female (and male) misfit friends are an undeletable part of the city of Pavis in the 1610s. She didn't make it into the guide except in the authors bio of Oliver Dickinson mentioned for a book on the Aegean bronze age, though.

The stories also make clear that she was far from the acceptable or expected norm of females in Pavis (as "Holding the Baby" testifies).

A typical kickass female would be Ernalsulva from Sartar - Kingdom of Heroes, especially after her marriage to either the player character or the Lismelder hero. She is wielding her husband like Griselda is wielding that little sword of hers.

Kallyr failed miserably? She was killed in a battle that prevented her kingdom from being re-conquered. Before that she masterminded the Dragonrise star dance and fought off the first Lunar counterinvasion through sheer inspiration. Yes, the first rebellion under her name failed, but her come-back changed and shook the entire world. Her role in bringing back the Boat Planet shouldn't be underestimated, either.

And Argrath didn't kill Jar-eel, that was Harrek. Having talked to Jar-eel after that battle, I can attest that she was up and about even without her heart beating in her chest, and far from undead... (the latter from the fun freeform game played at this year's Eternal Con)

So, are the goddesses boring? At a first glimpse, I'm afraid I have to say yes. At Kraken I had a workshop about my scenario project for supporting the German edition of HeroQuest 2, and in order to keep the deeper Glorantha background manageable and in line with the available information, we discussed what deities to choose for 6 female descendants of an Asrelia priestess through the maternal line tasked with bringing her body to her family tomb in Nochet.

We compromised on one Etyries worshipper, 2 worshippers of Ernalda, one of Vinga, one of Lhankor Mhy and one of Yinkin for the German scenario. Basically that's just two characters worshipping a (or rather the) standard female goddess of the Sartarites. I wanted a Lunar cultist among this group of matrilineal descendants to show how far the female offspring can spread through the clans and tribes of Sartar (assuming strict exogamy). The Yinkini is both a nod to Onelisin Cat Witch, the (in)famous daughter of Saronil Sartarsson, and the wish to have a non-conformist character in the group short of sending out a Eurmali. The Vingan is the only woman in the group who has fighting experience for herself, although the Ernaldan healer has lots of battlefield praxis, and the Yinkini is a hunter and tracker in addition to her role as an Orlanthi steadwife. We chose to have a female Lhankor Mhy worshipper rather than one of the Ernaldan/Asrelian tradition keepers in order to offer that peculiar occurrance of a female in a patriarchalic-looking cult to newcomers to the weird of Glorantha.

All of the women are married into clans not their birth-clan, as were their mothers (and in two cases their grandmothers), away from the clan of the Asrelia priestess. They all identify with their new clan, but they also retain links to their maternal clan, and back to their matrilineal ancestress, too. This makes Sartarite females networkers in their society.

If you are a Sartarite approaching a "foreign" clan, you had best remember whether one of your childhood girl playground friends (sisters, cousins) has married into this clan, or whether one of your "aunts" was born here. The odds are that you have female kin or otherwise in-laws in this clan. (Not that the latter always means that this will help make you welcome here...) The odds are good that some of your party or at least close kin of theirs have already been a guest here for a wedding or a funeral feast.

On the other hand, this also means that the six example heroines in my scenario come from clans that are at odds with one another, something their husbands or sons will be sure to remember.

Do I expect these characters to be kick-ass? Not from the beginning of the scenario, no. They will be put in situations that are new and alien to them, and occasionally overwhelming. By overcoming the difficulties of those situations, they may become kick-ass.

If you take a closer look to the cults of Ernalda, you will find a great variety of behavioral options. Ernalda can be the peace-maker, but she is as much at home in the role of preparing and heating up the feud with a rival - read "The Making of the Storm Tribe" and her role there. She can be the dedicated and loving wife while using her "mother knows best" mindset to undermine whatever stupid idea poor emotional hubby wants to act out against better judgement.

Are husbands the only way to take an active role? No, only a very common (and convenient) one. Note that several of the named females have gone through a series of (powerful or otherwise influential) husbands. Both the husband and the wife receive huge benefits from the heroic marriage, which often appear to linger a lot longer with the wives than with the husbands. And while pregnancy puts a damper on adventurous fighting, giving birth or being a mother provides a female hero with strong magical potential that can benefit her later actions.

Do you want to play a cool-headed, calculating character? Then don't play a male in the standard role. (Don't play a Vingan, either - these women often outdo their male rivals in displays of emotion.)

Do you want to play a changer of worlds? Then don't just rely on your deity's example (unless you chose Larnste or Eurmal). Transcend the limits of the cult. In that case, does your choice of gods or goddesses matter? And remember that the "boring mainstream deities" like Orlanth and Ernalda have the weirdest sets of specialisation hidden behind that apparent normality.

While this feels like grave-digging a thread, it seems that what it takes to get a preomium reprint is the 50th anniversary of Glorantha in 2016, probably a minor kickstarter, and Chaosium being taken over by MoonDesign.

As usual, such name dropping creates lots of questions leading on.

Redel the Bear God sounds like a civilized version of Rathor, possibly the form venerated or propritiated by the sedentary folk of the Janube valley and Syanor.

Was Jonat subject to the need for hibernation? (And if so, how did he overcome that?)

Jonatela grew to be a direct neighbor of Carmania when the Carmanian lion shahs were succeeded or rather overthrown by the bull shahs. What sort of conflicts have there been over Charg before the Ban?

Is the yellow bear in any way similar to the blonde spirit bears of the Pacific coastal forests of the USA and Canada? A sun bear (deity)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermode_bear

Enslaving bear gods appears to be a trend in Third Age Glorantha - Jonat's Yellow Bear, Teelo Estara's Sky Bear and Harrek's White Bear.

I always wondered about these cannibal virgins. Are they obligate cannibals, eating no meat but from (sacrificed) humans, or are they the ritual eaters of some pieces of a sacrifice?

Shaker Temple is known for its human sacrifices, and it is considered bad luck to get captured by the warbands worshipping there.

I wonder whether they get voluntary sacrifices, whether they trade for slaves for feeding the sacrificial altar, or whether the surrounding clans don't have much of a penal system but are wont to nominate duty as sacrifice in case of major demeanors.

Female adventures are a bit diffferent, but females are essential on heroquests on behalf of a community. It is close to a miracle that the Lightbringers succeeded with only 1-2 females on board, but then the second protagonist spent much of the quest sleeping in the Underworld sending spiritual support, beckoning the questers towards her.

I am in the process of writing a (HeroQuest, or rather system-less) scenario for the female descendants of a Sartarite Asrelia priestess and their associates. It contains things only the women can do (such as performing a burial and enbalming rite), and things everyone is somewhat good or bad at, such as negotiating, theft, feats of strength, and if unavoidable, combat.

The group in the play examples of HeroQuest Glorantha is (somewhat loosely) based on Jeff's house campaign, which is female-dominated with four powerful but quite different female protagonists, doing heroquest stuff that might not be considered heroic in a swords and sorcery style, although such things appear in the sorcery part of Swords and Sorcery fairly regularly.

Wouldn't it be easier to use the labels, if there are system-relevant parts of the post? Three letters or numbers, and everyone knows what rules are asked for - RQG, RQ2, HQG, 13G...

The Kraken seminar on upcoming Glorantha publications was mostly recorded by Fabian Kuechler, and might be in post-production now. I think you have most of the topics and subsequent Essen game fair developments covered, at least those without the gentlemen's NDA that got recorded.

You did miss out on the Kraken chapbooks which should have been made availale by now (at least as pdfs): last year's Robin Laws' Sharper Adventures for HeroQuest, and this year's transcript of Sandy's Secrets of Glorantha seminar from last year.

So here's an introduction of another newcomer to this site with a loaded history of activity in the RuneQuest and Glorantha community.

I am Jörg Baumgartner, active on RQ- and Glorantha-related mailing lists and similar newfangled stuff like yahoo-groops, forums or social networks since 1993, and responsible for some sense and some nonsense on those lists, and in a number of cooperative efforts to explore specific corners of Glorantha like Whitewall, the Wilmskirk tribal confederation, or the city of Karse. I've been involved in the Chaos Society (officially Deutsche RuneQuest-Gesellschaft e.V.) almost since its beginning, in various roles (such as president, editor of the German fanzine for 6 issues, giant referee in the life action trollball games at Castle Stahleck, associate editor of Tradetalk), and a somewhat regular attendee at the German RQ/Glorantha/BRP related conventions at Stahleck and lately also the Kraken, as well as a couple of European ones (Convulsion, Chimeriades).

Other than the (now defunct) Buserian Index to Glorantha that was hosted on an older incarnation of the Glorantha site, I still have to deliver my magnum opus for Glorantha. After a long pause I have returned to writing for publication of Glorantha-themed material, and I might even get around to getting my sentimental collection of Glorantha pages back into shape.

I am without a steady roleplaying group right now (or rather I am on a long term leave from my former gaming group due to commuting interfering with my gaming time), so I do most of my roleplaying at conventions (and little enough of that, too).

My major RQ/BRP project was a RQ3 campaign in a fantasy version of RQ Vikings, with a world inheriting from history, Norse myth, popular literature on Welsh and Irish myth, Midkemia, Glorantha and even Pern that also was shared with other narrators of my group. I modified some Stormbringer and Drakar och Demoner rules for inclusion in this world, too.

I have a weird idea for a space opera setting featuring atolls and dugout ships from space plankton and nekton crewed by savages alongside with technologically more advanced human and nonhuman (and mixed) civilisations that I want to write up as a gaming background. (Those space organisms are the feral offspring of an earlier culture's biological space ships and stations. There are no psionic powers without sufficiently advanced technological crutches to explain them, a number of different methods for cheating interstellar distances in space, and a number of ideas for borderline transhuman cultures forming the leading edge of humanity's development.)

I tend to regard spaceships as three-dimensional mazes with access crawls to whatever piece of equipment is crammed into this volume inside the hull (or connected on the outside). Think e.g. of the position of the crew quarters on the Firefly - below the access corridor to the bridge.

You'll find clean corridors mainly in passenger-accessible areas, and depending on the availability of artificial gravity and acceleration compensators there would be a varying regiment on loose parts inside the ship, whether during planned acceleration phases (such as airplane take-off and landing) or during cruising periods.

A military transporter won't have any smooth corridors except where needed for speedy exits - expect utility hand-holds, cargo nets clamping optional equipment to the bulkheads, and low comfort for the payload (i.e. the grunts or special forces). A ship for exploration missions - whether intelligence gathering for military, political or economic purposes, surveying of ressources, or scientific expeditions - will have corridors stuffed with workplace niches for specific instruments/experiments, even if those are usually overseen from a central control area, if only for maintenance purposes.

If you have gravitation control, you could have segments with different directions for "down" in your ship, allowing for a foldout floor map wider than the exterior bulkhead, with creases offering some transitional effect similar to the centripetal space stations of e.g. Babylon 5 or Clarke's 2001. This can be especially fun for investigating unknown space ships or space installations.