Pentallion

On 8/10/2018 at 7:01 AM, David Scott said:

There are three occupational paths for lhankor Mhy, scribe, philosopher and priest. Only philosophers get to master one rune and technique.

It would appear that you erred on that part David.   The section on sorcery page 389 says:

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Lhankor Mhy apprentice scribes (lay members) are taught
logical reasoning and wisdom literature as part of their
training. Most apprentices begin their studies between the
ages of 6 and 15.
Upon initiation into the cult, the initiate is taught to
master the Truth Rune and the technique of Command.

This jibes with the pregenerated character Sorala, who knows Truth and Command and 3 spells.  However, a philosopher seems to have access to more spells than a scribe.

While Philosopher gives access to a rune and a technique per page 70:

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Philosophers learn sorcery, and
start having mastered the understanding of one Rune and
one technique (see the Sorcery chapter).

  The Lhankor Mhy cult does state on page 76:

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Cult Sorcery: Cultists trained in sorcery start as having
mastered the principles of the Truth Rune and the technique
of Command (see page 381)

So this can be interpreted as the one rune and one technique a philosopher starts with having to be Truth and Command if they are Lhankor Mhy.  But this is probably NOT how it is done when one looks at what a Malkioni gets as early as age 13:  3 runes and 2 techniques.  No, it's much more likely what happens is the philosopher occupation gives a rune and technique of the players choice and that the LM cult then gives Truth and Command.  That gives an LM philosopher 2 runes and 2 techniques.  Less than a malkioni, but more than a scribe.  The Scribe class just gets Truth and Command.

Also, Philosopher gives three spells of the players choice as an occupation and Lhankor Mhy cult gives three spells from a limited list.

So while an LM scribe would start with 3 spells from the limited list and Command/Truth, the philosopher seems to get Command/Truth another rune and another technique and 6 spells (or, the player could sink the occupation %'s into the 3 spells the LM cult gives, making him more skilled than a scribe in his 3 spells.)

This seems reasonable for a starting philosopher compared to a starting scribe.

8 hours ago, The God Learner said:

I would expect Dragonewts to have only vaguely comprehensible passions, if recognizable at all. Passions and Geases might be the same to them. 

They laid the ground work in the Bestiary for how Dragonewts evolve.  They have opposing passions instead of opposing runes.  From the Bestiary:

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A crested dragonewt’s personality fluctuates
wildly between being instinctively aggressive and passive,
brave and cowardly, energetic and lazy, stubborn and
docile, and unreliable and dependable. The crested
dragonewt may spend centuries trying to master these
conflicting emotions.

Once they reduce each passion to 0% they then evolve into the next stage of evolution and each stage has a set of five opposing passions.

Actually, in Red Cow there's an excellent gap in adventures that will allow a GM to send the PCs on a Trade mission to Prax, give them some time to rummage around in the Rubble and survive the streets of Pavis, then take part in The Cradle adventure and get home just in time as Winter comes.

8 hours ago, Dragonsnail said:

It is fairly easy to use older material, even from Heroquest. What will take time is creating enemy stats suited for RQG. But with the bestiary and rulebook it is doable. Can even use the Mythras enemy generator with some modding afterwards.

In my opinion the two Red Cow books for Heroquest are the best material produced for Glorantha. They are fantastic.

For most stuff, you don't even need stat blocks.  You can just wing it by saying the enemy is a 7/6/5 with 75% skill (7 chest, 6 ab/head/legs, 5 arms) give him appropriate armor for his class, then throw out appropriate cult battle magic, rune magic to make the combat fun and you're good to go.

Save stat blocking for major NPCs the PCs are likely to do combat with.

Can any of the designers give an example of spirit travel with the % modifiers?  It would really help clear things up for me.

1 hour ago, g33k said:

There is the "Cult of Chaos" -- it's CoC-centric.  You have to sign up, and it's not a generic "fan content" forum so much as a place for the Organized Play program to de-spoiler their convention & similar materials.  However, they DO have a small library of Cult-Keeper content, in addition to the "official" Organized-Play content.  Chaosium has said they have some (very early-stage) plans for a comparable program for RQG, but AFAIK it hasn't happened yet.  Some RQ-folk are Cult of Chaos members, and keep the embers smoldering over in the Cult, waiting for the Dragonrise...

 

Yes, and I am one of them, but my HeroQuest brought the Ring of Orlanth bounding through these open forums, hoping to knock a few stars loose and get things moving, cuz, you know, that's what Orlanth does.

Something like you do with CoC?  I remeber -I think it was Todd?- saying there would be a forum to post up fan content, adventures etc once RQG came out.

Is that still going to happen?

These beliefs are pretty universal.  From modern day spiritualists to Roman times catholics to buddhist monks.  Hence the term spirits to describe liquor and fighting ones demons to describe addiction.

There are many people today who are mocked and derided for claiming to be able to see spirits.  Con men and hucksters give it a bad name.  But these people have varying degrees of ability.  I, for instance, since the age of five have been able to see souls leave their bodies upon death.  This lasts but briefly as they leave and dont come back.  I dont have to see the body to see the soul leave and on most occasions it is seeing the soul that alerts me to the death in the first place. 

Mine is an extremely limited ability.  I knew a woman who could see the demons I spoke of that attack addicts.  She saw other things too.I've read up on  others like me and those with greater abilities all agree that addiction is as I described it.

In the real world the reason booze is called spirits is because it poisons your body, making it unfit to host your soul, which is expelled allowing demonic spirits to inhabit the body.  These spirits lust for plesures of the flesh they've been denied and thus your inhibitions are gone and the spirits surround themselves with others of their kind thus codependency and attempts to get others to join the lifestyle and become addicted.  This gives the demons an easy supply of host bodies and makes it more difficult for one to escape.

Thats real world shamanic belief in addiction.  Easily converted to RQ.

To explain in more depth, the spirits look for someone vulnerable and weak.  Child trauma victims, etc.  It is the human who drives their own soul out in their pain and weakness.  Even if the spirit is later excorcised many others flock to the victims soul whispering to them.  Urging them to be weak.

So simply driving off one spirit is generally not enough.   The victim has to power struggle to resist other demons.  But time helps.

Heal.  Not for the Ernaldan spell, but for when under demoralize effects.

8 minutes ago, g33k said:

I don't really want "dual-class Adventurer-Herders."  Scan and Track are 2ndary skills -- you only REALLY need them after you fail your Herd skill-roll. 

I've got to agree that Scan seems pretty central to a Hunter's skillset, however...

 

Well, they only need it if they fail their track roll.

So if pieced together with enough parts, would a sufficiently high Neutralize Magic make for a gruesome sight as the dwarf falls to pieces?  Troll sorcerers might use that spell to make dwarf stew.

Are they scruffy nerfed herders?

1 minute ago, jajagappa said:

That's what I thought when I read the KoS reference too.

But for that to be so, then at least some finger of the flood has to reach that point.  Bypassing Esrolian dykes onward onto Sartar no doubt.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

KoS p.26 describes an event roughly in 1650:
In the next spring, the Dara Happans would have liked to help their allies, the horsemen, but Argrath Storm‑maker raised the waters of the Oslir so much that every house which was not on a hillside was washed away. Anyone without boats could not move around, and so they all stayed home.

roughly 1650 could be actually 1652 or 3 and all Argrath did was open up a canal in that little circled area on Davids map and let the flood pour into the Oslir River Valley.

8 hours ago, David Scott said:

 I suspect 50% population reduction and landscape remodelling. Lots of settlements wont survive, but will be rebuilt afterwards. The Windstop and thaw is a dress rehearsal for the return of the seas. 

Which is why it is almost mandatory that the flood encompass the Oslir as well.  Between the loss of manpower from the Windstop and then, a generation later, the incredible loss of manpower from the Flood, there is no way little Sartar can mount effective campaigns against the vast Lunar Empire.  Not unless you guys are holding out on us about catastrophe's that strike the Lunars as well.  Since Greg's map says Oslir is untouched, I guess that means there HAS to be some pretty bad stuff happen to the Lunars to allow the Orlanthi to have a fighting chance.

13 hours ago, Joerg said:

Normally, the worshipers breeze through any kind of token resistance on the way,

I see what you did there.

To be more precise:

On page 372 it clearly defines the Inner Region as where shamans begin, then the Frontier Region, then the Outer Region.  (yes, I'm aware that's different than RQ3 but that's not where my confusion lies)

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Shamans, however, can perceive their own local Inner Region, and they define the look and feel of that area according to their traditions....Beyond that local area, if they explored further out, a Praxian would find ... This Frontier Region encloses their limited ancestral area.....And beyond that, there is yet another even larger Outer Region

Okay, so Inner, Frontier, then Outer.  Pg 374 reinforces this: 

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Most visitors to the Spirit World arrive in the Inner Region, its center, and venture outward

Here's where it gets confusing:

T

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Traveling to the Inner Regions of the Spirit World is easy; too easy, for the current of the Spirit World draws one inexorably towards its center. Often a vortex forms a gateway towards a deeper region. A shaman merely needs to “let go” and they are drawn deeper; the tricky part getting back out again.

Wait, What?  I start at the Inner Region, why would I travel to it?  On my way back home?  Then if all I need to do is "let go" to be drawn to the Inner Region, why is that the tricky part to "getting back out again"?  This leaves me confused.  Perhaps they mean "deeper" region as in Frontier or Outer regions.  This is not clear.  But then again, why would getting back out be tricky if I"m being pulled to the center, aka the Inner Region where I begin?

Then again the rules reassert that the shaman must travel outward to the Frontier or even the Outer Region.  He starts at the Inner Region.

The final paragraph doesn't help:

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Each region imposes a penalty to all attempts to leave, with the penalty increasing the deeper into the Spirit World the shaman goes. Each step closer to the center reduces
the shaman’s Spirit Travel skill by –10%. The current gets stronger towards its source, meaning it becomes easier to go inward but more difficult to maneuver or return against that current.

Which "deeper" do you guys mean here?  It seemed that "deeper"  means towards the center, but how do I calculate the penalty then?  The rules say there is Infinity somewhere out there beyond the Outer Region.  But the penalty gets greater the closer you are to the center, ie, the Inner Region.  So do I start with a penalty to leave the Inner Region of Infinity x 10%?  Or do I start at -20% to leave the Inner, -10% to leave the Frontier (towards the Outer) and then no penalty after that it just gets easier to get further away?

That seems unlikely to be correct.  What I think you're saying is it's your base Spirit Travel to leave the Inner.  Then -10% to leave the Frontier, -20% to leave the Outer, etc. getting more and more difficult to travel further from the Inner Region but easy to get pulled back.

But with the inconsistent verbage, I cannot be sure.

Surprised no one has commented on this.  Is my post just as confusing lol?

Beaked dragonewts are listed as having Don Armor 20%, but dragonewts don't gain Don Armor until they become Tailed Priests.

Off topic but Id pay for a PC game Glorantha: Total War.

On 7/18/2018 at 11:59 AM, M Helsdon said:

I recommend reading Ann Hyland's Training the Roman Cavalry: From Arrian's Ars Tactica. Whilst it relates to Roman javelin cavalry, like much of the Roman military machine, the tactics were lifted from others. The best mounted javelin skirmishers were expected to be able to throw one on the straight, a second as they passed the target, and often a third as they veered away. The most skilled could apparently throw a fourth back over their shoulder. The best ergonomic technique made use of a quiver carrying three or more javelins, with the quiver mounted on the rear right of the saddle with the shafts pointing forward, heads down, so that the rider could smoothly and rapidly draw, raise, and throw.

So most would be thrown on the approach, turning away and then receding. Riding along the front of a hostile formation is not conducive to survival, either mounted, or in a chariot...

The circle.  If you've ever played Rome Total War you've probably seen the light cavalry form a rotating circle formation that allows for a constant stream of javelins to rain down on a formation, forcing them to hunker down.

3 hours ago, jajagappa said:

However, the Takenegi Stele does mention the King of the West who has suppressed the Arrolian Properties and is defeated by the Red Emperor in ~1641.  That the King of the West had "rebelled against the gods" can be taken in varied ways, but could represent the King of Loskalm adopting the ways and practices of the Kingdom of War.

From Meriatus other description it seems his experimental heroquesting got rather god learnerish.

The rules say you start in the Inner realm, that's the center.  And it says there's a current drawing you into the Inner Realm.  And it says going against that current gets a negative modifier.   But then it says it's easier to get sucked deeper and harder to get back out.  But if the Inner Realm is where the center is and that's where you begin and that's where you get back out, it's actually harder to go outward from the center and easy to get back out.

Or am I reading it wrong?  Interchanging outward and deeper and some of the other wordage is confusing me.

7 hours ago, Paid a bod yn dwp said:

Not according to the boxed text. It clearly states that a critical does the maxium special damage for the damage type 

The maximum special damage is rolled damage + max str bonus (this is what they mean by the "maximum special damage") + rolled str bonus  PLUS it ignores armor.

That's my take anyways.