Pentallion

Eurmal wants to know why his Discord rune didn't make the cut, but that boring old stasis rune did?

It's three things that hooked me:  The how the mythology explains the world and how each person is more about what god and myths they believe in than they are a specific character class.  The silliness (ducks) and ability to laugh at themselves that has existed from day one (beware the evil griffon, he has a scarlet beak and crimson eyes.  Trust only the good griffon who has a crimson beak and scarlet eyes....you meet a griffon with a red beak and red eyes.)  And just as importantly, the game system, RuneQuest, which from day one was head and shoulders better than any other gaming system created before or since.

7 hours ago, kaydet said:

@simonh et al, re: "The Year Discussion"

It just makes more sense to me that way. 2006 + six years equals 2012, not 2011. I'd note also that The Coming Storm lists the campaign length of 1618 to 1625 as being seven years long.

So if the campaign ran from Sea Season 1 1618 to the end of the second week of Sacred Time 1618 it ran how long? (1618-1618)

It ran one year.

So if it ran till the second week of Sacred Time 1619 (1618-1619) it ran how long?

Please don't say one year as surely now you see that makes no sense.

On 7/27/2017 at 3:44 PM, kaydet said:

.

I've never heard or seen anyone use dates as inclusive. I would always say that 2006-2012 was six years, not seven.

yes, you have, every single time someone lists the years, they were inclusive.  You just didn't realize it till now. If the Red Queen's reign was from 1487 to 1495 she ruled for 9 years.  She ruled in 1487, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94 and 95.  Count em, 9.  If you try to say she only ruled 8 of those years she'll have to cut your head off.

Hit Ctrl F and type in XX.

It's going to take a while to fix all the XX's.

A little background on these characters:

Nymphia and Razza are sisters.  Noble born, Nymphia worships Deezola, but her violence is frowned upon by the cult.  There are those who say she doesn't belong and should be excommunicated.   Razza cuts herself, carving runes into her arms.  Nymphia uses her empathic healing to remove Razza's scars and take them upon herself.  Razza worships Jakaleel the Witch.  The trolls think Razza is holy.

Skef is an eolian shaman.  He has a spell which allows him to know a secret possessed by the target.  All he knows of Azibo is that the troll has seen Skef's destiny.  So he followed Azibo to try and learn more.  Now he's returned to his homeland to discover new secrets.

Azibo is a troll worshipper of Aranea.  Her Fate rune sometimes gives her glimpses of people's destinies.  She knows what is to become of Skef and recently has foreseen Cedi's role in the Great Spider's plans.  The Jakaleel Witch is marked by the gods, but even Azibo cannot see her fate.

Clarice and Bertha are Blue Moon assassin trolls belonging to the Red School.  Bertha is especially ruthless.  They are inseparable.  They answer only to Bina Bang.

Jon Rain also belongs to the Red School.  He worships Fjordaur, the lunar god of Murder. He's a psycho killer who is very charismatic.  He is Razza's lover, but calls Cedi his favorite, though there is no physical connection.

Cedi Scruples is an Etyries merchant.  She's gotten a bum deal in this campaign.

Summertime took its toll on our campaign and we haven't gotten in a good game in a while.  So I thought I'd get the group worked up by posting a trailer.  It's something I've done a handful of times before and everyone seems to like it.  So think of this as a movie trailer for Lunar Diaries, season 2.

Someone whistling slowly.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyvQWsLYJK4

Skef in meditation before a megalith.
A woman's voice narrates: {Secrets can take on a life of their own}
Bina Bang before the PCs. "Befriend the Coders. Gain Count Julan's trust. I want you to be indispensable to him...."
Count Julan before a battle map of the empire, raising his voice to the Red Emperor. "Argrath to the south. Pent invaders to the east. Divinations that soon the Ban will be lifted and bull riders will pour out of the west. We must end these destructive Dart Wars or the Empire will fall!"
Bina Bang: "...and when the time is right, betray him."
The Vampire Legion, hissing and screamiing.

whistling at normal speed

A wind kicks up around Skef as he meditates before the Megalith
[Secrets can take your life}
Bina Bang sends all but Bertha and Clarice away. "Once you've completed your mission, kill the others."
Cedi treading warily into a dark hallway when a hand grabs her by the throat and a voice whispers "you're STILL my favorite."
Nymphia steps into a darkened room. "Razza?" Razza replies softly, "Razza's not here."
Azibo fends off members of the vampire legion with her maul as she backs away.
Wyvern Riders fly into battle against two dragons in a storm.
Jon Rain is riding a moonbeam to the red moon.

whistling picks up speed.

Skef is surrounded by fire,rain, blasting winds, the earth shakes and darkness descends on him and the megalith.
[this secret can save. Do you want to know what it is?]
Count Julan yelling "This is madness!"  The Red Emperor replies with a mad laugh "It is madness to defy the Red Goddess!"
Nymphia "Who are you?" Razza "Who am I? Who am I? Who are you?"
A tornado rips away vampires and dragons.
Razza, masked and cloaked, rides hard on her demon steed, laughing maniacally.
Skef: "You know, don't you? What did you see?" Azibo:"You must fulfill your destiny and when you do..."
On a battlefield, Cedi knocks her son down before he's struck by the Moonsword of Jar-Eel the Razoress.

Dragons are approaching the city where the PCs watch in dismay.
The PCs stand upon the Red Moon.
Azibo "...You must fulfill it again."
Skef and the megalith become incandescent and then the shaman vanishes.
[Do you dare to learn my secret?}
Jon Rain, creeping down the alley "here puppy, puppy puppy." A dog growls.

whistling, very slowly.

Which seems to have done the trick because they all showed up to game last night.  Their arch nemesis is an assassin known as The Whistler and he has an invisible dog for an allied spirit.  So the whistling and the last scene about "here, puppy, puppy, puppy" got them psyched. In their last run in with him, he nearly out played them and caused Azibo to gain a curse - and caused Bertha to leave Azibo to die - and that has precipitated a dangerous Heroquest.   They also liked Razza developing a split personality, which is what happens when she gains her own allied spirit.  Speaking of which, Razza's path to insanity is being set in motion and soon approaches and so I present another diary:

Quote

Upon returning to Joy's Rest Razza approaches Nymphia, " Sister...I...I must go now. The Spindle Hags need to show me something....I don't know how long I will be, but I know we need it."   Razza looking down sheepishly at her feet, Not wanting to see the disappointment in her sister's eyes. "I trust you Razza, and I will always love you, no matter what." Nymphia replies while embracing her sister. "Besides, its probably best for you to get some distance from Jon, I do not really like the influence he has had on you." Razza looking up at her sister puzzled, " What do you mean?" "Nothing Razza, nothing." and the sisters are silent for a while before they break their embrace.

Oh, I suppose I should fill in the gaps as I just realized when I last posted they were still on Loral.

So they got off Loral.  They made it back to Pavis and from there returned the book to the wizard at Orathorn.  Cedi was abducted by Pentans and gave birth to her son, whom the Pentans call the Golden Arrow (unbeknownst to Cedi, he is the vessel that will one day host the returned Sheng Seleris).  Cedi spends two years with the Pentans, raising her child.  The others journeyed back to the Empire and returned a powerful, lost artifact to the Red Emperor and got in his good graces.  They were sent on a Dart War that was being manipulated by the mysterious Whistler and nearly caused a city to fall to Pentan invaders. During the battle, they managed to cross paths with Cedi and rescued her from the Pentans.  Her baby is still in their clutches, however.   The Whistler tricked Azibo into getting cursed to kill their client whom they are ordered to protect and so in order to carry out the mission, Bertha left Azibo to die. That was hilarious.  She convinced Azibo that in a dried up well she could find a clue to remove her curse.  None of us understood the logic, but by a flimsy thread she managed to convince Azibo, who climbed down into the well.  Bertha then nailed shut the lid of the well and left Azibo to die.  After the mission was successful, they rescued Azibo.   Now Azibo is forced into a desperate HQ to remove the curse so she will not feel compelled to kill their client.  Meanwhile two other HQ's begin which will intersect with hers and each others.  Skef has become a shaman and returned to Eol.  He rescued Firshala early on in the campaign but does not see her as a goddess, he sees her as an aspect of Fiery Fox.  The Eolians worship the five elements as great spirits. FireFox, Slippery Otter, Raven, Reindeer and Horned Owl.  Though Firshala tells it one way, Skef sees it as Raven tricked FireFox into being trapped inside a megalith.  Since megalith's are central to Eolian beliefs and magic, he is trying to explore this link.  This aspect of Firefox opened up new magics.  Perhaps there are similar aspects of the other great spirits that may unlock new secrets as well.

Last night all the PC's except Skef who is in Eol, and Razza, who is in training, went on an epic 3 way heroquest.  (3 Heroquests which intersect in interesting ways, allowing them to quest solo yet assist each other in critical junctures.)  A 4th HQ may involuntarily be invoked which could ultimately cut short the other three, rescuing one or more questors, but leaving some trapped in Hell.  It's dangerous and they made it about halfway through last night.  Azibo is performing a variation of the Web Quest.  Jon Rain and Cedi are performing a variation of the Hellmouth Quest in which Jon kills Cedi to open the gate and inside he is now searching for a piece of her shattered heart.  If he finds it and successfully brings her back from Hell, the piece of her heart will form a bond which, whenever Cedi dies, will bring her back from Hell within 2 days.  This will have serious side effects neither of them are aware of, but which Azibo is aware of and is why she talked them into going on this quest.  If the quest succeeds, Cedi basically can't stay dead so that's her motivation for going (though she was unaware that she would be sacrificed on the quest, she mistakenly believed it would make her safe from Jon).  Jon basically can murder her to his twisted hearts content and she'll always come back to him, so that's his motivation for going (in his mind, the lunar cycle of death and rebirth being reenacted each time he kills her is proof of their eternal, undying love).  Meanwhile, Bertha is guarding their sacred ground from chaos while Clarice goes on Elovare's Blue Moon Quest.  What she learns from Annilla will change everything.

When we ventured down that way, there was a tunnel that led to the Ghost Trees and the pool.  Said tunnel was covered in eyes.  The eyes of those who had previously entered, never to return.  The eyes were alive and quite....squishy.  It took quite the Hero just to travel down that tunnel to finally find Wakboth's Eye.

I have to say I was shocked when I read the Eleven Lights pdf and got to the part where the one eyed beggar proclaimed how great the giants stead was and the King rushed off to steal the Auroch that they didn't mention how the beggar was in fact a Trickster who would later that night bed the Queen while the King was away, the actual purpose of the Red Cow HQ being a diversion for the infamous Orgorvale Orgasms Quest. aka The Great O Quest.

But then, I guess the whole point of the quest is a well kept secret so maybe the authors didn't want the Red Cow Clan to catch on.  I'm pretty sure that Argrath learned the truth of the matter from a drunk Elusu and from there figured out how to bring back the Aurochs.

Of course, the whole thing could just be a bunch of bull 

This has all made me have an epiphany about the Vadelans.  Zzabur was an asshat who broke the World Machine (see: opinion of the dwarves who incidentally are always seeming to ally with the Vadeli).  Vadel was the good guy who took his tribe beyond Glorantha, saving them from the evil Zzabur.  In the future, they return, are seen as Chaos, but in reality they are going to destroy glorantha, in order to end the 6th age and in the process create the 7th age, which is repaired from the hubris and damage of Zzabur (see rise of the White Moon and read end of King of Sartar).  Hence, Chaos are the good guys and so are the Vadeli.

I'm going off to get some popcorn now

When I get back I will start on my Vadel campaign   Imagine my players going from "wait, this game is in Glorantha afterall to wait, WE are the Chaos invading the world?"  A story of hubris, falling from grace and redemption.

Please continue.

More please.

I've long wanted to run a Vadeli Explores the World campaign with sorcerors and see how long it takes my players to pick up on that they're still in Glorantha, in the God Time campaign.

It's pretty straightforward.  Don't know what's so difficult to understand.  They intend to recreate the mother galaxy.  They survived the first FireFrost, they know how to survive the second.

There's no "your Luther Arkwright may vary."  Talbot straight up spells it out.  Not sure what is so hard to fathom.

7 hours ago, g33k said:

Indeed.  Everyone seems to be dancing to your tune.

It's the pipes.  the pol joni got them from Snakepipe.  And cow bells.  Derek plays cow bells because every song needs more cow bells.

The way I understood augments was the former method was for one roll only and didn't allow a skill check.  My ruling was you couldn't keep rolling it for, say, an extended sword fight or multiple first aid.  If you wanted to do that, you had to take the inspiration route.  But since that route was risky you got to mark your rune/passion.

Had two newbies and three old hands.  Started at noon and were done by 3ish.  The Ernaldan was intrigued by the Stone Woman and when they found a bunch of busted Menhirs, took an hour to put one back together in the hopes that later on that might score brownie points if need be.   And that was one of the newbie players.  They didn't even search for treasure, but went straight to cattle rescue, splitting up and sending the herders for the cattle while the others went after the Greydog.  When the Stone woman woke up, the sage cast Truespeak and the Issaries used his bargain and they struck a deal, 20 cattle a year in return for her aid when they call on her.  As for combat, the PCs were a bit over the top for the things they went up against.  So combat was quick and easy for them, no real challenge.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and one of the newbies seemed very enthusiastic and wanted to tell her husband she'd found a new game.

I can say from personal experience that as you reach a certain age, the speed of thought adds an extra strike rank

The Magic Skill bonuses can't be possible for the PCs given their stats.  No combination of tables can make those bonuses correct for every PC.

Also, no one has a devise skill and of course, we needed to roll it.

Did I just totally derail this whole thread?  Oops

On 6/15/2017 at 1:28 AM, Jeff said:

There are none, as Nightmares are not a Gloranthan monster. However stats for Black Horse and Hell Hounds are in the forthcoming Bestiary.

By Nightmare, I'm actually meaning the Demon Steed from the underworld.  Black Horse Troops or Hell Sister mounts.  Thank you Jeff.

28 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Hero Wars, Narrator's Book, p.96

Diokos, demon steed of the Black Horse Troop

Significant Abilities: Bite & Claw Fighting 2W^2, Thick Skin ^2, Hear Noise 12, Jump 18, Large 8W, Resist Rider 12, Run Fast 2W, Run Long Distance 14, See in Dark 18, Strong 5W, Terrify Natural Animals 18.

Also see Hero Wars, Players Book, p.105 for more descriptive information on the Demon Steeds.

[I don't recall anything ever done on Nightmares for RQ unless there was something in the Gateway Bestiary.]

Jajagappa, I don't own Hero Wars.  Can you post up a regular horse in that game as a comparison?  Perhaps then it would be easier for me to make the RQ conversion.

Okay, let me restate my question:  Where can I find stats for Nightmares in GLORANTHA.  But thanks Baconjurer for trying.

I used to know, but can't find it anywhere.

Thank you.  I was getting paranoid it had been delivered and everybody but me knew!

Signed up at Tacoma games.  They said they needed to verify at Chaosium first.  Haven't heard back, but hoping this happens.

Or when the pdf for Nomad Gods will be delivered as well?