Pentallion

45 minutes ago, Runeblogger said:

Perhaps we should open a new topic to talk about skill checks in general.

Once a year at least.  This old excuse for not liking skill checks raises it's hoary old head at least annually.

Gods of Glorantha had an excellent calendar, but they could improve it by having more of the holy days marked.  Perhaps a combined Orlanthi/Lunar calendar that focusses on those two primarily but with other major holy days for races/cultures important to Dragon Pass/Prax.

20 minutes ago, styopa said:

Nonsense, of course it happens with Sorcery.  Unless you're saying that your sorcerer only has one spell for doing damage?  No?  Then I'm going to guess he/she is going to try to cast successfully through all their attack spells as much as possible until they can nab a tick for each.

Detect Iron?  Well, let's see if we can find the treasure chest hidden in the room, I'll tell the DM I'm going to cast Detect Iron (knowing full well there IS no treasure chest, but if I'm earnest enough, I'll still get a tick).

Why would you get a tick if there is no treasure chest?  Stupid DM is stupid if that's the case.

Orlanth is Dead!  is one of my favorite products of all time.  This feels like the Battle fo Helms Deep thematically.  This is the I Fought, We Won war at its darkest hour.  The Battle fo Britain, the Greeks at Salamis, you name it.  It was epic.

The first volume is a gazeteer.  Great for a sandbox.  Still waiting for volume two which has the actual adventures in it.  Personally, had I realized I was only getting a gazeteer, I would have saved my money for the second volume, but that's just me.  I want more adventures, less tulas.

On 6/27/2016 at 1:25 AM, Joerg said:

I don't think that there is such a generic magic. There is only one other (fertile) case of half human, half something else that is not a chimeric combination. The Aramites turned into the Tusk Riders during the EWF, at about the same time as we see Pavis born. Their moniker as "half-trolls" is a bit dubious, though. They don't appear to be part of the Kyger Litor lineage, and probably never were, either. They might be an emulation of the darkness demon slain/bound by Aram, amalgamated with the great Tusker spirit/godling.

It is possible that the Remakers (who also created Pain Centaurs, and Manticores, and who may have summoned satyrs and minotaurs through their experiments) were involved in the Pavis project, at least as scientific advisors.

The cult of Hon-eel might be privy to such a secret. After all, she mated with an elf deity to bring Maize.

The Flintnail dwarves are all half human.  The vat produced versions died off some time ago.  This is perhaps the greatest, best kept secret in Old Pavis.

On 6/26/2016 at 0:52 PM, Joerg said:

Aldryami include dryads. Dryads are nymphs, able to have offspring with about any species if they want to, or parthogenetic if they need to. A mating between a human and a dryad would result in offspring, and probably happens fairly often as woodsmen are lured into copses. What species that offspring would be is another matter - probably not counted among the elves, but quite likely among the Children of the Forest.

It is my interpretation that Pavis was rather unique.  IN KoDP, those who mate with dryads meet most horrible ends.  Plants sprout out of them.  So instead of impregnating the dryad with child, the male of such mating seems to become seeded instead.  Preventing this outcome and allowing for an actual birth by the dryad seems to have been the purpose of the EWF experiment.

Soltakss beat me to it.  I'd do what he said. 

On 8/25/2016 at 2:53 PM, Patrick said:

The "Ekozite School" is mentioned in Revealed Mythologies, as established in the Dawn Era and focused on alchemical transformations.

The "Ezokite School of Alchemy" is mentioned in the Guide, as located in Leplain.

 

So...

1) Does the Guide supersede and correct the RM spelling, and we should only talk of Ezokites?

2) Did Ekozite wizards become Ezokite as some point - languages evolve, and 1600 years leaves plenty of time to trigger a switch on consonant sounds in a name?

3) Are they actually unrelated? (unlikely and minimum game fun)

and in any case...

What do we know about them, about from these very very brief mentions?

 

Hints welcome, that would really help me writing my campaign; though I can always imagine my own silly solutions, of course ;-)

That an alchemical transformation has obviously swapped the letters K and Z, no doubt, as any alchemist can tell you, because the equilibrium constant K and the atomic number Z which uniquely defines a chemical element were somehow altered on a subatomic level.  The very nature of the Gloranthan universe was subtly changed with the only visible clue being the shift from Ekozite School to Ezokite School. 

The real question is was this due to a failed or successful heroquest and did the school take the quest or were the dwarves fixing the World Machine?

4 minutes ago, Mugen said:

How rude...

Given the long history of Deleriad with RuneQuest, I think he perfectly understands how this system is supposed to work...

You left out the tl;dr portion of his quote.  How interesting that you manipulated our conversation before declaring me rude for pointing out that if he himself admits he didn't read it, then perhaps he should.

And no, just because he has a long history with RuneQuest doesn't mean he perfectly understands when his very words proclaim he doesn't. 

btw, I wasn't trying to be rude.  But if people don't take the time to read, then THEY are being rude, not me for pointing it out.

9 hours ago, TrippyHippy said:

How is it a feature?

As a DM I am so fed up with searching for a spell description because no one remembers instead of being called Tap CON it's called Shrivel.  I have to go through every letter of the alphabet while the game stalls just because you or someone else can't take the time to give your spells flowery names yourselves?

Descriptive is better.

9 hours ago, deleriad said:

tl;dr.

For what it's worth, my personal preference is that the power of a spell is based on the skill of the caster not on access to Magic Points.

Obviously, you SHOULD have read.  Access to magic points doesn't have anything to do with the power of a spell, only how many castings of a spell a wizard can afford.  The power of a spell is limited to the casters Free INT, not magic points.

But since that's been reiterated ad nauseum in this thread already, perhaps you should take the time to actually read it.

38 minutes ago, skoll said:

How is this as overstatement? I believe Jeff just confirmed, that what Deleriad said, is true. Spell "mastery" has no effect whatsoever on the power. The only thing, that affects how powerful spells you can case, apart from free INT, is the mana you have available, ie. the amount of mana crystals and bound spirits you are carrying with you. How good you are with any given spell only affects the likelihood of success .

@skoll:  Step back and look at it from this angle - A Sunspear does how much damage and how many can a priest cast?  None of that damage is dependent upon the players skill.  Neither is battle magic.  Now take another step back and look at the damage numbers Jeff is talking about.  That's a lot of magic points for the same effect.  So it's balanced.  The sorcerer can variable it, but limited to his Free Int.  If he wants a greater effect, he has to have access to greater Free INT.  Extra magic points just means more castings.  Look at how many sunspears the priest is casting.  For way cheaper.

So what do we have here?  A character class that isn't restricted to any pantheon like a priest is.  He can build his repertoire of spells however he sees fit, within certain parameters that work identically to schools of magic, but has way more versatility.  No two wizards need be alike.  But the tradeoff is it costs far more magic points.  So gaining magic point sources is very important.  Not for the power of your spells, but how many you can cast.

I don't think this is in any ways broken.  But of course, only playing it long enough will tell.  If it can be broken, some players will find a way.

6 hours ago, MOB said:

I think that is overstating things. Skill and mastery is important but I like the idea that the sorcerer's ability is affected (for better or worse) by how they are attuned to external variables, such as the calendar, sympathetic objects, etc

Yes, that feels really Gloranthan.  I love the flavor.

Happy Dance.  Sounds like the Second Renaissance.

2 hours ago, Roko Joko said:

"her spells are beyond mortal ken, and she does not respond to prayers and appeals."  http://www.glorantha.com/docs/arachne-solara/.  That's typical for great mystical entities.

yeah, I know, but I made up some pretty good ones for my campaign, such as Twist Fate and shapechange into spider.  And of course, a FateCatcher Net which select worshippers can build.  But it's all in house stuff.  I wish they'd actually make a cult write up.

Before you go buy HeroQuest rules, know that that is a completely different game system than Runequest.  If you're looking to get back into Runequest Glorantha, then it's not what you're looking for.  However, a lot of good material can be found in it.  And you can convert HeroQuest stat blocks to Runequest, but it's pretty much up to you to actually create stat blocks from scratch because there isn't any easy conversion table and most of the character stat blocks in HeroQuest make absolutely no sense if all you have is the Runequest rulesbook.  If you've already got RQ, then I'd say stick to that. 

Guide to Glorantha is useful for any games system.  It is just wow.  That's all I can describe it as.  Just Wow!

Jeff, this looks really good.  As if I weren't already going to throw money at you.  Now I am incredibly curious about the ramifications these rules have upon the Hrestoli Men of All?  They obviously reject the Brithini caste system.  What do they gain instead?

I find it odd that Arachne Solara, the most powerful Goddess of this age, a Goddess worshipped by the Beast Folk of Dragon Pass.  One who is influential in the Lunar empire and elsewhere.  The Ruler of this entire Age of Glorantha,   Not a word.  Not a peep in anything that's ever been published.  Nuttin.  Nada.  Zilch.

Awesome!  I'm so excited! 

Yeah, I started with RQ3 and loved  the easy to read rules.  now that I have the RQ2 rules, not liking how it's hard to find what you're looking for.  Nostalgic charm is not a substitute for well organized, easy to find rules.

many times, veteran players will dig through the Gods of Glorantha book to figure out what they want to play, not peruse the list of careers.  Because it's about the God you worship more than the job you do.

Just wish we had a roll20 version.

2 hours ago, styopa said:

To the original point - calling out the miniatures maker for some failure to confirm to an asserted authenticity, well, that's a pretty modern internetty thing too.  I think it's a cool miniature, and I'm delighted SOMEONE's making Glorantha/RQ miniatures at all?

Well, if all you want is a Medieval Viking, there are plenty of those already in existence.  A couple air runes hardly qualify it as a Gloranthan miniature.

Let's not talk RQ2, we've got Guide to Glorantha now.  Does that look like an Orlanthi out of GtG?  No, it does not.

Finally, three decades later.  Grrrr.

Okay, now that we're all done poking THAT bad scab and watching it bleed, let's move on with what's coming up:  MORE SCENARIOS!!!!  D&D beware, your days are finally numbered!!!