alakoring

I’m about to run an Imperial Age scenario in Maslo, and sadly the Mother of Monsters wasn’t there at the time. She’s a side effect of the Opening (see GtG p.604).

Been pondering experience since I started a short campaign. I don’t think there have been contest failures, and I haven’t been using flaws at all often. I don’t know if I have awarded any XP at all! I’ll probably award 1 per session on top of the rules. I have been granting a few specific improvements, such as everyone adding the Tradetalk ability after a couple sessions with the God Learners. But that’s not under player control.

I think you’re right Mark, in that the default assumption is that everyone is an initiate. But I think it may be worthwhile have a secondary level that not everyone has, since it supports the idea that you earn your way up to being a rune level. I think I may make this 1M, to hark back to the old RuneQuest idea of mastering a rune. While just having a magic skill would certainly work, I’m trying to have a Gloranthan feel (runes and religious communities) without going too deep into special cases. To me, runes and grimoires as keywords supports this.

When I created the magic rules for HeroQuest 2nd edition, the thresholds for Initiate and Tradition made sense based on starting values (you’d add 4 points to a rune that started at 17). In QuestWorlds, your runes would presumably start at 10 (like any other ability). Keeping the 1M requirement feels really stringent. How are people handling this? Plausibly you can start a rune at 15 (as well as your defining ability and distinguishing characteristic). Or, since the numbers are all a bit lower, the requirement for Initiate is 15.

Essentially, you can add stats as needed to that “Village of Glass” community aspect all the characters share. https://fate-srd.com/odds-ends/demystifying-fate-fractal-and-nature-aspects

Yeah, the community could be a Fate fractal. (I probably should have said “backstory aspects,” I think SotC had at least one of them devoted to your connection to another character.)

Again I never ran it, but the idea was that he could simply use his Fire rune to attack (assuming he’s an initiate). No need for special stunts. (The rune descriptions in HeroQuest can suggest uses.) If it’s a one-shot you could probably just keep the skill pyramid and allow up to two runes. I didn’t want them to crowd out other skills which is why I added another at each level.

I don’t know if any recent Fate has story aspects, but I seem to recall them from Spirit of the Century. It might be simpler to ask each player to give an aspect relating to recent history to their character. It’s not like you really need a specific Caladraland chronology for your game, but “Dragons are in my nightmares,” “Hero of the battle of Hot Top,” etc. should help you flesh out your own game. (I suppose if someone wanted this to be their Trouble, they could: “Seeking vengeance against the Six Feather clan.”) (BTW, my Fate Glorantha also suggested giving a sixth aspect which was community-related: “Blue Pine Clan” or “Nochet Dock Quarter,” since your community can compel you or inspire you in many circumstances.)

Oh, and you’d need a skill of 3 to be rune level. Another skill is Power, which is raw magic (you could create advantages like Ritual Preparation). High Power could give you a larger magical stress track. I think one reason I didn’t get further was like Epicurean said — Fate can feel a lot like HeroQuest. Also, I never figured out a good way to do shamans or sorcerers.

Although I never finished the design, I’ve played around with the idea that you’d have a skill frustum (have two skills at 4, three at 3, etc.), and runic affinities would be skills. The idea is to capture the idea that some people are strong in a rune. You can use any runic affinity to create advantages, subject to the powers of the rune. You could use the Fire Rune to create a Fireblade on your sword, but it’s not likely to be able to help a ship to outrun a typhoon. Runes you share with your deity are divine runes. You can use these to overcome obstacles or attack, consistent with the scope of your god’s power, and subject to any restrictions that the god himself has (for example, Storm Bull initiates can’t use the Air Rune to cast lightning or thunder). To be an initiate, you’d need one of your deity’s runes at 2 or better. It would also be one of your aspects (such as Lhankor Mhy Librarian). Your divine runes also act as aspects. An initiate of Elmal can use the Fire Rune to create an advantage like Beacon of Honesty when trying to persuade someone, but could also be compelled to force the Elmali to tell an inconvenient truth. (When used as an aspect, the rating is ignored.)

I think if the chivalric traits are starred on the squire sheet (book 1 page 5), they should be on the character folios (even if the starter set doesn’t go into detail).

Just got the PDF and looking through it… Characters have a Fashion skill but this isn’t in the rules. Londinium can give you -1D4 Geniality but that’s not in the rules either.

Update: fixed the Steam page, the Download button should be much more obvious. Note that Steam kind of hides the dark button to download it, you may need to scroll down and look on the right side.

Always love to hear our games got people into Glorantha!

Shargash rules the green city, so obviously has to have a green crown…