Zac

That is a very flexible moral outlook 🙂 Thank the Red Goddess for that.

I was referencing what little I had read about buddhism :-)

Or maybe the "Illuminates" that are seen are the ones that have been driven crazy by using their illumination to justify irresponsible and/or horrific behaviour? Maybe Illumination is just the first step and you need to pass through that first stage and not turn into a psychopath to be truly Illuminated?

Wow. Lots of great comments. Lots to think about. I think that the idea of illumination stopping the automatic response to chaos or law is an important one. As is the idea of someone being Illuminated but still being barking mad and acting irrationally. Thanks for all the comments everyone

I get what you all are saying but the Benefits of Illumination section I was looking at says: "It makes the person of law free from automatic fear of chaos and the obsession to destroy it." And, as the quotes about Oddi show, he finds a different reason to be fighting but he isn't driven by a fear or hatred of chaos but his duty as king. So looking at the points from the text: • An Arkat will never accept the use of chaotic magic. Just being sensible here unless you follow the Lunar Way. 🙂 • They never will deal fairly or honestly with any chaotic being or thing. This seems to be edging towards non-Illuminated behaviour • Now that their Heroquesting abilities have been dispersed through all cults, they aim only to destroy chaos, and will not rest till they have done so. This seems directly at odds with one of the benefits of Illumination. So either they are not actually Illuminated, it is some odd form of Akrkati Illumination that precludes losing the obsession to destroy or there is some other dynamic that is causing them to follow their goal of eliminating chaos. But what could that be? The text I am quoting might be old and rewritten or re-interpreted. This is an interesting twist on things and also fits nicely with the dualistic nature of the Arkat/Nysolar conflict.

But surely that is still "hatred" though? "Intellectualized" can be read as "rationalised" in this situation, no?

I was actually just reading the dialogue with him from The Cult Compendium today. "There is a connected matter,” Oddi added. “How shall I fight this battle today, feeling as I do? The hate has gone out of me, and I have no lust for war." The interpretation I got from that dialogue was that he fought because his Lunar companion explains that this is what kings do for thier subjects. "Why you came to be here this day with this knowledge only the Spider can know, and you must take it up with her. But if you will remain King, then kingly you must be in the same way you are just now friendly with me. " So Oddi fights but only because that is what he must do as king.

I am just trying to wrap my head around some descriptions of the Arkat Cult from the Cult Compemdium. And If they are Illuminated they should have lost their fear of Chaos. So why are they trying to destroy Chaos? Is it some form of false Illumination?

My idea is that based on the conjecture that Delecti is at a low point in terms of power after the Lunars robbed him of his promised corpses his enemies have chosen this moment to try to take him down. The toe is to provide a physical link to his body so a more powerful attacker(s) can then try to take him out.

Which might put a bit of a time crunch on the entire project. It is a super-weird idea and it just popped into my head yesterday. I had the phrase "Delecti learns to dream" appear out of nowhere and I wondered what it meant and why he would want to learn to dream. And I am just running with the idea to see if I can make anything interesting from it.

I'll check out the Footnotes issues. I assume that the Tales issues are all OOP due to copyright issues?

The idea is that they first have to undergo a heroquest that will put him to sleep. Then they slip into his tower, steal the toe and then have to find a way to escape.

Is there any in-print material about Delecti and his dwelling/domicile/moss covered dilapidated tower in a marsh? I had this idea to write up an insane adventure that involved attempting to steal one of his toes and none of my modest cache of books has anything about him other than a cursory mention.

You can still engage with people on Facebook without being active on the site. Chaosium has a blog, several different sites as well as this forum. Post links to articles etc on your Facebook group and then engage with users in other spaces like this. To be honest, Facebook is a shitty place to have any sort of discussion at all in any case. The commenting tools are abysmal and not even to the same level as a forum from the 90s. The other side to your point is that there are many people not on Facebook (myself for one) and if you don't engage with users outside FB then you are cutting them off. Facebook would like people to think that they need to post content and deal with people on their site but it is just as effective if you use it to post content links and redirect people to other places. That isn't a reason not to do anything though. And while I don't necessarily agree with the tone of @Ian Absentia's post I do agree that if you are on the site and you use it that you are making a tacit admission that you are okay with their practices. And if Facebook won't notice that a small company like Chaosium is gone then it will also not listen to them if they want changes as well.

I think we're used to RPGs that have common tropes and concepts with a new gloss on them and so it seems easier to engage with them. Other people have mentioned it but it bears repeating, the best thing to do is start with small pieces. I flip through material until something catches my eye and then I focus on that and explore. Find a part of the setting that appeals to you and then claim it and make it your own. Well it is really whatever you want it to be or what your group wants. There are implications inherent in the setting (runes, magic, gods) but how a party works in that setting is really up to you. Pavis and the Big Rubble are a great place to look for S&S ideas and probably an easier fit for that type of gaming than Sartar so you might want to start there. You can also keep things simple with just a few gods and cults and then expand as you get more comfortable with the material.

Not in Canada sadly. BTW, its really handy that the system identifies orders not available from your country but could it indicate them in the checkout page as well?

It is just you

Well potential damage. :-)

Or perhaps I just don't see the issue the same way you do? No need to make assumptions is there?

I think this just points out Dodge needs some sort of niche to make it a useful skill.

I am not sure how this is an unbalanced core rule though. Dodging is less effective. And more dangerous. Maybe that is the point?

Combat in the game is meant to be deadly though. Its a core characteristic of RuneQuest. It is that edge of always potentially losing the "well-rounded, long-term character" that makes combat in the game the tense situation it is.

Will there be herd humans as well?

And interesting choices make for interesting games.

A number of your entries suffer from a modern viewpoint. This is Glorantha. A bronze age civilization where magic abounds, disease is spread by spirits and people don't worry about suffering Chaos or undead to live. Keep your mind in the context of the civilization and not your own modern world.