jajagappa

59 minutes ago, Jeff said:

The issue is that having the Lunars ALWAYS having the Full Moon benefit for their RQ spells was more powerful than Greg wanted the effect to be in-game.

Makes perfect sense, and seems to keep balance well in line.

27 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Well the same applies to Nysalor, but Nysalor gets a chapter.  Which I and many others appreciate because it is a rather complete exposition on Illumination, so very useful.  

If we work with the main idea that Great Sister leads an entire school of Illumination, then her "shrines" are effectively the schools for this branch of Nysalor Illumination. The deity worshipped there is not Great Sister, but Nysalor. But Great Sister would definitely be a known figure and likely regularly visits each of these "shrines" (just not in some divine capacity).

7 hours ago, MOB said:

Jonstown Compendium creators - the closing date for the 2024 ENNIES awards is Tuesday 30th April, e.g. tomorrow!

Thanks for calling this out! 

10 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Page 16: The Valar-telsor family (one of the nine great imperial families)  has unspecified family ties to the Great Sister.  Looks like great backgound for a Lunar campaign, or even an adventure into lLnar Tarsh.  Now do we know anything else about the Valar-telsor family?

Primarily they are the descendants of Valare Addi (who is described in the Entekosiad). They are one of the main/few families to have survived the century of rule by Sheng Seleris and his horde. As noted in the book, they are contrarians and typically oppose whoever is most in power (and yet don't get knocked off in some Dart War by doing so). Right now they are primarily working to counter the influence of the Tharkalists with the Red Emperor. They do not rule any satrapy, but are strongly present in Glamour, likely have estates in Silver Shadow and a presence on the Moon. They are patrons of the Natha temple and of several schools of Illumination.

1 hour ago, qws2 said:

Is there character book like Life of Moonson?

Not at this time, particularly since they'll be running in again at Continuum and wouldn't want to spoil anything for anyone.

17 minutes ago, theconfusingeel said:

time influencing myth, which apperantly can't happen without heroquesting

I think it will depend on circumstances. Remember that every holy day you enter the God World! You participate in the myths even though you are within Time. Generally the worship ceremonies follow ancient paths laid down over Time because they worked. At least until they don't, and then someone heroquests to alter them. Maybe Arkat did that, and he taught the ancestors of your clan how to do that, and you still do. So what he did in a heroquest in Time becomes part of the subsequent myth.

43 minutes ago, theconfusingeel said:

So what are lunar heroquests anyways? I remember reading somewhere that lunars tend to do new heroquests, but I don't really understand what that means.

If you have the Glorantha Sourcebook, look at the Redline History for the 5th Wane for Hon-eel's quests where she competes with the Pentan Horse Mother to prove who was worthy to be the bride of the Sun. That's one example. 

Or the Red Emperor in the 3rd Wane courted Gorgorma in Hell in order to have a daughter (Yara Aranis) who could terrify and devour the horses of the Pentans.

4 hours ago, theconfusingeel said:

so events in time don't have any reflection on the hero plane?

That depends. What you don't have is time travel. But the significant events and actors have established a presence in the Godtime / Heroplane / Otherworld.

As Nick notes, what you encounter may be masks, fragments, precursors. The battle between Arkat and Gbaji is the battle at the End of the World. Which are you (or which do you think you are)? Are you Arkat looking into the face of the Devil, fighting again at I Fought, We Won? Or are you Nysalor looking into the face of the Devil? 

4 hours ago, theconfusingeel said:

also knda dissapointing on the Arkat-nysalor thing, Orlanth-Yelm isn't as cool

That End of the World thing is coming again, too! Lots of opportunity to battle the Devil, and hope you are destroyed in the process.

3 hours ago, theconfusingeel said:

If events in time don't translate to myth, In what way can you interact with these gods on heroquests?

Epic events can translate into myths, but they will have some place in the God Time framework if they do. Arkat's battles with the Bright Empire are also Vingkot's battles with the Dara Happan Empire. You can find Arkat there, and Nysalor.

1 hour ago, theconfusingeel said:

Anyways, I wanted to ask if people can go on heroquests for lunar new gods? For example, is it possible to do a heroquest about something one of the seven mothers or Hon-eel did?

Yes. And yes.

But... this

41 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

Things that a person does before their apotheosis don’t necessarily happen in time. I might be born, perform a bunch of otherworld heroquests to “timeless” realms, then die and become a god.

You can retrace their mortal paths - think of these as pilgrimages such as visiting Blessed Torang or Glamour - but they will not yield magic/power.

You can perform their ceremonies and quests. If they take place in this-world, they will attract foes of the right sort, but those are this-world foes (e.g. a YT warrior fighting a Humakti warrior - you might gain their iron sword, but you won't gain anything Otherworldly).

But the powerful quests that the Lunar deities undertook all entered the Otherworld. And you can too, just like with any other deity's tales/quests. These are often where the Ancient Lunar deities (God Time deities such as Orogeria, Gerra, Natha...) and there tales come into play.

1 hour ago, theconfusingeel said:

could I heroquest Arkat fighting Nysalor?

Yes... but you will not be in time (i.e. not in a 1st Age battle). Arkat vs. Nysalor is the battle of Darkness and Light, or Storm vs. Sun, or whichever dichotomy of Arkat and Nysalor you have invoked, and it is in the God Time/Otherworld.

1 hour ago, soltakss said:

The Maps chart always surprises me, with only a few reaching Copper Sellers. Does nobody like maps any more? 

I think maps work best in context - i.e. as part of a sourcebook or scenario. 

10 hours ago, EricW said:

I wonder if there is room in future to jack this up further, like for every thousand people the bat eats within the last 24 hours, there is a probability the glowspot will empower lunar magic beyond normal maximum? So Lunars feeding chaos can gain access to devastating powers to win battles, but it emphasises the dichotomy between use of the overtly chaotic bat to crush resistance, and Lunars presenting themselves as a peaceful alternative to the barbarian rabble. 

What changes is the Range of the Glowspot. Noted in Glorantha Bestiary p.190: "At full ability, the Glowspot of the Bat extends for some 20 kilometers or so. At minimum ability, the Glowspot covers an area with a radius of approximately 4 kilometers." 

So you can charge up your whole army with the power of the Full Moon including the Lunar College of Magic sitting behind the lines vs only a few regiments.

1 hour ago, Bahntah said:

If I wanted to put together a noncommercial publication with a mix of lore and rules, in the spirit of classic Glorantha/Runequest/Heroquest fanzines, would that be allowed under the Fan Material Policy

@MOB or @Nick Brooke are the best people to respond.

1 hour ago, Eff said:

At no point previously in the publication of Gloranthan games was this ever the case, and the specific form and limitations of the Lunar Cycle generally varied significantly from game to game and within the same game.

Griffin Mountain p.9 described the original Glowline effect: "Once one passes into the Glowline region, the moon always appears to be in its full phase, and Lunar magics always work at full strength."

1 hour ago, Eff said:

Or to sum this all up, this is an invention of RQ:RiG.

Not an invention, but a recasting to a standard power level vs. the full power of the Bat's Glowspot.

3 minutes ago, Mark Mohrfield said:

I gather that the Glowspot created by the Crimson Bat allows Lunar Magicians to cast magic as though the Red Moon were in it’s Full Phase

Correct.

3 minutes ago, Mark Mohrfield said:

Glowline only allows them to cast magic as though it were in it’s Half Phase?

Correct.

Basically, the Glowspot is much more intense and focused.

2 hours ago, MOB said:

Chaosium welcomes Atlanta-based layout designer Chandler Kennedy to the team. 

Welcome! And great having a chance to talk with Chandler about layout on Thursday evening at Chaosium Con.

5 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

I ran Chris Gidlow's freeform scenario Young Thrax (a Tarsh War prequel) for the first time in quite a while.... I didn't warn the players that it was also a Singalong, but they rose magnificently to the occasion.

I did have the opportunity to play in this, and had a fantastic time! I'm sure the folks down at the bar were wondering what we were singing though!

32 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

And Yelmalio is the anomaly — an outsider without being a thing of the Void.

Actually I remember there is at least one other, and he is the one who steps outside the Dome and at some point rescues Lightfore: Dayzatar.  So, let there be LIGHT! And the world reborn.

34 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

I can see him staggering through multiple ragnaröks, ever more alienated, losing all cult, forgotten, becoming a Watcher figure bearing witness to the truth and the light.

That is the tale. It is sort of a reverse Hell. Instead of going to Hell, Hell comes to him and all that he loves is lost. 

I ran my RQ scenario "A Road Out of Nowhere" again (also at last year's con), and again the PC's successfully got out of Nowhere, through the Twilight Woods, riddled with the Riddling Raven of the Crossroads, came through the Fog of Ignorance, and defeated the Lunar Heroquesters besieging the Ivory Tower of Knowledge!

Also did a seminar on running Urban Campaigns in Nochet. I thought that went well and decent attendance for the first Saturday morning timeslot.

Also was Count Leonidas of Darleep in HotB. But since they are running HotB again in a few months (at Continuum?), don't want to go spoiling for others who might be there.

1 hour ago, Eff said:

What's death to a god? 

Or conversely, what's death to a mortal?

We do have to separate out the Immortal/Mortal axis from Death. 

Gods (and dragons) are Immortal. They possess the Infinity Rune. Mortals do not. What does that imply? The gods do not Age and Die - they are not Finite.

It's unclear what this distinction means before the coming of Death (or Aging?). Mortals as created beings where body and spirit are bound together (a collection of Runic bits and pieces), which then at some point disintegrate back to body and spirit. But with no Underworld calling, the spirit can perhaps reanimate and enter the body once more? And they do so until Grandfather Mortal is slain, and he sets the path to the Underworld and the permanent separation of the spirit from the animate body. 

The gods though may have different parts? They are not simply body and spirit and do not disintegrate. And if we investigate what they are, we find that they are Runes. They may be singletons, or a combination of two or three, or a subsequent "devolution" of those Runes. But they simply are (until they are not).  

2 hours ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

Thesis 1: the gods can die like mortals can.

Generally yes, with the exception of Aging until Death. This seems to be a unique Mortal thing.

2 hours ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

Antithesis 1: but hold on, what about all the times that the gods die and that doesn't stop them?

Yes, there is something else there. And I would guess this has to do with proximity to the power of the Runes.

2 hours ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

Thesis 2: okay, fine, let's concede that a god dying doesn't seem to stop them to the degree that it would stop you or me. That's just because of the Ritual of the Net, obviously.

Their parts (let's call them Runes) are bound back together, and the Ritual of the Net is clearly part of what binds them back to the world. Yet curious that the Moon Goddess was not. She existed, she was slain and part of the Underworld, but seems to have been left out of the Net - at least until a group of mortals quested with broken parts and rewove her into the Net. And now she's in this weird Mortal/Immortal, Dying/Undying state. 

2 hours ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

Antithesis 2: but hold on, even the gods that didn't make it back in have a presence in HeroQuests!

Generally, yes. But there are those (such as the god broken at the Skyfall Battle) who were lost permanently, even from the Gods World. The Void/Oblivion is an "ultimate" Death that takes you out of the picture/Net in your entirety. 

2 hours ago, Tatterdemalion Fox said:

Thesis 3: maybe it's because people believe that the Devil is trapped beneath the Block, and that Vadrus was shattered and nobody cares to try to put that asshole back together again, but all the good gods and goddesses were beloved enough that they were welcomed back into the world?

There are good gods too though that do not return such as Genert or Tada. Some places remain a Waste. Some are vanished (e.g. the Spike). Might you find memories of them in the Underworld? Likely. But there seems to be some point at which the god parts are too shattered to bind back together (or perhaps certain parts got added to some other god so are no longer available to put back together without disassembling some other deity?). The Ascension and subsequent Death of Belintar (or the Only Old One) are examples of gods that may be parts and if one takes away a part, resurrection/return is not possible. Those gods are now Dead.

1 hour ago, Eff said:

After all, every god died in the Gods War. All of them were there for the Ritual of the Net. Maybe all the gods are an assemblage of these different parts that are at peace with one another, and which can break up or have other parts brought into the compact that defines them as "Yelmalio" or "Drosopoly".

Unless we believe the tale that Yelmalio was the sole survivor. The one last light left upon the Hill of Gold waiting for the world to reassemble. (Of course, Lightfore, who is Yelmalio, and Kargzant, who is Yelmalio, do appear to die, so is Yelmalio simply the one fragment of many left Living?)

But there's definitely something about the Parts of the God (or perhaps even the Parts of the Hero) which seems distinct from the parts of the Mortal.

2 hours ago, TavBehemoth said:

One of the players wants to play the rider in a winged helmet with a spiral shield whose mount has back-curving horns. What should we know about that culture?

As Nick noted, this figure is associated with the Sartar Culbrea tribe in Martin's book. However, it's Heavy Cavalry riding a sable, so realistically you could have such a warrior come from any of the Sartar tribes without difficulty so just use the Sartar Homeland, Warrior/Heavy Cavalry occupation, and you'll be all set.

5 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

with glorious new full-colour artwork and maps, fiction, a songbook, plus 19 pages of preview material from Chaosium’s forthcoming Sartar Book, making this an essential resource for any RuneQuest campaign set in Sartar.

Not to mention the return of Notes from Nochet with all new content!

1 hour ago, theconfusingeel said:

are there illumination mechanics in the book?
No spoilers if there are though please.

Yes, as Brian noted, and including examples.

8 hours ago, theconfusingeel said:

That's just what it's called in arcane lore.

Arcane Lore has a hodge-podge of early ideas and interpretations on how to try to build a heroquesting system - some more successful than others. 

Largely the viewpoints/lenses are different, so how you perceive and interact with a given entity varies, but it's still the same entity.

5 hours ago, theconfusingeel said:

So a shaman heroquesting could "transmute"(term used specifically for animists doing this) a greater god into a great spirit and interact with it that way.

"Transmute" is not the right word. The shaman would simply see the god AS one of the great spirits and know them by their Spirit World name. I.e. they would see Orlanth as West King Wind or the Adventuring Wind or something similar. But they would not be in a position to readily bargain with such a spirit without giving up part of their soul (i.e. transfer POW to the deity/great spirit).

3 hours ago, Mark Mohrfield said:

Would any of the scenarios in Jonathon Webbs Sandheart series be adaptable to this? 

The God Skin in vol. 4 could likely work. Probably the Corn Dolls in vol. 2 once farming is established (i.e. needs settlers).

4 hours ago, metcalph said:

What's the Lunar Magic skill that affects more than just spirit magic?

The Lunar magic of the Red Goddess only affects spirit magic. (It's the same skills that were in the old RQ3 Gods of Glorantha book.)

Irrippi Ontor does have sorcery - largely aligned with the Moon, Fire, and Truth Runes (and tied in well to the heavenly bodies).