jajagappa

Interesting! I totally missed that little picture! But it opens up a whole new dimension of High Llama combat. Of course, it expands the target for the pesky Impala Riders, or gives even more reason to bring down the beast and take out two High Llama Riders at one go.

Goldilocks springs to mind here. 😉 As a GM I tend towards the soft polytheism - I find it gives me more control around the local setting and allows more local color. But that's an easy domain for me to control and guide towards my Glorantha. As a contributor/writer, the balance between fits better. Enough to create interest, conflict, options for the players and the GM's. Not enough to be overwhelming, confusing, or feel like you've digressed from a game. I find the conflict of Yelmalio and Elmal to be interesting. It's one of the few opportunities for any real religious conflict in the polytheistic world of Sartar around a single concept (Red Moon and Storm are clearly distinct - there's no debate here about which is which). It's two generations on, though, in Sartar since Tarkalor and Monrogh changed things. I feel like there is still opportunity for this conflict to play out in Esrolia, and even distant Maniria, with implications for the interactions between Esrolians and Manirians and humans and aldryami.

And there may in fact have been more - DH is YU-thuppa, Raibanth (with Antirius), and Alkoth. Darjiin and Manimat fit in here - "We Hate Darjiin" usurpers for a reason!. And what of Brightface of Naveria? Yes, and we can see that with the Ritual of the Net.

Raus of Rone came to take his domain in 1615, and the campaign starts in 1616 ST. Yes, I think it would be a cool campaign to run in RQG. Lots of clan drama and adventures, and leads up to a great heroquest.

Yes, Aranea is the Mother of Spiders and identified as a troll-related goddess way back in the RQ3 Troll Gods publication (and maybe before that too). Kropa, if I remember correctly, is the Mother of Arthropods, and also has trollish associations. I don't recall if there was any Scorpion association other than Bagog, who fell to Chaos.

For most it would simply be whatever their primary element is: Windsday for Orlanth and other Storm gods, Clayday for Ernalda and other Earth deities (e.g. the note on p.291 re: Eiritha "there is time set aside each Clayday for ceremonies by the priestesses" or p.293 re: Ernalda "Every Clayday is a minor holy day for Ernalda"), Fireday for Yelm, etc. If the deity is not elementally based then typically Godsday. As noted on p.139: "Godsday, traditionally used for worship and meditation. Many important holy ceremonies occur on this day." And on same page, re: Wildday: "The most powerful local deity may be worshiped on this day." Issaries is one who uses Wildday p.298 "Each Wildday is a holy day and a market day" Correct, it does not state how many you get. But since the Worship skill indicates that successful use replenishes Rune Points it will be between 1 and 1d6. As a GM, if the characters engage in an impromptu Worship at a holy site on a week day not typically/logically associated with the deity, I'd probably say they recover 1 Rune Point. If they wait for the weekly holy day, which is a Minor Holy Day, then 1d6.

If Elmal actually does not have the restriction on fire-based spirit magics and even had access to Ignite and/or Firearrow, it would help with the in-game distinction and provide a bit more consistency with the prior SKoH-era writeups.

When starting out, keep it simple. You use Runes for inspiration/augments, and you use them to cast Rune magic. Then add in the tests for personality disputes - does your desire to move forward in the quest (Movement Rune) overcome your Loyalty to Prince Kallyr? Casual use comes into play when you just aren't sure what your character would do. In that case, roll on one of the highest runes - if you succeed, they act based on that runic pattern, if not, then they do something opposite.

I was referencing RQ2, not RQ3. I haven't looked at the RQ3 books in years.

p.415: "If more than one adventure occurs during a season, the gamemaster may allow experience rolls after each adventure." Ok, see where you're coming from on that one. More realistically now 16 weeks (2 seasons) with a cost of 500L vs. 10 weeks at a cost of 1000L (for STR/DEX) or 2000L (for CON). [Yes it can be compressed but if you've got other community duties, 8 hours a day training is just not realistic.] Why? It never did before. RQ2 was: At the end of the scenario, when the character can take a week to relax and meditate upon his experience, there is a chance he will learn from what happened to him. Might depend on your definition of scenario, but scenario and session are equivalent in my mind. RQG p.185 references "Weekly or other minor holy day" and p.288 notes "The High Holy Day and seasonal holy days are listed." I.e. minor and weekly holy days exist but are not described.

And I think that is a significant reason for the confluence here. For RQG to have a broad inclusiveness it needs to steer away from the esoterica of the mysteries (yet retaining enough to be interesting).

You can still! That's up to the GM to decide pace of play and what happens. That's happening in my own RQG game right now - what might be hand-waved by some is a short interlude to follow Queen Leika and Prince Kallyr into battle against the Lunars. The one adventure per season with downtime for community activity is reflective of the obligations you have there. RQ2 was much more reflective of the late 70's/early 80's dungeoneering mindset. It really wasn't given the cost to train and the requirement to focus on that training continuously during that time period. I can't speak to that as I've not played such. But Dodge does have effect on equal or lesser successes of attacks in RQG. I'm not expecting a critical dodge to cause an attacker to fumble or damage their weapon. There are high holy days each season. Many cults have weekly holy days. And a priest at a holy site with a Worship spell can lead a worship service to regain those points anytime. That's what was hand-waved in the older versions.

Losing players is always a challenge in either case. But the plus side in PbP is that the prior narratives are available so new players willing to pick up existing characters can get a much better feel for how those characters were being developed and move them forward in a more consistent way.

I've been running an HQG campaign for 4.5 years, and my RQG one for 1.5 years, so in my case it works very well. The pace is the most noticeable difference. Everyone's got real-life activities, so maybe everyone gets a post in on a given day, or maybe things stretch over a couple days. In face-to-face games, if you're in combat, you roll, the GM rolls, others roll, GM rolls more. It's resolved in some period of time. The same rolls occur in PbP, but it's now spread out so you have to hold your anticipation of what may happen next. A session in face-to-face is an afternoon or an evening (or maybe two such). In PbP it's likely 3-6 months spread out. For me as GM, the plus is that I have time to think and weave in narrative details or backstory that I'd likely forget or not have time to work in. And the players can do the same. As a shorter example, my Broken Tower session is here: RuneQuest Broken Tower session

Not to my knowledge. I don't think I've seen anything by or about him since the early-to-mid 2000s.

Play by Post (aka Play by Forum). One of the alternatives for those of us without a nearby gaming group.

Personally, I liked the revelation of Elmal way back. It was very liberating from a GM perspective to know that you could have similar gods which were similar, but not the same. It opened up new views on Glorantha, and ways to shape local culture that would be familiar and yet different. That can be carried to an extreme in one direction with the many fragmented gods of the HW era. It can be as well in the other direction with God Learner reductionism.

The perfect World Machine! And much rejoicing among the Mostali. 😉

If you reduce it far enough you just have the Runes. There is no Storm God but Orlanth, no Earth Goddess but Ernalda, etc. But at that point you've lost the realm of myth that makes Glorantha a unique place to play and explore.

Yes, they do. I'm in the anti-God Learner camp. While gods can be equated, and even be views of the same thing, their roles (even based on the evolution/devolution) indicate they are and can be distinct entities. I like the messiness of myths and mythology. I don't like reductionist mythology. And Elmal will live and retain his unique spark in my games.

Sounds like the old Vanchite quest to "aid" Yelmalio at the Hill of Gold. After Orlanth and Zorak Zoran have been by, there's lots of useful magic to pick up. If the Lanbril thieves follow the Bad Dogs for a bit, I'm sure they can not only get Yinkin's eyes, but some of his other parts, too.

No big deal. You just raid the Morocanth and steal some of their herd men. Then have the herd men gather the leaves, and you never have to leave your mount!

RQ Classic: a Rune magic spell cannot be cast again until the Priest spends a day of quiet worship at a temple or holy place of the Priest’s cult RQG: Rune points may only be replenished through worship of the deity on a holy day and participation in cult rites. Replenishment is not tied to a season but to a holy day when worship normally occurs. There's really no effective difference here. What is different with Rune Points is that they can be applied to a cult special rune spell OR any common rune spell. That is a big difference and plus in my mind - you no longer have to forego cool cult special rune magic because you need to make sure you've got Spirit Block available. Consider this RQ Classic example: the cost of training determines how long the character must train to gain an increase. Thus, STR, which takes 1000 L to gain a 1 point increase, will take 10 game weeks at 2 hours a day, or 2½ game weeks at 8 hours a day. Or review the cost/training time required on the Weapons Training table on p. 26 or the cost for Experience Gained on p.120 - i.e. training takes continuous downtime such as a season or more to achieve in both versions. Experience rolls happen in whatever downtime you, as the GM, choose. But characters still have to make a living - not every adventure is going to generate coin to spend. Consider the points made in RQ2 on Episodic and Full Campaigns (p.116): the regular characters adventure in pre-set locales, usually starting near the objective, and spend their ‘between game time’ in an unspecified world with spell and skill training costs equal to those given in the rules. And: The characters may have to spend game time on worldly duties, may find themselves embroiled in a cousin’s feud, or have to hide for months without play because of a government enquiry or purge. All these aspects are there in the original world. Noting them as just taking a season is a quick and expedient way to handle between adventures. And there's nothing that prohibits running continuous sessions without downtime - but while you'd get your experience rolls, you shouldn't expect to have training time with no downtime. Note p.313: The maximum number of Rune points an adventurer can have with a single cult is equal to their CHA. Just joining a second cult doubles your possible maximum rune points - and given the POW sacrifice required, that will take some time to fill. And that doesn't take into account enchantments or other magical artifacts which could easily boost you further. Remember that CHA is your effective leadership ability - your ability to be noticed by your god or goddess. To get beyond normal human limits, you need to heroquest (and hopefully by the time we get to the point of having that many rune points we will have a book on heroquesting available to provide more details). Not sure where you see this. Critical Dodge vs. Critical attack = Attack is dodged successfully. Generally parries are better than dodges, but Dodge is still effective. I'll just add that I don't think any of these are barriers to play. I've been GM'ing RQG for a year and a half now and have found it enjoyable to run and my players have found it enjoyable to play. The Rune Points and ability of adventurers to actually use a broader range of a deity's magic has been very positive (and I ran RQ3 for 10 years and it was rare that adventurers ever really got to leverage the range of rune magic that they do now). Replenishment of Rune Points and training feels realistic. The Runes and Passions work very well for inspiration and augments - players have really made great use of those. Combat still feels like RQ combat - except that we don't usually end in marathon battles struggling to get some edge. We've yet to hit limits on anything the players want to do but find the rules don't let them.

But we also never assume or argue that Orlanth / Storm Bull / Vadrus / Umath are the same, though why wouldn't we if we go down the God Learner's path?

They are not available online to my knowledge (or even for sale anywhere).