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jajagappa

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Everything posted by jajagappa

  1. Mosquito infested swamps, high (nearly impassable) cliffs, and then once atop the cliffs, the barren wastes of Orani's Mistake. There are reasons there are no coastal towns between Refuge and Corflu. If the Block is your destination, the fastest route is Refuge - Bandori Valley - Barbarian Town - Block. The Holiest route for your Storm Bulls though would be up the Bullflood (the river is Storm Bull's child, after all) - Durengard (sacred Storm Bull temple on temple hill with great view of Stormwalk Mountain) - continue up the Bullflood to the town of same name (another holy Storm Bull temple) - then continue upriver to the mountain trail and stop at the Low Temple at the base of Stormwalk - and then continue on into Prax to Barbarian Town. It's a trek up-and-over the Storm Mountain range, though, so travel time highly variable depending on the season.
  2. If their goal is Prax (e.g. Barbarian Town), take the boat to Refuge, then find a caravan heading north up the Bandori Valley and into Prax. Or go up the Bullflood to Durengard, take the Heortland Road south to Duchamp (on another largely non-navigable river) and Mount Passant, and then the road to the Bandori Valley. But unless you're looking for trade opportunities enroute (in which case you want to go to Durengard), going by boat to Refuge will be the fastest. (Just don't get on the bad side of the Brithini ruler there.) If you go to Refuge, you could always stop off at Casino Town for a little gambling too.
  3. I suspect that's the only place you'll find a map suggesting that as feasible. Fastest routes up onto the Heortland Plateau are: 1) boat to Karse, the road to Smithstone, and then onto the Heortland Road running south through Jansholm, Backford, and Durengard. 2) boat to Leskos, then either shallow draft boat to Durengard or the merchant's road to Durengard, and again you're at the Heortland Road. Generally, I don't consider the Syphon to Backford as navigable for boats of any draft due to rocky inlet and dangerous undercurrents. Might make it in a small fishing boat (if using the Fish Road), or perhaps you'll be carried past and into the Footprint. Durengard to Bullflood is much simpler as it's just the one river, and craft with minimal draft can navigate to Durengard. It's why Durengard is the main city of Heortland.
  4. They were probably trying to avoid sadistic GM's having NPC sorcerers tap PC's to 0 and killing them outright.
  5. This is why I recommended the Valley of Plenty above as it has some great ways to ease into the setting. (And it's not like you can't pull ideas from the Pavis books to use there too. The Pavis County folk are culturally Sartarites, so aside from Pavis-specific points, much should be transferable.)
  6. I'd suggest you check out the Jonstown Compendium supplement: Valley of Plenty While it was written for the QuestWorlds RPG vs. RuneQuest, it is set in this exact borderland between Sartar and Prax, and I think the setting is almost exactly what you are looking for (and the authors had their own ideas on the gods that included more emphasis on sun worshipers than typical canon). You'd need to do a bit of work converting over to RQG, but there are those of us here who have run both systems and could give you some guidance on that. And @radmonger has plenty of additional thoughts above that I'd concur with to help get going.
  7. If you're trying to move while hiding (creeping up on a foe), you have to roll for Move Quietly and augment with Hide. (If your focus is more on hiding and move quietly to stay out of sight, do the reverse, roll on Hide and augment with Move Quietly).
  8. Yes, as I noted, Black Fang wants his cut. But from a gameplay perspective, it's a stacked Disruption spell, which means you can use as a model for the types of more unique spirit magic spells that might be available from other, less cutthroat spirits.
  9. Black Fang effectively does, but you have to pay the price of worshiping him to get it - he doesn't give away what amounts to a Disruption 4 for subsequently "free" use.
  10. Yes, a bit more challenging! You might start with this thread: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/12774-orlanth-in-umathela This is an old site from David Dunham that may give you some ideas: https://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha/umathela/ There's a bit here too: Introduction to Umathela (1997) – The Well of Daliath (chaosium.com) And a bit here: Umathela – Notes From Pavis For an old fanzine's take on Umathela try this issue of Tradetalk: Tradetalk # 14 - Outside Genertala: The Southern Continent - RuneQuest Gesellschaft e.V. | DriveThruRPG.com
  11. The Varmandi have a very long history as a war clan, and battling the Malani tribe (and particularly the Orleving clan). The Varmandi are now a poor shadow of what they once were. You might find the "A New Hero" live play videos of interest for your situation. See: RuneQuest - A New Hero The heroes are Varmandi, and they end up having to go to and help the Greenbrass temple. Think there was a harvest contest involved which is one excuse for allowing passage even between feuding clans.
  12. Spirit Lore and Spirit Travel. This is where Shamanic Traditions come into play. Shamans develop "maps" of the Spirit World. They travel to those places and record (in whatever fashion they prefer), how they got there and what they found. They teach and guide their apprentices through these "maps" so that by the time an apprentice becomes a full shaman, they've gained a solid foundation in these skills. They may know that if they want a Wind Spirit, they need to go to the Great Grazing Land, then listen for the Thunderbird, then follow the trail of the Thunderbird to the Whistling Cave. Or if they want a Mobility spirit magic, they just need to go to the Great Grazing Land, find the Great Herd, and then seek out the Running Hoof spirits who know that know the spell. Yes, of course! No reason they need to be limited/restricted per se - it's really what you want in your game. Maybe you find the Deathstroke spirit and worship it, and it can provide you with Bladesharp 8. Or you find the Fast Running spirit and it offers Mobility and Coordination. As I recall, there were one or two Spirit Cults included in the RQ3 Gods of Glorantha work that only offered spirit magic (fairly unique ones, but certainly an option). Meteor Swarm (in RBoM) was one that came from the Crater Makers.
  13. Maybe I should propose one for ChaosiumCon? (Or maybe @Joerg and Ludovic would find it interesting as a topic for their God Learners podcast?)
  14. Any Chaos nest - the Footprint, Snakepipe Hollow, Dorastor, ... I had broo flies seeking out anything that was bleeding in Snakepipe Hollow (e.g. after my PC's blew a giant's head off with a thunderstone, swarms of broo flies came to feast on the carcass and lay their eggs in the body). Lots of opportunities for chaotic variations, or to inflict horrors on your PCs.
  15. Timinits. Guide p.503: "“Timinit” can be translated as “insect people,” and numerous types exist." (Some of them originally appeared in the RQ3 Glorantha Bestiary.) They live on Jrustela and in the Kumanku Islands between Jrustela and Fonrit.
  16. That's why my Nochet work includes a Sandbox session generator. It takes time of year and current location as inputs, where PC's may be going, then let's you roll for an event (which might be common, uncommon, or rare) and an encounter (i.e. who - which might be a significant figure, a local personality, or someone the PC's know well), plus resulting attitude and motivation (which might include following up on some rumor) of the encountered character. And options for engaging the PC's. As you interweave specific set scenarios and sandbox events, and take the PC's actions into account, you begin to get those layers you note. But the layers are only roughly there at the start in the form of passions for your PC's, passions for the House/clan/patron they are interacting with, and perhaps a set of goals identified by PC's, their patron, and possibly a villain/rival that you want as part of the plot line.
  17. Definitely! One thing I tried to do in the character backgrounds in the Nochet Adventurer's Guide was to incorporate links regarding seafaring, distant lands, the colony at Dosakayo, etc. which could encourage a seafaring expedition. There are any number of opportunities to fill in scenarios based on both works. I don't think bundling would be viable for either Martin or myself. Marketing is certainly feasible.
  18. Trying to get players to follow the intricacies of high-level city politics (and remember them from session-to-session) is a challenge. That's why I find it easier to start "local". Let the players take "ownership" of a set of figures they know and develop some backstory about. That gives you some framing to add some "politics" around the relationships they've established. Much easier to know that your Biggest Rival lives in that neighborhood, and that neighborhood belongs to the Ingilli's, so when your rival challenges you, you have to wonder whether it is personal, or if the Ingillis are up to some scheme.
  19. When I started my Nochet campaign, what I found I needed was: 1) a common "cause" for the characters (in Nochet, it's the House, the urban equivalent of a clan, which is effectively the character's patron), and 2) a set of known NPC's (if you're in an urban setting, you know people). For your House/clan/family, it helps to map out some basic relationships. What neighborhood are they in? Who are their allies, rivals, and foes? (Citizens of the Lunar Empire has some nice ideas on that based on your city block and its immediate neighbors.) Setting that up gives you some immediate context, and it's really not that different than looking at the clans of Sartar, just much more concentrated. (E.g. in the Colymar, the Orlmarth ally with the Ernaldori, they hate the Greydogs of the Lismelder tribe, they are rivals of the Taraling because the Ernaldori are rivals, they are friends with and marry the Hiordings, they think the Varmandi are poor, troublesome, pains in the @$&, and of course like most Colymari they hate the Malani.) In my Nochet books, I have a concept of a Cast of Characters (NPCs). These are about 100 "stock" characters (took the idea out of old Commedia dell'Arte characters). For each PC, you roll to determine their Best Friend, Current Mentor, Primary Contact, Love Interest, Main Rival, Worst Foe, and Biggest Pain in the @$&. That gives each player/PC a set of 7 people they immediately know besides the main figures in their House/clan. And with a group of PC's, there will be overlap which allows you and the players to put together some back stories about these figures, and that interlinks with the relationships your House has in the neighborhood and city. Once you have that, then you can draw on a lot of standard soap opera narratives. Your Best Friend is being shaken down by your Rival from the neighboring clan, and they need your help. What's up with that? Time to investigate and help out... And you can interweave these sandbox situations throughout a larger campaign arc (e.g. House Marele is now suffering from loss of wealth during the Siege and is suspect among the great Houses because they remained neutral and did not choose a side among the major alliances. They need new allies and new wealth - and send the PC's on various missions to help restore their reputation and position.)
  20. The Kitori certainly predate the use of Midkemia Press' Carse work. That's the only reference I recall.
  21. I suspect not. They're likely considered sacred storm beasts, close to the gods.
  22. Well, much taller and not much hump, but camels nonetheless.
  23. They're called "High Llama" (e.g. alticamelus)!
  24. But blessed by the dragonewts nonetheless! Maybe the Ducks were the "Arkati"?
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