jajagappa

23 minutes ago, borbetomagnus said:

I recall that there is at least one book on the Jonstown Compedium that offers an alternate character creation timeline which begins earlier than the one in the core RQG book. But I can't find it via any searches on the site. Does anyone know the title of this PDF? I keep failing my Lhankor Mhy search in the Great Jonstown Library Compendium!

You probably mean this one: Early Family History

Depending on where you are campaigning, though there are a number of other works that offer character backgrounds that go back earlier including:

My Nochet: Adventurer's Guide (Esrolian and Nochet characters)

Tales of the Sun County Militia: vol 1 (Sun County characters)

I think the new Dorastor: Risklands book includes character generation, and my Edge of Empire book for Imther does (though both specialized parts of the Lunar Empire).

7 minutes ago, Malin said:

there is a Lhankhor Mhy trying to desperately fund their next research expedition...

Easy to get there!  Not so easy to get back with the results... 

2 hours ago, alakoring said:

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).

If you went by Sandy's The Gods War game, then the Mother of Monsters is one of the Chaos Monsters that can appear to terrorize areas. Which might suggest she was a God Time phenomenon who was banished and then later returned (perhaps simply out at sea or trudging around some isolated area during the Closing), and then came to Maslo with the Opening. 

But no reason you couldn't have her as a presence in the Imperial Age who the God Learners are trying to banish.

This would be similar to the Crimson Bat flying around in First Age Genertela, but without a cult to feed it.

2 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

I know some people in Florida with orange skin but where in Glorantha?

Teleos.

10 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Is Dorinstead located correctly in the blue box in the clips below as it shows in a RQA 04 map in about that location.

A name made up presumably for RQA 4 and not used anywhere else. (I.e. you will never see it any official publication since it was created in a fanzine.) On my map, the blue box is the village of Foxhead.

2 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

is there a "best map" of the woods - wooded areas along the Heortland Plateau?

At the moment, the Argan Argar atlas map that you included above is the "best map".

See the map of northern Sartar from the Starter Set. Silent Trade Landing is along the River and not the same as Trade Think Market.

Great to see more content for Arkham coming!

 (How close I am to Innsmouth and Arkham, though! 🤔 And my favorite beach is right outside Innsmouth, too! 🫠)

3 hours ago, Soccercalle said:

Samastina ousting Hendira as Queen of Esrolia/Nochet

I finally had a revelation on this a week or so ago beyond just "Samastina went on a HeroQuest, was able to awaken/incarnate Ernalda and help end the Great Winter, and Hendira could not."

Clearly Hendira was trying to invoke & awaken Ernalda, and attempted particular rituals, but failed. As the governor of Esrolia in 1614 and 1616, she was automatically pulled into the Tournaments of Luck and Death, so it's not that she doesn't understand quests. But she followed traditional ritual paths.

(And by extension, Samastina clearly did not, and that made a difference.) 

One unknown is whether Samastina crossed paths with Argrath between the time of her exile (which I place in later 1620 when GS notes Fazzur was busy negotiating with Hendira) and the Cradle adventure (Cradle comes down river in Harmonyweek, Seaseason, 1621, and Argrath was already helping with the effort to aid its passage). My inclination is to say "no" - Argrath isn't the only source of information/inspiration on questing - but perhaps Samastina traveled to Pavis from Nochet and sought out the LM temple there. Prince of Sartar hints at Samastina wanting to visit Cragspider, and Samastina's Saga in HQG shows her meeting Cragspider. So, that's where I place Samastina getting her insights to help end the Great Winter.

2 hours ago, Soccercalle said:

My PCs may be involved in the events leading to Samastina ousting Hendira as Queen of Esrolia/Nochet in 1622. Where can I find more information about the events and what happened?  I own the Nochet book.

In the supplement I'm working on as a Gold Bonus... 🙂 

(Note: you can infer some of the events of the Great Winter from the character background events from the Nochet: Adventurer's Guide. But I am putting the events of 1620-22 into a bit more straight textual form and intending to include a map of pre-riot Moontown with it.)

49 minutes ago, g33k said:

Is there anything of note on the coastline by Orani's Mistake?  That looks to be the shortest/fastest route to the Block, but they may have to pay extra for such an otherwise-pointless stop...

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. 

43 minutes ago, g33k said:

Possibly to the God Forgot region (debarking at Refuge?  Though I think it swampy there, and may not accept the keel of most boats)
Maybe Durengard?  But honestly, that leaves several deep-cut rivers in the plateau, that it looks like they'll have to find a way across.

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. 

1 hour ago, Erol of Backford said:

One runs from Jansholm, through Backford and south of the Footprint over Stormwalk.

I suspect that's the only place you'll find a map suggesting that as feasible.

1 hour ago, Erol of Backford said:

Seems like a boat from Nochet to Backford, run with the Syphon's current upriver to Backford would be the fastest route into the Plateau.

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.

1 hour ago, Erol of Backford said:

From Backford to Bullflood, then up the mountain to the Stormbull Shrine and on the Barbarian Town... easy enough.

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. 

14 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

p51 of the Magic book does have in the middle of the second paragraph of the Tap (Characteristic) spells, "..., and no characteristic can be Tapped below one point." - as @PhilHibbs has said.

But, personally, I can't see why not

They were probably trying to avoid sadistic GM's having NPC sorcerers tap PC's to 0 and killing them outright.

2 hours ago, Techpriest said:

there's the Pol-Joni and the clans that neighbor them. They have long histories of interacting with the Praxian tribes for both good and ill, and it lets you ease in on the 'weird' of Prax for your players.

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.)

5 hours ago, Super Thunder Bros. said:

And this is where i'm stuck, somewhere between Orlanthi and Prax in terms of flavour. I would run a Praxian game, but don't really understand how I'd run a nomadic community, and REALLY wanna go all in on bronze armor and Bronze age/classical era buildings and settlements (I'm pulling on the Rome HBO series and the Conan movie)

I could give up on the plains and go more Heortling/Sartarite, but mountains really don't excite me (I'm Welsh funnily enough). And although I like how much Heortling lore there is, I don't like how segmented it is between Orlanth and Ernalda, and would rather a game of players out there roping exotic beasts. (Thinking about it I also really like Esrolian Matriarchy too)

So thats my rambling done! if anyone has any suggestions (I've asked before in other places but just get lore/canon thrown at me) on how I could do settled plains cultures and make my game pop, or if one of the other paths seems like an easier time. Happy with any suggestions from a worldbuilding/gameplay perspective, thanks for reading!

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. 

8 minutes ago, ChrisWentWhere said:

I didn't know that they couldn't use Hide while moving - if someone is creeping up on someone I get them to roll vs Hide. Perhaps with a modifier.

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).

2 hours ago, Agentorange said:

it's listed and written up as a Rune spell so I'm going to count it as one

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.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Weird pachyderms - think Fonrit.

Fun times getting that across the seas.

1 hour ago, Agentorange said:

Black Fang and Oakfed don't have any listed at all.

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.

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

3 minutes ago, glarkhag said:

ok seen the reference for this - a long time ago!

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.

3 hours ago, Agentorange said:

What guarantee is there that a shaman is ever going to meet a specific spell spirit ?

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.

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is it possible or likely that the spirits involved in spirit cults might be able to offer some of the common spirit magic spells albeit in a limited or restricted way ?

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 hours ago, StephenMcG said:

And when will you be running your seminar?

Maybe I should propose one for ChaosiumCon? (Or maybe @Joerg and Ludovic would find it interesting as a topic for their God Learners podcast?)