Jeff

Outlaw Josey Wales definitely has an 18 CHA. And many non-human species do not have Rune Lords.

Normally Orlanthi kinship is a formal thing determined by the marriage contract of the parents.It is always with members of another clan. So Harvald Varmandi, a thane, marries Kera Hiording, a tenant. Their kids are going to be Varmandi. However, later Harvald becomes a year husband of Yanioth Ernaldoring. She's an Earth Priestess, so the kids are going to be Ernaldoring. In most clans, marrying members of the same clan is not possible - it isn't taboo, it simply is not legally expressible! Marriage by definition is an alliance between two clans - marrying the same clan is like an alliance with yourself! As an aside, despite inferences in the Argrathsaga to the contrary, high status Orlanthi often practice polygamy and polyandry. Additionally, because they do not practice primogeniture inheritance and don't worry that much about patrilineal descent, they also are quite adulterous by the standards of the Dara Happans. Of course the Orlanthi say they strictly adhere to their marriage contracts - but those mainly deal with rights, treatment, status, property, and children, and rarely contain requirements that the married couple confine their sexual activities (since neither Ernalda or Orlanth ever did that). Jeff

Here is the updated Mythology section of the Yelmalio cult: BEFORE TIME Yelmalio was born when Yelm was murdered by Orlanth, as a blindingly bright glare of magnificence which radiated from Yelm like light from the sun. He became known as the Little Sun or “Yelmalio”, although he has been given many other names and titles. Confronted by a broken world, Yelmalio remained true, though it cost him dearly to do so. During the early wars in which mortals supported their gods, Yelmalio led his people from the warm lowlands into the cold hills, carrying high the magic and power of his father. Yelmalio fought against the growing Darkness; he aided many so that they might survive the Gods War. At the Hill of Gold, Yelmalio was disarmed by Orlanth, and then he was ambushed by Zorak Zoran, who stole his fire powers. The Cold Sun fell and bled out his life-giving heat. His favored weapons of bow and sword fell also and were absorbed into the knowledge of the whole world. Wounded, robbed, and hounded from place to place, Yelmalio carried the spark of life throughout the Darkness. Frozen, limping through the leafless forests, the glow of Yelmalio gave hope to the elves and humans who clung to the light. Yelmalio fought fiercely in the Great Darkness, and even aided Orlanth, who grudgingly settled their feud. When Orlanth departed on his Lightbringers’ Quest, Yelmalio defended his people as well. Yelmalio’s wounds did not deter his struggle. He joined with the High King Elf and others to fight against the relentless approach of chaos. He became the Last Light, the strongest god of light in the Great Darkness. He survived the Great Darkness, and the sky overhead was sometimes a distant grey color, and then the stars reappeared. Yelmalio grew stronger and became larger, and the survivors crept out of hiding to offer thanks. Yelmalio greeted the rise of his father, the Sun god Yelm, at the Dawn. Since that time, Yelmalio has lived in the mountains and hills, and even the staunchest Orlanth worshipper admits the presence of the Son of the Sun. Yelmalio provides his light even when and where Yelm’s Sun Disk is absent.

The new RuneQuest books will not be dual-statted. Neither Robin or I think anything needs to be dual-statted for HQ, as we both are of the opinion that if you understand the HQ rules, you can run any scenario designed for another rule system. And as a general rule, I dislike dual-statted books on principle. Jeff

What I have told my Humakti is - DON'T LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO THAT SWORD and hinted that it is part of the adventurer's connection to Humakt or even part of the adventurer's soul. And after that I never had to worry about it as the player was more careful with the sword than he was with the adventurer.

And folk are certainly welcome to ignore canon in their Glorantha. The books will follow canon but you don't need to.

This!

David is absolutely right. Frankly, singing and dancing is common to just about every human society in Glorantha.

You know, that is exactly what my dad did at the same age (admittedly it was 1954). He never had a problem with cow bloat, but sheep bloat was a pain every spring,

Hah - well, my understanding is that sheep are even dumber. At least cows don't gorge on wet grass until they bloat themselves to death. At least that was never a problem for my dad (but boy he has tales of the various horrors associated with sheep, bloat, maggots, and other fun stuff).

My father and his brothers herded both cattle and sheep, growing up on a ranch in central Colorado. His grandfather was a cowboy who ended up being one of the founders of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association back in 1867, so they all had a rich family history of herding. Talking to them, Scan as defined in the game is not nearly as important as being able to communicate with and work with the "lead" animal (usually a female, at least with cattle and sheep). A herder is not a military scout! And if you ever decide to raid someone else's cattle or steal that magical bull - you better hope you have someone with a good Herd skill! We were noticing that just a few weeks ago, while watching a herdsman lead his herd of twelve cattle down the path to another pasture. The herder "spoke" to the lead cow and with surprising speed got all twelve out of one pasture, down the road, and into another pasture.

Have you ever herded sheep or cattle Phil? And if you ever try to raid cattle, you'll want someone with a good Herd more than anything else.

I've even forgotten I put that in there! At some point I played around with the absolutely stupid and crazy idea of having no index at all, so that readers would have to digest the book as a whole, and thus all the literary references and in-jokes would get read along with the rest of the book. But sensibly, I sobered up.

There are about 50 creatures in the Petersen's Guide, with no game mechanics. There are some 200 creatures in the Bestiary. Most unique Gloranthan creatures have an illustration, but there are plenty of creatures that don't. I didn't feel the need to illustrate a horse, cattle, or even a minotaur for that matter.

Jan - just ping me when you get a chance. I've got stuff that might be interesting.

I could have also done a distribution map for where you might encounter members of the other Praxian tribes, which I think would really shocked people. You can expect to find small bands of Praxians as far off as South Peloria. And the Imther Mountains, if I recall, weren't high enough to show up on this, although I will have to ask Colin. Its like the Massif Central rarely shows up on this sort of map of Europe. And dear god, what is with the complaining about "not enough art" - I worked solidly with Cory for 18 months to get that much art done. As it was, Cory was doing the final pieces (the Solpugid) as this went to layout. I could have either delayed the book for another year or cut a third of the entries out. Which would folk prefer? Jeff

If I recall there is a Dunkin' Donuts at the Essen Hauptbahnhof. And several in München and Hamburg. They are everywhere!

I disagree. My experience is that actually the sheer volume of 1621 material tied many players and gamemasters in knots. Move it forward a few years, and it is much easier for both to breath easily. The setting can change, gamemasters don't have to worry so much about "getting it right", etc. And frankly you don't need much more than is in the core RQ books to run campaigns in Dragon Pass. If you want, you get get the GSB and the Guide and expand your horizons, but it is not necessary. Jeff

Well I know of at least a dozen Dunkin' Donuts here in Berlin.

We've been working on moving the setting forward past the Dragonkill for the better part of six years or more. Since before I started putting together the Guide, frankly. Publishing the Guide COMPELLED moving the start date forward to after the Guide, assuming people want new material, more control over the setting, etc. The Guide is an Encyclopaedia describing the setting shortly before the default RQG campaign, far enough ago that specific details can be changed, recent enough that it describes the setting as characters *know* it. Honestly, to say that this was just some flight of enthusiastic fancy is insulting.

This could not be more incorrect. Jeff

Humakti who have been initiates for a full year are taught Bladesharp 4 for free, and more points in the spell may be purchased at 1/2 cost later. We've treated it as part of the 5 points of starting spirit magic - so Humakti usually start with Bladesharp 2 and three points of additional spirit magic (usually Demoralize and Heal 1), and then train up to Bladesharp 4 in play. But to each their own.

Yes. Keep in mind that NONE of Moon Design/Chaosium’s underlying IP - RQ2, RQ3, BRP, COC, etc. - is currently allowed to be used in anyone’s SRD. The only authorised variants are TDM’s Mythras and Newt Newport’s OpenQuest (both approved directly), although we may issue other licenses in the future.

A strange thing about OGL - any sublicense (and that is all an OGL is) cannot survive the expiration or termination of the underlying license. So if X licenses their IP to Y for a duration of 5 years, and Y (with X's permission) promulgates an OGL, said OGL typically expires when Y's license does. Which means if Z created something using Y's OGL, their license expires when Y's does.

I've moved this over to the Legend folder. Additionally, in my considered opinion the statement "you can't copyright game mechanics" is oft-repeated but also never been upheld by an appellate court. I can certainly see a court concluding that "you can copyright game mechanics" (in fact, with the right facts, I think a court certainly would conclude that you can copyright game mechanics to some extent) - the only question is whether there is ever a plaintiff deep-pocketed enough to test that proposition.