Jeff

The biggest difference is the xenophobia and hostility shown by the Praxian Sun Domers to all outsiders. Most Yelmalians are aloof and distrustful of those outside the cult, but the Praxian Sun Dome takes that to extremes.

The Praxian Yelmalio cult is unusual for an obvious reason - it has been isolated for many centuries and is still geographically isolated. As a result, its social culture is going to differ from that of Dragon Pass and Peloria. Horses are revered by the cult, even if the cult itself is not necessarily a "riding cult". Sows and snakes are revered by Ernalda, but last I checked, Earth Priestesses do not ride snake or sow. Hyalor is the "rider's cult".

The Praxian Sun Domers are most definitely not the norm for the cult.

I don't think "converting" is the best way to think of this. The Hendrikings had a solar god who defending the cosmos after Orlanth and the other gods departed. He was always pretty minor and when the Hendrikings resettled Dragon Pass, they came into contact with the rich and vibrant Yelm cult - who even the dominant Orlanth cult acknowledged as the Sun God. Many abandoned their traditional rites to try to approach Yelm (usually through an associated cult) - which caused kinstrife and threatened the Sartar confederation. Monrogh ended that. He revealed that the traditional solar god was the Sun Dome God, and not an inferior version of Yelm. He showed folk how to reach higher and filled in missing pieces of the god's mythology. Most solar cultists acknowledged the authority of the Sun Dome Temple, although a few maintained their own independence. Whether the Sun Dome god is called Elmal or Yelmalio, neither are foreign invaders, any more than Storm Bull or Babeester Gor is.

No it wouldn't. It would in fact be very wrong. A tremendous amount of thought went into the arrangement of the Runes used for characters in RQG, and they reflect important realities behind the setting.

Mortal humans regardless of culture have the same basic rune pattern - Elemental Runes, Power Runes, Man v Beast. That's the human condition. Some other species have variations of that, but generally follow the same pattern more or less. Mortal embodied beings don't have the Spirit Rune - that is for disembodied entities. Fetches do, if we felt the need to give them Runes (which I don't). Same thing with the Law Rune - within RuneQuest it is not necessary to have the Law Rune (shades of midi-chlorians). Instead anyone can study sorcery, but it may not be something acceptable to your cult.

It doesn't.

In RQ, humans do not have the Law Rune as part of their character sheet.

Some cults forbid their initiates from knowing sorcerous technique. For example Ernalda, Maran Gor, Lodril, Yelmalio, Orlanth, Humakt, and Storm Bull all forbid their initiates from learning sorcery. Other cults have no objection or even teach sorcery (such as Lhankor Mhy),

Again, my suggestion is to see how this actually comes up in play. My minimaxers think this is a very wasteful tactic in practice.

There is better access to Rune Magic for player characters (since in previous editions reusable Rune Magic was restricted to Rune Masters - and the rules actually provided incentives not to become a Rune Master). The rules now are much more in harmony with the setting. But honestly, the worries about Multispell and Extension expressed on this thread are very much overstated. Even my rules minimaxer dismisses the tactic as a waste of Rune Points.

There is a tremendous amount of discussion about "potential" abuse of a rule by players without actually trying it out in play. Extension is an EXPENSIVE spell - it requires quite a few Rune points. Rune Points that aren't available for whatever other situations the players might need them in. In playing out a campaign game, my players are very cautious about expending Rune points - they like the option of using their cult speciality spells for special circumstances, summoning and controlling elementals, and making sure they can Heal Wound. And that's not even raising the social implications of those actions. Rules minimaxing in the abstract tends to be very misleading as to how rules play out in practice.

Well also, adventurers start with 3 Rune Points. It takes 5 Rune Points to Extend something for a year, so they need a minimum of 6 Rune Points. By then, they've probably learned that this is not a nearly such a clever plan (particularly if something is happening every season and they have no Rune Points to use).

The GM pack includes the Colymar lands (including Clearwine and Apple Lane) as a sandbox area with three loosely linked scenarios, play aids, a calendar of holy days, and the GM Screen with all sorts of key tables.

Hence her name. She's such a holy Morokanth she is always eating herd-man! BTW, I suspect that herd-man doesn't really taste all that great to Morokanth, so they dry it and mix it with berries and other plants for taste. I mean these are giant tapirs. But for the human Praxians, it is their pork substitute. And the most economical of herd-beasts to eat.

That's our suggested solution if gamemasters get concerned about abuse of Extension. I think this is largely an abstract or academic concern, so I did not include it in the Core Rules - but if this proves to be something that players actually abuse, that's the solution.

Morokanth normally gather (or have their herd-men gather for them) their preferred food - roots, leaves, grubs, etc. They do eat meat (from sacrifices to Waha and Eiritha) at least twice a week, and higher status Morokanth likely more often.

Yep. Lightwall and Darkwall have always had far more possibility for abuse! That being said, most of this worrying seems to have been done in the abstract - players themselves in a campaign usually have too much sense (or are too worried about the consequences) to lock up most of their Rune points in a year long Extension.

Alchemy is a skill in RQG.

Protection is a fine spell - it lets you knock up your AP's a few points and I've found it is invaluable against the most deadly threat to any adventurer - massed missile weapon fire. A handful of trollkin with slings are far more deadly than the guy blowing 12 Rune Points to cast mega-disruptions.

Also keep in mind that Multispell does not help you overcome Shield or Countermagic. 8 Disruption spells cast with Multispell 7 are still stopped by Shield 1. And for that, you blew 7 Rune points and 7 magic points. One good Lightning Spell is far more effective.

Gang - the Vingkotlings were some 5000 years before the present. They are as far removed from the present age as Catalhuyuk was from the time of Alexander the Great. There is never going to be consistent detail about them.

My advice on this is to just let your Gloranthan Freak Flag Fly. Don't omit ducks if you like them (but feel free to omit them if you don't).

It is easy to do! To be perfectly frank, there is a weird need by many in geekdom to identify something they think is "wrong" or "ridiculous" or "broken" about some genre they are not currently a fan of - and then try to relentless mock it with lame attempts at satire. I think this usually has way more to do with tribal markings or personal insecurity on the part of the critic than about the merits of the other genre. So for example, you can "prove" you are loyal to your D&D tribe by lamely mocking ducks (or prove you are loyal to your RuneQuest tribe by mocking D&D). To me the best approach is to just roll with it and let the genre be the genre. People will either enjoy it (or not).

And there is a LOT of variation in elves.