Jeff

In 1625, the three metropoles, along with Glamour and Elz Ast, form the core of Lunar Heartlands culture. In each of these cities, the Lunar Way and the Dara Happan traditions are deeply merged. The only folk who might view the Lunar Way as a dangerous innovation are young Lunar aristocrats who try to show how Illuminated they are (especially if they aren't) by pointing out the dangers of the Lunar Way. The Red Emperor has been the ruler of Dara Happa for nearly four centuries - which actually makes his "dynasty" the longest-lived Dara Happan dynasty of Time. Pretty much every Yelmic aristocratic family is descended or otherwise related to the Red Emperor (who is after all the highest priest of Yelm). 

Each city is a world to itself, but also each city has its specialisation for which it is best known:

Alkoth stands out for its martial spirit. The "Sparta of the Lunar Empire". 

Raibanth stands out for its endless rituals and ceremonies. Proxies of the Red Emperor perform a ceaseless procession of sacrifices, chants, and other ceremonies intended to keep the world in Golden Age harmony. Many of these rituals serve no obvious purpose, but are done because they have always been done. Only 20 miles from Glamour, Raibanth has a similar relationship with Glamour as Assur had with Nineveh. 

Yuthuppa is the "city of scribes" or the "city of sky-gazers".  The city is the centre of the Irrippi Ontor cult, and is where promising youths go to study to become the imperial scribes who administer the Lunar Empire. 

13 minutes ago, Jeff said:

I am going to be brutal on this one - Ernalda got a whole-hearted rewrite in Sartar KoH and even more in RQG. As a result, I don't advise writers to even look at the description of Ernalda in TR. She is much more a goddess of sex, life, and all things on earth that was presented in previous books. 

Men may initiate into Ernalda's mysteries, but only a woman who has given birth can become a priestess.

The reason for all the changes was feedback from women players - especially women players who had children. I can recall Neil, David Scott and I sitting down with Claudia and having her describe Ernalda and what her magic should be. Claudia, Kris, Christine, Ellie, Pam - all have had huge impacts on the RQG version of Ernalda. It makes me wondrously happy that Yanioth is now one of the most popular pregen characters.

I am going to be brutal on this one - Ernalda got a whole-hearted rewrite in Sartar KoH and even more in RQG. As a result, I don't advise writers to even look at the description of Ernalda in TR. She is much more a goddess of sex, life, and all things on earth that was presented in previous books. 

Men may initiate into Ernalda's mysteries, but only a woman who has given birth can become a priestess.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Guess I need to re-phrase my question.

What do those with a maximum INT of 13 do? Leave the wizard caste?

Train some more, so they can select a rune or a technique at some higher age? Use a method similar to Dormal's Open Seas common magic ritual that doesn't require mastered runes or spells (but may clog up Free INT)?

Be considered failures to their family. End up getting married and be expected to produce smarter children. Assist their more successful kin in manage family estates, dealing with routine affairs, and acting as clerks. Become merchants or money-lenders. Or go into exile.

As an aside, 21 for most of us is still part of prolonged adolescence. In Glorantha societies, people are full adults around 15 or 16. They are expected to fight, work, and even lead.

5 hours ago, Crel said:

P.73 "Cult Spirit Magic: If your cult teaches spirit magic, choose 5 points of cult spirit magic. The spirit magic spells taught by the cult are listed. An initiate can start with spirit magic spells taught by an associated cult."

On p.75, Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy and Orlanth are listed as Eurmal's Associated Cults. On p.74, Sleep is listed as a 3-pt cult spirit magic spell. Therefore, RAW, Eurmali Tricksters can begin play knowing Sleep as 3 of their 5 points of cult spirit magic.

Additionally, I currently see nothing in Chalana Arroy's longer writeup (on p.290) which directly contradicts this reading, although @PhilHibbs's comment is probably accurate.

I guess it's worth pointing out that any of the cults noting CA as associated can get access at start of play to Sleep. Eurmal just stuck out in particular because Tricksters. And, I suppose any other cult would have some notion of "use this spell nicely, or else CA's gonna be pissed" whereas Tricksters are Tricksters. Other cults include Ernalda, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Orlanth, Storm Bull and Yelm.

This is addressed in Gods and Goddesses. Sleep is not taught outside of the cult. 

RQG was long enough that it made no sense deep diving into every cult.

Here's a detail of the Nymie Vale and the Streamvale near Clearwine Fort, which is the stomping grounds for the default campaign location.

1 hour ago, Runeblogger said:

I would like to add a review of the Glorantha Bestiary, done from the POV of a veteran RQ3 player (me):

https://elruneblog.blogspot.com/2019/02/review-of-runequest-glorantha-bestiary.html   

I didn't include Teshnan elephants for the same reason I didn't include Fronelan woolly rhinos. They are outside the main focus of the book.

You can do whatever you want to the RQG rules. But in the rules as written, we do not have rabble for the reason that Russ Massey says.

2 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Quite the review, I think if I read you right, you are still on the fence but are warming to it...
Only had time for half of it and will read the rest tomorrow.

Cheers

And thanks Pentallion, I think I will put this in line (and get to it soon!)... RQ has all my attention and possibly all my next years allowance right now. Zounds, the GaGoG and GM's book will be coming out soon (ish), if my wallet takes one more hit and rolls one more fumble it won't be pretty... sigh.

Brother can you spare a blog?

Not to mention the Smoking Ruins, which has new scenarios from myself, Greg, Chris Klug, Steve Perrin, and Jason!

23 minutes ago, Kloster said:

Considering the comments, I thought the number was nil (or close to) outside of my group. 3.5 in one thread is numerous compared to that nil. I liked the details it provided, but I don't miss the fatigue rules that went with it. We used it and the bookkeeping was too much even for my crunchyness.

And this is 4.5, not 3.5. I reread jps and he likes too (I don't count those who wrote after my comment).

Nonetheless, Greg and I both disliked the Fatigue rules in RQ3 intensely. They are not going to come back in any official capacity. If you want to houserule more complicated Fatigue and Encumbrance rules, go for it, but RQG's rules do what we want them to do.

3 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

...and is a rule that nobody really bothered with back then either. You make a roll, you tick it, done. Then you do something fun.

Plenty of people used the special Ride experience rules - I did, Greg did, Dunham did, Sandy did, etc.  That's how characters who spent a long time in Prax got to be good riders even if they weren't making a lot of ride rolls. It could also be handled through Experience Between Adventures, but we thought it would be better to let folk who are spending a lot of time Riding to just get the experience rolls.

Jeff

11 minutes ago, Mechashef said:

This has been mentioned in another thread but I think it is worth bringing attention to again:

P161

Of course the rule may be too crunchy for most groups to use.

A wind STR of 7-12 blows out a candle and a STR of 12 gives a 10% penalty to missile attacks.  A light wind is STR 13 to 18 (15% to 40% penalty and a moderate wind is 19-24 (45% to 70% penalty).  Considering that the Dragon Pass area is the windiest on the continent, wind penalties to missile fire should be really common.  

 

The other "What the Heck" moment for me came from this forum not the manual.  In the "RuneQuest Core Rules Questions" thread Jason, when responding to a question on Statement of Intent (SoI) wrote:

So one of the quite contentious rules of RQ, one that seems strange to players of many other games and causes much debate amongst experienced RQ people isn't actually used by one of the authors of the rules!  

 

 

 

 

Jason doesn't use it but I do. As described on page 192, I find the the Statement of Intent phase EXTREMELY helpful in running combat. Players say what they intend to do, which makes it much easier for me to work around that. It helps defuse potential arguments and carry the combat along.

Thanks Ellie! People please, a lot of new members have been coming to BRP recently. Let's be welcoming, and avoid coming across like scholastic pendants arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

And to any new Glorantha-phile reading this - WELCOME!!!!!

1 minute ago, Tywyll said:

Yeah, but bandit killers =/= trained warriors. 

Yeah. Which is why I would put bet 1 Black Fang cultist is probably a match for 1 Yelmalio cultist, but 100 trained Yelmalio cultists should mop up 100 Black Fang cultists. Of course, that 100 Black Fang cultists would constitute most of the cult and that 100 Yelmalio cultists would represent a few villages at most.

The usefulness of a cult cannot be expressed purely through its Rune Magic options.

20 minutes ago, Tywyll said:

Another kick in the teeth...the fricking Blach Fang spirit Cult dedicated to a thief have the Shield spell... that makes plenty of sense when someone like Yelmalio doesn't. 😒

Black Fang is not a thief cult. It is a cult of professional killers.

Yelmalio succeeds despite not having great offensive or defensive magic by his worshipers cooperating in a disciplined manner. Those pikes and shields are worth a lot better en masse than you might imagine. Individual Yelmalio soldiers are not as impressive as a many war cults. Collectively, they are way more dangerous than most.

Even in Nochet, there isn't really what we would recognise as centralised law enforcement. People in Nochet belong to kinship groups, cults, or are under the protection of one of these. The queen is the head of the Ernalda cult and a member of one of the most powerful kinship groups (and takes husbands from other powerful groups). Her prerogatives are backed up by bodyguards, vast wealth, and sacred authority. But she doesn't have law enforcement officers patrolling the streets to enforce order. She doesn't have prisons. Heck, she doesn't usually get involved in "justice" except when two disputing groups come to her - example, member of the Norinel subcult (the City Goddess) steals something from House Delaiano and gets caught. House Delaiano proposes to cut off her hand, but our thief has a religious right to appeal to the Queen for meditation. So both parties go to the queen, and instead of a maiming, our thief pays a fine to Delaiano.

Prison simply doesn't exist as a punishment.

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

Fair is fair. Perhaps "outcry" would have been the better phrase - for all my practice writing English, this isn't my native language.

I do think that there is some emotion in that response, though. "I am not roleplaying a bully." "These aren't murder-hobos."

In my opinion, getting into the mindset of a Bronze Age character needs to shed some of the mindset you were brought up with. A certain way more pragmatic approach to death, including the character's own. Different standards for e.g. charity - try and convince an Orlanthi clansman that giving charity to a complete stranger can be expected of him. "But that's not my kin!"

One of the interesting things in playing Vampire - the Masquerade was to identify with the monster in you, while keeping it in check. In a similar way, this applied to any fantasy game that has you wielding weapons. Playing a Humakti means playing a fanatical professional killer, a taker of lives. Playing an initiate of Orlanth means that you have to bluster and bully when appropriate, and there are plenty situations where bullying is appropriate. Playing an Ernaldan may mean to be manipulative, scheming and mean when the situation demands it. Being like your deity means being less human, and that often translates as being less humanitarian, too.

This style of gaming is not for everybody, agreed. Many a group of players requires the knowledge that they are the good guys in an absolute moral sense. Such moral absolutes aren't exactly part of Glorantha, though. But MGWV, YGWV.

I don't think the Orlanthi as a general rule are any more bullying than anyone else. They are an "honour culture" which means they place a high value on behaving in accordance with a martial code, but I think you are just as likely to find a "bully" in Nochet or Glamour as Boldhome. 

8 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Scenario 1:

• Captor: "Right, I've captured you and am going to collect your ransom. Do I have your word of honour that you are not going to try to escape?" 
• Prisoner: "Sure, no problem"
• Captor: "OK, I'm going now, be back in a bit".
• Prisoner: "Ha, after 10 minutes I'm going to use Bladesharp on this rock and cut y bonds, then escape"
• Prisoner duly escapes and tells the ransomers not to bother with the ransom.
• Captor: "Ransomers, my Prisoner has a ransom and said that I could collect it, but escaped before I could do so. Could you remove his ransom and tell everyone?"
• Ransomers: "Sure, that undermines the whole concept of Ransom, consider it done"

Scenario 2:

• Captor: "Right, I've captured you and am going to collect your ransom. Do I have your word of honour that you are not going to try to escape?" 
• Prisoner: "Nope"
• Captor: "Are you sure, because otherwise I'm going to have to kill you"
• Prisoner: "Nope, I'm going to escape"
• Captor: "Now, come on, don't be silly, you have a ransom for a reason"
• Prisoner: "Tough, you are not going to get any of, urrrgh!"

Scenario 3:

• Captor: "Look, I have captured you and was going to ransom you, but you stiffed me last time"
• Prisoner: "That was last time, I'm a good boy now. I doubled my ransom and paid the ransomers off so I could have a ransom"
• Captor: "Are you sure? You'd better be telling the truth!"
• Prisoner: "Yes, sure, here look at my ransom scroll".
• Captor: Right, ok, be good until I get back"
• Prisoner: "Idiot! Time to escape again"
• Later ...
• Captor: "OK, he did it again and skipped ransom"
• Ransomers: "Right, we'll have him and spread word that he isn't getting any more ransoms"

Scenario 4:

• Captor: "Look, I have captured you again, but you stiffed me twice"
• Prisoner: "Boy, did I get a beating last time, those ransomers are tough. It's all sorted now."
• Captor: "I just don't believe you"
• Prisoner: "Honest, my ransom is now 10,000L, urrrgh!

OK, so they don't all play out like that and a lot of people will take the prisoner to the ransomers to collect the ransom.

However, the Ransom System is there for a reason and anyone abusing it by claiming that a ransom can be paid and then escaping so as not to have the ransom paid undermines the system. This would be frowned upon and the Ransomers have a lot of clout with powerful folk.

In RQ2, when we got 1,000L cash, the first thing we did was to go to the Ransomers and pay a 1,000L Ransom. We had to pay an extra 10% to the Ransomers as a fee, but it was worth it. When we became Rune Level, we upped it to 10,000L.

Actually it is worse now in RQG since the ransom is normally paid by your kin and/or your temple. Screw around with that and you have trouble with your priests and clan or tribal leaders.

2 minutes ago, Sumath said:

And does this vary by cult?

Yep. In Gods and Goddesses I have the burial customs for most cults.

12 minutes ago, Sumath said:

Besides cult elemental affinities presumably dictating whether bodies are buried or cremated (are all sun cultists cremated?), what are the exceptions? 

For example, most Orlanthi get buried, but Kallyr Starbrow was put on a pyre. There would also be other exceptions, such as if a corpse had been ravaged by Chaos or disease.

Are there conventions of belief on this subject or is it more a matter of practicality?

Initiates of Orlanthi are burnt. Their remaining bones and ashes are placed in an urn and buried.

14 minutes ago, Sumath said:

Fair enough. I started to look for a poison or plant that would fit the bill, and couldn't find one that was really suitable anyway.

I think the mistake is assuming that Gloranthans have a better solution to the problem of captives than ancient world humans had. Your basic choices are:

Ransom them. Works great for important people and potentially very lucrative. Also it means people are more likely to not kill you or your kin if they are captured. Downside: they might return with armed companions after being ransomed (the Julius Caesar problem). You are stuck with them until the ransom is paid.

Put them to work. A source of labor and skilled labor. Downside: they are dangerous and can rebel.

Kill them: Solves the problem of having dangerous captives. Downside: often angers the gods, probably results in their kin doing the same thing to you. Also means you forgo lucrative ransom or labor.

On 4/11/2019 at 1:56 PM, TerryTee said:

Reading Kingdom of Heros at the moment, but these questions arises from time to time.
Orlanthi seems to be big on wergild (wergelt?) and some sources even supply reates for cottars, carls and thanes. But how does that work when people are 'just' injured? Most communities have easy access to healing magic, so an injury is normally gone quite quickly. Is it really assumed that an injury that be healed is so offensive (or something similar) that half the wergild is expected?

Same thing goes for duels (like in Kingdom of Heros). Will death or injury that results from a duel really result in wergild?

 

Thanks,

-Terry

 

One thing to keep in mind is that wergild or ransom or life price is not a "punishment" for a crime. It is the amount you pay to compensate the injured person's kin and settle any issue they have with you. So Killer Korol kills a semi-free tenant of the Orleving. He pays 250 L to the Orleving clan to compensate them for the loss to production, honor, reputation, etc. After that is considered "resolved and over". Later Killer-Korol encounters the Orleving thane Deseneros and gets annoyed with people fawning all over him. Korol insults Deseneros, Deseneros insults Korol - next thing you know, there is an informal duel and Korol nearly kills Deseneros. Realising that he can't afford Deseneros' life price after killing that herder, so he casts Heal Wound and heals the damage.

But Deseneros and his kin still feel that their honour and reputation was damaged. They also think that Korol and his Varmandi kin have shown that they are rabid dogs. They claim that Korol and his kin still owe 500 L for the injuries and are willing to fight over it. So Korol decides to go to Boldhome to ask the Prince to meditate between the clans. He knows he will have to pay SOMETHING, but certainly less than 500 L. But that's better than a feud between the clans.

3 minutes ago, Sumath said:

I'd imagine that drugs or poisons that render prisoners unconscious, docile or suggestible would be used for the duration of captivity. 

I don't imagine that is particularly common. Honestly, the way most folk deal with captives is to ransom them or transport them a long way from their home. Or have them agree to work for you, in exchange for an agreement to protect, shelter, and feed them. 

Gang - if you want to make a Tekumel thread in another part of the forum, that's great. But let's not further hijack a thread about RQ Product.