JonL

Oakfed comes to mind. Some approach Inora this way.

In particular, it is no great personal triumph or achievement for Vinga to do anything that Orlanth can if she is in fact herself Orlanth in a literal sense (rather than in the symbolic way that Barntar is sort-of Orlanth in some contexts). Orlanth being as awesome as Orlanth is expected, unremarkable. I like it better when she is simply that awesome in her own right.

RQG's rune list is largely pared down to Element & Power Runes + Beast & Biped. a subset that fits nicely on a character sheet and simplifies the spell lists. While I understand why that was desirable from a game design standpoint, the contradictions that introduces with respect to the Guide & any of the HQ materials are deeply frustrating. When ostensibly current published reference works contradict one another, they all become less useful. If you see a god listed in the Guide with a Condition rune, that will frequently be different in RQG cult write-ups, because they aren't on the character sheet.

I believe you have to escalate to derivatives and credit default swaps before that happens. Storm Bull & Rathor actually compete for Etyries affections each fiscal year, much like Esrola's suitors.

I think that the multiple opponents penalty envisions a melee context, where facing N:1 odds has a huge impact. If the individual they're trying to persuade is someone who would be similarly overwhelmed by a half dozen people yammering away, then it makes sense to apply it. If that dynamic doesn't fit the situation, then I wouldn't apply it.

Turning my phone sideways softened the blow, at least, but yeah, owch.

Wow, sorry to anyone reading this on a phone. Pasting that table in looked great on my laptop, but has done strange things to the small-screen layout

It's certainly a matter where understanding and vocabulary outside of expert-circles has expanded dramatically since Storm Tribe was published in 2007.

Here's how I've come to think about things: If Ability Ratings represent… ...Actual In-Fiction Capability, then… ...Abstract Meta-Fictional Effectiveness, then… ...an obstacle's Resistance should typically reflect… ...the ease/difficulty of credibly overcoming it with the Ability. ...the significance of the obstacle to the plot (though must still be credible in-fiction). …advancing in experience, power, influence, etc. is done through… …raising ability ratings to reflect improved/new capability. …their fictional context evolving as characters overcome challenges. …a good way to represent facing Multiple Opponents is… ...with an ability penalty. ...in how you frame contest stakes and results. …"HULK IS STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!" is probably rated… … around 3 Masteries higher than the starting rating for Cultural Keywords, or even higher if you scale like HQ1. …higher than Very High Resistance, but still less than Nigh Impossible Resistance. Neither approach is right or wrong. A great game can be played in either posture. However, a lot of the struggles with HQ2/G come from not recognizing/understanding when or why to use one approach or the other, and what that choice implies for other parts of how you play.

Yet Stasis is there too. That's Moon for ya.

WRT Gods and runes generally. Halberd Games compiled and hosts an excellent index and concordance of gods and runes with references to source works. It more or less uses the same Rune roster as the Guide & HQG. It predates RQG, so it doesn't list the compromise-to-the-character-sheet substitutions, but helpfully also refrains from going deep into the weeds with super niche sub-runes like Ice and Victory or tons of runes that just represent a god's name from the big Issaries-era roster. (The latter is handy when you're looking for a deep-cut, but muddies the waters otherwise.) It would be nice once GaGoG drops to do a reference mapping of their character-sheet-substitutions to in-fiction runes, e.g. Death & Beast standing in for Eternal Battle for Urox, Harmony standing in for Communication/Trade/Equal-Exchange for Issaries. (Outright revisions to the setting-as-published like giving Dendara Ernalda's runes are a different matter, but it would be good to document them in one place as well too.)

I'm not surprised. Issaries is the owner of the Communication/Trade rune. He should have more to offer with it, just as Orlanth's worshippers can do more with Storm/Air than Odaya or Urox worshippers can.

The Lunars made Gringle a tax tribune at one point, so they're evidently not actively hostile to the Issaries cult. I would expect the mercantile gods & their cults to negotiate a deal for coexistence. It's what they do.

There is also the complementary approach where you do keep the resistance the same, but frame the stakes and consequences according to the PCs in-fiction capabilities. Regular Joe's with a Marginal Victory barely escape with their lives after a hard fought running fight. Mighty Heroes with a Marginal Victory are in great shape after the fight, but may perhaps be inconvenienced in some fashion like having their pack horses run off.

The real root of the trouble is using Rune ratings as quantitative measures of magical power with set thresholds for gatekeeping Initiate/Devotee (and Shaman, Mage, etc.) status. That break from the core abstraction of ratings measuring metafictional effectiveness demands advancement based on increasing ratings, and uncomfortably drags the rest of the system along for the ride. I'm ponderg a hack that replaces that dynamic with advancing in cult status et al through Extended Contests to overcome trials, impress elders, and otherwise prove yourself worthy. The advancement then happens in-fiction, and you're free to look at Fate-style point shuffling, gainng new abilities through cementing victory benefits, etc. There's more to be ironed out, but that's the broad strokes.

The Storm Tribe is also quite cosmopolitan, as the pantheoi go. Doylistically, that's for variety of PC options in the core culture, but in-fiction Orlanth's big innovation over Umath is assembling all-star team of diverse deities with complementary strengths and insights to bring to the party. Wedding Ernalda to cement the core Air+Earth alliance is the most obvious example, but Little-John-ing in various former rivals like Heler, Engizi, Elmal, and Yavor, bonding with Eurmal, recruiting/adopting Issaries, L. M., & Gustbran, and Esrola marrying Argan Argar (along with Orlanth's fling with Kyger Lytor) all make for a package of talents and capabilities unmatched by anyone, until the Lunars set to out power-game game the God Learners.

TN and IO are the Mothers whose runes replace Sky. I thought that's part of how the 7M cults work, but haven't looked at the details in a while. (The Heartlands practices may differ from the provincial missionary orders in any case.)

Dara Happan women have the Earth Rune, after oria and Dendara, I think. Lunar women have the Moon, after the Red Goddess, for who would be a better role model for women than Her? Light for women might work, but that is probably noblewomen. Peasant women follow Oria, or the Heron Goddess, in the same way that peasant men follow Lodril. They would have Earth and Heat and are a randy, hedonistic bunch, very different to the aloof and pure nobility. Part of that's tricky here is Peloria has distinct culture groups within it to a greater degree than Sartar & Tarsh do. I would expect proper Dar Happan women to mostly have Light as their element, with significant minorities having Earth or Water. I would similarly expect Lodrili women to favor Earth and Weeder women to favor Water. Any of the above can of course swap out their born element for a Moon phase through being kindled in the Lunar Way. I expect that the Lunar option is especially appealing for those women who are not born with their culture-group's main goddess's element (though no Moon phase corresponds to Water, interestingly). I wonder if initiating to Dendara involves young ladies with Sky/Fire giving up their Heat, purifying themselves in order to embody the serene austerity of Light. You can see where Teelo Norri or Irippi Ontor might be appealing so some such women. (Does Hwarin have a specific phase to her Moon rune?)

The Well of Daliath https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/

The Dara Happans know no sovereign power but Sky, but they know the others - even as they hold them subservient/inferior. Oria & Oslira both have a place in the Emperor's ordered world (though the latter sometimes must be forcibly reminded of hers), but are fit only for the lesser peoples (Lodrili, Weeders, etc) to worship.

Then there's the issue that even if the Solar Pelorians don't belive that the seting itself imply the Orlanthi do because their Storm god married Glorantha's strongest/highest/most supreme Earth goddess to whom all other earth goddesses and land goddesses are ultimately (and mythically?) subserviernt to. In addition, due to that and a few other thing it appears like in the end, everyone is ultimately dependent upon said Earth goddess. The Orlanthi certainly believe that their gods are the best, sure. Who doesn't? The Dara Happans don't place high value in Earth, they consider it beneath them. It's for Lodril & his people to be soiled with its dirty work and fecund drives, so to speak. From the DH perspective, that the Southern barbarians crow about their Rebel God's union with the Earth is just another sign of their uncouth nature. This is another reason why Dendara as an Earth Queen doesn't make much sense, in my view.

It also walks all over the Dendara ≈ Entekos semi-connection. I can't see a reason to go that direction while Oria is sitting right over there.

There's sure to be small shrines here and there, wherever there were significant converts among the locals. Massacring foreign occupiers is one thing, but converted cousins are stil kin.

Those are her RQG character sheet runes. Her in-fiction Runes in the Guide are Light and Harmony. (See also: Stasis, Mastery, and Fire for her husband. )

Part of how Dara Happan acceptance of the Lunars works is that they don't necessarily see "Moon" as a distinct thing from a Sun. They know that Sedenya was of old the Changing Sun of Mernitia, whom Antirius brought to heel during the Darkness. Yelmgatha acknowledged her place in the world as the Changing Sun of Pelanda, but she remains within the Air with the other inconstant beings and does not contest the holy Sky above. The HeroQuest Voices entry for Dara Happa does a great job of presenting their parochial perspective on their own identity, even if frustrated by your mother and her exhasperating Lunar ideas about "equality."