Jon Hunter

4 hours ago, Crel said:

I think this is butting up against the question "How many initiates are game-mechanic initiates and how many are initiated as lay members?" Which seems to arise each time this topic pops up. While I do think the number of game-initiates is higher than 10%, as I recall previous iterations of this discussion Jeff et al clarified that when the book says "most Gloranthans are initiates" what it really means is "most gloranthans are lay members."

Which shows the willingness to rework/change/piss all over the 30 years previous development of the Orlanthi in Glornatha.  Everything else previous to this point in the last 30 years says pretty much the opposite, and the standard is that most Orlanthi have been initiates from the point of adulthood.

18 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

You do realize this is your interpretation, and Jason, and Jeff have both said this is not the case. The NPCs written about are mostly like the PCs, incredible. The common spells are not common to all initiates, just the exceptional (like PCs}. So while all initiates must have 1 RP this could well mean one spell. 

If they said that, it makes no sense, breaks world internal consistency and moves away from the long help RQ principle that PC's and NPC's work from the same rules, ie monsters are people to.

It also does not match the NPC's which have been written.

1 minute ago, Thaz said:

Of course. And city dwellers will attend. But out in the sticks? Major cults will have shrines on the Clan Tula of course but good luck if you dont have one locally. Plus you get unlucky on that 1d6 roll or skimp on the MP because you might need to light the fire tomorrow morning and....no RP for you.

It does mean Granny and Grandpa are venerated because they've been soaking POW Gain rolls and have time to attend the shrine and can bring some serious magic when needed....

Another power boost for the major cults and yet another reason never to play a hunter cult.

I thought the idea of initiates having limit regain of RP was a really cool idea, and would lead to interesting decisions and payoffs for both PC's and NPC's.

and the RP system with this feature, dealt with the initiate trap beautifully, but still gave a step change  for rune levels which i think is now gone.

I sure many think the PC's always having full RP for every adventure is the best root the maximum game fun,  but I'm  not  one of those.

2 minutes ago, JustAnotherVingan said:

1.  Not if its possible they will have another fight soon. Raiding trolls - use every runepoint (except those they are keeping back for healing or dismissing magic). In a battle or exploring a rune have to be careful with those runepoints.

2. Divination has to be cast in a temple/shrine or a sanctified area. 2 runepoints is a lot to use on an adventure. Divination has its limits anyway.

3. Not if they have just used all their runepoints in a fight.

4. Everything valuable probably will. Given the rarity and primitive nature of locks in a bronze age world this is probably a good thing.

3 runepoints are soon expended and players can't keep going back to the temple to renew their runepoints after every wilderness encounter.

I think your looking at use of rune points by adventures, not by people in the wider community, its the 2nd that falls over.

I think this adventure foscus may be our source of the problem

1 minute ago, Thaz said:

What is the wording on that? Dont have my books to hand....certainly POW gain rolls to get stuff to sacrifice are still Yearly unless your a Priest, Shammy or the like so people wont have a ton of RP.

Acccording to jeff -  Pg 315 Minor Holy days, but my books arent with me either

1 hour ago, RosenMcStern said:

Jeff has clarified that the "3 Rune Points for all Initiates" rule refers only to PCs. Most denizens of Glorantha will know only spirit magic. Elite warriors will have some Rune Points, but cannon fodder will not. The stats for RQ2/3 supplements should still be a valid example, and few initiates had Rune Magic in these.

I'd assumed 3 points was adventurers better than most, but 1 or 2 is every significant.

Where did Jeff clarify that ?

It makes no sense that you get this potential magic power upon becoming an initiate and everyone decides not to sacrifice for 1 point of power.

hmm most initiates which Chaosium has stated have rune points, even the herders in have 1 or 2.

If you get access to all rune spells at initiation, even 1 rune point gives you access to massive amounts of rune magic.

I could make sense of it with very limited restoration of rune magic for initiates, it was interesting challenging and believable.

With initiates virtually getting virtually the same access to rune magic as priest and lords, to make sense of it we need to;

• Say that most adults are not initiates - major change to game world, 
• Say that most initiates don't sacrifice for rune magic - world looses internal consistency
• Have a world much more magical
• Limit the number of minor holidays to not weekly - again changing the world

OK i'm trying to get my head round how the world of Glorantha remains vaugley the same after the rune magic changes in RQG?

I was wrongly under the impression that initiates only got there magic back on high holy days and sacred times ( don't ask me how, something i picked up in the playstest and game dev phases that stuck in my mind, and i never checked again).

Now I understand that  most adults get 2 or 3 rune points that if they live near a fair size temple they can replenish every week. Thats a  game changing level of rune magic,  available to PCs, NPC's , foes and lots of monsters.

Rune magic has Just got turned up to 11.

• Every adults will go into every combat with full out rune magic, as they have available runepoints and will assume there opponent does too, and combats to dangerous to take any chances. 
• Little remains hidden because most people can use divination without real cost,
• Everyone can heal to a  high level.
• Everything steal-able will be warded
• etc etc

I've always loved gloranthas highly magical nature, but it just feels to much.

I think we are having a view from 10,000 feet. 

My expectation would be for a stormbull initiate in a clan for face the trouble the clans faces, not seeking out the biggest manifestations of chaos in the world.

Gloranthas are 'local people' with 'local' outlooks,

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Heavily true for all regions that have been disrupted by a generation of war and occupation, and then suffered the disaster of the Great Winter (where the cities have the largest stores of food). And once you're in the city, the odds are low that you'll go back "home". But many who arrive in the cities are refugees - not just individuals but whole families and bloodlines.

Nochet has around 25k Heortling refugees from Sartar and Heortland - making it the "largest" Heortling city in Glorantha and comprising a bit shy of 1/4 of the city's population. Nochet (and some other coastal cities like Handra) is about to receive another wave of refugees in 1625-6, but these are coming from the west - a wave of those fleeing the destruction of Pasos and Nolos.

Karse and Durengard took in refugees during the Lunar invasions and the Great Winter, and now will take in more as the ravages of both Queen Gagix and Harrek's Wolf Pirates increase.

Opportunities for trade, wealth and power will draw many of the others: true for the coastal cities of the Holy Country after the Opening, for Pavis after Dorasar's settlement and the opening of the Pavis Road, and other places along significant trade routes (e.g. Furthest). 

Great answers

4 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

What need be said, you are correct!
I wonder if you turned your gaze to the small enclaves in the rubble (speaking of rubble runners), like Mani’s Fort or the Real City, whether this situation could be ameliorated.

I touched on it there, manside is more mono cultural, traditional Pavis. New Pavis is a more 'a hive of scum and villany'.

I think we all would appreciate honest some reviews.  I'm sure none of us like constructive critiques, but we all need it.

A wall of false praise does little for the ego and you learn nothing from it.

However as a lot of our critiques are writers and proof readers, i've learned proof , proof and proof again

9 minutes ago, Diego Barretta said:

For long time I have no longer played heavy and detailed systems.  I come from at least a decade of narrative or light RPGs.  Now I would like to try RuneQuest Glorantha .... I read the Quickstart and I had a headache reading combat and magic rules, strike ranks, various bonuses and more.  Now ... which game do you consider preparatory for a less traumatic transition in near future? OpenQuest, Magic World or what?

If you want to try Glorantha, but like narrative/light systems  first stop would be Heroquest.

I half wrote a WOD based system, which works but would need finishing off on a significant amount of detail, on www.backtobalazar.com.

In all honesty try heroquest first.

Cheers Jeff really useful.

It feels like this exists for the other culture's as well?

I'm interested in how names traverse cultures as well so Gloranthan version of John, Jon, Jan, Yan, Juan, Jean   

I've no idea why this interests me but it does.

OK this is at least one project away, but will be worked into the name generator.

 

I thought about this when working Vol 2 of rubble runners, the collection contains fewer natives to  Pavis than I had expected.

Now this could be for a few reasons;

• Foreigners and oddballs make more interesting characters, so get written up more
• Pavis is a weird city having the rubble next to it and being the urban center of Prax, which would attract fotsam from all over Prax
• Also being a post  war setting migratory patterns are probably higher.

But i was interested in other peoples views.
 

OK I have a theory based on observations of our own world.

Cities collect the disconnected, dissolute, broke. ambitious, misfits, outcast, ambitious, those not tied to clan or family in the way there society would probably expect them to be.

As well as the natives of the city that were raised there?

Is that true of some cities, most cities or all cities?  with reference to glorantha?

OK we have a few examples in the book, is this all of the work that's been done?

or are the complex naming conventions behind them, than can be broken out and extrapolated?

I'm thinking of picking the name generator project up again and trying to refine the orlnathi names, into sub groups

http://www.backtobalazar.com/glorantha-name-generator/

if anyone is really frustrated with the system i can point you to this alternative

http://www.backtobalazar.com/extended-character-professions-and-previous-experience-for-runequest-glorantha/
 

harder work but i think a better system, but more freedom so you can get highly min maxed characters.

to my mind the big issues isn't why the lunar would change sides, but why the Orlanthi would trust him.

Some ideas,

• he is a prisoner awaiting ransom, who is an Honorable man who has earned there trust and given some degree of freedom
• he is kin and therefore can't be slain out of hand
• he has a skill or knowledge they need that means they have to keep him a round
•  

1 hour ago, davecake said:

Hunter is a particular sore point with one of players who is a hunter.

Hunters are very skill based characters - to be able to do the things you expect of a hunter requires a lot of skills. Part of this is it is a profession that naturally relies heavily on skill, part of it is the way skills are spilt up, a lot of them are useful outside hunting in a broader context so are separate skills in the game system. 
so, hunters need more skills, but get the least of any profession. 

Add to that that hunters get NO ability is many skills you would expect hunters to have. They can’t stalk prey - they have no Move Quietly. They can’t butcher their catch (Craft:butchery/Peaceful Cut). They can’t set snares or traps (Devise). 
 

and to add to that - the Hunter cults can be *very* odd. Found child is ok but limited, but Odayla and Yinkin are weird, often resulting in characters having no ability in skills they need Odayla combat magic turns them into bear form in which they need unarmed combat skills (which they have no chance to obtain) and can’t use their primary missile skill, Yinkin has no Peaceful Cut, Yelm is strangely suggested as a hunter cult - and nothing about it grants useful hunter skills. Plus Odayla and Yinkin are especially confusing for associated cults - they are both said to be able to ‘participate in the Great Hunt’ but no indication what it means (for Foundchild, it’s how they become Master Hunters, but for others? Who know 🤷‍♂️) and are said to be connected to Ancestor Worship but Daka Fal is Man Rune that is opposed to the Beast Rune. Very confusing. 

It's stuff like this that makes me think the design team were much more focused of mythos and background, than game play and balance.

Not entirely a bad thing, but can sometimes lead to frustrations.

Fudge it worrying about this is very unlikely to improve your game

On 2/2/2020 at 7:50 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

Oh hell,. and here I am broke because, that is a truly great reason to buy a product. A gent who stands behind a product, asks for comments, and then gets praise from Rick Meints. I will be putting my money down one day.

Cheers.

I am lost ??

It seems to be Rick that the hot list are ordered on sales value and not units sold is that your observation too?

Cheers rick I had wedded myself to a two page layout for each character, on each open fold. So had to do some weird stuff  with the art to make that happen. When Harala obviously was not going to to fit in two pages I had to extend to 4 pages so whole the document would keep its format.

Maybe I have to learn to sacrifice some  content for layout, but seems odd to me, is that something the professionals do?

But if your critiques in the latout stuff i'm a happy man.

Tulina was my first ever RQ PC that was mine...

A much loved character, but I had to re write and re shape, maybe cast a  more cynical eye over.