Jon Hunter
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Posts posted by Jon Hunter
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21 hours ago, jajagappa said:
Anything Mother related: Twice-mother, Thrice-mother, Mother-of-Many, Mother-of-Suns, Strong Mother, Mother of Pain, Mother of All
Anything related to Childbearing/raising/teaching: Minder of Many, Bearer of Pain, Allwatcher, Earthteacher, Lifegiver, Woundbinder
Anything related to Corpse Preparation or Sorrow: Keeper of Sorrows, Deathmask, Urnmaker, Walker with Spirits, Tender of the Empty Fields, Sad Mother
Anything Earth, Life, Pasture, or Hill related: the Grounded, Earthdancer, Flowing Grass, Valewalker, Fineblossom, Meadowrider, Smiling Hill
Cheers,
I used a good few , fired off lots of ideas too. -
1 hour ago, Joerg said:
I think you will have to do separate lists for the different Pelorian populations. Non-Dara Happan Lodrili nobility (i.e. upstart Lunars) have the first part of the clan-name as a hyphenated suffix - Sor-eel.
I noted that but it only works if your Greg of Jeff trying to pull out 4 or 5 individuals from a single family over a few hundred years.
If you want a system that works widely it falls down especially if your pre clan name elements are all 3 characters names. Just not scalable so I filed that as a way a single clan does it.I've opted for the system outlines in Imperial handbook 2 for Imperial Lunar names, though I may like a 'from Clan' or 'from place' style to complement the God based Style laid out there.
1 hour ago, Joerg said:Both Dara Happan and Carmanian high nobility go by their given name, a title, and an epithet. You are supposed to know which noble family they belong to. (Aronius Jaranthir suggests that Jaranthir is an eponym, too, only one without translation provided.)
Dara Happan naming conventions were discussed in a Lunar novel Greg read ages ago at a Convulsion I attended (94 or 98). A calling name, status (as a cardinal number), and IIRC another numeral. (The character in the novel was a female weeder, the lowest level of free Dara Happan nationality. IIRC a sixth.)
Ok will look into that more, I do have a distinct lists of Dara Happen and Carmanian forenames so may be do able.
1 hour ago, Joerg said:Darjiinians just have a given name, no clan epithet, if the few examples I can correctly identify show the greater picture.
Easy to do, but I have no distinct list of Darjiinians names as yet.
1 hour ago, Joerg said:Pelandans appear to make do with a single name, followed by their city (or the nearest city, which will probably add a (different?) suffix or prefix to the city name. Medium level Dara Happans also identify by their city.
The rest will be nicknames like Caesar (baldhead), Cicero (chick-pea) or Flaccus (lop-ear), Blaatand (Bluetooth), or sometimes "the elder" (Cato), "the smaller/bigger" (Ajax in the Ilias). Or possibly awful puns sold as clever kennings. Individuals will amass such nicknames or war-names. Sometimes the descriptor will be clear text, sometimes it will be faux Pelorian (Jaranthir).
Pelandan names exists as a distinct list and currently have little in the way of second names/titles/epithet/family names.
Mid for mid level and lower level Dara Happen names i think something that suggests
- from <city/town/village>
- member of <organisation/family>
- servant of <organisation/family>
This would be used less frequently with Pelandans, with some silly nicknames thrown in.
1 hour ago, Joerg said: -
First question from me;
What ideas do people have on how we can distinguish the 2nd name element of Pelorian, Carmanaina and Harra happen names from the ubiquitous Runequest Nickname? -
After creating the Glorantha random name generator
http://www.backtobalazar.com/glorantha-name-generator/
I'm now trying to populate it with Good useful data from a wide range of key Gloranthan Cultures.
Which will try to achieve the following things- Create and document varied societies different approach to naming
- Create distinct feels for different cultures
- Be believable within a gaming setting
- Build on whats go on before
- Add something new and useful
- Fire players and ref imagination
- Isn't adverse to occasional and appropriate humor.
I will have lots of questions, there will be places where I fall over on inspiration and there will be places where people think they will extrapolate data differently than I would.
So I thought a thread where we could discuss and debate about Gloranthan Names could be worthwhile.
Cheers
Jon -
Ok ive added a Gloranthan name generator, which tries to create realistic NPC(or PC names via culture)
http://www.backtobalazar.com/glorantha-name-generator/
i've got
- Balazaring
- Satarite
- Grazelanders
- Imperial Lunar
- Dara Happen
- Peldaran/ Pelorian
Ready as yet.
I have kinda struck out on Grazelander female honour names though so if people have any suggestions.... I would be grateful.
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I have picked up there has been a bit of thing about elmal/yelmalio over the years
Out of interest where has this been left?
What i'm picking up is that Yelmalio seems to be the fore and Elmal if mentioned at all is being pushed to the background?
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On 18/01/2018 at 8:09 AM, Jeff said:
A few reactions. One, Dragon Pass and Peloria are far more culturally interlinked than Britain and Rome ever were. Part of that is distance -the distance from Glamour to Furthest is less than the distance from Marseilles to Trier.
Part of that is trade - Dragon Pass is the link between the Pelorian Heartlands and the rich ports of Kethaela. Think of Dragon Pass as Central Asia during the Silk Road.
Part of that is also history. Dragon Pass has ruled Peloria before the Lunar Empire and Peloria has ruled Dragon Pass before the Lunar Empire. These people know each other and their mythologies have long recognised each other.
Another reaction is wealth, literacy, and social structure. Dragon Pass is not an illiterate and uncivilised backwater. It has two large cities, many smaller cities, and cults of literacy and trade. It is mostly tribal but those tribes are mostly tied to cities - a type of social organisation that was common in the ancient world (if anyone is particularly interested, I recall a chapter on the subject this in The Babylonian World, edited by Gwendolyn Leick.
Rome's conquest of Britains conjures up extremely strong associations in British culture (admittedly less so in America, and very little in France and Germany) - concepts that come with baggage that is often misleading for Glorantha. If it works for you, great. But I tend to avoid it as strongly as I do associating the medieval world with the Gloranthan West. If anything, I imagine the Lunar Provinces and Dragon Pass as being somewhat analogous to Macedon, Thessaly, and the Ionian cities under the Persian Empire. But that analogy has lots of problems as well (but at least it avoids the modern image of British actors and actresses wearing face paint and yelping around Stonehenge in the mist).
Jeff i now understand you reticence in the roman/celt thing for the lunar/orlanthi situation a little more.
However it does leave us with an analogory that would be meaningful to very few people, and with few pivots in popular culture. I consider myself of having some interest in ancient history and with a very good understanding of the the culture and situation of the old testament , and I couldn't make practical use the comparison with the Persian empire.
The lunar Rome illustration still works for a quick introduction to players for me for a number of reasons;- It establishes the game in antiquity
- both are the major powers of the day
- both are aggressively expansionist
- both have shown the ability to assimilate surrounding cultures
- the roman-greek thing and Lunar-Dara Happen thing have similarities
- both tie the religion and the Empire Together
- players generally know and understand these facts about the roman empire
- some common touch points in popular culture
I can see why the British Celtic thing doesn't work well for the reasons you outlined above , but again i find the General Celt/Orlanthi thing does work for a number of reasons some similar.
- It again establishes the game in antiquity.
- The celts were varied people with significant variation
- Tribal people with petty kings
- Both Celts and Orlanthi have varying technical and social levels
- Complex loyalties that can work for or against the lunars
- there is some understanding of these traits with most gamers,
- again some touch points in popular culture
so for me comparisons to the Gauls, Iberian, Thraican and alpine celts, work better than british celts
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Ok got this one to add to the mix now
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Hi All,
I've reworked on old spreadsheet into an online tool to help with city and culture building.
Other datasets can be added easily so if you want to add another culture just let me know.
http://www.backtobalazar.com/glorantha-fantasy-world-city-tool/
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7 hours ago, jeffjerwin said:
Yup. But confronting and transcending it to be specific. Consider the Orlanthi initiation rite.
I'd agree with that.
Perhaps where personal horror games see the players on a slippery slope ,which they will eventually slide down to damnation. Glorantha offers a more upbeat vibe where the its is a situation where then players can triumph over personal horror.
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1 hour ago, Yelm's Light said:
Not generally so much as in CoC, I'd say. RQ tends to be more focused on politics, general dungeon-crawling, or character development, although dealing with Chaos, undead, and vampires would veer into that realm.
I'd describe CoC as a classic horror game looking at the evil without.
Personal horror tends to look at the evil within.
I think Arkat is a personal horror story, I also think Argrath could become on as well,
Stormbullites are made for personal horror stories of people who fight chaos who are always in danger of becoming what they hate.I think its there as an element which could explored within Glorantha, but Glorantha is a lot wider and has many more themes running through.
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OK a question id be interested in peoples opinions on;
Is personal horror a glorathan theme?
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58 minutes ago, Joerg said:
There are few cults with both priests and lords, and probably still too many, mainly for backward compatibility. Assigning both a rune lord and a rune priest position to each and any cult (as per Rune Masters) was one of the features of RQ2 that was dropped in RQ3, and with some reason. Yelmalio should by any rights only have the rune lord position, but the priest position was probably retained because of the prominence of Yelmalio cultists from both tracks in popular publications like Pavis or Griffin Mountain. For Sun County, we have an amusing historical reason (Teshnos) for having both lords and priests, and the Sartar Sun Dome quite likely inherited those from the Praxian one. The cult in Balazar is a fringe organisation, and to be honest I don't have any idea how the Goldedge templars or the tribal Yelmalians in the Far Point distribute those duties.
Then there are Orlanth and Yelm, Great Gods of the universe who combine various and possibly formerly independent traditions into a single cult. Horse nomad Yelm should have shamans rather than priests, and I don't think that urban Pelorian Yelm has many rune lords who aren't lords of their community, either.
In case of Orlanth, apart from Adventurous, also the Rex subcult has a Rune Lord rather than a Rune Priest. All three postions (the third being the Storm Voice) have mixed responsibiities - the Four Magic Weapons quest sounds like something done by a rune lord, but is part of the Thunderous subcult.
Karrg is presented as a subcult of Kyger Litor and the main outlet for an orthodox male troll. The uz don't have female lords, and they don't have male priests of Kyger Litor. Even the male shamans appear to be limited to allied deities (like Dehore) rather than to the Great Mother.
Aldrya has High King Elf for the lord position.
The Seven Mothers are a strange composite cult, inheriting the rune lord of Humakt via Yanafal and the earth priestess via Deezola.
I like the variation in system, but i think one system to run all possibilities within rune magic, and let the distinctions of runelord/priest/shaman be run by the background plot characterisation and story.
58 minutes ago, Joerg said:58 minutes ago, Joerg said:So, how is WoD going to tackle this? Spells aren't much of a problem, How do you manage Divine Intervention?
http://www.backtobalazar.com/wodglorantha-divine-intervention-rules/ one thing i'm very happy with and how it can be extended into divine ritual magic.
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3 hours ago, Yelm's Light said:
Yeah, it does pretty much break the distinction. To state the obvious, Rune Lords are the martial types, war leaders and champions, not having the prerequisite time for prayer and study of things magical (hence the tendency toward one-use Rune Magic from RQ2 and the lack of any mention of their access to Rune Magic in the rules). Priests and the rarer Rune Lord-Priests were the ones able to cast reusable Rune Magic. Throwback that I am, I prefer the old system.
I like the old system too it just doesn't fit with the storyteller rules dynamic, and it would be false to try insert that dynamic into of storyteller rules.
3 hours ago, Yelm's Light said:Essentially, you're reducing common Rune spells to a middle class between Battle Magic and Rune Magic...too powerful to be Battle Magic, but simpler or less time-consuming to learn than cultic Rune Magic.
I don't think I am, what i'm doing is making common rune spells accessible by gaining runic associations with magic, spirit, truth and mastery runes. Thus if you want access to general magic you character looks to develop ties to generalist runes. So we can keep the Runelord/rune priest split by people who develop generalist rune magic powers and those who only concentrate on cult specific rune powers, but there is only system and mechanic in play.
3 hours ago, Yelm's Light said:Associated cults' magic would tend to be more difficult to cast under your system, unless the spells shared cult Runes. (To compensate, you could apply a bonus for Priests only when casting associated cults' spells whose runes differ.)
As i've written and articulated i'm happy with associated spells being difficult or expensive to cast. If players get there dicepool from rune points spent only if they have no runic association for the spells that fine, more expensive, higher chance of failure , weaker effects all works for me. Its just creating the mechanic for gaining access to the spells.
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OK looking at building characters with different levels of experience in WOD:Glorantha.
http://www.backtobalazar.com/creating-experienced-player-characters-wodglorantha/
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Hi Guys,
I'm second guessing some design decisions i made in the Rune magic system for WOD:Glorantha and want to knock round options and see what other people think.
Here are some facts about system design that i don't want to change.- The storytellers system has one core mechanic which works for just about everything, and differences in game play are about difference uses of that one mechanic, not different mechanics for different character types.
- Runelords & Runepriests should be working off the same rules and differences should be how those rules apply in the game world.
- I want to keep the cultural distinction between rune lords & rune priests with WOD:Glorantha.
In the first draft of the system
- Cult specific rune spells come from association with your Gods runes
- Common rune spells came from association with generic runes such as magic, spirit and truth
- The distinction between Runelords and Priests was a mix of those who built up the generic rune associations to serve the flock ( priests) and those who focused on cult runes and become avatars of there Gods (Runelords)
- Apart from, the simple character choice distinction in rune association, there are no rule differences or nuances between the two roles.
- This works very well for cult and generic runespells, but has no workable mechanism of associated cult spells
- Runespells are currently cast by using you rating in the relevant rune plus the amount of Runepoints you wish to spend on the spell.
Upon looking at RQG, your common rune magic spells are powered by your cult runes.
- This is effective and means that priestess get access to common spells easily
- It does reflect thew power of the gods
- The associated spells system works as most people have around 50% ratings in the runes for non cult spells
Thoughts of moving towards the RQG system
- If I adopt this system it shatters the distinction between rune lords and priests in a one system
- It still doesn't give me a decent system for associated cult spells
Does this make any sense to anyone else and am i just talking riddles to myself ?
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17 hours ago, MOB said:
*GM Note: The resourceful Halcyon cunningly switched clothes with a flunky just before the assault, and it was actually the luckless double’s head that got paraded around afterwards, not his. Halcyon managed to flee the city and eventually make his way back to the Empire, along with Marusa. Rumor has it they were also both among the very few Lunar survivors of the Dragonrise.
I've still got them in griffin mountain ..... well Halycon arrested by the coders and Marusa in hiding
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The guide would indicate later 1624... i bumped into another source that suggest 1625..
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Hi All,
Do we have a precise date for the fall of New Pavis? I have references for years of 1624/1625, can anyone give in a definitive date ?
jon -
OK playing with stats now, one new post and two updates to old posts.
http://www.backtobalazar.com/trollkin-wod-glorantha-stats/
http://www.backtobalazar.com/lan-stormson/
http://www.backtobalazar.com/thrax-halfface/ -
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6 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:
About point 3 I am not so sure, the others... I agree, it is just that someone else will not. Many people consider character creation integral to the rules.
The character definition system would have to be standard, the techniques on how you arrive at that definition could alter drastically.
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OK some days you have crazy ideas and this may be one of them.
Seeing as we have many version of RQ's to choose from , a YGMV mentality, a community of moders and hackers could it be possible to create runequest as a configurable rules system ?Certain elements would have to remain for it to remain Runequest and published materials and adventures to work, other elements could be built on a mix and match.
Elements which I think can change radically without changing the core nature of the system are
- Character Creation
- Experience
- Combat
Are there other parts of the system that could be easily modulated, and other parts don't require to interact with?
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New Balazar Fan Site
in Glorantha
Posted
I think its an interesting questions where the lines of delineation fall with the female roles between the Grazelanders and Verdef,
With the men its quite simple grazelanders - horses, war, fighting, sun gods. verdef - farming, trades, making, growing, other animals.
I have the Grazelander women as being hands off agriculture and manual labour, but responsible for healing, horses, raising children, teaching, knowledge and mysticism