kaydet

You're making the assumption that your players can never attain a level of power or effectiveness that will allow them to rival powerful NPCs. That's a mistake as far as I'm concerned, since you're curtailing your players because of narrative fiat. I agree that it should be difficult and rare for PCs to become akin to such lofty figures as Hofstaring Treeleaper and Kallyr Starbrow, but why should it be impossible? And furthermore, why should it be impossible that they come up with an effective plan to neutralize them even if they are not their equals? (I'm assuming that you meant "neither outcome) Your game is your game, so if the narrative-focused, tight storyline is what you and your players enjoy then more power to you. I believe that it is much more fulfilling to allow players a freer hand to interact with the world, grow, and leave their own mark.

If the players are foolish enough to attack such powerful characters then they should bear the consequences of their actions. They will either die heroically facing terrible odds; or they will triumph, defeat a great adversary, and make a lasting mark on the world of Glorantha. Why would you deny them either opportunity?

Then I guess I'm honestly confused as to what the issue is. When you get a chance, though, let us know how your idea works out. It's always good to have another tool in the kit box.

@Jon Hunter Obviously you have to do what works for you and your group. Try it and see what happens! I'm just a bit skeptical. It seems to me that I'd prefer to wait fifteen minutes between actions, and be involved the whole game session, rather than a brief intense burst of activity followed by a drawn out period of waiting while everyone else finishes their combats. If length of combat is a concern, it's usually the number of dice rolls that are to blame. Maybe try something like this: Come up with a rough table for your combat based on the NPCs, in this case A and B. A has a 70% Attack and Parry, and B has an 80% Attack and Parry. Thus, A has a 14% chance of striking B and B failing to parry; B has a 24% chance. For each pair like this roll one d100: 01-14 means that A struck B, and 77-100 means the reverse. Use the expectation value for weapons damage, and check that against armor, subtracting final damage done from total hit points rather than locations. Or maybe just rule that one hit is enough to put a combatant out of the fight. Obviously this is just an off the cuff idea that I would only use for NPCs, but I think it might work with a little refinement. You could probably work in probabilities for Specials, Criticals, and Fumbles if you really wanted to, but I haven't bothered to do so here because it just complicates what's supposed to be a simple tool. I admit that using this method means that you do lose a lot of detail, but you probably don't need that much for NPCs. Save the full combat rules for those involving your PCs -- they should be in the spotlight anyway.

I'm not sure how this differs from the normal RQ combat, except in that you've created many different combats out of what was once one unified whole. Seems like this approach would add confusion while also robbing characters of the ability to influence the larger fight once their section of the combat is finished.

I mean, sure, there have been new "births", but these would be reincarnations of existing individuals. New eggs, and therefore new individuals would presumably require the mating of True Dragons, something which would likely not go unnoticed. And perhaps I should have said "those full of sin" or some such. Of course there are more flaws among the dragonewts than cowardice, thievery, and cheating; I was just trying to get the general point across.

There's also the Petersen interpretation of Dragonewts: the ones still around are the cowards, cheats, and thieves; the good ones became dragons and are no longer in the Middle World.

Yeah, I just remembered wrong and failed to fact-check myself. Thanks to @metcalph for setting me straight.

@Runeblogger The Lunar Empire has a pretty well-documented history of using Dragonewt mercenaries. I remember reading of their presence at the siege of Boldhome and Whitewall, but I'm sure that there are other instances. The question that intrigues me is instead what the Lunars offered that the Dragonewts could possibly want. Perhaps, as you suggest, there is something in the cradle that they've been promised? That seems a little materialistic for the Dragonewts, though. The purple blood is also established in the lore: see the story of Minaryth Purple. I'm honestly not sure if there's a "why" other than the circular answer of "that's the color of dragonewt blood".

Yeah, definitely. I don't think there's any need to go into extreme detail -- particularly regarding skills and characteristics. But I do think that some notes about what we might call the "meta-magic" could be useful. @styopa I'd be pretty surprised if there's not a fairly significant spread of NPCs in the GM's book, but I think it would be great for Chaosium to add a sub-forum to discuss PC/NPC creation. I've never used it, but I believe this site has a fairly robust system for uploading files into a personal library that can then be shared freely.

I think that a chapter on practical use of magic in the game would be very helpful both to players and to GMs. I don't mean so much the use of individual spells; those are pretty obvious, and the cult write-ups provide an excellent framework for allocating spells. But when you start to incorporate all the systems of magic, companion spirits, enchantments of permanent or lengthy duration, and the acquisition/increase of magical power and ability over the long term, it seems as if the possibilities become complex and varied enough that I think it might be worth an in-depth discussion in the GM Book. Some questions that might be worth answering: How/when will a community donate magical power to a hero? What kind of enchantments will a hero bear? Will he store magical energy within himself or within items? Why? What kind and how many spirit guardians will accompany a hero? How will he utilize them to defend himself? I know that many or all of these questions can rightly be answered with "it depends", but for the novice GM new to Glorantha, I think providing a decent guide would be very helpful. Players have the advantage of learning how to use magic by experience as they gain experience with their characters, but GMs need to be able to replicate more tactically and magically advanced NPCs from the get-go.

@soltakss I'm a bit confused. Yu-Kargzant is worshiped by the Pure Horse People / Grazelanders, right? Who worships Yelm the Rider -- the Pentans?

If this is the case, why not name the cult Yu-Kargzant rather than Yelm? I don't mean to be critical, but I'm curious to understand the reasoning behind it, as it seems that by similar logic we could say that the "Yelm" of the Orlanthi has the Runes of Fire and Truth.

An interesting mechanic I've seen before is to allow certain weapons to parry and attack in one round while restricting others' ability to do the same.

Is the eclipse the sign of the kazkurtum? If so, @Yelm's Light, watch out!

Aren't the coins being produced by Campaign Coins? And it's a kickstarter, so if there's not enough interest the product won't be produced. Seems pretty low-risk and low-effort for Chaosium.

@jajagappa Okay, that's super cool. I wish that was more widely represented and explained.

Sure. But we I think we can reasonably expect the runes of the main gods to be listed accurately. This seems silly to me. Why should a god's aspect differ based on what game is representing him? How and where does Yelm ever show mastery of Death? That state was inflicted on him by his enemy, and then he was convinced to return to the world by the intervention of that very same enemy. Anyway, the point I was making was that the embodiment of duality has been the description of the Red Goddess, not the Sun -- that's why it's weird for him to have Life and Death.

I will probably spend a silly amount of money on these.

If this is correct and not a typo, it's also weird for Yelm to have Life and Death -- as combining two opposing runes has heretofore been the ambit of the Red Goddess alone. The description does say that the cult is for Yu-Kargzant, rather than Yelm as worshipped in Dara Happa, but that makes me wonder why the cult wasn't just listed as Yu-Kargzant.

I'm think it's more the in-universe limitations on manufacture than it is deliberate antiquation. It looks to me like that Lunar coin has been nicked to proof the silver.

Should not Air be a mixture of Earth and Fire?

@Psullie That's good to hear. I guess my issues with the damage values are more about the principle of the thing and internal consistency. But if it works in practice then I suppose I shouldn't be too concerned.

That's my point: should the game define "max damage" (as you put it) as a critical hit, or as just a regular hit? How you are calibrating your results makes a big difference. I've never disagreed with the idea that a "solid" hit should take someone out of the fight -- see my posts above; I just think that a solid, instantly fight-ending hit should be a special or a critical. Otherwise, what's the point of even having them in the game? And, respectfully, I'd be interested to see the data backing up your statements about Runequest casualty rates matching historical records. I'm very well aware of both of those things. My point was that dismembering a human body is not as clean and not as easy as I think the movies make it seem -- not that it cannot be accomplished, nor that heavy damage to the body is immaterial.

What would it be, then? Red, blue, black, white?