Dissolv

A few more pics. The most joked about match up of the day, the Lasadag Lions versus the Pavis Survivors. Literally the lions versus the zebras.... The Yelmalian Pike were unstoppable. For as much grief that they get on the adventuring circuit, this was a welcome change of pace, and I think very much in line with what was envisioned by the lore, based on Dragon Pass/White Bear & Red Moon. More llama action... The fight for the Highlands was uneven. The Red Cow and other Jonstown Tribes were empowered by the Eleven Lights, while the Tarsh militia were low morale, with no special supporting magic, and they ultimately crumpled as soon as the Tarsh Furthest Foot gave way. Speaking of, this is the Tarsh Furthest putting up a valiant effort on behalf of Lunar Tarsh. They were ultimately swept from the field by the Power of Orlanth (with a little help from some Humakti Death Magic delivered via Two Pine), but our after analysis of the game showed that the Lunar wings, which had definite disadvantages in terms of magic and manpower, had enough moxie to but time for the center to grind straight through the middle of the field. Their tough fights ultimately won the day, even as they gave their lives for Empire. Such an analysis was necessary because with 12 foot tables, one side had no idea what was going on anywhere else!

I can post it here. It was really just normal TTS!, but with two changes. First, the unusual unit types and abilities had to be defined in TTS! terms. For the most part this was easy. Bison Riders always count as having lance, due to mass. High Llama riders have Lance, and also extra ammunition. Even the Black Horse troop was fairly easy to define within game rules -- Later Knights, Veteran, no Lance. The second change was to add the magic system. For the most part, Gloranthan magic works off of expendable resources, either mana (power), or favor of the Gods (Rune magic). To simulate this, I added a new chit type -- the magic token. The more magical units were given 1 magic chit, which they could spend on whatever their special power was, often just attacking slightly better, or negating hits in some way. Some units were better than others by design. For example the Orlanth skirmishers could spend a magic counter to make a missile attack that hits on a 6+. But the Thunder Delta Slingers were skirmishers that could spend a magic counter to hit automatically. They are just supposed to be better (but much fewer) in game lore. The very powerful units had 2 magic chits, and these generally had the best magic power, in addition to multiple chits to use it with. Again, by design. Note, you can also spend the magic to restore a hit against your unit. Some units were a bit better physically than magically, like the Yelmalian Pike units, others had very good but highly specialized magic, like the Bison Riders, and so on. In this game: Orlanthi Skirmishers -- 1 magic each, could expend to hit on a 6+, rather than an 8+ Telmori -- 1 magic, could spend it to transform. When transformed non-magic weapons required a redraw to hit against them. Beryl Phalanx -- 1 magic, could spent it to negate any damaging hit against them from a Storm tribe unit. Yelmalio Pike blocks -- 1 magic, Sunbright/Lightwall can spent it to negate any 1 hit against them Black Horse Troop -- 2 magic, could go on a Doom Run where for the next four full turns, they automatically hit. Then at the end they take one non-savable wound due to their riders souls being consumed by the steeds. Lasadag Lions -- 2 magic, on attack only, 1 magic gives both: Frightening Roar, opponent cannot fight back & Lion Shield Bite, make an extra attack Bison Rider Leader -- 2 magic, with 3 magic he can summon the Great Bison, which acts as a Knight unit, and automatically destroys any chaos, no roll to hit required. and so on. In addition the intrinsic powers of the various units, each army had a reservoir of power that they could use to do different things -- heal a unit, give a unit a magic counter from the reserves (to power its own ability), summon an entity of some type (usually elementals), or the big gun -- incarnate their primary deity on the field of battle. The Lunars had a zero cost power -- use the power of Chaos, but while this cost them nothing, it gave the Orlanthi players 2 magic tokens to reserve, as their god was most directly opposed to Chaos. There was never enough magic to do everything needful, and hard choices had to be made. I have attached the two OOBs, as which include a page on the magic available for each army commander. Lunar_OoB.odt Storm_Rebels.odt

AAR -- Lunars attack the Northern tribes. Today, the Lunar army attacked the Jonstown confederation plus allied Nomads, and other willing tribes in an attempt to avenge their loss at the battle of Dangerford, where the Eleven Lights were used with devastating effect. Lunar magicians had calculated when an attack might be made when the Skyfire magics could not be used at least, and so the Empire scraped up what they could, and attacked. The core rules set was To The Strongest!, with my own additional magic system for Glorantha. The table was 12 feet long, and supported 8 players. I couldn't get it all in a single picture! However the close end of the table (much of which is not seen), is hilly and forested. The far away end is mostly open, and that is where the cavalry forces clashed. The Lunars were the aggressors, and having the initiative, immediately attacked. Lunar Nobles starting position. By the end of the top of turn 1, they were right in the Rebels faces! Sir Ethilrist's Black Horse Troop was left far out on the left flank, and was facing a lot of bull. The Lunars cheated immediately, summoning a chaotic horror that devoured half the Pol Joni heavy cavalry. But the power of the Bull was summoned to the battle, and quickly put paid the threat. While the cavalry battle swirled, things were kicking off in the center of the field. This is where the Beryl Phalanx, Quartz Phalanx, Lasadag Lions, Thunder Delta Slingers, and deep pike blocks of Yelmalian mercenaries were pitted against a motley variety of Orlanthi tribes, the Telmori bodyguard, the Babeester Gor manslayers, and the Pavis survivors. The professional Lunar line was a major strength here, and the power of the Yelmish pike, and the Beryl Phalanx (who has anti-storm tribe magic) proved nearly unstoppable. In an attempt to shore up the line, the Telmori transformed, becoming nearly impossible hit without magic, which was being used by the bucket load, and was becoming an increasingly rare resource. But the Lunars, as they so often do, had the exact counter. Their general blew all the magic reserves in a single moment, and incarnated as Yanafal Tarnils, the Lunar God of War. His mighty power was pitted against the Telmori, and although taking serious wounds, he overcame the Orlanthi attempt to salvage the center. Meanwhile, the Tarsh Line had met with the Red Cow clan's warriors, as well as the more elite Two Pine Humakti. The going was slow due to the terrain, but here too, it looked like the superior equipment and training of the Tarshites might earn them a victory. It was not to be. Powered the magics of the Eleven Lights, the protected Orlanthi of the Red Cow shrugged off arrow after arrow as they closed on the enemy, at which point they pulled out their own magics, and incarnated Orlanth himself! Here he devastates all in front of him with Thunderbolts, and then turns to assist the tribes as they surge against the sheildwall of Lunar Tarsh. The Tarsh general was wounded by an Orlanthi hero at this time. The Tarsh line fought valiantly, but their militia already was low morale due to not wishing to fight against their kin. With Orlanth launching his mighty thunderbolts the Red Cow rallied, and the Humakti used their special magic of "Death", to eliminate another unit, causing the command to collapse. Who can blame them? But looking up from their flank's victory, they saw only defeat on the greater field. The Lunar cavalry had lost its general to the Pol Joni counter attack, true. And the High Llama tribe had proven its overall dominance, despite lacking access to their Praxian summons. But although battered, the Cavalry Corp had held long enough for the Lunar center to..... ....clear the field. (The Wyvern Riders had been sent to capture the Orlanthi camp) So although battered severely, the Lunars managed to break the Orlanthi rebels first, winning the field, and the day. I hope you guys enjoyed the AAR, I think my players did!

Pledged!

Not so fast! In fact my latest gaming session with the "old guard", was Paladin. They are a group of experienced RQ and Pendragon gamers, and they took to the mythology of Paladin easily, but also with an incredibly positive reaction. So far we have only run the first three years of the campaign, so I have -- as is my GM'ing style -- been setting up a lot of the cast and situations. First of course, they had to save the Pope from the combined Saracen/Dane alliance (the adventure of the Humble Squires), followed by the introduction to the yearly court intrigues, most specially dominated by the Frankish split between Charlemagne and his jealous brother, Carloman. This schism was made worse when their liege lord, Lord Thierry wound up in the Carloman camp. It took a while for them to realize that in this game, the Frankish nobles are frequently at odds with each other (and the big Roland vs. Oliver duel was foreshadowed, as well as the ominous potential for a catastrophic civil war between the Kings of the Franks). They sort of plowed through that, doing a garrison stint at la Roche before doing the adventure of the King Thief (from the Paladin adventures). The Ardennes was a rough time for the group, and nearly the entire group was majorly wounded by Ogres before they realized that the solution to that quest was not necessarily to battle their way through it. (They had been set up by unscrupulous locals who didn't like the land holding Knights). Then they turned back to Italy, to settle with crude Lombard knights who were denying trade to the Vatican, and spoke (un)surprisingly like guido's. After some marketplace hi-jinks they settled with the "it's only business" knights, asserting their Frankish might of arms against the locals on behalf of the Vatican. Now they are trying to wrap up whatever is causing the food shortage in Vatican City/Italy so that they can get back north and participate in some of the ugly wars of Saxon pacification that Charlemagne gets into. After all, one player already has holdings in Saxony..... Overall, the players enjoyed the heck out of it, despite my "Pendragon rust". Some of the minor differences in rules turned out to be pretty big, when you get to playing, but nothing that could slow down players who had gone through the entire Pendragon cycle -- twice. One thing that surprised them greatly was how all of the main Paladins are killed.......extremely early on in the cycle. Then they realized how much freedom that this gave them, and they started salivating over the possibilities. My preparation for playing the game was to skim the rules, especially character creation, listen to an audiobook Song of Roland, which is HIGHLY recommended. Nothing like a diplomatic exchange where Bishop Turpin strikes down an enemy knight emissary "because you have told a lie". Also the enthusiastic cries of "Montjoie!" are extremely catching. However, I have had to buckle down and really read the full chronology, as well as pick up a copy of Bulfinch's Mythology: Legends of Charlemagne. (And three hearts and three lions -- a must read!) There is vastly more material there than I had ever realized, and it does have a distinctly different flavor than the Arthurian cycle. The mobile nature of the Franks, and the fact that they have to rush around all over Europe, definitely has a bit of a "take on all comers" feel, as well as being nearly hopelessly outnumbered, so the tone is a lot more dire than with Arthur, who heroically raises the Bretons out of the Dark Ages. In Paladin, the players have to do the civilizing themselves, and by the sword, more often than not. It feels like the Franks themselves are on the knife's edge, and that only the valor and honor of the players can set Europe back to rights, with a new Roman Empire...only a more....Holy .... one, this time. God speed player Knights. Those berzerkers hit hard, and for some reason they keep rolling the Giant on the Battle encounter table. I have another session with the gang scheduled, and they are all pumped. Montjoie!

Full Moon Corp from Mad Knight! I emphasized the silver on these guys, because I have way too much bronze and red in my Glorantha figures at the moment. In theory this should make them stand out a bit when I get them worked into an army.

Well specifically -- putting aside a maturing play style as I grow older and wiser (and I DO still like me some hack and slash, with heroic triumph at the end, mind you), it comes back to the Heroquest. The whole point of the thing screams personal growth to me. If the players insist on role playing what comes down to a very powerful , but carefree magical warrior then they are basically playing Sigfried from the Ring Cycle -- minus the whole Brunhilde arc, which is pretty much the entire plot for that portion of the Cycle. Robbed of something meaningful to do, or something internal to overcome, it really comes down to something extremely mundane seeming. I think there is a very good reason Romeo and Juliet is the classic, while the thousands of "will they or won't they" Hallmark channel Romances are read once and forgotten. And that reason is that Romeo and Juliet makes you FEEL it. Deep down, and lasting. The emotional surge is the spice that elevates the RPG session/campaign to something they talk about for years. Just hacking down a bigger dragon is not. But without deeply emotional character dilemmas and even sometimes tragedy's, how can a GM draw that out of their game? I have run comedies (my Superworld is 100% slapstick), but I don't run Runequest that way. And it has seemed to me that in order to get the highs of emotions from the triumphs, I have to introduce the valleys as well. Hence the discussion on how other GM's handle this.

I can certainly understand that sometimes players might not want to be "plot railroaded", but killing one's family seems a bit.....extreme. This is the central point though. The GM can use the personal tragedy of the characters to push the plot along, but the players steadfastly refuse to care about the NPC's, and are 100% intolerant of their character having any sort of suffering as they game away the years....what then?

I got to thinking about the whole "Hero's Journey" thing that a good Heroquest ought to fulfill, and it occurred to me that my last couple of campaigns have had some quite serious events hit my player's characters. This is a LOT different than my early days 80's GMing, where the heroes more resembled Saturday morning cartoon heroes, who were confronted with external threats, which they then overcame. In my latest one: The Praxian nomad lost his favorite mount to a pack of Telmori wolves, and then later on a Heroquest to the Underworld fumbled his riding skill and failed to recognize his faithful steed, and thus missed his opportunity to bring her back. The Orlanthi hero lost his family -- twice. Once to the Bat upon roll up, but then a second time when the Windstop caused terrible losses to his clan. (Okay, his wife and child survived, but six other family members did not.) Pretty much everyone rolled up orphans -- the Blacksmith, the farmer, the scholar, the warrior. Only the Praxian had a fully intact family at the start of the campaign. The starting roll up very dominated how the players saw the world, which was huge since all players were new to Glorantha. Both of the in-game events were major factors in how the campaign turned out, and incredibly motivated the players into doing something risky that they were generally prone to avoid. In this case the Eleven Lights Heroquest, and finally fully committing to the rebellion. Do you guys have heroes who suffer losses, particularly personal ones that might sensibly drive a movie plot, for example?

This is news to me.🙂 Take heart! I certainly treat it that way, especially when miniatures purchasing and painting for Glorantha.

Hopefully no one got too carried away with my list. Lots of things are helpful, useful, and even excellent for Glorantha releases. Even more Prax and Pavis material, despite that fact that these are incredibly well covered already. The reason I would like "completed" RQ:G Sorcery rules is simply because I thought I had the Sorcery rules in RQ3, but there has been a significant reworking of the mechanics. Game Mechanics changes are not easily dealt with if a player wants to go down that route. IIRC I looked at Darkness Rune based sorcery some time ago, with the idea of making up a Muse Roost based sorcerer, and there just wasn't enough in the RQ:G book to do this. Again, from memory, something like 3 spells related to that rune or such. Since then it has been posted on this form that the rules are incomplete, and aimed at Dragon Pass sorcery users. Now I can make things up or plug in RQ3 Sorcery, but there is little chance that it matches whatever is being done in-house, so that's a problem for me. I totally lost track of which supplement this might be in, or how far out. I am assuming 2023 at best. The big "Boy King" type campaign book was announced already, so I knew it was in the works. I found the Pendragon campaign book astonishingly useful, nearly invaluable honestly. Something like that for the Hero Wars just takes off a huge burden as a GM. Heroquest rules are pretty much a meme at this point. However......as a GM, I think the main thing is to push meaningful character development. If you can pull this off, it is huuuuuuuge for the role playing experience. No rules or framework will replace this. The player(s) have to feel it. That's the important part, and the hard one. Help accomplishing this is of course welcome, but I've tempered my expectations. What I'm really looking for is "what the NPC's do" for Heroquests, if that makes sense. The PC's might do it a different way, and will face different challenges, but establishing Heroquests as part of the setting is what I basically want. That would include crossing over to the "other side", the different places they may go, different ways they might get there (including accidentally), and ideally -- how their relationship to the various gods might be changed. I don't like that my players often define themselves by the Rune spells that they have, and once they hit Rune level, I like to use Heroquests as an opportunity for the player to define the character as more than a "devoted worshipper of this god or another", and to really come into their own as a Hero. I don't have current plans to run a campaign in the West, or Pamaltea, or the Eastern Isles, or Kralorela, but these remain interesting places that are ripe for adventure, among others. And they just provide a unique, non-Dragon Pass/Prax point of view on things that sometimes helps a lot. Really a content creator with a passion for a place is far superior than a "connect-the-dots" type coverage of various locals. And I DO want the Lunar Empire, and Lunar Tarsh covered before more further afield. And let's not forget Muse Roost and that fun little mercenary company, either. 🙂

I thought that part of the compromise was to sort of freeze things the way they played out in the Gods War. Darkness had an iron grip on Dagori Inkarth, so they retained extra power there during Time.

Sorcery rules, Heroquest framework(s), Larger scale, Ritual magic (wyters and up) rules, A few more settings (Western lands, Eastern Isles, Pamaltea locations), The big Hero Wars campaign book And I think I am good to go. Everything else has enough out there that I can wing it in what appears to be a lore-friendly manner. I've already come around to the belief that a Heroquest must be personally transformative to the character (and the player!) to be a true Heroquest, so that makes it a very locally manged thing to pull off. But deeper Glorantha lore for the process is always welcome. Actually, everything is welcome! I am simply pointing out the hard blocks for my efforts at running a campaign where any element introduced may wind up greatly retconned later. Not so much a problem with the plot, but a real annoyance with rule mechanics. Sometimes a headache when trying to portray the more powerful, but still human entities as well.

I would definitely put these in Pamaltela. Not sure why, just an intuitive feeling for it.

I like this idea a lot. Of course you can always have untrained fighters just hold the shield over left arm, chest, and possibly more if if the shield is large enough) for melee attacks as well as missiles. That should honestly cover the concept of a shield being good even without a lot of training, and would use an existing rule. But honestly a slightly higher parry for a shield is not at all unreasonable. Remember that larger shields are generally wooden in construction, you really can't make a large metal shield and wield it with your non-dominant hand for an extended period of time. Just too heavy. For the OP, parrying with a spear or axe is abstracted. Mechanically you would be stop thrusting with the spear and weaving a figure eight type pattern with the axe, making it too dangerous for the opponent to step in with his attack, and interfering with his lines of attack. With a shield you block. With a sword you parry. But in Runequest you get all of that under a single skill. It doesn't really deserve a huge penalty. I would suggest mixing up weapon hit points quite a bit, however. A good smith should make better quality weapons and shields by a point or two, and worn equipment should have quite a few dings in it. Even a repair spell can't fully restore all the hit points of a damaged weapon. Shields being disposable damage eaters was a running theme is my last campaign, as no one's medium shield returned fully intact, ever, from any adventure. However parrying with the swords got to be expensive, and when an iron sword was nicked up a couple of times during emergency parry situations, the permanently lost hit points were savage. The player vowed to fight to the last wooden shield before he parried with his superior iron Kopis again. Also -- dodge is a thing. Real high end adventures learn to dodge at high levels, not just parry. Parry is for things that do reasonable levels of damage, dodge is for when something really Gloranthan tries to step on you. 1H Axe + dodge as the defensive skill seems pretty reasonable to me for a RL fighting style. American Indian with a Tomahawk, for instance. Not exactly something to beat the Romans with, but it "makes sense". 1h Spear should always be 2H spear if you've got nothing in the other hand. If injured, then you use your footwork and fight like it's a wooden rapier.

Pained up these Fireforge Byzantines to be Dunstop Foot. They are a little heavily armored and the thunderbolts might demonstrate disloyalty to the Empire, except for the Lunar red color. The shields gave me the most trouble, and ultimately I just cut up some Veni Vidi Veci decals and did the best I could with them. I also used the Fireforge Byzantine Auxiliaries box to get some Thunder Delta Slingers. Extremely simple paint job, but gets the job done.

A good question! Maybe the only real one out of all the incessant complaining. Yelmalio is definitely a crippled god and what he can offer the player is "incomplete" because of that. However that gives a lot of character and role playing opportunities. He is the last god standing from the Great Darkness and has the pride of having made it while other gods ran away or died. He also has the scars. I have two kinds of players that run Yelmalians, one that wants a god that kicks butt for them and are unhappy with him, and the other who leans into the experience, and is sustained by the lore, and then later the challenge. But really, there is actually only one mechanical disadvantage to following Yelmalio -- you don't get Magic to help you kill things. That's it. For Rune magic you lack a "super buff" spell, like Sword Trance or True Axe. You also lose out on the spirit spells of Fire Arrow and Fireblade, which can be a real annoyance, especially for archers. Lack of outright damage is really the only weakness that this cult has that the player will need to overcome through play. Yelmalio actually comes from different cultures. Everyone tries to be a heavily armored "Hoplite" Sun Domer type, but you can also be from the Auxiliary class, some of whom are quite interesting skills and culture wise. This would make them more like a skirmisher, or ranger, or even horse archer. Check out the excellent Jonstown Compendium work: The Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass, p. 135 for details. Depending on where you are from, you might be a Peltast, archer (Cretan archer style), Bison Rider or other Praxian, horse archer, Charioteer, or "Saird Bowman". This option is very appealing as gives a lot of freedom to the player as they are not part of the rigid temple hierarchy, plus it sets up a fun role playing dynamic where the auxiliaries are not well appreciated by the haughty Templars whom they loyally serve. The player I'd been talking about from my Eleven Lights campaign was a Sable Rider auxilliary, and it worked great. First advantage: The character comes from a culture that teaches you how to fight. In my Glorantha, the Yelmalians emphasize personal skills, and the spirit magic spells: Lantern, Lightwall, Bladesharp, Speedart, Dispel Magic, and Shimmer. Lightwall in particular is incredibly powerful if you can keep your friends on the side that can see the other guys, and also keep the enemy on the side who can't see you. Obviously easier in a mass combat situation with ordered ranks and pre-defined commands for stepping forward in unison. But multiples of these spells should absolutely cripple the enemy front rank trying to parry/dodge all of those pikes. I do play this as a -75%. Shimmer adds to that effect, and also helps the auxiliaries as they skirmish around with low armor. Bladesharp is the only option for punching through armor, so is absolutely mandatory. Speedart is in the same boat. Sometimes the skill boost makes a big difference, particularly for Bladesharp. The difference is more pronounced between NPCs. Orlanthi will show up with an eclectic assortment of spirit spells and weapons, while the Yelmalians will show up with identical gear and magic, and an organized plan for how to use them to win. "Hero" Orlanthi are more powerful than "Hero" Yelmalians, but they have to be. Rank and file Yelmalians stomp all over rank and file Orlanthi. When you get into the individualized world of adventuring, the PC Yelmalians should be warned that they are about to lose the advantages that they have enjoyed during "Temple duty". But Yelmalio has key spells that allow the PC to get out there and quest. Offensively: Nada. Yelmalio lost these powers. Defensively: Shield -- if in fact being added back, is a big one. It is straight up a boost to survival. Heal Body -- the very best heal in the game, and a critical spell to have in your back pocket if you are intent on tangling with the true nasties of Glorantha. Utility: These revolve around Night Fighting, or at any time when darkness would be a major problem (and at -75%, it should be!) Catseye is the dominant spell here. Any kind of night marches, cave crawling, night fighting, battles with trolls -- this is the premier spell. It wipes out the -75% penalty, allowing the Yelmalian to function in nearly complete darkness. So those Praxian nomads that you made fun of for following Yelmalio just come back at night and raid you with impunity. The Broos you are hunting retreated to some natural cave formation? Yelmalio to the rescue. Trolls attacking at night? No problem. Catseye + Lightwall and they will be running for the hills in no time. Sunbright is the brute force method for accomplishing daylight whenever, or where ever, but unlike the 12 hour long duration Catseye, it really wants a few points of extension whenever it is used. Has a very strong anti-Undead bonus feature as well, and serves as a massive beacon in the night, allowing others to find you when that is desired. Honestly a skilled Yelmalian player, in a world where the GM regularly imposes darkness penalties instead of always having a super bright moon and luminous lichen in every cave, should utterly own the darkness, commando style. This is particularly impressive in the hands of a culturally "auxiliary" Yelmalian, as they tend to have stealth and wilderness skills to back it up. And once the players realize that these conditions exist "for real", they will start to aggressively take advantage of it. Get ready for even more night adventures -- because the players will lean into any perceived advantage, and -75% is as big of one as you can hope for. Other key spells: Dismiss Magic. If the other guy has the same Rune points that you do, but more dangerous war magic, then use your points to knock his down. Our Lhankhor Mhy player did this the most, but for Yelmalio you need to sometimes need get rid of an enemy Shield spell, as even a Shield 2 will often be too much for you to penetrate. If you have an allied spirit, always have it knocking down your opponent's magics with Dispel Magics. It makes a huge difference given that you are fighting with a spear that is at best, enhanced with Bladesharp. As a rule, unlike other gods where you buff buff buff, with Yelmalio you are always trying to tear the combat down to the base character sheet in Rune level vs. Rune level combat. Finally, my Yelmalian player was able to use Warding spells a couple of times to make a defensive stand, then impede the enemy vision with the Lightwall gambit (which gets dispelled, because it is annoying) to get the enemy to blunder into a Warding 4. It turns out Warding is magical damage, and works just fine against Telmori....... So for the GM to help a Yelmalian player feel meaningful -- 1) Help and association from their community. That likely means a bit of extra training before being thrown "out there" with the barbarians, specifically spirit magic, and/or possibly a mechanical review of how the game system works if the players are new. It should also mean that they might formally request aid if working towards a cult aim, and might be able to draw on some auxiliaries. The Temple community should be aware of their member "out there" trying to do something and should assist at times, unless the player has gone rogue or is exiled, or something like that. 2) Enforce Darkness penalties. I cannot emphasize this enough. Glorantha has a rich night time environment, and the only human adventurers who can seamlessly fit into it are the Yelmalians. They are also the only ones who are likely to be able to tit-for-tat enemies that use darkness magic against the party. Commanding the power of light is much more meaningful if you have to contend with both the natural cycle of darkness, as well as enemies who try to actively use it against you. And lets not forget caves. Those are insanely dark, even with torches. Even outside of combat, being able to march and track and hunt game at night is a massive advantage in a three dimensional campaign. If your campaign never has bad weather, always has brightly lit caves, never has tactical obstacles like streams and cliffs to contend with during a "fight", then fix that right away. Get your players off of well manicured golf greens! Go for a hike and see what the world is like away up in the hills and forests. Imagine how six warriors might fight on the trails and lands you are crossing. Then look at the same places at night. Somehow they are very different places! Bronze age man doesn't have electric torches to combat the dark. How do you think a combat would go, at night, at the place that you see, against enemies that can see in the dark, like trolls, or a lot of chaos? Envision again, the difference maker that one warrior might make with a Sunbright in the darkness. Then a lightwall to blind the savage chaos creatures. Man needs Yelmalio for those situations. Badly. 3) Play up the different than normal cult associations. Elves and Dryads favor Yelmalio worshippers. Ernalda is friendly to them as well (useful for the "in" with the Orlanthi types), and of course there is the whole Solar pantheon. This can be extremely important if diplomacy and court intrigue sessions are being employed. And they should be! It shouldn't all be monster bashing. Frankly there is nothing Yelmalio cannot do that any other fighting cult can do in those sorts of situations. 4) Finally, as the players grow in power give the Yelmalian an opportunity to earn something, hopefully via Heroquest or great sacrificial deed. You can help him lean into his strengths (permanent Catseye maybe?) but most players by that time will be looking for more damage. The Hill of Gold is one of the few published heroquests and is something your players could try to steal back some of Yelmalio's lost power. Other Heroquest rewards might help (extra impale damage, greater strength for a bigger damage bonus, extra chance to critical) A more simple route to "fixing" a player following this cult at the higher levels of play is through the acquisition of magic items. Fallen Star in the Jonstown Compendium: Treasures of Glorantha is one way to go about this. I have the expectation that all players will seek out magic items anyway. That's it, happy Yelmalio-ing!

Lhankhor Mhy and Issaries are consistently the most powerful cults in my campaigns. Players who gravitate towards them are likely the cause, as these tend to be the mature role players, but these are the cults that consistently prove to be the problem solvers and scenario resolvers that move my campaign arcs forward. Every now and again I get a well played shaman, and they are amazing in the hands of an active player, who isn't just scanning his sheet for things with more "d6 damage" on them. Sorcerers are even more rare, and even more potentially impactful, in all manner of ways that are hard to predict. However RQ:G Sorcery just isn't complete, from a player or GM's point of view. In terms of raw combat power -- which is where this conversation immediately headed -- frankly most of my better role players see them as fairly interchangeable, if not generic. Clearly, they are not, but it is the role of heroic combat, which I do fancy as part of bronze age role playing that matters, not the precise mechanics. The adult role players in the room appreciate the role, and will sometimes take on the role, but generally don't seem to have a preference for whichever flavor is preferred by the player(s) taking on that role. One group I GM has a Humakt duck, who is probably hands down the most powerful in combat (if his Rune points hold out), but when push comes to shove the group prefers mass buffing a Storm Bull worshiper and letting him go to town. We have had two combats with RQ:G where a Storm Bull was so massively buffed by the rest of the party that they literally could not physically keep pace with his berserk rampage to keep within spell support distance (and eyesight). It was like watching a Hero counter from White Bear and Red Moon go to work. This feels thematic and clearly provides the role of "combat machine" that some heavy combat scenarios call for. But my experienced players do not achieve this by the power of a single cult. They dump the best of everything onto one guy, support him strongly with heals and dispels as needed, and make do with spirit magic themselves. My other, less experienced group used Orlanth for the "heavy combat" role, and it was devastating to the bad guys. However the player saw no reason to fight fair, and would commonly use stealth, missile ambush, night attacks, and the movement powers for tactical advantage. When it came time for melee, he was no slouch, but typically he had already worked hard to give himself every possible advantage. This suited that group much more than a straight up do-or-die honorable Humakti. Several times that character was saved from death by a key Dismiss Magic or Spirit Block at a critical moment (Lhankhor Mhy player) or a Heal Body to get back into the fight after he had just been trounced (Yelmalio Sable Rider player). Note that this group also had an Orlanth farmer, who just never was a combat powerhouse. He struggled the whole campaign and while able to contribute quite a lot (especially to the plot), but he never achieved the power level that the Orlanth Warrior did by the end. Combination of background, stats, cripplingly low Pow, and switching weapon sets mid stream. But neither was he ever expected to be a super-tank. He was a farmer who was motivated in helping the rebellion. That's what he role played, and he did very well at it. Combat is not a casual thing in this game -- or you are doing it wrong. Even Achilles gets killed in the end. The Lhankhor Mhy and Issaries advantage (and likely some other cults as well) have the advantage of "winning" multiple potential combat encounters via other methods, bypassing the contest of runes and swords, and advancing the plot without taking unnecessary risks, and burning unnecessary rune and power points. This is HUGE in a campaign set up to (potentially) have multiple "adventures" in between rune point recovery sessions, which I think is the superior way to play the game as it stands. Because combat is not casual, players who lean on their Rune spells and character sheets to "out Rune" the other guys should eventually come to a heroic end. 25 point acid blood on that Broo, crippling disease caught in the wilds, a party of Yanfal Tarnils advocates backed by Red Goddess support, looking to prove who is best, Trolls with overwhelming waves of undead and trollkin, Nomad who ride around and wait out the party Rune magic, ambushing Exiles who strike, fully buffed, when the party is unaware of the danger.....these are how those sort of players should go down in (heroic) flames. It is the clever players who work the scenario and the campaign to avoid such events, (or be on the right side of them!) as much as possible, who thrive. Even in combat, clever play is vastly superior to a stacked character sheet.

Yes. In this way Humakt and Yelmalio are equal to the core of gameplay. Tactically, Yelmalio has two key Runespells involving light. Catseye allows the player(s) to function normally in extreme dark conditions. So you have an automatic edge at night fighting, troll fighting, and even cave fighting, if it comes to it. This is a 1 point spell that lasts for 12 hours and negate a -75% modifier that should be in effect frequently. (RQ:G p. 224). If all of your caves are magically lit for convenience, and every fight happens at high noon, and there are no night encounters with ghouls, then yes, I can see this being an overlooked advantage. In my most recently concluded campaign, the players abused the heck out of this spell to do all manner of things, from stealing cattle to being Thunder Rebels, to dealing with Trolls (by various means), and managing underground with minimal light (single torch, whole party). If you play in an actual environment, rather than an octagon, this spell is huge. They frequently would combine this with Darkwalk for massively unfair advantages at night. The other is Sunbright. THis is 2 points, and fixes everything "wrong" with nighttime in a 60 meter radius. It burns off darkness elementals, gives a minor shimmer effect, and hammers undead attack % into the ground. Not as subtle, but again, super important situationally. Saw a lot of action in the Woods of the Dead. A demoralized ghoul at an additional -10% on top of that is going to struggle, it turns out. The final big gun is from an associate cult. Heal Body. This is the best healing magic in the game, hands down and bar none. It was used by my PC to suck up massive critical hits (Big Club the giant), and just put himself right back together again. This is very in line with the cult as portrayed in Dragon Pass, and gave the character tremendous staying power. He also saved other PC's with it time and again. So for combat, Yelmalio is a specialized night fighter. He provides no offensive magics at all, but, if he really does get Shield back (which I think is appropriate and thematic), then he is a reasonable mid-tier warrior god to follow. Lots of defense, negates the most common and annoying environmental modifier, and the PC can either use the night to his advantage (Catseye) or turn it off altogether (Sunbright). With Shield and Heal Body, a PC would be set for everything except offensive magic, and so is looking to win a grindfest type combat. I would armor up, try to learn a high level bladesharp, and lean on Dispel Magic to knock down enemy super spells. Shimmer might be the preferred defensive spirit spell, as you can stack that with Lightwall -- which I could not find a precise rule for being "visually impenetrable" for at quick glance. I've previously applied up to the -75% penalty, but this was for stacked lightwalls being moved in front of a phalanx. So that's what Yelmalio does. It isn't as strong as what Humakt or Babeester Gor gives you in terms of raw, easy to use power. However...... what he does have to offer is tremendously dependent on the GM to actually have things happen at night, or at least in the dark. Humakt might have better killing magic, but if the Humakt PC is perpetually at -75%, then it is going to suck for him no matter his Rune Spell selection. If the GM has every combat encounter on a sunny day, at high noon, or the trolls never bother to use darkness spells then sure, a Yelmalio PC has just been robbed of the advantages that he even does bring to the table in a combat scenario. In my mind this is the biggest hurdle to the Yelmalio, or Waha following PC. There is a dependence on the GM to deliver a world in which the advantages offered are actually exploitable. Having an opponent to fight with swords is a cornerstone of the genre. It is going to happen. No work on the part of the GM nor the player is necessary to make spells like Truesword or Sever Spirit useful. But RG:G is supposed to be broader and better than a video game, and over Covid I did in fact see a capable, if new, player use the advantages that Yelmalio has to offer in useful and creative ways. In some ways that character shaped the campaign because once the players realized the advantage they had at night, Rebelling became so much easier for them. So my take, as a GM is that Yelmalio is tactically okay, and strategically very powerful. The player does have an offensive handicap, but also gains a lot of power over night encounters, and can be quite strong defensively.

I have noticed that tend to kill my PC's thusly: 1) Too green to make it death. Normally I am pretty lenient with new characters but sometimes they just can't get out of their own way, and there are only so many dues ex machnina's in the bag. Pretty rare, especially with RQ:G dramatically upping the power of the PC's. 2) Stupid choice death. Sometimes the players are strongly warned, or just have a very, very, very bad idea and won't get away from it. This is sometimes a case of daring big, but more often a complete mental lapse on the part of the player. I let the dice fall where they may when the player is voluntarily executing a non-scenario driven "bad idea". Sometimes they work out and the newbie thief makes off with the crown jewels, but more often than not, they overreach and get killed. This is more a case of non intervention as a GM than actively killing them. They do that themselves. 3) PC level NPC's. Some power or important NPCs, especially antagonists, I run as if they were my own PCs in terms of attempting to win/do sensible things with the tools on the character sheets. The Lunar Coders I would run this way, for instance. If a player tangles with these sorts, they have generally been well introduced and understood by the story, and the player knows that they are tangling with not merely a powerful adversary, but an intelligent one. The dice fall where they may. I have noticed that my players tend to win these encounters, possibly due to their advantage of focus on a single character versus my global spread as a GM. But they do not always prevail. 4) The noble death. The rarest of all. Sometimes it is time for a PC to go out Viking style. Typically this is sort of understood, or even initiated by the PC as a way to wrap up the storyline. They might do the self sacrifice play, or they might want to dramatically conclude their time with the character. Always very moving, and in some ways refreshing. Most PC's cling to their character with everything they've got, then they sort of retire, unplayed.

Both Waha and Yelmalio have proven perfectly viable gods for my PC followers over the years. This is from the point of view of being able to assist or generate a narrative, have a cultural story to tell, and sometimes even a mystery to solve (I used the Elmal/Yelmalio thing as a hook for a Lhankor Mhy player to go after.) There is also no denying that in terms of straight up killing things, neither of these assist especially greatly with that most typical of heroic activities. There is a narrative hook there as well: "follow your god's example and learn to do things yourself rather than calling on cosmic powers to resolve petty feuds all the time." A couple of decades ago, I would have agreed that these are simply sub standard gods to choose for an adventurer who plans to head into the deepest dankest places and slaughter all that he finds. And honestly they still probably are. But these days, older and perhaps a touch wiser, the story told is more important that dredging the last ounce of power out of a game mechanic. The deep dank cave is a setting of the adventure, and not the end goal. It is also not the only place of high drama that the PC's should have to face. "There is a always another way". This does require that the GM flesh out the friendly NPC's to not just all be a bunch of mooks who stand around with arrows over their heads, handing out quests that they cannot hope to accomplish. If a chaos nest is too powerful for five random adventurers to defeat, as most should be, then why is it wrong to shift the focus of the adventure towards problem solving, to free up the local warlords and heroes from their own trials in order to marshal them for the challenge? Plus there is a inevitable law of the PC power ratio. The greater the PC, the greater the challenge. I don't mind having a party with a heavy hitter Humakt or Orlanth powerhouse, mixed with "mid range" Waha or Yelmalio fighters, and even "low intensity" combatants that follow Issaries or Lhankor Mhy. The way it inevitably shakes out is that the super combat PC gets to fight the Rune baddy, while the other PC's face the lieutenants and scrubs. After all, the primary difference between say, a Yelmalio initiate and a Humakt devotee is normally just the Rune magic. Both should have good armor, weapons, skills, and battle magic after even a few adventures. There should also be the NPC intelligent reaction factor. The guy covered in death runes who just made his bronze sword into a light sabre should get the royal treatment. Dispel, disrupt, dullblade, javelin volley, Sunspear, whatever the NPC's have got. The Yelmalio cultist should only have to face whatever is left over after that, in such a mixed party of Hercules and the Argonauts. If Hercules only has to face the same challenges as Acastus, then the GM is doing something very wrong. In summary: the disparity in combat power is real. But it doesn't get in the way of a role playing experience if the players want that. If they only want hack and slash, then yes, they are better served in other ways. Although I greatly support Yelmalio getting back the Shield spell. 🙂

Waha picked up Shield in RQ:G. He also has Summon spirit of Law and Axis Mundi, which are role-playing wise extremely powerful. Alter Creature might be a way to make an intelligent Bison or High Llama friend, which might be powerful, longer term. The problem with Waha is the same one as with Yelmalio. Yelmalio is a war god who lacks any war magic, and Waha is the god of Nomad/Desert survival who lacks any magic for actually surviving extreme conditions. Both cults would be majorly improved with one spell that helps them do something that they are nominally touted as providing via mundane means. Yelmalio has the Phalanx formation, and Waha has....I guess Nomad culture? Both Yelmalio and Waha depend greatly on the GM to put the players into situations where the cult spells matter. In my last campaign the ability of the Yelmalio cultist to function as if it were day, either through Catseye or Sunbright was a major factor in a large number of situations, including combat. He was a nomad, so didn't even get the pike as an option for duration of the campaign, although he did adopt armor. Had he gone Waha, he would have had a great deal of trouble with the Sartar portions of the campaign. However he would at least have had the Shield spell for immediate combat needs. Neither of these deities really stack up to the combat power houses (Humakt, Babeester Gor) or Orlanth, the do-it-all god for adventurers. But if you are in the campaign where the cultural ties and abilities matter more than how much hurt you can bring with 18 points of Rune Magic, those two gods are perfectly fine, even desirable. They just don't provide the worshiper the raw power that most players crave. Fight more at night. (or in the Great Darkness via Heroquesting!) Quest in the desert more. Those are my takes and solutions to Sever Spirit envy.

1) Foreshadow, foreshadow, foreshadow. There should be recognizable themes that build upon each other starting from the moment the players roll up the characters. It can be anything from the impact of a bad ruler, to the importance of the weakest and least noticeable members of society, to the inevitable fall of the mighty (trollkin kill, yo). I find that I don't have to stick these in deliberately. It is more running with the source material and then paying attention to the tapestry that is woven. Some things should start to feel inevitable (that Humakt badass NPC is going to get skewered by those trollkin, isn't he?), but a true hero can subvert the seemingly fated events. 2) Have the players rise through the social ranks. They can start (briefly, if you wish) as mere shield bearers or even farmers, but the roles they play as 2nd fiddle to the more capable members of their society will help them relate to the role that they play when the move into the limelight. If the players are very powerful to start, then a flashback adventure, or coming of age prequel adventure, such as Six Seasons in Sartar, really help set the stage. Remember that everyone, weak or strong, has a story, and your world will be a lot richer. 3) NPC's should be intelligent, and active. In combat they should be trying to do something other than robotically marching forward into melee combat, where they exchange blows until defeated. That's video game stuff. Actual RPG's should have wily bandits, soldiers who regularly cast battle magic en masse, mighty heroes blessed by the gods (or one of them), who run as if a PC was working them behind the scenes, even cowardly or dastardly foes. And they should rarely be alone, if they are that important. Applied these ideas to combat and you will quickly get somewhere. I can get more detailed if desired. I"m very sure I have older posts that touch on this topic as well.

New Kickstarter from Mad Knight -- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madknight/skybull-hero-lunar-lancers-newtlings-and-more/ This one is huge. The newtlings are great and all. And the Skybull with Rider, the Thunder Rebels, Lunar female archers.....all good. But the big ticket item is HERE. SABLES!!!!!! The Riders are Lunars, but I expect to get more than one set and replace some with more Praxian looking Riders.

This was a big part of my Orlanthi Runelord player's game in my Eleven Lights RQG campaign that was run over covid lockdown. The big thing that we quickly realized is that almost no one goes outside at night without a light source, or stands around on guard duty at night without a light source nearby. Typically this is just a fire pit type thing, but Darkwalk is both amazingly powerful and amazingly fragile. Any light magic just blows it away, and I ruled that even a torch (in the very small radius) would remove the shadow, at least from a human sized area. This still allowed the spell to be amazing (Orlanthi rebels ruled the night!), but also short lived. This worked out well for everybody, and there were no arguments or disappointments, so I think it was a great tool for RP and tactical purposes, while also not allowing an "Improved Invisibility" type slaughter with a game mechanics set that really (and realistically) punishes fighters that cannot see the opponent. Sophisticated opponents tended to have light spells, Trolls have Darksense and other means to detect things in shadows (plus they greatly respect the warrior that attacks from the shadows), but even the lowest caliber humans will use fire at night, or at least retreat inside a domicile at night.