Dissolv

Warhammer is very much "we are all inevitably doomed" kind of vibe, but Glorantha has actually had the magical apocalypse of Cthulhu level proportions. What you are gaming on is the world after that. The gods (via the Light bringer quest and Great Compromise), and the mortals (via I fought We Won) managed a last minute goal to continue existence, although it is much different than the world before Chaos was unleashed into it. The Great Compromise has been threatened, even possibly weakened several times before (Arkat/Gbaji, God Learners, and I suspect the Dragonewt assassination of the EWF's leadership was to block their failed dragonrise project into becoming something.....bad) The Lunar way, and the Hero Wars that it has sparked, are a threat to the fragile order of the cosmos -- or so says Orlanth. The goddess says there is a better way to live in harmony, but the Old Gods fear the end of the universe. Another key point to remember is that Chaos is in the world because of the selfish actions of the gods (and to a lesser extent, mortals). It doesn't necessarily want to be here, or even possibly, to be. Unlike Warhammer, it doesn't have its own realm to fall back to, and is not necessarily malevolent in the "I hate everything" kind of way. Wakboth certainly is, but Kajabor has been described as destructive simply because of what he is, not due to malice, if that makes sense. There are a number of official articles on Chaos, and the Guide to Glorantha Vol. II has one on p. 699. It is worth the price tag, and then some.

I hope everyone is having a good time and has warded off Malia successfully. I am using my time to knock out many of my backlogged projects. Today's completion is.....Pavis Survivors! These are from 1st Corp Picts, but Gripping Beast or most other manufacturers would do fine too. Picts were perfect because they are one of the very few figures that are non-medieval crossbowmen, had a kind of poor/desperate vibe, and a distinct lack of metal armor, and also small shields (ideal for those who have to raid the Garden to get quality wood!) The mounted and melee figures were 50/50 scale and chain, so I just fudged the mail as bronze. I really did not like the attachable hand options for the melee and cavalry figures. I took fairly extraordinary measures to attach them and do not trust them not to just break with normal handling during gaming, so that's something to think about, but I did also get a higher percentage of axes to use.

Literally any adventure that has desirable outcomes for dealing with spirits, or communities of people somehow bothered by spirits (or lack thereof) the shaman dominates over a Humakti. Now if you need something dead, especially something that really ought to be in the underworld in the first place, that's his wheelhouse. But the ability of a Humakti to deal with spirits extends only as far as his sword reach, and with really just one outcome. You *might* want the spirits of your bountiful garden slain and removed from the face of Glorantha, but more likely you want to have someone talk to them and find out why they are withholding their blessings.

Yeah, sorry if I wasn't clear. Most players focus heavily on preventing and recovering from physical damage. Heal 6 on multiple PC's, allied spirits, bound spirits, is just the start. Heal Area, Heal Body -- it all starts stacking up as you play. And of course there is always Divine Intervention. The nature of RQ combat is that while you want to avoid damage if you can, sometimes criticals happen (or ambushes -- always good to catch an enemy with no parry and not protective spells up). It can be very tough to "push" a group of experienced players running powerful adventurers, as they have so many tools for overcoming most situations. Poison can act as that curve ball that the players might not necessarily be ready for (at least once or twice), and it helps to underscore the severity of the encounter. By using it sparingly, it tends to preserve the dramatic impact, although Scorpion men tend to have a problem landing that sting attack, as it gets prioritized like nothing else. Elves from ambush with the poison arrow, on the other hand, is a lethal threat that so far none of my players ever were able to solve as a tactical problem. One group's solution was the burn as much of the forest as they could and bail. I learned from that, and my Garden elves in the Big Rubble are few in number but sporting various low grade poisons as a matter of course (8 seems a good number for not lethal but with serious consequences). That actually makes the region a complete no-go to a lot of players as soon as they hear the rumor. They'll mess with the trolls, rebel against the Lunars, purge the chaos pits, but step foot in not the Garden.

I get the impression that I typically run a lower power level campaign that you might be doing, so even a 12 point potency poison is a very serious setback for an unprepared player, or heck a whole party. They may win the fight, but are severely diminished for the next one. Very rarely, and only with significant foreshadowing, will I toss out a huge potency poison. (Unless as a plot hook, such as when the adventure is basically for the non-combat types to race to save the gas-poisoned Humakti. i.e. the medical drama mission). My usual gimmick is to keep such things in the back pocket to emphasize a greater threat, or willingness to be really nasty about it, in the case of blade venom, and then some of the adventure will revolve around trying to get some plant that is necessary to make more of the antidote or such.

I like that Poison is so deadly. It (and acid) gives the players something much worse than a nasty cut or broken bone to worry about. Thor died from poison after all, I'd want the players significantly tougher to do better. 😈 Or they can learn what the specific hazards of the monsters are via RP actions and/or skill checks so that they can be prepared, like a normal human would have to. 😉

You might be a bit too focused on the rules. They exact requirements will of course vary from cult to cult for one thing. More importantly they will vary with the vision of the Glorantha you are in. You have learn those rules, not so much the rule book rules, if that makes any sense. #1) The answer is to ask your gamemaster. I've never had a player ask to found a temple before, but you clearly need to have people worshiping there, or you really just founded a very large shrine with extra seating. So I would have the player go somewhere clearly lacking in said cult, have an adventure of some type (likely a fairly long and epic one), and show the people the worth of his chosen god, defeat/trick/overcome their foes/problems/anxieties, and then actually go through the process of physically founding the temple. Ideally this happens somewhat organically through play. #2) Same answer -- ask your game master how his Glorantha varies. But in mine that would be a very easy task in comparison, although as always, a shrine on the site of a great victory for that deity over *something* is 1000% better than some random statue to Zorak Zoran in the middle of a road for no reason.

Telmori. I went with a more basic brown rather than the traditional grey wolf. In some ways I was limited by figures on hand, but I like the sheer size of the GW Warg figures. The stone age humans are from the Cro magnons sold by Warlord games. Definitely a bit of a compromise, but hey, I've got Telmori for the table top, and the extra large size of the wolves convey's menace. These guys are a major problem in my current campaign. 🙂 I wouldn't mind seeing some of the more traditional "all wolf all the time" models, but this worked for me. https://store.warlordgames.com/products/cro-magnons-1?_pos=818&_sid=3782987af&_ss=r

I haven't had time to get to this, but rest assured, your work is both appreciated, and on my "to get" list. 🙂 Runequest used to be easy to run because of the little adventure hooks and rumors that were laying around the various works. Pendragon too, come to think of it. We need more "handy" adventures, and we need more Heroquests, so double good on you!

An interesting tactic that none of my players have ever employed. Scorpion men are generally dumb (low int), so I can totally see them failing to react by just withholding the sting attack and making a single weapon attack each turn until the PC gets out of his defensive huddle. They also tend to lack magic, so tend to lack a lot of options -- some some nice chaos features might give the strategy a very big problem, but again, only so many Scorpion men actually have a (beneficial) feature. On the other hand, they could easily all be sporting two handed weapons.

There was egregious use of aimed blows. My take is that your players are ready for "next level" challenges -- they are clearly pro's!

It does me actually. Usually Scorpion men are very effective in slowing down the big hitters just because of the sheer number of legs! They are notorious for it in my parts.

Super thanks for doing these -- I'm listening to them now, back to back.

My latest effort, The Lasdag Lions! I considered painting the lion noses black, but was concerned it might a bit off. Looking at the photos there is a 90% chance that I'll go back and touch those up. These are yet more Mad Knight figures, as I try to work through my backlog of them. They were surprisingly fun to paint, especially after the Axe Sisters, which seemed a bit of a chore for some reason. It is also nice to paint a unit that is well covered by the Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass work, and also isn't a heavy infantry unit.

The most logical path, to me, would be to reassemble the pieces of the devil. Obviously mortals would be doing this, as they are not bound by oaths not to be stupid. The Lunars could as well. Only the most insane and depraved would walk this path, however, as Wakboth would surely annihilate even his most devoted followers. Only the most powerful could even hope to try, and the would have the most to lose.......

The fun of Dorastor to me wasn't necessarily the end game pummeling thereof -- I mean that can be good, but there is a very, very long time in most campaigns before that is reached, and just learning about the horrors therein, and maybe experiencing some Cthuluthu-like mind boggling terrors can really change the attitudes and expectations of a mid-level party. So as a glimpse of the future, or the next level (or three) up the power chain, Dorastor is very much helpful for those players who thought they topped out at Rune Lord level...... And of course (riskland) is a heck of an adventure to deal with using higher end Initiate level characters. That is the kind of adventure that gets talked about for years.

I really enjoyed the Dorastor, Land of Doom supplement way back in the day, especially the Riskland campaign. Is there anything on the plate for a RQ:G edition supplement relating to either? Reprint, or new work, or anything really?

Sounds like a good way to get the Humakti to burn off some RP's. Once he gets enchanted iron though......ugh. One of the many, many reasons that I keep iron truly rare and hard won in my campaigns. To the OP, spirit combat is one of the last elements I normally introduce the players to. First an intro to physical combat mechanics, then I add in spells and organized opposition. When the bad guys start mixing in summoned creatures like elementals and various spirits, you are looking at a fully 3-D combat, so normally I hit them with a solo spirit guardian or two to get them used to the idea that spirit combat is a thing, and to make sure that they at least as aware of it as their characters ought to be. But some parties are just very two dimensional, with little in the way to spirit defense, even after this, and at some point some bad guy shaman or chaos hole unloads a massive spirit attack on them, and it gets ugly. Divine Intervention is normally the answer in that case. This is where layered defenses and lots of physical distance matters. Put some guardian spirits at the cave entrance to force attackers to burn RP and MP. Then some physical guards -- more RP and MP, and then after over 15 minutes have elapsed, another layer of the same will require even more RP and MP to force through it. I do remember that the Lunars used unpreparedness for a mass spiritual attack to crush the Sartarites at the battle of Grizzly Peak, so there is a learning moment here in the lore. Oh, and once I introduce the concept of spirit combat to the players, and they have encountered scenario clues that there are spirits or ghosts or such inhabiting a place, if they venture in there, it's on. This is the case I would absolutely allow a party wipe (although no reason they can't DI the group back from certain doom). The players knew the mechanic, were warned by the in game events/scenario clues, and went in under prepared. If I had failed to introduce spirit combat as a thing -- that would be on me as the GM. If the players are far from home they might not have the means to learn what to expect in whatever cave or ruins they are exploring, so one close call, or maybe a GM deus ex machina save is appropriate. But at some point the players should be aware of the nature of the game world and its risks, and this isn't like in 2nd and 3rd edition where you had to pre-spend your Rune points on Spirit Block. That's now a common spell so they should be able to run away and survive until they can work out some means of combating or otherwise quieting the spirits unless they were burning their RP willy nilly on Shield, Truesword, and Lightning. Which the priests of the enemy cults are hopefully trying to get them to do. End of the day, if the party is strong enough to have double digit RP's, stored pow, and maybe even some iron, it should be full on 3-D chess combat from the sophisticated opponents, and even some of this sort of thing from say, a Scorpion Queen, if that is their target.

@borbetomagnus That happened to me once before, when I copied the image directly from Google photos. The problem was invisible to me, as everything showed up on my end. This time I downloaded the photos, and then copied them from my OS. Do they work for you now?

Mad Knight Axe Sisters. The Cult of Babeester Gor has never made a significant appearance in my campaigns, but maybe now I'll think of something..... Three of them have managed to acquire some iron weapons and/or armor. Good luck if you have to fight Granny...

7th Day Adventists as well. However I think it may be more about what Bronze Age people did. Farmers did not work the soil like in an industrial setting. They don't "lose" crop time, or become less efficient if they have to participate in a duel, raid, or even a war. Sowing and harvesting seasons excepted, of course. And magic makes up the difference. Honestly, given the magic, a barbarian farmer in Sartar should have much better yields than a bronze age Celt. This can be negated by the dangerous problems that Glorantha poses to farm stead life, of course. But all of those things -- the extra time, extra food, and extra dangers just make it more important for a self defending community. The priests and lords lead the way of course, but there are only so many of them, so for the mundane problems, or the really big ones, the farmers will have to fight.

My Glorantha is violent and dangerous enough that there is expectation of loss. This is top to bottom. "Farmers" are not 100% protected, and have to defend their own, as well as be expected to help the community defend against problems, and also have duties during times of offensive action. Storm clan farmers have always been represented as rather violent and personally hardy folk, so mine are as well. Letterkenny is the proper example of how this works 😉 Bottom line is that I figure the PoW loss goes to things like DI and trading for one use Rune Magic, or possibly sacrificed back to the community/spirits/gods in some fashion. If you already have a 16 PoW, you might consider doing some spell trading for a Heal Body. Farms tend to be a very long distance from the local Priestess, and sometimes you need something *right now*. I also imagine that this innate magical power is a big part of what makes Sartar so capable of punching out of its weight class. Basically very high average magic, especially and particularly with the non-professional military class, and a culture and environment that creates a population used to war.

These are very surprising points of view to me. I mean, straight up Guide to Glorantha Vol.1, p. 9 and for military power, Guide to Glorantha Vol 1, p. 13 I'm not sure I agree with the "wealth = military victory". Nomads are typically quite poor and often ferocious. Barbarians ravaged ancient Rome (the city state), but even if you accept that premise, which tribe will be richer and how does it get and stay that way? So how does a tribe get wealth in peace time? Will it gain wealth in peace time better with fewer Issaries initiates, or more? My money is on the tribe with more followers of the trader god, as well as other gods that help crafting, farming, herding, and other wealth generating activities. What's the first thing you do in King of Dragon Pass game when you need wealth? Increase the size of the Issaries temple to allow/attract more worshipers. How does a tribe get wealth via warfare? Will it be more successful and gain more plunder with fewer war-cult followers, or more? Clearly more better. Besides the above quote from the Guide (which is repeated in the Arms and Armies of Dragon Pass p.6) there is again the visceral example of the two Glorantha video games. Having trouble with combat? Build up your Orlanth/Elmal temple is always the first answer. More followers, more combat power. Maybe you subscribe to the point of view that the Rune magic comes mainly from the Priests, but Priests have to come from a pool of Initiates, and which tribe is likely to have more Priests? Well honestly, all other things being equal, the one with more Initiates in the first place. Between these thoughts, and all the many publications where pretty much everyone is an Initiate, I have a hard time understanding the point of view that the majority of Glorantha theists are NOT initiated to some god or other. From the very beginning, Initiate status was a big deal. And not just for Rune spells. You also get Divine Intervention, limited access to Rune spells, of course, and: So the initiates are not just sporting Rune spells around. They also can be expected to pop Divine Interventions (think of it this way -- they negate 10% of the deaths in a battle. That's no small thing.), and they also have better skills and spirit magic too.

I was thinking more sociologically about it. Tribe 1 has a 10% initiation level. Tribe 2 is pretty much the same, but has a 50% (male population) Orlanth/Lightbringers initiation level. Who wins a raid? Who wins more and takes less casualties when they have to fight outsiders? Who consistently wins acclaim of the other tribes? Which males consistently attract and can keep the most desirable females? Which tribe is healthier and richer? Even if you invest in war magic, just one successful cattle raid can more than make up for the cost. There is no doubt in my mind that the higher magic tribe is just better. The 10% tithe and time are trivial compared to things like.....being powerful enough to survive. And a lot of times it isn't about direct conflict with Tribe 1. It is about being able to weather the bad events or deter them by being strong. Combine this with the fact that was always how the world was portrayed -- even Prince of Sartar leads off with the initiation ceremony -- and it's just solidly established that this is the case. Trying to say everyone is a lay member makes a LOT more sense without re-usable rune magic. But HQ:G changed the world. And yes, the mechanics of the universe are it's physics. That's one of the precise reasons why RQ has always been a better game that D&D. The latter is just more generic and abstract. RQ made more "sense" from a kenetic point of view. Having everyone live in this ultra-magic world and not take advantage of the cults -- and lets not forget the benefit of taught skills and spirit magic, not to mention sense of place, community, belonging is like me telling my kids not to go to college and not take advantage of grants and scholarships if they do. There is a clear way to get ahead in a theistic zone in Glorantha -- it is to join a cult. The only thing that we are debating is the appropriate level for a generic, non-encounter NPC. I say initiate of those that directly offer life improvements. Lay membership I would suggest is for the Orlanthi herder who wants to spend some time with the local Issaries traders. He will help out driving the wagons and protecting a caravan route, possibly. Or he may help in the market. Similarly a potter may have an interest in something that draws him to the Lhankhor Mhy cult. Either a cultural art type, or maybe historical events to portray, etc. He will spend some time cleaning up around the temple in exchange for knowledge and research time, but wouldn't join as a full time scholar. Basically I am seeing Lay membership in several cults, and initiation into one being a typical pattern. Which and how many depends on the culture, the lifestyle needs of the person involved, and how easy it is for them to manage the time and cost. As pointed out, I expect that the individuals would gain as much, or probably more than the "spend" on the cult up. Honestly I felt that was probably true prior to the Rune Magic change. After it....well......YGMV, but mine has a lot of initiates, because otherwise I am asking my players to accept that a ton of people are just leaving money on the table so to speak. What does make more sense is joining a non-warlike cult. And since I do try to portray the members and inhabitants in as much detail as possible, random farmers and stickpickers do appear a lot in my stories. Maybe not to go fight trolls, but combat is just one potential adventuring activity.

Being an initiate makes a ton more sense to me than a staying a lay member. Real life bronze age did not have a terribly high percentage of atheists, and in a magic-dense world like Glorantha it's just beyond obvious to have a very high number of people initiated and enjoying the benefits. You have a farming dispute with your neighbor, Carl. Carl follows Orlanth, and has 3 points of Rune magic. You are a lay member. A dispute over a girl, or perhaps (gasp!) a cow comes to blows. If Carl wants to win bad enough, he can call to Orlanth for 3 points of Shield, or Lightning, or perhaps a Thunderbolt. Or maybe fly away or Heal his Wound, whatever he knows. This is a decisive advantage over you, if you are even in other respects. Time to get to you next cult ceremony, if you don't want to be a second class citizen and be Carl's bi@$ forever. What does not make sense is a ton of initiates of "adventuring" deities. I am talking Humakt and Storm Bull here. These are super specialized and over represented among PCs compared to the general population. Most people should be Barntar or Yinkin, or Odalya if male, Ernalda, Eiritha or others, if female. Lots of choices, honestly, and even ancestor worship or spirit worship makes sense. Combat oriented initiates should be rarer in most societies than with PC groups, with THAT being the thing that really sets apart the Sartar Orlanthi. They should have a lot of generic male farmers who follow Orlanth, and with them comes an usually high amount of (collective) Rune magic for fighting. Because it is always an option. A more sensible or ordered society might encourage, or even enforce, the peasant types to follow non-dangerous religions, and restrict the following of war gods to a class of professional soldiers or even nobles. This is very different than the "all hands on deck" approach of the Sartarites, but even they need a broad mix of deities, even among combat age males. Issaries, Lhankhor Mhy, Argan Agar. These are not "combat" gods, but should have a measurable, although small, percent of the population. A civilized culture I would expect to have a broader mix of deities followed, again with probably a class or caste bias I would not expect from the Sartarites. But I would still expect just about everyone to be an initiate of some religion, or have a comparable alternative like ancestor worship. The disadvantages of not belonging are dire. Even if you are well protected from the many Gloranthan monsters and horrors, everyday life is just so much easier with a little bit of magic. Fix up your crops, heal your kids, cure grandma of her pneumonia.