Dissolv

A lot of us are -- but with many caveats. In practice, the PC's don't die very often. They are defeated, ransomed, or (especially) driven away fairly frequently though. Irrevocable PC deaths tend to happen in one of a very few ways, in my experience (by which I mean in my campaigns) -- Beginning character not good enough death. This isn't nearly as common with RQ:G, but the first few sessions often sees a baboon with a rock or a rubble runner kill a player who just can't get out of his own way. In RQ2 days, it was possible to go an entire meeting without successfully rolling your weapon skill once. Now it is possible to start with a 90% weapon skill even for non-warriors. RQ:G characters are just way better on creation, so let's push past this one. Player makes a stupid decision death. You know, the classic "while I am stealing the McGuffin from Fazzur Wideread's tent anyway, I may as well attempt an assassination while I am here." In this case the player has chosen to voluntarily do something extraordinarily risky, or even foolhardy which was easily avoidable. No punches are pulled in cases like these and I show no mercy. Sometimes it plays out in the PC's favor, but in cases like these I run the NPCs as if they were my PC's, if that makes any sense. They try to win, and they try damn hard using everything they have at their disposal. If the player beats that, great! If not......also great. Live free, ride fast, and leave a great looking corpse. Epic dramatic encounters death. If you build up to the climactic finale, and it winds up being a duel, not unlike Arkat versus Gbaji, then it should be patently clear to everyone that the NPC is again being run in "PC mode" and as a GM I throw the whole weight of the villain at the players. These are times when the players don't have any plot armor, and tend to be facing a foe who is extremely dangerous relative to their power levels. Sometimes there are consequences for daring all. "Don't do it Ralzakark! I have the higher ground!" Normally the players will win out, of course, but sometimes they lose a hero along the way. This is how the majority of my Rune Levels seem to bite it. But these are usually good deaths, in that they move the narrative, and are seen as a worthy end to an old friend. You are a Humakti. Every day you are dicing with death, and then the end comes.....that's it. However this doesn't mean that the PC's are croaking left and right like in a Call of Cthulhu game, or heaven help you -- a Hawkmoon game /shivers. It does mean that the PC's don't enjoy a large (game) mechanical advantage over their opponents, and in fact may be outgunned in a straight fight. A PC starts out about as good, or a bit better than how I portray an elite Lunar solider, for example. If a situation came about where there was a one on one between them early in the campaign, the Lunar elite may very well prevail. But that doesn't mean that the PC has to die. Again, capture, ransom, healing magic galore, or social considerations may stay the hand of the solider. If the PC is rudely provoking the Lunar, then he might kill the defeated PC for honor's sake. Or he might levy a nasty fine against his clan and kin instead. This is driven by the circumstances of the story, not the fact that the loser is a PC. If the player really pushes for lethal combat, he gets lethal combat. He doesn't get one-way violence where there is only win, win, win. That takes away from the aliveness and authenticity of the world, and even if true, is a truth that must be buried deep beneath the fiction of risk. I mean The Walking Dead was one heck of a lethal show. But Rick Grimes wasn't going to die anytime soon. You knew that, yet you still felt for the character's troubles. Role playing in Glorantha is best done like that. Even if the PC's don't die frequently, their compatriots, support NPC's, relations, and friends might, or even should. And the players should understand that their precious PC's are not immune. The heightened risk tends to result in overall better play, more room for non-violent encounter resolutions, and honest appreciation for what different cultures and religions bring to the table. Non-lethal combat systems tend to make combat a far too easy solution for the players to strong arm their way around the world with, putting them in the driver's seat from a very early level on. With old school D&D I don't think this actually happened until mid-levels, about 7-9. Once the PC's broke into 10+ it was time to pull out the really big guns, because nothing normal was remotely challenging any more.

I don't think that there is much new in the way of tactics. Heck, Runemasters was what? 1980? However the system is complex enough and dynamic enough that I do think that a long talk about cultural tactics in different situations remains difficult to adopt for most players. So the problems remain. I did a big long post in response to someone's question a long time ago, but the topic remains an issue for many people, based on the forums, and the astonished look on my current group's face when something new is trotted out. I think every time a "Humakti are invincible!" post is made is evidence of this. Too much instant-melee combat, not enough quiver dumps. Not enough ambushing and pre-combat maneuvering. Not enough magical counter measures and support. Not enough multi-encounters before return to temple. You know what should be a rough go for Humakti? Any trip to Prax. That's a LOT of missile armed cavalry which can fairly trivially dispatch a walker. Even better when they have two handed swords and no shield. Even if they do try melee, as soon as the Humakti light saber's up, they should just pull back and be patient with it. Send for help (and more ammo) while forcing the Humakti to dump his Rune points with threatened charges. And why isn't the Nomad shaman dispelling/dullblade/demoralizing the Humakti? The reason it doesn't play out this way is normally because all encounters are run as if everyone in the world was heavy infantry. Immediate move to melee attacks with no preparatory missile/spell combat, fight in a losing combat far too long, and may the best man win. Bronze age combat wasn't like that, and I'm sure as Hades that Gloranthan combat shouldn't be like that! But the point is that people are still experiencing it this way, and that's the problem. How to deal with combat powerhouses is posted on the forum. How to get your campaign to be a place with enough flexibility to do so isn't.

I'm not. However I am the GM, not the players, and I have witnessed different groups doing all kind of crazy things. Some PC's might not have much of a better option, frankly. This is when you get a bad mismatch like in a buddy cop movie. In this case your party Humakti is taking on the trollkin while the Issaries initiate is left to deal with the Babeester Gor Rune Priest. Under pressure all kinds of crazy ideas get floated around, lol. Again, there is a strong case to be made here for them being a tier down as warriors from the Humakti. The Orlanthi is much more well rounded (Dark Walk, lack of Geas, Teleportation, Flight, etc.) He's the ultimate bag of tricks god if you play him right, not just a warrior. Storm Bull is an anti-chaos specialist who goes all out offense and relies on others to support him. Yelmalians are mythically stripped of magic that helps in combat, sadly, and they suffer nasty Geas possibilities as well. This isn't wrong, just the way the world is set up. And really it is the divine magic that makes the Humakti a "better warrior", not anything to do with the profession. I've said it before, but in my campaigns following death is an extremely risky endeavor, as everyone and their brother is trying to get you to fight the most dangerous fights for the clan, kind, and country. It is a MUCH easier go for the players that can run away, not be honor bound, and can be resurrected. YGMV, but I think that this may be strongly connected to my earlier statements about how I lean on the combat difficulty of the Runequest system and the Gloranthan setting rather hard. It isn't a romp in the park for the players, but those who hit upper levels don't just have a strong character -- they have become strong players of the system. This has proven to be more fun for everyone over the years than just jumping in to higher level play from the start. At least for my guys.

Interesting point of view. I play it so that my players have to learn to be Batman (hard work, planning, using every angle, little bit of luck) before they can graduate to being Superman.

If the entire PC party lacks 2 points of Dispel Magic to rub together, then I have to question if they actually are high quality opponents though. The main thing about RQ is that it is very much three dimensional, and if the players are wholly devoted to just having higher combat skills and decent equipment to win, then they aren't going to beat a troll war band, much less a Humakti Rune level and his retinue. Note: I run that the 1 point Rune spell is not made harder to dispel by the magic points powering it up. But either way, if confronted with such a magically empowered hand to hand specialist, Babeester Gor or Humakti, you can either beat them at their own game (using your own party Humakti or Babeester Gor follower), or you can work one of the other combat dimensions. Everyone cast Mobility 1 and dance out of range. Firearrow en masse and gun him down. Shield 6 on your Yelmalian, let him tank the hits -- and then Heal Body when the critical comes in. Burn your own Rune spells -- Lightning, Sun Spear, Thunderstorm. Or Dismiss Magic the divine favor and even the playing field out again. High level followers of serious, dedicated war gods are supposed to be totally bad-a@@ed.

I do not. However you are welcome to travel around the globe telling random people what they should or should not do based on your own quite foreign to them point of view. Because that's not setting yourself up as knowing more or being better than them. Not at all. I am sure that they have been waiting for someone enlightened to step in and help them. I am also sure that they will give your opinion the time it deserves.

Woo hoo!

I don't see anything remotely problematic with it. Quite a few of our local Asian restaurants use that sort of font. I'm not about to tell my local Korean family that they are culturally appropriating an incorrect and offensive Chinese font while they try to sell me made up chinese-american menu items.

I started a campaign about 11 weeks ago. The players were in a Red Cow setting which had been converted to RQ:G, and backed up the timeline quite a few years to allow the players to learn the world and the system before things really kick off. I used Early Family History by Jacob Andersson! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/297538/Early-Family-History?src=hottest_filtered But the party ultimately bailed and moved to Pavis, in part to seek their fortunes, and in part to protest the timidity of the clan. I'm not sure when or if they plan to go back, but I'm planning a "reckoning of the Shire" scenario if they wait too long. Most recently (just this week) they completed The Devil's Playground, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The classics are the classics for a reason, methinks. The hybrid broos and Krarshtkids were a shock to the neophytes, and they barely pulled out an exit from the tunnels with one party member (the Orlanthi rebel) scoring about 90% of the actual kills. They were out of magic points and Rune points in the end, which made it a "real" Runequest fight in my book. /evil GM laugh. Ah......memories. Next session will be dealing with the many political consequences. And possibly the revenge of Gim Gim the Grim.

I have always allowed healing through the next round. Catastrophic head shots are the only ones that I am super strict with, mainly because deaths just aren't *that* quick. In particular from ancient weapons you don't die faster than someone can call to your deity. Crippled, incapacitated, sure. All the way Princess Bride dead? No. Even modern gun shot wounds take a relatively long time to have the ultimate effect. So + realism and + funner gameplay.

Lol. It's all made up! I appreciate the work on a number of levels. A big one is simply a skeleton of how the West works, so that if my players ever get a hankering to go there, or a plot arc comes up that makes sense for the lands of Ralios or such to appear, then I've got at least this, plus the Guide to work something out. That's far, far more than I've had for years, and we had a sorcerer from Ralios as soon as 3rd Ed. dropped. I scrambled, and it worked out, but the homeland always remained annoyingly undefined. Sometimes you just need *something*. My original take on the land west of the Holy Country was a giant savage forest full of Picts. (RQ2 book only) This made for a fun adventure, but when it was later shown to be wrong, it required a lot of furious backpedaling. Plausibly close is still extremely useful to all the GM's out there. Thanks!

Sweet! Purchased. I've been eyeing the Gripping Beast Late Roman Cataphracts as a possible chain mail free option for the men of the west. When I've got a chance to read through it carefully I'll try to figure out what may or may not best for the figures! POD would still be something I am interested in, but I take it that ship has sailed.

I'm not familiar with the scenario specifically. However in general I use Runequest as the more lethal of the various fantasy RPG options. That means full spectrum from "no one who goes into this cave comes out alive!" warnings....which are actually backed up by something solid, like a slew of angry 25 POW ghosts, or the late game menace of "death by Trollkin critical", or the ever popular wild-west inspired "Sever Spirit show down at high noon". What I in fact do, as a GM, is mitigate the lethality of the combat system in several important ways: 1) Warning shots to the players that combat is inherently dangerous early in the campaign. Often the clan champion/their parents/older brother/martial arts master gets schooled by a future bad guy. This starts the "call to arms" cycle that sort of wakes up the player characters to the need to self-improve. It jump starts the narrative for why they are doing all these dangerous things anyway. 2) Many (but not all) situations have at least one non-combat solution (that I have thought of -- the players typically come up with more creative solutions on their own) 3) Red shirt use. This means that when higher up in their social status, they often attract and can make use of lower powered initiates. These will sometimes take the brunt of "surprise" attacks. Similarly early in the campaign the PC's are often paired with a Rune level, and act as his/her band of red shirts. Issaries and Lhankor Mhy priests are especially effective in this role as they tend to want extra muscle around (the players), yet are powerful enough to help save or get the PC's out of a combat jam, even if it is just a heal or a demoralize thrown their way. Shamans are also great. This sort of thing also helps ground the PC's in the world I find. Much better to be part of a "small band of rebels", than to be every single rebel left on the planet. 4) Clan support. If on clan business, use a clan healer, or services even up to resurrection for the young bloods for the first few training wheel adventures. At some point though, the players have seen the way the combat system works, have picked up a good amount of spirit magic, and are getting up there in Rune magic power as well. The cord should be cut and the full danger of the system unleashed upon them, otherwise their heroic growth (and tactical finesse) will be stunted. Some people do prefer games where they just level up mindlessly in power, become nigh unkillable without using any type of active counter measures, and have clearly defined paths of improvement that they can just follow without any specific interaction with the game world. Runequest just isn't that game. Runequest has always been a system of risk and danger. Runequest has always been a game that rewards a player for actively improving his character. Runequest combat has always been incredibly dangerous. Runequest demands a very active engagement from its players (and GM!) for anything approaching maximum enjoyment.

It will need an alternate coverage to showcase any such thing. If it is the only publication covering those areas/topics, then it is is de facto canonical.

This is good news. Frankly the production rate of Chaosium is sometimes........on the slower side. However with this many items in the pipeline, it will be fantastic to see areas never before detailed finally getting a close up treatment. I'm curious to see how the official vision matches up with what I have been GMing all these years on.

This has been our solution. Dark Trolls are devastating with a sling, which feels just right Wow, I never thought to change the rules to go that way. My Gloranthas see Trolls as a major combative challenge, largely because: 1) Swarms of trollkin, undead, and shades are used to soften up the PC's 2) Magic is used in copious amounts in place of missile weapons (by Dark Trolls). Fear, demoralize, and above all -- lots of Darkness. My trolls are MUCH more magically powerful than default humans, as befits an Elder Race. I tend to design them like PC's -- full load of spirit magic, some stored power (generally spirits), and in RQ:G, I am thinking 5-6 points of Rune Magic. This is a for a normal troll, mind you. 3) The combination of 16 point shields, 1d6 damage bonus and 5-6 point armor, and also lots of spirit magic (protection, generally) makes club and clobber Dark trolls really hard to put down. Great Trolls are there to swing for the fences with two handers, doing outrageous damage should they connect. Similarly Berserk Rune Lords of Zorak Zoran few wish to tangle with. 4) Exceptional stealth skills, so Trolls frequently have the drop on the PC's, preventing time to "pre-buff" on the PC's part, yet giving the trolls plenty of time to spell up when the initial waves start crashing in on the night guard. So it literally never came up that trolls should or should not be better in a missile exchange. It seemed like they were busy the whole time doing magic and melee things, and the nuisance trollkin in the bushes were slinging mainly for a lucky critical -- which certainly happens. Missile combat just wasn't how I had envisioned trolls being effective, and it was really their magic and stealth that put them over the top in the player's minds. The extra large and strong aspect they could handle -- they were used to that. Getting bushwhacked and blinded, swarmed with shades and spearkin, they never enjoyed at all.

aaaaand ordered!

Great post. I"m glad someone took the time to actually do the math and read the data. The Battle axe is well represented in RQ, imo. It hits a hair harder than a sword, but is a worse defensive choice. Works great with a shield, while a broadsword is basically a second medium shield. It is also 2 ENC, which matters to many beginning characters. 1H Longspear is also a Yelmalian cult weapon, and is likely what they are using while out adventuring or in small groups (not on military campaign). I would argue that the Yelmalian adventurer really needs this skill over Pike, so is even more handicapped until such a time as he can master both.

Heh. Some of us have been saying that as a joke for decades.

I need more time with the current boost to crushing weapons to add another. My current campaign hasn't even had a fight against trolls yet, so I don't have a feel for +2d6 with the 2 handers just yet. Great trolls are a thing, after all.

That's not a source. That's an interpretation. And it isn't a bad one.......just.......... Me agreeing or disagreeing with it with it is not the point. The point is that one can't state canonically "he is not a Broo" without struggling to cancel out that he is straight up called "the regal broo" in the Guide. p. 343. IIRC in Dorastor Land of Doom too. He is additionally described as such in Secrets of Dorastor as well. "Sitting on the throne is a Broo wearing golden armor and a large necklace that covers most of his chest. This is Ralzakark...." So not only is Ralzakark a broo in everything that I own that describes him......which is everything published......we also learn that he likes Flava Flav style necklaces, a sure sign of Chaos.

Can you get me source on that?

This is one of those "TGMV" things, imo. He IS a broo. But he is other things besides. I'm not sure if the concept of "actual body" or "original body" applies to him anymore. Dorastor is fascinating in many ways, and Ralzakark is one of the main draws. Simply defined, he is not.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!!

mmm. I recall a thread where Jeff mentioned that the PC's have 3. Average types have 1. I could be mis-remembering, but that's how I have based my current campaign. Sartar farmer: 1 RP, 1-2 useful spirit magic spells and 70% weapon skills. War clans have 80% skills, half CHA spirit magic, generally in larger variable spells like Bladesharp 4, Protection 4, etc., but still 1 RP unless their clan is magically powerful, or they are special individuals. Generic Lunar solider: roughly the same, possibly only 60% skills. Normally has better armor than the Orlanthi, but in my current go around, just being a Lunar Solider doesn't make you a Roman legionnaire. The rough and tumble hillmen are a match for them, one on one. "Named unit" Lunar (like Granite Phalanx) 1-3 RP's, possibly full CHA spirit magic, 70-80% skill minimum. May possibly be a specialist, like the "heal 6 guy", or "dispel magic 6" guy. Chaos filth varies greatly, but that means that the bottom feeders are truly pathetic creatures. 0 RP, possibly A spirit magic spell, but normally nothing, 50% skills. The crummy Scorpion men the players have encountered so far are a result of facing only the scrubs, and they just aren't the threat that they once were. Of course they have already lost a matrix'ed Broadsword to acid blood, and been caught by an exploding Broo. The Chaotic features can sometimes really even things up. Next time though -- I'll beef up the Scorpion men options some.