Byll

1 hour ago, Iskallor said:

Is there a map which shows which buildings are two stories?

You have to ignore the shadows, but if you zoom into this one buildings with an additional line just inside their outline are two story, (those with two additional lines are three story). Not to be confused with courtyard lines (especially what should be the three story bit of Eiskoli Palace depicted here as a courtyard in shading!)

2 minutes ago, styopa said:

If you think RQ combat is crunchy, C&S rulebooks will blow you away.  

But you can relax afterwards with a little trout tickling.

Gone I reckon, or it would be couched down with Space Opera, Privateers and Gentlemen and Twilight-2000

38 minutes ago, Crel said:

In particular, it seems to me that trolls and humans are broadly compatible in ways that some other species combos aren't. After all, many of them just want somewhere to bed down, grab a bite to eat, and enjoy some sex. They're weird to one another, but their basic desires are similar in a way that the desires between humans and Aldryami, for example, aren't.

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it

Actioned. I think I lost my copy, or lent it out unrecorded...

Or maybe its at the bottom of a wardrobe upstairs.

Hey, a fitted wardrobe, I'm not that ancient.

I've a sad face when I made a pun before now. I wouldn't worry about it.

{😀 Iskallor, very 😀. I 😆 until I 😂}

The 2 POW that the shaman sacrifices make him a slightly easier target in spirit combat, but they transfer to the compacted spirit. An 18 POW spirit entering a pact becomes a 20 POW spirit  and its MPs are available to the shaman for casting spells. Presumably the spirit keeps the POW even if the pact is ended by the unresurrectable-death of the shaman or the reducing of the spirit's MP below the thresholds. The POW does,'t come back to the Shaman, so unless the spirit passes it on to another spirit in some sort of spirit-world pact, it ought to retain it.

After an initial common enemy/goal has been dealt with an aldryami community might encourage the 'ambassador' elf to continue to spend at least some time with his comrades because... they want a reliable informant with access beyond the Aldryami lands / when somebody needs assassinating it is easier not to have to sneak into a town or lure them out of one / picking up weird non-aldryami ways makes them uncomfortable and there is a haunting concern that their agent may have gone native

Common enemy is a fair bet, a Malia cult expansion in the marginal regions between humans and elder races, a chaos bloom. Something on those lines? Elves and other man-rune races have a bit of an empathy problem, but they at least can make an effort to produce scions that look man like and can pick up human/troll/baboon emotional cues when the forest council decideds that there is an interest in communication. Dragonnewts and Orthodox Mostali are pretty difficult to plumb in. Even Pavis Dwarves are unlikely to join up with other elder race companions. At least the Pavis and Elder-wilds have some concentrations of elder race habitation close enough to each other to have occasions for contact. They don't have a lot of trust for each other, but then young adventurers have less respect for tradition than the average non-human

But at least the Odaylan has access to extension; fortunately my hypothetical Telmori Guardsman Sartarite found Odayla at the Siege of Nochet... https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/runequest-playing-in-glorantha-creating-characters.838346/page-6#post-22350034

Can unicorn riders counter-missile harpy dung with unicorn dung arrows? (Or perhaps sling'shots'?) 

If you watch Orlanth's ring from the ground it travels anticlockwise from the lower (outer) sky to the top (centre), that would seem to be a good pattern. But it may just depend on handedness, or how it relates to other graphical or structural elements around it.

7 minutes ago, Leingod said:

It almost seems like Raven is either expressing disapproval of slavery, or at the very least is using a cruel prank as a way of highlighting your clan's hypocrisies. Which is generally what I imagine as one of the primary functions of a Trickster figure in most cultures, but doesn't seem very prevalent among the Orlanthi (at least as far as I've seen); there, they tend to regard Eurmal as just dangerous and capricious for the sake of it, and generally don't try to think of any kind of moral to Trickster's tales except the ones that end with the Trickster himself being humiliated and defeated (and then that's usually a way of reinforcing common Orlanthi values or virtues). I wonder what that says about them?

 

'I didn't mean to kill the Bad Emperor, it was Trickster's fault'

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

I read the Iliad as a teenager and it was great, full of combat and stuff. When I started playing RQ, I thought that it was just like the Iliad. I've still got the Book Club version that I read as a kid. If you like RQ then I think you'd like the Iliad.

I read Xenophon's Anabasis in translation on the train to/from college many years ago. I wonder where that paperback is in the book cases now? Hah, top of the stairs, maybe I should dip into it again...

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'I was just saying that we had many glorious hopes of safety. First of all, we have kept our oaths to the gods , while our enemies have broken theirs, and in addition to this perjured themselves in transgressing the truce. This being so, it is reasonable to suppose that the gods will be against our enemies, but will fight on our side; and they are capable of making even the strong weak, and of saving the weak easily, when such is their will, even if they are in the midst of danger.

...Not many days ago you were in battle against the children of our old enemies, and though they were many times your number, you, with the help of the gods, defeated them. And on that occasion you showed yourselves to be brave men in order to get Cyrus a kingdom; but now the fight is on for your own safety, and therefore I am sure it is right to expect from you much greater courage and a much greater will to victory. Then too, you ought to feel much greater confidence against the enemy. On the last occasion, you had no experience of them and could see their prodigious numbers, but all the same, in the spirit of your fathers, you had the courage to set about them. Now however, you know from experience that even if they are many times your number, there are not eager to face you. What reason have you to be afraid of them any longer?'

Supposedly it was Kirk's bedtime reading on the USS Enterprise; it was the first time I recall hearing anything about the Kurds.

35 Is Don Duras's daughter a pillar of Casino Town social life?

I guess demons/wyters is but a small subset of 'doing something else'. Whatever else is most interesting, seems like  is the best option :-)

According to Chinese legend "dogs are hard to draw, because everyone knows what they should look like, but demons are easy to draw, since they belong to the realm of imagination and and artists imagination is superior to that of an average person". Might you draw some regimental wyters or other supernatural attachments to military units?

On 5/27/2019 at 4:45 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

This is a real thing?¿? No, seriously?

You brits is crazy!
I want to play!

Or there's the Ottery tar barrel running as well as the Brockworth cheese rolling - like ski jumping but without the snow, and with a cheese.

If a former human establishes a hero-cult under an elemental pantheon and defends a place in the god plane, do his bones transmute into metal?

Admitting that you consider yourself an 'adventurer' may in some societies mark you as an undesirable. A subversive egoist who cannot be relied upon when his neighbours and family need him. Adventures happen to regular people as well as glory-hunters.

I'm assuming that the Shaman that the assistant supports will somehow suck the assistant's spirit into the spirit world when the Shaman decides to it is time to teach the locations and practices of spirit travel, and that the assistant's body is guarded by spirits loyal to the shaman while the assistant is on the spirit plane. 

On 4/17/2019 at 8:23 AM, Shiningbrow said:

Oddly, Cousin Monkey, Vishi's "Boon Companion", doesn't have a Passion such as "Loyalty - Vishi Dunn" or similar.

COUSIN MONKEY, BABOON

Passions: Love (Family) 60% - just sayin'

On 4/15/2019 at 5:23 PM, PhilHibbs said:

What options would you present or allow for the player wanting to advance Vishi Dunn to a full shaman?

He is more or less outcast from his tribe, and even if he could return to undertake the rite, his responsibilities as a High Llama Tribe shaman would largely preclude his adventuring with the rest of the Colymar party. Contriving to have him return to Clearwine once every season just when something interesting happens, that's going to wear thin.

He could switch codes and undertake the shamanic ritual with the local Kolating shamans, but I don't think he wants to do that. He still loves his ancestors, the covenant, and his God-Khan Waha.

Or... just ignore the whole "tribal responsibility" thing. That seems to be the approach in the example sections of the book!

I suspect that my player is going to give up on Vishi and roll something else so we probably won't have to solve this problem anyway.

Vishi is 'intensely loyal to Argrath, almost a zealot.' (Loyalty to Argrath 80% - his highest passion).

If he makes shaman he will probably spend a lot of time working at something Argrath assigns him to, (attached to a military unit, recruiting for Argrath in the spirit world, helping guard his boss from spirt world threats or working on 'special projects' )

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

2 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

what's to stop theists from learning a little? (other, obviously, than cultural stereotypes and prejudices... and probable lack of basic availability... time... money...). I also doubt that most gods care enough about their initiates to be watching carefully their every action - so both the learning and practising, and then the use of, sorcery wouldn't register.

The gods don't have a choice whether to care or not. They are what they are, they do what they do. If you break the rules and learn sorcery, then you will be attacked by Spirits of Reprisal. Looking closely at the rules, it says that the SoR only go after 1) Initiates who leave the cult, and 2) Rune levels who break major cult rules. So technically an Initiate learning sorcery should be ok, in fact by this strict reading an Initiate can break any cult rule without risking the Spirits of Reprisal, but if you ever intend to achieve Rune level, don't even think about it.

What about Initiates who have previous of breaking major cult rules and then become Rune Levels? Do they just get a 'Hard Stare' from one of the spirits of reprisal?

Quote

"I'm a-watchin' youse Bub, you bet, I'm a-watchin' real close!"

4 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

9 hours ago, Byll said:

While no civilised person would dream of wearing boots (boots!) to visit their grandmother, we are all us, and must remember that thieving Vanchites and two faced Carmanians are our brothers and sisters at the bosom of the Goddess.

Not only does my grandma wear boots so does me ma!

Army boots?