Darius West

Bah !  Death is too good for those little proto-duvets.

On 3/17/2024 at 9:09 AM, MoreTimeThanSense said:

So, one of my players asked me the above question and it got me wondering if there's any official word/artwork either way?

IMG I'd probably say yes, but just the head, but I could see them just going ham and dying everything. What about your Glorantha?

Yes, but only on their heads.  Some of them wear red wigs.  They make for some very funny looking zombies when they get sent to Delecti.

Just now, Malin said:

This discussion really made me wonder what the Babeester Gor cultist in my campaign would ever make of Thed, and whether it could ever be technically proven that she had been "of the earth."

It doesn't matter because Thed foresook her loyalty to the Earth and sinned against it monstrously.  Thed is a traitor to the earth, and deserves a traitor's fate, says BBG.

On 9/22/2018 at 5:17 PM, Joerg said:

I never sat down to do the math, but here's something to think about:

Look at the number of attacks the opposition can land in a given time, and the number of attacks the party can land in that time.

If designing an ambush, that means that the ambushers get free attacks, as spells or missiles, until the party can react with their arsenal.

I wouldn't bother with a detailed damage analysis, but with damage ranges - there are attacks that can only do attrition damage (such as Disrupt, thrown rocks), attacks that can take out a location without destroying it, and killer attacks that will destroy a location and take out a combatant permanently or until a major healing effort has been done. Damage bonus of the attack does a lot to make an attack more dangerous.

 

How likely is an attack to cause damage?

Can it be avoided?

Spells are resisted with POW vs POW rolls, and possibly shielded by Countermagic effects (Countermagic, Shield, Berserk, Warding, sorcerous Neutralize).

Physical attacks (both melee and missile) are reduced by armor. This may vary the three categories (attrition, location damage, location destroyed).

Parries add the armor points of the parrying weapon, often negating the damage or reducing it to mere attrition.

Try and estimate the effect of the initial attacks on the party. Ideally, there should be enough attrition damage to cause tension, and taking out one or two locations requires them to direct some activity to healing, reducing their attacks/situation changer options.

Exposing the party to lots of attrition damage increases the likelihood of damaged locations, aka tactically meaningful damage. That's fine, but may lead to TPK.

 

Estimating the "bling factor" of parried melee attacks is hard. In the 50% parry ability range, damage will result reliably. In the 75% parry ability range, you will see only occasional damage. In the 95% parry range, damage will be the exception.

Multiple parries will quickly lower the parry range, which is why numbers count so much.

Remote attacks that cannot be parried (missiles, element damage, breath attacks) only deal with whatever protection the party has against such attacks.

Additional attacks by spirits may take their own form of attrition, but result in the equivalent of a location destruction damage.

 

It is all about staging the conflict.

With big bad monsters, you might start their side of the combat with location destruction damage on one or several party members. Are you sure that's how you want to start the fight? For each "man" down in the party, another party member will have to do support, reducing the counterattack twice. Depending on the number of sidekicks and auxiliary NPCs, it will also leave the players of affected characters out of the action, or pushed into thankless jobs like rolling for the party mooks rather than furthering one's character's heroics.

Inclusion of such damage should only be on the table if the players decide to accept the combat. Exploring a cave with freshs (dream) dragon prints means that they decided to accept this risk, and there are numerous similar situations where the players have seen the danger signs and choose to press on regardless (possibly because of bad alternatives, but that's another staging issue). Challenging Great Trolls, Cave Trolls or lesser giants means that they accept the risk.

 

If the combat goes into a direction that threatens your scenario: Cheat. Within reason.

Your players may have memorized the creature statistics, but thankfully those offer ranges of values rather than fixed values. Whatever numbers you have written down, you may adjust them slightly. Make use of low levels of Protection rather than indentifiable armor anyway, and adjust those levels upward or downward as your "Pass Fail Cycle" needs require. Give the opposition a supporting magician in hiding/out of attack range to avoid exposing that cheat, possibly an allied spirit.

You find out that your cave troll will TPK the already bruised party? He may have some bruises himself, suffer from poisoning or disease.

The opposition gets overwhelmed like nothing? You're in control of the setting. Have the party encounter another wave, ideally not identical, but drawing from the same resources. Or let reinforcements arrive. Or let one exceptional duck/trollkin (or hidden ally of the duck/trollkin) use that Earthpower rune spell to revive its colleagues. Or have the (undocumented and unplanned) elemental of the opposition arrive belatedly from within its element.

Provide some other form of weakness of the enemy, and drop hints (or outright signposts) to the players to exploit that weakness. In a cthulhuid situation, it is reasonable to have at least some of the opposition suffer from bouts of insanity, and dealing with Lunars or drug-crazed zealots offers the same excuse for opponents being befuddled or demoralized even without conscious player activity. This is a reminder that the opposition aren't mere mechanical monsters but that they will have their own pitiful life stories and weaknesses.

 

Most importantly, think about the morale of the opposition, and the point where they start to retreat, flee, surrender, and why and how they would do so.

Interrupting a (usually chaotic) combat for negotiations will take a few melee rounds. Train your players in the application of disengagement (in case of doubt, frustrate them with opposition that will disengage whenever they can...) so that this option will be in their repertoire.

Depending on the situation, either side may have no interest in negotiations, or in letting anybody escape.

 

Enter the hostage situation, and the seriousness in putting the threat to action. I once faced quite a shocked reaction when playing a hardened veteran killer who did slice the throat of one of the hostages at a failure to follow through the conditions that had been put out in the room, not so much from the opposition characters as from my fellow players and the GM. (Not clear whether that extended to their characters, some of which were as cold-blooded by concept.) At that point, the escalation had already been at personal feud level, and the opposition (including the hostage) thought to call a bluff when my character wasn't bluffing.

Unfortunately, that was an opportunity for roleplaying spoiled by a debate about roleplaying ethics - which was a good thing to have, but it stopped the flow of the story. Interestingly enough, the morality of players of the type whose characters would initiate needless slaughter by shooting first was offended.

(That scene happened long before Game of Thrones had even been printed...)

 

Spells causing systemic failure like Sleep and Befuddle should be treated like "take out location", Demoralize like attrition.

Warding can be a killer if used to protect positions of snipers, as a Warding 3 will take out locations.

 

You'll be familiar with the tactics of the party if playing with your own group, but in a convention game, even with pre-rolled characters, you'll be in for big surprises. (But then, so will they.)

On the other hand, you are in control of the opposition's initial tactic and of their fall-back tactics.

When preparing the encounter, take a look at the theme of your scenario, and make sure that somehow the kind of opposition you want them to encounter is there. Adjust the number and/or state of health of the opposition. The giant is caught treating a leg wound. If they are outside of the ability of the party, have the party encounter the opposition while fighting off another, independent threat - that pair of tusk riders needs to finish off the wolverine before it can charge your novice party, so make good use of that "ally" to avoid the charge.

 

In other words, if you want broos, use broos. When dealing with Chaos, Chaos Features can increase or decrease the danger levels. Broo parentage can do a lot to adjust the threat.

 

Sometimes the opposition attacks only to expose the party to disease, poison, or some curse, and then disengages.

Joerg wrote this so we  don't have to.  Thanks Joerg.

That being said, I think shields are massively important, and needed to be mentioned in more detail.

A nice big 16 point shield is the difference between life and death in many cases.  Even if you are only wearing cuirboulli, a parry with such a shield will stop 19 points.  A broadsword does 4.5+1 +2.5(DB) on average.  Add another 5.5 for a slash for a total of 13.5 damage, plus perhaps 4 points of bladesharp if you are lucky for 17.5.  On average that shield will stop a special hit from an average weapon.  It really matters.

On 3/19/2024 at 5:38 AM, Rodney Dangerduck said:

Why only Lunars?  Is Argrath's side without any blemishes?

Sartarites have known the bitter taste of defeat and occupation for a generation or more.  They know that if they lose, the next occupation will be worse.  Their liberty was hard won, and remains more personally and tangibly under imminent threat than that of the average Lunar citizen who pays their taxes, shuts up, loves Big Takanegi, and tries to addle their brain with illumination Newspeak.  Command "blemishes" are irrelevant to a people fighting for their freedom and survival.

I would suggest that Thed is Eiritha's sister, and thus is a child of Ernalda and Hykim, like Eiritha.

1 hour ago, D said:

when i was looking at which cave system to start with, i looked briefly at the Dyskund Caves map and decided that it was way to hard to do. Don't worry about the criticism, it was helpful, the section of cave I've just done looks better for having a rough floor.

I don't know how you'd do the "squeeze through tight spaces" mechanic that make Dyskund so immersive but problematic.  

On 3/13/2024 at 10:41 AM, Erol of Backford said:

I can't stop smiling while typing this: A Larnsting shrine in the Toe-Hole for illuminated Lightbringers with guardian spirits whole will create enchantments and attack chaotics. Oakfed's purifying fire, Larnsting's blood crystals.

Larnsting Magic is not aggressive.  Sartar was a Larnsting, and he never drew a weapon or slew anybody.  No.  Far worse.  He CHANGED them.  And no, he didn't change them from alive to dead.  I get the impression that he might have had a geas against such things.  For example, he changed King Brangbane and his remaining followers into ghouls.  Now imagine if as a scorpion person you enter an area and your nippers change into fluffy bunnies on the ends of your arms, and your tail turns into a great big hibiscus flower?

On 3/4/2024 at 3:46 AM, D said:

floor wise, I've made the entrance level as it's the most travelled section. I've done the mushroom cave as if it's got a coating of mud from when there's heavy rain and the stream and water cavern overflow. I'll look at making the rest a bit more uneven.

Stalactite wise, the description of the caves say they are dry, except where noted, which I think means there won't be any stalactites, but if I'm wrong, they should be easy to add.

LOL, fair enough.  I haven't run Rainbow Mounds since 1997.  I think I was thinking more of the Dyskund Caves from the Black Broo of Dyskund scenario, which is still a bit of a gold standard for spelunking realism imo.  I retract any criticism.

I am enjoying watching how your work develops D.  Have you ever thought of developing a Praxian mod for Mount and Blade (hint hint 🥺)?

On 2/28/2024 at 7:04 AM, D said:

Time to resurrect this thread.

I'm reworking my Rainbow mounds build to make the caves look more realistic. I've filmed it differently, using multiple cameras instead of 1st person.

As usual any constructive criticism is welcome.

I am very impressed with the way the torchlight falls on the surfaces.  I think you have worked hard to give the cave an eerie feeling, and the use of the torchlight works in that way.  While I know we are only seeing the mouth of the cave system, I am concerned that the floor is too level for a cave.  IRL caves are next to never flat, except when sand or soil has settled somewhere due to water, or perhaps when something odd is happening with limestone deposits, which normally form stalactites or stalagmites, but I'm sure you know this already.  I appreciate how much work you've done, I really do.  This must have taken many hours.  Please persist with it D.

Just now, mfbrandi said:

I guess it is tricky being a lunar vegan. Keep well away from the maize tortillas.

It's okay as a Vegan to eat humans if they consent.  Animals can't talk so they can't consent you see.

Remember this news story from 2003? Link  This is fine for a Lunar Vegan.

On 2/27/2024 at 10:25 PM, mfbrandi said:

I like this.

• The ogres eat people.
   
• Waha’s people eat “beasts”
  but claim it is OK because they magically unpersoned them
  with a totally fair and above-board lottery.

Was this written by a Lunar Vegan? 🤣

On 2/24/2024 at 1:09 AM, EricW said:

Arkat was a superhero who underwent apotheosis, so he did walk the mundane plane, then he left. Then he returned in a confusing way, the multiple Arkats. Or maybe Argrath is his true avatar. 

Maybe they're all avatars of Arkat. Perhaps apotheosis is something which superheroes who want to uphold the integrity of Glorantha have to do, to prevent the return of the gods war. 

The interesting thing for me is the avatar suggestion hints at higher Waha powers which can be accessed. Waha did some pretty impressive things for a minor deity, he cleansed Prax of the lingering presence of Wakboth after Storm Bull crushed the devil under the block. But few of these feats are reflected in the rather sparse collection of rune magics Waha worshippers seem to access. So Avatars of Waha might have access to some interesting anti-chaos powers, and heroic abilities to change the courses of waterways and other interesting feats, which could be pretty useful in a desert. 

Hmm, I doubt Arkat was born a superhero.  I think he was just good at rolling his ups, especially after his skills went over 100%. 😆

As for your point about Waha doing a great deal but only having very limited rune magic to show for it, I heartily agree.  I give Waha Khans the ability to tie special knots that can control hostile elementals, called The Knots That Catch.

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of Nomad Gods btw?

On 8/24/2019 at 3:26 PM, Jeff said:

Greg once told tell me that to keep the goddess Glorantha alive and eternally youthful, he needed to be an Arkati Trickster Shaman. Now that that duty has fallen to me, I've donned my coyote mask and taken on the role. It is fitting that I've decided to revisit Greg's heroquest to discover Elmal, only this time to reject that god in favour of restoring the god he had supplanted - Yelmalio.

Good decision.  About time too.  Elmal never went away, and is specifically attacked by Yelmalio in a hero quest as sunny boy lite wanted to steal some of Elmal's fire powers.  Elmal is a Thunder Brother too.  They are more than just Orlanth subcults.

All we need now is a "Mount and Blade" compatible Prax mod, or equivalent and we could walk around in it.

Something that we haven't discussed before afaik is the fact that during the First and Second Ages, Waha took a physical body in Prax.  We are also told that the "Greatest Khan" in Prax at any time is imbued with a portion of Waha's power.  Is this the same thing?  Or was Pavis and the Faceless Statue's defeat of Waha in the Second Age the defeat of Waha as an actual incarnate superhero?  That tale specifically mentions Waha being hamstrung by the Faceless Statue and cured by Pavis, which is hard to do without a physical body to attack   It is certainly possible for Waha to be incarnate, given that He is the direct ancestor of many Praxians, and hence can be summoned to possess them via Daka Fal rituals.  It can be argued that Waha is a comparatively minor deity, no more powerful than Harrek, Jar-Eel, Androgeus, or Belintar, and thus can become incarnate without affecting the Great Compromise, given that he was potentially alive and incarnate at the Dawning like Androgeus. 

I am interested in other people's opinions on this.

On 2/2/2024 at 2:43 AM, Ali the Helering said:

Manchester in the UK, blessed by the persistent presence of my patron, Heler!

How does it compare with Bergen in Norway.  There is a joke in Bergen that an American was in town and he had been there a while and asked a boy "Hey kid !  When does it stop raining here?"  To which the kid replied "I don't know mister, I'm only 12."

1 hour ago, Ali the Helering said:

Seriously though, this requires the deity to be stupid to the point of drooling imbecility, as a willing victim of Pascal's Wager!  In such a circumstance the term 'worship' doesn't apply since the deity has no worth beyond being a victim of manipulation on the level of grooming. 

In such a circumstance the word 'deity' is inappropriate - maybe 'dumb mana resource'? 🙃

Well in Glorantha we might somewhat see the Malkioni treating deities in the fashion of a dumb mana resource, especially in the Second Age.  The Godlearners even substantially rewrote some deities because they were crap.  Remember, having worshippers, even bad ones, seems to be a net benefit to deities.  And for their part, deities seem to be in a sort of Before Time stasis field (see Orlanth and Ernalda being dug up at Whitewall by the Lunars), and their ability to interact with the world is very limited.  When you think about it, deities and worshippers are symbiotic to the point where it isn't clear who is parasitizing whom. 🙂

I've been watching 30 Coins with subs.  Fun show.   I would call it "C'tholic" in flavor. 

In the case of Sartarites, it is important also to factor in the value of veterancy.  The fact is, that everyone of fighting age in 1626 has lived through Lunar occupation, the Long Winter, the Dragonrise, and quite possibly one or more pitched battles too.  Many Sartarites have been living rough as adventurers or something else.  Of course the Lunars have this too, but their armies are larger, and there are fewer chances for combat as a result.  The number of near-heroes and self funded Rune Lords and Rune Priests is going to make a difference, and not just in the Sartar Magical Union imo.  It is all very much like the Praxian thing about being driven into the Wastes to grow stronger.

16 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

That wasn't my point I am afraid, and if it came over that way I apologise.  The question is a matter of in what way that utility is expressed.  It isn't that we approach a deity to cynically obtain a blessing, but rather that we approach the deity because we live within their 'power-environment'.  This is not least why the early Christians were accused of being atheists - they didn't participate in the 'power-environment' of the empire or the city.  In so doing they laid themselves open to the charge of atheism, which was synonymous with treason.

🤣😇🤣🤣 😇

Hi Ali,  I get your point, and I understand that it is referencing the Early Christians.  I personally LOVE late roman and "dark ages" history.  I also agree that this was part of why the Christians were accused of Atheism.  So were Jews in the same period.  This was also due to their lack of depiction of their deities.  As you say however, the fact that they wouldn't worship at the Emperor Shrines was a big religious and political no-no in the Roman Era.   Of course what really upset the Romans was early Christian masochistic seeking after martyrdom.  That blew their tiny Roman minds.

As to the actual point...  Ali, buddy, what if we DO cynically seek to obtain the blessing?😅 That is what I meant by Spiritual Materialism.😬  We literally only worship the deity because of the material benefits that worship provides.  This is the PNG model.  🤣

21 hours ago, Joerg said:

Quite the costly treatment in terms of rune points. As an introductory treatment, how about Befuddle?

Sick of getting your magical high from Befuddle?  Try new Seven Mothers' Mind Blast !  Longer lasting, and more profound, Mind Blast is for those folks who have answered life's riddle.  Initiate at your nearest Temple of the Reaching Moon and try Mind Blast today !  The name says it all, baby !

14 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

One interesting point they make in the video is that the atlatl has a lower rate of fire than a bow, plus a lower "muzzle velocity".  Therefore, it is less effective against rapidly moving targets, which you are more likely to encounter while mounted.

I agree and would have thought tat was obvious. Lets face it, if you are moving, so is the target effectively. 

I am curious about how much the accuracy falls off, and whether it maintains or even improves range and force of impact if supported by a running horse underneath the atlatl user.  I am thinking about the possibility of a small Praxian warrior society that uses atlatls with javelins, and gets a minor charge boost to DB. (shrug)

I wonder how an atlatl performs when used from the saddle?