Darius West

Firstly, what god does he pretend is his patron to disguise his trickster initiation? Some are far better choices than others. There are a very limited number of people a trickster can fool in a single area before the community gets wise to their activities and call them to account. For this reason, mobility as a lifestyle is often a good choice for a cover identity. Remember also that tricks often run awry, or transform and take on a life of their own that you do not expect. I would argue that the best fit for a trickster is as an Issaries initiate. They are supposed to be gabby, interested in money and power, and prone to being a bit shonky, as well as not great in a fight and prone to move around a lot. Obviously you plan to make good use of the Lie spell, and fair enough, it is a pretty amazing spell. Remember that Humakti and Lhankor Mhys will be able to detect it if they think to however. You also need to remember that you cannot con people in a market place without setting off the Issaries based Create Neutral Ground warnings what are likely in place. Probably most of what you do will need to concern making people believe that they haven't been cheated post fact. Here is a link to a site that includes some famous grifts, some of which that you might be able to rework and reimagine for a Gloranthan setting. Remember that a hidden trickster is their own master, but also needs to hide their identity and live a double life. They will likely develop some contacts with any local criminal element. Tactically to perform their "tricks" with no witnesses makes stealth a good choice, and they need the means of disposing of their newly obtained wealth without being detected. They will also need access to Lanbril's Divination Block occasionally when things go bad. It is quite possible that Tricksters will wind up n the company of other inhabitants of the criminal underworld who are chaos worshippers, such as Krarsht or Malia worshippers, as well as hidden lunars. It is also quite possible that the trickster may be outed as a "Lunar Agent", if there is a clan sweep that catches them. The more powerful the people you hobnob with, the more likelihood that one of them will get curious and perform a divination about your hidden trickster. As a result, hidden tricksters are likely to prefer environments where there is more of a herd to hide within, such as cities, the larger the better. Being an outed clan trickster is much safer, even if you are "wearing a leash". You might have a leash on, but as any dog walker knows, it is often a moot point as to who is walking whom, and social protection is a very useful thing. Eurmal shrines and trickster shrines in general are not standard. They don't involve hundreds of worshippers, and are often hidden places of secret veneration that tricksters pass on the knowledge of by word of mouth, or by careful observation. Trickster Rune Spells are often unique too, offering a GM the opportunity to provide the player with a non-standard spell. Some trickster shrines are obvious, like a huge man rune covered in stinking dung, but others involve practical jokes like a silver penny that is glued to the floor, or a drinking fountain that is linked to a latrine reservoir, or even a knothole that looks suspiciously like a body part.

That is basically what Cerberos means in Greek, you know, the 3 headed hound of hell, yep, Fluffy. Never let it be said that Hades lacks a sense of humor. (Also see Darwin Awards).

Yes, the thing is, illuminates are NOT always righteous, are they? This is why the Gods have mortal agents. To ensure that their worshippers are properly disciplined. On the other hand, Ban is a 2 edged sword, and an infiltrator could quit plausibly use it. Great. See you at the start of next season for your trial. Back to the prison cells with this suspect, bailiff, and ensure that they have plenty of austerities to focus their spiritual energies. It isn't about getting their spells back, it is about the lunar effect on their magic, which is observable, given where they are in the cycle. As for guided teleport, well, simply deny them access to the Mastakos shrine so they cannot sacrifice for or renew their magic there.

Yes, I have done so a few times. Back in RQ2 days, you got a price in the thousands for the right matrix, and I was occasionally high on POW but short on cash. More recently I had shennanigans involving my Chalana Arroy gangster character and a Sleep Matrix she created that was used to get one of her enemies, a snoopy Issaries priest chucked out of her cult for offending the Chalana Arroys by using prohibited cult magic. It also involved shelling out hard earned cash/ill-gotten gains for a Divination Block at an exhorbitant price when the whole scheme nearly blew up in my character's face. It is also often handy for a party to have a Healing 6 matrix for when limbs go flying, as few people have enough dedicated space in their CHA for 6 points of a spell, and a matrix can basically be thrown to them or dropped into their hands (or hand if it was an arm that went flying) while someone defends them for a round. The same applies for spells like Bladesharp 6+, and any spell that is periodically very useful but not quite worth dedicating your CHA to, like Lightwall, Dispel Magic or Visibility, or Multimissile.

These economic issues are complicated. As a rule of thumb, a ransom is a round number value that is about 7 times (a crude average) of one's yearly income (give or take) and one's weregild should be about double that. As to a clan's finances, they draw income from their lands, which are divided in to cropland, pasture, and wilderness, and more directly from their clan artisans and the goods they make, plus whatever the clan temples bring in from outsiders. The land in turn is divided into Hides, and people of different status will work a certain number of hides, or draw income from someone who is getting revenue from their hides. Clans will typically be situated with about 2000 hides of worked land, that produce about 80L per hide per year. This revenue will not be in cash but in kind, and will need to be sold at market to be turned into coin, but much of it will be used within the clan's internal economy and never exported. Clans can also trade in favors. For example, if clan X has a member killed by clan Y, and clan Z has money and owes clan X a favor, well, they might just call that favor due. In terms of weregild, it is not the Clan but the individual who performed a killing who will have to pay the weregild. As Akhorahil correctly points out, Orlanthi clans are not communist states that own all the means of production, and take collective responsibility in paying for crimes. The individual who performed the killing must either pay the weregild or they are open to retribution from the kin of the offended party. Clans may intervene with financial aid if they want to head off the possibility of a feud, and may even over-pay so there can be no basis for recrimination due to an underpayment, plus there is the potlatch aspect of counting coup through the "generosity slap down". I would also point out that this only applies to people within an Orlanthi clan/tribal structure as a means to settle blood debts without reference to an external authority. Can a clan pay a debt of 2000L? Well it depends on how well they are doing. If they have recently been burned out by Lunar aggression, probably not, otherwise, they probably can, but it isn't up to them to do so, it is the killer who is required to pay.

Read the Yelm entry more carefully. The RQG rules are not for the Yelm of Dara Happa, but for "Sun Horse" aka Yu-Kargzant of the Grazerlanders. In the forthcoming RQ:Gods of Glorantha supplement, Yelm definitely has his two Fire/Sky runes, and all the deficiencies you have correctly addressed and questioned will be far closer to your expectations.

Yes, I forgot that Excommunicate was now called Ban. Good to know. And yes, illuminates don't get their full suite of powers automatically like they did in RQ2, and that is a good thing imo, as it creates opportunities for scenarios which involve the development of such powers, which can only help contextualize things, and means players have to work for them rather than having them handed out gratis. Well, you can ask them nicely in a court of law... With the subtext being that not to comply might be taken as admission of guilt. Now consider, Moon Phase is something even illuminates are bound to, especially if they belong to a Lunar cult and that is the source of their illumination in the first place. It is not a spirit of retribution, and thus Illuminates have no immunity to it, but all their subsequent magics are forever bound to the Moon, as it says in the write-up. So, if someone claims to be an Orlanthi, Humakti, Yelmalio, but their magic is overtly tied to the moon (a proposition we can test and demonstrate), they have some explaining to do. As it is almost impossible to become a Lunar spy without some sort of Lunar affiliation, it is a tell that the individual has a tie to the Moon Rune, and if they are also claiming (legitimately) to be an Orlanthi (they are a genuine illuminated initiate of Orlanth, and a lunar cult), then their magic will be moon affected. I have posited that this use of the Moon Rune may have been manipulated later by Argrath, in reverse. After all, having your magic doubled within the Glowline is a very handy thing, and you might even leave the Temples of the Reaching Moon in place so you can exploit the loophole. And from there you are only about 3 Hero Quests away from building a Temple of the Reaching Storm imo.

I take your point, but I think that a Mastery Rune should cover both eventualities. Admittedly people will defer to a Rune Lord, but it goes somewhat deeper than that, surely? I mean, much like the Mobility Rune covers both movement and change, and so Mastakos has both reusable Teleport and Protean abilities, surely Mastery is both mastery of skill and mastery of people? It is a crown after all...

As an aside, and given how technically Yelm should rule the Spike, what do we know about the politics of Ventland, given that it is the Fire/Sky rune State of Belintar's Confederation/Empire?

IMO this is pretty easily understood, but please pick holes if you see them... Belintar washes up in the Holy Country in 1313. By 1336 he has established his empire and instituted the Tournament of the Masters of Luck and Death. Now the Holy Country has territories tied to the various elemental runes, and each is best described as a semi-autonomous region that owed fealty to Belintar. In 1616 Belintar gets assassinated by Jar-Eel and subsequent tournaments fail to bring him back. The Holy Country is an attempt to set up a model of the world back in the God Time, if you consider the way the runes are autonomous under an effective centralized demi-urge that is the focus of what can be described as a Confederation of Elemental Rune Power states. Effectively the City of Wonders is The Spike, and thus Jar-Eel is effectively acting as Orlanth, and bringing Death to Yelm. Harrek is effectively acting as The Devil when he destroys the City of Wonders. The various powers orbit the City of Wonders, and pay tribute in wealth and magic and fealty to Belintar, much as the relationship of the lands to The Spike during God Time. Post 1616, all the various Elemental Territories of the Holy Country are without a center to call upon, and are thrown back on their own resources. In fact, this was already happening, when the Lunars had attacked the Heortlands and Belintar's efforts to protect this territory had been completely inadequate. The Building Wall Battle was another story however, and Belintar's magical alliance was very effective at that time. Even prior to the 1616 situation there is evidence that both Esrolia and the Heortlands were entertaining a somewhat separate foreign policy to that of Belintar, despite the fact that this is normally entirely the preserve of the central authority in Confederations. So, while the Queen of Esrolia seems to be powerful and Independent (and there is no reason to suppose that she and her people may in fact chafe under Belintar's rule), it is fair to say that within her state she is the next best thing to absolute (but being under Belintar), and may have illegally entertained foreign diplomacy, but post 1616 all bets are off and the "Satraps are told to look to their own protection".

It is an interesting point, and the rules for Illumination are not clear on this. Excommunication is supposed to break the connection between the deity and the worshipper via intervention by the High Priest, and has been expressed as divine magic in RQ3. Illuminates are not immune to divine magic, but are immune to spirits of reprisal. The current status of the rules on this point list no power of Illumination that could prevent them from having their connection to a deity via initiation severed by direct divine/rune magic intervention, but there is no excommunication spell either in RQG. This position is perfectly reasonable in its assumptions, but we don't have much documentary evidence for it taking place. You'd think this sort of abuse was rife, but perhaps during the lifetime of the living god Nysalor, he himself curtailed the potential abuses? Certainly this sort of abuse was common during the Second Age, and explains a lot about the abuses that the God Learners put the various cults through. Here is a good way of detecting illumination and Lunar Espionage. While illuminates are generally immune to the effects of their deity, an exception to this rule is found in the effect of the Moon on Rune Spells. If you get them to cast their cult magic on a day of the dark moon and it is half-power or beyond them, or on a full moon day and it is doubled, you know they are at least a member of a moon cult. Illuminates can hide a lot of things, but this is a magical shibboleth they cannot hide.

So what then denotes Political Leadership? I was always pretty certain that Orlanth Thunderous was about the Air/Storm Rune, Orlanth Adventurous was about the Mobility Rune, and Orlanth Rex was about the Mastery Rune? And didn't Yelm have a Mastery Rune also, of much the same reason?

Ejertson has good advice there. A C'thulhu scenario is essentially a detective novel with a horror theme. To enlarge on "Start with the ending", that doesn't mean figure out how you want it to end and work backwards, but something a bit different... Figure out the crime or event that draws the characters in (often the MacGuffin), then figure out all the steps it would take to get to that point and write them down, then figure out what clues these acts would leave. The more obvious clues might be hidden, but even hiding the clues might leave traces for characters to find. Obviously big stupid monsters don't hide clues, but clever enemies certainly do. You need to manufacture a trail of evidence for your players to follow, and working backwards from the start conditions of the story is the best way to do this. Some clues are physical, like "a distinct smell of acetone in the room", or "blue pus all over the cadaver", while others are documents, the ubiquitous and beloved "C'thulhu handouts". Every clue needs to go some way towards telegraphing the identity and intentions of the bad guys, but it is up to the players to arrive at the answers. Another thing to remember is the "ticking clock". Bad guys have an agenda they are pursuing, and if they are not stopped, they will start collecting their objectives unopposed. If the players dead-end and cry out for a hint, give it to them, but also remember to advance the enemy agenda as an equivalent "payment" for the hint. The players need to get a sense that time is a resource they can ill afford to waste once the plot starts to move. This helps to add dramatic tension to what is taking place and encourages them to complete your scenarios without dawdling or going off track. Then there are the "loose ends". In the process of fighting eldritch horrors, characters are often placed in legally ambiguous positions, and even outright commit crimes "for the good of humanity" to stop their enemies. The players themselves leave evidence of these crimes and will need to "sanitize" their crime scene if they don't want to wind up in jail themselves. Similarly, the bad guys will want revenge for any set-backs the characters cause, and will also be looking for evidence of whodunnit so they can send dimensional shamblers after them (they are the best assassination monsters btw as they cart their enemies off to a parallel dimension and they are never seen again). Remember, the players may be congratulating themselves on a victory which is entirely premature if they don't actively get rid of an entire coven/cabal/clique of enemies. Loose ends come back to haunt you.

I loved this post Ali. What a great find! You can just imagine this being part of some bronze age big wig's planning room decor. It definitely needs a Gloranthan equivalent.

I find myself agreeing with this and chuckling at the profound cynicism of it. It's a comparison I had never thought to make, and the real world implications... Let's just say that I snorted into my coffee when I read this. You've given me a very interesting insight into the antiquity of theme parks, and the white marble Grecian statuary of the gods that was garishly painted to make them seem more "real" take on a very different context. I wonder if the Pythia of Delphi had spruikers touting the attractions?

Idk about written source material, but the logical enemies are Tcho-tchos imo.

Split the party ? Really? There IS a Humakt Temple in New Pavis ffs. If your Humakti is not a "Sword Man" Praxian he may even feel more at home in New Pavis. Also it is much safer travelling Prax in a group. Suggestions: (1) There is a new clan of the Unicorn Riders being formed, and they are coming in to the Big Rubble to collect a Ceremonial Labrys, but they get attacked by Zorak Zorani. (2) Rubble Aldryami from the Garden petition the Yelornans for aid after trolls steal a precious bag of Bow Seeds that need to be recovered before some troll eats them. (3) A unicorn returns to the Yelorna Temple without his rider after he barely manages to escape from Morokanth ambushers but she is captured. What is worse, the rider is not being offered for ransom, which means that the Morokanth may have some darkness ritual in mind. A rescue is requested. (4) The Pavis Cult have uncovered interesting Yelornan information about the presence of the cult in Pre-Rubble Pavis. This is of immense interest to the Yelornans, but some unscrupulous scholars also want to get their hands on the document, and have hired thieves to steal them, or perhaps even Black Fang assassins to ambush the escort taking the document to the Yelorna Temple. (5) A Hero Questing document relating to Yelmalio and red blankets turns up in the Yelorna Temple attic, and someone needs to take it to the Sun Dome Temple. (6) The Zola Fel river seems to be spewing micro-gorps, and they seem to be a large problem in Manside. The Yelorna temple wall is not what it used to be, and this could be a problem during a solemn star ritual. (7) Am Argan Argar Merchant is apparently selling a priceless Yelornan cult treasure lost the the trolls 150 years ago. The price is unreasonably high, some 20,000L but it is worth twice that to the Yelornans, if only they had the money. The Lunars seem to want to buy it, as does some Esrolian noble for some reason. This cannot stand. (8) The Yelornans need escorts for a ransom/hostage exchange. There is a lot more going on, including the fact that the hostage is an illuminate in league with the very trickster who is ransoming her.

Is it just me or does Jar-Eel look quite a lot like Lois Griffin here?

I completely agree. When it comes to Empires, the logic of conquest seems to be that one needs to measure the lives lost in taking and the resources required to hold a piece of land are measured against the actual productivity, strategic importance of the land. If the land is rich, it is worth taking. If the land has a crucial choke point, it is worth taking. If the price of not occupying the land is continual invasion, it might be worth taking, or perhaps fortifying (see Hadrian's Wall and the Great Wall of China). Skanthiland is far easier to win with beads and trinkets than force of arms, and their hard life makes them tolerable light infantry and skirmisher mercenaries, and in that role they are far more valuable than for anything else their awful territory will provide.

You are correct Sunless Nick. Your 2 classic time monsters are the Hounds of Tindalos and the Great Race of Yith. Now we know that the ravenous Hounds have a 1 size fits all situations approach to humans; they eat them and leave them covered in blue pus. As to the Great Race, well, they are potentially far more nuanced and manipulative in their approach to humans who can see the future. That ability to see the short term future is likely something the Great Race would covet and seek to mechanize and duplicate. They would first seek to bring the individual possessing the ability into their orbit, and use them to test the ability repeatedly to see what readings they were receiving. Ultimately they would need to autopsy the human and pick over their "hardware" with precision instruments.

Good post lordabdul. Frankly the internet can actually compound a character's SAN loss and send them down rabbit-holes of immense stupidity chasing disinformation. Consider also, if you are a cultist, perhaps setting up and SYSOPing a website for the information in question will give you a great insight into the sort of people looking for the info. Are they recruitable? Or do they need to be destroyed. "The moderator was incredibly helpful" could be some truly famous last words.

Thanks for the clarification, but the issue that a fumble will not destroy them stands. Every 20% of skill they have will decrease their fumble chance by 1%, from 5% down to ultimately only a roll of 00.

So you are using a d20 rather than d100 to play RQG? There's you problem I'd say. Remind them that if they have a 60-70% chance that they only have a 2% chance to fumble, and that will go down as the ability increases. They will not be fumbling anything close to 5% of the time.

Simply put, you seem to have given your player a skill that has no limits to its use. It would have been better to limit its use with a Magic Point cost. Questions to ask... What happens to the ability when it fumbles? Is it "out for a day". How long does it take to activate the skill? 1 minute? 5mins? 10 Mins? What if the answer changes? Such as... Is it safe to open this door? Well it was... Divination is enormously subject to interpretation. If the character is a practicing religious type, they might find that their guardian angel wants them safe in heaven asap. Or... what happens to your psychic power when you go insane? Remember, you have to answer yes or no; never "maybe". There is no grey area. That, my friends, is truck sized loophole. If the player starts to game the system, give them the opposite result on the second try and then a SAN check when their power is malfunctioning because they are second guessing themselves and tying themselves in mental knots with anxiety. "Fear is the mind killer" after all, and a coward dies a thousand deaths etc. I have always found that smiling in a sinister fashion when you roll such checks is just great for player confidence in their abilities, or sighing and tutting... Then there is the issue of what happens when a time related monster encounters someone with Divination. This human who can dimly sense the paths of the 4th Dimension. How many ways to mess with them are there? The answer? Plenty! By and large, I have generally found in Call of C'thulhu, that if you give players any sort of power, they tend to use it extremely foolishly and wind up killing themselves with it, even something as apparently harmless as Divination. You probably won't even have to try particularly hard. Also, Divination is of no use in confrontation, it is only useful in avoiding confrontation, and sometimes that is not a good thing.

Your players have meta-ed themselves out of a huge advantage. If you succeed in your passion it is a free spell. Your chance of success is normally far higher than your chance of failure, and the sooner you reach 100% you won't really fail anymore. Are they really so very scared of an occasional -10% penalty? Do they fumble 90% of the time?