Darius West

There is a strange supposition in the rules, which is that lances in Glorantha are routinely couched for a charge, in the fashion of knights and lancers. In fact, this plumments us back into the ugly territory of "the stirrup question". Is it even possible to stay mounted if you couch a lance while having no stirrups? I have long felt that this is something that the RQ rules completely needed to address but didn't, if only to just end the discussion. The fact is, however, that cataphracts didn't have stirrups, and didn't couch their lances, but instead had pike length spears that they used in a 2 handed grip, over their heads. You are gonna need some STRONG thighs.

I actually strongly doubt that Solar Society has balls. This was not a feature of Ancient or Classical life on Earth, so why would it be in Glorantha either? I suspect the idea of chaperones, matchmakers, and arranged marriages, with a bit of awkward conversation under the hawkish gaze of a black clad grim faced widowed aunt is far more likely. The whole Romeo soliloquy beneath the balcony, and subsequent climb and "seduction" would be considered a chaotic act in Yelmish society. The birth of a bastard child will lead to ogres.

Solar pantheon grabs me as having a lot of arranged marriages rather than ideas of Fine Amor. Much more Apollonian rather than Dionysian. I daresay that the culture of Yelm would likely regard Fine Amor as scandalous and provocative, and providing far too much space for female misbehavior.

It might be worth having a peek at the current edition of Warhammer Fantasy RPG. The present WFRPG system has interesting mechanics that definitely reward higher skill quite neatly.

I choose not to play HQ. Trollkin will fight more effectively if they use the benefits of a create shadow rune spell.

Agreed. This is how RQ3 handled it. I would also draw people's attention to page 167 of RQ:RiG, and "training riding animals", wherein it says that if you have a riding skill of 50%+ you can train an animal to rideable status, but only a master of Ride (90%+) can train mounts to cavalry or warbeast status. I would suggest that skills like Animal Lore, and Beast Speech could be used in a similar way for training hunting animals. The notion being that you can train dogs and shadow cats to co-ordinate in hunts relatively easily, but you need to be a master in those skills to train them to fight humans in a melee. Remember that you need to actually know how the animals fight most effectively in order to train them to do so, and that is difficult, but training them to hunt (as they sort of know how to cooperate in a hunt alread), is easier. If you want to overthink it, you could allow players to train their animals to understand and follow 1 type of targeted order per 10% of skill. This could be anything from "flush partridge from bush" to "hump fool's leg". Back in RQ3 with the concept of fixed intelligence, you could potentially limit the number of commands an animal could learn to their fixed int, but not it will probably have to be based on the trainer's skill.

Argan Argar is not primarily a war deity. Argan Argar is a troll deity of mediation between the trolls and the surface folk. His "mercenaries" are swarms of spear armed trollkin, and they are just fine at what they do i.e. be cheap disposable arrow fodder. There is more than one way to hunt. Yinkin is not primarily a god of hunting, but of shadowcats, while Odayla is a god of bears. You don't necessarily need a ranged weapon to hunt as animals in the wild amply prove. It is perfectly possible to hunt by scent or ambush or pursuit. For example the classic trick of using beater to flush game towards a hide where the hunters wait in ambush is a classic. Not every hunter is a sniper. Yelmalio is not a warrior god but a soldier god. Yelmalios are supposed to fight in formation as part of a unit of phalangites, or as archer skirmishers. Yelmalio Sun Lords are supposed to manage the files of these combat units. Potentially, due to frontage, a person fighting a line of Yelmalios will be facing 3-9 sarissa attacks per round, and it only takes a single impale to ruin their whole day. In short Yelmalions fighting as individuals don't get shield as a spell, but that is an advantage that Elmal worshippers should have over them. Yeah Barbeester Gor is grossly and unapologetically OP, but they are rare enough that you can learn to live with it. It also makes them more satisfying to kill.

That would be a terrible mistake imo. Elmal is a separate deity in every way that matters, as it represents a completely separate tradition, tied to the Storm Pantheon not the Solar Pantheon. To disallow the overlap of these different traditions is to ignore something at the core of what deities are in Glorantha. For example, we know that Yelmalio loses his fire on the Hill of Gold to Zorak Zoran, but if a Yelmalio Sun Lord defeats their troll adversary during their hero quest on that hill, they gain fire powers. Well... None of this story is part of Elmal's story. Elmal guarded Orlanth's stead against the incursions of chaos. Elmal never went to the Hill of Gold, as he was already in the service of Orlanth at the time. Yes, this is before Time and gods could be in 2 or more places at once, but nobody addresses what that means. To my mind, the best answer to how to handle this idea is that gods are geographical, and just because Gloranthans "anthropomorphise" them so they can understand them, doesn't mean that is what they are. Gods are simultaneously in all the places that they interacted with in God Time, but more in some places than in others, in much the same way that a traumatic event in an area may cause a haunting, even if there was no actual death involved. So while every deity has a "holy of holies" where their "body" is stored in stasis, their connection is also to all of the mythic sites that they co-inhabit. Deities are static, and that is how they have become eternal. Now only the actions of their worshippers hero questing can slowly and incrementally change their myths. This is especially true post God Learners, as the God Learners definitely exploited this ability to manipulate deities. In this respect, the invisible God is wise; it is hard to manipulate what you can't detect, and what humans worship they will eventually understand and will ultimately seek to dominate.

I would make it your classic urban versus rural culture clash. I mean, Elmali still have their fire rune and so can use fireblade and firearrow, but they don't have the Chaotic Severed Head magic of the Yelmalios.

As the Inuit invented them, perhaps we should use their name for them? That is the long standing convention in English.

Scrabble is huge with the Inuit population.

I don't think option 3 is correct given how the canon lines up.

It is based on an old Italian siege bread made with soda. For obvious reasons, siege cuisine is often a bit of an acquired taste, but often serves as a way to experience unusual new foods.

I would save that for when someone begins the inevitable Griffin Grapple/Plummet routine. Summon an air elemental too soon and the Griffins will likely claw it apart. Edit: Yanioth: "Griffins? I don't remember any Griffins up there Vasana." Vostor: "Yes, Yanioth was singing and smiling the whole way up."

Eskimo snow goggles are called "iggaak", or "inuktitut". A pity they aren't in the dictionary, as you can't use those words in Scrabble.

He mixes a mean mojito too.

I am pretty sure that Yelm makes a troll's eyes water. Trolls share a man rune, and all the emotions that the man rune gets imo. They are alien enough in other ways.

Wow. This cover is a TPK in the making. None of the party has a climb skill over Base (40%) + Agility bonus. As the griffins close in Yanioth has a grin on her face as she is unencumbered and isn't engaged in a fight against griffins on a mountain ledge. "Climb a mountain, she says... Easy ticks she says..." - Vishi Dunn's player.

Why stop there? If everyone is dead, there is peace and equality for all. Zombies have no peer pressure. - Quote from Gark the Calm.

Everyone knows that death can bring life, but the illuminates will try to persuade you that death and life are the same thing... Then kill you.

In short, yes. Arkat mainly kept the info to himself. The God Learners later found Arkat's notes in an otherwise innocuous text with a misleading cover they had imported accidentally from a Stygian Empire deceased estate library sale (if memory serves me correctly).

Far and away the best source I can find is "Under the Red Moon" for HQ. It names the White Moon "Zaytenera", and lists 14 sub-denominations of White Moon organizations that follow different interpretations of the prophecy. Most of the organizations have weird sexual hangups, either preaching a single gender, or chastity, or orgies, or nudism. Two organizations stand out for their violence, the Mob of Truth (think Paris Mob), the Pale Flame (arsonists), and the Prescient Army (who await the day when they will rise up for their goddess Erema). This seems in many ways to be like the many faces of Arkat in Safelster. It is also worth pointing out that the Zayetnera Rune is a mis-drawn peace rune that lacks the central bar of the "defense" rune of Furthark that was popular in the 1960s, being instead equal thirds of a circle. I draw your attention to the God's Wall, Row 1, Deity 2, who is "Zayteneras" and carries the appropriate rune. The entry reads "Zayteneras: overseer of Senthoros. Master of Transcendence. He is also called Messenger of Above. He never sets foot on the foul Earth which is why he has no feet." There is also an italicised entry that says that the Lunars identify Zayteneras/Zaytenera as one of the seven ancient Moon Goddesses, and calls her "She who comes". Crucially when it comes to the White Moon, the issue is that they are pacifists who ultimately "kill for peace", and the moral absurdity of the act paralyzes the empire. Now the fact is, a Chalana Arroy who is Illuminated can do just that, but Zaytenera isn't Chalana Arroy. It is also intrinsic to illumination for such contradictions to "awaken" people, as they destroy the ability to think rationally, and a lot of mysticism devolves into doctrines of exterminating rational thought. So, is this fundamental contradiction hiding in the heart of illumination a bad thing? Well, potentially if you are being ruled by the Monster Empire, and you want peace,( much like, say, the war weary Russian people in October 1917), perhaps killing for peace becomes a feasible action, especially if your spiritual terrorism will illuminate countless people with the implicit contradiction involved in a Nysalor Mega-riddle and semi-heroquest that paralyzes the empire and its ability to wage war. I would point out another thing. With the fall of Whitewall, Orlanth is dug up and "dies", only to be replaced by Orlanth Rigsdal. It is distinctly possible that the death and dismemberment of Rufelza will make the place for Zaytenera in the same way. Does this mean that the Storm/Moon wars will continue reincarnation after reincarnation, or will there finally be peace? The dynamic of Gloranthan history has been that when any group within time is oppressed too mightily, they eventually turn the tables on their oppressors, and no deity may be exterminated within time, or the Compromise will turn against the would-be killers. But after Argrath's failed Net ritual, how many deities are left?

The God Learner Secret is the RuneQuest Sight, which allows the 4th wall of roleplaying to be breached. It is literally access to the RQ Rule Book so you can munchkin the crap out of it. Case closed. Did Arkat do it first? Yes.

Well... This is not quite what I expected to find when I came to this Forum Topic. I was under the misapprehension that it would relate to issues of real world info translating into Glorantha, and when mythology should over-rule RL info. Instead I get people getting harassed for religious beliefs they don't even adhere to by religious fanatics. This is actually pretty bad. Perhaps someone needs to educate people about what the 4th Amendment of the US Bill of Rights says?