Nevermet

And old Spolite who lives in a bog told me that Nysalor was the embodiment of imbalance. "Big, bright, arrogant imbalance" was their exact phrase, if I remember correctly. They then started ranting about how balance can only be restored when the surface falls back into the underworld. I quietly but quickly left when they started to skin a rabbit made of flame. Anyway, their point when they were still talking in a coherent language seemed to be that Nysalor's perfection was an inherently imbalancing thing, and therefore destined to failure. I think.

Worst Whackamole Variation Ever

Oh, I like that idea... that lots of humans didn't start as human before the Dawn. The Hsunchen are like this, but there's no reason there can't be other groups.

I'm sure she'd be happy to let you steal it. I really love how players who get Glorantha (or at least an aspect of it) can use the open-endedness of the HQ rules to their advantage I'm planning on their being a Humakti Duck troop they meet at some point, hired by Kaxtorplose to defend them against the Dragonewts.

Just a short update We had a short, 2 hour session this week. The previous session ended with the party handing an ogre over to the ruler of Selgos, and then going to bed. They're plan was get a good night's sleep, and then figure out the next move to hunt the ogres. The ogres, however, are proactive. The players have captured on of their own after killing another. So... they kill one of Greymane's men in the city and set a massive fire in the Welcoming Third (the merchant ward). The ogres are worried they won't have time to summon the cacodemon, so its time to unleash whatever mayhem they can, try to get Greymane's army involved just to create more potential for conflict, and then look for opportunities to tear things down. The party spent the session trying to figure out how to help with the fire, and investigating things after the fact. After many bad rolls, they finally realized one of the dead was a recruiter for Greymane. The player agenda are really starting to fuel the game. The healer is dumping every HP he can into spirit to become a shaman eventually. As a group, they are angling for all sorts of political power. And they're generally defining themselves more and more as anti-chaos hunters. Oh, and the bard came up with a neat idea: she wants magic, based off her Harmony rune and her connection to Donandar, to create a feat that detects the discordant rhythms of Chaos flowing through the world. I was happy with that.

The real Argrath were the friends you made along the way.

There's so much good stuff...

It comes and goes. Like a cycle 🤪

Man I was going to start a Manirian thread about the Elves today... but now I'm going to read all these links before I do so. This is what's good about a gaming community: people ask questions and offer answers that stumble into one another in interesting ways. Thanks for the homework, and Sten, I hope your game goes well

I'm loving this. It really feels like a setting that could work either as a place that characters from a more established campaign area, or as a campaign region in its own right. I look forward to hearing about how the Hero Wars come to the Muskox People.

I'm also tempted to say he was the Man of Gold who taught / controlled the Vaybeti

Thanks! I'm going to resist asking about timelines, because it's barely a fair question when there's not a global pandemic.

Things I to add to the game: First, I want more mythology & heroquesting. Right now, it's a bronze-age fantasy game where 3 non-combat characters struggle against an Eeevil conspiracy. It's not really about the gods, religion, the elder races, etc. I have a few plans on how to change this. I haven't done this yet for two reasons. First, as a GM, I'm more comfortable dealing with social-political webs rather than mythical ones. More accurately for Glorantha, it's all one web, but I'm comfortable focusing on the former strands rather than the latter strands of that web Because the players are new to Glorantha, I pepper them during the week with a couple images of distinctive Glorantha lore. The amazing pic of Heler that went around a week ago, the story of Arkat, etc. This week, I introduced them to the Ducks, and lo they were amazed I then made them rather disappointed when I told them there is not a Duck community in Maniria, and then I showed them a pic of the Newtlings. Upon hearing that the Dragonewts like to use them as slave labour, one of the players, bless their heart, suggested a future adventure where the characters go forth to set the Newtlings free from their bondage. They truly have no idea what they're suggesting, and it's glorious. I suspect I deal with the 1st point in spades to the point I take the second point seriously. I dunno how you'd try to deal with Dragonewts without serious mojo backing you up.

Give me time

We had an abbreviated game last night, but it was a case study in how dice can really help the story. Or, put another way, you know a game is going well when the players OOC laugh and cheer when an NPC gets a Major Victory for resisting their IC efforts. The events were very, very simple: They leave the small village they visited, with their captured ogre (Jim) in tow. Their goal is to hand him over to the Ruling Trader Prince of Selgos, to get his help in routing out the ogre conspiracy. They're paranoid about Ogre assassins attacking them or killing Jim, so they planned a lot to get Jim safely back to town. They get back to the city, talk their way through several gates, and then are left waiting, at dusk, to be allowed into the Princely Ward at the center of Selgos. While waiting, they begin to worry that they are being watched, and they harrass the gua rds into going and see what's taking so long. They manage to send all the guards away for a moment, at which point they realize they are alone in a usually busy courtyard. Panic sets in. Panic leads to them breaking the gate lock and getting into the Princely Ward, just as the guards were returning to escort them to the Steward of Selgos. Steward Dom appears to the Court Pavilion at roughly the same time the PCs do, accompanied by his guards and still donning his regalia. He is a tall, rough looking man, whose age is amplified by his Patrick Stewart level of baldness. The Merchant PC whose distinctive trait is "Always Likeable" charms the pants off the Steward, offering a powerful tale of how they came to be investigating the ogres. The Steward has Jim the Ogre escorted away, and asks the PCs to continue investigating. They will talk more in the morning. Meanwhile, the Skald PC peers into the darkness around the Court, and sees a figure standing there, motionless. She points it out to the Steward, who also peers into the darkness, only to recognize him as the Chief Wizard of the Great Tomb of Castelein, and the Steward's Brother-in-Law. Suspicious, the skald demands to know why he was in the darkness. The Wizard explains he heard a commotion, came, and then stopped, stunned, when he heard talk of ogres. All the PCs agreed he seemed amazingly sincere and honest. That doesn't sound like a lot. But each of those bullet points involved rolls by the players they were genuinely worried about. They constantly were looking over their sheets to see what they could possibly use to make a solid roll or augment a roll. They've figured out they can assist each other. Also, because EVERY roll is resisted, they were only slightly suspicious when I had the Wizard roll to resist them trying to see if he was lying. When they all rolled ok, but not great, and then he rolled a critical with a bump, they all started laughing hysterically. It was the first 1 I have rolled as a GM. And they immediately all just jumped on the idea that this Wizard is AMAZING. "I want to lend him money!" on exclaimed. This continues to be a light game, but everyone is having fun, and the group is working well together.

Exactly! Plus her primary specialty (long-distance trade) are very relevant to my interests in Maniria.

Alas, she is not a gamer. She is an archaeologist, however, which makes her reactions to Glorantha amusing. 🤣

Agreed, especially because Lendarsh seems to have stabilized ("unified" seems to strong) Peloria before the Dawn. One of the things about Pelanda that always fascinates me is how much their religious traditions are overtly evolving throughout history and even before time. Before Lendarsh, you have the groups surviving the Darkness in various ways, including Velortina, the debate about whether Natha & Daxdarius are High Gods, etc, etc, etc. And after the Dawn, you have the Gbaji Wars, Spol, Carmania, the Lunars.... its a place with deep myth and magic, but its not stable.

Want? Totally. Can justify to myself & spouse? Not so much.

Loving it, but I have nothing to really add. Sorry!

This thread is very useful for me, thank you.

After a certain level of power, Heroes in Glorantha are almost required to be forces of nature pretending to be horrible people.

I look forward to reading your reactions to the Sourcebook & Guide. And if your username means you're bringing some Mesoamerican mythic perspectives to the forum, I'm even more excited to see you

The only other thing I can think to mention is to remember when we're talking, and from what POV. Sartarites in 1630 will have a distinct opinion that may not be generalizable to too cultures at all times.

Hi Just double checking, I had a few questions about the Middle Sea Empire Were they Hrestoli, generally speaking? If so, they had some understanding of Joy, correct? I assume they had castes, correct? I can't seem to find it now, but I remember reading somewhere they loosened castes to allow for meritocratic rise through the imperial bureaucracy. I'm assuming that would be (from their POV) an "innovation" on Hrestolism?