Nevermet

That poor, innocent (of this crime) ogre. tsk tsk... Of course... that ogre's kin are not pleased.

Post Mortem So.... everyone continued to have fun, which is great. This is the first time I'd gamed with 2 of them, and I hadnt gamed with the 3rd in ... 15 years? So I'm very happy it went well. I was surprised how much they went in for an amoral, swords & sorcery attitude of how to deal with things. Zero interest in chivalry or honour. But none of them did anything beyond the pale, and they were all on the same page, so it worked fine. I was VERY loose with the rules... we rolled 1 group contest in 4 sessions, and no extended contests. I feel that worked ok for now, but more crunch will actually make things more interesting moving forward. Also, the fact that sessions are 2.5 hrs is working well for us online, as its short enough that we can do it on a weekday night and everyone can stay focused. Moving Forward Partly because of the pandemic, everyone is excited to keep playing. So, over the next week I am offering to help them edit their characters any way they want. I made them all, like a con scenario, so I'm fine with them tinkering with them to make them their own. None of the players wanted a whole new character, which I find interesting. I also gave them 4 scenarios of what happens next. So far, they are leaning toward getting into the religious politics of Selgos. Which.... heh. FINE BY ME 😈

This was the final session of my murder mystery. At the end of last session, two key things happened: The party discovered the murderer of the caravan boss - a scholar who the boss was blackmailing into translating some ancient texts. The scholar poisoned the boss, demanding his freedom in exchange for the antidote. The Caravan Boss died rather than admit defeat, which shocked the scholar. The party discovered there is ogre trouble on the caravan! Well.... it's actually more complicated than that: A rich noblewoman was trying to join a cacodemon cult to save her family's fortune. An ogre, masquerading as a hunter hired by the caravan, has made contact with her The noblewoman's assistant witnessed the murder, and was killed by the murderer scholar. The ogre and desperate noble had nothing to do with the murder, but they also were aware things were going bad for them, so they fled into the woods. The party, deciding ogres MUST BE INVOLVED IN THE MURDER, grabbed the NPC Pralori warrior who is the head of caravan security, and they went to hunt the ogre down. The hunter NPC was tougher than any of the PCs. She's an ogre, afterall, and the big bad. But I didn't really expect things to go the way they did. So, 3 non combat PCs and a warrior NPC marched into the woods to find an ogre and human collaborator. I rolled this as a simple contested group challenge - the image I had in my mind is they're walking through the woods and a stream of arrows terrifies them and sends them scattering. ... However, they all rolled amazingly, and my poor ogre rolled horribly, resulting in a major victory for the PCs. Now, since they all took defensive moves, I didn't rule this as physical injury for the ogre. Rather, the ogre was now stuck up a tree in plain sight, and any attempts at moving or getting out of the tree would result in her having massive penalties. If she tried to get out of the tree, she was toast. And she knew it. The PCs, on the other hand, were aware she still had plenty of arrows. So... they decided to parlay. The ogre made an offer: She had nothing to do with the murder, but she'd happily give them the human noblewoman collaborator, in exchange for letting her go. At this point, the players, who are all new to Glorantha, stopped and asked me about Ogres, and then asked me about Chaos. After my explanation, which was very much an Orlanthi perspective (2 PCs are Wenelians, and 1 is a Trader Princess), they agreed to agree to the ogres deal, and then double cross her, cuz "Screw Chaos." 😵😅 Long story short, they set the tree on fire while throwing javelins at her. She rolled badly, and the NPC warrior rolled well, and she was squashed. They then bound the ogre, collected the human collaborator, and marched back to camp. And this is where things got rather special: the PCs gave all humans second chances: they acknowledged the caravan boss was a total bastard, so they let him go in exchange for the texts he was translating (they were treatises about water magic of all sorts). They also exacted many promises from the noblewoman to help them move into the trade networks around her city of Selgos, and she agreed. As for the ogre, well, they decided to have the caravan execute her as a public execution of sorts.

I should know the answer to this, but I've read the HQG rulebook, and I'm not 100% sure. Let's say I'm making a character that I want to specialize in spirit magic by joining a spirit society, or a character who has learned spells through a grimoire. Is the only way to do this for the character to start with the Spirit or Law rune respectively, or can they somehow gain access to magic through their cultural keyword?

Over on a FB group, I just got done babbling about how some theological concepts apply to heroquesting, so... I sympathize.

I have also kept things very rules light so far: No extended contests, no momentum rules, and no community resource rules. If we keep moving forward after next week, I'll add those in.

FInished my 3rd session of my online murder mystery game. Here is a bulleted list of what happened: MURDER SOLVED: The PCs kept circling the mystery of 1+1, so I asked them to make some rolls for help putting pieces together. The players seemed totally ok with it, though I'm not sure that would have been the right move for all groups. Anyhow, because of this, things moved VERY quickly, and they solved the murder! Put simply, the Caravan boss was blackmailing many of the people on the caravan, including the PCs. One of the NPCs, a scholar from Saltcastle, who was being blackmailed did not appreciate the situation: he was given a very slow-acting but lethal poison, and was being forced to translate ancient texts for the caravan boss in exchange for the antidite. The NPC decided to turn the tables on the boss, poisoning him with something that was just as lethal but much quicker. In exchange for his freedom, the NPC would give the boss the antidote to HIS poison. ...The Caravan Boss, seemingly out of a heroic level of spite, decided to die instead. The NPC was not expecting this, and put him into a panic. Weekend at Bernies. One of the things the PCs all agreed to which I did NOT SEE COMING is that they have kept the murder of the boss from the rest of the caravan. Play has been a bit too fast for me to really make this an issue, but it's still hilarious to me. In the 3rd session, they FINALLY informed the caravan's head of the watch, a hulking pralori warrior with a hyper-intelligent elk. They learned how to use Hero Points in their attempts to chill the Pralori out, who was feeling very unhappy about being lied to. Those poor, innocent... Ogres? One of the other NPCs on the caravan is noblewoman and a cacodemon cultist. An actual ogre had infiltrated the caravan as a hunter to make contact with her to set up Cannibalistic Schemes (tm) for the city they were arriving in (Yolanda). Unfortunately, a murder occurred they had no part in. Worse, the noblewoman's personal servant witnessed the poisoning and murder. Worse, there were rumours on the caravan about ogres already. All of this has made the ogres start to panic, and they have fled into the wood. When the PCs realized people had fled the caravan camp, they immediately searched the tents, and found cacodemon ritual items. They are now convinced the ogres had something to do with the caravan boss' death, and they are putting together a posse to go into the deep upper woods of Maniria, chasing after chaotic cultists, cuz PCs gonna PC. It's very easy for me to find things I didn't do well, but the fact remains my players are having a blast. Next session will be the last of our little mini-campaign, and then we'll decide what to do next. At least definitely wants to keep his current PC. It is entirely possible I will spend the entire summer running a relatively light-hearted, social skill-heavy Manirian caravan campaign. And that makes me happy.

Agreed. My primary inspiration has been the Clue movie, and that's not changing for this game.

People are having fun. The super short story that emerged during the session: They have continued to investigate people the PC cook of the caravan has befriended the amoral bookkeeper and confidant of the murdered caravan boss they really have it down to 2-3 suspects there's been another murder. Things I love that they're doing: They're trying to keep the murder a secret from the rest of the caravan until they solve it. They are working fast, so I haven't had a chance for this plan to blow up in their faces. I love how proactive they are all being. They are not waiting to have clues fall in their lap; they are running around and doing things, trying very hard to solve the murder.. They keep forgetting to use Hero Points for poor rolls. I've started reminding them, which helps. One of them at the end of the session decided to spend a HP to cement the experience of befriending the bookkeeper, which was great. I'm very happy I created a scenario that was extremely setting lite in its orientation. They know the Trader Princes are a network of cities and trade routes connecting 2 very urban and "civilized" areas, and they know a few other things. But really, any setting info more than 2 steps away from "somebody killed the caravan boss!" is unnecessary right now, and allows them to just have fun. I'm planning on wrapping things up next week, maybe the week after that. This was a light, simple, goofy mini game, and everyone is enjoying it. I'll be curious what people want to do next.

I love that my players have decide to hide the murder for a while.

As an aside, I really enjoy this forum as a pretty open space to discuss a gloriously immense gaming setting.

I really love the God Runes, btw

The PCs didn't know them, so it's ok 🤗

Tomorrow night is my second session of my online HQG game, Caravan Calamity. Last session, the PCs discovered the body of their Caravan boss, started collecting evidence at the scene, and also became worried about the social-political consequences of the boss dying. As all three players are new to Glorantha and Heroquest, I am slowly bringing them up to speed. Setting-wise, they are aware they are on a caravan, and they know Elves are humanoid trees. This session they'll be introduced to Chaos, or at least the threat of Chaos, as someone will be starting a panic that there is an Ogre on the caravan! The ACTUAL Ogre on the caravan is rather upset at this rumour, as he's far too smart to kill the head of the caravan in the middle of nowhere.... that's just stupid. In terms of rules, I'm introducing extended contests and using Hero Points. Core things I know: I know who actually killed the caravan boss: a Trader Princess on the caravan, who is trying to taker over his freelance spy network. I know this was witnessed by a scholar from Solung who is on the caravan. The murderer is currently unaware of this, but if the players are sloppy they may inform her. I know which NPCs care, don't care, and are happy the caravan boss (who had a penchant for blackmail) is dead. I'm planning on re-reading the rules on long-term benefits to make sure I know how that works, so there is a mechanic to help them put the pieces together if they don't themselves. So... yeah. Wish me luck. I'll be back over the weekend to let yo uknow how it went.

This thread is fully outside the realm of what I can talk intelligently about, but I am following.

Looks like I'm going to be doing a close reading of the Entekosaid. Again. Wimper

To elaborate, up until this thread, I had been of the opinion that Ganestarus was a darkened aspect of Lodril / Turos. (I can argue this relatively well given the Entekosaid... I thought) I'm now rethinkng a lot.

And I can sympathize with that perspective to an extent, as it does seem almost petty to understand and know the infinite and essential forces of the universe to cast 3rd level Magic-User spells.

Well, that blows my mind, especially given that the Entekosaid came out in 1996, so it would be reasonable to assume his thinking didn't change THAT dramatically between the two. I'm too busy being fascinated to be upset how much that upends some things I concluded.

I suddenly feel like a lot of Carmanian and Western magic feels like magic at the beginning of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, where Serious Magic (tm) is a theoretical exercise, and actually using magic is looked down upon by a certain type of haughty Vizier. ....Of course, that all changes as the Lunar Empire begins to have "issues", Charg appears, and Carmania decides to save the Arrolian Properties. My God.... I kinda wanna run this now. Help.

Agreed. The more I think about what is "proven" regarding the mythological structure of Glorantha, the more a phrase from philosopher John Dewey comes to mind: less truth or proof and more "Warranted Assertability." Have I done things that seem to give me permission to make a claim (aka "Does it Work?").

My next paycheck is Friday. I will be buying this Friday.

I guess I could just as easily ask what runes are associated with Idovanus and play the antonym game. Idovanus / Ganestoro Law / Disorder (possibly Chaos) Truth / Illusion Light or Fire / Darkness (this would work well for the versions of Idovanus that get equated with Yelm.

Also, I just started 2 threads, and I want to make something clear: Currently, IMG, I do not believe Bijiif is Ganestoro. (I have completely different heretical understandings of Ganestoro 😎 )

Also, I just started 2 threads, and I want to make something clear: Currently, IMG, Bijiif is not Ganestoro.