Rob Darvall

In the way-back-when I wrote a bunch of stories around this theme. 

The inspiration (read: source from which I stole shamelessly) was Katherine Briggs Dictionary of British Folk Tales.

One of my favorites is "Trout Tickling". A spell for catching trout by hand. It is obtained by the Amadii from Old Trout Head in exchange for making him laugh, usually with a FAILED dance roll. Children are taught how to do this through being told a fireside story (the one I wrote).

On 10/29/2021 at 9:44 PM, Monty Lovering said:

Eh, well I have two teenage (15/16) girls in my player group.

Slightly younger than my two (17/18) now. Both were under 16 when we started. Both have BG characters, though the older now plays her's as secondary to her CA. 

Is there a pattern anyone can see (IE: is this more widespread) or mere coincidence?

4 hours ago, Monty Lovering said:

Yup. Did the maths above. 50 minutes. 

Not an option really. 

OR you could use it as a tension ratchet at which point the maths is not really relevant. This allows you to cackle evilly while avoiding PC deaths at will.

1 hour ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

At the very least, I would have liked to see periodic opportunities to effectively re-test one's runic affinities throughout life.

Do they not already? An extreme example is the "relife sickness" which I play as an increase in the death rune. Other oportunities to test runes exist and fundamental change is possible. This is probably easier with power/form runes than elemental runes because none of the former are at 0%. Even so there are at least 2 elemental runes that  might overtake as the primary.

It'd really depend on how fine-grained you want to go. There are moves I find similar across halberd, longsword (Lichtenauer, Meyer style weapons), and walking stick. Yet if I go only slightly finer-grained there are huge differences between longsword and greatsword (Spadone, Montante, etc).

I've not trained with a kopis but the shape indicates a chopping weapon [weight forward etc as Baron Wulfraed says above] with a thrust ability which style would be much less effective used with the double edged southern swords with the weight more toward the hilt. Many of the muscle memory effects would play tricks on the wielder until they got used to the new weapon (AKA training). I'd think the kopis more different from the broadsword than the broadsword is from the longsword.

There are some people who can just pick up a new weapon and use it. Humakt can have them for all of mine.

If you want to adjust rules in line with RW experience you will probably wind up chasing your tail down smaller and smaller rabbit holes. The rules nod in passing to SCA experience and charge on with the game. The RW varies enormously between user (I frex have shoulder trouble and so can't use some of the higher guards as well), encumberance, style and balance of weapon etc. A long term user of one style of weapon may find their muscle development actually hinders the use of another style. Overdeveloped traps from work are part of my shoulder mobility issues. 

Suffice it to say I'll stick with the RAW because the kopis system would be a very different beast to the broadsword system. My take would be that a kopis user sufficiently experienced  to switch into another style intellectually easily would have embodied issues to penalise them.

AND what does your sword god think?

Just now, coffeemancer said:

Don't generally all orlanthi gods accept it except Chalana Arroy?

I'd say pretty much ALL gods except CA.
Mechanisms and triggers would be different, Hon Eel frex being much more likely to do so than Lankor Mhy.

14 hours ago, Eff said:

Which is to say, Babeester Gor is perhaps that part of Ernalda, or that part of the Greater Ernalda Ceremonial Complex, which suppresses the Nontraya instinct of taking and never giving. (I think Maran Gor suppresses an instinct of total passive benevolence, giving to all without ever taking.)

Thank you for this insight. My (much extended) Gifts of Prax interlude has gain another episode.

One of my players is an "Allied" spirit of a would be Khan of a near extinct sept of Rhino riders (another PC).
He can transfer between the Rhino and a Rhino-horn knobkerrie.

He's the much reduced wyter of the near extinct sept of Rhino riders so the question is who is the ally and who the primary partner in their relationship. The spirit naturally believes he is the important one.

Watching a 14yo role play a rhinoceros is proving endlessly entertaining.

4 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

On the flip side, a shrine might be uniquely specialized. Perhaps this is the only one in the world that knows the secret of Orlanth Frog-of-Thunder?

Aha! I now know where Balvor Foglegs's (PC in the current campaign.) journey is going.

Hibernate, like any sensible Odaylan.

18 hours ago, Jeff said:

Mechanically we find it very easy. Players go to their temples and that becomes a significant event. It becomes key pillars around which they structure in-game time.

On 8/3/2021 at 3:18 AM, AndreJarosch said:

...
BUT if you start an adventure that was PLANNED to takle only a week to accomplish but takes doubble the time (in the wilderness) you may have missed the holy day ceremony. 
...

 These two things work together at my table to produce an extra bit of urgency to beetling about Prax. Leading to low RP characters taking risks to get home in time. AKA plot hooks.

10 hours ago, dumuzid said:

How did 'training scrolls' work mechanically?  That's not treasure I've encountered in modern RQG

Potentially like the fechtbuch of the late middle ages onward. Technique described (with varying degrees of clarity) and hopefully accompanied by useful illustration. A good fechbuch could also increase the writer's Reputation, if he studies his Agrippa.

Spirit magic is proving vital to my players. The scenario has been tough enough that they are counting down the days until the next worship ceremony. And desperately scrambling to complete the quest and get back to a temple. As a result they're hording rune magic like it's 1980. Spirit spells are their go-to magic ATM.

Raveena remains one of my favourite pieces.

Her story can be seen on her body and face.

My Morocanth all sound like Frank Spencer (I've no idea how this happenned)

7 hours ago, brionl said:

But what if it's chocolate coated?

 

Even chocolate coated corpses won't swallow.

On 6/7/2021 at 6:50 PM, AndrewTBP said:

All of whom wear neck scarves, no doubt. 

Ascots surely?

What are the capital crimes in Orlanthi society?

I think I remember "Consorting with Chaos" being one. Crimes meritting formal capital punishment have probably put the criminal outside the honor system already.

On 5/24/2021 at 2:19 AM, PhilHibbs said:

It has occurred to me that a lot of Sartarite troublemakers were exiled to Dorastor, and now that the Lunars have been overthrown in Sartar, they could return. They might need help.

But what would they return with?
In The Far Place no one can hear you scream?

10 hours ago, Thoror said:

That would be awesome, but it doesn't seem likely. Maybe I'm wrong (I wish to be wrong), but I don't see the intelligentsia coming to consider Greg what he really was: one of the greatest creative minds of his time and the only creator (except maybe Tolkien) of constructed mythologies whose work has come close to capturing the complexity, ambiguity and overall-richness of real-world mythologies.

But hey, there have been others Vindicated by History. Only time will tell.

Remember that the intelligentsias' reaction to Tolkien was "Not another fucking elf. ..." and that was his friend. JRR is now a serious branch of literary scholarship. 
Now that postmodernism has openned the way for our little hobby to be considered as the serious collective creativity it is, I can see this happenning.

4 hours ago, Eff said:

It is surprisingly difficult to write Gloranthan fiction in a straightforward modernist mode.

Because it proceeds from a postmodernist premise. YGWV pretty much encapsulates postmodernism. Greg, Barker, and to a lesser extent Gygax, and their successors and collaborators have produced a genre that requires co-creation and multiple viewpoints on the world. The first two mentioned are highest up my list due to the coherence of their worlds. 

There's little point in comparing "their" creations to Tolkien. They inhabit different genres and philosophical approaches. 

2 hours ago, davecake said:

RQG only has atl-atls as spear throwers which were used as with light javelins/darts generally, but Australian indigenous traditions used spear throwers (generally referred to as woomera, one of the names for them in one of the hundreds of indigenous languages) with spears from 2.5 to 3 meters, and fairly heavy. They were used for both hunting of large game (such as kangaroo or emu), and combat. With a woomera they could throw large distances, or throw with great force at shorter distances - while they can propel spears well over 100m, 35m is a realistic range for accuracy useful in hunting. 

The same style of spear was used for throwing with a woomera, and for hand to hand use. The woomera came in a variety of styles, often shaped a bit like a very long thin bowl. It was often somewhat of a multitool, usable for holding liquids, mixing ochre, wide ones used as shields, sometimes with a quartz cutting blade near the handle. 

 

The bloke who showed us at school was hitting, reasonably consistently, large milo tins at the length of the running track. Which means he's hitting a roughly 200mm by 200mm target at 50m-ish. I never saw whether it penetrated or not. I also don't know if he was exceptional at it or not.

1 hour ago, g33k said:

not much noticing stuff like a mere riding-crop across the flanks...  much like their riders, come to think of it!

So why, exactly, are you striking rhino riders across the flanks with a riding crop?

19 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

That is the most accurate status we can provide.

And more than most of us expected.
Thanks.

There was once a fairly horrific take on Voriof that involved fighting Telmori through the mechanism of ritual cannibalism. While it was definitely non-canonical it was well done enough to provide an interesting perspective. You got a definite feeling of life on the edge and what Pratchett called "the dreadful algebra of neccessity."

My son just suggested etching it into a cliff face. A wall if you will.