Rob Darvall

4 hours ago, Stephen L said:

I wondered if buying the "Armies of Dragon Pass" is the best place to start...

Absolutely. This was the use that first drew me to Martin's work. The illustrations are worth the outlay by themselves.

"You see a group approaching dressed like this, with one of these riding slightly ahead and to your left"

But does it have a write up of Kyger Litor?😇

23 hours ago, Diana Probst said:

Yep.  Or possibly have it not fail, which would be even worse in the long run.

My son just suggested he'd accidentally invent Extention 6 just as he cast Become Female.

2 hours ago, Diana Probst said:

I laughed.  Out loud.

Eurmal would totally pull that trick.

And have it fail at the worst moment.

18 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

"Initiates (commonly known as Axe Sisters) must never love, make love, have sex, become pregnant, or even fake affection with anything but their goddess." - Sartar Companion

And yet

"Her husbands or lovers vary, and there are some ghildren (sic) as well." Wyrm's Footnotes 9

And works well with Jane's myth of Humakt and the Earth Tribe (which is now part of my variant canon; /makes desperate lunge for topic relevance.)

5 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

However, when Waha turned to the cleansing of the Devil’s corpse, Brother Dog .... stole the withered, leathery member and ran off into the wastes to bury it, returning in secret to roll and gnaw upon it.  But when left alone, the Bone’s malignant nature continued to sire many lesser evils that plagued the land with foul odors and stains upon the landscape.  ...

Which could also account for the Orlanthi dislike of dogs. They're too close to Prax and the myth and attitude has seeped in.

1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

did someone pea on yer pie?

Adelaide habit. Southerners, no accounting for them.

2 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

... (or eat vegetables...)

So much for those canned peas then, hey Bill?

29 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Like opening a can of peas... 

Very mushy peas, for topping pies presumably.

8 hours ago, gochie said:

That's not a reason for rape being chaotic, that's just saying rape is chaotic because Chaosium said so. 

We're trying to figure out a logical reason for why rape is chaotic, whether Chaosium has one or not. 

By that line of reasoning there's no reason for Ernalda having Earth powers, or Orlanth any sky affinity. The Greater Darkness can be handwaved away.

It's ALL because Chaosium said so.

Chaos is part of Thed's nature just as Air is of Orlanth. Rape is part of Thed's nature*, just as Movement is of Orlanth. Remove one of those and they are no longer that god. This is the basis for the hero wars. Sedenya/Rufelza/whoever-she-is-this-wane trying to replace Orlanth's Air.

To say that the gods are what they are because Chaosium says so is both true, and useless.

The nature of the gods has to form the premise for the argument or else we're back to "it's just a game". Here the gods' natures are part of the rules that delineate the game. This argument singles out one god/rule for exclusion because of  (purported) disagreement with the outcome of that rule.

*And has been so for as long as I can remember playing.

22 hours ago, Glorion said:

.... Therefore, to hell with logical consistency or anything else...

One quibble here. Thed is the mother of Wakboth by Ragnaglar (yes I do use the Edwards essay). 
The mythology of their position IS internally consistent. Yes because Chaosium/Greg "made" it consistent at least (but also more than) for the reasons you state, but it is consistent.

Horrible acts by 21C liberal secular humanist standards do not have to carry the same moral weight in other cultures, and we are "playing the other" here, even if we are imposing our own veneer. Cannibalism (as enthusiasticly embraced by the player of our BG) has a role in the mythos BUT can slide into chaos. Rape starts as chaos and slides from there.

NB The Gore Hag and possibly Cacodemon feature in the BG's future.

18 hours ago, gochie said:

..., but murder is less evil than rape? Not sure you want to argue that. 

Yes I would argue that for certain degrees and types of murder. But not here as this is my safe space.

I acknowledge that I am inconsistent with what I will argue. Think lines and veils.

On 2/20/2020 at 5:04 PM, Qizilbashwoman said:

i mean that's kind of the entire point of the thing. if you eat other humans, you're an ogre. 

Or one of the Gors with divine ritual as justification/shield. 

Both Ana and Maran Gor have legitimate and mythically neccessary places in the cosmology.

On 2/20/2020 at 8:15 AM, Qizilbashwoman said:

... The Chaos Sun is probably the famine god, not Shargash...

Little happy dance. This kind of in depth thinking is why I come back here (OK I'm a nerd)

On 2/20/2020 at 5:22 AM, Sir_Godspeed said:

That's fair, but I wonder what, conceptually, separates wantonly butchering down innocent villagers while rampaging across the countryside high on bloodthirst not caring who you kill or for what reason (*ostensibly* Shargash and ZZ) from wantonly torturing just for the sheer heck of it (ostensibly Ikadz). 

Conceptually, what was done and by whom in the god time. Both Shargash and Zorak Zoran went on murder sprees to preserve the world from chaos.

"Who cares about a little collateral damage" IIRC.

45 minutes ago, Diana Probst said:

... - I have to try not to get obsessive.

Good luck with that. This place can get VERY "Digesty" very quickly. (Not that this is a bad thing. I quite enjoy it, but it can lead to rabbit-holes at 2am)

Before you know it there are windmills everywhere.

7 hours ago, Dissolv said:

Magical endurance is even more of a factor in RQ:G, and I strongly favor forcing the players to work hard to manage their Rune points. 

My players have the scribe tracking the holy days and adventure time and will abandon loot oportunities to bolt for the nearest temple just to regain those RP.

We play out the worship services.

Faltikus is becoming their bete noir as he blocks Orlanthi power gains when he can.

I'm against it.

1) It complicates an already slow system.

RW combat is fast; whether it be a bar brawl or the blosfechten they do at Swordfish. The third minute of table flipping (the book kind. Flip-the-table is a different sort of excitement) loses the audience/players.

2) RQ combat is stated to be an abstracion of all the feints, binds, mastercuts, parries, blocks, pommel throwing,and ripostes the fighter used to land the blow. Blow by blow detail loses this.

3) It's been tried and found wanting. By many people.

Largely because it slows the game but also because it means that combat pulls focus. The game already has a combat system notorious for its lethality, but also primed to create dramatic hooks.

Your shield strap breaks. The tension of the fight ratchets up. Whereas another round of "I strike and special so now we're going into the bind, my opponent has countered that" actually bores my audience of 10yo boys (the natural demographic for gore-filled combat).

4) It dumps more book-keeping on the GM once again detracting from narration.

5) I'm one of the "many people" I mentioned at #3.

Creating the rules was very satisfying. Applying them was a complete pain; to the point where I came to dread combat because it brought the story to a complete halt while we rolled endless dice.

That said if tracking all this floats your goat and entertains your players, go for it.

14 hours ago, g33k said:

I particularly like this, as it implies the Oakfed shaman is carrying, maintaining -- and spreading as they travel to new places -- one singular gigantic fire!

This fire -- right here, in this gourd (or pot, or whatever) is the same fire that has burned all across Prax, deep into the Wastes, up into Pent on raids, out to trade (and raid) in Sartar.  This fire burns everywhere.

I imagine some special rituals when two Oakfed shamans meet ... joining their fires into one, each taking a bit of the resulting fire when they leave.  When they do that, each takes a piece of the others' "fire history" and puts it into their own Sacred Fire, spreading into one singular Great Fire that burns everywhere any Oakfed shaman goes...

Stolen.
And it is the same fire that Kindled/was Kindled by Oakfed when he defeated [insert name of enemy here]  in the [ Godtime, Green Age, Darkness?], which we have kept burning ever since.

5 hours ago, Mugen said:

Don't forget that not all skills are equal either, and a +25% to Play(Instrument) or Farm is very likely to have less impact on the game than a +5% in Dodge, Search or First Aid.

EH? That would shock my players who go into battle with bagpipes playing for the augment.

So much so that the piper is now over 100% in bagpipes and not teaching only because the Lunars have banned them within the walls of New Pavis; classing them as a weapon.

His music has often been the difference between heavy and light casualties.

1 hour ago, Shiningbrow said:

Q: are Olympic fencers (and other athletes at that level) at only 100%? Or are they higher???

Based on my experience of fencing one (and he well past his prime) they're well over. They can make a lesser fencer (me) put their sword wherever they want, openning up any line of attack they choose.

18 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Ohh Rob.... Y’all know me so well!

I rolled a 1 when I aimed that one then.

8 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

All of then saying..."He's Vargast, not me."

Add triplets from a Bless Pregnancy.

Cue Benny Hill chase music.

16 hours ago, Joerg said:

There are 450 Varmandi in total. How many 25 year-old Vargasts who are leaders do you expect in that clan?

In my first year of uni there were 4 Robs in a cohort of 25. My son in a class of 21 had 2 other Connors. Just on my anecdotal experience ( and more of the same as it repeated in most of the uni classes I taught) I'd expect 3 to 4 Vargasts in any cohort of around 20. More if the clan is less cosmopolitan than Melbourne in the early 2000s (pretty much a given).

And mine is a society in which given names carry very little to no mythic significance. Compare the prevalence of Patrick and Michael among early 20th C Irish populations. Even then they did not have various ancestors dropping in to potentially take offence at the current naming practices.

conclusion: Vargasts are able to multiply to the extent that confusion is required in your game.

If it serves to have them be the same, then they are. If it serves better that the PCs be confused, then they are.

(now I have an idea for a Eurmali casting Create Illusory Nomenclature. "Can we call you Bruce to save confusion?")

4 hours ago, David Scott said:

It was probably Warhamster.by Sandy Petersen in Tales 12. https://www.shopontheborderlands.co.uk/product/tales-reaching-moon-issue-12/

search in this site for more info.
 

Nope, but my marginalia in ToTRM 12 have led me to p85 of ICE's War Law.
Many thanks.

Thanks Bill

ToTRM wasn't it?

A long time ago someone wrote some Battle rules similar to KAP's but giving more specific opponents.
Does anyone know what I'm talking about? cos I don't.
I don't even recall the system other than that it is not KAP.

7 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

'Core Shamanism' ... God Learnerism.  Greg seemed to go down that line, but it isn't the only approach one could take. 

 

 

As with most God Learnerism, was this simply to allow enough info for groups to create their own shamanism?

2 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

In that case please visit this page and weigh in if you wish. Created in  honour  of our antipodean friends as we call ‘em in Canada. 

 

Sorry Bill. Glorantha is my happy place since the RW one burnt. Trying (failing) not to think about fires here.