Rob Darvall

I still don't get why they remain mammalian; unless, as Ian Absentia writes, they've been bred as ambassador/spies among humans. "The far end of the plant spectrum" seems much more likely for day to day Aldryami.

Even then, what role do motile plants play in the forest ecosystem? They seem like very expensive defense systems when you could just mobilise forest dwelling animals.

Tangentally you can enhance punji stakes with what we used to call "bastard wire". Rope, vine or in our case single strand barbed wire tied between the stakes to create a serious trip hazard to anyone moving faster than a very slow careful walk. Cf falling damage above.

58 minutes ago, Leingod said:

Ah, so we can instead just hire a professor of South Asian Studies who had a professed lifelong love of language and wrote grammar books and dictionaries for obscure languages like the (extinct as of 2003) Klamath language and also taught Urdu. Seriously, I couldn't even guess how many languages Baker was fluent in.

Or I could just drag out the 2 and a bit I did for Runequest, back before I realised that noone cares if Banazir's last name is pronounced Galbasi or Galpasi. Enough for verisimilitude is actually not much at all, and far less than done by either Baker or Tolkien. (Although I'd love to be able to make tri-lingual puns)

1 hour ago, Lurking Grue said:

 

(EDIT: I have the GOG version which comes with the soundtrack, don't know if the Steam version does.)

Steam version does have the soundtrack.

2 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

I'm surprised by how tat-free she appears to be (although that could be my eyes).

Though that could be backstory again. The caption does say she's young, maybe she has tatts to earn?

In all my reading the Dunstop troops come over as a bit of a provincial joke. Then you see this bloke. Not so funny any more.

10 hours ago, soltakss said:

Just had an image of a Vingan feeding her baby with bread soaked in blood instead of with milk. Probably not very nutritious, though.

That sounds more like a Gor than Vinga to me. It's getting into the territory of ritual cannibalism and wanton destruction. My take on Vingans is that while they're aggressive and combative they're not actually bloodthirsty. Vengeance is undertaken for reasons other than simply the glory of killing, unlike the Gors for whom killing is an end not a means. (It may serve other purposes, but it's worth doing of itself). Vingans may well glory in the fighting, but the killing is a side effect in that case. 

On 5/26/2019 at 3:36 PM, Joerg said:

scarification through selective flensing. An accident with a concrete surface left an almost Harry Potter-like area of discolored (unpigmented, often sun-burned) skin on my brow. Shargashi might do this ritually - at first displaying the raw, bleeding wound (which does give a really gruesome appearance), then leaving these indelible lines of reduced pigmentation.

That is a very interesting idea. Flensing can give rise to quite complex shapes (personal, though accidental, experience here too) Though they do seem to fade after a decade or so. The addition of funeral ashes would probably make for raised scarring. Would keloid scarring be considered ritually significant if it occured spontaneously?

On 5/24/2019 at 5:30 PM, Akhôrahil said:

Scarifiation seems right up their alley as well.

But usually of other people, no?

2 hours ago, Crel said:

... in the actual setting most temple wyters won't have piles and piles of POW because they're using it here and there throughout the season for mundane stuff, or a disease outbreak, or whatever. So storming a rival clan's temple might still be possible

especially if you run it as a campaign in which you gradually wear down the opposing wyter. I can see a great deal of game fun there as the PCs develop interesting attrition tactics that don't implicate them enough to bring immediate retribution (though that might be fun too).

On 5/8/2019 at 1:17 PM, Rick Meints said:

If I talk about something I know about I will try to say where I am getting the information from. I'd rather shed light than curse the darkness (unless Trolls are involved). I like pointing people to books that might give them more info or food for thought. If it's a small bit of info I'll even try to cut and paste the few sentences.

And I at least find this invaluable. An awful lot of my Glorantha is non-canon, used to be canon, and just plain made up. The extra sources can trigger a fun adventure, which is all I'm trying to provide.

An entertaining read on protecting the precious words

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/protect-your-library-the-medieval-way-with-horrifying-book-curses?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=atlas-page&fbclid=IwAR1htIsc8mrqBT115tZXfqz6kQRmAolhwg3_HwEoZKs8zWizjxmbYuRflhM

1 minute ago, metcalph said:

I don't think parole applies in the case of gloranthan ransom.  The captors keep the captive until the ransom has been paid.  Then the captive is free to do as he likes, even to the extent of attacking his former captors again.  If caught again, he has no ransom so they may kill him quickly  or for long as they like.

Not thinking of it as specifically the Napoleonic parole, but more in terms of what prevented the breach?  A sufficiently powerful Gloranthan could simply flee the situation, as could an officer who"d given their parole. Why would/did they not? Also, is this a RW example that militates against pragmatic munchkinnery?

Going back to ransom, what kept the officers in the napoleonic era from breaching their parole? There was enough cross channel traffic that breach would have been comparatively easy. A similar mechanism may apply at least within cultures.

Bless pregnancy

Ernalda as a generalist (less effective) version with Eritha as the specialist for domestic animals (with a crossover for minotaurs)? Reflected as an Erithan RP being worth two Ernaldan ones?

Also Bless Pregnancy being a specific blessing whereas Bless Herds just increases the average. Reproduce being the same. I.E. the corn is individually more fertile but it will take a metric shittonne of RP to cover the whole crop. Hence Bless Crops.

For my 2 clacks anyway.

On 5/3/2019 at 1:54 PM, Shiningbrow said:

No, those threads will be in his clothes.... 🤣🤣🤣

Snorked my cheap port

On 5/3/2019 at 2:21 AM, lordabdul said:

😋

What I generally find more intimidating and/or confusing is really figuring out where the information is coming from, 

MIG*, even if it's a scanned PDF of the original. I cannot emphasize enough just how useful this reference is.

*The Meints Index to Glorantha. I only have the 1996 version but it answers all these questions within its time frame. It's usually enough as the more recent work is on the Chaosium site.

On 4/18/2019 at 3:14 PM, boradicus said:

I have never tried playing Glorantha.  What makes it so engrossing for the people who play in this setting?  

Thank you!

This "Can we argue about how many pins we can stick n the head of an angel?" (Zozotroll Apr 21). To be clearer, the deep geekhood (read erudition) of the fan base. With the possible exception of Tekumel, you won't learn more real world knowledge from an RPG community than you will from this one. And you'll enjoy it.

41 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

Or like happened in my game, "My torso! My precious torso!"

 

ROFL Why does this not surprise me?

On 5/4/2019 at 7:40 AM, ChalkLine said:

I play a more spirit-oriented game with the animist spirits crowding the real world, so I get what you mean.

Love them. Somewhere on the web are my stories of the "Hob of Highspring" and "The New Plough". Both inspired by Briggs's "Dictionary of British Folk Tales" which is a great source for domestic sprites.

9 minutes ago, BalazarLightson said:

Absolutely... 'It's all fun and games until someone looses a head'.

Even then.

Edit: Especially then

On 5/3/2019 at 6:06 AM, Brootse said:

And Eurmal worshippers could form a bucket chain to save the fire with Hide Fire. And maybe carry it to the fire station.

Now you've Pratchetted me. Mental image of the Fool's Guild fire brigade.

On 5/3/2019 at 5:15 PM, The God Learner said:

Hit locations are for accountants.

Tell that to my pre-teen nephews. The semi-terror of missing and vast excitement generated every time a leg comes off is worth the bookkeeping.

5 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

That book, the Meints Index to Glorantha is currently out of print.

But still very useful in compiling a campaign when I'm going "now where was Darjini pottery mentioned?" or the like. (I exaggerate, but only a little)

On 1/28/2019 at 11:45 PM, Sir_Godspeed said:

Ah, see, there's yer problem, see? Gotsta get yerself wunna them there subaltern mythical perspectives, I reckon.
 

Have I said how much I love the vast extent of knowledge on this forum?