Akhôrahil

1 minute ago, Jens said:

This works in physical combat, where even a parried blow can smash through, but not in spirit combat where if you both succeed, no damage is done.

This is correct, but as a Humakti, you may have enough of a skill advantage to both split the attack and drop the opponent’s Spirit Combat down to 0, at least if you’re running a decently-sized Sword Trance.

1 hour ago, ChrisWentWhere said:

He has a Greatsword, which has the ‘double damage after armour’ Gift (which is frankly broken in my opinion, it just destroys everything) I read through the well of Daliath discussion and it says that while the weapon damage does not affect it any magical damage does. So if Truesword is cast it does 2D8, this is then doubled due to the gift. So average 16 points. He has a tendency to roll well as well. He’s just a lucky bastard. 

Humakti are the absolute best in spirit combat for these reasons, far better than shamans. The flexibility is low, but as long as the spirit is there and fighting, it will get absolutely shredded. 

Add an enchanted metal sword, and the damage is doubled again. Natural skill over 100% and much better than the spirit(s)? Split the attack for even more.

The relevant section:

25 minutes ago, Jape_Vicho said:

4) Who the hell is Malakinus, and who worships them? He doesn't even show up in the Prosoapedia. 

Another name for Ganesatarus. As a god of evil, probably more feared than worshipped in most cases.

On 10/10/2023 at 7:13 PM, Joerg said:

This seems to go against Bertalor's logic that the metals you find are those of the victims of such battles. (Victors rarely leave their corpses lying around).

Storm gods love fighting each other though, and then you get bronze either way.

6 minutes ago, Joerg said:

The rules are pretty worthless without a framework of myths to quest in. The Monomyth is supposed to provide the scaffolding of Godtime, to branch off from. It resulted from Arkat#s cross-referencing his heroquesting experiences in multiple cults.

The only rulesy bits for heroquesting would be what portion of the standard array of RuneQuest abilities ports into heroquesting, and how to adjust and create heroquesting rewards and penalties. The rest is how to turn bits of the mythic landscape (or hypersurface) of Glorantha into adventures, and that requires some basic familiarty with archetypical myths and possibly variations thereof (like slaying a  blue dragon to release a mask of Heler).

Well, yes - we need both. But we had a decent amount of myths already and heroquests in at least other games, but no actual RQ rules.

6 hours ago, svensson said:

But make no mistake... this is NOT the Glorantha neophyte's reference. This book is for those of us who've been dancing around HeroQuesting for while now and are now, finally, getting enough answers about Glorantha's metaphysical world[s] that planning in-game epic HQs are now possible.

What we really need - and that doesn't seem to be ahead in the publication queue as of yet - are rules for heroes and heroquesting.

1 hour ago, Darius West said:

They are called plants actually.  They are one of the earliest manifestations of the Primal Plasma that is polluted by the Unholy Trio and becomes the Chaosium.

This message brought to you by Mostal. Mostal - accept no growth, only making.

7 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

How do you handle this for a Brown Elf PC?  They just miss a few adventures every Gloranthan year?

Hellwood Brown Elf Krjalki are active all year, so that’s some kind of option. 🙂

On 10/10/2023 at 9:04 AM, Yinkin said:

To be honest I just use the same critical/special rules for all weapons. I find it not worth the bother. Impaling weapons just have the added effect of getting stuck because that adds an actual visual dramatic effect which makes for more interesting combats.

I do much the same. I particularly like how impaling can render a shield useless.

Anyway, crushing weapons were typically used historically in two contexts - when it was the best you could get, and when you needed to bash through armour. For the first, it makes sense if it's just not as good as other weapons; for the second, some kind of armor-negating ability (perhaps on Specials) would work well.

11 minutes ago, Byll said:

Brown elves sleep 'all winter' I've always assumed that this means all of Dark Season, and in most years most of Storm Season (Storm Season being unpredictable and sometimes spring-like). Should it be more mythologically orthodox (ignoring weather) and always last from the start of Dark Season to the end of Sacred Time? 

Probably not - winter ends somewhere in Storm Season (variable) when Orlanth defeats Valind in the Middle Air. This seems like it should be when the elves wake as well.

7 hours ago, glarkhag said:

Yes, agreed. Not necessarily a bad thing? 😉  My modelling has suggested RQG2 will be out before any characters make RuneLord.  😁 

Interestingly, in my game, more players struggle with the CHA requirements than the skills one. They all expect to be able to get what we call the ”bling” bonus, but since I don’t allow characteristics training (I ripped out the whole training and research system and substituted my own), only heroics and heroquesting remain.

2 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

I hope everyone allows experience checks on using the rune affinities.  If you don't, then how can anyone increase their affinity to  qualify for priest, or even to cast rune spells with a higher chance of success?

See RQiG page 227. "Runic Inspiration".  Also "Becoming Inspired: on pages 229-231.

If I understood the original post correctly, it’s about augmenting your experience roll.

This would be quite powerful and result in more rapid Rune Lords, as well as even higher peak skills.

On 10/9/2023 at 6:48 AM, Nell said:

This is the lesson. Uroxi are, and have always been really, mafiasos, not Klansmen. 

I always compare them to outlaw bikers, if outlaw bikers were out fighting monsters.

8 hours ago, Zac said:

Would a deity, an actual physical presence with a personality, want to be known by more than one name?

What we can presumably say is that the god, for whatever reason, doesn't instruct people in what to call him or her. Or at least isn't consistent about such things.

I personally like the idea the the cults are at best semi-accurate at representing the "reality" of the gods, so it makes sense that they'd differ. The gods mostly don't care enough to punish for doctrinal differences, or even instruct anyone in the details. And if you really set out to learn the truth, such as with a heroquest, you will probably just end up verifying your prejudices.

3 hours ago, Darius West said:

Yes I absolutely DO think that Arkat looked back on what he had done, with the benefit of hindsight, and was sufficiently self reflective to think he had done things he regretted. 

I don't think they would argue that Arkat did the wrong thing, but in the total "ends justify the means" that Arkat practiced throughout his career, there's room for "it's regrettable that this had to be done, but it had to be done", even if not "Arkat did bad things".

Some of the Storm Bull rules don’t really make sense and we must imagine that they’re interpreted in creative ways. For instance, you must seek places of Chaos out and attack them, but clearly not all Storm Bulls just always charge off to Dorastor/Snake Pipe Hollow/Larnste’s Footprint/Devil’s March/[Insert local Chaos nest here] to get themselves quickly killed.

In Talastar, Storm Bull is probably the premiere warrior god, and this plain doesn’t work if they have to charge Dorastor all the time as this would mean every Storm Bull initiate’s life would be counted in weeks.

On 10/1/2023 at 2:11 PM, Malin said:

Maybe Ernalda in Sun County has a different availability of rune spells than Ernalda in Esrolia or Ernalda in Tarsh? How does other people treat this?

Yes, clearly, and in two different ways. First, even though all Associated cults are associated, if you don't have access to a shrine to that associated cult (and you're not likely to find C&A outside Caladraland), you're not going to learn the spell. Second, outside of Esrolia, only some subset of the Husband-Protectors are acknowledged (and even there, they unsurprisingly don't acknowledge Pamalt) - if your local Ernalda cult doesn't acknowledge some god as a husband-protector, you're not going to receive any spells from that god.

Now, if some character (probably a PC, we know what they're like) decides to trek all across Glorantha in order to collect as many associated cults and husband protectors as possible, the GM is going to have to make a call (their local cult might not be amused, for instance - the cult Ernalda of Sun County is likely to take a dim view of you learning Create Shadow) - but in principle this seems doable?

6 hours ago, Steve said:

p.45 of the Glorantha Sourcebook: "Argrath revealed his ancestry. “My father was Maniski".

Sure, but that's "regular" Argrath. If there's one guy sharing the title who isn't regular Argrath, it's Argrath of Pavis (okay, maybe Argrath Voskandorasson is it even less, but he's not even in the running, surely?).

9 hours ago, Ian A. Thomson said:

Is this surname from an official source?

No, and I'm convinced it's a mistaken statement. Argrath Maniskison is "the" Argrath. Argrath of Pavis - a.k.a. Bad Dream Enostar, Enostar Brennason - is very likely another guy even under a unified Argrath model. We never get the name of his father, and his Sartar heritage is completely different ("Argrath was a son of Brenna, the daughter of Verlain, the son of Dorasar and a slave woman"). Little about his story makes sense as "the" Argrath.

7 hours ago, EricW said:

So for example, if a theist picks up a book of sorcery, they should suffer spirits of retribution.

"Hey, catch!"
—Some trickster, tossing a book

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

Does that mean that Chaos won in the end?

My thesis is that the dragons win the HeroWars, using Argrath as their catspaw. After all, with the gods gone…

It also makes math sense that half is fallow - if a hide is the amount of land you can plow in a season, and you can plow an acre in a day, then you can’t plow 80-100 acres in a season. But you can plow 40-50 acres.

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

With full magical support, a plow driven by a Barntar godtalker is bound to approach the efficiency of a small modern tractor on hard terrain.

In my campaign, there was urgent need to break new land, and the clan chief enlisted a freelance "sellplow", a hyper-competent but seriously anti-social Barntarite who arrived with his magical plow over his shoulder (!) and plowed non-stop for a season using Barntar magic and his heroic "plow trance" ability that required that he never stop until done.

"I need a steady supply of fresh oxen, all the beer I can drink and food I can eat, and someone to light the path at night." After that, he plowed straight through tree stumps, rocks, and so on to break in the fields.

1 hour ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

(Glorantha appears to have no modern style itinerant farm laborers, so the farmhands have to be provided for somehow and are members of the clan, meaning they have more rights in practice than your itinerant laborer even though they cannot vote. 

I think this is the theory - you should be in a clan, after all, andthe clan should hand out the land (for tenants if nothing else) - but that it can get upended by social turmoil. That clan the Lunars dissolved and grabbed the land from, those people still need to go somewhere and make a living. Showing up as itinerant agricultural labor might be one such solution, and could create interesting conflicts when some clan noble feels he doesn't need cottars for a piece of land but can run it on unlanded labor.