Akhôrahil

A Jonstown publication digging into this would be fantastic, but I'm not sure it's even allowed (as it would by definition be a lot about rules).

Agree, this part just doesn't work, even with the assumption that it's really cost per family instead of per person. I think all of this comes from importing Pendragon systems a bit too wholesale? (Much the same way it works fine in Pendragon to find out during winter that you had a child born this year, but less so that it turns out in retrospect that your RQ PC was pregnant and bore a child this year.) It might be worth checking how Harnmaster does this? I know there's a whole book for it.

By the way, does anyone have an idea how cottars get their fields plowed, given that by definition they don’t have a plow team? Borrow one (this means that there has to be excess plow teams available for it)? Work the fields it by hand (doable, but I doubt you can manage a full hide that way)? (This would work out easier if they had a smaller patch of land and then had to put their excess labor to work on someone else’s fields.)

It seems that the idea is approximately one hide per such family, or the sample clan numbers stop making sense. A longhouse then needs multiple hides attached to it.

Even just a horse-pulled medieval or post-medieval turning plow is massively more efficient than the stuff Orlanthi use. 1 acre = 0.4 hectares is what I keep in my head for acreages.

The ever-useful sample clan on p. 406 of the rulebook has this generic clan of presumably 800 - 1000 individuals use 200 hides and hide-equivalents, so that’s a rough guide (4-5 people per hide). This might not be quite as useful as it seems, though - a temple herd of one hide’s worth might have just one person (like a young herder) working it and not supporting any other family member, while a large-ish family of a dozen wouldn’t starve on a hide of land. But it does provide an average.

And with regards to Ancestor Worship, nobles are likely to have cooler Ancestors and keep better track of them, presumably?

Worlath? Although I don’t get the impression anyone deliberately worships Worlath under that name? And Ehilm is just the same thing for Yelm, isn’t it?

Following the flood, there's clearly need for merfolk guardians of the Block instead. 🙂

Sure, but: ”It is between 80 and 120 acres” (p. 404, Core rulebook). (I’m impressed with the productivity of apple orchards.)

RQG numbers are a bit weird - a Roman tenant family (or the land grant for serving as legionnairy) was something like 5-10 acres, while RQ tenants get a whopping 80 acres. On the other hand, their tax and rent burden on this huge tract of land is beyond extreme by historical standards (60%!). So maybe it evens out? 🙂

One hide for an extended family or a substantial amount of other people under one roof seems to be the idea. Survival (admittedly a low bar) requires only something like two acres per person.

They get hit pretty good by Argrath’s climate change policy. Also, I get the impression that Argrath pulls an Arkat, moving his power base once the old ones get expended (north in this case - see his courting of the Queen of Holay).

Even then, I would probably allow for successful rolls for Customs, Insight, a Passion or the like to avoid this penalty.

Never mind the magic, how does this small family work four hides? How do they get plowed or worked? Also, note that spending four Rune Points for four hides is typically inefficient - a fifth would double the effect and a sixth triple it. Even if you only spend the four, it’s typically preferable to Bless two or three hides instead (for 2*+3 or 3*+2) unless the +20% is just what you need to get rid of the risk of failure.

I would not be surprised if it's in Spirits book instead.

I agree that technically you could use it in Storm Season the day before Sacred Time, long after you actually harvested, but maybe there are limits to how munchkinnny Gloranthans dare to be. 🙂

Smart farmers cast this in Earth Season to avoid tying the Rune Points up longer than they have to. But yes.

It's probably best not to dwell too much on the HeroWars flood though, as it can feel like changing the stakes if all this will be flooded in thirty years regardless.

True, but then any odd steadwife might have a Heal Body and be ready to do a casting for cheap (even just one cow feels like it would be a lot). It's really hard to explain why anyone in (Orlanthi, at least) Glorantha should ever be missing a limb when most any peasant woman could instantly regrow limbs on a weekly basis. So it actually makes sense that CA healers would focus on the really difficult and immediately life-saving stuff, but Ernaldans can have a really amazing healing output with their insane Rune Point regain. Diseases and possibly some difficult Chaos Wounds is within CA expertise, though (as is actual death, as no-one else offers anything like their resurrection).

Say what you want about the HW subcults, at least they offered som solid niche protection. You want a fetus blessed, you need a worshiper of Eninta the Midwife.

True. Spell Trading is the solution for everything, tbh. Also exceptional to avoid the "oh noes, none of the CA healers have any Rune Points to spare for a Resurrection", as well as bypassing most every CHA limit on Rune Points. Almost certainly the best spell in the game.

Heal Wound is Common, no need to actively pick that.

Heal Body can handle poison and chaos as well as anything else (possibly barring some Chaos wound that explicitly requires Cure Chaos Wound).

It could even be the Eye of Wakboth, which will be important in the new RDL Pavis campaign.