Akhôrahil

8 minutes ago, Malin said:

But yeah, I have taken to rolling harvest results during earth season, I need to know then whether there was a famine or not so I can plan the winter accordingly. The sacred time approximation is handy, but not really workable for characters really invested in the day to day life of their community.

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). 

22 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Which then breaks down to 10-15 lunars per adult on a hide per year as surplus divided up in taxes etc.? And still a character takes out 60-80 lunars out of their household's discretionary spending, paying tithes etc. and incurring a 20% penalty on the household income for a season of missed participation.

To me, some of these numbers need to start making sense.

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.)

16 minutes ago, Joerg said:

My question really is how to deal with at best moderately well-off households with the equivalent of two to four core families under one roof run by the parents of at least some of these core families.

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.

15 minutes ago, Joerg said:

As a German, I am familiar with the Morgen, a quarter of a hectare or 25,000 square meters as the amount of acreage that could be plowed in one morning - half a day. 20% more for a full day - bloody German efficiency at work, or just more modern plowing equipment?

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.

32 minutes ago, Joerg said:

I cannot find how many people are supposed to work on a hide - an extended family household will easily have more than a dozen actual family members, and possibly some associated people of lower class relying on the productivity of the household.

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.

On 9/25/2023 at 8:56 PM, metcalph said:

There have been plenty of RW civilizations in which the nobility practiced shamanism.

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

On 9/23/2023 at 12:21 AM, metcalph said:

Orlanth:  Aerlit.  Other names for him - Erulat and Humat - are associated IMO with Ralians.

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?

8 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

That's right: he leaves scorched earth and chaos wastelands in his wake as he is drawn north to meet his destiny. (Just kidding: it's not as if the Storm Bull cult in Prax was really keeping Wakboth pinned down under the Block, is it?)

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

4 hours ago, Scotty said:

Please remember that the hide is a variable amount, used to calculate the excess for the end of year costs.

1 hide of land = 10 acres of apples = 20 cattle = 100 sheep

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? 🙂

33 minutes ago, Malin said:

This actually makes it feasible to run a very content and big family on a single hide of farmland actually, if you stack the runepoints you can have great harvests (getting your Farming skill close to 100).

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.

On 7/24/2018 at 10:23 PM, Pentallion said:

Since Greg's map says Oslir is untouched, I guess that means there HAS to be some pretty bad stuff happen to the Lunars to allow the Orlanthi to have a fighting chance.

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).

On 9/27/2023 at 9:42 AM, Squaredeal Sten said:

So I would only apply it to rolls against the raw charisma  score.

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

7 minutes ago, Malin said:

Just did a small calculation of a Sun County stead, it seems rather workable.

Assumption: A family stead of Yelmalio cultist, Ernalda cultist, same grandparents. They work 4 hides. 12 rune points in total.

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.

45 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

From Nomad Gods. Once the Solar cults book is out, I'd expect to see another representation of Oakfed as part of the Lowfires.

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

Just now, Malin said:

While technically, the rules don't say when you cast it (so you can do it the day before the sacred time roll if you're a munchkin) I personally would say that it's done in the sea season. In Sun County, it's mentioned that's when they do it. But as you say, it's not defined in the rules.

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. 🙂

2 minutes ago, Malin said:

I also wonder how many rune points are tied up in sustained spells for the average Ernalda worshipper. A few points stacked in blessed crops (which is not instant in RBoM) will mean 20% more harvest.

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.

26 minutes ago, Malin said:

I feel the same is the case for heal body/regrow limb. Chalana Arroy might focus more on saving lives than making sure everybody has all limbs. You can live a good (and peaceful) life with one leg or one arm. It feels almost frivolous to prioritize regrowing a limb when there might be other people there who need life-saving intervention. Unless there is a massive donation, of course. Which could do so much good...

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).

3 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

 So Bless Childbirth seems to me to be very desirable, not magic whose acquisition would be minimized

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.

6 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

Or, trade the spell to an Issaries and get them to cast it. No rune points tied up!

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.

3 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

If you have three RP, then surely Heal Wound, Cure All Disease, and Heal Body would be logical choices.

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

1 hour ago, David Scott said:

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

17 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

Presumably, this is a callback to the Nysalor missionaries of the Gbaji wars.

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