Akhôrahil

Kind of, but not precisely? They do feel that they can do whatever they decide to, but they don't (automatically, at least) lose empathy. My position is that Occlusion isn't a "thing" - "occluded" is the tag you put on other Illuminates that you disapprove of.

The big issue is that it replaces an established moral system, that is at the very least proven to be able to support a society no matter how unfair it might be, with whatever you yourself decide on. The risk to be self-serving is obvious, as with Argrath, who decides that nothing in the universe matters except his quest for vengeance..

"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made."

I think that the LBQ, by its nature, can never be a total victory. The compromise is fundamental to the whole thing. Best case, you bring back someone who will be trouble later.

Agree. One of the cores of Illumination is the realization that it's up to you whether to follow rules, laws and traditions, and that they're artificial and arbitrary.

Spirit Armor enchantment might be the better solution, honestly.

Yes, Spirit Combat is a nuisance under this set-up. You should probably try to get yourself a Spirit Block matrix at some point. Or cast an extended Spirit Block from another cult.

I believe Ward Against Weapons sorcery works, as it rolls to resist damage rather than work like armor. Against missile attacks, holding a shield to cover your head while fighting with the weapon works.

Not like much else helps either. 🙂

It's truly excellent even without RP regain. Not much is going to touch you with, say, 84 points of magical armor and 84 points of countermagic... (Although to be fair, a 42-point Woad is probably more practical in most cases, especially as it allows friendly spells through. Presumably Woad can be defensively boosted as well.)

Fertility instead of Harmony, but yes.

We had to destroy the world in order to save it? 🙂

We have very little idea so far how the “non-standard” runes will even work.

Since I mentioned the Rune Point cap, there’s a nice munchkin move if you want to cast the biggest Rune Spell you can and also Extend it. Rune Point caps are per cult, so pick up a second utility cult and get yourself 5 RPs in it. Nothing says that when you extend a spell, the Extend has to come from the same cult, so with 21+5 Rune Points in two different cults, you can cast Shield 21 with year-long Extend. Make it Shield 42 if you have a maxed-out Allied Spirit. Obviously defensive-boost with every MP you can scrape together - at this point, it should be hundreds.

By the way, the White Bull Society, that hasn’t aged well. The local primitives can’t get their act together, so they require a white (well, kinda white) saviour to reach them how to do their own culture right? The trope is commonly called ”Mighty Whitey” or ”What These People Need Is A Honky”. (It worked so much better with multiple Argraths, when Argrath White Bull was just a Praxian warlord.)

Genocidal villain who helped ruin the world because of his life’s obsession. Kallyr was the real hero, fighting for freedom instead of vengeance.

Given Chalana Arroy's association with peace, white really might be seen as the color of peace even in Glorantha.

I would probably say diseases, poisons, and limbs. Regular old damage healing, and even characteristics healing using easily accessible Rune Magic, can be covered by regular folks.

Well, I mean... let's say someone is going up against a better opponent in a Humakti duel. While these things aren't supposed to go to the death, they easily can. I think it's completely reasonable if the player pulls out all the stops trying to win it, and that includes pushing Sword Trance as high as can be afforded. RQ isn't fair nor balanced when it comes to the opposition, and I wouldn't want to tell a player to knock it off when they're doing things that are completely supported by the rules in order to survive and that the PC would be fully aware of. It's the business of the rules to be written in ways that make them difficult to abuse. Saying that the GM can keep all that in line is just lazy rules writing - the GM can do anything, and we're buying rules so that we don't have to make it all up, and should be able to expect that they're functional.

13 is a really great number - you have okay spellcasting and POW gain, you're not yet above 95% chance to overcome POW for typical POW 7 enemies, and you just hit the skill modifier threshold. Although aiming for 18 is important if anyone is looking for God-Talker.

Sure, but if they did, you agree that it's good if the rules cover it and don't break down? It was what I did in one campaign, since some PCs would start out older and the rulebook tells you to do it this way. In retrospect, it's a bit much - it weird how you get very little skill increase but a ginormous RP increase from age. One of older PCs aged out of his Damage Bonus during play and could no longer wear a full bronze armor, which was a fun effect. No-one is yet, but it's certainly not Rune Points that holds them back (both 18 POW and 18 CHA are harsh restrictions). One PC could get his shaman initiation at any point, and I believe one PC qualifies for God-Talker but needs to get the framework and economic support into place first. No-one is Humakti, so no. Problem spells so far have been spamming Thunderbolt (when two PCs just pour on the Thunderbolts, virtually nothing can stand up to it) and how a Bless Crops 10 basically invalidates the need for any farming skill whatsoever. The house rule I'm using now is that no-one can spend more than half (rounded up) of their RPs on a stackable Rune Spell. I know someone else had players doing a +1000% Sword Trance, which nets you a crit of 50%!

I see it mostly as flavor - it makes sense that priests need to have high Worship. Plus it can result in funny effects like how one PC kept critting Worship rolls and got a reputation as unusually holy. 🙂

Crystals are common as dirt in published adventures, and if you’re going to cast a hugely boosted spell during downtime, you can borrow everyone’s. A couple of hundred MPs shouldn’t be a problem for a party with some experience and loot. MPs are also trivially regained, so the opportunity cost is minimal. You can start with 9 Rune Points if your GM allows older starting characters, and you could expect 2 more per year. 10 RPs isn’t a lot in a medium-length campaign. As soon as you hit Rune Levels, your allied spirit starts to help out and will eventually almost double your Rune Points (it has the same progression you do). And this is long before we get to the Great Argrath Campaign and hero-levels. Even just three Rune Points and 70 MPs can net an all-day Sword Trance at +500% as a spell that takes 22 points of dispelling to get rid of.

The potential speed of the boom will be affected dramatically by mortality numbers, especially child mortality.

GM approval. ”The inspiration lasts for the time it takes to complete theactivity or task, such as the duration of the combat or battle.Generally, inspiration should have a maximum duration ofone day. The gamemaster determines the duration of theinspiration if otherwise”