Akhôrahil

39 minutes ago, Joerg said:

There is also the thorny bit about obligations as a host when the person suspected is there under oaths of hospitality. There is no exception to hospitality even for chaotic entities. In fact, reneging on hospitality may be a chaotic act, depending on the culture.

"We hereby rescind your guest-right. You have until sunrise to run and hide, then we will start to hunt you down."

7 hours ago, Ian A. Thomson said:

I like how this implicitly enhances the options for hidden Chaos in cities controlled by the Lunars, even if that hidden Chaos is working selfishly and doesn't necessarily align itself to Lunar interests. Good story fodder for mixed-up shenanigans

And even Lunars might be flexible. Being an Ogre is no crime, but murder is and they’re fantastically overrepresented when it comes to that, so a local administrator might well keep an extra eye on the Ogre, which might be what the PCs needed.

10 hours ago, General Confusion said:

In a scenario like that I think the very first question is; why would the village elders believe the assertion of a strange Storm Bull cultist from a distant tribe?

Storm Bulls don’t lie about things like that. He might be mistaken, but the risk balance between perhaps a 50/50 risk of “unfairly disqualify a contestant” and “ritually introducing Ogre blood into our clan and curse it with Chaos”, it should be a no-brainer. Kill him if you can find proof, or pack him off with excuses and gifts if you can’t.

On 2/6/2024 at 11:50 PM, Ian A. Thomson said:

 https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/469293/On-the-High-Road-to-Kaiin

Wishlisted!

Are there any other DERPG products that aren't in the big Bundle of Holding that goes up now and then?

1 minute ago, soltakss said:

Oh, yes they can! It even says so, explicitly, in Dorastor Land of Doom.

The joke's on the Lunars for thinking Storm Bulls can read!

18 hours ago, Diadochoi said:

Runequest Bestiary. Ogres: "Ogres look very human, generally passing for human in all walks of civilization" (runes include chaos 60%)

How do they get away with this anywhere where Storm Bulls make up more than 1% of the population? How can Jarst Daro "The Mysterious Stranger" in the Garhound festival (Sun County) not instantly be detected as an Ogre at a major festival in a town of nearly 1000 people + visitors, including with one of the other contestants being a Storm Bull initiate?

Ogres have an easy out here.

(Since it literally says "all senses", I'm assuming it hides the Chaos taint from Sense Chaos as well. Since eight weeks is one season, this can easily be kept up full time if required.)

On 2/10/2024 at 11:21 AM, Ian A. Thomson said:

I imagine that this has been discussed elsewhere, but can't find that information at the moment.

What degree of association does a being need to register as Chaos? (Specifically to Stormbull's 'Sense Chaos')

I imagine a human lay-worshipper of Thanatar might not, but that an initiate would?

I'm considering house rules around game-realism, and wondering about sneaky Chaotics trying to blend into New Pavis society 

Chaos Taint is an on/off proposition. If you have it (and you don't have the correct concealment, like the right thing from Illumination or that Cacodemon spell), you can be detected.

Word of God: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/greg-sez/chaos-taints-qa/

This, by the way, only gives 15% risk of Chaos taint from initiating into a Chaos cult ("Knowingly initiate to a chaos cult (join Thanatar) 15%"), but presumably people who do initiate will go on to do all kinds of Chaotic stuff, because otherwise what's even the point?

And
"Q:    Can you be “just a little bit chaotic”?
A:    No."

5 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

I just thought I'd add, on P256 of GtG, there's a pic of the Market in Nochet, with a description that specifically lists "exotic goods such as crystalized shards of gods’ blood" - so they're fairly readily available there.... but is that at the prices quoted above? Or higher (due to being a richer city)? Or lower (due to being more available)?

More even and precdictable, at least - there are enough buyers and sellers to have a proper market for them, and you can go to someone else if the price isn't right. Meanwhile in Boldhome, there might not be anything to buy, or else, maybe no-one who wants to.

6 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

This would lead to an obvious question - if that one point of POW gives the maximum casting of 10 points, would you have to pay only for the 1 POW (200L), or the 10MP storage (400L)?

Depends on whether you're paying for the POW or for the item.

The going rate for a point of POW is 200L. This can give you a 1d10 MP Matrix, which is only slightly weaker than a storing crystal of the same size. This would suggest 40L per point of MP in the crystal.

In RQ3, the priest summoned a Cult spell teaching spirit that the follower got to beat up and learn the spell from. This would explain both how it’s done and why only Cult spells can be taught (if that’s the case), while a Shaman could summon any Spirit for teaching purposes but they might not be softballs the way friendly teaching spirits are.

Even if you don’t beat up the spirit any longer, it perhaps still needs to be summoned, which would explain a rule about non-Shaman priests only being able to teach Cult magic.

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

Tap can't take it below 1.

Add in a Krarshtide with POW drain at the end. 🙂

1 hour ago, mfbrandi said:

“possession is nine tenths of the law”?

"Theft is property." 🙂

On 2/2/2024 at 3:31 PM, Ynneadwraith said:

True, though one of the points I was making is that formation fighting really isn't as complex as it looks, and can function effectively without much dedicated training at all.

For instance, to form up in ranks you're just told to place your arm on the shoulder of the person in front of you while marching, then when you come to a stop (orchestrated by an officer), you turn around. That puts you the right distance apart to fight (there's some variation in spacing between situations and between cultures, which is achieved through similar techniques, like wider spacing by both people reaching out and stopping when your fingers touch). This isn't something you need to practice to get battlefield capable, especially if you live in a culture where stuff like this is everyday knowledge.

I'm not sure how much I believe in this - sure, maybe in this particular situation you can get the line in place that easily (although you have to get everyone to march properly first, and having done military service it's not hard but also non-trivial to march even as a platoon). But what if you have to rush out of your tents to form up? Form up again after a clash? Stay in formation rather than rush out as Orlanthi in particular may be wont to do?

Quoting Clausewitz: "Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult."

Branding makes sense to me - even within a clan, cattle can be personal property yet (presumably) put into mixed-ownership herds, and then it makes everything easier. It's questionable how much it does against cattle raiding though - that's rightful and honorable stealing, and few people are going to listen to you if you make any claims against stolen cattle (outside of the clan - theft within the clan is intolerable).

Ear-clipping is a possible alternative.

On 1/30/2024 at 8:33 PM, Ynneadwraith said:

This might get a little too real-world for the magical world of Glorantha, but I wouldn't underestimate militia in this way, especially in a culture like the Orlanthi. Historically, most pre-modern militia did not receive training, because they did not need to receive training. Their culture and lifestyle provides that training for them. Collective activities like cattle-raiding, group activities like sports and athletics, and general exposure to martial traditions like swordfighting are how cultures ended up with a body of war-capable fighters. This is true of pre-professional Roman legions, Macedonian phalanxes, Greek Hoplites, Gallic warriors etc. etc. These were all very effective bodies of troops.

Yes and no. You don't need weapons training to stand in the hoplite line, but you do need to train in formation fighting, maneuver, and marching. In RuneQuest, this is Battle training, not Weapons training. You don't become a better hoplite by being aces at spear-to-spear combat, you become a better hoplite by holding fast in the face of slaughter and by maintaining unit cohesion.

When the clan or tribal militia trains in Fire Season, some of it might be weapons training with a weaponthane or housecarl (although I imagine a lot of that was done by your dad or by whoever happens to be the best fighter in the village), but most will be about refreshing everyone on formation fighting and understanding orders. Much like in any modern army - rifle accuracy is a small part of the infantryman's job.

5 hours ago, EricW said:

I get the impression Gargarthi are also kind of lazy? They're opportunists rather than an organised threat?  Orlanthi, Humakt and Storm Bull make an effort, while Gargathi brutalise and rob people because the beer ran out? They're the dirty slobs on your street who terrorise the local kids and piss on your lawn?

I don’t know… they are probably bad at impulse control and at planning for the future, and they will (much like Storm Bulls) party until all the beer is gone, but staying alive as a thoroughly outcast bandit (especially in the Wastes) can’t be easy work.

But yeah, not working until they have to, sure.

Today in play I likened Storm Bulls to an outlaw biker gang who just so happens to also fight monsters. If Storm Bulls didn't have a useful purpose in fighting Chaos, they would be completely socially unacceptable, hardly any better than Gagarth.

Orlanth, Humakt and Storm Bull all found something to differentiate them from mere brutes and bullies (like Vadrus and maybe even Umath). Gagarth went the other direction, embracing it.

Lunar shenanigans.

On 7/11/2021 at 9:03 PM, Darius West said:

I think Gagarth gets a dishonor passion instead of honor, and can invoke it when doing bad things.

I had a powerful Gagarthi heroquester in my campaign, and I did give him a big Dishonor passion that he could use to do specifically dishonorable things. So he would essentially be obliged to break hospitality, and so on.

2 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

I imagine that when souls (trolls or humans or any other) "visit" the hells, before entering there own wonder home / hall / .., they walk in a sad path, where there is nothing confortable. No light to warm yelmites hearts, no air to ease orlanthi's breaths, no darkness to confort trolls, no flower ground (maybe even no ground just dust and stone) to enjoy ernaldans feet

While Subere is properly dark, like the real darkness we had in the good old days, not this newfangled stuff.

On 1/19/2024 at 5:04 PM, Ynneadwraith said:

Does Glorantha's creation follow the same principles as thermodynamics: where magic can neither be created or destroyed, only changed?

Mt theory goes like this: No, the laws of thermodynamics don't apply in Glorantha, nor does conservation of mass and energy. Even the Second Law of Thermodynamics (the increase of Entropy) doesn't hold. Chaos constantly seeps into Glorantha through the Chaosium, but the Sacred Time rituals purify it into constructive energies. This is also why the pre-Time went as it did - Chaos seeped in through the Chaosium but wasn't purified (because no-one knew how this worked), meaning it slowly accumulated until things went to crap.

On 5/10/2019 at 5:05 PM, Shiningbrow said:

Less light =/= more dark??

Less dark =/= more light...

Since Darkness is an element, it's not merely the absence of light. However, it's hard to see how tapping darkness wouldn't make the place less dark. Perhaps there's a neutral, gloomy spot that you get if neither Darkness nor Light is there, and tapping either brings you closer to it but not past it?

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

These children of Yinkin are cat deities:

• Alusar the Spy: Alusar was the son of Yinkin and a goddess known only as Eyes in the Dark. He is dark, with long whiskers and large 
• eyes, and quickly gained a notorious reputation for independence and for spying. He could track down any being he wished, and he often did so simply to learn their secrets. It was Alusar who saw where Yelm went after he was killed, and told Orlanth about the Western Gate. Book of Heortling Mythology p 144.
• Gavren the Hunter/Lurker: Gavren is the son of Yinkin and Velhara, the Lady of the Wild and is sometimes called the Early Alynx. He is the best hunter from among the family. He is reddish brown in color. Their child inherited the solitary nature of each deity, and he spent most of his time far from settled lands, hunting. He always came back when needed though and when Yinkin was severely wounded, it was Gavren who brought him food. He once clawed great Karrg, the troll war god, who in turn killed several of his litters. Gavren’s worshippers hate trolls. Book of Heortling Mythology p 149.
• Hevren the Chaser: Hevren is the son of Yinkin. He is tawny with stripes across his shoulders. He has long legs and can chase down almost anything, and big teeth to kill with a single bite. Book of Heortling Mythology p 151.
• Murni the Mouser: Murni is the daughter of Yinkin, and was born the runt of a litter and with a bobbed tail. Once Ernalda had to leave her home, and Voria hid Murni in the granary. She kept it clear of mice, so the food was there when Ernalda returned.  (Book of Heortling Mythology p155)
• Tolar the Cloud-Yinkin: Tolar is the son of Yinkin and Tarhelera, a cloud goddess. He is the cloud alynx, the clouds of the middle air. Book of Heortling Mythology p 161.

Somewhere we get Doubleshadow the Worthless, as seen in KoDP, but (s)he might just be an ancestor of crappy alynxes and is hopefully not a direct offspring on Yinkin.

Pavis can only be enriched by having two competing visions for it to choose and mix from when you make your campaign (once the RDL one is out).