Akhôrahil

There's a small technical difference in that you can learn Rune Spells as rewards or through paying exorbitant amounts of money and not just through POW sacrifice, and then you have to be in the subcult, but this is typically not all that important. Basically agree, ruleswise. Which is why the GM should add roleplay-based differences and complications. You were in Adventurous and now you joined Thunderous, and suddenly the Storm Voices can call on you for service and not just the Wind Lords. You want to join a subcult, but they're being difficult and demand that you prove yourself... in fact, they have just the mission for you! The people in charge of the seventh subcult you want to join seem skeptical about your dedication to theirs, considering all the competition for your time and devotion.

Ah, so the subservient cult is even more strongly magically integrated? And plus, while there aren't specific rules about it, I'm sure the subcult must want to accept you in order for you to join it, so that's a potential obstacle.

It's probably less confusing if you don't call them "common", as this normally is about the specific list of Common Rune Magic that doesn't include these spells. But since you get the spells you listed (perhaps we can call them "standard Orlanth Rune Spells"?) from being in Orlanth, regardless of subcult, surely any member of any Orlanth subcult has access to them?

Available to whom? Heler cultists obviously, but do they provide all three of these to Orlanth (Thunderous) cultists? Asking because "subservient cult" doesn't have a rules definition in the rulebook AFAIK. Essentially, what's the difference between subcult and subservient cult? I think I'm reading you as the subservient cult providing all its magic to the "boss" cult, but then what's the practical difference to a subcult?

Was the ”oh no, we worship Barntar here, not Orlanth!” thing during the occupation actually worshiping Barntar in the stand-alone cult, or just joining the Barntar subsubcult and pushing the Barntar parts forwards (especially where the Lunars could see it) while still maintaining Orlanth worship under this cover? The former is what’s done in Lunar Tarsh by my understanding, but was it also the Sartarite practice? Or possibly both in different places, depending on your inclinations?

It will make the difference between Subcult Barntar only being available if you’re already part of OT, or to any Orlanth initiate, potentially as their only subcult (although since subcults are essentially free anyway, this restriction would be minimal in practice).

Good point about this - it technically doesn’t matter one bit as Eurmal also only has shrines anyway, though. Odayla looks like an editing slip, as there are then no rules for it. If it provided all spells as a subcult, then there would be no need (from a player’s perspective) for the Odayla cult, really. You pay one POW to join, earn your first Rune Point, and learn your first spell in a subcult. Just as in any stand-alone cult. Following this, you can learn the rest of the subcult’s spells the usual ways, again the same way as in stand-alone cults (often but not necessarily through further POW sacrifices).

I think they are. I mean, they are the only subcults described in the book (well, Elmal, but that’s really a variant cult and not a subcult) - it would be super weird if the only subcults in the book didn’t follow the rules for subcults. You join one at character creation, and can learn spells from it and the overarching Orlanth cult. You can join the other for 1 RP, and then you can learn spells from it. The Rune Pool is shared. I can’t see what p. 282 rules wouldn’t apply. There are cases where separate cults worship the same entity, but that’s not the case with OA/OT - they are both part of the Orlanth cult, as subcults. They are unusual in how big and important they are compared to most small subcults, but that’s it.

Barntar is a separate subcult, I believe - of Orlanth, not a sub-cult of OT (which would make it a sub-sub-cult of Orlanth). Heler likely has little separate worship from OT in most places, and is just the source of Rain for OT, although I’m sure he gets represented in ceremonies.

I think this is true in some minor temples, yes. In any larger temples, we're very likely to see both. If your temple has only one, you need to both visit the other and join the subcult to pick up the spells, yes. But since you only have "Orlanth" rune points, regain will work cross-subcult.

Both are subcults of Orlanth. I mean, they're explictly listed as such subcults, along with Vinga and Rex, and we'll get at least Barntar as well.

This isn't true - when you join a subcult, you get access to all the subcult's Rune spells. As seen with OA and OT, this can be quite a bit. Although potentially, a subcult might not have access to all the Rune spells the full cult does - but I'm not sure if I have ever actually seen this? How does this work for full Barntar vs. subcult Barntar in the Cults book, for instance?

It's really interesting how subcults are the most "optimized" - it costs you no extra time or money to join them, and you don't need a dedicated Rune Point Pool, but you still get all their spells. Stand-alone cult require time, money and dedicated Rune Points, and Associated Cults merely provide one spell. Subcults is the porridge that's just right. 🙂

Lemming broos are the worst.

I feel confident a Fire Elemental "knows" (in at least some way) that large quantities of water is bad for it, or that Darkness elementals stay away from overly large fires if given a choice (Command takes away that choice).

It seems reasonable that clubs and the like would be fine but edged weapons not hold out very well?

Let your AA initiate counter-Command it. 🙂 Shades are excellent, though - fragile coming in, but with vicious crowd-control abilities, and typically achieving surprise (as they're kinda hard to detect in the dark...).

A llama spirit seems like a perfect solution!

That obviously just refers to the text under the header.

Do we have different editions or something? I can only see engaged in melee here.

Huh - that makes no sense to me. What could the actual effects of this possibly be? If it blocks non-engaged movement, then it blocks all movement, as this is the only movement that exists (apart from post-disengagement move), but explictly only melee engagement has any effects in the rules. So what even is this supposed "ranged engagement"? Where do you find non-melee, non-Spirit-Combat engagement in the rulebook?

But this is the only "engaged" that exists, as far as I can tell. "2. Movement of Non-Engaged Characters Any adventurer or monster actively taking part in melee combat, whether attacking or defending, is engaged in melee combat. All characters and monsters not directly engaged in melee combat may move up to their total movement rate (MOV)." I don't see anything anywhere about "non-melee engaged" even being a thing that exists (apart from engaged in Spirit Combat, which is something else)? Explicitly only "engaged in melee combat" stops non-engaged movement.

That's not my reading at all - "engaged" means "in melee", surely? Otherwise you would be unable to move as soon as an archer fires at you, unless you disengage first. 🙂

An even more simplified RQ combat round would only allow one "main action" (although you could potentially make split attacks in that one). It is kinda weird that you get more actions outside melee than in it - my players love to use "tank and spank" - get one PC into melee to lock up that enemy (taking away multiple spellcasting, for instance, or stopping it from going for anyone else), while the rest pour it on (even with missile weapons if the tank has a sufficiently huge Shield up... which has occasionally misfired with a crit, but hey...) and heal.

Yes and no. The rules text also strongly indicates that if you spend what would have been 6 SRs to reach an archer, then said archer can get off a shot at you in SRs 1-5, but not on SR 6+.