Akhôrahil

I don’t even run it as requiring the magic - it’s all about conspicuous consumption, that you have the bling to prove your wealth and status. Then it makes sense that something much more impressive could net a second point.

Agree - I think you would need ten times the value for a second point, maybe.

Spirits of Reprisal and the like probably ensure that a certain standard is maintained, at least. You probably don't get the pornocracy (unless the god is into that).

I keep wondering if we really need separate systems for Telmori-Invulnerable-Except-Magic and Spirit-Invulnerable-Except-Magic.

”In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals that the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.” —Jerry Pournelle, ’The Iron Law of Bureaucracy’ But yeah, it probably depends on where you draw the line for Devotion. Is it something most Initiates have, or is it a case of ”wow, that guy is really devoted!”

If anything, the loyalty to a temple should probably be more emphasized, as every Priest or Rune Lord will at least initially get the position in a temple. Just imagine the interview: ”Right, so you’re going to perform your duties in loyalty to the temple?” ”I serve only my god!” ”Er…”

I think that makes sense (de-augment your attack roll with Devotion(Yelmalio), maybe?), but this being RQ, the dice might not cooperate. 🙂 Also, I think it's obvious that a ZZ quester can lose this fight, but at least in the archetypical situation where everyone involved is a heroquester, by definition this means the Yelmalio quester won that one (for a value of "won")... Perhaps one method here would be to fight with scrupulous overdone honor, well aware that ZZ will only take advantage of that?

One paradox I always wonder about is this - if you’re questing the Hill of Gold as Yelmalio, you’re supposed to lose against Zorak Zoran, but you’re also supposed to give it your best (it’s not as if Yelmalio didn’t try to win, and intentionally losing doesn’t strike me as right). But giving it your best means that you could potentially win, which is not what’s supposed to happen. How does this work out? Is it that if you go into it really trying your damndest to win, you’re displaying an incorrect mindset? That you can only win by spending spiritual-magical resources here that you shouldn’t spend? Or is it just something that sometimes happens - you do everything you should be doing, but sometimes things just don’t work out the way they should anyway?

I mean, yes - for one thing, we have maps of the areas of influence of Orlanth’s holy mountains, which will presumably be connected to the Temple(s?) of the Reaching Storm, and the way the Ban lifts over discrete areas at once (and hit all but only Fronela in the first place). There’s doubtlessly a magical geography of some sort in this way. One thing I don’t believe we have a canonical answer to is if the Windstop has any effects (apart from some airflow) outside its area. i’m going to run it as weakening but not shutting down the magics.

I think the idea is that it's the last significant temple to Orlanth within the area of effect of the Sartar Temple of the Reaching Moon (which becomes the area of the Windstop). Doesn't mean that you're wrong, though - it could be both.

Agree. It's not so much that you change the Gods World, as that you make it so that this was always the case.

I would say the answer is clearly "Yes", as demonstrated by both the God-Learners and the EWF in the Second Age. (Also Nysalor or The Red Goddess.) Far more challenging are questions like "can you make it stick?" or "is this ever wise"? 🙂 Personally, I read every case of someone "proving" something about a god in Gloranthan sources as "made it up and made it stick".

Or Moorock's Behold the Man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behold_the_Man_(novel)

Hence the qualification about weapons. 🙂 I used my cast-iron pan just an hour ago.

We do not talk about the day the Brown Note was experienced all across Dragon Pass.

And of course you cast bronze in a mold, but not iron (for weapons).

Not yet at least, but since RQG has the Battle skill, you could easily steal the Pendragon system wholesale.

Reserve weapon solves this much more easily. Swords weigh a bunch, so you could easily just carry a reserve sword instead. Further, since the whole group can have enchanted copper weapons for 1 POW according to the official ruling, it's super cheap to get all but invulnerable weapons. The time when shield is great (apart from missile combat, where it's clearly good) is when you're fighting something huge, and you cast Earth Shield. But just skill-tanking is often better here anyway.

With a sword, I would be sorely tempted to have the next person killed by it become its only semi-willing spirit… 🙂

There seems to be a tendency for old cool shepherd gods to be lost and replaced. TGS, Varnaval the Shepherd King, and in my personal interpretation how Voriof/Vorios used to be a much more important god before being dramatically reduced. Even Urothrol, Heler as a fighty ram.

I talked to someone who doesn't have a grasp on Glorantha, and still said about Sir Ethilrist "that guy has 'Player Character' written all over him".

In the Uralda heroquest in King of Dragon Pass, this is taken as a fair exchange. Beats being eaten by wolves! The whole shepherd thing also has the unpleasant (to me, at least) connotation that a fair number of police and military people seem to embrace, that there are sheep (the regular people), wolves (who want to eat them - criminals or foreign enemies) and shepherds (who protect the sheep but need to be in charge of them because they can't handle it themselves). And Orlanthi would certainly see the need to separate the sheep from the goats!

Which I have - I house-ruled against it already (as well as characteristics training), reserving permanent non-CHA/POW increases for heroquests and similarly high-level events. But it’s pretty obvious how it could be very powerful, resulting in considerably higher stats for Rune Lords than others, as well as ”optimized” characteristics (13, 17, and so on). It’s more ”gamey” than I like, and there seems to be a high risk that it would result in more similar statlines for those with access to it, as well as make Rune Lords play in a different league than everyone else when it comes to characteristics. (It also doesn’t feel ”earned”, but that’s just my personal taste.) When a problem is predictible (not saying it would happen for everyone, but I know my players!), I want to head it off in advance. 🙂

Maxing out your stats is pretty danged good already, though. This was a lot less doable when the cost was 1d10 instead of 1. Depends on the situation - if you’re a Wind Lord belonging to a decently-sized temple, you will have very high RP regain due to associated worship. The factor that does somewhat limit it is your POW gain rate, but it could still be a few points yearly (more if you gain POW from heroquesting).

You may want to consider some limits to DI for characteristics, as well. Trading (in effect) POW for other characteristics is already extremely powerful.