Akhôrahil

The most likely time for this to happen is when you cast an Area of Effect spell, like Sunspear. It hits where it hits - if your allies are there as well, tough.

"Assisted Utuma" is what you say when someone kills someone you like and you don't want to give them credit. "Nope, just Assisted Utuma, you were merely a cog in the ultimate plan!"

https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Irnara_Cat-Witch

I do agree that most people can probably get away with excusing themselves with geases (although I wouldn't rule out a hit to Honor), but I also don't think everything is just voluntary. Compare KoS: "If the quester is still armed, he is greeted by the priestess in a friendly manner, using Orlanthi rituals, and invited to a great feast. By the laws of hospitality, which he made, Orlanth must accept." I.e, accepting hospitality is also something governed by the rules of hospitality.

I don’t think this is how things have been presented - rather, hospitality forces you to eat what is offered. This is why you can insult a guest by offering them beer that has gone bad, which they in turn are obligated to drink. Compare Cuchullain, who had to break his geas not to eat the meat of dog when it was offered in a hospitality situation, even though this was grievously bad for him.

Until we get the HeroWars campaign(s), it's the number one source for the official future of Central Genertela in the late Third Age. Whether this is relevant to you depends on your campaign.

Divination is good for this. It's how you find out what your god wants or knows. POW rewards make a lot of sense for HeroQuests in particular, less for in-world quests.

While some people were really angry at the movie for including tomatoes. Which seems a bit odd since the New World ship had already long past sailed with potatoes (like you say) and tobacco. Interestingly, this was a Tolkien retcon - early writings had tomatoes, which were then excised for unclear reasons (Tom Shippey speculates that it's the word Tolkien didn't like).

Mythras Classic Fantasy seems to be exactly what you're looking for. It specifically and explicitly does this. https://roleplayrescue.com/2022/08/26/an-apologia-for-mythras-classic-fantasy/

It's conceivable that potatoes exist but are nothing special, just another root vegetable. Poor cultivars, weak magical support, and so on. Perhaps slightly better, relatively speaking, in Peloria, enough that they make the impact cited in the thread?

If NPCs get yearly instead of seasonal experience using the same system, you probably get about the right numbers. And maybe a POW gain roll per two or three years instead of twice-yearly. So perhaps 1/6th of the PC rate?

This could work - NPCs would be getting "adventures" now and then (a cattle raid, fighting off intruders, that heroquest you have a reasonable-size role in, defeating this or that hostile magic or creature), but few would get it every season. And more important NPCs possibly would be that busy, motivating higher POW and skills.

Seems to only apply to PCs, same as with Worship POW gain rolls, which makes sense as the game world would be utterly bonkers otherwise. I think this is a misstep in a simulationist game (the PCs have different rules than everyone else, which isn't very sim), but the alternative (applying these rules to NPCs) is worse

Thanks - I believe chili important in Esrolia, but that might be all dried imports. (One imagines it's harder to grow your own foreign foodstuff in Glorantha as you don't know the proper rituals?)

Only in RQ3. 🙂 This was the reasoning behind setting the Diamond Dwarf entry requirement at 2000% in several skills - that takes the several hundred years its supposed to take.

This might work, but then you have to ask yourself "what do they use the POW for?" Why would the average initiate settle for a mere 3 Rune Points, when they're so extremely good? One reasonable answer might be that you have to dump POW into the wyter at a reasonable rate, but in that case, so should the PCs. (For Mostali, it's easy, though - their magic.)

Chili pepper is, at least. I think.

I would suggest a myth about how potatoes once grew as fruits in the air, but had to hide in the Earth during the Darkness, and never emerged from there until harvested by men.

Root vegetables in Dragon Pass are both canon and supported since forever as well (in some texts seen as low-class food). What My Father Told Me: "only the poor, like your no-good cousins at the Rotroot place, eat only root vegetables" RQG Core Rules, Farmer: "They raise a mixture of animals, grains, and roots, and are mostly self-supporting." (This makes roots seem pretty important, as it's they're mentioned alongside grain and animals.)

While I can see the point of maintaining a cordon sanitaire against New World plants in certain fantasy settings, no-one questions the maize in Glorantha, and surely the tomato exists as a Lunar-associated veggie? So it's the poor potato that is singled out?

Collective feeding/rationing makes bronze-age sense, but I'm concerned about what it does for fast-food places in cities, which are surely MGF to include?

Fortunately, this isn’t the line of argument you need to take into consideration when you’re a Humakti. The question is ”is this dude honorable and refrains from misuse of Death?” They’re not grading on a curve.

Wait, there's an Orlanth the Raccoon?

I could easily see something that’s not the MOLAD but inspired by the format. Like modern Olympics to the classical ones.

Was just going to say that. An allied spirit seems to be just another worshiper as well.