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Richard S.

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Everything posted by Richard S.

  1. Foundry VTT is what I use, and it's excellent. There is a one-time $50 to use the software, but it's been very much worth it. The Runequest module is unofficial, but it includes all the material from the official wiki so character building at least is a bit easier.
  2. Some of you may remember a while ago I asked some questions related to starting a campaign in Seshnela. While that unfortunately did die, we managed to get a few adventures in and I got some background notes written up which I'm now trying to clean up and expand into something a little more useful. Starting with some rather broad-stroke stuff on cults, most of which probably won't seem too unusual to anyone on here, I'm trying out using a blog to post my notes on: http://abidingpamphlet.blogspot.com/2024/02/malkioni-cults-and-characters.html Any observations or ideas of your own or feedback on my ideas is appreciated. I'm pretty unused to writing longer posts like the above, so any general writing advice would also be welcome. Thanks!
  3. It's been a few weeks but I just want to say thanks to everyone for your advice and encouragement. I'll admit that I haven't actually gotten started with anything, but the hill definitely look a little less steep now. Thank you.
  4. Spirit cults can theoretically teach any spirit magic spell, since their priests are shamans. Rune cults have lists of spirit magic not because they are unique in knowing them, but because those are the only ones their priests usually know and can pass on. Some spirits cults may definitely prefer certain spirit magic spells, and make these more accessible to worshipers, but spirit magic itself is not bound up in cults like Rune magic is - anyone can learn any spell, as long as they can find a teacher. It's also possible that the spirit worshiped by the cult itself knows and can teach spirit magic, or is at least closely connected to other spell spirits, which saves the shaman a trip to find those spells elsewhere. At your discretion, the spirit may be able to teach these spells itself without the shaman as an intermediary - either during holy day ceremonies or in "friendly" spirit combat - which is much faster than the week required by a mortal teacher. I love small spell variations like this. We know that each spirit magic spell is really hundreds of unique charms that all just have similar effects, so it makes sense for there to occasionally be small differences.
  5. That's how it works, yes. Praxians even prefer to eat the beasts of other tribes before their own. They're named for the beast they ride, not because it's the only one they use.
  6. Dumb Theory: the Dara Happan Sacred Alphabet is written top to bottom, left to right - i.e. in columns instead of rows. Dumb Reason: solely because I've been using it to write private notes recently and it feels more comfortable that way (which of course means those stuffy Buseri probably do it the other way). I also think it looks nicer in columns.
  7. Or have a sorcerer on your crew with a good MP supply. There's a reason why the two most dominant sea powers (Waertagi and the MSE) have been Malkioni!
  8. Even if Tap does remove magic from the world, remember that the Chaosium is always spewing new creation in through the underworld. Matter and energy are created and destroyed in Glorantha! Eat your heart out, Newton.
  9. Hey y'all, maybe this is a bit of a broad question but any sort of advice would be appreciated. I'd like to write at least an adventure to publish the Jonstown Compendium, but I don't have any experience with writing them outside the context of very sketchy GM notes. For people who have done it, what do you think is needed to write a good adventure, and are there any good examples or guides I should look at? There's a part of me that wants to go even further and try my hand at a regional sourcebook, but I think I'm even less qualified to do that, and I'm terrified of stepping on someone else's toes if anyone else writes stuff for that area.
  10. The Bestiary says that Pelorian lions have a black mane while Seshnelan ones have golden manes. I think the lion shahs probably had a closer relationship to golden-maned Pendal than black-maned Durbaddath, since they came from the west, but they probably could've switched to using the new name.
  11. Your personal canon can be different, sure; YGMV. Chaosium does have a single canon for their books though, which doesn't include the HW/HQ1 material. So the three worlds is non-canon, strictly speaking, and I imagine QWG will keep to that - for RQ compatibility if nothing else.
  12. I think the view since the guide has been that the difference between great spirits and gods is more semantics than anything. An entity might appear differently depending on whether you encounter them in the spirit world or on the hero plane (or are invoking them in sorcery), but that doesn't mean that it's two separate entities, or that one of those environments is "unnatural" for it. Arcane Lore is a good source of ideas, but it's very much non-canonical.
  13. I like the new approach! It sounds very similar to how I've been handling it. Personally, I also allow sorcery and spirit magic to be breakouts from non-rune keywords, or standalone abilities, since in RQ they're not tied to your rune affinities. Cult spirit magic can go under a rune keyword, but spells learned outside that context might be part of your cultural knowledge, a community relationship, occupational training, etc.
  14. Where's that from? I don't think a Fireblade would heal a fire elemental, though it makes sense that it might not damage it. Rules as written, elementals can't regain hit points until they return to the spirit world. I'd agree with Daesta's take that normal healing and protection magic works on them though. If you really want alternate sources of healing for them, maybe extended exposure to large quantities of their own element could work, but that would be difficult to do under summon and/or control time limits. Create Wildfire does that, though it also damages the elemental. Similarly, Create Bonfire will increase the elemental's size, though not its damage. RAW the elemental wouldn't be damaged I think, but I think it's something that each table has to figure out themselves. Personally I'd rule that if the adventurer is totally engulfed by an air elemental then they can't be hit by missiles - the missiles would hit the elemental, dealing normal damage, but be blown off course from the rider. If you're just riding it like a mount, though, then I'd just make a judgement call on which locations are being covered and rule any hit striking them as striking the elemental instead, then being blown away as above. Really powerful missiles might have an exception, but that's not something I'll speculate on right now. I don't think there's any human-wearable armor that adds up anywhere close to 20 ENC. And even if it did work, you're going to be about as maneuverable as a brick even with flight. The magic resistance probably would work though. You might want to put some of these questions in the Runequest Q&A instead of on the Glorantha board.
  15. Each land is home to a specific grain goddess, but that doesn't mean it's the only place they can be contacted. They're just the places those grains originated. You're probably right about barley being cheaper in Peloria, and thus beer. Though I imagine that Ernaldans can learn the specific bless crops spells if they want, since the Grain Goddesses are subcults of Ernalda. There's probably an earth temple or two in Dragon Pass with a barley shrine to support domestic beer making.
  16. Based on his likes & dislikes section, I think the hostile and enemy cults would be pretty similar to Orlanth's, though adding the Invisible God as at least hostile. Associated are Dormal, Orlanth, and Valind; and I'd say Friendly includes only Humakt, Storm Bull, and maybe Odayla. Everyone else is neutral.
  17. Mother Mammal is given as an associate of both Basmol and Telmor on the Well of Daliath, so I assume she's their mom. Rathor and Brother Dog don't have a named mother though.
  18. Kargan Tor's role seems to have been to prepare the gods for his inevitable dominance of the later gods war. He seemingly never left the spike or engaged in much proactive action during the golden age, unlike his peers like Larnste, being content to let the gods come to him to learn how to fight. Even then, his power as the separator seems to already have been in effect, since losers of fights seem to get sliced up into multiple pieces; the soul just didn't get separated from the body. Remember that Death is the power of all separation and endings, not just death in the normal sense. There was a pretty long period after Eurmal tricks/steals/releases Kargan Tor from the Spike where true sent-to-the-underworld death did exist, before Humakt became his wielder. Humakt had to track down all the bits and pieces of death in order to claim that mantle, taking responsibility for Kargan Tor's excesses and introducing honor to the use of death.
  19. Basmol's the lion god, but I don't think "felines" really exist as a distinct group of animals in Glorantha, since Basmol, Brother Dog, Rathor, Telmor, and Yinkin are all children of Fralar. Gloranthan cats and lions are as closely related to bears, dogs, and wolves as they are to each other! I wonder if all of them are half-brothers, or if Yinkin is the odd one out by his connection to Kero Fin?
  20. As for the militia question, I don't see why there'd be any gender restrictions on either men or women. The queen probably has final authority on what the army does, but fighting people is primarily the job of the husband-protectors, regardless of whether they're currently male, female, or something else. That's why Ernalda married them, after all!
  21. Esrolia is a matriarchy because it is ruled by the Ernalda cult, and priestesses of Ernalda are required to be mothers. The Esrolian bias is less "men are inferior" and more "Ernalda is superior" - it just happens that the cult of Ernalda is dominated by women.
  22. And ancestor worship (Biselenslib and SurEnslin)! That's probably the most accurate assessment. I do think the Lodrili and Darjini and other subcultures have been under Yelmic rule long enough for a lot of similarities to develop though.
  23. What is Pelorian culture? I think if we want to define it at the most basic, it's an upper class of sky-worshipers ruling over a fire-and-earth-worshiping peasantry. The former live mostly in cities, the latter mostly in villages, and relations between the two are tightly bound up in ritual. Both classes rely on each other, and it's hard for the whole structure to be exported elsewhere without an empire to back it up. Elements of their technology and government can and have been adopted elsewhere though, like the lod-plow and possibly the idea of hereditary kingship, and arguably the Sun Dome Temples are Pelorian societies in miniature. Orlanthi culture? I'd say it's a partnership of air and earth cults living in self-sufficient family groups, with government going to the person with the greatest magical, martial, and social strength in the community. That same idea of strength extends both above and below the basic clan unit, so leadership is very flexible (if a little unstable). For this reason it's fairly easy for Orlanthi to enter an area, as shown by the numerous migrations they've engaged in throughout time, they don't need much outside help to remain, and they mix easily with other cultures (to the point that I'd argue there are actually several distinct cultures under the "orlanthi" label).
  24. My personal take for common Rune magic: Command Cult Spirit, Divination, Sanctify, Summon Cult Spirit - these are all just variations on creating a connection between the god and initiate, which the initiate has already done. Dismiss Magic, Extension, Multispell, Soul Sight - these are just using raw divine power to manipulate the flow of magic. Maybe they're a holdover of when the god learners figured out how to sorcerously manipulate rune spells, or maybe they're what they were basing their study on. Spirit Block - The bit of Flesh Man inside all mortals allows for this one. Find Enemy, Heal Wound, Warding - These I think have the least justification for being auto-learned, besides for gameplay reasons. If I had to put them with the others I'd put FInd Enemy and Warding with the first group (Warding especially is just a specialized Sanctify), and Heal Wound in the second. As for spirit magic learning, the original topic, I think that it usually takes a week since you're essentially trying to develop a new "magical muscle" on your spirit/CHA. Worship ceremonies bring the Hero Plane into proximity, thus making time and magic both behave a bit differently, so the process can be significantly sped up during them. You can also force spirits to "graft" their own magic onto you, bypassing the whole process of developing it yourself (RAW I don't think spirits lose spells that you force them to teach, but I'm considering it as a possibility, similar to HW integration).
  25. If you want Buseri to have stargazing abilities, maybe you could let them learn Find Stars as a variant of Find (Substance). It could mark out where stars are in the daytime, and even show invisible ones. But maybe that's stretching the spell too much, since stars are definitely well outside the normal rune magic range. YGMV.
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