Richard S.

6 minutes ago, Broadsmile said:

Additional cattle query: Do the Praxians steal & trade each others iconic herd beasts? How mixed do their herds become? If i'm a bison tribesman herding a flock of Impalas, herd-men and Ostriches will the other Tribsmen look down on me?

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.

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.

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

True, undine power is a possibility as long as you've invested in the summon and command spells (and don't mind spending the Rune points).

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!

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.

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.

On 1/16/2024 at 9:15 AM, davecake said:

He is the patron god of that regiment, and their special magic c9mes from him. 
I vaguely recall that he is a different type of lion, and I think has a black mane?

Also was the patron god of the lion shahs of Carmania I think?

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.

8 minutes ago, Yazurkial said:

It kind of depends on what you consider canon. All of the Hero Wars line of books took the view that multiple worlds mashed together and are somewhat mixed and somewhat separate. That doesn't matter much at all for lower-level players. But if that's really how the universe is, then it will matter if you play a hero (or a superhero, or immortal, or transcendent master, or an aspirant to apotheosis, or maybe dragonnewt). To my mind, Arkat was a PC.

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.

50 minutes ago, Yazurkial said:

Ian:

Are you trying to reimpose the three (and a half?) worlds view as well? It's not so relevant for beginning players, obviously. But the HQ mechanic lends itself to the higher-level-player complexity that Greg talked about in Arcane Lore. Even at low levels, the treatment of great spirits as gods in RQG rubs me wrong. But it works OK as a mechanic at low levels. I haven't tried it at high levels for an animist yet.

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.

1 hour ago, Ian Cooper said:

I have a rough draft that I use which leans into Glorantha as presented in RQG. My goal is to make it easy to use RQG books with a QW Glorantha genre pack.

I also realized from playing with D&D players, that rules that are too "improvisational" are hard for folks that don't know the setting. So you either end up writing a treatise on metaphysics to guide them or you just mirror RQG spell lists. The heart of this is the "credibility test" which we emphasize more in QW. What you can do with "incredible powers" is defined by the table understanding of the setting's "rules" for that power. RQG defines the rules for Glorantha then for our purpose.

Some notes from my current draft:

 

 I have some notes on rituals, illumination etc too.

But the key here, and as always with QW when creating a genre pack is to emulate the "feel" of the existing game, and make it easy to translate the materials.

Of course, you can just use an earlier HW/HQ approach, if you have that and prefer.

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.

2 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

As I recall there is a fire demon in a pit, it's like a fire elemental and so if I hit it with a fireblade I actually heal it.

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.

3 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

How does one heal an air elemental or any elemental beside a fire elemental assume one could with a fireblade?

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.

2 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

I think there was also a spell that increases the damage done by a fire elemental.

Create Wildfire does that, though it also damages the elemental. Similarly, Create Bonfire will increase the elemental's size, though not its damage.

3 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

If I have Shield on me and I am targeted and say an arrow hits me would it not damage an air elemental that it passed through to hit me?

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.

3 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

If I have on 20 ENC of unenchanted iron armor 100% magic resistance and am flying is anyone able to dispel the flight spell? (say I cast it on me with extensions before I put on my armor) 

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.

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.

15 minutes ago, kalidor said:

Does anyone know the Cult  compatibility chart for Ygg?

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.

On 1/12/2024 at 3:34 PM, jajagappa said:

While we know they are all fathered by Fralar, we only know the mother of Yinkin so unclear how close the others are.

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.

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.

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?

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!

8 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

But if we take away thise views, what is left to explain the matriarchal society?

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.

33 minutes ago, g33k said:

Don't forget Water!  The Oslir (and several other rivers (and their deities)) are central to the life (and worship) of a great many "Pelorians."

And ancestor worship (Biselenslib and SurEnslin)!

38 minutes ago, g33k said:

Really, I see "Peloria" as much more of a geographic than a cultural term.

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.

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).

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).

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.

I think that, while Yelm might have overall less initiates than Orlanth, his cult has at least as much if not more influence than the latter. Since Yelm's cult itself has a very hierarchical structure, and because his priests have divine authority over pretty much every other solar cult, Yelmites naturally can exert their influence much more easily and over a wider area than their Orlanthi counterparts. Orlanth's cult, on the other hand, doesn't have a strong central organization and only has as much authority as his priests can personally acquire through family, friends, and/or violence; even his associated cults are only held together by voluntary bonds, or by Orlanth continually beating them up.

The counterpoint to this, of course, is that Orlanth's cult can spread much more easily, since all it requires is his initiates going somewhere and establishing themselves as the new top dogs. Yelm worship, on the other hand, has to have a base of solar cults (or certain earth cults in a pinch) to establish itself on if it wants to actually rule. Though this also means that Yelm can step right back onto the throne after an upset so long as there's still Lodrili peasants to rule, while Orlanthi who've been forced out of an area will have to go through the process of fighting to be top dog all over again.

1 hour ago, metcalph said:

I have not described them as "another troll queendom" and would highly appreciate it if you confined your musings to you think they are like instead of patronizing dismissals of my thoughts.

 

I'm sorry if I came off as patronizing, that wasn't my intent at all. Your idea of the Andins being a mix of several different elder races is interesting, and not what I was responding to. My own knee-jerk reaction was that they were trolls, so I was refuting my own idea to mark out what I thought they were not. It was a confusing way of saying it, and definitely not a very valuable musing compared to yours and jajagappa's.

If you want more of my thoughts on what they are, I like the idea of them being mostly a mix of various underworld spirits, maybe including some troll relations but mostly of weirder types. Many of them are only partially or temporarily physical, so they can wander the east isles in spirit form and then manifest to cause trouble. Some Andins are little furry imps who run around misplacing tools and tripping people, others take the form of great shadowy beasts with red masks who lurk in the wilderness and prey on travelers, and others might be nearly invisible phantoms who whisper in the ears of mystics to disturb their meditation. The east isles aren't my usual corner of the lozenge though, so I'm not entirely sure what would fit there thematically.

If they were described as demons only by an in-universe speaker, I'd probably be on board with them just being another troll queendom, but given that the Guide itself doesn't get more specific than "demons" I'm inclined to think they're something else from the underworld. Maybe they're distant relations of trollkind, but I'd use the statistics for "demons" given in the bestiary.

Edit:

"Demon race of the Vithelan antigods. The Andins are vicious and foul entities that enjoy manifesting themselves as evil, demonic, and rapacious spirits that enjoy preying on the living." (GtG, page 476, emphasis mine)

Maybe they're naturally spirit creatures with the ability to become physical?

8 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

Ten planets (GtG, p. 672):

1. Zaytenara(s)°
2. Buserian
3. Reladivus
4. Shargash (Tolat)
5. Derdurnus
6. Deumalos
7. Falsoretus
8. Verithurus(a)
9. Ghevengus
10. Ghelotralas°

This being Glorantha, there is likely a conflicting story, too.

——————————————————
° These two are the odd ones out, I think — the ones you don’t want? — not being “celestial sons of Yelm”.

To further add to the issue, the Well entry for "eight celestial sons of yelm" lists Derdurnus, Deumalos, Falsoretus, Ghelotralas, Ghevengus, Reladivus, Verithurusa, Zator, and Zaytenera. Though considering all of their individual pages are under "recently updated" I think it may still be a work in progress.

Zator I think is Buserian, since they have the same personal rune. Reladivus is identified with Kargzant.