Richard S.

I do wish they could reprint the Glorantha Classics as well. I get that there's a lot of nostalgia value in the remakes of the original supplements, but the classics, to me, are far more practical and affordable, being compilations.

I think they were just drawn that way to look kind of old and worn. The way a rune is drawn doesn't really matter in the end, as long as the shape is generally the same. A straight edged Harmony rune is no different than a jagged edge one.

19 hours ago, ffilz said:

Cool. Good work. People will surely be interested in Greg’s early Sorcery rules. 

How much were those fleshed out? There was a thread on them a while back that produced some interesting stuff, and based on that I've homebrewed up some rules. It'll be interesting to see what exactly Greg wrote about them in those old articles.

The way I run it is that if the situation warrants a roll in the first place, you get a check. You shouldn't be rolling for things that are so simple or low-stress that you wouldn't have an opportunity to learn from experience.

2 hours ago, g33k said:

Almost.

Everyone with POW has an innate ability to learn minor (Spirit-type) magic (which typically includes knowledge of how to craft a focus)...

... and to cast any spells they know...

... but if they never learn any magic, they cannot perform any magic!

 

To be fair, I could see an argument for Rune augments being a form of very minor magic. So even if you don't know spells, you're still a little magical.

1 hour ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

Orlanth stole a Sword to kill Yelm.  He did not steal a spell.  Arkat was noted for an Unbreakable Sword, not an Unbeatable Spell.  If Sever Spirit is "sacred" to Humakt, cite an important myth featuring The spell.

Orlanth didn't steal a sword, he stole the Death rune, which just happened to look like a sword. Humakt's sword (and sometimes he is the sword) is Death. Thus, Humakt owns the Death rune, and has complete authority over it. He is not the god of swords, he is the god of Death.

YGMV - Your Glorantha May Vary. We repeat those same four words so often that it's almost some sort of religious mantra. But how do we actually practice what we preach? What are some ways, big or small, that y'all's various Gloranthas have varied? How much stake do you place in published sources, and how much do you make up or homebrew yourself? I'm hoping that this thread could be a place where people can get ideas from each other for fun or interesting ways they could vary their Glorantha, in large ways or in little ways.

Here's a few of my own to start it off:

1. "Humanized" elder races. I'm not a huge fan of totally alien nonhumans, though a fair bit of weirdness is alright, and so I like to make everything a little more relatable and playable. And yes, this does extend to dragonewts

2. Nicer Dara Happa. IMG, Dara Happa is still an extremely hierarchical society with a tendency towards pomp and arrogance in the upper echelons, but even without the Lunars it's not the total repressive misogynistic place that it sometimes looks like in canon. By extension, Yelm is a bit of a nicer god too.

3. Illuminates are sociopaths. The way I've interpreted it, Illumination is basically believing (and having your belief reinforced by the universe) that there's no moral difference between, say, raping and murdering a homeless man or buying him clothes and a hot meal. Therefore, Illuminated people seem emotionless and react purely based on their own logic or out of necessity. They can act emotional if they need to, but this may require a roll. One way to spot an Illuminate, especially an inexperienced one, is to watch their reaction to what should be a shocking or traumatic incident: if their reaction seems delayed or insincere, they could be illuminated.

4. Dragonewts and dreams. My interpretation of Draconic philosophy is that the world is made of dreams. The Cosmic Dragon is Ouroboros within its own dream, and everything else is dreams of the Cosmic Dragon. Dragon magic is basically lucid dreaming, dragonewts are the dreams of the eggs, and the goal of dragonewts is to "wake up" as dragons, then engage in another series of evolutions until they wake up as the Cosmic Dragon, and then the same until Ouroboros reawakens.

What are some of your favorite variations from your own Gloranthas?

20 minutes ago, davecake said:

You are probably thinking of the Annilla cult writeup, though there isn't much. Of course when you take two thinks as mysterious as elder giants and dragons, what will really clear things up is the Blue Moon, right?

It certainly does invite some speculation, right? 

 

Where's that write-up from? I wasn't aware that Annilla had ever had an officially published cult.

2 hours ago, David Scott said:

 

So it uses spirit combat mechanics? The text that GAZZA is citing imply that it's resolved with normal attack rules but with Spirit Combat instead of a weapon skill for the spirit.

3 minutes ago, GAZZA said:

RQG is not immune to this; it's been 2 years and we still don't have the gamemaster's guide that is referenced in the main book. The only real reason that's tolerable is because I have enough older/different edition RQ stuff to fill in the gaps without full scale conversion.

Two years? Has it really been that long already? Wow, feels like it came out yesterday.

To be completely fair to RQ, we have gotten several progress reports on the state of upcoming books, and they have an incredibly small team for Glorantha stuff in general. It has been a while though, yes.

I don't think so. I'm tempted to say that nothing happens.

Pretty much all else we know about this was that it was "in the early stirrings of protomyth". AFAIK, it's not really important to anyone, it's just a curiosity of early creation times. You're probably right about the Earth association, it's been alluded/theorized that Genert fathered them. Possibly if the giants had won they would have had more of a presence, maybe we would've had an Empire of the Giants Friends instead of Wyrms Friends .

35 minutes ago, gochie said:

Hmmm I disagree. Non-raisable is non-raisable. 

It literally says to raise a non raisable characteristic. INT and SIZ are the only ones ever described as such.

6 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

i know it's a joke but trap is a slur, please don't use it

It is? This is the first I've heard of that. Guess ya learn something new every day.

So what you're saying is that Kero Fin is a trap...

I knew Glorantha was anime, but I didn't know it was hentai as well.

If not hammered thin it should have the same properties as normal bronze armour.

12 minutes ago, dumuzid said:

Thank you for these points, particularly the bit about there probably not being a published, detailed account of Belintar's conquest.  Does anyone know who the "ancient allies" were that the Guide describes Belintar winning with his heroquests?

Probably the guardian gods and spirits of the various nations, like Veskarthen and Imjara.

2 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Even if your player does get lucky with it being enchanted, I'd be cautious about which God's magic it was enchanted by! (Which could make for more fun and games! Literally)

I'm pretty sure that steel is the same regardless of whichever cult enchanted it

I believe the dragonrise happened in Earth season but I'm not sure of the week or day. Presumably it was on a holy day to the red goddess or Yara Aranis, since that's when the consecration would've taken place.

1 minute ago, Akhôrahil said:

Was Argrath involved in those? Those are Kallyr projects with Orlaront Dragonfrend as her draconic expert, aren’t they?

Maybe he came along for the ride? I'm not too familiar with the events behind either one.

32 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Personally, I think that he encountered some Orlanthi Draconic Mystics and learned their secrets, allowing him to access some of the EWF Powers.

I wonder who that could've been...

Even without this it's pretty financially advanced b/c of Issaries.

1 hour ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

It's especially funny, since he's the product of mass-utuma, bringing it all back to draconic shamanism again!

I knew the Void Dragon had something to do with the Imperium! It all comes full circle now...

5 minutes ago, Crel said:

Thus far, my solution has been to determine that Issaries Traders in My Glorantha are a bit like classic D&D-esque wizards: they have a bunch of spells prepared and ready to go, and who knows what they happen to have. So leave that man on a donkey alone, and wait for the next traveler if you don't wanna get Thunderbolt'd...

Oh this. I like this. So many ideas... cackles in maniacal glee

1 minute ago, lordabdul said:

Good stuff! The only problem is that I have no idea what this expression means?

Dixie cups, the really weak ones that you have to throw away after using once