Bill the barbarian

10 hours ago, Nozbat said:

I’m going to buy the updated version of Horror on the Orient Express

 

Hook me up to join that game when you get it going! A little something for my little grey cells to work on!

22 minutes ago, Beoferret said:

An Alynx with SIZ 2 and 3d6 POW? It's a kitten! Come on folks, it's obvious! It stays a kitten for awhile and after a few seasons it's a full-on shadowcat friend who's awakened. All while sticking to the rules. And creating fun possible issues for the PC: "Where did Mr. Purrypants wander off to?! We can't leave the Caves of Chaos until we find him!" 

May I quote you on that comment about fun... well, I will anyway! Isn't that the point. @Nozbat, I believe that yer pal did not chum with the warriors but with the bad boy wood-cutter that liked to sleep outdoors and work in the woods... cats! Whatchagonnado!

3 hours ago, Nozbat said:

But speaking of parties.. she did set up lines of Catnip for all the other clan Alynx’s during celebrations 

Umm, in fairness this happened in Casino Town and as we know... What happens in Casino Town...
this never happened, I have witnesses, lies, flagrant lies... all o' them!

18 minutes ago, DucksMustDie said:

A ZZ Death Lord animates a skeleton, the skeleton obviously does not detect chaotic. What if a vampire does the same using Vivamort's magic ? Or a Thanatar priest using Thanatar's ?

reasonably sure undead are not inheritantly chaotic.

14 minutes ago, Darius West said:

everyone in Las Vegas and even in surrounding states have become unwitting cannibals

Hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

Thanks! You were great to work with. Call on me anytime when I am healthy!

7 hours ago, Ian A. Thomson said:

As an aside, the Rough Guide to Pavis City has also been done for ages (yes fully complete, laid out and everything), and will probably appear as Vol. 03 in the series. The intervening Vol 02 is also in an advanced stage, as if the following Vol 04. Progress is being made. 🙂

That was because ya had me helping on that one! Hell, if my health hadn’t failed we would be done!

🙂

Except for possible fan efforts or HQs Pavis Gateway to Adventure I would say there is not one one to the best of my knowledge.

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

Ok, my bad. I was using "mean" as a synonym of "strict". Fair point.

Hey Phil, I read it the same way, but having seen ya and read ya fer a while I figured you weren't that mean a sort! I mean that sort of mean...
(zounds)

yeah but...

On 8/11/2022 at 8:30 AM, mfbrandi said:

Academia.edu is a useful and legitimate source of stuff likely of interest to some Gloranthaphiles.

 

I have to agree great idea for a thread and thanks for the info dump. 

Cheers

On 8/11/2022 at 8:30 AM, mfbrandi said:

Even if that doesn’t fascinate, it quotes from a “Sumerian disputation”, Ewe and Wheat, which might find in-game use:

 

Now ya just gotta know Stafford et al. read this when it was first put out and incorporated it into their ideas on myths. 

On 8/11/2022 at 1:54 PM, svensson said:

Besides, one of the first translations from the Cuneiform alphabet was a recipe for beer in lieu of bread for taxes in ancient Sumer. Can't go too far wrong with that. As an aside, for those that might be interested, the Anchor Steam Brewing Company of San Francisco bought the recipe for said beer and did a run of 'Sumerian Ale' [link to the story at the end of this post].

 

Gotta love that, eh?

On 8/11/2022 at 2:42 PM, mfbrandi said:

Hello, again. (Gene Wolfe/RQ fiction thread.)

 

Gene Wolfe, ya don’t say... I love me some Gene Wolfe!

On 8/12/2022 at 4:25 AM, Darius West said:

Fair enough.  From what I read, the honey goes into the bread, and only indirectly into the beer, though I have had honey beer (I called it Quasimeado).

On 8/12/2022 at 2:58 AM, mfbrandi said:

Beastly!

On 8/12/2022 at 3:45 PM, Brian Duguid said:

Agriculture as a marker of difference is baked into Glorantha through the ongoing survival of people for whom agriculture is taboo: the Hsunchen shapechangers. This dramatises the idea that agriculture was a much a curse as a blessing.

Nice catch, and it also falls very nicely into the Gilgamesh/Enkidu dichotomy that Glorantha mines so well!

On 8/13/2022 at 8:05 AM, JRE said:

Wine travels relatively well because the alcohol content is usually high enough to reduce spoilage. It is also usually the highest alcohol content you can get easily, so that is a drink for dedicated alcoholics. Wine probably did not taste that great for our palates, so adding honey or other taste modifiers was typical, as well as diluting with water to make it drinkable (and the water less dangerous to drink).

 

Nice factoid JRE!

21 hours ago, svensson said:

For that matter, let's not over glamorize  indigenous peoples as living in some idyll like eff'ing Adam and Eve, shall we? Natives aren't born with an innate and 'natural' understanding of the balance of nature and their role in it. Indigenes over-predated areas, suffered sickness and diseases easily cured by modern medicine, warred for no other reason than the enemy was 'somebody else' and made every one of the mistakes that settled people do. They are and were no more virtuous than anyone else for all the mythological 'simplicity' of their lives.

 

Alas, svennson, ya just gotta know me, a long hair from Kanuckistan, well I just gotta disagree. Not to be mean or to contrarian, but to show there are opposing views welcome and def allowed here. Thankfully Brian has me covered with his next post... Very tired ad weak for a long debate or thought.

(Thankfully y’all, svennson and I do not get into matches... he lives, I let live and vis a versa... it seems to flow!)

20 hours ago, Brian Duguid said:

Most hunter/gatherer peoples were nomadic, so had the ability to do more about these issues than the agriculturalists, simply by relocating, which just wasn't an option for settled peoples. Indeed several of the early farming communities in West Asia failed, and returned to the hunter/gatherer lifestyle precisely because it was easier to survive in smaller, more mobile groups. And there is ample anthropological evidence that hunter/gatherer communities have less authoritarian cultures than others, and found the submission to authority in agricultural neighbours difficult to comprehend. So while we can accept that there are no absolutes, it's hard not to imagine Gloranthan cultures feeling likewise, especially as it's already written into the official lore.

 

and the rest as well...

10 hours ago, scott-martin said:

I love a lot of this (and will be reading CHILDREN OF HYKIM when I can) but just want to call this bit out as brilliant.

Yep, it’s a cool read, no?

13 hours ago, Brian Duguid said:

Top-level shamans are some seriously scary shit, hence the initial success of the White Bear Empire and before that the Eleven Beasts Alliance, showing what they can do when they work in concert.

Or truly terrifying Shaman Priests, gadzooks!

Thanks Brian.

15 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Like @PhilHibbs said, I don't think it's so much about 'balance', but more about "if you don't put a limit on it, munchkins gonna munchkin". "It doesn't say I can't have X, so...".

I believe my comment about setting the bar at capping stats according to the heirlooms parameters set out in char-gen and comparing that wth the alynx parameters where possible and negotiating what differences the player and GM will still have remains relevant. Yeah it’s HRing but it it doing so with the participation of the table... that can not be bad.

Note

As a former player of mine once said, I have no probs with fiats. I just like to limit them to areas I just can not stomach. After all it’s my table too!

6 hours ago, svensson said:

The key point here is that the animal companion is an ALLY and a free thinking being not an embodied Allied Spirit with a cult duty to you. You can't use it's POW or MP any old way you want. You ASK your FRIEND for help, you don't give it orders. And just like any friend, if you treat it too badly your friend can tell you to piss off and head for Wild Temple where it'll get some respect.

 

Hm, i am sure that is not what PhilHibbs would advocate having followed his comments for a long time. But he can tell us I am wrong if he wishes.  I did miss the thread this one came from (and it sounds like I am lucky) so I do not know the pedigree of the disagreement but I do not see anyone asking in this thread that pets/awakened animals/servant beast/guard or war beasts otherwise know as the species Alynx be treated as other then they are here, and of course should anyone do so.. well, of course, you are correct good sir. . It seems all that all denizens of this thread are exploring what the critters can do (RAWish...)... If I am wrong wrong let me know (and be prepared to face the just wrath of svennson 😞)...

Let me throw in a partial caveat here. Some old timers will equate awakened animals to the familiars they resemble from RQ2 just to confuse the issue. Again, have not read the other thread and if it is angry I will stay here. 

Cheers

He ain’t no duck! Foul or otherwise!
While I—like all others that are made of sugar and spice and everything nice—am mos' def a barbarian!

Can not recall who told me this or if a saw here in a thread (betcha @Scottyhad a hand in it) but I have been running the pre-gens for about 5 years for demoes and cons online and Cousin Monkey’s status came up as a boon companion (may even be in one of the bios). 

27 minutes ago, Agentorange said:

Obviously not permanent, because well they're not permanent are they ? but equally they're not just your average rune spell either.

A good question indeed. I would break the answer down by pondering; is the enchantment permanent or is the rune point (rune?)...

I would answer the rune point (let’s call it a rune)—so the immutable atom here on the marble might be equated with the fundamental particle of reality in Glorantha: The Rune!

How to get POW to stay on the material realms would be one possible answer to that riddle and we might assume that enchantment is one ritual way to have a Rune hang around for a longggg time 

27 minutes ago, Agentorange said:

what about a spell lasts a week, or a season, or......a year , 5 years, 10 years ?

Extension should cover this, no...

27 minutes ago, Agentorange said:

If you wanted spells that could do this, how would you run the Rune point and POW costs ?

 

Similar to the permanent cost in RPs for a similar enchantment is the first (and easiest) thing to come to mind for a spell doing the same... note the real cost will be the time committed to the spell.

On 7/8/2022 at 12:02 PM, Jeff said:

Hunters use Animal Lore, Track, and their Missile Weapon skill to take down their prey, as well as small snares and traps (I considered them outside of the Devise skill, but folk can reasonable differ about that). Important animals are going to be deer, boar, rabbits, antelope, etc. 

 

What would you use in place of devise for small snares and traps... survival, perhaps?

Correct!

I did not!

Look! If we were going to parse a good awakened pet, I would have to mention baboon... right cousin monkey? Oops, topic drift detected... <alert> whoop, whoop, whoop!

On 8/12/2022 at 10:08 AM, M Helsdon said:

Take on the role of Line Editor, Editor, Art Director, Layout Artist, Author or Artist, faced with deadlines, rogue authors and artists, conventions, printers, distributors, and shippers.

 

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt covered in printer’s ink!

18 minutes ago, soltakss said:

That reminds me of a convention game that I played in a week ago. The GM helpfully listed a number of camp-spy series so that we would know the flavour of the game, things like The Avengers, Man from UNCLE, Gambit and so on, with a twist of Austin Powers. Most of us were in our forties/fifties, so understood all the references, except a chap in his twenties who had never heard of any of them, not even Austin Powers.

 

Just ran a game at Gen Con online, in what I billed (did ya see what i did there, did ya see it, eh?) was a bronze age desert oasis mystery in a film noir mystery vein on the plains of Prax... I knew the players got it when one of the departing adventurers turned to say “Uhhhh... just one more thing...."

3 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

So: you can have an awakened alynx as long as it is SIZ 2 or 1. 1D6 is a rather unrealistic size range for a creature, unless you see alynxes as like modern dogs that have separated into multiple breeds with wildly different traits. I don't see why not, some clans might have small striped alynxes and others might have big spotted ones or medium black ones. 

2 hours ago, svensson said:

Yep, exactly what we did for our shaman who got an heirloom pet and wanted an alynx. Any stats outside of the range of the heirloom table got capped or negotiated. Do I remember this right @Nozbat?

5 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

This is a self-solving problem. The adventurer gets their alynx to attack, it gets cut in half, problem solved. Dropping on an opponent to surprise-attack them might work.

2 hours ago, svensson said:

Works for me as GM

6 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

Or should one casting of Clawsharp affect all of an animal's claws?

What would one casting of Bladesharp or Bludgeon do to a dual sword wielding storm bull or a two mace wielding Troll (oooo bad ass!)?

Looks great!

52 minutes ago, g33k said:

But until/unless there's an actual "errata" or "supplement" that specifies hard numbers for NPC creation, I have to presume the basic "cult" and "homeland" and "professional" numbers form the baseline, and it's the extra/discretionary points (skills, Runes, Initiate-status, spells) where "zero-style" NPCs differ.

This will have to be yer choice, but as I say, chacon a son gout or YGWV, I just say there is a lot of posts from chaosium staffers stating unequivocally RAI that the PCs are heroes... and head and shoulders above the hoi polloi.

52 minutes ago, g33k said:

But until/unless there's an actual "errata" or "supplement" that specifies hard numbers for NPC creation, I have to presume the basic "cult" and "homeland" and "professional" numbers form the baseline, and it's the extra/discretionary points (skills, Runes, Initiate-status, spells) where "zero-style" NPCs differ.

Fair point and one I usually use, so, I will have to agree. I like a real errata myself (I prefer it in the rules but whatayagointado?)!

52 minutes ago, g33k said:

Were I going to dig into the simulation side, I'd further presume that (for example) archers & peltasts "get a DEX bump to 13" (i.e. their drill instructors noticed who was better with missile weapons, and assigned accordingly) but -2 to STR and/or SIZ (i.e. drill instructors weren't crazy, and didn't want to let the big strong ones (with a DB) wander off to plink from a distance... ) .

You have mentioned that average stat thing afore. Now, I do not know many adventurers (okay I have never heard of such a thing INCONCEIVABLE!) that have average stats... 76 points from 10 points for 5 stats and 13 points for 2 stats— all rounded up. One would have to figure out a new average based on 4d6 and keep the best three or whatever variable you use and do not forget to add at least three more points and maybe another three or more yet...

Although there is no official word about the hero zero status of the adventurers being better than the masses there is a fair amount of statistical logic one can infer. Still it would be nice t have it buried in the rules. 

On 8/10/2022 at 7:45 PM, g33k said:

I have to go back to look at the RQG core rulebook to be sure; but IIRC just with:
  Cultural Weapons + many Cults + many Professions
hit 50%.  Some Cults+Professions higher.

In many of these here fora and on the WoD it has been established that figures from the core book, RQ RiG for occupations and cults and... are for the PCs (I call em adventurers, but I wanted to be clear) and not the NPCs which being more akin to zeros than heroes would have from much lower numbers all the way up to simply lower numbers... now those who are on the hero scale like say... the adventurers (perviously called PCs, just fer clarity) would be comparable or even maybe greater. 

5 hours ago, g33k said:

In RQG, the Hero Wars are here.  There's no time to slog up the skill-percentages from farmboy Rurik with his 25% Cudgel skill, scrounge for every clack in hopes of buying a Befuddle, etc.

Always loved that Gimpy’s description of his beginning!

5 hours ago, g33k said:

Starting PC's default to Initiate status with 3 Rune Spells, & 5 points of "Battle Magic."  At their choice, they can Sac a point (or more) of POW before play begins, to get another Rune Spell (or more than one).

See first rebut...

Hey @Ian A. Thomson, been awhile. Good to hear about the progress (YAY!) and looking forward to my copy of RG2P!

9 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

I once played the gods as computers in an odd (and utterly unsuccessful) RQ / Ringworld crossover - mistress Uz as Protectors etc etc

I woulda paid to be a fly on that wall...