pachristian

I just had the pleasure of discovering Dan Davis's History videos on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DanDavisHistory I can't speak for his novels, but his neolithic and Bronze Age videos are highly recommended!

Yes. Borderlands is available as a .pdf on both drivethrurpg and via Chaosium's website. Borderlands & Beyond is currently on sale on Chaosium's website.

The Hyborian age lends itself well to adventure gaming as well. Religion is kept simple Political bodies are large enough to ignore, unless you have your own army. They are also at war often enough to create opportunities for spy or soldier adventures. All of the classic adventure tropes are available (knights in armor, desert nomads, pirates, lost cities, etc.). Cultural regions are familiar enough that players can easily understand them, and find tropes that they like. For gaming in the Hyborian Age, I propose some additional uses of those extra luck points: Reveal Background Plot: While the character sleeps, they may have an expository dream that explains the background of whatever menace they are facing. If the plot exposition is necessary outside of a rest period, the character is conveniently knocked unconscious (by Black Lotus, or something), so they can have the expository dream. They will not be killed or maimed during this dream, but they may wake up as a captive. Death is too Good for You: When an opponent has the drop on the player-character, instead of killing the character, they fatally delay their strike. If the opponent is a minion or unintelligent creature, something distracts them and they run off, leaving the character to (not) die. If the opponent is a master villain, they throw the character in prison, or into a (supposedly) inescapable death trap. "Bwa ha ha, into the pit with you. The Crawler will destroy you!"

Your point is excellent. One solution might be to allow the character to take some of the skills they will need in the lost world as Career skills. Just Handwaviam them in. So our hypothetical computer programmer might also have been a volunteer mountain rescue, and be allowed to take Athletics, Endurance, Survival, and Tracking as part of their professional skills. Several of my friends have hobbies that they are very serious about - to the point of treating them as part-time jobs.

I like this - it looks like you've put some serious thought into putting the occult back into magic. I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.

And because my answer wasn't very helpful: I use Vikings of Legend and Pirates of Legend regularly. I'm outlining a Viking campaign, in Mythras, and will be using the magic from Vikings of Legend in it. I've used Gladiators of Legend in a Roman Era game, also Mythras, and it plugged in very nicely.

My impression is that Conan Properties sells the license to a publisher, lets it run for a few years, and when sales taper off, sells it to a new publisher, hence: TSR > Steve Jackson > Mongoose > Modiphius > Monolith. Every step of the way they produce lots of world books, a limited number of adventures, and then the license moves on - and us gamers are left to buy a new set of core rules, and a bunch of sourcebooks that cover material that we already have for an earlier version of the rules... It's a treadmill, and the main people who benefit are the suits in Conan Properties, who contribute nothing except collecting the money. Or am I being too cynical?

All of the books you mentioned will translate to Mythras easily. As for historical accuracy - they're close enough for gaming work.

"Modern Man in the lost world" is a classic trope. I've thought of using the same idea with Monster Island. My plan was to tell the players that whatever else their character was or did, they had 50% in some weapon or martial arts style that included archaic weapons. I'd give them that skill free. So one player might have Aikido, with weapon styles included, another might be a medieval re-enactor, and so on. You always have to look out for the joker who has a hundred good logical reasons why Lithuanian Tongue-Wrestling is a legitimate martial art, and toilet paper roll is a legitimate weapon. I prefer to stop players like that before they make fools of themselves in the game. "Modern Man in the Lost World" tropes usually include individuals who are geniuses or physically superior - or both.

While I'm on that thought, one other deviation I have is that the Gold Wheel Dancers were the gender-reversed aspects of Yelm and the solar pantheon. Worship was suppressed in the first age and never recovered. However, the ruined temples are out there, waiting for some unlucky players to come along and have to tell Dara Hrappa that they've been wrong for the last thousand years...

I do the same thing. Different clans have different versions of Vinga. However, in many of them she also represents women in non-traditional rolls. One of my players is a follower of Vinga-Orstan - Vinga as the goddess of carpenters and woodworkers.

I use the 'veils' idea as well. Lhankor Mhy temples demand the women wear beards, but (depending on the high priest) the definition of "beard" is pretty loose. I treat the cult of the Storm Bull as a dumping ground for clan's troublemaking, anti-social members. A child who is disrespectful, gets into a lot of fights, and/or who is generally unwanted, gets "encouraged" to join the Storm Bull. The vague idea is that maybe the troublemaker will accomplish some good before he gets him/her -self killed. Followers of the Bull are kind of like your local tough gang.

I'm dropping the Hellpits of Nightfang near Adari. I have a Pavis-based game (timeframe 1611 - 1615, so far) and recently launched a vampire plot linking the abandoned tower (from Borderlands) the old sun dome (Avalon Hill, Sun County) and the Hellpits near Adari. It all started with a vampire in the crypts beneath Blind King's Hill.

For me, one of the great moments in Runequest was when "Argrath" was identified as a title, not a person. When I started my current campaign (50+ sessions ago) I told the players that Argrath, as described in King of Sartar and the rules and settings books, was Argrath unless a player character stepped in to take his place, to fulfill the role and do the deeds. So in my game the question "who is Argrath?" has not come up - but every player has been told you could be, if you so choose.

I'm running late sharing this link: This artist does some excellent designs that are very Glorantha-friendly.

Bought my copy at Origin's '78. Heard all my gaming friends tell me why it wouldn't work. Within a year it was our go-to game system and everything else was an also-ran. I remember a friend complaining that there weren't any wizards in the game - to which I pointed out that all of the evil wizards in the Conan saga were priests of Set. This was a revolution in another way: 116 pages contained everything you needed and nothing that you did not need.

The key element in all of this is player and GM attitude. For some players it's all about having the biggest numbers on their character sheet. These are the advancement-oriented players. Those players usually play assertively, and try to get as many check marks as they can. The better advancement-oriented gamers will have a solid reason for why their character uses their skills, or changes weapons. For other players, it's about storytelling. Those players are more likely narrate and dialog through their game, and to only roll skills when it is necessary for the story. Looking at David Scott's post (8/19, 4:23) we see that after 6 sessions, the players averaged about 2 check marks per session. My guess is that David runs a story-driven game. Neither play style is "right" - both players are playing their own version of "Maximum Fun". The challenge to the GM is when you have players of both types in the same game. I generally do. Because the rules as written reward the player who assertively pursues check marks. Given time, because of their play style, this gives them a more potent character on the character sheet, then the person who plays a more narrative style. This can lead the more story driven player to feel quite frustrated; they have lower skills and fewer spells than the more assertive player. The longer the game goes on the greater the difference becomes. Did I hear you say "So what? They're both playing the style they want to?" The answer to that is "yes, but as players, and as equals at the gaming table, they are entitled to equal treatment." And if I have several players who all play for good storytelling, but only two of them assertively pursue checkmarks, then I will have an unbalanced game after a relatively short time. You see, one play style that is not "right" is the player who advances his character at the expense of the other player-characters. I've had several of this type of player in games. It is difficult deal with as they are often good players, good role-players, and popular with their friends. You really have to be cold-blooded to recognize that they're always stepping up to the plate - even when it means blocking others from using the same skills. Based on the answers on this thread, it sounds like the GM's who have kept track award around 10 check marks per season, per player. I'd like to call out jajagappa (posted 8/18, 6:07) for having a good idea of what kind of skills his characters use. Thank you, that was very helpful. I don't have much data on how many play sessions that is for most of us. I know from my own experience that most of the adventures I GM run 3-4 sessions. I think it's important to keep a running count, not because I don't trust my players, but so I can ensure I am giving them enough opportunities to get checkmarks on a given adventure. I want to ensure that the players are getting equitable numbers of checkmarks. I need to see that I am not favoring one player over another. I cannot do either of these things without keeping some metrics. My traditional answer is to only award a checkmark when the skill use is (a) relevant to the adventure and (b) there can be a negative consequence for failure. My current answer is to run Mythras (The Design Mechanism), which I think is the best of the D100 systems. In Mythras, characters are awarded improvement points, which creates a whole new set of challenges, but nethertheless ensures fair distribution of improvements. Finally, when it comes to dealing with Checkmark farming, all I can say is that player's ability to rationalize why this particular skill role is relevant to the adventure never ceases to astound me!

Forgive me if this topic has been raised already. For the experienced RQ:Glorantha GM's. How many checkmarks, on the average, do you expect a player-character to get each adventure? Each play session? Do you keep a running count? Finally, how do you prevent "Checkmark farming" where players request to gratuitously roll on skills to get checkmarks, whether or not they have a bearing on the current adventure?

How did we get onto Ernalda and the status of women? The answer to my question is that Yelmalio is universally worshipped among the men of Sun County, and Lodril and other solar gods are only worshipped for specialized situations. Lodril's specialized magic, to warm the earth, is not particularly useful in Prax or the Zola Fel valley, so there would not be a practical reason to import the cult. Ergo, there are probably a few shrines to Lodril, but either no dedicated worshippers, or so few that it does not matter.

You missed the important ones: https://www.kon-tiki.no/expeditions/ra-expeditions/ Ra I did not quite make it across the Atlantic, but Ra II did. https://www.kon-tiki.no/expeditions/tigris-expedition/

Pardon me if this has been asked before: Do peasants in Sun County, Prax, worship Lodril? Or is the entire population dedicated to Yelmalio/appropriate cohort goddess?

I don't know about the rat deity, but the mouse deity has a theme park with a castle in the far southwest.

Moana is practically a textbook hero quest. Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower. The various Conan stories; particularly Beyond the Black River. A number of the Icelandic Sagas; my favorite is King Harald's Saga. And, as a must-read, Geoffrey Bibby's amazing: Four Thousand Years Ago.

I think that in your shoes, I would find out from the player what they expected to be able to do with a "Circe-like" character. Make sure that their expectations will fit into the game.

Not as scary as starving to death.