pachristian

I identify average heights and weights based on ethnicity and gender, and then give everyone the same points to build with. I believe Chaosium did address the issue once, and their comment “It’s not worth the fights it creates”.

I disagree. One set of rules for the game world: Players and NPC’s alike. Otherwise you’re just saying “My made up number is bigger than your made up number.”

In my game, set in Pavis (1612-1614, so far), I had presented the Morning Star and Evening Star as a paired spirit cult. Morning Star was presented as the patroness of beginnings (and coffee), Evening Star of bringing things to an ending. The players, particularly our party’s aspiring shaman, and another who is an aspiring priest of Pavis, decided to run with this. They got permission from the Pavis Temple to set up a small shrine/dining area, atop the wall, near the Pavis Temple. The Pavic character let it be known to his (many) contacts and friends in the city that he would be there certain mornings at sunrise, having coffee. People quickly understood that that was a way to get direct, informal, access to the Pavis temple/government. Likewise, our aspiring Shaman let it be known to her community, that here was a forum where issues could be (informally) raised and discussed before they were officially brought to the city council. It was excellent political playing by both players. They created a similar evening event, to balance the cult. Now after roughly a year of game time, they have a recurring “congregation” that honors the Morning and Evening stars - without it being a ‘cult’ yet. On their “to do” adventure list, they are now planning to recover some sacred relics of the stars, to bring to the morning coffee shop and evening salon, effectively creating an already attended temple. The Pavic Priest is also working to strengthen relations with the Sun Dome (he considers Orlanthi uncivilized and unreliable), and plans to use the Morning and Evening Star cult as a bridge cult, creating a minor cult in common for groups that are otherwise separate - the Sun Dome, Pavis, the River People, Orlanthi of Pavis County. After all, who could object to meeting over a cup of coffee to try to talk out issues? Minor cult magics will be a bonus, and an incentive for people to regularly participate. The biggest challenge will actually come from the character’s priests; who may get nervous if the cult of morning and evening gets too tied to Pavis, or the PC getting too much influence. But that’s the subject of another type of adventure. (And yes, I know your version of Glorantha may not have coffee. Too bad for your characters.)

I had set up the order, and was waiting for payday before sending money, so no lost money. I’ve been in touch with Armorcast. Their old service was sold, and their server converted without much advance warning. So accounts were lost, etc. However, they are restoring everything as fast as possible. I asked about Glorantha miniatures, and they told me that they do not have the license to call anything “Glorantha” or “Runequest” so they may have the old “Prince Argrath” figure, but that can’t even hint that it’s “Prince Argrath”. But trust me, you can identify them! I expect to re-do my order in a week or two. They have some great figures.

Armorcast.com has the Lance & Laser models. Until a few weeks ago they had fine baboons, dragonnewts, Walktipus, and so on. However, they’ve updated their web sites and some of the models - including all of the dragonnewts are gone. What’s even worse is that I had an account and a standing order (which included dragonnewts), and when they updated the website, my account and order vanished.

My game has the hero cult of Independent Jones, a master scholar who traveled to exotic places to bring back knowledge and sacred artifacts. Followers of the hero cult gain extra hit points in locations, wear leather armor, and often train to use a bullwhip. However, they must take an oath to never keep artifacts for themselves, but instead donate them to the library.

These are great! When will they be available individually? I plan to assemble a group of 1 of each Morokanth, then round out to an even dozen by getting three more with spears and two more which are on all fours. I don't know how many herd men I'd want.

Blast! I knew I was doing something wrong when I only order 14,400!

Operative word "Cheaper". The military then as now always tries to save money. It's not a big deal when you're buying armor for yourself, but if you're a king having to outfit 10,000 soldiers, then even a slight "cheaper" is a big deal.

I've always played it that you marry outside your clan, but usually within your tribe. However, thinking about the distances mentioned in Joerg's posting, that would often mean brides are exchanged from outside of Dragon Pass. In other words, marriage is not just a uniter of clans into tribes, but is used to create ties between distant clans and tribes. So perhaps one of the functions of the traveling Issaries merchant is to be aware of marriageable men and women, and help set up marriages between distant clans. They then take advantage of the ties formed by the those marriages as part of the trade routes. Your cousin Heoruvard in Aggar is going to have a fine supply of wool this year. He's willing to trade it to you for Clearwine and good bronze work.

D&D tropes clobber players in ways other than spell casting. I just had a play say he would not play in Glorantha again: Because he doesn't like that Elves are intelligent plants and Dwarves don't fit his mental stereotype. He insists he likes the game he's been in, but just can't handle the differences between Glorantha and his stereotype LOTR-derived game world. I've known people to refuse to play RuneQuest "because it has ducks". Your best bet for the person who wants to play a "wizard" or a "ranger" or whatever trope they like, is find out what the like about the trope, then point them in the direction of runes and a cult that gives them what they want. Then run the game so they feel useful. Some will adapt, some won't.

Any news on these?

Classic Fantasy is very old school: Wizards are immensely powerful, but with a limited number of shots. So you. Have to wait for the opportune moment to cast your spells. Over the last 40 years, wizards have gotten to cast more and more spells, up to near video-game levels. If you want wizards to cast dozens of spells a day, allow them to trade in a luck point for recharging their magic points instantly. If that’s too extreme, allow them to recharge some magic points by trading in a luck point (say, 2d4 magic points for 1 luck point).

How to do characters for the meat grinder dungeon: 1) Give them the following numbers: 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 (Alternatively: 18, 17, 16, 13, 10, 9, 8). Tell them to divide those numbers up among their stats as they see fit. 2) Have them pick a character class(s) and make note of the five critical skills for advancement. 3) Have them pick 7 professional skills. 4) Have them add +35% to each of 10 skills of their choice. (Alternatively: +40% to 5, +20% to 5, and +10% to 5). 5) Write down class abilities and pick spells 6) Give them weapons and armor appropriate to their class, and an idiot pack (i.e. a backpack of basic dungeoneering equipment). 7) Tell them to fill in some background and name their character. 8) Kill the characters that do not have names, and tell the player to start again. 9) Play Game!

I very much looking forward to Mythic Greece, but I agree that Mythic Persia would be great to have! Ideally it would cover multiple eras, and so could be a companion piece to both Mythic Greece and Rome.

Since you ask: From D&D The Moathouse from the Temple of Elemental Evil. Players have route bandits out of an old keep. In D&D it's meant for 1st and 2nd level characters, who will be totally outpowered if they attempt to just fight their way through. In RQ, numbers matter, and again the players will had to out-think and out-strategize the bandits. I've thought about using the rest of the temple as a dungeon complex on Ogre Island, but it's too "dungeons" to work well (odd as that may sound from me). However, I am using the "Elemental Evil" concept as an old god-learner school that specialized in elemental magic. Temple of the Frog. Not run yet. The first dungeon ever published, and still outstanding. I used the D20 version published by Zeitgeist Games in 2006. I replaced the high-tech with god learner stuff based out of the Clanking City. The temple itself became a chaos-corrupted frog cult. I haven't place the temple yet - most likely it will be near Casino Town, in the swamps. A small town dominated by a powerful temple is very Gloranthan. It would also make a good town in the Krjalki bogs of the Wastelands. And the frog-spawn nicely fit the mutation theme of chaos. Ziggurat of the Ghoul-Queen from Mesopotamia by Necromancer Games (now Frog God Games). I'm currently running this. One of the players lost an arm on Blind King Hill, and the ghoul-queen's minions brought it to her. She's using it to scry on the player, and is working to manipulate events so that he is lured to her. I'm not running the whole sequence at once - bit by bit is my motto. Dungeon Crawl Classics (Goodman Games). These modules are largely hack and slash, but are well-written adventures, and the swords-and-sorcery feel adapts very well to Glorantha. #66.5 Doom of the Savage Kings A deadly beast keeps coming back, the clue to defeating it is is found in an old burial mound. Players learned a lesson in this adventure: Just because the clan chief is an Orlanth Rune Lord, doesn't mean he can't be a dispirited, two-faced, problem. Players ended as friends of the clan, but enemies of the clan leadership - a nice political conundrum. #67 Sailors on a Starless Sea Players enter a cavern to fight chaos-warped humans the tomb of an ancient chaos lord. Warped humans replaced by Broo, players found the challenges of fighting broo on their home turf deadly. I placed the cave upriver to Pavis, and the hook was broo attacks on nearby villages. #70 Jewels of the Carnifex A sealed temple to a forgotten god. I placed the temple in the Big Rubble, made the Carnifex a 2nd age minor death and darkness goddess, Azazel became a fallen Light Sun. The players have to finish Azazel to allow him to re-enter the cycle of life and death. I avoided making Carnifex a chaos goddess, despite the write-up, because I wanted her to be available as a sort of a death and darkness version of Firshela. #75 The Sea Queen Escapes I haven't run this one yet, it's another forgotten and imprisoned god(less) story. I've got the Sea-Queen's tower on defender's shore, not far from Sog's ruins, and I've liked her to the Waertagi. #82 Bride of the Black Manse an absolutely great horror/mystery story. I haven't run it in Glorantha yet, but I've got the mansion itself in the rubble. I replaced the Mammon with Humakt. Players stumble into a tiny pocket of god-time centered around a woman who (thought she) could cheat death. I have a Humakti in the party, so I think that resolving the Black Manse will be a suitable hero quest for him. There are others which would work, but these are my favorites.

I run in Pavis (set in 1613 now). I call my game Rubble Crawl Classics. I actually use the Mythras (Design Mechanism) rules. You see, I realized a year or so ago how many players I talked to who loved adventuring in Pavis and the Rubble, and how few GM's set their campaigns there. My game is, at it's core, a series of dungeon crawls. Each mission is played in 1 to 3 sessions. I have half a dozen ongoing plots. Each one designed to play out over 5 to 10 (non-contiguous) session: If the players aren't interested in a plot, I drop it, and so don't railroad the players. Plots have included politics, clan issues, religion, lost magic artifacts, deadly rivals, and recurring foes. Rubble adventures have come from a variety of sources, many of them classic D&D dungeons, and Dungeon Crawl Classics (Goodman Games) adventures. It just takes a little imagination to convert them to Glorantha and the Rubble (I don't convert specific spells or class abilities; I convert concepts: Enemy wizards become priests (or shamans) with a strong emphasis on attack magic (such as having elementals), Enemy clerics become priests with buffing spells. It's just a matter of applying appropriate cults. The most important difference is that in RQ, numbers are more important than in D&D, so never put the BBEG alone - always give him minions. So far - lots of praise and few complaints. I'm happy with that.

I give 'significant' NPC's (i.e. recurring villains) 1/2 as many IPT (Improvement Points + Training) as PC's. Minor NPC's get 10% PC rate per year. Significant NPC's start with a set number IPT based on how many sessions I expect to pass before the PC's are equals. So if I want an NPC to be the equal to the PC's when then PC's have 150 IPT (a fairly major character), then I start him/her out with 75, and improve the NPC as the game goes on.

And of course, Games Workshop Gor make great Broo!

The Rod of Sekhmet, a Mythras adventure module run at Dundracon 42, on February 17, 2018, has been posted in the "downloads" section.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/112581/Book-of-Quests?src=DotD&from_home=1 If you don’t already have it, now’s A good time.

From Left to Right: Penelope the Busarian. Figure converted from "Almah Merchant Princess" by Reaper Miniatures Livia D'Lantis from Jansholm. Figure "Female Archer" by Dark Sword Miniatures. Garrick the Trickster. Figure custom-created using Heroforge.com. And that's a tail hanging behind him, he shape shifts into a monkey. So get your mind out of the gutter. Jedrick the Glorifier. Figure converted from "Duel-Wield Human Knight" by Dark Sword Miniatures.

RQ6 fixed this by scaling back the damage modifiers.

I can't say the quick start because I've only played it once and don't know how it will play in campaign. But I really like Nash-Whitaker RQ!

I'm not trying to offend anyone. I sometimes do, without trying... I will stand by my belief that you do not really know how a game works until you've played it. The RQ3 sorcery system is an excellent example of that; until you've played it, with all the challenges of building up a sorcerer in that system, you don't really appreciate out intricate it is, or how well it complements the spirit magic and divine magic systems. I have Fire and Sword, and Openquest, but as I've never played either, I can't really offer a solid opinion on them.