Hteph

I'm a bit impressed, but OTH the LLM (Large Language Model, not AI, it is not an AI) was probably given heap and heaps of old forum posts written by nerd harping to no ends on their favourite topics. And I have always found Gloranthaphiles among the top most "productive" in those crowds.

I imagine the whole usenet went into that (with some of the more seedy parts removed) training set.

In absence of the rules set I would say that a Heroquest don't work that way, you can't spend more time learning someting (unless you are Lankhor Mhy etc I guess). I'm not even sure you can muster the want to stay and learn (at least not until you are at a level to start forging your own paths over there). It would be like stopping a canoe in the middle of a fast running river ... or something.

But this is just my opinion

19 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

In the HQ era, a big deal was made of the notion that gods can't really see the actions of individuals, so they have to punish whole communities for the sins of individuals and the people on the ground have to catch the specific offender. I don't think this suggestion remains in RQG, though. 

It is a lot of things in HQ that I incorporated in my RQ capaign back then, and that I will keep in my potential future campaign. This is one of them, it solves many magical short-circuits of classical plots, or at least change them in exciting ways.

Haven't seen it in the tread so far (but I may have missed it) but the "common" way to use bows for hunting larger game in the dwindling number of hunter-gathering tribes in southern africa has little to do with the killing force of the bows. They really have to little stopping power for that. Instead it is expected to wound the animal, and then following it until it gives up, not so much from the blood-loss as for the exhaustion. humans greatest weapon is our extreme stamina for long distance running. Over time humans outlasts almost any other species (yes even horses) in distance. It may take a full day for a couple of hunters to finally take down an antelope, but that is meat for many meals, and meat are only a small part of their diet.

The blood from the arrow wounds also helps with tracking.

On 11/12/2022 at 1:04 PM, Stephen L said:

Well, I've had a go at the family history, and attached for comment (or use if you like!)

I've kept to the RQ2 classic timeline, and adopted a 1616 start date, convinced by jajagappa's argument.

All events are referred to in Griffin Mountain, and I *think* I've got the dates right (there is some leeway in some of the dates).  And I've added the raids involving Balazar in from Wyrms Footnotes #15 (from the army events).  Between them, that gives quite a rich background, and quite colourful.  I've tried to tie in as many connections as I can with NPCs from Griffin Mountain.  The marriage of Glyptus, sudden death of his father, and ascension to the Elkoi throne all happening very rapidly, the year before the characters are borne gives interesting possibilities... 

But if I've missed any noteworthy event, do please let me know.

I've kept the text from Griffin Mountain about the rebuilding of Dykene in 1580, where it refers to "rebuilding began under the direction of the great grandfather to Skilfil Heartpiercer".  If Skilfil is in his 40s in 1616, that's a lot of generations to squeeze in, but having just done the maths, it just about works for a precocious line (Great Grandpa would have by pushing 70 in 1580 if we assume 21 years between generations).

 

Cool this was exactly what I was looking for and also started to tinker with, but real world happened, and I lost both energy and muse, so I'm happy to see it done!

To add to this already to long and tiresome thread with people screaming about their own headcanon, I just want to point out that bears are not great hunters, the best are probably Polar Bears and they miss like 95% of their attacks.

What bears are is survivalists, they are one of the most omnivorous animals in existence. To me the Odaylans are (like someone wrote about earlier) a cult for those who like to live in the wilderness outside of the thula. Trappers etc, and they hunt not with bows, but with spears and knives and clever traps and opportunities (drop bear, eh!).

I prefer to look at cults as how they have a role in the society, and less of role in production and adventuring.

2 hours ago, svensson said:

Well, let me be clear here... There isn't an intelligent condor in the scenario as written. You add one to prevent the characters from doing it the easy way.

I did understand that … I just found it as an good example of these small adjustments that may be needed. In this case I think it may be moot as I plan to have the characters start a bit more inexperienced than the standard and I think Fly will be a bit beyond them.

9 hours ago, svensson said:

 

In regards to your Condor Crags and Fly concerns, those can be quickly solved. One of the Condors has an awakened intelligence and is Rune Priest of Yelm. While the Priest doesn't complain about people scaling the cliffs the hard way, he has a habit of casting Dismiss Magic [backed by the POW of an Allied Spirit] on those who to 'cheat' the quest. And it's a long way down... 😉

Yes exactly these details, I like to have rumors of this planted in advance, perhaps in a folklore snippet if there is a Prax Character or a bawdy nomad song about a stupid Orlanthi sung around a campfire to provoke the PCs.

Just a reading through and making notes about these things and making the weave. I always prefer the info being channeled through a character (of course supported by me as I don’t demand them to memorize things, but it they just starts “I heard a story about Condor Crag and a stupid Orlanthi” and the looks expectant at me … if not making up a story on their own, with some injections from me. They where a good bunch, probably impossible to get them together again now sadly). 

On 3/9/2022 at 12:30 PM, svensson said:

Building on @Akhôrahil's point, if you're really feeling ambitious, you could try to knit the whole damned thing together. 

Generation 1: Make up a Sartarite clan that was evicted from their lands for being rebels [ca. 1603-10 or so]. The clan is exiled down the Pavis Road en masse. The player characters are young adults who have to make their way in a world with only a shattered clan behind them.

At this point you play through Borderlands and the other RQ2 Prax box sets. By the time you finish that, your adventurers are very likely coming up on retirement to home and family life as their clan begins to reassemble itself. Those are the parents of the next set of PCs.

Generation2: The PC's play through River of Cradles, some Sun County material, and Shadows on the Borderlands, maybe even Strangers in Prax. By the time they finish that, the grandchildren of the first PC's will take part in the Liberation of Sartar, the Dragonrise, etc.

For those third generation characters, you completely skip the Family History section of RQG's generation process, using the character actions of the previous two campaigns to set the Family Events, Passions, Heirlooms etc.

But this is admittedly a HUGE undertaking.

This was more or less the foundation of the campaign I was thinking of running before my family situation changed drastically. But I’ll hope I can continue to work on that on some point in the future. The work is mainly to find weak points that needs some thinking (Condor Crags and Fly is one example).

My browser is trolling me …

It will probably be easier to parse with an example in the finished book. But perhaps an editorial pass could be done, because I find it a bit difficult to understand.

I'm also a bit uncertain on the 5.3 Wagered rules. As you lose AP calculated from your own wager unrelated to the opponents wager, is there ever a reason for betting more than one? Wasn't it the opponents bet that you lost back in HW days?

<Trying to find my HW books>

I'm not sure I follow the "5.2 Sequence" stuff, there are appearances of "Resource" here and there, like in 5.2.2 Scored Sequence Outcomes and in 5.2.1.2 Resource Point Knowledge I assume it should be Resolution Point instead ... or have I missed something from earlier in the document?

I would rise a Github issue but I'm uncertain if I missed some connection.

9 hours ago, Joerg said:

Cod season in the northern Atlantic coast of Norway is in January, so people went out in boats. And then herring comes end of February...

Fishermen go out when there is fish to be caught, and if it is winter, then that's how it is.

Absolutely, and when the lakes are frozen it is a excellent time to “pilka”. Fishing by boring hole in the ice and with correct knowledge and right circumstances it is more efficient than using a fishing pole in the summer.

I “consulted” on a venom blurb for a .... Pathfinder article many, many years ago, I’ll see if I can recreate it. In short the venom is extremly interesting because it is a mix of three different venoms (varies of course, but in general).

The first is a fast acting component that causes intense pain and makes muscles lock up, the classic paralytic spider effect. It however has a rather short duration and its main function is for hunting allowing the spider to wrap the prey in silk.

The second component is a corrosive venom that liquify the innards of the insect, it works best on exo-skeleton prey where the venom pass around the whole slushy inside and makes it easy to consume. This could be the source of the ghastly effects of the bite from Brown Recluse or that Australian trapdoor spider, but it is a bit controversial, it could be a secondary infection from flesh eating bacteria ... an intersting topic. Aaaannyway, it burns the circulatory system of a mammal pretty badly and is a feeding poison.

The last and perhaps interesting component is a neurotoxin that attacks muscle coordination and has a slow onset and a long duration. It is thought that this is a defensive venom making it possible for the spider to get away from something that is to big or to aggressive to eat, such as a wasp or another spider.

IRL humans this usually manifests as intense pain at first, a pus filled bite place and headache and nausea later on.

And one interesting thing is not only do the proportions differ between species depending on hunting strategy, it seems individual spiders can shift them around depending on purpose of the bite.

The perhaps most interesting aspect is that there is a possibility of brewing three different poison from the spider venom.

And did you know that the spider that “shoots” a net from their head, do it from a mutated venom sack (probably) and the net is not just sticky, but also venomous...

And this I can talk about for hours ... spiders has the fewest mitochondria per cell of all animals! They must have a stamina that sucks royally and .... and ... and ...

oh, to me it is very simple, the protection rune is a aquare, so ofcurce this need to be as squarish as possible, and in the ritual to set up there will be steps* that guarantees it. If you get it from a "round rune" etc cult doesne't matter, they probably was gifted, or stole it, or something, from the earth to start with.

*So there are probaly a need of walking the perimeter, and then crossing the diagonal in a certain amount of steps, where the length step has been defined in learning process. Some twaking are probably possible, but too much and the ritual starts to fall apart.

In old Sweden the winter activities was mainly two things, repairing all things that broke or was damaged during the more labor intensive seasons, and hunting. There is a reason the god Ull was the god of winter, skis and hunting, snow is excellent for tracking and slowing down large animals. So plenty of opportunity for those who dip in Valind's knowledge of skis.

 Stories and such entertainment was mostly for passing time while doing small work in bad light.

I really liked this one, got a vision for an arachnetaur character going into rage everytime they got accused for being a Scorpionman ... and in the end accepting to be the stead for the party´s trollkin and thus getting seen as a weird Uz thing instead of chaos  monstrosity ... and grumbling about it all the time.

(and as a spider afficiado I really, really, have to publish something about how spider venom really works because aaaaaaahhhh)

I’ve lately starting to mull on starting a Griffin Mountain campaign... have anyone done work on a family history for the area? I fail to find anything with searches, but perhaps just my google-fu are bad.

5 hours ago, Leingod said:

Problem with that is Gagarth isn't tolerated. He's an "outlaw god" and his worship is forbidden among pretty much every clan and tribe - except for Harvar Ironfist's (though it's less that it isn't forbidden there and more that Harvar doesn't care and he's got the backing of the Lunars, who also don't care).

Tolerated is perhaps the wrong word, accepted existence as non-chaotic, like how Malia has a non-chaotic existence too.

 It is mostly a question on the semantics around pantheon and we are in need of a treatise in how to apply taxonomic science to the various parts of the mythology.  
 

addendum: Of course it is forbidden, suppressed and hunted, you want psychos to try any other venue (Humakt, Stormbull, frakking Vadrus) before ending up there. It is the end station. Beyond that awaits Thed ... 

I was thinking about this while doing chores in the garden when it was to much sun and heat stroke was rearing up, so take it for what it is worth...

What if Gagarth is tolerated in the “Orlanthi family” for safety valve reasons? There will always be people who don’t really get this “being good honorable and nice” thing. The worst of that bunch would be heading into the embrace of Chaos before you could say Broo-poo, some you could probably divest to Humakt and Stormbull, but there will be those who are lying cowards with thoughts of grandeur.

That is the target audience for Gagarth, a kind of honey trap to catch the last dredge before it gets really bad.

As note above, there is really an important distinction between rune level of clan “usefulness” and adventurer rune levels. An “investment” in an Ernalda priestess is a much more apparent benefit for everyday perception, years to come. Supporting an Humakti or Stormbull lack the same instant pay back ... until you really need them, that is.

So I would really separate out the Runelords from the average runelevels in a clan and say that they are a completely random number, where the actual presence in clan lands are also a chance. A number of factors guide this, presence of special temples/places/events, if a clan was involved in epic battles and conflicts, you name it.

... that is how I view it at least.
No (or almost no one) clan keep a Humakti runelord around just in case they need him in a battle. But if they happens to have the Shrine of the Twice Killing Sword and the Runelord (who brought it with him from a heroquest) hangs aound the tula during the winter with his mates, that a different thing.

In the Swedish (old,old,old) version of BRP - Drakar och Demoner, they did this between 1st and 2nd edition, so this was the how I learned to play it from the start.  The two reason for keeping the % scale is better granularity for skill increase, and that people coming new to the hobby have it a bit easier to start with with percentage skill it seems.

Aside for that I saw little differences in actual play.

I have also been thinking of this, as I have more and more been sliding into the GM should not roll dice camp, but I haven’t found any solution yet that don’t make a mess of the rest of the elegant system .... 

However, with Ian’s latest iteration of, I can actually can disconnect the generation of successes and use any system for generating successes. The thing I’m not sure about yet is how to deal with skill level and Masteries in an elegant way ... the fixed 5 unit have given me some ideas, but I really need to crunch some numbers to be sure the probabilities are not completely bonkers.

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

They are useful. Hero with a Thousand Faces is good, especially for HeroQuesting, but I think that The Masks of God series is better.

Also remember that they are written a while ago. There is a sligth fixation about malehood which i found annoying. Apparently every story comes from the male fear of women (and apperntly only males produces stories worth talking about). But it is a foundation and after that theere are plenty of more modern writing to fill up with.