General Panic

This. Tithes make sense if applied to 'income' - stipends, harvests, contractual agreements (whether written or unwritten), debt interest, inheritances, lambs born in spring etc. From all these things the cult member may be able to declare a 'retained value' from which to pass on some of the gains. It doesn't make sense (outside a modern system finely tuned to close tax loopholes) to confuse tithing with things like gift-giving, which typically creates a reciprocal obligation of friendship, return gifts etc (is the cult also sharing in that obligation?). The value of any gift to a large extent resides in the mutual obligations that go with it; it may reside in the story or history attached to the item being gifted; and in the fame of people who have been connected to it in the past. So if you are given an armband by a clan leader in thanks, it may have been given for its weight in silver instead of minted coins, because he doesn't have any cash, or maybe it's just more respectable than using actual money. It's in effect hacksilver, so you may even break some of it off and give it to the temple. Obviously you can't then wear it. If he has given it as a gift as part of ongoing tokens of respect and mutual obligation and expects to see it on your arm, its value can't easily be measured in cash terms. It's an armband, not 400g of metal. There's no sensible way of tithing. You can imagine that if a tithe were to be imposed by a money grabbing cult or a mean GM, then the recipient of the gift may have to part with it to raise money to pay the tithe. That could bring shame, distress - and bloodshed.

In all fairness the main plot is not the siege of Troy, but the wrath of Achilles, and that's a proper character arc, can't be called window-dressing. Yes there's a lot of incident outside this main plot, there are the 'bonus content' sections that have been added such as the Catalogue of Ships and the Doloneia - but despite its length its pretty well constructed as a story. Other works in the epic cycle (for example the Iliou Persis, Cypria, Little Iliad), in so far as we can tell from surviving fragments, are pretty varied in their sense of story arc, whereas the other one that survives complete, the Odyssey, also so has complex narrative arc and structure. The Iliad was devised to entertain, not to act as a source of genealogy. And it's way too long to hear it all in one sitting. But the audience for this entertainment was interested in names and genealogies of course. But back to these Heroes' exploits compared to RQG 'heroes' - Greek legendary heroes are by definition born into it (they are all half divine, yet mortal). They are not on a quest to become something, but to validate or live up to what they already are. They have bigger characteristics, more intense passions, than normal folk. Their chief virtue is to do things that will be remembered in song, the klea andron, that's their immortality.

Given Glorantha seems to be a small part Bronze Age and more parts Iron Age, Classical and whatnot, I don't see how you can get hung up on real world parallels at all. Ancient Greece, Rome, Sarmatians, Scythians, Parthians, Cataphracts etc ad infinitum - none of these have anything to do with the bronze age at all

Mainly adventures, especially the Sands of the Korazoon mini-campaign for a group of starting level adventurers in the Taskan militia, posted to garrison duty on the volatile southern frontier; and the city of Sorandib. But I believe these are scheduled for revision, upgrade and release in the Mythras line before too long. There are a bunch of rules material for Legend that will never appear in Mythras versions of the setting, at least without heavy modification, as the Mythras books are much more RAW friendly: SOC (social status) as a characteristic Rules for NPC reactions, and use of influence skills (including orate) Enchantment and Summoning rules, as existing in Assabia and adapted into Taskan sorcery. A new version of these may appear in a future release but I would expect them to be heavily re-written.

My copy doesn't and I wrote it... Mongoose lost the RQ licence shortly before publication of AoT - so it was last minute rebranded to Legend. I'd love to have a copy with the RQ logo on it, but sadly I don't.

You could advance your skills by winning experience checks - ie just 'doing'. You could adventure and earn cash and buy training. You could do favours for a cult, guild or community you don't belong to, and in return get some training benefits, maybe get taught a battle magic spell. None of this meant you had to join a cult and 'play the mythic role', and if you did initiate was often as far as it went. In RQ2 when you started off as a lay member and had to work at the next stage, initiation was a thing. In RQ3 initiation often just came out of chargen because it was assumed to be a natural life stage. In the RQ2 and 3 games I played in almost no one lived long enough to make Rune level anyway, but of course if you did and picked the right cult you could be much more badass than anyone else. As for Humakti and Zorak Zoran adventurers teaming up together and coming to blows - and more broadly the 'social stuff' - is that really evidence for player immersion in the 'mythic' qualities of Glorantha? Or just grasping that there's roleplay opportunities because it's a rich and exotic world with a whole matrix of cults, races, species, expansionist empires and chaos monstrosities. Or looking up what Humakti, or trolls are like (and without a care for the mythological reason they are like it) and roleplaying. In my experience, which I know may not be universal, everyone fell asleep at the table if forced to endure a digression on Gloranthan myth that lasted more than a few of lines. Of course our group, like probably everyone else, had whole campaigns where we started off as a connected community or clan. It's the social not the mythic that's interesting per se, the mythology adds colour to the social and properly handled makes the social aspects of the game and setting more convincing. The obsession with 'myth' as the driving theme of the setting to the extent that the object or reward of the game is to immerse in and explore Gloranthan myth is for me, and so far as I believe for people I played with, a crushing bore.

I cap skills at basic (stat+stat) x 5. Does the job. And I still ask for stat x 5 or x 3 rolls if it's quicker or more appropriate than thinking about the right skill to use

I've never done a kickstarter before and will back this one. But as I don't really put a value on pdf's (I like physical), I'm a bit unsure what the implications are - looks like for printed product the top tiers effectively don't offer you anything more than rune-lord priest at $250 - so the volumes of collected unpublished material are effectively being priced at $800. Is that right or am I missing something?

Hello Professor Shores of Korantia actually describes more of the world than does the original AoT book. There is a (Korantine) city offered up with some detail, but this is a jumping off point for the adventures chapter and can lead to city-based, wilderness or sea-borne adventures, according to where you want to take the action or your players want to go. And there is a full run-down of Korantine culture, so you can pick any of some 40 cities to be your starting point or the point of origin for the PCs. Character Creation includes rules for many foreign cultures too. So where Age of Treason was very much about running characters born and bred in the Taskan Empire, SoK provides a much broader range of options, and expects your adventurers to take the leap into distant exotic lands at some point (hence the ship rules, and an easy link to Monster Island). Shores will not repeat all the Taskan Empire background and adventures in the Age of Treason books - the intention is to revised and repackage all of that for RQ6 in coming months and I am doing that preparation work already in anticipation!

Shores of Korantia is a settings book in the same world as Age of Treason, and in the same era. However its focus and point of view is not the Taskan Empire but the land of Korantia, a collection of some 40 city states that comprise the Korantine Empire - although this is an Empire in name only and our young Emperor Koibos XXIV (pictured on the cover) has little actual say over how these cities govern their affairs and they are fiercely competitive with one another, even to the point of warfare. Shores also explores the Inner Ocean and provides information on some of the exotic lands and people that lie beyond it - as well as the rules you need to navigate your way there. And there's an extensive set of adventures set around a recently Korantine founded colony, its people and intrigues with neighbouring lands.

I'm running a game on RPOL right now using Legend - if you go to rpol.net and look for Age of Treason or search under Legend game system, you'll find it - and you can take a lurk see how it runs. On the whole most of may players rarely take more than 48 hours to post, and I find combat goes just fine - if only because in Legend combat is usually over in 2-3 rounds as a Combat Manoeuvre proves decisive. Generally people will declare up front what CM they will use if they get one (and so far Trip is the favourite). Just finished a fight with a minotaur but if you look back you'll find a fight between PCs and 4 would-be assassins at an inn.

In fairness - because there's a system in Legend for poisons - and I see no reason to have an alternative one for alcohol rather then just use what's there. The poisons rules give you a bunch of characteristics (application, potency, onset time, duration etc) for which you as GM can put in your own stats and effects. If you can describe those - rather than ask the system to do that for you - you can fill out the sheet. If you wanted to you could do it for each drink (Troll Lagers, Elf Ciders) rather than for alcohol per se. Is there a reason your alcoholic effects need to be more 'realistic' than those for other poisons...or would you want a subsystem for cobra venom as well to achieve a more clinically realistic outcome?

Can we start with the size of a dose (allowing some and spare the precise metric/imperial conversions)? Suggest (because we can all relate by personal experience) 1 DOSE = 1/2 litre beer, or 0.25-0.3 litres wine, or 0.1 litres strong spirits Application - Ingestion (really, I think injection calls for specialist rules or GM fiat for an unusual situation) Onset time - 15 minutes (I'm guessing) Duration - 2 hours (likewise) Resistance - Resilience. Adjust Difficulty according to normal rules scale depending on whether you have eaten well, or are starving, or whatever POTENCY - 40, but +10 cumulative for each extra dose downed within the onset time, and the drinker must reroll for each new application within the duration, again adding + 10 Potency per dose to what's already int he system. Effects - Put your thoughts here, but as a discussion starter Potency roll fails - no effect Potency roll succeeds, Resilience succeeds, no effect, but Potency remains to be added to that of the next drink. Potency succeeds, Resilience Fails, -10% to skills (including resilience). If you are using Passions - add +10 to the Passion. Potency remains as above. Potency succeeds, Resilience Fumbles - Puke, pass out, do something embarrassing (scale to Potency already on board). Hangover assumed. Remember you roll for each dose, and the effects are cumulative. Not playtested, obviously, this is off the cuff, but similar to my drug use rules. But If I drink 5 pints within 2 hours, and have resilience 50%, succeed/fail/succeed/fail/fail - I'm now -30% on skills, +30% on Passions, Potency in system is now 90% and the next pint will see me home to bed. If I make it. Maybe a bit harsh...but I'll be fine in an hour...no, really, I'm fine to drive...honest.

I posted a new NPC file last night (AdventurerFile04.PDF). Arksum Hartimer is a very dangerous enemy, potentially a very useful ally - but with a 20,000 Taskeen bounty on his head, he may just be a lucrative job opportunity. Age of treason blog

The third free NPC download went up on the Age of Treason blog last night - this fellow is an experienced Adventurer sporting a fine set of trophies from his exploits...keep an eye out as we add some patrons and foes over the next couple of weeks.

Ah...I can assure you neither of those impressions are correct... I picked up on your being 'done with' elves and dwarves etc - AoT is humanocentric. Tech level/era is ancient world (Late antiquity with some earlier stuff thrown in). The Simulacrum is an iron golem, Viceroy of the Taskan Empire, and the Divine Emperor's familiar. The first review that came out was on the RollforInitiative blog, here: Roll for Initiative: Age of Treason campaign setting for MRQII/Legend I have my own blog for the setting,last post was a preview on what's in the forthcoming companion, here Age of treason blog And you can also find some free pdfs on the blog - map of the empire, a couple of adventurers, a courtroom scenario, and a player's introduction. And there's an extended thread on the Mongoose forum here: Mongoose Publishing • View topic - Age of Treason WOW!!!!!!! But to save you searching here's one entry ont he post that summed a lot of it up: Hope this is of interest!

Have you taken a look at Age of Treason: The Iron Simulacrum?

Hi all The Simulacrum has today posted a run-down of the Age of Treason Companion book on his blog. Go take a look or be considered borderline Treasonous... Age of treason blog

The second in the series of free to download Age of Treason NPCs was just put up on the blog. Belisar Nine-Scars, a korantine adventurer from Mersin, comes complete with allied spirit! Comments and questions welcome.

I have added a PDF file to the Age of Treason Blog, which you can access at Age of treason blog This (free) pdf is a fully statted npc to use in your AoT game, and is intended to be the first in a series - so comments and thoughts welcome IS

That's a good one. I'd like to know more about what sort of people worship Morrigan. Is it prostitutes and courtesans, or regular joes and josephines...and why? For example if you are a prostitute, does this cult help you secure a position as a courtesan in return for you using influence over your patron at its direction? The 5SP/month for a lay member rules out working class folk, if you look at the Legend wages table. Better to suggest a small gift within their means or a tithe 5% or 10% (10% is typical of old RQ cult rates). What does the cult do with all that money, and why? In short - your last effort had promise to indentify an interesting and potentially important role for an organisation to fulfil on a game setting - and this one does too. But doesn't quite go the whole hog. I'd push you to be a bit more cut and dried about what the faction or cult is for and follow it thru in the text.

IMHO paragraph 1 is sellable and rather good. It identifies an in-[any]-world need for the organisation that is a worthwhile bolt-on. I can take that, go think about how it fits/enhances my world, and it will spark further ideas as I work through the further implications. Likewise - the payment in shares bit. That's interesting...needs elaboration. A company of soldiers really is a 'company', after all (at least it was once) BUT the rest is IMHO so vanilla as to be bit useless - "Ok, soldiers involved, let's give them some combat-oriented common magic". We can all do that part, in about 5 mins. Then the knights and squires bit...that's loaded language, arguably not really about mercenaries...definitely not about shareholders...etc. You get the point. What I and maybe others need is not that you do the write up of something very vanilla for me, but to do some thinking for me and put it in writing, because that's what really saves me time or gives me inspiration to spend a bunch of my own time. OK, so they attract people to join by offering training in martial skills and spells. That works, but its obvious. I wouldn't pay for it. Make an outfit who enforces mercenary contracts interesting because they do just that. Booty Merchants, Contracts, Funerals, Ransoms, Reparations, Repatriations, Prisoner Swaps, Talent Spotting, all the things that mercs and merc employers really need someone to do - make that lot interesting and work out how it provides play/scenario opportunities etc - that I'd pay for.

Thank you wb - I'm glad you are finding it interesting. It could do with a little more noise - there are no reviews on key sites as yet, but there are some very positive coments on the mongoose forum. The companion book should be at print within a couple of months.

Here you go: Please feel free to visit the new Age of Treason blog, where you can avail yourself of Strictly Courtroom, a free scenario to slot into the published campaign. You can find us at: http://draconianpress.net/ageoftreason/ go to the archived post 'new scenario posted today' Simply click on the Strictly Courtroom link when you get there to access the pdf With best wishes GP (Simulacrum)

For my part I will be interested to see whether the massive sell-through of Legend at a zero barrier to entry price point will knock on the supplements. My Age of Treason book went on sale in late August and did OK. I noticed today it is now a "copper seller" on drivethru, but I have no idea what that means in numbers - 1 or 100? It's hardback and is not at digest price.