Brootse

On 8/30/2023 at 8:51 AM, ZedAlpha said:

okay, I was planning on this being part of a Wolf Pirate-centered adventure, and the idea of some scared islanders summoning their ancestor god to smack the crap out of Harrek the Berserk (if the PCs are able to help the locals pull it off, of course) is an amazing image that I have to try and use if I ever get the chance to actually run this game.

To paraphrase the ancient illuminated spirit warrior Qui-Gon Jinn, "There's always a bigger sea monster."

It would have to be quite a sea monster to kick Harrek's ass!

I've ran some Wolf Pirate scenarios, and I've used Harryhausen style monsters in them for great effect.

As for completely new larger religions; back in RQ3 there were some empty bits of Genertela dedicated for DM's to put their own stuff in. And there's nothing stopping you rewriting some areas, religions or cultures or whatever for your own campaigns even in RQG.

Does it count as adultery if a married Wind Games contest winner, who worships one of Ernalda's Husband Gods, has sex with one of the priestesses? Or are they just re-enacting holy rites, so it doesn't violate divine oaths?

Zutchko's Teeth from Griffin Mountain allowed you to speak to dogs and wolves, was Zutchko some dog/wolf god or spirit? In the Griffin Island Zutchko Dog-Father replaced Brother Dog, but in the Mountain the name only appeared in the name of the magic item.

I played and ran RQ3 close to 3 decades. It was also the first rpg I ever played. I've tried many other rpgs, but I've always preferred RQ. It would take too long to list all the things I enjoyed about it, so to be concise; it's the feel of realism in fantasy. You don't just hit people straight in their hitpoints, and you can parry enemy swordsmen like in swashbuckler movies, and even powerful characters still feel like humans instead of superheroes. A RQ character is more like Zorro or Indiana Jones compared to the Supermanlike D&D characters.

And in addition to the great rules, RQ was coupled with Glorantha, which is an unsurpassed fantasy world.

The rules as written say that naked an unarmed Storm Voice casting Thunderbolts is unarmed, just like an unarmed Kralori martial arts master. But IMG they would both count as armed, so a humakti could attack them honourably if there's a combat going on. But some peasant with a Disruption spell wouldn't count as armed, just like a peasant carrying a knife wouldn't, unless the peasants used the Distruption or the knife to attack.

1 minute ago, g33k said:

kill the bugger
capture the ghost
leave the corpse behind, much harder to smuggle.

Having the ghost on-tap to answer further questions, as they occur later, is better.

If you want to capture a ghost that doesn't initiate a spirit combat on its own, you need to discorporate first. One way for non-shamans to do it would be to light up the old hazia pipe. But unless you're willing to wait until the trip ends, you need to carry the haziahead's body back, so you'll end up carrying a body anyway.

One way to avoid that would be to make some other spirit that you have bound attack the ghost, and then bind the ghost.

Just kill the bugger, smuggle his corpse to your base, and have a shaman interrogate the ghost.

e: Or if the ghost doesn't follow the stiff, capture the ghost into a crystal or a binding.

3 minutes ago, Darius West said:

I debate the -5% per attack, the honor table says -5% per unarmed foe.

The quote is "Attacking an unarmed foe", so it could be read either way. If it happened in my table, I'd probably rule it to be per target attacked, regardless how many blows were struck. It could also be read so that you can attack your unarmed friends without penalty.

12 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Toss them a knife. Anyone catches it on instinct, you have a few seconds to kill them before they realize what just happened.

No. You can strangle people with belt, but not everyone who wears a belt is armed. A knife is foremost a tool, and almost everyone in Glorantha carries one. Only if a someone threatens or stabs you with a knife it becomes a weapon.

2 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Humakt isn’t remotely about even fights, though. Cutting down poorly armed peasants (while claiming it’s dishonorable for them to gang up on you!) is perfectly alright. It’s not your fault that guy you tossed the knife to wasn’t good enough with it!

Humakti code isn't about fair fights, that is true. If poorly armed peasants gang up on a Humakti he is allowed to kill them all. But if they drop their weapons and surrender, he can't attack them anymore without losing honour.

36 minutes ago, Runeblogger said:

How much Honor do you think Naimless from “The Travels of Biturian Varosh” lost after the duel in Tourney’s Altar? 🤨🤔🤔🤔

None. Magic is allowed in Humakti duels:

3. Any Rune or Battle magic is allowed except Sever Spirit. The use of allied spirits is certainly allowed.

2 hours ago, Darius West said:

Not really.  Captured bandits only count as "unarmed foes" and thus attacking them is only a -5% Honor penalty.  The easier way to deal with them is to simply ignore their cries of surrender and offers of ransom during combat, as you are not obliged to accept them in that situation, and no penalty applies as they are armed.

If the bandits drop their weapons, they can't be attacked honorably. A humakti can't just act like he doesn't see their surrender and keep on killing them. Well, at least without losing 5% Honour for each attack.

The Broken Tower is an exellent starter adventure. The Money Tree from the 3rd edition is imo an even better starter adventure, even if it is somewhat less Gloranthan.

On 1/28/2023 at 5:03 PM, soltakss said:

Both could be Humakti. Don't forget that Humakti can kill Humakti in battle.

Of course they can. The honour is gained by carrying out a rightful execution, according to the law. Humakt is a god of Death and lawful execution is a good use for a Humakti.

 

The first situation is where the opponent has been dragged out of bed, so has no armour or equipment, but just has a random weapon thrown to them.

The second situation is where the opponent is fully armed and armoured, with equipment.

They are two different situations.

 

Romans and Medieval and Early Modern Europeans thought that executioners were ritually impure. In some places the taboo was so strong that if you sat on a chair that was meant for the executioner, you could lose your own honour and essentially become an outlaw. IMG Humaktis think that executions and executioners are dishonourable. Most if not all of the people Theyalans would condemn to be killed would be oathbreakers of some sort, so it would be a job for Babesteer Gorites.

On 1/14/2023 at 9:14 AM, HreshtIronBorne said:

Does running at a Lunar patrol and shouting, "I am Blargh, son of Flargh of Clan Flan, I am here to kill you for being Lunar scum!" Count as an ambush, or is Honour obliged by being Not Secret in your murdering of perceived enemies?

In the games I've ran that wouldn't count as a real ambush. There's a wonderful pic in the King of Dragon Pass that I have used for "Humakti ambushes" where Humaktis stand on a road with drawn weapons and unhidden cult symbols declaring that this is an attack.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/Qu7XkE5.png[/img]

My first RPG campaign ever was the RQ Griffin Island. I have such fond memories of it, and it's still a great work.

Excellent books! It was nice to see Ygg finally getting a proper official cult description!

Duke Raus is about as civilized as they come, and he brought his shaman with him when he was exiled to Prax.

On 7/1/2021 at 9:19 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

And Brootse, I still suggest that if a reason to study (well reasons, I will admit) can be met (this will vary from table to table) and the resources are available, use a training period of at least 5 weeks in a season for 4 normal ticks and one for training or research (a box nor a positive base skill are not needed for non-cult/secret skills). Remember your POW... now this is almost rules as written for a home rule. This will depend on the tables playing style so I leave it a bit open ended. 

Let me expound a bit...

Simply have your occupation be that of student for that season. Now, I am not willing to remove responsibilities and expenses from the adventurers. You will still have to pay all taxes and tithes, you will  have to meet your normal expenses to maintain near a SoL (and I will say you HAVE to, no allowances) in fact I will say it cost a bit more, as trying to keep up with the Harmast's is difficult with an income and much more so without. A second reason for a greater expense, none can work the land as well as those within the community, this is a magic world remember, so both otherworldly and mundane reasons apply here. There are spirits of the land... that only the true steaders of the land will know... not too mention mundane knowledge no hireling could know that permit one to do the work of many hirelings with fewer steaders. Plus you will have to hire a boss at near the cost of yourself to keep the others in order. Bottom line, it will cost you more in numbers and lunars to achieve what you can achieve perfectly adequately. Make this difficult enough to get an adventurer out of it. And finally you may have to pay for researches, and you will have pay for training.

From here it becomes roll playing (if it has not already). You don’t want to break rules to give players everything there greedy hearts desire so... You put obstacles between them and their desires for the student /adventurer to solve. Now if taxes/tithes are all up, the Clan ring or chieftain will allow you to live on your stead. This is not automatic amongst Heortlings, but a ring or chieftain had better have a good reason to remove a scofflaw. More than likely you will have earned some displeasure at the very least from the powers that be. Payment will gain you full access to occupation rolls and perhaps better (or at lest not worse) rolls at Sacred Time. By tithing none can argue with your right to worship from a financial reason, anyway. (gaining you access to your POW tick). Your social standing is maintained (no loss to Rep).

 Now this is not meant to be arbitrary, and only the first paragraph is really the HR. The others are colour. I hope the obstacles I use here make sense from a Gloranthan sensibility and you are getting something the RAW do not allow, which should be good for a bit of a roleplaying adventure. Still season this ragout to suit your table and enjoy.

 

You misunderstood me. For normal RQG campaign where the characters are clannish Sartarite farmers and the like to whom adventuring is only a side gig, the current training rules work okayish. But if you are are running different kinds of scenarios, eg. soldiers in a training camp, or students in the Great Library of Nochet, the current training rules don't work.

Yeah, there are no rules yet about full time training, and they are needed in some campaigns. Eg. if the characters join a military unit and go through a training period, or if the characters are students in Nochet's Great Library, both of which are great sources for games. I've used slightly modified RQ3 rules for that kind of training.

On 6/12/2021 at 6:15 PM, Darius West said:

Unless it is possible to cultivate the herbs maybe?  Most Chalana Arroy temples will have herb gardens, with only a few rare herbs that won't grow in normal conditions being outliers.  This could serve to collapse the foraging time.

Agreed.  So the real question is what do various medicines and curatives sell for?  I suggest that we work backwards from the 160L income that an alchemist receives to achieve a price.  160/294=5.44 clacks per day income.

So there are 9 diseases listed on p154 of RQG, which doesn't include Plague.  That means of the 50% of herbs being devoted to healing diseases, we can crudely approximate a little over 5% of the herbs being for each disease if they are divided equally.  There is an option to skew that result for disease by region, making some diseases more prevalent in some regions, and perhaps some herbs for treating those illnesses more prevalent in some regions, thus creating a demand, and therefore a supply.  Of course this is up to the GM at present.

I understand that the GM's Guide to RQ:G is coming out eventually, perhaps it will contain some price list examples?

We could retro-fit the previous RQ2 price lists of course. They were the following:

Acid 50L per point of potency.  Antidote: as per countered agent.  Blade Venom: 100L per point of potency.  Systemic Poison: 40L per point of potency.  Battle Magic: 200L per point of spell.  Healing: 200L per hit point healed. Power restoring: Maker only.

I take huge exception to the price of Healing, and would likely not pay 100L for a healing 6 potion, let alone 1200L (I would sell that to anyone willing to pay, and bid that sucker a good day, knowing it wasn't as good as mine). I would personally pay far more for disease curatives, as diseases are a huge nuisance, especially if your CON is ordinary.

Perhaps if you divided the prices by 10 they could be of use in special cases. Like I houseruled the ability training prices to cost only 1/10 of the book prices. Some gym coach or potion maker shouldn't rival the Red Emperor in wealth.

3 hours ago, davecake said:

I’ve just written up, for a JC book, the kampilan - a sword that gets used mostly two handed, but could be used one handed by a strong wielder. It’s not a European bastard sword at all - it’s only single edged, and the kampilan is from the Phillipines - but it’s longer than a broadsword, but not a greatsword or a rhomphaia. It seems natural that it’s stats are similar to a bastard sword from earlier RQ editions to me. 
 

And I wrote it up for purely Gloranthan reasons - it’s the weapon of the Haragalan elite, according to the guide. Not all of Glorantha is based on the Bronze Age in Europe and the Middle East. 
I tend not to pay a lot of attention to arguments about weapons based metallurgy or smithing technology - Gloranthan bronze isn’t earthly bronze, some smithing techniques learnt from Mostali could be more advanced than the terrestrial Bronze Age, and always, of course, magic can be a factor. And while Bronze Age is the term used, even the core cultures are not really - in Greek history that term gets used for cultures up to 1200 BCE or so, but we have things like the Sun Dome Phalangites using pikes/sarissa as phalangites that didn’t happen until after 400 BCE, for example. And which Bronze Age? Crossbows came into use centuries earlier in China, for example. The main point is pre-medieval, but even that not consistent, the Mostali being the most glaring example, but there are many others. Gloranthan arms and technology generally did not develop consistently along any terrestrial timeline, and that’s just fine, but trys to keep to a pre-medieval feel.

And the iron vs bronze comparison is very different in Glorantha, as the various factors behind why one is in wider use than the other are very different. 

But cultural ones are important. There are a whole range of different reasons why Gloranthans will have cultural preferences for different weapons, some of which will match up with terrestrial cultures, some of which will not. Gloranthans have magical and religious factors, and also may be sometimes concerned with fighting various non-human opponents. And cultural preferences are a big deal, and can cause some preferences that are anachronistic to make sense. Cross-bladed hilts are a late medieval thing, but I can accept that Humakti do it because it’s important for swords to obviously look like a Death Rune. 

I’m happy if the official word is that bastard swords are not a common cultural weapon in any Dragon Pass or adjacent culture. Maybe they have the ability to make them if someone really wanted to, maybe not, but there are presumably good reasons that make sense to them why they don’t. Maybe some other cultures use them for some reason, maybe not, but that can be handled when those cultures get added to the game materials. maybe one might be encountered of dwarf manufacture or something. They wouldn’t be just a longer version of the standard Orlanthi leaf shaped blade, and so Orlanthi sword smiths would find their manufacture challenging and odd. 
 

There are several other odd things about the weapon options in RQG, even if you take it as being based on Bronze Age to classical Mediterranean cultures. Why is the Gloranthan kopis a lot bigger than a terrestrial kopis? Why are short swords so mediocre and unpopular (literally only the pygmy Impala riders have them as a cultural weapon, while broadsword is common), when they were a very standard weapons in the Bronze Age (and after, with the gladius)? Why is the standard 2+ meter doru spear of Ancient Greece, surely the single most significant weapon in the period RQG emulates, the weapon of Homeric epics etc, missing from the RQG weapon lists (short spears are 1.5m, long spears 3m), leaving a ‘gap’ that makes most hoplites etc inferior to sword armed troops when they should not be? or if those are considered long spears (as Martin does in Armies and Enemies) why can’t they be used one handed? All these could have explanations that could explain them, sometimes even fairly obvious ones (the Gloranthan idea of a kopis that has been made as large as a broadsword is obviously rooted in Lunar vs Storm religious factors), but they aren’t all obvious, and some baffle me (my house rules include a military doru like spear (a medium spear in RQG terminology), and they can be thrown and are the primary weapon of many Lunar soldiers). I hope some of this will be addressed in the future. 

Yeah, agreed. I've houseruled that 'long spears' can be used one handed, so that they work like the historical spears.

On 6/8/2021 at 1:15 AM, Jape_Vicho said:

He can always buy a wolf and try to pass for a Telmori, which are the most tolerated of the chaos-cursed entities in Sartar. 

You can maybe ask for a roll against the chaotic affinity in some situations that you think fit, and if he fails, he does something chaotic and pumps up his Chaos affinity by 1d10% or something like that.

But having a pet dog is even worse!

On 6/5/2021 at 6:04 PM, soltakss said:

China had bronze greatswords at the end of the Bronze Age/early Iron Age, so why not have Bastard Swords?

I refer you to flying machines and flintlocks, if we can have those then why not Bastard Swords?

Yeah, agreed. If the world has greatswords, then what's stopping people from making a sword that's between great- and broadsword?

On 6/2/2021 at 12:01 PM, soltakss said:

Try to find pictures of steppe ponies, they are the normal size of Sartarite mounts. 

Grazelanders have larger horses, faster horses and horses that can see in the dark.

Steppe pony isn't a breed, but if you mean Mongol horses, only the largest of galanas are that big. A typical galana is the size of a Shetland pony.

2 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Am I wrong when I imagine sartarite cavalry with this kind of mount ?

Theirs are even smaller, that hulking brute i posted was the size of a massive western warhorse.

53 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

The Bestiary does state (for impala)

It is the High Llamas that are obscene -- they are larger (3D6 + 30 -> max 48) than horses (4D6 + 12 -> max 36)... They are even larger than Bison!

The RQG pygmies are just slightly smaller than other humans (-2 to SIZ), and I calculated it in. RQ3 pygmies were somewhat smaller, but I have no idea where their stats were. And Gloranthan bisons aren't particularly large, and the biggest horse breed is the size of Icelandic horses, ie. quite small.