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On 1/8/2019 at 2:14 AM, jps said:

You’re doing a great job.

Long live RuneQuest

Hear hear!

What a great thread! Gorgeous pics!

How large percentage of the Templars and militiamen would be initiates?

16 hours ago, Manu said:

The Invisible God could also be a cult for the Alchemist

Good point.

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

Maybe giant mongoose hunts giant snakes and scorpions.

Humongoose?

Now I want a giant mongoose pet and call it "Hugh".

How about Shadowgoose?

Black Fang is a cult that resembles a bit the historical Assassins. They're found in the Great Rubble in Prax. Where's your campaign taking place? And what kind of a character is it?

There's of course the Rathori option.

3 hours ago, Trifletraxor said:

Upped!

Thanks!

My deepest condolences to his family, and thanks Greg for all the fun times I've had with my friends playing RuneQuest and exploring Glorantha.

3 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

The Mostali probably do. 

Hazarding a guess, my money would be on a spring  that gets primed on the energy from the shot bolt. The whole thing might be wound up, in advance, with enough stored energy to fire the whole magazine, or even several magazines.  Mostali have some sort of clocks for fixing the machine, right? 

Sounds logical. Would anyone have more pics of mostali crossbows? The only ones I found were basically just chu-ko-nus.

Now, of course one could make up an in-world explanation for it, and say that they just resemble externally chu-ko-nus and have springs and stuff inside, and that the humans just copied the look.

Just now, Atgxtg said:

Very D&D ish, although with RQ you're probably doubling dipping with actual 2H weapons, since they do more damage than their 1H counterparts than in D&D. For instance a greatsword does 2D8 compares to 2D6 in D&D. 

Hah, I was sure someone would say that, but we had it some years before D&D had

1 hour ago, Atgxtg said:

Calvary sword tend to be curved as it helps when mounted.

The curve helps with slicing, and straight blades are better at piercing, and both have been used by cavalry for thousands of years. The question which is better, has always been contested.

1 hour ago, Mechashef said:

With bastard swords (and other weapons that can be used one or two handed) should there be    a benefit to using the weapon 2 handed (assuming the adventurer has enough STR & DEX to use it 1 handed)?

 

A spear does more damage wielded 2 handed (which seems to make sense), but a battleaxe  doesn’t do any more damage. 

In RAW RQG there's no difference except with spears, but my group uses a house rule that two-handed weapons get 1.5 times the normal damage bonus, eg. +d4 rises to +d6 and +d6 rises to +d10.

1 minute ago, Atgxtg said:

oh, historically, one of the other reasons why bronze swords tended to be short was that longer weapons tend to bend and break easier than short ones. Basically the lever effect that makes such weapons hit harder means that they end up taking more damage in the process. 

Yes. I think that the Chinese might have had better bronze than Europeans, and therefore were able to make longer blades. Or maybe they preferred longer blades, unlike other Bronze age people.

12 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

Ever New Glory is a relatively new temple city, postdating the repopulation of Dragon Pass, founded after the conquest of Saird. Unlike Goldedge, it doesn't provide a regiment to the Tarsh Provincial Army.

The latest canonical description lists their weapons as long spear and large shield, so they are probably phalangites, like the other Yelmalion regiments.





Phalangites have pikes and smaller shields.

Just now, Atgxtg said:

I can think of a few reasons. First off you don't have the same historical reason for the Bastard Sword in Glorantha that you had in Europe, namely to get through the progressively better armor. Secondly, there's been some doubt recently as to how prominent and effective the bastard sword was. Some view it as being inferior to either a greatsword  (to short, light and not as effective)or a broadsword (to big, heave, and not as easy to wield).

But earlier versions of RQ had Bastard Swords, so we must assume that their removal probably has to do with a shift in how Glorantha is viewed.  Either that or the effect of some heroquest. I believe the former, but the latter would be a nice surprise. 

 

In my Glorantha I don't call or describe them as 'bastard swords', but as 'long cavalry swords'. Rules-wise they work as the old bastard swords.

Please increase the maximum number of possible 'likes' per day. Some days the good posts pile up high

16 minutes ago, metcalph said:

A teshnan crossbow is shown in the Guide p437

So is a Fonritan One (p565)

No idea what a Malkioni Crossbow looks like.

Thanks! I had forgotten about that amazon crossbow pic, and hadn't looked close enough at the Fonritan pic. Now that amazon crossbow looks very much like a chu-ko-nu, so I take it that they exist, even if they haven't been described in the rules (yet). The Mostali repeating crossbow seems to be a different weapon.

Chu-ko-nu

Speaking of Chinese and Medieval weapons, what do the Gloranthan crossbows look like? Are they like the Medieval European crossbows that had short and stiff bows with short powerstrokes, or like the Bronze Age Chinese crossbows that had longer bows and powerstrokes? Or are they perhaps like Greek bellybows?

Medieval European crossbow

Bronze Age Chinese crossbow

Greek bellybow

Some of the heavier Chinese crossbows used winches, but many were loaded without tools, by sitting down and using legs:

Some were even loaded by multiple people:

2 hours ago, Jason Durall said:

The bastard sword is pretty much a 15th-16th century weapon, which feels somewhat out of place in Glorantha. It may be introduced in a later sourcebook as a regional weapon, or it might show up in the Gamemaster Sourcebook in an expanded equipment table. 

 

The late bronze age Chinese had long bronze swords. If there are bronze greatswords and broadswords in Glorantha, why not have a sword whose size is between those swords?

1 minute ago, Tarumath said:

Yes, that's even the reason why the Seven Mother cult give potato bread to their lay members.

They are a blue moon plant and symbolically "undead", connected to the Underworld when they are under the earth.

Blue Moon initiates have an heroquest where they are buried under the earth, sprout from it and are destroyed by lightning and they can use it as an escape route whenever at this location.

And another one where they get magical potatoes that can raise the dead.

That's some powerful taters. I wonder if eating them raises your moon rune? Maybe that's why they give them out for free!?!

Yeah, looks like that is settled then officially. YGMV, and I'll ask my group about their opinions on what we'll settle wrt. the initiation numbers. Now that Rune Magic is renewable for the initiates too, perhaps it's better to lower the number of the initiates so that there won't be stickpickers with Thunder spells. I had planned on restricting some of the more powerful Rune magic spells to God talkers or higher ranking members, but this will work too. And now that laymembers are counted as worshippers in the temple minimum sizes, the lower number of initiates won't matter as much.

What about potatoes? Weren't they a Blue moon affiliated tuber?

A long example of a combat where the different rules are used would be great.

5 hours ago, Pentallion said:

I hope you don't take that attitude and not clean up the rules where it's necessary.  This isn't a few grognards grumbling.  As the OP said, he's new to the game.  This isn't about finding a gripe or not liking a rule, it's about the rules flat out contradicting themselves and causing confusion. 

You should be able to accept constructive criticism guys.  We all love your game.  I personally would love it to thrive.

Agreed.

2 minutes ago, sladesy said:

For me it is this quote from page 269 in the RQG book

"Most who belong to a cult are lay members, without any authority or position within the cult."

Hah, well that is a big change. Ok, I looked at the temple sizes, and now the minimum size includes the lay members too. I wonder where the lay members go after death? I think I'll make a thread about lay members.