Brootse

29 minutes ago, Brootse said:

I was inspired by the Muses and found a name for the Hero of the hero cult: Arlee Ermeus.

A pic of him:

7 hours ago, Joerg said:

No, anything Hellenic comes from a long naval tradition, something the Lunars definitely lack. Even the Spartans used to have a navy and founded (failed) colonies in the Tripolis area.

If anything, you should look at the Roman navy in the Punic Wars. The Romans were at that time a land power without much knowledge about ships or naval warfare. Just like the Lunars, who know about river barges and moon boats, and that's about it.

The traditional Yelmic regiments have officers who are initiates of Yelm. The rank and file worships sons of Yelm.

There are a few Yelmic Second families whose economic reality makes it near impossible to maintain cult obligations, and who might enter yelmic regiments. If they are initiates of Yelm, they are accepted administrators or officers (usually staff rather than rank and file).

Most Heartland troopers are lay members of a couple of Imperial cults, but initiated to none (or maybe to something like the RQ3 "Yelm the Youth" which was basically a lay member who had sacrificed a point of POW for the afterlife benefits at the adulthood rites). That makes quite a few of them Daka Fal cultists, but absent family members, this doesn't really give them much help when fighting abroad.

Lunar soldiery will have a greater amount of initiates than the Heartland norm, but I would be astonished if they reached a 50% quota. Typical Yelmic martial cults are Hastatus (Yelmalio without all the baggage of Hill of Gold) and Sagittus (Golden Bow).

Heartland Lunars might include illuminated initiates of the Red Goddess. Of the other immortals, Yanafal, Irrippi, Deezola, Etyries, Jakaleel and Hon-eel probably are the most encountered initiates.

Provincial Lunars (including Sylila and Oraya) are more likely to initiate to a specific deity than the mostly sheltered Heartlanders, and Provincial forces probably consist mainly of initiates. The Seven Mothers cult will dominate.

Officers' cults are named such because to join you have to prove that you are officer material. In the Heartlands, that's pedigree. In the provinces, ability probably plays a role. An officers' cult won't necessarily welcome the hoi polloi in their cultic ranks. "If you want to initiate, initiate to the unit's deity!"

The Lunar military command structure is fairly unspecific at lower ranks.We know about Fazzur's staff, but we don't know whether a patrol leader is an officer or a man from the ranks who has risen as far as he can expect (the equivalent of the Roman Centurio). I can see a lot of "master sergeants" interpreting the commands of their noble officers to the least damaging outcome. This has been a rule in civilized warfare for millennia.

Greek hoplites weren't fishermen and wouldn't have known anything about sailing. Hellenic-like marines will fit the Lunar Empire well. And Sean_RDP, if you want to make your Lunar marines be a special unit where the members have some sort of boating background, that's fine too, because the Lunar soldiers are equipped by the state, unlike the greek hoplites. Maybe one of the requirements could be a high Water rune too?

I don't get why some people keep on insisting that most people in Glorantha are lay members instead of initiates, nothing in Runequest books support this.

10 hours ago, Sean_RDP said:

Right, that is the way I read it to. I am also researching "marines" from other cultures in human history that might (or might not) offer some ideas. This group was basically chosen because they had some skill with water, swimming, or boating already. 

I was inspired by the Muses and found a name for the Hero of the hero cult: Arlee Ermeus.

14 minutes ago, Charles said:

 

Generally the sourcebook and the guide override earlier sources. Of course, it’s not impossible there’s a mistake...

The Guide doesn't mention them much, and the Sourcebook says that:

"The death of the Sun and the appearance of the trolls and
other forces of Darkness is called the Lesser Dark of the
Great Night. The race which crawled to this world from
below suffered the agonies of the alien environment of
the world and its gods at war, in addition to the torment
caused by the Sun and the loss of their homes. Most of the
creatures which survived this at all were changed horribly,
and are the ancestors of those creatures which humans
know as Cave Trolls.
In the Surface World Kyger Litor fashioned her race
anew, to better fit the new place, and to provide armies
for her fight against Chaos. This was the origin of the first
of the numerous Dark Trolls, who quickly populated the
world where they could."

So looks like that the info on Trollpak hasn't changed. A mistake by the writer on Vamargic's parents is the most likely explanation.

36 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Vamargic didn't really make friends, although he attracted followers while he was around. Reports on his activities will show grudging respect at best.

In case of the uz, a throwback or atavistic troll is something positive, not negative - a troll closer to the mistress race.

The cave trolls were mutated mainly from Dark Trolls, although Mistress Race trolls may have been affected, too. It isn't clear whether they are subject to the curse of kin when mating with one another, but mating with dark trolls can trigger the curse.

According to the evolutionary tree in Trollpak the Cave Trolls weren't mutated from the Dark Trolls, but from the Mistress Race. And the Great Trolls can only have Dark Trolls or trollkin descendants, so a Cave Troll can't have Great Troll forefathers, and therefore Cave Trolls can't have atavistic Great Troll descendants. The Cave Trolls aren't the subject of the curse of the kin. Vamargic Eye-necklace might have been a large and smart atavistic troll with Cave Troll parents, but he couldn't have been a Great Troll.

e: And if Vamargic was a Great Troll made with the Cragspider's ritual, then he could only have had one Cave Troll parent, not two.

8 hours ago, Sean_RDP said:

So I am working on the background for the Red Sky at Night campaign I am going to run. I have determined that I want to make the characters Lunar marines. The Lunar navy (as I understand it) is relatively new and not that big. The basic premise of the campaign's start is that these are 3 to 7 (number to be determined) Lunar soldiers / sorcerers or what have you that were part of a far outpost and when everything goes to hell, they have to make it back home without any help. Across a world that is pretty damn hostile to them right now. 

After puttering around a bit, I thought that a group of marines, part of a group set to look out on a small island near Corflu (or somewhere else) would find themselves in need of getting home without their ship and their unit (company).  

To make a Lunar Marine, really just a soldier roped into naval service because they can swim, I decided to modify the Light Infantry Warrior a bit. I am sticking with the book material mostly to make it easier for new players. But may expand a bit as needed. 

• Unit Weapons: Javelin, 1H Weapon, Medium Shield ( but might a small shield be more appropriate?)
• Homeland: Lunar Tarsh (I thought they would have all been recruited there, but Other Suggestions?)
• Occupational Skills: add Boat +10%, Swim +10%, Shiphandling +15% (Should I drop any skills?)
• Cults: Seven Mothers (Other suggestions?)

I do not see any other changes that would be needed; I can always have rope lying around should they need it.

Unit

Ship: Red Scar of Corflu; CO: (rank?) Dajath Skymarked

Marine ship's company of 35 + 1 officer. Unit name: Scorpion (company / cohort / something) - Divided into seven bands of five (ish); CO Ahreza Pripas

Squad: Dark Moon Band - 1 (npc) leader Hegesh Oromod

TL:DR Backstory. The ship was laid up for repairs and this whole unit (The Scorpions) were assigned to an island look out post. Then the stuff happened. 

 

So any thoughts are appreciated.  

 

 

The Lunar Empire doesn't have a Navy as an independent service branch. The situation resembles the later Roman Army. The naval troops that invaded Karse from Corlfu were part of the Provincial Army, but they could have been originally from the Heartlands Corps like the troops serving in Pavis. The penteconters that patrol Oslir have soldier-rowers as crew, and are part of the Provincial Army or the Heartlands Corps. Some nobles could have their own war ships too. And if you want you can use smaller ships than penteconters. A marine is just someone who serves as a soldier on a ship, eg. the Greek hoplites that served on triremes weren't specially trained for it, they were just normal militiamen assigned for duty on ships. YGMV and you can make a small, less known cult, some hero cult perhaps, that specializes on naval warfare and boarding actions. Maybe the cult could have a spell that helps with jumping or climbing in heavy armour.

23 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Both Yelm and Yanafal are officer cults, whereas I understood the premise to be more on the non-com and grunt level of soldiery. Actually, pretty close to the very small core of survivors of the Black Company after they left the sorcerers' service in the north.

Seven Mothers, a Pelorian river god (e.g. the Black Eel, inheriting much of the Engizi cult) from around Mirin's Cross, a Lunar monitor or two (the magic-support squad members, Odayla - all of this would be found in Sylila or the Provinces and might be detached to naval duty.

All officers in the Lunar Army must be members of the cult of Yanafal Tarnils, but all members of the cult of Yanafal Tarnils aren't officers. Every Lunar soldier must be at least a lay member of the cult in fact. And in the traditional Yelmic Regiments the rank and file soldiers are also worshippers of Yelm.

"Vamargic Eye-necklace was the leader of the nation from the south. He was a throwback, born a Great Troll but intelligent, though his parents were both cave trolls. He worshipped Zorak Zoran. His nation was called the Wood Trolls, and among them were many Dark Elves. "

How can Vamargic be a throwback? The Cave trolls were mutated from the Mistress race by Chaos, and the Great trolls are created with Cragspider's ritual from Dark trolls. I think that the writer just forgot about that.

2 hours ago, BWP said:

Easy to do when the rules you are "writing" are simply copied from a less-refined original set and concepts from later, more refined sets of rules are ignored.  (Not that later rules are always better, but usually they are better explained, at least.)  RQ veterans will chop and change and house-rule everything to suit the way they've always played, but I don't envy people with no experience with the system at all, trying to make sense of this first draft.  I'm sure that the (hypothetical, but inevitable) RQG, 2nd edition will iron most of these bugs out.

 

Yeah.

1 minute ago, MOB said:

Will open the corrections thread after the next lot of updated PDFs are made available. These then will serve as the definitive documents for everyone to error-check from.

Do you have an ETA on that yet?

7 hours ago, Joerg said:

The history of the conquest of Ralios tells us otherwise. The conquest of Safelster occurred in the reign of Annmak Peacemaker, and the documents on heroquesting made it to Jrustela less than a decade before the fall of Paslac.

It isn't clear when and how the God Learners blocked all paths to Arkat, but they did so only after the fall of the AUtarchy.

 

Arkat and his followers blocked them.

3 hours ago, scott-martin said:

Easiest thing is to just translate the Entertainer professional skills and passions to the cult. If you're good at your job, you're good enough for Donandar. RQ3 included a funny restriction where you had to be distinctive looking in some way (low or high appearance) but I think now the way CHA plays into performance skills already handles that. He was open to all spirit magic and sorcery but taught none himself. Rune magic was various illusions and the old spell Harmonize, which worked like Jack O Bear power. 

For a full modern write up I'd let his powers interact directly with the passion system as a fun minigame that weaponizes that side of the character sheet. But that might be a whole other project.

I kept APP alongside CHA, because they are quite different things.

1 hour ago, soltakss said:

Rhino Riders use Rhino skin as armour. Because Rhinos are very strong, why can't they wear a rhino plate set of barding?

That's probably not very common, rhino hide is rare and used mostly for the riders' armour. And rhinoes already have a thick skin that's easily improved with magic before charging.

51 minutes ago, soltakss said:

We had a pyromancer in our old RQ3 campaign. Sparky Jack was an Oakfed Shaman who steadily became more and more deranged, as he embraced the Wildfire more and more. In the end, he had a couple of Agimori Shamans as apprentices and had a burning skull instead of his normal head. He could summon up a mean oakfed though, I think it was an XXXXL Salamander.

haha, nice

22 hours ago, David Scott said:

Pavis (the big rubble) also has sewers, the dwarfs built from the Faceless Statue's bowelstones. They also made them into plumbing, and sewers. The dwarfs also built the Great Drain under new Pavis for Dorosar. See Pavis GTA.

So they did! I had forgotten all about that.

Humaktis having sex with partners of the opposite sex is probably something that their god doesn't view favourably, but having sex with partners of the same sex is highly encouraged, because it creates strong bonds between warriors. Just like in the Sacred Band of Thebes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

Boldhome has water supply and drainage of remarkable sophistication:

Water and Drainage

Boldhome has an inexhaustible supply of fresh running water from the mountains. The valley has several hot springs, which dwarf ingenuity and engineering have tapped for hot water and baths. Even during the coldest Boldhome winter, there are plentiful sources of hot water in the city. There are several public baths in the city. 

The dwarfs not only tapped the hot springs, but also built an underground water and drainage and sewer system throughout the pockets and Sartar’s Palace. All of the dwarf-built residences have a private toilet that connects to the sewer system and is expelled through the 40-Spear Conduit. 

 

Thanks! I was just about to ask about Sartar.

Thanks!

Which Gloranthan cultures use water and sanitation pipes? I don't remember ever seeing mentions of them. They did exist in Bronze Age Earth though.

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

It is possible that Lokarnos is worshipped as a sibling of Tolat and Anilla - at least in Pamaltelan myth, the planet Lokarnos is one of the three Sky Witches, and that's what the Zaranistangi brought with them.

Furalor to me is the fire version of Ty Kora Tek, both in charge of cremation and of a keeper of souls.

Calyz is a mix of Lodril, Gustbran and whatever crafting and building magic you can scrape together (e.g. from Flintnail), plus a little bit of maybe Pamalt in his fertility aspect.

 

Thanks!

3 hours ago, Videopete said:

nope, the +6 and +12 both count as a single die, heck +100 is a single die. Its any addition counts as one die.

That said it does say both maxroll +dice=species maximum. And Maxroll+Miniroll=Species Maximum. So yeah FAQ/Errata This quick.

Yeah. Where do you report these?

Hahaha, great pics! Is that an alynx?

23 hours ago, OrlanthRex said:

If a shaman has a spirit armor tattoo and goes discorporite, do they still get the benefit of the enchantment? I’m guessing not. 

No they wouldn't. It's on their skin, which they leave behind.

Is Lokarnos worshipped in Teshnos?

Which RQ3 cults would Calyz and Furalor most resemble?

5 hours ago, styopa said:

Old school rules, ie un-updated.

4 hours ago, g33k said:

Most people use it as "Old School Revival."

The main attention is usually around D&D retroclones of rules from the pre-AD&D1e era.  We here in BRP'dom have an alternate rule-set from that era!  😉

I presume there are other niches of "OSR" too...

 

Thanks!

What does 'OSR' mean?