jenh

My next game might well be about resolving the conflict between the Lunar Empire and the Orlanthi, maintaining the heroic and epic feel of the standard Hero Wars while eschewing the relentless focus on violence. Rather than hitting things, and undergoing heroquests and learning secrets in order to be able to hit things, or have others hit things, more and better, I'm interested in a game where: people talk with each other; change their own minds and those of others; gain understanding as an end in itself; learn and create new things; show others what they know and see; listen to others; learn to walk joyously in this life, and how to leave it with equal joy; discover ways to act gently and kindly. In other words, a total repudiation of Harrek, Argrath (and that only two or three of his 13 companions are women is reason enough for me to want him irrelevant), and the endless history of battle of place X, battle of place Y, use left-handed dragon magic in order to win at battle Z.

While illuminated individuals play a significant role in Glorantha and the Hero Wars, they seem mostly to take advantage of the insight to get tips and tricks to hit harder and/or get others to hit for them. There aren't, in my limited knowledge of the lore, many examples of people understanding their way out of problems. Though the Lunar Empire and their illumination is meant to reconcile Chaos and not-Chaos, that seems on a practical level to actually come down to shoving the Chaos off onto those who aren't sufficiently "us" and not being bothered by that. In my next game I will put a focus on those gods, heroes, myths, and people that are not about hitting things, or manipulating others to hit things, and see how far, for example, Chalana Arroy can heal the body and the spirit not only of people but of Glorantha.

Somewhat related, is the lack of accord between the number and labels on the map and the number and descriptions in the Points and Places section deliberate or just a mistake that hasn't been fixed yet?

I love this! And there is hope too even in the Guide, since the woods are hostile only to most humans. @dumuzid, you've captured a lot more fully a thought I had had about Argrath and the way he seemed to bring people into his orbit only to shed/sacrifice them - it doesn't feel like there's much of a "we" there. Further, destruction rather than creation seems to be not only his means but also his aim, and I can't expect much good to come from that. A PC group is ideally suited to adding in more voices to the situation with Argrath, whether that's alongside him or against him or just rendering him irrelevant. Thank you everyone for your thoughts so far!

The Guide gives a few hints at the plans of various groups in the Hero Wars, with some hints about the outcomes (eg, Aldryami reforestation across much of western Genertela). I'm interested in different ways that matters could turn out that are not only positive for the groups in question, but also perhaps transcend at least some hatreds and divisions. It is easy enough for me to envisage, to continue the Aldryami example, woods inimical to dwarves, trolls and humans; I'd welcome more optimistic outlooks, even well outside the usual tone of Gloranthan procession.

Page 210 of the rules states that the weapon is the same, it can just be wielded with one or two hands. Since it is "really intended for two-handed use", the extra strength required for one-handed use explains the lack of damage difference.

Page 36: "perfect world, as is" -> "perfect world, so too is" Page 43: It would be nice to have an illustration of Daravala instead of people already illustrated in the GSP Adventures book. Page 59: "journey” from Duck Point.”" -> "journey” from Duck Point." (extraneous closing quotation marks) Page 62: "Or Ate. One. Moment.”" -> "“Or Ate. One. Moment.” (missing initial quotation marks) Page 104: Thinala presumably gave birth to Pala before initiating to Babeester Gor (though per page 93, she spent her early years as a temple guardian) but as a returned axe maiden, is adopting a child appropriate? Or am I confused about the familial restrictions placed on those following Babeester Gor? Page 105: Asmara is twice referred to as Amsara. Page 105: In the first column it is said that Ernalda's stand-in is usually Ereneva, but in the second column it says for outcomes #1 and #3 that Ernalda is portrayed by Ereneva and the crowd goes wild because they were expecting Daravala. Page 105: "steady thrumming bea" -> "steady thrumming beat"

Just in case anyone is interested, there is a current Kickstarter for a Necronomicon art book that might make a good game aid, either for the individual pieces of art within it, or as a whole. Alongside the art are some maps of an Italian town, and descriptions (?) of spells.

I have a few questions as I prepare for running The Eleven Lights campaign, from slowly reading through The Coming Storm. On page 11, it states that there are about 1500 people in the Red Cow clan, 830 adults (134 elders) and the rest children. There are six bloodlines, with the following approximate number of adults: 150, 100, 100, 60, 60, 60. Each bloodline additionally has about 12 elders. So what about the other 230 adults? On page 21 it says that there are three gates to Red Cow Fort, with two gates leading to the river - a main gate to the northeast and a narrower access to the southeast. The map on page 23 shows the two gates near the river both on the northwest side of the fort, and it looks like one has to go through both to get from the river to inside the fort (or go through one and then round to the landward gate. Is there a gate that isn't shown on the map, or are the compass directions wrong? On page 21 the Heort Creek where the ferry runs is some 80 feet wide. This doesn't appear to be shown on the map on page 23, but the creek depicted there is always well over 500 feet wide, so it seems unlikely that it suddenly narrows so much just a little to the west or east. Since 500 feet is much greater than anything I'd describe as a creek, is it not drawn to scale? Is anything not drawn to scale on the map?

Page 76, column 2, paragraph 1: "60 kilometers to southeast" -> "60 kilometers to the southeast". Also, southeast of what?

Page 39: "unusual weapons specicic to their race" should have "specific". It would be great to have captions for some of the illustrations, particularly on the calendar.

Pages 283 and 296: "worshipper" -> "worshiper" (which is used many more times throughout). Similarly on page 291, "worshipping" -> "worshiping".

Several times Read/Write is listed followed by "(language)", "(any language)", or "(own language)". However, Read/Write applies to scripts, not languages. Also, both "(any)" and "(own)" are also used, without "language", though consistency here may not be desired.

The homeland maps (save for the Esrolian one) and the full map of Dragon Pass and Prax do not include the Building Wall. Some details are individual to specific homeland maps, so this is probably deliberate, though it seems a little odd to me.

There seems to be a problem with the category modifier calculation. For agility skills, SIZ is rated too negatively; it should be listed as NEG SEC, not NEG PRI. I haven't checked the others.

Page 79, in step 7, says that "No skill may be raised to above 100% in this step." This seems to imply that skills may be raised above 100% in earlier steps, but on page 80 the text specifies that skills can be increased beyond 100% in later play, so perhaps that implication is incorrect. Clearly stating whether skills can be raised above 100% during character creation as a whole or not would be a good addition.

Page 70: Further clarity on what an adventurer who has the Priest occupation but does not meet the requirements actually gets would be good. The text mentions skills and equipment; what is the ransom, standard of living, and base income? Does the adventurer get to choose the Favored Passion?

Page 61: Missile Weapons list includes "Dagger, Throwing" and "Throwing Dagger", and "Axe, Throwing" and "Throwing Axe". Character sheet: There is no mention of crossbows on the character sheet, though they are listed in the skills on page 61. The character sheet and page 61 use different categories for First, Grapple, and Kick. Page 95: Both table headings have "Solara" rather than "Sorala".

On page 148, column 2, paragraph 4: "Orlanth later destroyed Artmal and his parts scattered." His parts were scattered? He (Orlanth) scattered his (Artmal's) parts? His parts are capable of scattering under their own power?

Hon-eel is written as Hon-Eel in the index and in the bulletpoint heading on page 151.

There is inconsistent spacing in the table of contents between the section name and the dots - sometimes there is a space, sometimes not. On page 1, column 1, paragraph 2: "wthin" -> "within" On page 1, column 1, paragraph 2, the sentence ending "history is the deeds of kings, heroes, and prophets, not economics, agricultural output, or of tax revenues" seems a little clumsy. At least change "or of tax" to "or tax". On page 1, column 2, second bullet point: "Empire:A" -> "Empire: A" It's a bit odd having the page numbers on the map (4 and 5).

On page 19, column 1, second to last paragraph: "are mostly likely allied" -> "are most likely allied".