Craig N

As it happens, I took unusual care with the very first heroquest (third session of the game); since 3/4 of the players had no prior experience with the concept, I wrote out the entire myth for them. It's the foundation myth for a clan, nearly completely destroyed by a chaos incursion, that they had agreed to help. A young boy, one of the few survivors, recounted... The Black Well myth This happened in the Silver Age, after the great battle against Chaos had been won but before the Lightbringers had returned the sun to the Sky. The Vestantes tribe was growing again, and had become too many. So the boldest among them, such as our first parents, set out to find new lands to settle in. Our great-grandfather was the greatest warrior of the tribe [trace with right hand the runes AIR / DEATH] and our great-grandmother was the greatest beauty [trace with left hand the runes EARTH / ILLUSION]: their names are only spoken in the secret rites of our clan. They traveled far from the Vestantes home and came to this land, a good place, wounded in the Great Darkness and now just starting to grow again. But they found a little trickle of slime, the spoor of Chaos, coming out of the ground. Great-grandmother sang open the Earth, and they could hear far away the spirit of the tula wailing to be free. So they followed the trickle of Chaos, and sound of the spirit ever deeper under the Earth. The Darkness drew about them and grew stronger, but they could always follow the call of the land’s spirit, like the roaring of waters, even when they could no longer see the path. At last the Darkness grew thick, and lashed out at them with claws and teeth and life-freezing cold. Great-grandfather faced the elemental, and drove it away, but it left him a shade. But he could still walk about, and even talk, though he was dead, and by that they knew they had entered into the Underworld. They went forward and came to a place filled with thorns, but the thorns could not touch the shade of Great-grandfather and flinched aside. Then they came to a barrier of burning Fire, but Great-grandmother sang to it until the flames bowed to let them pass. Finally they came into a great chamber, where the slime of Chaos gathered itself up to destroy them and draw them down into nothingness. But they fought it off, together they fought past it, to the black flowing river that was calling to them. Grand-grandmother’s hand was bleeding when she reached into the river, and the touch of life and blood awoke it, so that it changed its course into the chamber and arose in great strength. The great river, Darkness and Water mingled together, washed away the slime of Chaos. It carried our first parents helpless in its flow, back the path they had taken, all the way to the surface of the Earth. The water cast them out just as the light of the first dawn touched the land, and the touch of the light calmed the water. And the spirit of the black well, joined with the light of the dawn, restored Great-grandfather to life, and cleansed the land from the taint of Chaos, and for a time all things were right. *** The stations should be fairly obvious. One was much more difficult than expected: the 'place filled with thorns' was much more hostile -- it was actually a node of aldryami slowly ripening towards the planned reforestation of the region, which they knew nothing about at the time and which I planned at that time to be more important to the campaign than it turned out to be. More later, perhaps.

Last year (some months ago, now), I completed a full-fledged 13G campaign: all 10 levels, over 100 sessions spread out over something like 3 years real-time. I present a few observations on long-term play. We leaned heavily on the YGWV principle: only one of my four players had any experience in Glorantha, and two had little interest in doing any reading beyond the 13A & 13G rulebooks. I took my own suggestion for a group of Glorantha newbies and started the campaign in the City of 10,000 Magicians. The characters were sent out by the City Council to investigate matters after the Dragonrise – the first time anyone had left in generations if not centuries. Thus, the players could learn about the world right alongside their characters. Also, the undefined nature of the City also let the PCs choose any sort of character and build the society around it. Which freedom they definitely used, especially since most of them preferred choices other than the special 13G classes. I joked that they were really a standard four-person 13th Age adventuring party: a fighter (well, Humakti), a wizard, a cleric, and The Occultist. Coming from the City, they were of immediate interest to important people in the surrounding area, which fit nicely with the generally high-powered nature of the 13A rules set. I used less of the ‘Chaos Rising’ concept than 13G suggests, but the Hero Wars are already a good excuse for dangerous stuff to be going on at pretty much all power levels simultaneously. 13A/13G is extremely focused on combat: fortunately, it’s also very good at handling it. Fights were generally tense affairs, and it is remarkable how well the classes combine being balanced in play with very different mechanical tone and feel. (This was also true in the 13A game I was playing in, which overlapped with running this one.) The players found legitimate dodges on the rare occasions that someone was in danger of actual death; to my surprise, we never quite used the ‘heroic return’ rules. Having a cleric, a much better healer than any 13G class, may have made the difference there. Scenes that weren’t combat ended up being less focused on NPC interactions and more on world-tourism than I initially expected: the players were intrigued enough by the Gloranthan setting to like the idea of going far afield. Not just weird heroquests, though they did some of those, but to distant parts of the map, especially after they managed to enchant a flying boat towards the middle of champion tier. The steep power curve of 13A means even first-level characters don’t feel weak, and by the time they reached epic tier it seemed it seemed entirely appropriate to be having epic-scale impact on the world – the first being saving the City of 10,000 Magicians from its doom (which of course had been an early goal) using a PC-designed heroquest. I could natter on at length, but this seems like a long enough post. Any point of special interest, I can expand on.

Little surprised to see the Guidelines still haven't been updated.

Not easily. You can see how you'd have to bang on the hell mother quite a bit to adapt her to a different type of shaman: that's at least as true for any of the other magical classes. One of my PCs is actually going to be gaining shamanic abilities in the near future, which I'm treating as multiclassing to a bard variant ("songs" become spirits which you have limited control over, and which eventually escape back into the Spirit World) -- but I'm just using some animistic reflavoring, not trying to duplicate anything about what RQ (or HQ) shamans are supposed to do.

Most of the fan-made 13A character sheets are pdfs, but there's at least one Excel-based sheet here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZHsjcZ28TpVP-6GFDuLPJsNL6_hsSJb8jTffTPdvnPM which I found on the fan site Vault of the 13th Age, 13thage.org. To change it (or any other editable sheet) to a 13G character sheet, all you really need to do is change the space for Icon Relationships to one for Runes.

I'm thinking seriously about 13G for my next campaign, for a group of players that knows nothing about Glorantha but something about 13A. Looking for a place to start for characters -- as well as players -- who don't necessarily know that much about the world, I hit on The City of 10,000 Magicians in Aggar (shows up on the secondary map). Closed off from entry by outsiders for decades, it's quite plausible you could get together a group of inhabitants whose families have ignored the world outside the walls for generations, and are only now realizing that may have been short-sighted. And they could be pretty much any 13A class, with idiosyncratic magic that doesn't have to mesh up all that well with anything else. Then for players who want more solidly Gloranthan characters, start them off in the village outside the gates (of course there's one) which has just been swollen by refugees from Chaos Rising who hope to shelter under the City's magical defenses even if they can't get in. Pick a few things the refugees need that heroes can get them -- starting with a chaos threat or two that need smiting -- and you're off to the races.

g33k, there's differences of opinion on how Unique OUTs have to be -- in 13A proper, Jonathan Tweet mentions that "I'm extremely good-looking and get treated better than I probably should" is a perfectly workable OUT by his lights. That's the style I had in mind there. It would be simple enough to rephrase it to make it fully unique, if the GM wanted: yours works, or you could be the only elf-friend in your tribe, or be the only non-aldryami ever brought to the inmost grove of the Arstola, and so forth and so on. Rob, glad you liked my ZZ alternative to the berserker; it sprang to mind when I read the multiclass rules. (He's also another example of a less-unique OUT.) At higher levels, the $undead Form daily spells combine really well with troll warrior.

It really isn't that difficult to design 13A or 13G characters, once you've decided what class to play. Here's four examples, starting off completely standard and getting a little more unusual: Sartarite storm voice STR 10 (+0) CON 17 (+3) DEX 14 (+2) INT 12 (+1) WIS 13 (+1) CHA 19 (+4) AC 15 (light) PD 14 MD 12 Recovery 1d8+3 hp 27 One Unique Thing: I am the last survivor of Kallyr Starbrow's heroquest to raise the Boat Planet, during which I left a piece of my soul on the hero plane. (And apparently took a few years to convalesce, afterwards.) God: Orlanth Runes: Air, Movement, Water Backgrounds: Pre-Argrath Sartarite Rebel +5, Old Wind Mystic +3. Survivor: 9 Recoveries; increase die by one size Ritual Magic Storm Summoner: Summoning spells usable daily Umath's Violence: Spell frenzy once/day when escalation 1+ War Caster: +2 AC; Cast ranged spells freely while engaged; Spell damage uses CON not CHA Feats: Lightning Fork, Umath's Violence Melee: staff, attack +1, dmg 1d6, miss 1. Missile: thrown dagger, attack +3, dmg 1d6+2, miss 0. Magic: attack +5 (v PD usually) Typical Spells: Sparks cantrip (3/day) Wild Bolt (at will) Lightning Fork (recharge 16) Strike the Highest (recharge 11) Summon Sylph (daily) * Esrolian earth priestess STR 12 (+1) CON 15 (+2) DEX 14 (+2) INT 10 (+0) WIS 19 (+4) CHA 15 (+2) AC 15 PD 14 MD 15 (Esrolian bonuses applied) Recovery 1d8+3 hp 24 One Unique Thing: I am an elf-friend and know secrets of the aldryami. God: Ernalda Runes: Earth, Harmony, Plant Backgrounds: Serpent oracle +4, Green Woman of the woods +4 Ritual Magic Higher Favors of the Earth: 2/battle, 1 daily blessing. Keeper of Spirits: 1/day, force an enemy that hit you with an attack to reroll it at –4. Also, minor earth spirits summoned with summon minor guardian cost no hp Serpent Stories: +1 death saves for party until 1st success of the day. Also, semi-supernatural snakes do 5 ongoing poison to enemies that attack her in melee with natural roll of either 1-5 or 15-20 (choose at each full heal-up). Feats: Higher Favors, Serpent Stories Melee: staff, attack +2, dmg 1d4+1, miss 0 Missile: thrown dagger, attack +3, dmg 1d3+2, miss 0 Magic: attack +5 Typical daily blessing Blossoming Health: Until the end of this battle, target can spend a quick action (1/round) to heal 2d6 hp, as long as it’s not staggered. Typical spells Forbiddance (daily) Summon minor guardian (at will) Summon earth elemental (daily) Intrigued by a feature of the world not prominent in 13G? Use your One Unique Thing to signal to the GM that you want it to be important. * Sartarite rebel STR 10 (+0) CON 17 (+3) DEX 19 (+4) INT 12 (+1) WIS 13 (+1) CHA 14 (+2) AC 16 (light) PD 16 MD 12 Recovery 1d8+3 hp 27 One Unique Thing: I was with the army that destroyed the Temple of the Reaching Moon in Tarsh, and looted a statuette which now reappears in my possession no matter what I do to get rid of it. God: Vinga Runes: Air, Movement, Illusion Backgrounds: Acrobat and performer +2, Expert treasure hunter +2, Former clan champion +2, Magical dilettante +2 Quick to Fight: roll twice for initiative Momentum ; Opening Strike ; Transgress Bravado Tumble: +5 disengage; free disengage to avoid intercepts Jack of Spells [13A bard talent]: Magic Missile (wizard) to get an infallible ranged attack (plus cantrips), unless something else looks needed. Feats: Bravado, Tumble Melee: shortsword, attack +5, dmg 1d8+4, miss 1. Missile: thrown dagger, attack +5, dmg 1d6+4, miss 1. Powers: Flashy Blade Freedom! Sure Cut Tumbling Strike The bard talent isn't usually available to rebels, but is a reasonable substitute. After all, if the player didn't want to avoid the complications, she could multiclass as a bard (possibly moving her stats around some) and arguably come out more powerful. * troll necromancer / troll warrior multiclass STR 17 (+3) CON 17 (+3) DEX 13 (+2) INT 17 (+3) WIS 10 (+0) CHA 12 (+1) AC 14 (light) PD 15 MD 13 Recovery 1d8+3 hp 27 (increases +3/combat/day) One Unique Thing: I know an inner secret of Fire. God: Zorak Zoran Runes: Darkness, Disorder, Fire/Sky Backgrounds: Surface-world hunter +3, Underworld sorcerer +4, Trollball tactician +1 Dark Walker / Big Eater Troll Frenzy ; Survivor Tough Ritual Magic Deathknell. As a quick action, kill (reduce to 0 hp) nearby enemy with 5 hp or fewer, and heal 1d6 hp. Doesn’t work on mooks unless they’re last of their mob. It's Complicated: +1 spell, rune complications 1-7 Unstoppable Feat: Summoning Melee: two-handed maul, attack +4, dmg 1d8+3, miss 1. Missile: thrown rock, attack +3, dmg 1d4+2, miss 0. Magic: attack +3 (summoned creatures are at -1 attack) Typical Spells: Chant of Endings (at will) Summon Undead (daily) Unholy Blast (daily) Zombie Form (daily, out of combat) A multiclass that fits together surprisingly well, for a non-berserker ZZ

I'm sure some of these are duplicates of things already in the thread: p. 1, par 2, typo "wthin" for wIthin p. 7, box, typo "ever-reincrnating" for reincArnating p. 74, end of italicized intro "the more widely <<>> God Learner titles" seems to be missing a word, "used" or "known" p. 93, there are two Fronelas on the map; I can't tell if this is an error or not. p. 99, the map calls it KENO FIN with an N instead of an R p. 110, last par, typo "Kagan Tor" for "KaRgan Tor" pp.149-150: missing text in the transition; 150 should clearly begin "...Mothers" and complete a missing sentence, as well as starting the next one. p. 157, missing line between bottom 1st column and top 2nd: "priests. The <<Chaos demon and his allies were driven off by a small>> deity from" p. 171, the map says Sheng was on the Moon 1419, an error for 1449. p. 180, last sentence, "favored <<>> the Red Emperor" missing "by" back cover text: do you really want to capitalize the C in "the Coming of Argrath"?

p40, Trade rune, 2nd par. has an extra -R- in ArgRan Argar.