Wrestlepig

If you wanted to do something with it, there's some solar ruins flanking it. Maybe the survivors went there.

There's something very interesting about the idea of a Brithini Philosopher, since they're very much not fans of thinking outside one's station. Maybe they were all about arguing against other ideas as a form of cultural defense.

E: you could probably contort her life into an arkat analogy if you really wanted to get posted at here or murdered in safelster.

11 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

This is going out into some grognard water I am ill-equipped to talk about, but also wasn't there some kind of fundamental Purification Rune that the Zistorites were attempting to prove existed, but then it didn't after all? And then the Purification Rune might later be attached to the Moon Rune?

I've seen it referenced in various discussions online, but never quite ventured deep into it.

It's mentioned in the Wiki as coming from the book on the Middle Sea Empire and History of the Heortling Peoples, although the latter is from an Orlanthi perspective and doesn't mention what is going on aside from Sorcery, so it's probably in the former. I think the Moon Rune connection is very convincing speculation, although I haven't read the book myself. Obviously you should say it is so you can have a dungeon crawl in a ruined machine city to uncover moonbreaking secrets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh49HehENPE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRg_8NNPTD8

Heilung are a neofolk band that get really into the norse/germanic tribe aesthetic. I'm like 40% sure it's a nazi thing but it fits a lot of glorantha aesthetically.

Humakt isn't just about being a super powerful warrior. A big part of his deal is the responsible ownership and usage of Death. Their domain is death outside of the traditional and acceptable forms of murder for the orlanthi, so they have a mythic tie to stopping the misuse of death in dishonorable ways. Also it's a big truth rune thing: secret murder is dishonorable and they generally swear an oath to protect the chief. If you want to get into mechanics it's useful as well since it gives humakti PCs a useful trick in a more political campaign. Plus as much as I hate that gming style you can always say "hey Harmast Oathsword, can you gimme a roll for Sense Assassins? No reason" and get a good reaction.

32 minutes ago, galafrone said:

Hi there

i just wanted to know how the community feels about the HP being basically just a measure of CON with some little adjustments and not more the average of CON and SIZ

Actually with this system ducks have an average hp total of 12 and the dark trolls 13.. and if the latters are unlucky the can easily being worse than ducks.

So, fellow gamers, you are playing with the HP total as it is or ... not ?

I think keeping it as CON-focused helps mechanically, so the duck doesn't get killed by a sword-swing. SIZ is also a stat that gets factored into a lot of things a bit as well, so you want to be careful about making it more prominent. I agree it's not realistic, or at least representative of the idea, but I think it's for the best mechanically.

the Moon Wind is summoned by Eurmal when he bends over.

On 6/22/2019 at 6:47 AM, Beoferret said:

Any chance we'll see an official write-up of the Cult of the Tiger? 

This was first introduced in the Aug/September 1980 issue of Different Worlds magazine for those who don't know. That issue was my first intro to rpg's and has a really evocative piece of cover art (in my opinion.)

I haven't read that magazine but if it's a Hsunchen animal/beast cult it should mostly be covered by Hykimh and Mykih.

On 6/18/2019 at 6:08 AM, JonL said:

I very much agree. 

For example, I dig how in this illustration of the Holy Country,  a very hazy Kiero Fin is visible in the extreme distance:

that's what happens when umath is interfering with Light from the sun, it gets weakened and you see the air instead. Perfectly obvious scientific explanation when you think about it.

About a third of the runes can or would be defined as the free will rune, and the people of glorantha can and have chosen to war over which one it is.

Humakti are always in it to the death, although you can stop being a humakti if you're willing to face the consequences listed above. There might be some weird exceptions for converting to a cult that will protect you from them or Illumination, although there's nothing set in rules and the orlanthi cults definitely won't like that. I wouldn't worry about those anyway, it's not thematically as interesting.

The real question is: can your character really stop the way of the sword? Have a look at their Death and Truth Rune affinities? How much of their POW have they turned into rune points? What are their passions? Have you seen how good Sword Trance is? These aren't questions you can get an answer by just rolling them, but at the very least it's an internal conflict for your future. Also losing your cult is a huge mechanical loss to your character, so I wouldn't ditch it immediately.

On 5/26/2019 at 9:19 PM, Humakt said:

I’m about to start dorastor campaign but after do in first place the modules are on the gamemaster pack.

I would like to have any advise about how carrying that because the dates and also I see could be so deadly.

also is any info about the pieces of the broken sword and the crown of insight?

Im not an expert GM I did a few bits time ago and I appreciate any advise you can give me. 

Tia

check over the chase rules, since the best way to handle the big monsters is running away from them and you want it to be memorable.

6 hours ago, EricW said:

What is the Trollkin curse, exactly? Why is it so difficult to reverse? I've read some material, interested in other people's thoughts - what hero quests have been attempted, where they went wrong. 

The trollkin curse is a metaphysical wound on the Mother Goddess of Trolls, Kyter Ligor, by Nysalor/Gbaji, a mystical god of light/chaos (it's complicated) that means a lot of trolls get born as stunted weaklings. Aside from being tragic for the trolls, it also weakens them since them since there's less big tough guys that eat people around, so the trolls would really like it reversed.

It's really difficult to fix the damage since the god who did it was really powerful and was also breaking a lot of the rules that prevent stuff like that from happening. You'd have to be either as powerful as a manifest God, or break a lot of the rules yourself with ill-advised God Learner Sorcery with a lot of magic to fuel it.

There have been a few attempts to fix it that have kind of worked. Cragspider managed to have bigger, dumber trolls get born instead. Another attempt early on made it so litters of trollkin get born instead of one. A lot of the weirder breeds of troll that don't worship Kyter Ligor at all don't have trollkin, although they generally have some other issue.

The only good theory I've seen about how to fully undo the curse, at least on a smaller scale, is for the mother troll to heroquest as Kyter Ligor in that battle and win. That's practically impossible, but if you could do it, you'd be hailed as an incredible hero and never birth trollkin yourself at the very least. Maybe it'd work alright if you get supported by a good deal of Arkat cult magic, but that's just speculation.

Red Robin sounds like it's doing a robin hood thing. The closest thing I can think of is Lanbril the thief god who pops up a lot in Pavis stuff.

3 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Sweet, more proof that if any was needed; that while min/maxing stats can be fun, a character with depth in personalty and beliefs and min/maxed* for MGF instead can be just as cool. I can think of no reason not to do this and blow a stereotype of two out of the water, or just have fun should your sights be set a little lower,

  Thanx Wrestlepig.

* or not; perhaps created according to a plan, or created to explore more nuances of Glorantha, or...

It's more that this is just a workable choice, I'd be saying different things if it was Eirithia or Engizi.

I had a bit of a look into doing an Ernaldan Heavy Infantrywoman and it's actually not a terrible choice. Although Ernalda doesn't have any super dramatic combat spells, you get access to lots of good spells from associated cults, like Shield, Earth Shield and Impede Chaos, as well as a lot of defensive/support spells. You also get Befuddle, Ignite and Demoralise, which are all very useful in a combat situation, and can learn Bladesharp from associated cults. And if that's not enough just get a pet giant snake or Earth Elemental and then you're in the business.

1 hour ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

Would there be ways he could use Tapping to help out around the community? Could something like Tap + Beast help manage or destroy an infestation? Could a spell like Tap + Stasis make it easier to Move Big Stuff around a village, I am thinking pushing logs uphill and such.  

They could, and it would work, although it would be a fairly radical and strange thing to do for most communities. Most Lhankor Mhy worshippers are focused on Truth-related sorcery for divination and investigating, and there's generally a rune cult that can help with their usual magics. In the west, the Seshnelans are super rigid and would very rarely consider tapping and Loskalm is too philosophical and idealistic to commit to entropy. That said, there's going to be exceptions since it's possible to derive how to tap easily, it's very powerful and a Sorceror without a sense of Hubris is just a man in a funny hat. Also, Safelstrans have secret societies that teach it, Fonritan Masarins would absolutely do it, and the Brithini and Vadeli have no restrictions on it. No idea about the Lunars but they probably don't unless you're illuminated or something like that.

Tapping tends to have consequences beyond the immediate casting so it's probably not a good idea when there's a safer method or it's a predictable effect, but that never stops anyone.

1 hour ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

 Would love to have a little better idea of the philosophy for putting together a new sorcery spell. 

The section on Sorcery in the new book has a pretty clear structure. You combine a Technique with a Rune (or two if it's combine/separate) and then give it a more specific definition and effect. You're expected to come up with custom spells, and there's specific rules about the effect based on MP invested in it that define damage, range etc.

The thing about getting the mastery rune it's its a more manifest form of proving your kingship or sovereignty, like pulling the sword out of the stone. Essentially, you do something that proves that you should be the Master, which is probably the thing your god did to prove he should be the head of your pantheon. In gloranthan terms, You do a heroquest that imbues you with the Mastery rune by echoing your society's patron and then proving your place alongside their legacy. There's always another way to blaze new trails and grow your own innate Mastery, something more ritualistic or bizarre Combine-Mastery-with-Man sorceries, of course, but that's the general principle.

It's standard narrative logic, but it's a bit more explicit since Mastery is a fundamental force in glorantha that's equivalent to fire, luck or animalness.

If an ogre runs into a storm bull, their main defense is saying 'cmon guys, I'm a regular, hardworking orlanthi just like you and me. this guy's probably just drunk. I totally can't spit acid or eat people. Are you going to trust a crazy asshole who's spent more time in Prax than our lands, or me, the farmer who lives on the outskirts and can lift a cow over his shoulders?'

Sometimes works, I guess.

The the Humakt/Yelmalio gifts are a good model too, although they'll need tweaking to be specific.

Everybody likes the ability to talk to animals. Always good.

3 hours ago, David Scott said:

The trees are the plant rune.

That's true, although it is interesting plants have the 3 dots in a triangle. I'll be back in 3 days with a giant post that uses runic symbolism to prove that plants don't exist.

Although a lot of it is very similar to what you'd see with the usual gods, it's actually depicting the super-ancient mythological past of the Green Age (or before then). It was probably made by God Learners depicting what they knew of that era, or maybe under Belintar's esoteric guidance. So the background is the Spike, topped by the mystic ideal of Glorantha and the infinite Dragon Ouroboros. Then there's the Cosmic Court, the original holders of the Power Runes. Then on the spike we have Aether, the original Fire/Light/Sun/Sky god, separated from Gata the primal Earth by Umath, the first Air god. The ground is covered with lots of different Grain Goddesses and has the dragons Hykim/Mykih, the parents of Beasts. Curiously the Trees resemble the Illusion Rune.

Under that we have the seas with some sea gods, and then we get the Underworld with lots of nasty demons and things I can't really place a name on. In the middle we've got Dame Darkness, the original holder of the Darkness Rune, and contained within her is the Mother of Space and the father of demons, who looks a lot like Zorak Zoran.

Most of the deities here are either too abstract, distant, inhuman or actually just a weird understanding of a rune to actually be reached, but their children or replacements are far more familiar. To put it one way, the conclusions you drew about the image were not unreasonable.

One thing I'd associate with the City of Wonders would be Luck, since Belintar was big on that rune. Have it as a somewhat-otherworld place where stores have just what you need, you keep finding coins in the gutter. However, the more ruined the district, the more Bad Luck can be a factor as well.

The best trick for munchkinning is be an Eurmal worshipper, take the glutton subcult and get as many runepoints as possible. Devour is a distressingly accurate instant kill if you can invest enough points to beat the SIZ of a human. You get one shot but the look on your gm's face is priceless.

I'm still not sure what the best way to build optimised characters is. Obviously you can create a super-effective killer with the death cults and a warrior class and then racing for Rune Priest/Lord, but I think going for breadth is the way to go in the long term, especially with cultural weapon skills and how you'll probably focus. Going Entertainer isn't compromising much physical power compared to the combat classes, for instance (although take the shield spell)