Austin

There's a chart on page 311 of the core rulebook which can help you adjudicate this:

Note that some cults don't look at one another the same way. For example, Orlanth is Neutral towards Daka Fal, but Daka Fal is Hostile toward Orlanth.

My rule of thumb tends to be that any cult listed as an Associated cult which provides Rune spells is a cult it's valid for an adventurer to multi-initiate with. Those cults don't necessarily align well though, so it's not an absolute measure. For example, Chalana Arroy and Orlanth are associated, but I doubt Orlanth's cult will let you initiate into Chalana Arroy considering its pacifist rules. However, I'd allow one of my players to freely leave Orlanth and join CA if something appropriate occurred during the story.

In my own campaign, one of the adventurers originally initiated in Issaries has initiated into Orlanth as well, because he's moving more and more toward a leadership role. My, and his, subjective sense of the cults don't feel conflict, and they're associated in the world besides, so I figured it makes sense enough to allow.

I suspect that a lot of "high level" play will revolve around adventurers initiated into two cults, and maybe with a spirit cult or two besides, once they've maxed out their CHA worth of Rune points in a given cult. Personally, I'd avoid letting an adventurer initiate into three or more full cults because I feel in-world like their attention and devotion would be being split too widely. A possible exception would be situations like where a non-Orlanth initiate becomes a king or chief, and initiates into Orlanth Rex as part of their King Test.

50 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

And queue all the time travel paradoxes - what if you went back in myth and killed your ancestor?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

On 5/8/2020 at 2:35 PM, Puckohue said:

Please do  I too have lost interest in micromanagement.

Here's an example of what I do. We're in Earth season 1626 now, but I'm not done with this season's market/campaign notes sheet yet.

Each adventurer has a spare inventory sheet, because the normal character sheet has nowhere near enough space to keep track of what you're carrying around. I made this in particular with a mind toward dungeon crawling, so it might not fit everyone's needs. You find something, you ask how much ENC it takes, and you note where you've put it. Core rulebook ENC is your body ENC, and you can hold more than that just trudging around in packs without significant penalties. If they were trying to lug something bigger and heavier around I'd just have to ad hoc what's going on.

The resource dice work pretty well. I took them from Free League/Fria Ligan's RPG Forbidden Lands, which uses the Year Zero Engine. Basically, each consumable you want to track has a die size, D6, D8, or D10. Whenever you use that consumable, you roll the die. On a 1 or a 2, it goes down to the next size. I note on my market sheet how much it costs to go up an increment, and my players occasionally spend time while traveling to refill their food and water (hunting, finding rivers, calling rain, etc.).

If you're looking to reduce bookkeeping further than I am, I figure you could just use the resources without worrying about ENC. We don't focus on what the adventurers are carrying around quite as much as these sheets imply. I mostly have them so that if they get lucky, I can force them to choose between carrying food and carrying silver.

Market sea 1626.doc supply sheet.doc

10 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

You need to goad your players into trying impossible things?

Oh, they try impossible things all the time. Currently, it's looking like one of them is going to try taking down King Argrath because he's getting his bad draconic juju all up in Orlanth's righteous blowing.

Goading's for getting them to attempt the impossible thing I want them to try.

9 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Kids, don't try this at home .

Does that prohibition also apply to goading my players into trying it? They're already about to go on a cosmonautical quest anyway...

31 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Of course, one thing you could do is to HeroQuest to a God Time event that hasn't actually happened yet. When that event actually happens in normal time, it creates a God Time Mythic Event. Because God Time is beyond Time, once it is created it has always been there, so you could, in theory, travel there before it happens. This is very dangerous and rare, but is theoretically possible.

Ooh, I like that...

Oh, and @soltakss has the heroquest written up on his website. Suppose I should have considered looking there before I wrote the above. Durr.

http://www.soltakss.com/hquest03.html

1 hour ago, GAZZA said:

I was thinking it might be thematically appropriate to do a Cleansed One Hero Quest (as they are river voices of Zola Fel, and have been offered initiation); the myth itself, as far as I can see, cleanses Chaos but it seems reasonable it could remove a Chaos inflicted penalty as well.

That seems 100% on-point thematically to me, as well. Good idea.

For me, doing a heroquest really ought to be about the community supporting you. Since the adventurers are River Voices, I'm sure they've got position and connections enough for a community to be willing to support them on the quest. Perhaps try using their Loyalty (community) Passion to test for support? Given their status, I think that "curing our Chosen Heroes" qualifies as a community boon to be pursuing—trying to cleanse their Chaos wound isn't selfish, but makes them better able to help the community.

@Puckohue's JC work Humakt, Raven, and Wolf has some very simple rules for doing a heroquest. I don't have River of Cradles, but perhaps its story of the Cleansed One can be converted into different "stations" with a simple test each? This could even just be a roll of one of their Rune affinities, or a single skill roll and some roleplay. If Cleansed One doesn't have listed holy days, I'd have the quest take place on an "auspicious" day. Try asking the players when their adventurers think is appropriate. I'd suggest a Wildday in Harmony week, but using their suggestion is probably better. Sacred Time is pretty much always appropriate, too.

11 hours ago, Diana Probst said:

Can Beer With Teeth quote your review?

Sure thing!

36 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

That was a pretty inciteful first impressions read, have you done one for The Smoking Ruins?

No, I haven't. I've been waiting for the printing, to do a re-read, and to play at least one adventure before a full review.

The time between publication and printing is why I just started off with a first impressions article for The Pegasus Plateau.

I finished reading The Pegasus Plateau, and wrote a "first impressions" article over on my blog. It might be interesting to some of y'all.

nabda, Stephen, many thanks! 

1 hour ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

I just picked this up through Drive Thru RPG and I am absolutely loving it! It has some great seeds for adventures and a wonderfully woven story of why he exists and what he does. I am definitely going to use him at least once in the Pavis/Prax campaign we are playing. 

Let me know how it goes! I'd love to get some feedback on Geiron at the table.

I think the map of the Woods of the Dead on page 86 really needs a scale for distance, considering how many elements in the text rely upon the distance the adventurers travel through the Wood, or how far they are from a given landmark.

7 hours ago, Joerg said:

Moons appear to be planetary bodies that are female and exhibit some form of cyclical behavior.

That feels like it makes sense. So if you wanted, you could introduce a new minor moon with Heortling connections, or maybe which a few clans/tribes worship. I could see a Moon Captain equivalent of the Star Captains being an interesting path to explore in that regard. Or perhaps a star* which circles Polaris/Rigsdal, and is associated with him.

*Star in the "that bright thing up there" sense.

7 hours ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

This form of magic can be very powerful, can be scaled, and effects combined. But it is magic point intensive, and there are backlash effects for overspending.

Thanks for the reply! Sounds interesting, to be sure. I'll have to check it out eventually.

How's the magic work in the Lyonesse RPG? I'm only familiar by reputation with Vance's fiction, but a new setting-specific magic system sounds pretty interesting. Love me some magic systems.

Does the circled location have a name? I'm fairly sure it's the main settlement of the Enjossi clan, either a village or a town. I couldn't find anything in the Gamemaster Adventures book or in the RQG core rulebook. Just figured I'd rather ask than stick my foot in my mouth over a simple name. Thanks!

It's been a while since I read the Sky appendix to the Guide. How close or far apart, conceptually, are moons and planets in Glorantha? The main moons I'm aware of are all ones the Heortlings don't have an awful lot to do with—Anilla, Sedenya/Shepelkirt, the White Moon, etc.—but could there be minor moons which they do venerate, in some small way?

21 hours ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

In a similar vein I have been extremely amused recently by the lack of trail rations or equivalent in the price list.

I really like how the Year Zero Engine handles resource management, with a resource die for each thing you're tracking so you don't have to do bean-counting. I've been using it in my RQG game for food, water, torches, and arrows (I just assume folks can find "good enough" slingstones because we can't be bothered). It took a bit of adjustment, but I think once the players and I grokked the system that it works pretty well.

I don't remember what prices I set for different resource die sizes or improvements, but I can dig them up if anyone's interested in more info.

34 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

Emperor Nero, who was rumoured to hang out with Roman street gangs for kicks.

something something something Argrath

14 hours ago, kalidor said:

Nice image, which goddess is that?

I call her Yarisula, but she may have other names. She stands outside one of several entries to the Temple of the Multitudes, guarding the Great Stairway which descends into sacred Ezel. Those who wish to walk further down into the ravine must pass her, with their necks bent. Those who have committed crimes against the Earth are struck down with her axe.

If you're curious and want to know more, go check out Esrolia: Land of 10,000 Goddesses from the Stafford Library. It has a ten-page-ish description of the different temples at Ezel, and hints at some secrets. I've taken some creative liberties and alterations in developing the cover with the artist, as we all should!

Thanks for sharing these, @MOB. The Truestone rules are really interesting! I'm curious to see what the "Egregious Munchkinnery" thread makes of them after release...

54 minutes ago, Mankcam said:

That version of Harrek sounds pretty cool, he also just might make it into my current canon 😎

I said it as an off-hand joke, while trying to OOC describe the Battle of Pennel Ford to my players, and they demanded it become canon. Which is pretty much par for the course in my game. I use "Rule of Cool" rather a bit more than I'm probably willing to admit.

Thus far, most of the changes to my Glorantha v. canon Glorantha have been from off-hand comments at the table.

My current favorite is that Harrek can literally catch Sun Spears with his bare hands, and chuck them at people. No fancy-shmancy magic rituals or invocations or rites or spells. Just catch and toss, like a javelin or a grenade.