Austin

Not gonna lie, it was a factor in why I brought the story up. And you know what? WE HAD FUN!

As a (relatively new) GM, I enjoy using a trickster as GMPC & Questgiver/Interference. Nothing quite like having someone ride up on an imaginary Griffon to make the players feel "something's fishy..." A friend of mine played a trickster in our ongoing RQ3+ campaign. Hallucinate lets you do some crazy stuff; he used it as the "nope!" button a lot. Reggie's general character shape was a snake oil salesman. Lying, conniving, less direct pranking and slapstickery. My highlight's more an almost-highlight. We played the Gyvreck Sodality Cult adventure from Daughters of Darkness, and ended up stealing the gem containing the god Gyvreck. Reggie didn't yet know Swallow, and to this day it remains one of the player's greatest regrets that he didn't get to Swallow a god...

Boon, prize, McGuffin--whatever, the word's not desperately important here. I just figured it was worth adding the only extant game-text use of Heroquest features to the conversation about possible features/functions . (I'm not including other references throughout the RQG Core because they seem to be "lore" references, and not actual hints at "game" elements in the way I personally parse & understand the document.)

I think it's worth noting that we have evidence of a heroquesting "prize" in RQG, in the Gamemaster's Pack adventure book. Asborn Thriceborn, on p.25 of my PDF (though I think I'm a patch or so behind) has the "Heroquest Gift" of "Can self-resurrect within 1D8 days. Requires a permanent expenditure of 4 Rune points." This is the only reference to game text on heroquests that I am aware of thus far in RQG published materials.

Chiming in with many voices... As someone who recently was new-ish to Glorantha Lore, I'd recommend the Glorantha Sourcebook most highly. It's interesting, has lots of pretty pictures, and is pretty readable. I read King of Sartar before it and found it disappointingly sparce. It does its job--mimicking Earth mythology remnants--but that job wasn't what I was hoping for. I wanted the Iliad and instead it's got myth summaries. As far as I know, there's nothing quite like the Dragonlance or Drizzt books for Glorantha. Would be great if there was. Griselda exists, as others have said. I can't speak on it myself, haven't read it (yet). I feel like playing the Quickstart with pregen characters is your best starting point. Otherwise, definitely set aside a session for character creation alone. There's tons of options to process. Even as someone experienced with other editions of RQ/BRP, and with players familiar with the premises, it took us a session to make characters.

For the time being, I've been allowing my players to choose skills like this for their "between adventures" skills, if they've been doing their profession. If you're rummaging around in libraries for a living, you're gonna get better at it. It ameliorates that downside a little bit. I still don't let them gain experience checks proper in those skills. I'd missed the bit about "an adventurer must train with an instructor for a whole season, and do little else." That doesn't make sense to me, considering RQG's focus on the integrated adventurer. I've been pitching training to my players as "you're basically doing that whenever you're not doing obligatory stuff." Sort of like, instead of working hard at your profession and cult stuff, you're doing the minimum required then going and spending time with that teacher who knows weird stuff. The other thing I think can help this is letting adventurers change professions. For example, one of my players started as a herder, but as we played we all sort of agreed that it didn't make much sense if he stayed as a herder--he's basically doing light infantry stuff. I checked his skills, and the only one which was significantly lower than I'd expect is Battle, so I figured he could start working as a peltast or scout. We don't have a formal system in place yet for professions, but I feel like some level of mutability, provided the adventurer has the relevant skills, can really help growth. Of course as they progress, this is going to be less viable--it's not like a priest can just go spend some seasons working as a heavy infantry warrior in most cults.

It seems to me (who knows nothing about programming) that it'd be a nice thing to add. But, I'd call it a luxury (with maybe an extra line of text saying 'put learned R&T in Description box for now'). I just imagine a Y/N trigger for characters around the implemented "Sorcery" skill. If they have one, add a set of boxes with Runes & Techniques. Otherwise, isn't on the page.

Is there a way yet to record Runes & Techniques mastered for a sorcerer? I didn't see something. Along the same lines, I've not seen a place to mark if a character is a shaman. Fetch's POW, spirit abilities, etc.

Spitballing from memory, the advantage is that it only costs 1MP to control a spirit in a Binding Enchant for the duration of that spell, and you can order them back into the Binding without further cost. So, real quick. Hypothetically if you've got a low DEX SR you could unleash two spirits in a round (with a 5SR gap between casts). Though I'm not certain how giving orders plays with that.

I'll add my voice to the praise for the GM Screen Pack. I haven't had the opportunity to play it, but I really like what I've read. Some advice I've seen/received before, for starting new players, is to play with sort of basic farmer-type characters for a session, and set them up against a "level 1" type encounter where they'll probably die. Then, begin play with their actual characters in following sessions. This can be helpful for players with experience mostly with games like Pathfinder & D&D, where the combat can be less lethal and the adventure design more often includes "appropriate" encounters.

I agree that this feels incoherent to me. I also agree with @Jeff that sorcerers should have a mechanical disincentive to push them away from spirit magic. I'm not sure how to resolve these issues. Apart from your dislike of the "spirit magic reduces Free INT" rule, what are your thoughts on sorcerers using magic come from spirits and fetishes? Do you have an idea for alternative disincentives? A thought that pops into my mind is sorcery "cantrips." Basically, developing a spell to operate on similar grounds to spirit magic/common magic. The comparison I have in mind is like a programmer using a subroutine and being able to say "run subroutine X" (or whatever, I don't actually know any programming) instead of writing all the code for a known process in that moment. I see sorcery spells in RQG as writing all that code. But maybe a sorcerer or wizard could develop "shortcut" spells for emergencies? Like spirit magic, but rolling on INTx5 instead of POWx5? Hm. I actually really like that idea. Maybe at a higher MP cost per point of effect (so Cantrip Mend Flesh 1=2MP & 2SR to cast) and requiring each sorcerer to spend downtime up in the tower devising their own shortcut, just like each sorcerer needs to make their own Inscriptions. I can see a Cantrip like this working against Free INT, since it's INT-based (not CHA-based), but being able to get Meditate-stored as usual. So the sorcerer pulls up their cantrips before adventuring, and sets them aside when not. I'm still not sure how to disincentivize spirit magic or Rune magic in this schema. And of course, this is just thinking out loud.

I guess I never got that sensation when I read the text. My reading was "here's a list of different taboos some sorcerers do or don't take." *shrug* Because standard-issue wizardly paranoia? I also personally struggle to imagine the "professor" wizard engaging in the primary RQG activity of adventuring. If you're at a place where you're not worried about injury, you're probably not engaging in that sort of risk-taking behavior consistently. I know this is going to be an "agree to disagree" place, but... My feelings on the matter is that improving a sorcery spell is learning a skill like geometry or physics. At first, you have simple force diagrams algebraically describing how to build your catapult, and as you learn more you become faster at these simple tasks as well as learning to perform more complex applications of the same principles. This is like building up to fluid dynamics and differential calculus. This knowledge is intensely rational in the mechanistic way I understand Gloranthan sorcerers to be focused on logic and rationality. Yet, it's not grounded in the individual physicist or engineer's inherent INT, but rather is a skill developed through practice and experience. My contribution to the matter, for what it's worth.

Thoughts and comments are definitely appreciated . A big part of it is that Shrivok wasn't the leader of the band, Grungknak was. Additionally, I viewed their "making space" more as "Ooh, dis will be fun!" than "Get outta da way!" I think that both Beowulf's player and I see his general story being "becoming a troll warlord," provided he survives long enough. Our one-sentence description of him is that Beowulf is basically a troll weeaboo...

I acknowledge that seems to be how in-world sorcerers are presented, based on the Vasana's Saga passage on p.383. And my own take on RQ generally is heavily colored by a RQ3-based, Glorantha-lite home game. That being said, my perspective comes from trying to think not just about adventurer, but also player behavior. I feel like the sympathetic magic rules create an incentive for players to behave this way. This in turn encourages adventurer behavior. On the subject of Sandy's sorcery I personally never felt they were rigorously tied to a cultural background, but I know there's a couple different versions of his rules. Is there a specific passage or version of those rules you had in mind?

The session began with Beowulf meeting Grungknak's band of comrades. He told them the story so far, but one of the trolls challenged him. His name was Shrivok, and he called Beowulf a liar, and a false worshiper of Zorak Zoran. Beowulf called upon his Devotion to augment a Berserker spell, broke the bonds Grungknak had left around his wrists, and launched an attack on Shrivok. Shrivok--a Rune Lord of ZZ (who Beowulf failed to identify by reputation, description, or Cult Lore)--cast Berserker as well after having his left arm shattered, and the rest of the trolls quickly made space around the two. While Shrivok was bigger, tougher, and more skilled than Beowulf, the human's armor helped him carry through the impromptu duel. After a few rounds of combat (and a scary special to the abdomen by Shirvok) Beowulf was left howling and bloodying the troll's corpse into a fine puree. He actually managed to roll his INTx1 to regain senses when Grungknak attempted to pull him off the corpse, and then nearly collapsed from his wounds. When the Berserker spell ended (and the bonus to CON went away), Beowulf had exactly one hit point left. Ultimately, I ruled that while Beowulf had definitely made some enemies among this band of trolls, he also had earned the respect of others. He behaved, as I saw it, in a very trollish way, with brutal, immediate violence. Or at least a very ZZ way. After helping him recover his wounds a bit, the trolls made plans to attack the Leadgut Clan's settlement while sending Beowulf and a priest of Gorakiki named Threng to aid Blueflower Village on giant dragonflies. Meanwhile back at the village, Toren's Discorporation ended with a brief dip into the spirit world near the lake. He met Putilli, the lake's nymph, and helped fend off a darkness spirit who was polluting the font of her waters. Shortly after Yid (the newtling hunter run by a new player) used Summon Cult Spirit to beckon Putilli from the lake. They spoke, and while she was still weakened from the battles with darkness spirits belowground, she did offer to help the village--telling Yid to summon folk of her father Zola Fel, who she would try to bolster. The session ended with the adventurers (sans Beowulf & Derkep) making plans to defend the village. The sun is setting, the dragonflies are soaring, and the shadows lurking...

TBH I don't think the current Sorcery chapter is complete enough for me to form a thorough opinion (it notes on p.381 that it's a "bare bones overview" anyway). That being said, I also find it frustrating that spirit magic counts against a sorcerer's Free INT. I think part of this is that it feels like a contradiction, since no where else does spirit magic interact with INT that I can recall. Further, it seems to me like the current design intention is for sorcerers to be percentage-gaming munchkins--so why wouldn't someone with that attitude toward the world use all the tools at their disposal? I can see many sorcerers having at least Disruption and Heal 1 learned, if only for emergencies. The casting time of RQG sorcery is so slow that it's nearly suicidal not to have quick access to healing. (This assumes that the sorcerer isn't a LM initiate with access to Heal Wound as a common Rune spell.) I should note that I see RQG sorcerers as percentage-gaming munchkins because of the ritual and sympathetic magic rules. A sorcerer's native skill in any given spell has no direct correlation with how powerfully he can cast the spell. I see this as an inherent flaw of sorcery systems based on Free INT. Consequently, the sorcerer can easily achieve high spell percentages through ritual practices and sympathetic magic, and has little need to actually exercise their spell skills. The design advantage of a Free INT system is its simplicity compared to the systems I prefer. It's quicker to understand and more new-player friendly. My large reluctance to adopt RQG sorcery entire comes because I feel like it contradicts one of the basic design principles of BRP: as your skill goes up, you get better at doing things, and can do them more consistently. With how the spell skills are structured, there's not a huge difference between 20% and 50% spell skill. The main improvement is your odds to cast in combat--but the long casting times are a disincentive. I have a player interested in sorcery (but who isn't yet playing a sorcerer), and I'm probably going to continue using a different sorcery system I prefer, based on Petersen's Malkionism rules. However, I have been thinking through how Rune magic, spirit magic, and sorcery interact in my Glorantha. I do agree that sorcerers should have disincentives about using Rune and spirit magic. For what it's worth my current thoughts are that each Rune point and each known point of spirit magic "fill" a sorcerer's Presence, making it unable to support sorcery spells. We're a good distance out from experimenting with this in play.

This is a wonderful example, but... how in the world does a newb like myself come up with things like this? Apart from spending hours and hours sifting the Guide and Stafford Library and whatnot. Can we expect a Spirit World supplement at some vague point which would describe how to set this up for our players? I've got several shaman-track adventurers in my playgroup who would be very eager to do this.

Our most recent session was this past Tuesday (the 4th) and as this inevitably goes, the adventurers are as off-rails as ever. Insert GM griping about unused prep materials here... Tensions are mounting. After discovering the troll village deep underground, the adventurers fled back to Blueflower and raised alarm as the sun fell. The villagers bundled into the Calf's Rest Inn for a hasty defense, and spent a restless night. All of the adventurers came to the same conclusion--handling a whole village (or more) of trolls is way, way above their pay grade. They chose to send the quick-footed Shadowpaw back to New Pavis in search of reinforcements, while the rest of the party helped defend and fortify Blueflower. (Because baboons have a base MOV of 10, instead of 8.) However, a spat broke out between Shadowpaw and Beowulf; Beowulf called the baboon a coward for not leaving in the middle of the night--while trolls might be on the loose--and instead the Zorak Zorani left. Hours and hours, and many CON rolls later, Beowulf and Derkep collapsed at the side of the road back to New Pavis. The next day, Toren and Ludic the Sneer led the villagers in hastily fortifying the settlement, in fear that the trolls might come in larger numbers. No one was sure what would happen, and the resident troll "expert" had run off in the night. That evening, Toren discorporated to scout the area for foes. Meanwhile, a new adventurer came to town--a newtling (and new player to RQG!) who's name escapes me--following a vision about water pollution. He searched the village pond, and found several small cracks in the muddy bottom. One of the larger channels had fouler water seeping forth; yet there was no sight of the nymph who had sent him this vision. During the discorporation, Toren accidentally ran into the village's wyter, Grateful Cutting. Weakened from healing several village children this past winter, the wyter spoke with him cautiously. Once assured of Toren's reliability (through an appeal to the Truth Rune), the wyter gave him advice on how to seek aid for Blueflower from the spirit world. (I have yet to figure out what he learned--I'm thinking gaining temporary allegiance of some ancestor spirits--but would love suggestions here!) Meanwhile, Beowulf and Derkep woke tied up beside a wagon. Beowulf snarled insults into nothing in Darktongue (reminder that he's actually a human, who basically believes he's supposed to be a troll) and caught the attention of the wagon's owner. A large, heavily armored troll by the name of Grungknak (don't make me pronounce it). They spoke for a while as Grungknak continued his own journey toward the city, to search for news of the Leadgut clan, who his own clan (the Yakrin) were feuding with over some stolen trollkin. When Grungknak heard Beowulf's story, they put the pieces together and realized that this new troll settlement was quite likely the very trolls Grungknak was searching for! The session ended with Grungknak taking Beowulf and Derkep into the Big Rubble, to a squat tower. A stronghold of Clan Yakrin, garrisoned by many of Grungknak's companions. Next session: Rowdy Rabble in the Rubble! (Maybe. If they don't go off-rails again.)

Printable character sheets would be excellent. I rolled up another NPC for my game with this, and it was incredibly quick. An NPC-specific creator could be useful, but I'd label it a luxury, not a need. Maybe a way to tag whether or not a rolled character is intended as an adventurer or as an NPC (for when browsing the roster). My ultimate wish-list for an NPC creator would be clicking a button that says "Rune Lord of Orlanth Adventurous" or whatever, and the sheet gains all the minimum skills and characteristics associated. Is there a way to change a character's gear? I didn't see one--I want my NPC to have better armor than his occupation starts with.

Disruption does a lot of work in these situations too, for a 1pt spell. It's kind of like having a wand of magic missile in D20 games; fire and repeat until the nearly-untouchable bastard stops moving.

Oh, my bad. I thought you were looking to find a copy.

Chaosium offers the whole Stafford Library in PDF and PoD. https://www.chaosium.com/stafford-library/

Are you planning to stick with a Free INT centered system? Personally, I strongly prefer systems where the spell skill directly correlates with MP that can be spent but I think there's positives both ways.

Beat me to it. We should be having a big fight between two troll clans (facilitated by the adventurers) in my next session. It may now end up involving a flyting (rap) v. death metal battle choir showdown...

RQG's sorcery no longer has multispelling. I really like the Abjure spell, but I think it could be more precise. (I should note here that I have a fondness for overprecision in game text.) For example, can the target of Abjure Earth functionally fly--airwalk into the sky? Since they could cross a ravine, that implies to me that this isn't restricted to hovering just above the ground. Are they locked to the same altitude as when they cast? Awkward in Boldhome & other Sartarite cities--which might not be a bad thing. I think it would make more sense to phrase this in terms of spell Strength. Perhaps something like "Each added point of spell strength allows the sorcerer to either animate an additional point of SIZ, or give the animated object an additional point of MOV." I suggest avoiding "augment" here, since it has an actual definition in RQG's rules text. The way I read this, a really big target would by default end up with a really big bonus to their MOV. Ex, a SIZ 30 creature would require strength 10 minimum to affect it, but would immediately get +5 to its MOV. Additionally, I wonder if the Combine technique might make more sense here? I see both Summon & Combine having valid explanations. Likewise, I can see this making sense with the Separate technique. Could increasing Dessicate's strength worsen the effects? I'm thinking of the experience of dehydration, where you're just kinda thirsty, then parched, and so on. Something about strength altering the rate at which the victim becomes unquenchably thirsty... I suppose it could work as-is, just with a simple notion of Separate, since you'd need to dump a lot of MP into the spell for it to really be effective. (I'm thinking aloud here.) I like using Stasis here. Any simple Technique + Rune combination for a killing spell seems to me like it should be more than "just" a sorcery spell. Even though these are given without context, I feel like a sorcery spell which can "summon death" would be something big and grand, like "Look out for that magus, he can summon death!" This seems scary powerful in creative hands. How do these increases interact with other beings? For example, enlarging a SIZ 18 rock with Enlarge Stone 6 to be SIZ 102 while in a 3m x 3m x 3m space. Enlarge Stone 10 on a SIZ 30 brick in a city or castle wall would increase it to SIZ 300, probably shattering the wall entirely. RQG wording would reference their POW being overcome. At first I disliked this because I associate "Regenerate" with regrowing limbs. But as I think on it, I'm more and more coming to enjoy it. I like how it differentiates sorcerous resurrection from divine resurrection. I think it should be more specific (because of course I do), particularly in how it works to dodge death. Just have a casting of this spell on one's person at the time of death? After all, most people--even sorcerers--don't have the advantage of cinematic & foretold deaths . I also suggest that the new body is physical rerolls only; INT, POW, and CHA remain the same to represent that it's the same basic person. A clause that any enchantments or spells active on the target are no longer in place might be useful (to preemptively avoid player arguments). Also, how much time does it take for the target to regenerate? I suggest a full turn (5min, 25 melee rounds). Drawing from Dr. Who, is there an adjustment period? Not the full "surprise, regrew my hand cuz MAGIC" shtick, but perhaps a temporary penalty to physical skills the first few days/week regenerated? I have similar thoughts on Venom as I did for Palsy, but I'm not sure a better way to runically describe the RQ3 spell. I really enjoy Summon Boggle. I don't have any useful comments about it, but it amuses me. Sounds like a nightmare for both the players and the GM. Can it affect creatures who breathe water?