Crel

Also now that I'm ruminating on it I don't think there are any rules saying that a Philosopher or Lhankor Mhy Initiate's elective percentage points can't go to learning new Sorcery spells... Which could add a ton of extra spells for a new adventurer. Especially because some (like Magic Point Enchantment) aren't important to have at a high percentage because you'd probably be using ritual practices, etc. to get percentage up anyway since you don't cast those mid-adventure.

This will vary from table to table, GM to GM, Glorantha to Glorantha, but it seems to me there's a cozy space for powerful, unorthodox blends of cult and profession leading to adventurers with some crazy abilities. For example, a Tarshite Philosopher of the Seven Mothers, or a Sartarite Assistant Shaman who's an Initiate of Orlanth. Any time you can get access to more than one magical "tradition" feels to me like opening the door to munchkinnery.

Here, along with other systems. I'm not personally much familiar with Tekumel, but more a bastardized version forcibly imprinted on top of Glorantha. It's weird. It's really weird. I'd not call the PDF linked on that page actually representative of the game I play in, but it's sort of the starting point.

Huh. Missed that somehow, evidently. Thanks.

I don't think Spirit Combat rolls are reduced the way weapon skills are. IIRC the over 100% rule only occurs in physical combat situations--it's in the Combat chapter, not the Game System chapter, which leads me to believe it's a specific addition, not a broad rule. On augments, you could use your Moon Rune mostly, because that Rune can be used in any sort of "magic" situation. I can see Man or Beast applying, or another cult Rune (like Death for a shaman following Waha), but under a strict reading of the augmenting rules I don't believe that counts since as written, they don't seem to care about cultic connections. I'd rule that those spells aren't effective against the Bad Man, since that encounter doesn't care about MP loss. I could see a weird/mystic shamanism cult having a special Rune spell which would buff Spirit Combat or otherwise interact with this type of encounter, if you would want to give the adventurers in your Glorantha an extra edge. It's also important to note that you can increase your Spirit Dance roll when awakening the fetch with ritual practices. Spending one extra day adds 50% to this roll. You might be inclined to give the same ritual practices bonus to the Spirit Combat against the Bad Man. Finally, you could still use a skill augment, such as Sing or Play Instrument.

Spirit Rune?

And probably pretty temporary care at that. I struggle to imagine an Esrolian priestess-queen spending lots of time mulling over whether or not someone committed X crime. And as far as I recall, most of the examples from Hammurabi's code are pretty immediate--he's a real big fan of lopping off body parts.

Yeah, I mean we've all always had a blast playing the system. I'm not sure I'd say "Gods are the only true way to RQ!" or "This is Unique and Better!" or anything like that, but just realized that my own experience is somewhat off-norm, and was curious if anyone else had similar. I find this interesting, because that's sort of my "this is what a RuneQuesty game is." A fair amount of big magic, but most of it sorcery, not divine/Rune magic. More defined by the grittiness of the combat in comparison to PFRPG, than by a sense of cultures or connections.

I can see an interpretation of Danfive Xaron being similar to what we think of as criminal prison, in Lunar societies. That'd be more in the Heartlands than in any of the areas currently supported by RQG, I think. Among most places an RQG game is likely to take place, I imagine crime is either dealt with by payment/weregild or death. Maybe thralldom. I remember a series of events in King of Dragon Pass where one woman steals another's horse, from two different clans, and it turns into a murderfest between the families and possibly a clan feud depending on how you respond to the events. But that sequence can last into the next generation, after both women and the horse are dead. I figure in Glorantha, if someone with any sort of notable magical prowess is accused and believed guilty of crime by the clan/city authorities, they're probably just exiled or killed. Not worth the risk of keeping around, for cultures in the Dragon Pass area. Examples like Hammurabi's Code make sense to me for areas like Esrolia where the increased population demands written legislation, and maybe some larger Sartarite cities like Boldhome, but I get the impression that most of the play region lacks codified law, but relies on a LM Sage's memory of historic examples as Lawspeaker, and the few absolute rules (like hospitality).

So I've been thinking a bit, and realized that both my experience as a player (RQ3 with lots of house rules) and as a GM (RQG with some houserules) has been rather light on Rune magic. I've never actually participated in a game where anyone worshiped any of the Lightbringers, which feels like the sort of "default" for RQ. Spirit magic/shamanism and sorcery have been the broad go-to's of my playgroup--even in my RQG game it's not instinctive for my players to use Rune magic, and we've been playing some months. I'm curious if anyone else on here has ended up with a similar play "meta" and/or has advice for playing within such a milieu. For context of my own experience: RQ3 party: A Knight-Sorcerer, an anti-undead sorcerer, an ancestor-worshipping shaman, an undead-using sorcerer, an occasional trickster, and a recurring warrior (who died and rerolled somewhat frequently) who most recently worshiped Yelmalio. Most notable houserules include an abomination mixing RQ3 sorcery, Petersen's Presence-based sorcery, and his RQ3 Tekumel sorcery (which led to a bunch of sorcerers in the party). All humans. We ended up in a Lunar context, but started in Pavis without affiliations. RQG party: A pair of troll sorcerer brothers, a morokanth assistant shaman, and a Praxian Waha initiate (no shaman stuff learned). In Pavis, loosely allied with Argrath's forces.

There is a rationale there, but my take on an adventurer's Rune affinities--and especially for the Elemental Runes--is that they're more descriptive than something one learns. They mechanically describe an adventurer's personality. So adventurers with a high Darkness rating tend to be more ambitious, adventurers with a high Air rating tend to be more violent and passionate, etc. Which leads into the personalities of the deities, and adventurers eventually assuming the roles of their god in the Middle World. It's one of the things I quite like about RQG, honestly; I feel like there's this very natural cause & effect cycle which goes on involving adventurer personality and mechanical capacity. Doesn't mean there aren't potential issues, but it is a feature I like. My process when I walked my players through adventurer creation is to ask them to think a bit about what sort of personality they want to play, which led to choosing their initial Rune ratings. From a minmax perspective, Moon's a great primary or secondary Elemental Rune because of the bonus to POW. It's also a great choice for players wanting to play a "magician" focused adventurer, because it can be used to augment rolls related to magic--most importantly, rolls on the resistance table to overcome POW! Of the Elemental Runes, I think Moon is the trickiest to roleplay because playing "passionate!" or "ambitious!" or "generous!" is to my mind a simple concept, but playing "mystic!" or "detached!" is more like a compound idea. If you're looking to optimize your Elemental Runes affinities, it can make a lot of sense to rely on your Power/Form Rune affinities for your strong cult runes. This may impact your best spell choices, but having at least one high cult rune is all you need for consistent access to common rune spells. Don't forget that you get bonus points (50, I think?) to spend across the board on your affinities--15 points can bump that Movement 75% up to 90%. This lends quick access to Heal Wound, etc. and you've still got 35 points to spend. Another piece of info to keep in mind is that, RAW, any time you have a Rune or Passion over 80%, the GM can dictate your actions, or otherwise reduce your rating. (I don't think I've ever seen someone on here say they actually plan to play that strictly.) In order to become a Rune Lord, you must have one of your cult Runes at 90%! Now, how much you want to attach to a cultural Rune depends on your god. Again from an optimization standpoint, the Air Rune is mostly important if you worship Orlanth or another Air deity. If you're worshiping his fellow Lightbringers, that Air Rune does not matter. But, worshiping Orlanth, you probably do want to include the Air Rune as a major Rune because a lot of his spells roll on it--just the Movement Rune loses you access to some of his better spells, like Lightning and Shield. Some other gods you can skimp on one Rune, or the cult doesn't even care about the Elemental Runes, giving you free reign. For example, IMHO Daka Fal only really cares about the Man Rune, which lets you do whatever you want for the other choices (Moon's really good here, because a shaman detached from the cares of the world is a concept which works pretty simply, IMHO. Plus the shaman abilities are crazy.)

Really it's probably the second-most reliable way of ensuring some naughty captive doesn't burn down half your village in the night with Ignite. Most reliable being cutting throats.

I couldn't find the spell in the RQG materials, but you could always just turn them into Herd Men, if you're on good terms with your friendly neighborhood man-eating tapir Otherwise bind arms to sides, blindfold, and gag, all cloth, to prevent them from speaking and making gestures. Even then, I figure you'd be quite hard-pressed to keep anyone with access to Teleport, Flight, or especially Guided Teleport who didn't want to be ransomed and had the open RP. I suppose that opens up another interesting side-topic: control of access to worship. If a captured Storm Voice sneaks into the clan's worship ceremony and somehow manages to participate, he's suddenly got lots of shiny juju back to make a break for it. I can see another option being not to bind/restrict high-value prisoners at all, but to treat them well amongst other Storm worshippers, assuming their ransom will be paid. Try giving them less reason to escape--particularly since if they really want to, they're likelier to succeed, or at least cause damage/deaths in the attempt. I feel like the prisoners discussion is more relevant across cultures than within a single culture. Orlanthi sharing a similar sense of what battle and honor means living in Dragon Pass might be more inclined to be good captives than Lunars or Praxians. And, as Videopete noted, for random schmucks meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Just glanced over the human one real quick. Looks like some nice work. If I ever get out of the eternal-GM chair, I might try it out . Quick Q, shouldn't the "Dragon" Rune be "Dragonewt" Rune? Or was that an intended abbreviation? I'm also led to understand that humans will not be able to obtain % in Runes like Mastery, Infinity, Magic, etc. but without actual published Heroquesting rules I don't see it as a huge issue.

My more minmax-y players definitely sacrificed some POW at the start for extra RP. It depends a lot on how much POW you roll (which in turn depends on the GM's rolling method). In my game, I had my players roll characteristics in order, but let them reroll the array if it was shite. This ended up with most of my adventurers having average or below POW, although each had other characteristics they were happy with. I feel like any starting adventurer with more than 13 or 14 POW should seriously consider sacrificing for a couple extra RP and extra spells. This can depend quite a bit on cult--sacrificing for bonus spells makes a lot more sense to me in Orlanth than in Engizi due to the breadth of Orlanth's spell list as well as his stackable spells (especially Flight). Once an adventurer has 5-7 RP they're starting to reach this magical point where they can Extend a couple points of a spell for long durations. For example, Shield 2 Extension 3 gives a week-long +4 bonus to armor as well as an equivalent Countermagic 4 (plenty for most spirit magic spells) and still stacks with other spirit magic or mundane armor. At a buy-in of 2 POW at adventurer creation, this is a fairly cheap price. Of course, then you don't have any spare RP for Heal Wound... But that's what the other party members you're defending are for, right? Another element to think about is at what point you want to stop stockpiling POW (unless you've become a Rune Priest) because it'll be too hard to succeed on a POW gain roll. POW Gain rolls are rolling below (21-POW)x5% for humans, because 21 is the human species maximum. (Rune Priests get a flat +20% to these rolls, but are also required to maintain POW 18 for priesthood.) At POW 13, you've got a 40% chance to gain 1D3 POW at the end of each season if you've successfully gotten a POW Gain experience check by using magic--whether Worship, Spirit Combat, or overcoming another's POW with your own spell. Again from a minmaxy perspective, Disruption or Befuddle are really a must-have. At 1MP, Disruption is plenty spammable to get that check. Befuddle's more of an investment at 2MP, but is a good option for characters with 15-16 POW or higher because just one or two successes can turn or even end a combat. In my play experience, pretty much every single player I've played with has tried to ensure they have some sort of spell which can be used to gain POW. The Gain-Sacrifice-Gain cycle is a slow, important part of character progression. Even after maxing out your RP in RQG, it's still relevant for things like enchantments and preparing for Divine Intervention.

Glad to hear you have no content concerns. Just figured it was worth noting, in case. Hope you and your daughter enjoy the game!

Something to note on this, @Code Ronin, is that the core rulebook does contain images of nudity, if that's a concern to you. Recognizing that it may or may not be, depending on which side of the Atlantic you reside. I do feel that the nudity is used appropriately to the setting, and that additionally there's no gory or otherwise child-inappropriate images of violence. But, depending on your opinions and feelings, I do suggest looking through the book yourself to be aware of the art content before letting children meander through the work on their own.

Also worth pointing out, AFAIK if you get infected, then beat the spirit, you get the POW and the immunity to the disease for a year--thus clearing up the disease. At least, that's how I've read & played it so far.

The Glorantha Sourcebook is a good choice. I came from an RQ3, Glorantha-lite background, and I've found the GSB to be a good reference and fairly pleasant read, just sitting and browsing. King of Sartar is also worth mentioning, although I personally found it of sort of middling quality. Still, a lot less overwhelming than something like the Guide.

I've found comparing cults to classes useful. It's super inexact and inaccurate, but describing Uroxi as "really angry Paladins" gets the job done for some players. Humakt is easy-access as "Undead bad, m'kay?" Sorcerers are your wizards (and while it's not trope-comparison, for me the best way to express that distinction is emphasizing that RuneQuest sorcery lets you cast spells lasting years). Chalana Arroy is healbot with extra restrictions. Orlanth is tricky to compare, but saying "basically cleric of Thor/Zeus" is good enough to get the general idea. I think an important part of these sorts of comparisons is trying to analogically define both Who They Are and What They Can Do. Uroxi act vaguely like zealous paladins, but What They Can Do feels more barbarian/berserker, for example.

In an RQG Glorantha using your rule suggestions, how would you ballpark price Truestone or Adamant? Although this is obviously not the sort of thing you can just run on down to the marketplace and hand over coins for... For reference, 1ENC of unenchanted iron is 700L, and enough metal to make a broadsword. 1ENC of gold is 600L.

I see the "Stackable" tag as saying add extra RP for extra effect. Ex: Extension 2, Extension 3, and so on. I don't see the noted spells as being stackable in that sense--although dumping MP into them definitely is important! But No Scent and Walk Without Footprints, as currently written, seem to act in a binary, Y/N? sort of way. Could you explain your stance further? I don't understand how the augmenting system might overcome a spell's effect, when that effect doesn't appear to require die rolls.

What's the point of stacking this? Likewise. Overall, I like this cult. I like how it feels vaguely trickster-y, without being "Oops I murdered the Thane again teehee." This feeling comes about particularly because of Without A Trace. I feel like that spell should be one-use; it's kind of a fixed-cost DI, really. The name doesn't make sense to me. I see that it's an Orlanth sub-cult, but it feels weird that the cult worships "Desemborth the Thief" instead of "Orlanth Stickyfingers" or something like that, to follow the examples of Orlanth Thunderous, Orlanth Adventurous, Orlanth Rex, and so on. But the "stealing, using magical shenanigans" theme is strong, and I find it evocative for my imagination.

This is closer to what my imagination sees, too. I see the White Bull Brotherhood as expanded beyond just the Praxians (though it starts there) in my Glorantha. Sort of a spirit society which gives everyone following the White Bull (and therefore Argrath) a religious reason not to fall into old feuds and fights. But it feels more right to me that Argrath's the priest/shaman/whatever of the White Bull, rather than that he himself is receiving worship.

Has anyone done a write-up for RQG (or any other RQ, I guess?) for Argrath's White Bull Society/spirit cult? Does anyone have suggestions for what Runes it would be connected with, and what Rune spells the White Bull would provide to worshipers? I'm looking at the cults of Black Fang and Oakfed (p.379) as examples, in part because I don't imagine that the White Bull is a "greater" spirit than Oakfed (and so wouldn't have a cult much beyond the scope provided in those writeups). So far, I'm thinking the Harmony Rune makes sense, since the White Bull Society spans across a variety of Praxian tribes and societies. And then, following the models, probably the Spirit Rune as well--so any spells rolled would be on Harmony. Maybe Cure Chaos Wound, and Harmony or Inviolable? I could see it having the Beast Rune instead (or perhaps also).