Eff

What I am suggesting is not that humans are essential or seen as essential, but that they are largely irrelevant- one of the components of the greater forest, a set of inhabitants that have their own difficulties and create their own issues- and that the Reforestation isn't actually aimed at exterminating humans, or at extermination at all, or even necessarily at significantly shifting the balance of biomes on the face of Glorantha, because that would be extremely silly. Elves and dryads of fire-dependent species, shade-intolerant species would be- what, killed at birth? Treated as traitors to elfhood, to be on constant watch? Asininity. Elves deserve much better than to simply be agents of self-involved paranoia about what the grass is whispering about (non-specific) you at night.

Elves are aware of what the succession of vegetation is and the need for continual death and regrowth, rather than aiming for a world of nothing but old-growth forests with dead canopies forever and ever. As such, the Reforestation is a magical working not to encroach with forests (though this happens as dormant dryads and shannassee groves are called to wakefulness) but to bring grasses and shrublands outside of the forest proper into the Aldryami community. The arrival of the Fire Elves is not in service of some messianic rescue, but will instead be the incorporation of flames and controlled burning into the Aldryami worldmind to transform Gata into Gaia. (Some psychic sensitives report dreams of a world where there are nothing but black daisies and white daisies covering all of Glorantha, or where this world is watched over by a weltgeist they call 'Lovelock', but we can probably understand these as anxieties spilling over.) It is also possible that this is a recurrent event- we go from Gata to Gaia and then back to Gata when the delicate homeostasis is disrupted. This Tau-Iota-Tau Synthesis model is probably a Lunar prank, though!

Mmmm. I think that my preference is that, regardless of character knowledge, players should have rules they can interact with, because one of the great bits of fun is the back-and-forth of player characters pressing buttons and flipping switches on the universe's control systems and the referee or GM developing out the implications of their intentional actions. Like in "It's a Wonderful Life".

Well, the dice range does matter for the rules outside of generating NPCs, because Tusk Riders, with 1-6 CHA, would, by the rules, only ever be able to know 6 points of spirit magic spells and have 6 RP dedicated to a cult, and this should affect how they interact with the PCs. Now, we could always say that NPCs don't follow the the rules for limits on total magic, but in that case, what's the purpose of the rule? And more broadly, what does the CHA range rule convey? Cave trolls, who are on the fringe of social existence, have low CHA, and by extension not much magic, which fits their place in the imagined world. Should Tusk Riders also be people with limited magic? Their position in the world is as a danger and a nuisance, but they do have the social world of the Bloody Tusk. I don't think there's a firm answer there, but it is a serious question to ask about something as "minor" as stat distributions. To go over to the higher end of things, dryads and evolved dragonewts, capable magicians, have that reflected in their higher CHA. There's a similar kind of sensibility to it that allows the numbers to convey meaning at the table- I can read a big number on this stat, or a small number on another stat, and know "this kind of being can have many types of magic handy", or "this kind of being has limited reserves of magical power".

From what perspective? I think that there are a couple of scenarios here: 1) A PC is attempting to ferret out whether the opponent is a suitable one for their quest. 2) A PC knows, or thinks they know, the person they're facing and their "IRL"/materialspace identity, and is attempting to force them into the role of opponent for this quest. 3) A PC, their opponent, or both is attempting to alter the contours of the myth. So I think that the first case is largely a failure case- one area where the GM should be upfront, I think, is with the basic facts of the mythic situation. If this guy is in the role of Shargash and the PC is in the role of Orlanth, that is something that the player should be aware of at the beginning so that we can bypass the fairly uninteresting procedure of trying to get accurate information before getting a decision and move into the more interesting instances. The second case pretty much collapses into the third, because what's really at stake here- the basic conflict that's happening in the moment- is that the player character or their opponent are trying to assert control of the situation. I think that this should therefore be resolved by an opposed contest between the participants. Make sure to clearly understand the intent of the player(s), because it's, in my opinion, not a zero-sum game by default- both sides are likely able to win, both sides are certainly able to lose. Failure means- failure. You get ejected from the otherside, you take a serious penalty, something that marks that you fucked up. Mutual failure means that both participants seriously affected each other- but they pulled themselves out of sync with the environment, broke their astral projective trance, kicked them out of the high, etc. Mutual success, though, that's dependent on the situation. Going back to Orlanth vs. Shargash, let's say the PC is trying to reshape a myth where Orlanth chases Shargash around the world, incidentally taking away the rain with him and leaving Daga free to run around, into one where Orlanth crushes Shargash right then and there. But the Shargashi, meanwhile, is trying to reshape matters into a myth where Shargash leads a much dumber storm entity, possibly Vadrus or Gagarth, into an ambush or a trap. If they both succeed, then they both get some of what they want- Orlanth fights Shargash right then and there, but the PC has a penalty using anything other than sheer brute force to fight. And maybe when they get back, what happens is that the dry spell is broken but it's accompanied by a tornado or tornadoes. Or maybe they get a flash of insight on how to defeat the Yelmalio or Lodril worshipers, but the insight relies on them leading a foolhardy attack... Many possibilities.

I don't think there's a masculine Gor equivalent, though perhaps with Deshkorgos and Deshloltralas we could imagine "Desh" as a similar prefix, with "Deth" (as in Gerendetho) being a variant like the "Kor" in Ty Kora Tek seems to be of "Gor". Insofar as an equivalencies of categories- no, not really, the Gor category (which also includes Gorgorma, the Dara Happan Ty Kora Tek equivalent Annara Gor, and the very minor name Errantha Gor) is built very strongly on conventional Western understandings of gendered roles and the -gor entities exist as feminine transgressions of those roles- violent or truly dominant in their own sphere. The closest masculine equivalent would be a distaff class of entities that exists as a masculine transgression of conventional gender roles. The closest equivalents are probably Arroin, possibly Issaries, very very vaguely Lhankor Mhy or Barntar-of-Heroquest-2003-days*. Now, could there be more Gor entities if you want them to be? Yes, absolutely, please add as many as you like, and feel free to tell me about them! *Alternately, going by Gorgorma's vagina dentata motif, Babeester's interesting relationship with sex, and the emphasis on virginity associated with Maran, the distaff equivalent might be masculine entities who vary in their approach to sexual intercourse- which is to say, whichever male gods you think are hard bottoms without a hint of being vers would be in that category.

Of course, there is a suspicious lack of women among named Telmori, and one of the few women associated with the Telmori goes by "Cat-Witch". Perhaps there really is a regular self-published fantasy romance hoedown going on in Telmori country?

Therianthropy's really getting its day in the (Blood) Sun! I can't help but be reminded of RQ2 indicating that all "lycanthropes" have a connection to Chaos as a form.

Wonder who all those "hykimi" who've come out of the woodwork in the north might be, or will be...

My dumb theory is that either Trickster, Gbaji, or both is a kind of cognitohazard if you're not careful and ends up planting all kinds of mischievous nonsense in people's minds even if they're not literally within Glorantha.

What exactly is the point of all this when you could just tell a player "No you didn't" whenever they attempt to use the Lie spell, and then if or when they object, informing the players that sudden blowdarts from undetectable Lunar super ninjas have killed them all with ultra poison? The end result is the same, and it's much quicker, gets the point across easier, and the only reason I could think of to go through this whole process of "you thought you could use this option that exists within the rules to affect this situation? Think again!" would be sadistic intent against the players.

It represents that you have money to wave around. So in terms of a game where you count every Lunar, it's an income, not a solid cash value, and it's an income that guarantees you have disposable cash. I'd say, depending on the general economy and cash-availability of your game, 1-2x the character in question's annual living costs, atop other income they have. Enough that they always have money in their pouch, but not enough for them to casually make major purchases.

How have you been running your Glorantha? Is it relatively archaic or relatively anachronistic/modern? Because if it's the former... the way you get away with murder is to do it without any witnesses. That's more or less it. Now if it's the latter, maybe the gods and divination serve as a universal foolproof surveillance system, with Lhankor Mhy psychometry and so on as a similarly perfect forensic investigation system. But that's dull. You might as well tell your players "You're dead people walking, do you want to go down in a blaze of terrorist glory?" in that instance. Sure, "there's magic", but the limits of that magic, or of Lunar budgets, are pretty heavily within your ambit as GM. At that point, it's a question of "what kind of obstacles can you throw in front of the PCs that they can reasonably overcome if they're clever, or strain themselves, or prove willing to take losses." So let's start with some factors that might confound investigation. Did the PCs know the people they killed socially? If not, interrogating their ghosts or Resurrecting them probably gets a vague description, likely to be distorted and inaccurate. Psychometry probably relies on knowing the range of times and on maintaining a clean crime scene, because otherwise you'll pick up impressions of everyone who'd touched the item in question and sorting out the prospective killer will be an uphill process. So it depends on whether there's a coroner available in New Pavis for the Lunars who can examine the dead bodies forensically whether they can even get psychometric data (leaving aside the cost) from the equipment on the dead bodies. But maybe they get a general idea of what the PCs look like, or reason from where the murder spree went down, and they start rounding up people for interrogation. At that point, they have options- hide out, get out of town. Throw other people under the bus. Attempt to make it through interrogation safely. The arguments over which general approach to use and how to actually do it should provide you with more than enough challenges to throw in their way from that.

Well, among the 56 possible combinations, here are three others that are oppositions merged, plus a retro combination. Delirium (Truth + Illusion) Atonality (Harmony + Disorder) 🚂🚃🛤 (Movement + Stasis) Interessement (Luck + Fate) But all of these are only masks, as "Hunger" is of Undeath and Undeath in turn of Defiance.

Why would the Black Fang assassins try to kill her? Lesbian drama. Would there be any reason trolls would want her dead? Sure, lesbian drama. What's her name all about? A certain act that involves the use of your mouth on lips that are not part of a mouth. Maybe her tongue really is forked, or maybe it's a metaphor, but I think it's very firmly a consequence of said act.

Annuit huic coepto. Annuat coeptis!

is a combination of and . It's, itself, an act of magic at its root, because "harmony" and "motion" seem to be somewhat at odds, and when we say that "motion" is "freedom", then an apparent paradox asserts itself- how can harmony exist with freedom? Don't they constrain one another? is the answer. Communication, Trade, Equal Exchange. By this magic, you can make the two compatible. The free movement of goods and jogging up and down of prices produces a beautiful harmonious world. Of course, I know a lot of people personally who might call that . Harst Sparegrain? Isn't he a bit of a... speculator on grain? So the disappearance of the balanced scales suggests, perhaps, a kind of suspension of interconvertibility. Battening down the hatches against a potential bank run. Maybe the currency reserves are running a little dry, or there's a slight problem of overleverage. Argan Argar has divested himself. Lokarnos probably will go next. Etyries is in it for the long haul, of course. Issaries is. Maybe there'll be a "Solaran put", or we'll discover the other side of Issaries deep in country, the one who's still got the explicit financial wizardry and knows that the big triangle was really the central bank.

Well, yes, in the past tense. I guess he traded it back to Issaries between 2012 and 2018.

Perhaps Law's percentile rating is simply half that of Fertility on the character sheet's, and Trade's is Harmony's but with one of the digits turned sideways. I don't know what happens if you roll with the number like that, but I suspect it involves lots of pretty lights and colors and heated arguments at the table.

The idea seems to have been to reduce the Runes that have gameplay functionality in Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, to ones that are "universal"- so Spirit and Law, tied to particular magical worldviews, were cut. Communication, only relevant to merchant cults Issaries and Etyries, gets cut, as does Storm Bull's Eternal Battle. Of course, we still have Chaos and Undeath and possibly Mastery as Runes that aren't "universal", so it's incomplete, and you could even imagine expanding to cover a whole range of skills in a hypothetical Runequest variant.

This perhaps implies that Talar, Horal, or both has a very prominent feminine representation, though this may be called the ranavolana and kodalisdaughter manifestations or emanations.

I think that the given example of knockback suggests that the knockback rule might be best adjusted into an average of the two characteristics rather than their addition, or that it should be something like STR+SIZ vs DEX+SIZ, so that having a large size advantage translates into being harder to knock down. But setting that aside, I think the overarching question is "What do we want these rules to enable and constrain?" For example, in the POW vs POW contest, I think the answer for how to produce results is dependent entirely on whether we want magical faceoffs to be primarily about who can muster the most POW, and as such make getting into one with a dream dragon, a shaman, or a dryad a very bad idea, or if we want them to be more unpredictable and thus make it less of a bad idea to try and Disrupt or Befuddle a dragon. An additional method, Method D : For the purposes of the Resistance Table, characteristics higher than 21 are treated as if they are 21. So for our adventurer versus dryad situation, of 18 vs. 28, this would resolve to 35% chance of success in POW v. POW contention, and the advantage of superhuman POW is that you have more MP and a greater ability to cast spirit magic, but not advancing out of the Resistance Table's domain. This method's main effect is that active defenses remain equally important for major magical combatants, because they can't rely on the passive POW protection going beyond the ability of ordinary humans to reach, but they still have a greater reserve for making use of those active defenses.

Flashman Fought, We Won (1846-1847, 1860-1862)? For that matter, is Elspeth also present?

KILRO ILL AVE BEEN ERE

I can think of a couple of things that could open Ramalia up- for one thing, the Seventh Council of the Malkioni probably does exert an impact on their leadership. But that's not Maniria-centric, that's Ramalia getting sucked into the Seshnela-Ralios-Loskalm conflict. I have some nascent thoughts about why Ramalia is the way it is, though- why does the Ramalian elite Tap the common folk? One answer is because they're Chaotic and Chaotic entities defy analysis. But that answer sucks, so having invoked it, I hereby dismiss it. So here's another possible answer- further west, in the remains of Old Seshnela, there's a population of Beast People who emerged after the shattering of the peninsula. Perhaps, and this is only a perhaps, this represents a more general spontaneous reemergence of shapeshifting and hsunchen characteristics in areas of the Middle Sea Empire, and what happened in Ramalia is that the majority of the population turned into wereboars. Now, perhaps (and this is decidedly non-canon, maybe even anti-canon) this effect isn't limited to the "lower castes" who aren't "really Malkioni". Perhaps the outbreak of therianthropy extended its way up to the blues and the golds, mocking the pretensions of blood purity and of superior rationality. In Ramalia, though, by frequent use of Tapping, the rulers are able to suppress this possibility, and so they focus entirely on maintaining a rational society through magical force. And those people who prove stubbornly resistant to the suppression magic are driven to the fringes of society and embrace Mralot fully. But doing this consistently perhaps requires the use of Chaotic magic, because it involves the apex of antisociety- the idea that you can make the social world through force. But what about fear and hatred of the sea? Well. Perhaps it's just the ocean as an expression of untrammeled irrationality, which degrades the power of the Ramalian magic. Or perhaps many of the people aren't wereboars, but descended from water creatures (Perhaps even the blue skin and white hair of the "helering" phenotype was seen as proof of Zzaburi status) and the ocean's call is too difficult to resist. There are giant talking otters not too far from Ramalia, perhaps their oceanic cousins once swam off its coasts. Perhaps they feel the urge simply to return to dolphin, or to monk seal. Or perhaps they know the sea has a reason to hate them. Perhaps Slontos sinking was to forestall the reawakening of the goddess of Slontos, rather than a consequence of her rolling over in slumber. Several major possibilities! In any case, all of this rambling means that the Ramalians would have very strong reasons to object to the Reforestation and Pralori revival of Serpent Beast Brotherhood magic. This puts them in an uneasy position as far as assumed PC groups go- they have a shared interest in not becoming elf-"friends", but they also are clearly malevolent. What will the PCs do? Will they accept possible damnation by allying with Ramalia? Will they break the repressive core of Ramalia? And when are those Fire Elves going to fall from the sky, anyways?