womble

Aye. There's a big difference between those skillsets, for sure. I gather the true meaning of marine is the Acronym Marines Always Ride In Navy Equipment. According to the USMC, at least, but I can't see it having been very much different back in the days of Trireme and Pentekonter.

Don't forget Bless Crop, which will be readily available in that area.

The example of bronze rapiers I've seen pics of would make poor cutting weapons because of the pronounced central rib. I'd say they could be used to make swings with, and the sharp edges would slice, but if (for some reason) the character chose to use it that way, they'd not get the benefit of the Special. So if a weird monster, say, took no damage from impaling weapons, they could still swing at it but no Slash or Impale would occur.

As was noted earlier, there is a large difference between a riverine and an Ocean-going (or even sea-faring) fleet. The rivermen might have a few basic skills in the bag, which will make them nearer to sailors than your average Lunar grunt.

Ah. Thanks Jeff. I was getting a vibe that 'actual Initiation' (in the game sense) was meant to be the exception rather than the rule. I'm glad that's not what is truly meant. So there's a difference in terms of the stages of life, but a snapshot of young adults would show most of them as having progressed to the next stage of making that sacrifice of POW. Is that more or less it?

I like the GM Pack. It's got lots of good stuff in it. As well as a bit of filler, but the Adventure book alone is worth the entry price, and having the pretty calendar as a PDF is real nice. And I'm perfectly happy with continuing to equate adulthood with Initiation for the majority of the population; it's not like there's much of a barrier to entry in the core rules, for someone approaching a 'familiar' Cult for their society, and the benefits would encourage most 'strangers' (i.e. those who don't have a parental tie to the cult) to have a few goes at Initiation if they didn't make the 3 successes at the first time of asking. It argues for a tendency towards initiation increasing across a population.

Calendar: Earth Season (p9) Orlanth Seasonal Holy Day listed as Windsday in Stasis Week; should be in Movement Week. Ditto Odayala Seasonal Holy Day.

"It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye..."

Noice. Ta!

I was thinking that, as far as I recall, all the NPCs I've seen statted in current product (that are part of deist cultures) are initiates with Rune Points. So I've gone and had a look. Of course you'd expect folk like Royal Guard and the Tribal Ring to be 'proper' POW-saccing Initiates, but every single one of the adults listed in the Adventure Book, from "Typical Militia" to random farmers the party find ailing, to incidental herders, all the villagers of Apple Lane, they're all Initiates, with the youngest having, in general, the fewest Rune Points. All the Tusk Riders are Initiates. Frankly, the assertion that there's a difference between adulthood and Cult Initiation (with the POW sacrifice that goes with it, doesn't seem to be reflected in the actual world being presented. Which suits me just fine. It's a bit odd that the Glorantha of different parts of the production machine varies so much though.

I'm given to understand that the final iteration of the British Cavalry sabre opted for the latter, being mostly like a pistol-grip needle: easy to punch into someone and equally easy to extract as you ride past with the natural turn of the wrist.

Oh aye. There's a-gonna be some varyin'.

I'm all about the crunch. I don't think the RQ system is sufficiently simulationist, for an ideal game (and I know that makes me a member of a very small minority). But I love Glorantha the setting as much. Never played BRP fantasy outside the Lozenge apart from one short-lived excursion into Elric. For me RQ in Glorantha has always been a perfect balance of setting and mechanic.

Most of them, according to the materials I've been reading lately (Sartar Rising, The Red Cow Saga; the Colymar Clan 'typical militia' entry in the Gamemaster Screen Pack Adventure Book) has the standard PC 3 RP). Unless you say that NPC Initiates have different rules and opportunities to PC Initiates, adults should be getting about 1 POW increase per year to sac for additional Rune Points or contribute to Enchantments and Wyters. Me too. Makes it all the more Glorantha-y, IMO. Magic everywhere. It makes a big difference.

With all the empty land, I can see clever Orlanthi clans offering to rent space to gold-rich Trollkin (for a hefty deposit, large annual payment in Gold and produce and with punitive failure-to-honour clauses) and then eradicate the stupid munchkins when they try eating next door's fences (or at the very least sending them packing into exile when they eat the dairy herd. And the stead). While the gold would still enter circulation, the Trollkin themselves wouldn't be a long term problem.

To an extent, that trick depends on how visible your Glorantha considers Spirit Magic and its effects to be. If it's all flashy and glowy, the Humakti would probably realise something was up; still they'd need to decide how many MP to chuck into their True Sword casting to break the 'debuff', so you might just want to go with a Countermagic 1. If it's sneaky and invisible, you'll ruin the Death-wallah's day Of course (and off-topic), there's a good chance the first thing a Humakti does on a fighting day is cast True Sword + Extension-2 (for all-day sharpness), and then Countermagic it themselves at the start of a fight to help resist Dispel/Neutralise/Dismiss Magic. Kinda like a makeshift Seal Wound for non-Trolls I think that also emphasises a big downside of using Countermagic (or even Shield) as a defensive spell (as it's mostly intended): better be fairly sure you're not going to need timely healing (from someone else - I'd say self healing doesn't have to breach the barrier, originating as it does from inside) before you put up those magical defenses. I wonder whether this consideration was the reason my longest-term RQ(3) group didn't use Countermagic much (as in, we realised the implication and so mentally pigeon-holed it as dangerous/niche/not-worth-spending-Free-INT-on, then filed the reason somewhere obscure) but I think that group had a few squirrelly members who would've spotted the offensive capabilities, and I don't recall it being used that way. I think we probably just didn't face many opponents who were more magically than physically threatening and assumed that 'friendly' Countermagic could be 'lowered' like resistance could.

Concur. It's going to be a rare situation though. The example could be better worded perhaps, since it doesn't say: It says two castings of Bladesharp (as an example of a variable spell) aren't cumulative (to emphasise the bit above which says: "... spells cannot be combined with one another to make them more effective..."). It then goes on to talk about adding points to Disruption to break through Countermagic as an example of something else. An example that doesn't need to be there since Boosting is dealt with quite adequately in the Magic chapter. That bit should probably say "See page 248 for ways to boost penetration of magical defenses." Or something.

That's been in since RQ2 at least, I think, for >99 skills. Though before RQG I think it only came off the lower skill. In RQG it comes off both, so your chances of crit/spec/fumble don't change once you're past 100 and fighting lesser-skilled opponents. Apparently.

Did they also carry a skyhook from which to hang the rigging?

There's the classic "Obvious the Assassin". Rides a black horse, dresses in black, with black armour, carries a black crossbow that has black bolts and slings a black greatsword across his back. Doesn't so much sneak up on someone as have his horse kick down the castle gate and skewer or decapitate the target as they flee in terror... or stand and face him with knees like water and the inescapable conviction that their Time Has Come.

Or just a Dryad who got distracted half way through assuming/leaving (or while maintaining) human form...

Without time (no capital) how do the Darra Happans have multiple thousands of years of History?* There must have been sequentiality in the time before Time, or there wouldn't have been any progression between the Ages. HeroPlane stuff muddies the waters in that regared, it seems to me, by letting participants jump about in the flow a bit; I Fought We Won demonstrates non-locality in that medium... * This is not a rhetorical question: I don't know and would love to be enlightened.

Save the fact that the God Learners were eradicated and to some extent wiped from memory. I was referring to the suggestion that maybe it was somehow Arkat coming back to sort 'em out (cos they would be donkey-kicking muddy funsters and only a Heroquester as potent as Arkat might have the mojo to geek 'em all, which apparently happened). I should perhaps have said "Arkat-y" to avoid confusion with followers of that Ascendant.

This, mostly. But given that most 'ways' have a Cult in Glorantha, there are 'support structures' for people explicitly seeking this path in life. The Black Fang Brotherhood has been mentioned, and given the size (and concomittent ability to specialise) of the Lunar Empire, there's probably at least one or two schools of sneaky death-deliverance of different flavours in there.

It don't think would be unreasonable to suggest that none of them individually were as prolific and powerful in the HeroQuest as Arkat; if they were, later Ages would remember their names... Collectively, they had more extensive effects, but perhaps even as Heroquesting 'teams' they were still tractable to Arkatian suppression.