womble

Now that's one of the broken rules in RQ3. Or, perhaps not broken, but 'insufficiently broadly stated' (because the designers weren't considering truly horrific success chances).

1d10 Magic Points storage costs 1POW. There will come a point when characters' CHAs are full (maybe twice) of Rune Points, and then you'll see the Enchantments coming out. And if you're making Enchantments a point at a time, it's deeply inefficient to make them restricted use. And half a dozen bound spirits can refill a lot of stores.

I've used a pot load of RQ3isms in my RQG game. For my money, many, even most of the reversions to RQ2 are retrograde steps. The steps away from RQ2 (Passions/Runes, RP, mostly) are what I've kept.

Or a high level fighter... So "on average, over the lifetime of a campaign they were balanced". Yeah. Right.

Who cares? There are several ways that I can think of without trying to say how the 'first knower' could have learned their spell, from God Time shenanigans to Heroquests to some spirit Pact at the Dawn of Time. Or just from a Shaman in the same way Animists do. Maybe you can make up an interesting story that your players can follow in their own Heroquest, to learn the Spirit Magic, but that would be vast overkill if done for every run-of-the-mill spell. p368 Which, to my recollection is precisely how it was in RQ3. So you go to the Shaman, they or their Fetch troll off and find a Spirit that knows the spell you want to learn, they summon it into their Axis Mundi or whatever Sacred Space and you fight the Spirit. The Shaman looks out for you so if you lose you're not possessed, and a good Shaman finds a Spirit you can beat, and casts Spirit Screen on you so you've got the advantage in the Spirit Combat. The simple 'pay the cost;learn the spell' is an abstraction so that downtime activities don't get in the way of the episodic adventure. Most of the time it's trivial and not worth playing through, same as in RQ3. Several of the different Spirit types in the Bestiary are expected to have a CHA-full of Spirit spells. Ancestor Worshippers probably have specific Ancestors who between them know most of the common Spirit Spells, and the specific one necessary to teach the pupil what the want can be Summoned.

It might follow if the bit in the Magic chapter didn't specifically say that one round would be enough to have a (halved) chance of getting some benefit for the cast. And those are guidelines as you say; there are plenty of ways Communication skills can get used in less than a minute. Most of those ways still involve some sentient being comprehending and 'appreciating' the use, which isn't necessary for spell casting augmentation; I'd think of that use as "using the song to help get the right mind shape for casting". Much more internalised and much faster. Your table, your rules, but if your player was basing their "want" on a misremembering of page 246, or a vague "you can use Sing to improve your casting" statement some other session, requiring their character to spend minutes singing to get a casting boost seems punitive.

I'd say if the Cult really wanted to maintain knowledge of a spell, they could get a Cult Spirit to lay the beatdown on a member who knows the spell, and have the spirit learn that spell as the 'spoils of victory'. Unpleasant for the nominated Cult spell-donor, and maybe difficult to get the knowledge back out of the spirit (needing concerted Spirit Block spells and such, which would be what might preclude spirit-teaching for most: they wouldn't ever be able to beat the Spirit...). I wouldn't say spirit teaching was out of the question for Cults, but that the 'normal' week-of-training method would be preferred as certain and requiring the expenditure of no Rune Points. If the knowledge of a 'precious' Spirit Magic were to be lost to a Cult, then I'd think it would be a Priest- or Lord-ly task to seek out a Shaman who can be induced to find and summon a Spirit which can teach the spell in question, and so induce them. I think that in the end it's the scarcity of such very-specialised knowledge in the Spirit World that makes high point Spirit Magic so very rare.

I think Nocturnal are still an active concern (so if any archiving goes on, it'll be the Pendragonny stuff, leaving their remaining lines on-line), but their forum is locked because of the recent Spam-plosion, rather than because their Pendragon properties have moved under Chaosium's wing.

Have a read of p277 "Spell Teaching", and p253 "Learning a Spell - From a Cult".

If reattachment of severed limbs is not to be trivial, Heal Wound needs to not be a Common Rune Spell. Theistic folk really don't have need of large Heal Spirit Magics, with Heal Wound in their back pocket all the time.

I reckon skill augments can often be justifiably used more than once per session to achieve similar effects. So Sing and Play Instrument could routinely and even repetitively be used together. In conflict situations, though, where you're trying to use the augment to get an advantage, any given skill could probably only effectively augment another once per conflict, or possibly per opponent. So if your PC wants to use Jump to augment their shortsword attack, they'd need, first, a reason or means by which that could occur. To take Achilles' first appearance in Troy as an example, he evaluates that the gigantic lump he's up against will only very rarely have had to raise his (large and heavy) shield to defend against a descending thrust, so reasons that a high leap will allow him to cleanly neutralise the target's obvious preferred/habitual means of defense to score a kill. So Jump as an augment to Shortsword works that time, but, as a GM, I'd rule that it wouldn't work against anyone who'd seen Achilles do that: they'd be expecting it. Similarly, "most" opponents will be used to overhand attacks meaning they need to guard their head, so it wouldn't have worked (as is) against most in the first place; the character would have needed some sort of additional factor making the 'leaping attack' practicable and effective: a boulder to spring off, or distraction low-down, or some reason the target wouldn't expect attack, which could be sidestepped by the augmenting skill in a non-obvious fashion. The Magic chapter gives specific times and benefits for using skills to augment casting and other magical spells. p246 So denying it flat was perhaps a bit harsh, but saved time looking up the rule... Some skill augments wouldn't take any/much time to implement, even helping someone else, certainly no longer than the actual task being attempted would take. Using Fast Talk to augment someone's Sleight without attracting suspicion on yourself might only take moments. Others surely do take time in preparation, say using Plant Lore to augment a Treat Poison roll; might take hours to find the right herbs.

It was mentioned in an earlier post too, the idea of Extension prolonging Spirit Magic spells. It doesn't: p328 So we don't need to worry about those use-cases. Also, Mobility and Vigour are not variable. And there's a flat cap on how many points of a game-breaking Spirit Magic spell you can have: your CHA. So even a Bladesharp 21 "only" adds 105 to your chance to hit (and the 'trivial' 21 damage ); this is not a limit for [Weapon] Trance. Getting large magic point stores is trivially easy for Rune Master level characters. Capping the spell by saying the MP tied up in it don't come back until the spell expires doesn't work if you don't use any of your own or a spirit's MP, just stored ones. Extension, even with the "you don't get to pray for the RP back for the spell or the Extension until the spell expires" errata, is a useful spell in all manner of cases. While it may not be efficient to whack 5 points for a year-long, it's pretty impressive to have double your STR or CHA "all the time" by spending three points alongwith the cast and getting a week's use out of it. Whether that's 'efficient' would depend on how much use you'll get out of the spell during the time of the Extension; I'd expect a lot of Extended Charisma spells to be in evidence at a Clan or Tribal Moot. A Shield-5 spell, for example, might be well worth Extending for a whole day if you're going into a set-piece battle, where you expect to be in more than one clash, since you might not want to spend the RP on casting it twice, or more. For me, it seems 'obvious' that the Extension and the Rune Spell are separate entities to be Dismissed or Dispelled (with the corollary that an Initiate of two Cults can Extend a spell from one Cult using RP from the other), and most 'significant' enemies will have access to the Common Rune Spell. I'm not sure how you target the "Sword Trance" (or the Extension, for that matter), since it's not an 'obvious' spell. It's probably got some visuals involved, but would those be enough to tell you that the reason no one is successfully parrying the whirlwind of bladed death is because they're affected by Sword Trance, and not some other spell, while being damn good with a Greatsword? I don't think the RAW descriptions of Second Sight, Soul Sight or Pierce Veil lets you discern what spells are affecting the subject of your viewing, only that 'some' spells are. Could a Dispeller just say "I Dismiss-3 whatever it is that's making them so 'oribble!"? I'd say not. Could they say "I Dismiss-3 Sword Trance on the Humakti," taking the risk they don't have Sword Trance up to dismiss? Possibly. And you have to be able to target a specific spell to Dismiss it in particular, because otherwise the dispel just starts on the biggest defensive spell it can blow down. It's not such a problem with weapon enhancement spells, because you can see the SFX, and dismiss "...that bright glow on their sword...", and you'll probably be doing something useful. But dismiss on "...that glowy aura..." could be dropping a Charisma spell, or a defensive spell (which might be useful, or might not be, depending on whether you're going to be attacking against whatever mode of defense was being provided) or Second Sight... or anything. And what SFX does Extension have? Nothing particularly distinctive, I'd say. Whether the MP added in to increase the bonus count as part of the spells strength for Dismissing purposes would depend on how you view such spells. If Heal Wound MP count towards breaching the magical defenses of the target, then MP in the Sword Trance spell should count for strength against Dismisses. If the Heal Wound needs additional, separate MP over and above the ones added for effect, for boosting its strength to get through Shield etc, then the MP in a Sword Trance shouldn't count as strength. This, for me, suggests that the latter of those two cases is the case: MP in a Rune Spell "for effect purposes" don't count for "strength" purposes. Makes healing that Shield-5-for-a-day-warrior expensive, but only by as much as the damage that has been stopped, which you don't have to heal.

"Historically", getting your baggage train/camp pillaged was the signal to run away, most of the time. If only to go defend your chattels and camp followers. If some enemy have broken through that far, it's a signal (even if an erroneous one) that your whole line is getting tromped on and you'd better sauve qui peut.

And people from those cultures will tend to have lower Honour scores... It's arguable that most RW honour codes boil down to 'be true to your word and give respect where it's due'. The variations are mostly in who honour applies to (both as in who is expected to be honourable, and who honourable people are expected to apply honour to).

I see it as "at least one"... It very much depends on what 'phase' your campaign is in, and what you're focussing on. In some ways the 'emphasis' on 'one per season' can be used as license to skip forward when other pressures are trying to bog you down in stepping through the Calendar one day at a time (which can get tiresome).

Yeah, Passions mostly go up through 'experience checks''.It's worth noting however, that it is perfectly valid for a GM to award an experience check on a Passion if that Passion has been strongly roleplayed without having to resort to rolling dice to 'enforce' it. If your 'middling-honour' PC consistently upholds their obligations, even to their own detriment, and obeys the strictures of their honour in all their interactions, they've probably earned a check. As their score goes up, they have to work harder, though: once you pass 80% in a Passion, it's "expected" that the PC will cleave strongly to that Passion, and they are always at liberty to reduce their score below 80 if they find the constraints too restrictive.

In the real world, plants use chemical weapons to stake their territorial claims, upon occasion...

Aye. He does have the Fertility Rune, but he doesn't, AFAICT, have any direct magic to benefit actual agriculture that you couldn't get just by Augmenting your Farm with your own Fertility rune. I read the 'primary god for peasants' function as being tied more to his social function as the catalyst for rising up against an overly-oppressive big brother. However, it's not like Orlanth does, either. He gets Tame Bull from Barntar, and can increase the chance of it raining with Cloud Call, and the chance of getting the hay in, dry, with Cloud Clear, which is probably why farmers are more likely to go Thunderous than Adventurous. The Really Good Spells for farmers come from Ernalda. Orlanthi do tend to get into more rucks than compliant Pelorian peasantry, so the other bits of Orlanth are more useful (on the cattle raid, or blood feud). Do the distaff Pelorians worship Ernalda, or do they go for the more specific Grain Goddess of their region instead? They seem to get Bless Crops, but not Bless Pregnancy or Reproduce or Bless Animals, and being lesser Goddesses, might not have access to all the useful Common spells either.

Entirely congruent with the illustration in the Sourcebook, p209, if you're looking for further 'source' material I recognised it immediately!

Actually bothering to consult the only source I have on Lodril for game mechanics (RQ3's Gods of Glorantha) suggests we're both wrong: he doesn't provide farming magic, but his Lowfire magic would be marginally useful (they'd still need to provide all the fuel; it'd mostly save effort on the bellows, or time for the fire to warm up) for crafters who rely on heat (potters and smiths, masons, launderers and bakers). There might be more authoritative sources, of course... And there's no doubting his social function.

I've got a 'hard' example of why I think the RQ:G training rules are, RAW, broken. My party leader has managed to enrapture a very stupid Trollkin, who has effectively volunteered to become his pet, having been treated better by the leader than her mother ever did. However, the Enlo speaks no languages that any of the party do. Having it take a season for even this rock-bonced reject to learn 5% in Tradetalk (resulting in a net score of -2; I told you she was stupid (and I''m not using 5% skill modifier brackets either; I've gone RQ3 in that respect)... I'm very much of a mind to simply drop RQ3's model straight in. It never bothered me as a player, and it won't bother me to administer it for my players, as a GM. I'll probably do a fair bit of rounding. One thing I'd keep from RQG, which I think RQ3 had is the cap on training 'active' skills. 75% is by no means 'hero' level, and 'a couple of years' of fairly dedicated training with a bit of experience rolled in isn't unreasonable for someone to get 'competent' with a skill, if we even want to constrain our PCs (who're supposed to be Heroes eventually) with 'real world' considerations and comparisons in this regard.

As a concrete example of how long it can take (and it's an example I'm fine with), my players have taken three sessions over one fight which didn't even happen because their preparations and 'bluff' (though it wasn't actually much of a bluff [Edit: by which I mean they would probably have creamed their opponents; they just needed to convince the opposition of that truth, which isn't too hard with a CHA 48 orator...) worked... A bunch of other stuff got done: they started to get to know the Apple Lane denizens, and to get their heads round some of their characters' abilities. But what 'reads' in the book, to me as a RPGer of o so many years, as a one session mosh has, because of deviation, a smidge of hesitation and some small repetition (because we only play fortnightly, a recap is often valuable), taken 3 sessions. But we all enjoyed them, as far as I can tell, and that's the important thing. Something to bear in mind when you're running this kind of game: which of your players are "goal oriented" and which are "process oriented". I'm fortunate in having three "process oriented" players who have fun with the 'journey'. If you have a mix of those, with those who tend to get more fun out of the 'destination', you have some work to do to keep them all happy. If you have process-oriented players, you can dwell on the minutiae, and 'skipping to the interesting bit' might jar their experience; if you have goal-oriented players, you need to keep things moving to get some sort of goal 'done' most sessions, or they'll lose interest.

Not only that, but to some degree the benefits of Initiation are somewhat reduced: Seven Mothers doesn't, IIRC, offer much in the way of 'making your life better' spells in the same way that Ernalda does (unless your life is better when everyone around you is stark staring mad ). I'm no expert on Peloria, but get the impression that Yelm worship is somewhat socially restricted, and the commoners' lives much more straitly organised in Dara Happa than in Sartar. There's Lodril, but that's only 'protection from cold' rather than 'the easy way to get a plough team': good on the fringes of the glacier, less so further south. In terms of "what proportion of the population?" type questions, I'd rank serious participants in that sort of activity as Initiates: they'll tend to have a CHA full of spirit magic, and the covenant of the Shaman (whose material needs they contribute to supporting) to look after their magical well being. Shaman are obviously, and have explicitly been asserted to be by the designers, Rune Master-level entities. Such practitioners are a very small minority in the Quivin Mountains though. I'm sure you'd agree that some superstitious flea-bitten waster with Spirit Screen-1 and Second Sight (as their sole magical resources) doesn't count as an Initiate level, though, even if they "claim" to be worshipping their Ancestors. The mechanics of RQG make it relatively easy to gauge whether someone's 'Initiate grade' (a pretty broad brush, after all). I like this idea. Even Stickpickers have their uses. Some of them, anyway. Given that it's generally 'easy' for the progeny of an Initiate to Initiate into their parent's Cult, such 'niche' roles will tend to run in families, and if the 'incumbent' should die, fail or even [gasp] move on up in the world, the search for a replacement from outside the traditional family-who-does-that-thing could be a story.

I don't think it's been 'officially' decided what the frequency of Initiation-with-a-capital-I is in the new age of RQG, and I'll make my own judgement for my Glorantha when it's published in the Gamemaster book. The best recent stuff prior to the fragmentary material we currently have specifically published under the RQG umbrella is the Red Cow Saga, and that supposes a large majority of Sartarite adults would be Initiates of one or another Cult. Personally, I like this interpretation, because Glorantha is a magical world, where magic makes life both safer and, because your enemies have it, more dangerous. Also, the benefits of becoming Initiated massively outweigh the costs, the hurdles to getting Initiated in your home culture's dominant Cults are set very low and the very nature of the world means that it's existentially relevant to have a concrete connection to your very concrete Gods. For my Glorantha, the ranks of the UnInitiated will be filled only by the very lowliest of society: stickpickers and backwoods recluses whose lives will largely be short and difficult given the multitude of magical threats that really need the backing of a Cult and society to overcome consistently.

That's cos many cults don't get them. Instead they get RP back by worshipping as Associated Cults on the weekly Holy Days of the major Cults to which they are associated. So Lightbringers and Storm Tribe Cultists get to worship along with Orlanthi on Windsday, Earth Tribe Associates get to Worship on Clayday with Ernalda/Eiritha. Fire Tribe go to Temple on Fireday, and so on. Quite a few Cults get to join in on more than one day. Same applies to Seasonal Holy Days and that means even more Worship ceremonies per season if they happen to not fall on a 'normal' weekly day for the major cults. It also applies in reverse: Orlanthi get to worship as Associates at all the other Lightbringers' Seasonal Holy Days, for example. So most Sartarites will get 2d6 RP back, most weeks, as co-associates of Orlanth and Ernalda.