Snugz

I'd like to hear your stories of how you've used/experienced Jack O'Bears effectively in a Glorantha game. I've never put them to great usage as a GM but they sure do have potential to be more than just a gotcha monster for mean GMs. (Sorry players, they might not fit into our current campaign though)

Oh wow seriously I thought you just made it up to see if we were paying attention! I have all those issues so I'm sort of surprised I missed it. I will have to look. I do love the idea. It is so Runequest, and Glorantha.

Please tell me more about George Missinghands! 🤪

Ouori tusks via Vadeli trade I bet (naughty!); and yes there are walruses in Neliomi Sea AFAIK, and then dragon bone or other similar big bones (High Llama? Giraffe foot bones in modern world can be carved). Giant sea beasts too, I am sure, would do (whales + beyond; think scrimshaw). Ribs as well as tusks and so on. But how much these matter in terms of trade I don't know. Surely they have some value.

How dare you describe Gloranthan sorcery! Scandalous! 😉

This is the Gloranthan product I'm most looking forward to-- thank you! I will definitely be buying it, immediately.

MGF says absolutely yes; much as other Godlearner stuff (and even living/undead sorcerors!) remains despite the Gift Carriers of the Sending Gods. They're not supposed to be there, which is why their presence in-game makes them more fun and special. And heck, even the GCotSGs won't be 100.000% effective. Makes sense. Just don't overdo it.

I'm already excited for the scenarios & campaigns followups, esp. Tower of Lead! ("Tower of Night" from LoT finally sees the light of day?)

Broad category including many more kinds of stone than jade; but jade could do just fine in theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenstone_(archaeology)

I like the points above. In the past I'd have said broo, for obvious reasons, or just the inimical nature of Chaos, which goes beyond D&D-ish evil into more Lovecraftian terrain without being Call of Cthulhu (per se). More recently I'd say Vadeli since I've enjoyed playing them as GM in my current game. A fun foil to Western Malkioni ideals.

Could tie into the ancient enmity of the Dara Happan/Carmanian lion-god (Pelandans?) and/or dog-gods/spirits (most Sartarties dislike dogs anyway?) https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Sakkar see Glorious Re-Ascent of Yelm/Entekosiad, if you can get them, for more ideas?

The Guide to Glorantha's Seshnela "wallpaper" image shows what is called a worker/Dronari caste in the caption, but I think of more as a halfblood Waertagi, in the background (green skinned). IMG the Waertagi vary in how "fishy" they look. Those that have drifted further from the main current of Waertagi ancestry, via interbreeding, look more normal. Like this poor chap in the pic; perhaps just a sickly green sheen to the skin and nothing more. Those that have rode high on the waves of that proud heritage and kept to the old ways are more mer-person-y.

Nice parallels with the maiden/mother/crone "three faces" of Camenura of Cam's Well in Prax (although unofficial?); and she as-written had very strong association with serpents-- both from an Earth aspect and the Praxian river-serpents side of things.

(if doing a nautical campaign I highly recommend at least getting pdf of that Men of the Sea book-- lots of nuggets of inspiration. Some Quinpolic League info not seen elsewhere.)

p15 pic; I also noted on a quick breeze through that yes, some ships are shown with pennants/flags. Like here. (and p43,69) But not fancy flags. More decoration of sails (far more visible from a distance on those big sails), and prows/rams, like others have said.

Art in HQ "Men of the Sea" book has some useful illustrations as inspirations for decorating ships. I'm fond of the Vadeli one.

The Sith were in Slontos too? Wow. They do get around! 😉

I'd read earlier on this forum that "Urcheth is a new Chaos god that appears early in the Hero Wars. Its many organs are new chaos outbursts and manifestations across Genertela." I know that there is ~nothing official published yet on this Urcheth but do people have speculations beyond the above what it is, and what role it plays in the Hero Wars? I am curious. Along the lines of (also from this forum) "There's also some unpublished stuff that may or may not be relevant now. In Fronela a Chaotic Miasma, one of the Tentacles of Urcheth appears and is spread or supported by Selkorze, Lord Death Riding (AKA lord Death a Horse)." Sounds like it is also part of what happens in Dragon Pass w/Chaos outbursts after the Lunars get pushed out. (and 13th Age game plotlines?)

Why is Pithdaros important in the Hero Wars? Nolos and Pasos clearly play their parts with it in the Quinpolic League against Seshnela, but Pithdaros seems to get short shrift in mentions/plotlines. Maybe partly as they weren't visited by Dormal (right?) so their naval participation is unremarkable, although they are known as good magicians (and probably have some exotic Horali orders making them good on the battlefield on land). Is Pithdaros just weak (e.g. politically/economically)-- or good at shifting allegiance/playing neutral when needed? Or good at living up to its reputation as (paraphrasing) always being too late to the party? We know the Red Gold Knife comes from Pithdaros and a few things related to the Harreksaga/Mularik Ironeye, at least.

I had always took it that (some of) the Sables switched sides because that is the nature of Sable riders--- their repute is one of unusual opportunism, even for Praxians (IMG at least). "Perfidious" is the adjective often applied to them and that propensity to betray can work on their Lunar allies just as much as their fellow Praxians. So the chickens came home to roost, is how I saw it.

Tactically: avoid them (use stealth; stay away from known merfolk areas), use speed (fast sailing ships, maybe able to out-endure not-so-fast swimmers), strong hulls/blessings on ship, or draw the merfolk and their marine creatures to the surface and hit them with magics+missiles (if not able to bring them on deck). Nets? Poison for the water? Not sure what else unless they have elementals, special sorceries (scrying?), sea creature allies etc. But yeah, people fear the sea for a very good reason, especially since the Closing. Even with Dormal's ritual you're eventually assured to run into merfolk. I like how ?Strangers in Prax? likened being a sailor in Glorantha to being an astronaut in our modern world. People think you're nuts for risking death in such an alien, hostile realm. The odds are against sailors-- but they seem to like it that way.