Zit

On 8/19/2023 at 10:57 AM, Akhôrahil said:

I think that’s the point - Death Itself is uncaring of these things, and many weilders of Death are dishonorable. It’s just that Humakt isn’t, and Death ended up primarily with him. Presumably, things could have gone differently.

So why is Humakt not dishonorable ? And what does mean "dishonorable", which is a variable cultural concept ? My proposal is the following:

The "code of honour" has a cosmic and a mundane origin.

Death is one of the more powerfull power, which started a process which almost destroyed the cosmos. As a full component of the cosmos, death has to be controlled and used in a way that it makes its task while been kept within borders. That's the necessity of rules, which make a code.

Then Humaktis (and death) with their code have to be accepted in all societies. By giving this code a moral value and making it a code of honour, may be adding a few local things (*) to make others more confortable with the death god, they become acceptable and find their place within the societies.

(*) Which may bring some variations throughout Glorantha

On 1/8/2023 at 7:08 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

Brahmagupta was also the first to show that subtracting a number from itself results in zero.

Substract the creation from itself, you get the Void. Zero is Chaos. Don't use it, you fools !

I think that it is the main purpose of the spell.

what is the source of dragon magic ? Dragons dreams ?

I suppose that there are some natural holy sites, for instance the place where the clan ancestor made a pact with the god or the Hunter did a feat. I wouldn't consider any built temple for this deity strongly related to wildlife.

Or wherever the ceremony of the Great Hunt is held, hence on a non permanent basis.

There are 2 huge dice at Gonn Orta's castle, made in the God Age by a god of law and a god of change. Law (today Stase) because the odds are fixed and same for all numbers, change because the results are unpredictable. It fits well to the Twins model.

You may add the Fate rune.

Our Baabester-gori durulz is currently in Balazar, a place where Durulz are almost unknown (in my Glorantha at least). Her aspect is so improbable and hugly that most of the locals believe she's a minor death demon. They don't even think about laughing. This can give some unexpected (for a Durulz) role play possibilites.

there is a psychically disturbed albinos baabester-gori female durulz in our group, nobody laughs twice at her.

it has been probably asked somewhere else, but is it possible to initiate Orlanthis during this time ? And what about new rune lords and priests ? And what about after the Great Winter, until Orlanth is free again ?

I'm not sure that applying the penalty rule for multiple oponents is necessary here. If a powerfull spirit attacks an bunch of weaker spirirts, it will still slowly loose magic points (that's RQ, a trollkin can badly wound a rune lord) and after a while being defeated through attrition. or am I wrong ?

If you read French, there is "Kosmos, le jeu de rôles", an amateur rpg about ancient mythic Greece.

21 minutes ago, David Scott said:

and based the stats on Cacodemon...

or use the Avatar of Chaos as in Borderlands and... good luck !

I'm wondering what would a trade with Mostali look like. In Griffin Mountain, they trade bronze weapon against food, but what else could be exchanged with them ?

1 hour ago, radmonger said:

Sword trance is only broken if it gets to reduce the opponents parry chance.  I think the 'official' fix to that spell is that multiplicative modifiers don't cause parry chance reduction.

I don't realy see why a fix would be needed here. The "above 100%" rule does not mean that the defender becomes less good at parrying, but that the attacker is so skilled that s.he becomes uneasier to parry. The defender's skill is not affected, but the attacker's. It does not contradicts Humakt's rules of honour.

4 hours ago, soltakss said:

I was worried for a moment.

Long live Cloud Games.

Same here.

This means that the SRD will be available this year. Resolution for 2023: make it happen !

1 hour ago, rsanford said:

There is this for BRP but I don’t read French so it might not be a match.

 

That's historical, not CoC, but you could use it for background and find inspiration in the deities and demons.

You may also have a look at the Revolution D100 Sumer package I wrote based on Uruk. That's about 10 pages lomg and in English. :

I would not make it easy for shamans, even if possible. They can contact spirits which they know who they are and where they dwell. Otherwise, it is an exploratory travel, which may be dangerous or unsuccessful. They may not recognize the dead soul neither know which path it took fot its travel to the Underworld, so looking for it is a true challenge.

I had the case (using the HQ rules) and allowed it only with the help of an Issaries priest because Issaries is a psychopomp.

They could be clanmates of Waddle Greenbeak, either trying to protect him or chasing him.

You may consider that following a god is a kind of slavery as well, in which case Daka Fal may be a candidate ?

On 9/25/2022 at 6:52 PM, Erol of Backford said:

Mr. Zit, curious where on any map was your trollball game played? I love that idea. Did any of Orta's giants act as referees?

We're playing it with QW (actually HQ) and on a forum, so it's going to me more narrative. The PCs are preparing to train with one of the teams and it is apparently enough to have the players feel very uncomfortable : they cannot use their usual strengths (no magic, only blunt weapons, stronger opponents). And one of them plays a Durulz, to whom the Uz team manager (Gerag Midem from the Elder Wilds) proposed to be the ball, but I'm still waiting for her reply. The field is in the middle of Gonn Orta's castle.

A few years ago I played a very pleasant trollball table top game during the Eternal Convention in Bacharach. I had very good time, even if I stupidly lost (I think Soltakss must remember it).

We recently played exactly this scene, about 3 seasons after the craddle episode. The PCs learnt a few days before that the baby was Gonn Orta's. They were heading there for a specific request to Gonn Orta.

I played Gonn Orta as a comtemplative ancient hero not that much interested in mundane affairs (except good trade), so the first task for the PCs was to arouse his attention engouh for him to listen to them, which mainly included convincing him that they really defended the craddle and where able to provide news. I think that this peacefull session worked well.

(this is related to my post about trollball, since a game is to be played there).

In my game, Gondo Holst is a foreigner, so I suppose he doesn't know the route to Gonn Orta's castle (which BTW goes through the troll hills since the new edition) but may be interested in finding it, whatever the means.

22 minutes ago, Joerg said:

why should a trollball game be played under the light of Yelm? Because the giant referees rely on sight.

You're right. May be they play right after sunset or just before sunrise ? Or most probably Darksee is cast on the giant when a KL priestess is present. The field is anyway a magical ground where trolls don't die, so we can imagine anything.

2 hours ago, AlHazred said:

I wonder if trollkin should be painted in garish colors for Trollball games, to make them easier to see on the pitch?

This is blasphemy. Trollball players use their darksense, they don't care about colours ! And they play at night without light. What is for us "colour" is for them "texture". Since replacement trollkins are randomly taken among spectators, I don't think this plays any role.

Trolls are truely colour blind, according to Trollpak.

May I kindly ask to go back to the OP, which is trollball and not the skin colour of Uz (who are anyway colour blind) ?

Is trollball a way to elect a clan to specific favors or status ? Is there any benefit like magic ? Is there any myth related to it, in which case this would be a kind of HQ (like all rituals after all) ?

I like to see trollball beyond a mere game, as true ritual comparable to the Olympic Games for the ancient Greeks. What could be the religious and societal significance and goals of the Trollball ? What is its origin ?