Thyrwyn

1 hour ago, Mechashef said:

I have been trialing an approach (that I’m not entirely happy with) which is essentially a variation of the Augment system.

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@Mechashef your system is good - but is essentially the same as saying that the PC wins “same level of success” situations. 

I use the following rubric for hide & seek type situations: a) if both succeed, then “seeker” doesn’t find the “hider”, but they know they’ve missed something and might keep looking; b) if both fail, then the “active” party wins. 

2 minutes ago, Tywyll said:

Since Spirit Magic now uses Charisma, does that mean Sorcerers can use it without loss of power?

So you cannot use a spirit's Int for spell storage, correct?

For purposes of Free INT only (per the rules, anyway) Spirit Magic takes 1 point of INT per point of spell. 

5 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

It does require more improvisation and imagination than elements. Some groups might think that a good thing, others might have more trouble with it. I've had players that find that kind of thing tricky.

I explain it this way to my players: the Elemental Runes can only augment skills in specific groups; Power and Form Runes can be used to augment any skill, as long as that skill is being used according to the way that specific Rune behaves. With Power and Form Runes, it not the skill, but the manner or goal of the attempt that matters. 

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Does this mean:

• That you can't use a Passion or Rune affinity to augment another adventurer or
• That you can't use an Ability to augment another adventurer who is attempting to use a Passion or Rune affinity?

Reading the whole paragraph on page 145, it seems to me that you cannot use a Passion or Rune to augment the efforts of someone else. The paragraph suggests that it is only possible to augment another’s efforts IF the GM approves, and then establishes one case where it is always impossible (no communication); and then a second case (when the actor/agent is using a Passion or Rune affinity). 

10 hours ago, Crel said:

Does anyone have advice for using the Power & Form Runes to augment/become inspired? The skills which the Elemental Runes apply to feels fairly clear to me (based on p.48-49), but I feel less confident about how the Power & Form Runes should be used.

Say for instance the PC is trying to persuade their allies on matters of strategy: they could use their Movement Rune to inspire their arguments to attack or flee; they could use their Stasis Rune to inspire their arguments to hold their ground or delay the attack til later. 

They might use their Truth Rune to inspire their efforts to defend the accused from a lynching, or their Harmony Rune to inspire their efforts to diffuse the mob’s anger. Maybe they use their Disorder Rune to encourage the mob to act. 

A chef might use the Fertility Rune to inspire their culinary skills, a soldier might use their Death Rune to heartily consume a meal of unpalatable gruel. 

I think that the addition of Passions and Rune Affinities are one of the more interesting aspects of the RQG rules. There are some ways in which I feel they could be more fully integrated into the system. While Rune Affinities are integral to casting Rune Magic, there are no spells or skills which interact with them in any way; Passions can strongly influence or even mandate behavior for PCs and NPCs alike, but there are only two spells that interact with them mechanically, and no skills that do so.

How do you feel about this? Why doesn’t Soul Sight let you see the target’s strongest Rune Affinity? Why doesn’t Insight let you realize that someone is driven by a strong Loyalty or Love? 

I’m using them that way. What interesting ways are you using Passions and Affinities? 

as @creativehum said : balance has nothing to do D&D. There have been guidelines to help DMs balance encounters since 3rd edition, but they are suggestions and guidelines. Any DM/GM in any system at any time can wipe out the entire party. Even in D&D 5e, even following the guidelines. You just have to string enough encounters together that exhaust the party's resources, or choose monsters or terrain that disadvantage the party, or anything other number of ways. I used to play in 3.5 game where the DMs had to practically double the CR of every encounter in the Living Greyhawk scenarios just to challenge the party. No one in that game expected any encounter to be "balanced". Almost every other player in that group only played D&D - no other RPGs - they all knew that balance was a myth. It's not the system - it might be certain players' experience with the system, but it's not the system.

I disagree with the idea that this is a D&D mindset (the summer my friends and I all learned to play AD&D we killed off close to 200 characters). I think rather this a mindset of inexperienced RPG players in general, who have probably only played D&D, and probably only with DM's who are also inexperienced. Pathfinder and it's parent, D&D 3.5, are both unforgiving systems where player death is relatively common if the DM knows how to work the system and wrongly assumes that the players know it as well as they do. Especially at low levels. RQ is the same way - although with the changes to the parry/dodge rules, I find that RQG is less so than earlier editions. The other problem common to newer players that have only played D&D is that they have no real idea of how to gauge the lethality and threat level of an encounter. Especially in Glorantha, where most of the monsters and foes are unfamiliar to them - or they are unfamiliar in their Gloranthan incarnations. So, as GMs, we need to do a much better job describing encounters with knowledge that the characters would have, but the players don't. "You've heard of Great Trolls. They'll smash through your shield and your bronze cuirass like so much kindling. They can break a horse's back in one blow. They may be dim-witted, but they are ferocious foes."

I once started an RQ3 campaign with (a mix of players) with the classic "you meet in a tavern" trope. Then I had a seemingly numberless horde of hooded thugs show up and start killing everyone in sight. Soon it was only the PCs, then they started dying one by one. The first took them left them a little shocked; the second kind of numb - until they realized that I wasn't letting up or holding back. Everyone was cheering on the last one standing to see how many thus they could take with them. I said: "Okay, that's how combat works." Then turning to the last one to die, I said: "Your awareness returns. You're consciousness is floating above your body, laid out in an inscribed circle of some kind, probably a summoning circle. Outside the circle you see a robed figure cloaked in shadow, poring over an ancient tome on the lectern in front of him. He leans heavily on a staff glowing with magical energy, and raises his eyes to regard you. 

'There is a task that I wish accomplished. If you agree to undertake it, then I will reunite your body and soul - and reward you handsomely, too. Answer quickly, there are other aspirants waiting, and I cannot abide indecision."

He had hired the thugs; the bar fight was his way of interviewing potential applicants; he started with the one's that survived the longest, and worked his way down.

The players all got to see how the system worked, how deadly combat could be, and how dangerous it was to be out-numbered in RQ. I let them tweak a few things here and there, and then the campaign began in earnest. They all had a common goal, the big bad had been introduced, and they had rough idea how powerful he was and how powerful they would have to be to get their revenge.

Having played RQ2 (briefly), played & run RQ3, and now running RQG; I still play in a quarterly RQ3 game, though the GM essentially uses RQ2 spirit & rune magic casting rules (no %roll to cast):

That said, I can see your player's frustration at casting spirit magic, though if they are shooting for Rune Priest/God-Talker, that should mostly solve itself, as having an 18 POW gives you a 90% chance to cast spirit magic. While the Rune Magic casting is new, it is quite possible to start with 90% in three Rune affinities at character creation, and since all Rune spells are now re-usable, this effectively makes using Rune spells easier than in any previous edition - especially since the idea of Rune Points is new to this edition (not counting Mongoose, BRP, Legend, etc....). In the games I have run, everyone rolls to cast spells unless time is not a factor (I never roll dice when failure means that dice will get rolled until there's a success).

My campaign is not set in Glorantha: it is set an older, less primal world where the gods are more distant and less immediately agentic. Because faith is an underlying theme of the world, I have re-skinned the Devotion passion as Faith (Cult). When casting Rune spells, a character can use the higher of their Faith or the Rune affinity for the spell. This does allow a little more reliability for casting Rune spells, but not overly so. 

According to page 175 of the book, the Alchemy skill is a cult secret of Chalana Arroy, Lhankor Mhy, and certain Lunar cults. YGMV

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I tend to be of the school that "If an NPC can do something, a PC should plausibly be able to do it (even if it requires obscene time and effort)." That being said, I do find this useful as a way of thinking about how Argrath acts. Rather than "this is bigger and cooler Rune magic," just "Look, he's being Jesus, okay? It's a miracle. You've got no freaking clue." Conceptually, I feel like this puts it in a different category than "normal" magic.

It might help to not think of Argrath as an NPC: he’s an NPC only in the same sense as the Crimson Bat is an NPC. 

I find it helpful to view the rules as an emulation of the workings of the world, not as the actual physics of the world. And I make that clear to my players. The rules do not describe everything that is possible, or even how things actually happen: they are a framework that allows the players to understand the world, and for describing how the characters interact with the world.

Argrath, it is strongly implied, is an illuminate. He would be much more intentional and deliberate than any Conan. He is beyond motivations like revenge, though others might see his motivations that way. He is careful, deliberate, and mindful. He is a mystic in his own right, with (literally) a unique perspective on worldly events and politics. He is not looking ahead to Sartar; he is looking ahead to the possible destruction of the Red Moon; Sartar is just something that will happen along the way. That is what the players should see: an otherworldly patience and sense of inevitability (to quote Agent Smith). Remember that Argrath isn’t trying to take on this or that group of people. He’s waging war against a Goddess, and he thinks he can win - and he’s got reason to believe he can.

He is a Hero: I wouldn’t worry about powers, stats, or abilities - his lieutenants should be powerful enough to wipe the floor with the player characters several times over without breaking a sweat. And the party should be very aware of that fact. Argrath has access to plot changing, map sculpting power. He has the equivalent of several vastly powerful Wyters at his command and can probably dump the equivalent of 100’s of rune points on SR 1 of the first round with little more than a wave of his hand. He commands spirits and elementals with powers and abilities that are unique and unknowable. His lieutenants command vastly powerful Wyters and have legendary abilities and allies of their own. 

Play up the real scope of his goals and intentions. Let the players measure themselves against that, if they’re getting to big for their britches. If they think they can go toe to toe with a would be god-killer, then they deserve whatever they get. 

On 10/28/2018 at 5:11 AM, PhilHibbs said:

I don't think that is the way that it is supposed to work. I think the MP used for healing count against Countermagic.

Multispell - does this spell allow the caster to cast two (or more) spirit magic spells each round, beginning with the very round that Multispell is cast?

the general rule is a clear “no”, but the text of the spell could be read as intended to circumvent that general rule. I’m tempted to run it as a “yes”, since otherwise the spell shows no benefit until round 3 (Multispell, 1st &2nd Spirit spells, 3rd & 4th Spirit spells; vs 1st Spirit spell, 2nd Spirit spell, 3rd Spirit Spell). 

Thoughts?