Lordabdul

Is that the thing you're talking about? Ah thanks! Hadn't seen that yet. That seems very sensible to me. I had Elmal as a decently prominent cult up in my neck of the woods (the Bachad Tribe, up near Alone), mostly as a hold out from the older Tarshite times that these people are coming from, but I suppose it would indeed make more sense to follow your advice and make them retain even older traditions in the form of old-school Yelmalio Orlanthi cults (i.e. non Sun-Dome Yelmalio cultists). I'll probably pick whichever looks good based on the cult write-ups in the Gods books. I basically like the idea that, instead of having people arguing online in the real-world, we should have people arguing in game in Glorantha. This can be, to some degree, the Catholics vs Protestants equivalent in Sartar. Have different factions disagree about all this, make them scream and hit each other or heroquest the hell out of each other. That's probably a lot more fun than writing any more forum posts!

While I sympathize with this, I think it might also be partially incorrect: I don't see how post-1625 is "Argrath doing everything" while pre-1625 isn't "Kallyr and Leika doing everything" or something. I'm not sure very many past campaigns of RuneQuest featured the PCs doing the Dragonrise, or otherwise causing the collapse of the Lunar occupation in Sartar... and yes, I'm sure some people's PCs did something as significant (especially on these forums!) so no need to come at me and write a 5 paragraph retelling of a 17 years long RQ2 campaign: I'm talking about the majority of players out there who tend to play in a status quo because "that's the setting". But yes, a setting where "your people are living under the boot of the Lunar invaders" is an instantly gripping premise because you know exactly what to do: rebel, collaborate, or run away! Maybe all three, in that order! In comparison, the post-1625 setting where "your people are recently liberated from the brutal, decade long Lunar occupation... as you rebuild your life, power vacuums, old feuds, ancient magics, and new factions are threatening your future" is... well, first it's longer and trickier to write, and it's not immediately obvious what the players should expect, and what the GM should do. I guess that's why Chaosium decided to spit out as many adventures as possible ahead of the Starter Set and GM Guide. That said, it's not a totally unknown setting. There are several beloved sci-fi or fantasy franchises and stories that are set just after the end of a big war or other big world-shaking event, instead of in the lead-up to that event. Often, this lets the storyteller add a more local/sandbox dimension to the story: before, everybody is struggling against the Lunars. People might be struggling and dealing differently, but everybody's got more or less the same problem. After, everybody's got different problems: some might have some problems with leftover Lunar buildings with magical defenses causing trouble, others might have trolls or beast people moving in, others might be looking at dealing with ex-collaborators who are now feeling rather silly having converted to the Seven Mothers, and others might see the return home of rebels that had fled to Prax or Balazar. This is a setting that requires a bit more setup, but offers more opportunities in my opinion. That said, back to the OP: I like both settings But as I just said, they're good for different things, so it depends on what the project is. Bill only mentioned that it was an RQ sandbox, so I guess I think post-1625 is better for that if it's set in Sartar (again, like I said above). Plus, it would mean that it's playable by newcomers to Glorantha, who pick up the RQG rulebook and do the post-1625 character creation. I think it's good to make more content to hep grow the audience.

The best we have as far as I know is this thread: Now that the Pegasus Plateau is out, the Starter Set is next, and only after is the GM guide. I believe that both are scheduled for this year. Only the next item on the list (Gods of Glorantha) is on the "maybe" list and might slip into 2021 (or to be more precise, GoG "may" have a PDF before the end of the year... last I heard, it's pretty certain the printed version will be only next year).

Which Summon spell?

This mix of "stackable spells", boosting with MPs, custom spells that have MP-based spending, across two (excluding Sorcery here) magic systems (and excluding duration considerations!) is a major source of confusion, as far as I can tell. I know I was confused about all this for at least a few months. I wish these mechanics had been cleaned up and unified around fewer standard concepts.

Oh right, I didn't see that -- thanks. Huh, the RQ2 list of "standard Rune spells" is a lot different than the RQG one. I can't find where the standard Rune spells in RQ3 are though.

That's how I picture it too... well, assuming I'm understanding you correctly. Starting a cult in Glorantha is pretty much the same as starting a cult in the real-world, at least at first. Any Random Joe can ask people to come over to his place on Sundays, eat sandwiches and listen to him talk about metaphysics... and then talk about this marvelous plant he's putting in the sandwiches. And how listening to him will let them go to "the next level" and that they should give him money and so on. As Random Joe makes them do various rituals of his own invention over the next few years, they are knowingly or unknowingly heroforming the myths that he has created... with enough "weight", the myths are going to start to "stick" and he will be able to create, cast, and offer a limited, weak version of this new Rune magic. It keeps growing some more over the years... although I'm not sure if a God-in-the-making is supposed to already be able to have his own Rune magic, or if that would have to wait until he has moved on to the God World. At this point, Random Joe is drawing the attention of both the local cults (who are not happy to see this new cult in their backyard) and the Gods (because he can receive worship and give out new Rune magic, while not being tied by the Compromise). There might be a point at which Random Joe gets apotheosized just because he can't go on from the Mortal Plane without getting into serious trouble... or maybe apotheosis is required to start handing out Rune magic to his worshippers, making good on years of promises... I would personally go with the first option because this weird blend between the mundane and the divine is more interesting to me than a hard line between the two. A friendly and entertaining book about the link between ideas, reality, myths, and magic might be the comicbook "The Unwritten". The first few volumes are brilliant even though I thought it lost its way after that.

We had a thread a while ago about ties in Opposed Rolls and my takeaway from that thread was to figure out the subtle difference between "it's a tie, nothing changes", and "it's a tie, the situation is unresolved". The first one is boring: you keep rolling, and the story doesn't progress forward until someone wins. The GM should avoid doing that. The second is an opportunity for suspenseful scenes: the characters' goals for the rolls haven't been achieved (so they're continuing to move towards these goals) but haven't been thwarted either... somehow something changed in the scene that makes the action continue. The story is progressing forward, the tension is building, the stakes are higher.

Because nobody succeeded, I would keep the situation unresolved. The searcher hasn't found the hider yet, but she's not going away for some reason... she keeps searching (unsucessfully for now... in the wrong corner of the room) because she has a hunch that something's wrong, or found something else to do in that room (like maybe she found a hidden stash of ale or whatever, and is distracted doing that instead of searching). Same thing, the situation is unresolved: the assassin tried to move quietly but the guard heard something. The assassin stopped and froze in place, as the guard is currently looking around, mumbling "huh, what was that?". As such, yeah I would say they have to keep rolling. To add some tension, depending on the situation and the mood around the table, I might do a few changes: the guard is now looking around, so he can roll Scan now, if that's better than Listen. Maybe get +20%, too, because he's alert. And as such (same reasons) the assassin might roll Stealth instead of Move Quietly from now on. Maybe the guard calls the other guard on the other side of the corridor: "hey, did you hear that?", and now the assassin is up against 2 guards -- she might want to retreat and try sneaking around the other side.

Has Yelmalio always been such a sore point with RQ players? (it's not the first thread on this topic) As far as I can tell, the Yelmalio cult in RQG is virtually identical to the write-ups in both RQ3's Gods of Glorantha, and RQ2's Cult Compendium... (if anything, it gained a couple new spells and things in RQG). So surely that can't be a new "problem"? (AFAICT Yelmalio didn't get Shield from Yelm back then... just Sunspear) I think the one and only big thing that Yelmalio provides is the ability to use a Pike with a Shield. That's a pretty cool ability (especially when you look up the Pike's stats) but it may not have the same charm as a fancy spell. The downside is that Yelmalio being the God of Soldiers Who Fight in Phalanx Formation is kind of lost on player characters who are hanging out by themselves with a bunch of random other people from various other cults.... hard to make a phalanx by yourself. It might be more interesting if all the PCs are Light Servants from the same unit. Otherwise it's maybe more for NPCs, or if you're indeed willing to play the "fish out of water" guy. Haha well that could be arranged (/cc @Bill the barbarian @Joerg).

RQG says that "the situation is temporarily unresolved". It means that X is still hiding and Y is still searching because she thinks something's off somehow. Time passes.... if X or Y are under time pressure, they might start getting nervous or try something brash to hurry things up. Other things might happen: maybe X needs to roll for CON because cramps are coming up. Maybe Y gets replaced by another guard (with a different skill score) because she finished her watch. Maybe some drunk NPCs stumble this way, or a wild animal shows up, or the clan chief (that X wanted to spy on) suddenly leaves and walks aways, or whatever.... and if none of the characters are doing something else, then I guess they roll again (basically like an extended contest).

Under RAW, lay members are required to sacrifice 1 MP during cult holy day worship. Initiates are required to sacrifice 2 MPs, and do all their duties and tithing (1/10 of income and free time). Whenever the character stops doing that, bad things start to happen, but there are no hard and fast rules on this the same way there are no hard and fast rules on how one gets fired from their job, kicked out of their parish/temple/synagogue/etc., and so on. They're spirits that come after you. They can be anything that the GM deems appropriate. When in doubt, lacking imagination, or short on time, use an elemental spirit. Otherwise, Cults of Prax has examples of Spirits of Reprisal for most cults (not quite all), so the upcoming Cults book will probably have some more examples as well. I'm a bit confused by this desire for precise rules and stats... for example, it says that temples are often defended by a wyter, and that Earth temples rituals are also often guarded by Babeester Gor initiates... do you consider this to be "non-existent rules" because we don't know what kind of spirit these wyters are, or because we don't have stats and equipment for the guards? I don't know, just.... make something? You get the spirit of reprisal. You didn't transfer to an associated cult, you left cult A and became an atheist. Gods will probably be pissed off. Good question. I would allow it -- I mean, it's not like you can immediately transfer from on cult to another (at least there's no mention of this being a thing), so there will be a bit of overlap. But as mentioned on this thread: roleplay it. Are you leaving cult A in good terms or not? What actually happened? For me this might depend on another question, which is whether the Spirit of Reprisal is an "automatic" thing that descends upon you directly from the God itself, or if it's something that a temple's Priest sends after you. Based on the wording from the rulebook, it looks like it's the former, so I guess it depends on how the God feels about it (and, therefore, how the GM thinks the God feels about it). Changing cults is a major event in a character's life, so this should be about the story, not about applying rules in the rulebook. I find the Ban spell better than the Excommunication spell because it adds a locality and human aspect to the process: you're only banned from one temple, or one group of temples. This opens up opportunities for political shenanigans.

People in Glorantha feel whichever way you want about it It depends if you want to make it a story or theme or adventure out of it. A lot of people could still be grumbling about this issue despite "obvious proof" from Monrogh, the same way there's still a lot of people who grumble about (or even don't believe in) climate change or the Earth being round or vaccines being good. Or, maybe, a lot of people might indeed acknowledge the Elmal/Yelmalio identity, but still promote, or even fight violently, for their "traditions". There are obvious historical precedents for cultural and/or armed conflict between people who agree they have the same God(s), but disagree vehemently about how to call it, how to worship it, etc. There's a lot of resonating themes to deal with here, if you want that kind of heavy treatment in your game... if so, you may introduce a gallery of NPCs (and even PCs!) going from people who quietly and peacefully preserve Elmali traditions in their small community, slowly losing people each generation, to Elmali proselytizers traveling the country, all the way to a couple of hard-core Elmali steads where they stockpile pikes and shields under a big Elmali flag...err... shrine, plotting the takeover of their local clan ring (sorry, I've just finished binge watching Justified recently, so this is on my mind ). There are probably many other more interesting treatments of this whole matter.

What solution was that? Sure -- we all know there's no such thing as "balance" in RuneQuest, for good or bad. I only compared the occupations' skill points as a semi tongue-in-cheek "proof" that the authors might not like Hunters and, a bit more seriously, as a potential "excuse" for GMs to house-rule a couple extra occupation skills (so that when another player asks "hey why can't I get more skill points too?" the GM can wave at the Hunter being last in order to shut them up).

Yeah exactly, that's why I was saying it's no use to try and come up with a strict definition, or to try and make it a "rule" in the "RPG rules lawyering" sense. It might be worth it to call a vegetarian or vegan friend (if you have any ) and ask them if they have heated arguments about whether it's OK to eat this or that on online forums... it might be some good inspiration to add a bit of drama to the OP's Humakti character... and I imagine that "heated debate" might take a whole new dimension when we're talking about initiates of the Death God... "YOU ARE EATING.... RHUBARB!!!???" (takes out 2-handed sword, blade lights up, eyes turn black....) I like the idea of basing decision on either Rune affinities (anything with 1% or more in Plant Rune?) or Spirits (anything around which dryads are living for instance?)

Does it matter? I mean, do you expect a potentially ambiguous situation anytime soon in your campaign? "What's a vegetable?" is not a question you can ever answer in a strict fashion. You can start with the famous "tomatoes are actually fruits", where you need to differentiate between botanical classification and culinary classification. And then you can start asking if, maybe, your Humakti can eat rhubarb? (if there's any on Glorantha?). And so on. Just wing it -- don't think about it as "RPG rules", but more similar to what a vegetarian would think (and then pick the opposite or something).

Can you list the specific situations in which you are unsure how to apply the rules? (that rule isn't non-existent, and the concept isn't undefined) I wouldn't conclude that it's "relatively easy" (well, depending on what it's relative to ). Just because there are no spirits of reprisal after you doesn't mean it's easy: depending on what cult you're transferring to/from, you may have to "prove yourself" and otherwise jump through a bunch of hoops to be accepted as an initiate... going to/from Humakti might have more red tape for instance... but that's really up to your group. Some groups might make it a whole adventure, while other groups might only do a 5min narration followed by some quick edits on the character sheet. Yeah we're diverging a bit from the topic here so I'll try to keep the tangent to a minimum.

You know what I meant. And, in that definition, no they're not. It's common to run games where the PCs are children, beggars, pariahs, or recent exiles into unknown lands, for example. But yes, in more "standard" games, it's very common for the PCs to become clan thanes or otherwise attain position of power. Heck, Apple Lane is a common first adventure to play, and gives the players such an opportunity. I never said it wasn't accessible to PCs -- I believe I said the contrary very explicitly. My point was just an observation of the published NPCs, and a suggested rule of thumb for who may commonly have dual cult memberships for worldbuilding purposes. Good news: as per RAW, you can do that. The rules in "Leaving the Cult" state, about the spirits of reprisal: "These spirits do not come into action when initiates transfer to an associate cult". And of course, Yinkin and Orlanth are associated to each other.

Maybe this? FWIW, I don't agree with Scotty's answer here. Sure anybody has a reasonable chance of succeeding at any task given enough time and such -- that's why operating under no pressure gives you either sizeable bonuses (+40% was recommended by Jason IIRC), or lets you skip the roll and succeed directly. But having points in a skill also means that the character is doing this enough to be better than the average shmuck... it represents something. Some of us sometimes skip the rolls, but narrate things based on the score written on the sheet -- so the narration would be different between someone with the skill at default, and somebody with +20% in it. It matters IMHO. I would expect a hunter to be better at moving quietly and setting traps than a scribe or a chariot driver. The fact that, under most circumstances, they don't need to roll for this is irrelevant in my opinion: at some point, sooner or later, some situation is going to call for a roll, and at that moment, the player with the hunter character will be happy to step up... instead of everybody saying "I just have it at default", and everybody turning to the player who owns the lucky d10 dice.

It's when you fumble, though. If you get knocked down for other reasons, I would use the house-rules that I wrote above.

And according to my PDF index, that's the only pages that mention it in all the Glorantha books that have PDFs, so anything else is up to your imagination.

Yeah there have been threads in the past about Hunter occupations and Odayla/Yinkin cults, and the only conclusion we could come up with was that, probably, the authors really don't like hunter characters? (maybe some obscure story about them having to go hiking and hunting as kids instead of staying home and reading books? ). Occupations mostly give out between 150 and 185 points in occupational skills. The Scribe is an outlier, at 210 points. The Warrior and Healer are in the low bracket, with 140 points. The Hunter is the lowest, at 130 points -- lower than the Fisher (150). It would personally house-rule 10 or 20 points of extra skills to the Hunter, and it wouldn't feel out of place.

Same... that's one reason I'm not interested in the leatherettes, even though I'm usually a sucker for spending extra money on fancy gimmicks and pretty books. Is makes me a bit sad.... But the leatherette covers are just pretty much always inferior (to my eyes) to the full colour hardbacks. Maybe a dust jacket featuring the colour art would be a solution, but I also have a love/hate relationship with dust jackets, so I'm not even sure it would sway my opinion. One of the rare exceptions in my book collection is the CoC 20th Anniversary Edition, which looks like a forbidden Mythos tome, so that works very well in this specific case.

When you really go into it, pretty much everybody grumbles about the Sun Domers anyway

I can't find information either on how long it takes to get back up in RQ3 so I assume it's a mistake/missing thing. The Melee/Parry Fumble table says that if you fall down, it takes 1D3 melee rounds, so I would probably rule that it takes 1 round to get back up under normal circumstances. I might allow a character to get back up after DEX SR+3, if the player succeeds a.... errr, wow there's no Acrobatics skill in RQ3, or anything similar? I guess a DEX*3 roll then maybe? Critical/special success gets you back up in DEX SR (no +3), failure gets you back up in 2 rounds, and fumble gets you back up in 3 rounds, or maybe 2 rounds but you hurt yourself for a few damage points.