Sumath

Page 36

"The adventurers should figure out how sneak into the
ruins, fight off any guardians, and escape with the evidence"

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Three items on Page 81:

"The troll spirits’ movement is only be choreographed
if One-Eye is nearby, directing their dance."

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"The gamemaster should determine which by
considering the way the adventurers gained entrance, whether
they encountered One-Eye, and whether is she escorting the
adventurers into the Ruin"

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"In any settlement area (with the grey background on the
map) it perpetually gloomy, humid and smoke filled"

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Page 63

Seven Foals Vale is referred to as "Seven Fouls Valley"

Page 38 boxed text

"Originally small, the settlement eventually
it became a center for Ernaldan and Orlanthi
worship"

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Page 12

Description of Duck Point:

"Round reed-roofed huts are piled
practically on top of each other, wooden walkways stretch
over marshland and water, and big nets hang up everyone"

What does this mean? Re-word to make this clearer?

I'm suddenly feeling very festive indeed!

I'd go with 2. There are bound to be unique geases that certain Humakti have. Plus, YGWV.

As long as new geases are of a similar level of inconvenience as the existing ones, and not just 'cannot lick fingers on Godsday' or something.

19 hours ago, lordabdul said:

on the third round the claw-tendrils are destroying the environment from one of your character's childhood memory, on the fourth round the claw-matrix is slicing across your love for your clan, or raising your fear of famine brought by a long dark season, and on the fifth round it's manipulating the concept of helplessness and trying to wrap that around your spirit self. Or something. Drugs might help.

This is interesting - especially as it brings Passions into play and the opportunity for augmentation (and Passion skill checks). You could really f*** with your players' heads too. A Lunar spirit accompanying its assault on an Orlanthi with claims that that they have already unwittingly betrayed their clan, or that they will never live to rescue their loved ones...

19 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Battling a disease spirit might be an exercise in increasing body horror tropes, until you reach pure corruption concepts.

Not forgetting that fighting POW or INT-affecting disease spirits would involve the adventurer's spirit being affected by mental or magical sicknesses, and that's where things could become super trippy. You could actually build an entire session around the fever dreams arising from spirit combat. They could also act as rehearsals for confrontations that the character fears/knows are imminent in the middle world.

19 hours ago, lordabdul said:

It might also be a good idea to make the weirdness/conceptualism go up and down to represent how the fight is going

Yep, it'd effectively be a tug-of-war, with the loser being drawn further into the opponent's perspective each round.

The RQG combat system is crunchy enough to obviate much of the description of melee, but spirit combat’s opposed rolls are more abstract, so narrating what it looks/feels like is wide open to interpretation. I've been wondering how best to do this and would be interested to hear from anyone who's given this some thought or had some cool in-game spirit combats.

The following could conceivably be true for two spirits fighting in the spirit world, or for the subjective experience of someone in the middle world being engaged by a discorporate spirit:

Unreal – the two warring spirits closely resemble Gloranthan combatants with weapons and armour, or a warrior versus some terrible monster (with jaws or claws etc). Spirit combat success corresponds to a wounding blow being described, with blood and guts. Their appearance (and the setting of the combat) may be exactly akin to how they look(ed) in the middle world, or there may be something slightly off about everything. The physics of their duelling space may be like the middle world’s or strangely different. A classic example of this is when a character in mythology crosses to the spirit world without realising, and it slowly dawns on them as things get weirder.

Otherworldly – one or both spirits appear as spectral figures, and the physics of the duelling space are free of gravity, if not inertia. The space is an abstract one – perhaps a white or black void – or perhaps a place associated with the life of the attacking spirit (if a ghost). Two spectral figures grasping at each other could be less interesting to narrate, but could perhaps be combined with brief, emotive flashbacks from a spirit’s memories every time it wins/loses a round (this would also give the GM the opportunity to tell the spirit's story).

Characteristic Manifestations – the two spirits’ appearance is determined by their individuality: e.g. a dominant attribute, Rune or Passion, a totem animal, their clan/cult emblem, or an object emotionally associated with them. This manifestation may stay the same throughout the combat, with their spirit damage being themed accordingly (e.g. a stag might charge with its antlers). Alternatively, the two spirits might change their appearance constantly as the combat develops (think of Ceridwen chasing Taliesin), morphing from one shape to another (in response to success/failure with the dice).

Trippy – a mixture of the above elements. Also, the landscape may morph constantly in response to the spirit combat, stretching, slowing, fracturing, or transforming completely. This could be quite disorientating if it turns into an extended combat.

Since the spirit world is not fixed in nature, any of the above could be true at any given time, or the combat might segue between them.

6 hours ago, DrDave said:

You might mention, just for clarity, that everything after the first four paragraphs is an example of a Theyalan sacred time.  Right? 

The source is Orlanthi Sacred Time rites. But I'd have thought it's only the fourth, fifth and eleventh days that you'd need to change for sky cultists. And swap in some solar deities in some other places.

Even then, I guess it's more a change of perspective and emphasis than anything else. Yelm worshippers will still commemorate the death of the sun and its rebirth, just spun a different way.

34 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

So why is everybody bending backwards changing everything to make this "more open to women" when they are all going to be special cases anyway?

All adventurers are special cases. But knowing where they fit into society (at least initially) is important in a Gloranthan role playing game.

I can't see that anyone is 'changing everything' though. It's just a character option. Other games churn those out all the time and nobody bleats about it. 

2 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

There's no threat to the population of a clan with 500 women because they have three Vingans who don't want to bear children

Indeed. Attempting to extrapolate a population collapse from a female adventurer's decision not to get pregnant is risible. Adventurers are atypical examples of their clan and very little of what they do can be generalised for the rest of their clan.

I'd just repurpose the hippogriff or griffin statistics, but without the bite or claw attacks obviously. I'd say they are definitely Sky Rune creatures.

Not having the bestiary in front of me, I can't remember what attacks a hippogriff has, but you could use a horse's attacks. I'd also say that Pegasi are probably intelligent in the same way griffins are, and may have spirit magic.

Edit: ah, Jeff beat me to it.

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 2:41 PM, soltakss said:

One of the things I hate about the new way that Glorantha is described is how PCs are always closely tied to their Bloodline/Clan/Tribe/Whatever, as it restricts them and forces them down a certain path.

The thing with this, I think, is to ensure that none of that becomes too restrictive or a chore for players, even if it is for the adventurers. Play it up when there is an opportunity for adventure through kith or kin, and play it down when the adventure arises from some external source.

In-game, adventurers' clan ties and relations should be a bit like the diminutive size of the hobbits in Peter Jackson's movies - you don't need to show it all the time, just give reminders every now and then.

Game balance be damned, but if anything, I'd say troll vulnerability to iron is something that evens the game up.

Taking down a SIZ 25 Zorak Zorani is difficult enough as it is, without them being able to remove their Achilles' Heel as well.

As for elves... those tricky, ambushing buggers need taking down a notch anyway.

One of my players has rolled up a female pimp and she's a Vingan - a madam who is very capable of defending those working for her.

56 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

But what do other people see? Would they see the questers travelling in the word, wit their hero glow on? Or do they disappear from the regular world so that onlookers can't see them, and then they re-emerge into the regular world after completing the quest (or being booted from it)?

There's an illustration in the RQG rulebook (don't remember the page, but it's close to the beginning) that kind of answers this - a crowd of people observe their kin enacting a ritual (possibly a heroquest), and the questors are shown as transforming into the god-form of those they are representing.

I'd imagine it would be quite a trippy experience whether you were an observer or a participant, and for a Heroquest that I've written (based on Ernalda Feeds the Tribe as written in KoDP) I've listed a bunch of perceptual changes that occur when one enters the God Time. 

The next three products for release contain playable content: The Smoking Ruins (scenarios and sand box), Pegasus Plateau (mini-scenarios/encounters) and the Runequest Starter Set, which will contain a write-up of Jonstown. I'd guess we'll see the first of these as a PDF release in early 2020.

5 hours ago, Jeff said:

Its the next supplement after Pegasus Plateau.

Well, this is exciting! I didn't even know a Jonstown supplement was in the works... 

The map of Clearwine in the GM Screen Pack provides a good basis for escape/chase scenes - the Upper City is full of flat roofs to jump between, the Lower City has a mix of flat and pitched roofs (remove some tiles and hide out amongst the beams until the coast is clear), and there are plenty of battlements along which escapees may flee, or lower their knotted sheets from.

There is also the Hero's Trail, which originates from a sally port in the North wall and is perfect for getaways by those in the know, and a market place in the Upper City is great for knocking over stalls of fresh fruit during the chase scene.

Alternatively, there are vineyards surrounding the city through which games of cat & mouse might be played out by fugitives and their pursuers.

My tuppence' worth: the production standards of the releases so far have been well beyond any previous RuneQuest materials and beyond what I was expecting. After taking my players (80% of whom are new to RuneQuest) through character gen recently, most of them have said they will probably buy a copy of the rulebook, because they can see the potential of the game and think that the book is a thing of beauty. So, in my experience new players are responding positively to the approach Chaosium are taking.

Yes, we'd all love to see new product come out quicker, but I'm pretty sure that Jeff and Jason are under no illusions about that and also want to support their product as soon as possible. I suspect releases will become regular next year once the finished manuscripts start to increase and artwork begins to roll in. This has all the makings of being a real purple patch for Chaosium, with regular artists and writers collaborating on some of the best gaming material ever produced by the company, or indeed anybody.

As for the amount of material available, personally, I'm now at a point where I'm ready to kick off my campaign (4th December) using the scenarios from the GM Screen Adventures book, The Broken Tower, The Rattling Wind and a few HeroQuest and 13th Age scenarios I've decided to convert. Along with three original scenarios I've written, I've got enough material to last over two years of game time (based on one adventure per season). I've put them in order and figured out a campaign timeline, but if Smoking Ruins and Pegasus Plateau come out in PDF in the next few months I'll rejig my timeline or increase the number of adventures per season.  There'll also be the Jonstown Compendium to supplement all this.

One final point though @Jeff - the information posted about layout being 1/3 done etc is all great to hear - could there be more frequent updates of this kind? I understand Chaosium's reticence on giving out release dates, given the history of these slipping, but 'percentage done' type statements are the kind of communication that keep people abreast of what's going on, without over-promising. 

5 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Basic motivations: Broos are mostly worshippers of Mallia and Thed, and it looks like they really just want to (1) multiply, (2) spread disease, (3) fuck Chaos-haters up. Is there anything else they want in life?

I'd say their main motivation is their nihilistic hatred of order and life, in so far as most living creatures represent highly ordered and harmonious forms of existence, something that Broo instinctively detest. Even the Broo desire to reproduce reflects this, since it results in a chaos monstrosity that will be similarly opposed to other forms of life.

The Thed Rune spell Chaos Spawn fits perfectly with Broo mentality, creating a howling void into which they sacrifice living creatures, and summoning a Chaos monster to aid them in whatever destruction they are undertaking.

Causing disease is another expression, since disease is a corruption of life and a breakdown of the order that allows life to continue.

Disease, rape, murder, desecration, infection, vandalism, sacrificing to Chaos gods, and undermining foes of Chaos are all expressions of their visceral hatred of humans and the Elder Races. 

Broo society is simplistic and based around gang mentality, with the most formidable Broo becoming the leader. But they will temporarily participate in more complex hierarchies if it will help them achieve long-term goals. The existence of Broo in the wilds and upon the periphery of human societies means they must be capable of long-term strategies, so I don't think they are always necessarily impulsive.

Therefore, I see Broo as being capable of anything that fits with their nihilistic perspective, and this will include forming temporary partnerships with other Chaos creatures, such as harpies, scorpionmen or ogres, that seek to pervert life or nature, or end it entirely. In other words, they will suffer just enough civilised behaviour to destroy civilisation.

But then there is the fact that Broo are also living creatures, so they will also foster self-hatred and hatred of other Broo and Chaos creatures. It is simply a matter of them hating non-Chaos creatures even more. So, I don't think they would capture animals they have impregnated - Broo would not much care whether an individual offspring survived or not, they would just seek to create as many abominations as they could.

Likewise, I can't see them selective breeding, because a) this would represent an aspiration for a type of ordered life, and b) the chances of Chaos features occurring could render this futile anyway.

Human communities have wyters. What about very large groups of animals or insects - would they have a communal spirit associated with them? One that could be appeased to prevent e.g. a migratory herd leaving the land or a swarm from devastating it?

With regards insects, Gorakiki seems to be hands-off in terms of their behaviour, so I'm looking for a way to make insects available for negotiation or influence.

On ‎10‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 10:40 AM, Mirza said:

Pattern branding seems to only be done to specifically valued animals, not necessarily an entire herd, but this feels like exactly something that would be done for a Rune Lords horses.

I like this idea. Maybe feathers/wings on the side of a Yelmalion's horse, elaborate swirls and whorls for a Wind Lord's steed, lines of text for a Sage to show off their learning, skulls or blades for a Sword's warhorse.

1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

Supposedly, you want to be able to keep track of horses at a better granularity than “Property of the Lunar Army”, so it’s probably a regimental symbol.

It could be simpler than that - perhaps just a Moon rune followed by the initials of the phalanx or cavalry section. Although that then begs the question of what New Pelorian initials look like.