ChalkLine

Layered linen armour has a very long pedigree. Firstly, I'm not talking about Linothorax (which may or may not be factual, not that this matters) but rather linen armour made by stitching.
Linen, the cloth from the Flax plant, was the primary cloth for most of Europe during the ancient and medieaval eras along with wool. There was two ways of making 'padded' armour which was by quilting or layering, and I will only discuss layering here.

Tests by Dr. Alan Williams have found that layered linen of 16 layers provides as much protection as 5mm of cuirboilli leather protection, or resistance to about 80 to 90 joules of energy. Now, for comparison the energy produced by the average sword or axe varies from 60 to 130 joules, depending on the strike.

The maximum layers that linen armour can have and still be practical as armour is about 30, and this was the general amount used in the 15th Century when such armour was worn alongside 'articulated plate' ('white harness'). At 30 layers of linen the protection level is around 200 joules resistance, but that amount of layers was only worn on the torso. This armour was extremely common.

Now, linen armour has positives and negatives associated with it in comparison with metal defences. It could become soaked with fluid and heavy. In this condition it did not shed heat well and rapidly became oppressive. It could become infested with vermin and become a vector for diseases such as typhus, a common military encampment disease. It was however lighter and easier to manouevre in compared to the equivalent metal armours with their significant resistances to piercing.

They're often called 'Rockwoods Mountains Gargoyles' which could point to a Mostali origin, or simply that some mythic event occurred there

I'm just about to start in a Mongoose Hawkmoon game on Dischord next week.

I'm going to be at a huge disadvantage having not read the works

I'm thinking a mercenary as a basic, easy to understand start.

Are gargoyles some sort of mixture of Earth and Air?
Maybe with a dash of Mobility/Stasis weirdness?

5 hours ago, Iskallor said:

Mid combat always works for me. In the middle of a raid either against another clan or defending their home from a raid. Could be Trolls, pesky elves or even your friendly Lunar tax man.

Always a good idea.
Start with action as it ties the group together, gives them a reason to feel happy with group actions and is thrilling and investing

In RQ3 1L per day was a poor man's worth

Very much so.
Also, being slaves, the heroes could be rented out for functions and so on to add lustre to whatever you were doing. However the vast majority weren't heroes. Tyro gladiators probably had a high death rate, and especially in early matches where they had little 'name value'.

They could expect good quality health care though and in Glorantha that means quick trauma care for wounded gladiators, and added that infection doesn't work the same way in Glorantha (thankfully) recovery will be very likely. The way Rune Quest combat systems work the majority of deaths will be from specials and criticals, especially to the generally unarmoured torso. In normal combat a gladiator would probably be instructed to never apply their damage bonus and to just wait for a torso strike. Blasting through armour might result in a wound that wasn't seen by the audience and a thus a waste of gladiators, however I could expect a gladiator fighting for their lives to probably ignore that regularly.

While the sources are fairly silent about the fighting from the gladiator's perspective apart from a few interesting examples there are a lot of commentaries included in various works by spectators. Mainly they wanted fearlessness, stoicism and the 'manly' (Rome being very patriarchal) facing of death. As gladiators would primarily be in the Lunar Empire and The Holy Country, both with strong matriarchal or gender-equivalent cultures this may be modified, however in the Glorantha works there is still a strong vein of martial expectations and this is what gladiators addressed. It must be noted that women often went to gladiatorial matches, often to the offence of male sensibilities in Rome  How these sensibilities varied from class to class is not really known as the vast majority of the voices of the common people are silent. On the whole though the crowds seemed quite happy when a gladiator died, and what they wanted was the name of the game.

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

No Orate skill? Got to put on a good show! PCs with this background would be the best and longest lived, and probably earned their freedom through showmanship. RQG would get Intimidate, maybe instead of Fast Talk.

It'd be a bit hard to be heard down on the sand, especially with a Myrmillo helmet on. Fast talk was more for trying to get something past the Lanista, your owner.
There was a Mythras fan combat trait called 'showmanship' that might work, but only in a soft fantasy setting. What the fans wanted was blood, violence and then the gladiators bearing their wounds stoically.
As an aside, gladiators weren't nearly as popular as chariot racers, but they got covered in Monster Coliseum

Here's something I knocked up by rearranging the skill point allocation of the Warrior previous career.
It's posted here as a tool for those who want to simulate a gladiator, but it uses a heavily Roman-based model which I hope you'll find understandable. This is set in a Romanesque Lunar Empire from our  campaign, feel free to use it for ideas. Note that the main thing about the gladiator presented here is that it refers to them as the bottom rung of slaves and as such they are not given spells or equipment. The gladiator is viewed as disposable and likely to die so only physical training is wasted on them.
If interested I can become exhaustive on the culture of the gladiator from Rome but it's also widely available on the net. I make no assertion that this model is better or worse than many Hollywood or fantasy gladiator models. In fact way back in the 80s I had a ruined chaos-run gladiator arena in the Big Rubble that really broke the rules!

Rune Quest 3 Gladiator Previous Experience

Gladiators are slaves who are forced to fight so spectators can watch them display weapons skills and the stoic bearing of wounds up to death. They are trained harshly in the skills of personal close combat and are given extensive physical training to be strong, enduring and fast on their feet. Of all the slaves, gladiators are at once the lowest of the low due to them being forced to give their bodies for other’s amusement, yet they are also considered to be admirable examples of martial and human virtues in the face of death. A gladiator who is a willing fighter and bears their wounds with dignity are often famous and will have a large following of fans.
While most gladiatorial matches are not ‘to the death’, the chances of severe injury and death remained high. Weapons were proven to be sharp for the crowd’s approval and the torso of the gladiator was almost never armoured. The death rate was high.

Gladiators are never given spells. Statistic boosting spells might be cast on a gladiator before they entered the arena and healing spells might be cast on them when they are wounded, but the gladiator as slaves do not have spells and the spell would be lost when the gladiator died on the sand of the arena.
Instead gladiators are trained physically in Strength, Constitution and Dexterity when these statistics are raise-able according to the Rune Quest 3 ‘Increasing Characteristics’ rules (page 38, Player’’s Handbook). One point of training is given for every point of spirit magic they would normally receive. Note that some gladiators who are undesirable assets and were destined to simply die would not be trained at all.

Each gladiator is trained in a gladiatorial style and only the weapons inside that style are considered ‘cultural weapons’ with a base 30% skill. The following are some historical gladiatorial styles but the game master is encouraged to make up their own. Note that the gladiator never owns any of this equipment.

- Hoplomachus

Parma (Target), Spear, Machera (sword), Pugio (dagger), hand to hand. Helmet, greaves, balteus (armoured girdle), right arm manicum (arm guard)

- Laquearius

Trident, Lasso, Dagger, hand to hand. Right arm Manicum (arm guard), balteus (armoured girdle)

- Murmillo

Scutum (Hoplite Shield), Gladius (short sword), Pugio (dagger), hand to hand. Helmet, greaves, balteus (armoured girdle), manicum (arm guard)

- Retiarius

Trident, Net, Dagger, hand to hand. Right arm manicum (arm guard), balteus (armoured girdle)

- Samnite

Scutum (Hoplite Shield), Gladius (short sword), Pugio (dagger), hand to hand. Helmet, greaves, balteus (armoured girdle)

- Secutor

Scutum (Hoplite Shield), Gladius (short sword), Pugio (dagger), hand to hand. Helmet (special smooth helmet to avoid being snagged or caught), greaves, balteus (armoured girdle), right arm manicum (arm guard)

- Thraex

Parma (Target), Sica (short sword), Pugio (dagger), hand to hand. Helmet, balteus (armoured girdle), greaves.

- Veles

Buckler, Javelin, Gladius (short sword). (Note: The Veles’ javelin had a ten metre leather thong that attached it to the Velites’ arm.)
- Dimachaerius
This sub-group of gladiators dispenses with a shield and uses a Gladius (short sword) in each hand but is otherwise identical to any other sword-wielding gladiator. The off-hand sword has a base chance of 20%

SKILLS:
Jump x2, First Aid x3, Martial Arts x3, Fast Talk x2, Conceal x1, Sleight x1, Listen x1, Hide x1, Sneak x1, Scan x1, Fist Attack x2 or Grapple Attack x2, Dagger Attack x2, 1H Weapon Attack x4, Shield Parry x4 or Dodge x4 or if Dimachaerius Offhand 1H Weapon Parry x4, 1H Weapon Attack x4 from another gladiatorial style or if Dimachaerius 1H Weapon Attack x4.

Equipment:
Linen tunic, Sandals, 1D3 Scars, Slave Brand if applicable, Rudiarius (wooden short sword) for freed gladiators.

Amour Notes:
Helmets, greaves and manica are either 6AP or 8AP plate, manica may also be chain mail 7AP, scale 6AP, padded linen 1AP, leather 2AP or cuirboilli 3AP. All have 1AP sub armalis padding. Balteus is heavy leather 2AP or cuirboilli 3AP.

Rune Quest 3 Civilised Gladiator previous experience.odt

The old RQ2 supplement 'Rune Masters' had some great unit tactics for GMs to use, but you have to be careful not to make the enemy too tactically aware. Even with a good commander troops sometimes get distracted and can't process orders. In fact, you could even subtract from attack and parry skills if the troops are spending too much time in battle hanging off the words of their leaders. The sheer noise of fighting is indescribable and I've never even had the screams of the wounded to contend with.
Not only is this more realistic and therefore giving something your players can react to logically, but if you make your enemy a terrifying cohesive unit your players are going to get slaughtered. Ancient skirmish warfare is more individualistic than that.

I"m afraid I have to disagree. Unless it is a particularly broad-bladed spear, in which case it should have unusual statistics, they should be about the same from all the spears and swords I have looked at. RuneQuest doesn't really have the granularity to distinguish between them.

As for doing less damage on the thrust, that is covered in the OP

I'm a historical European martial artist (HEMA) and it's a common tactic to 'give point'. You only have to shove the point in a few inches to kill someone. It's also one of the only ways you can stop an enemy closing and grappling you and no one wants that

I've been running them since '81, but in pre-internet Australia so many times I had to make do with limited knowledge. 

The Prax/Pavis game started with Borderlands and went from there as we scratched up information*. Over time the game focused on daily life as a mercenary treasure seeker in an ancient city and slowly morphed into a city living game. Characters came and went. The initial theme of resisting the imperials became more an investigation of what we thought the dynamics of the multi-layered city were. The concept of chaos subverting social structures and the various cultural methods of resisting that took off.

The sea-faring game was based on my long standing interest in ancient navigation. Nuances of The Closing really didn't feature in the game bit instead it was what life was like as as a merchant sailor in a world full of dangers and adventure. We never really dealt with the underseas peoples but rather the various exotic shores. A really under-utilised game I think that had so much possibility.

The sorcerers campaign was set in Western Ralios and was a quirky, Jack Vance style game that often focused on individual characters and their personalities more than anything else. This was where most 3rd part basic medieval fantasy was blended into the game and give Gloranthan flavour. Still a game that players reminisce over.

(*this constant struggle to get information is why retcons annoy me so much I think)

If they can't they should

I thought about classing weapons either as a 1d8+1 (one hand) damage or 1d10+1 damage (two hand) and then sticking with the incremental dice damage bonus, but to be honest I just wanted tweaks and not a rewrite of the weapon rules. The other big difference is really in strike ranks, especially when using the 'closing range' rule. RQ2/RQ-G does this better with their wider strike rank range.
Perhaps if I was to do my own setting but not for general play

Even armoured sabatons don't cover the sole of the foot and ancient shoes/sandles might only count as soft leather/hard leather

The big problem I have with the mods now is that they don't scale well as you get bigger. Even if you replace a 'crush' special with a 'slash' special the strength bonus is too large at +2d6 level.
I once had a different damage bonus table that just went up in dice; 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12 and then around again; 1d12+1d4 etc etc but I feel it's too finicky

7 hours ago, The God Learner said:

It might depend on the group but I've had the same experience. Unfortunately, though also somewhat amusingly, my players revolted when I tried running a Pendragon-style campaign. They really wanted their micromanagement. I didn't force the issue, and, in their defense, skipping substantial portions of time does lead to a somewhat different type of story. (E.g., with micromanaged time your character will never age during play and you can hang on to the same highly developed character more or less forever.)

I don't think it's practical to track every moment. As you say, part of the trick of GMing is managing that slide of time scales without breaking immersion

This is not my experience.
Since '81 I've had players 'living in the world' using calendars* and I have had nothing but vital, gripping games. The Riskland Campaign was one of these where players lived in the world, doing farming tasks as well as adventuring tasks.

(*RuneQuest3 sorcery for a start needed a strict calendar to work as designed)

An old word for 'God Man' was 'Godi'. I also use this for Orlanthi shamans.

I think that in most barbarian societies the distinction between priest and shaman is unknown to everyone else but those who actually are one

13 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Marked - yes, it's the three little huts in the lower left. Labeled - no.  So, if you don't like Greenbrass and want something else there, easy to deal with. And if you want to resurrect Greenbrass from the old RQ3 scenario, you can do so.

I don't think the scenario really did the village justice
However it doesn't have the rich texture of Apple Lane, a setting I don't really like because it's a Gloranthan wild west town (as an Australian I don't have that link to the wild west)

On 11/21/2018 at 12:51 AM, Joerg said:

There is no real solution to the Cyberpunk dilemma other than "get privileged".

Some would say that cyberpunk is the doomed rebellion you know will not succeed but is better than submitting to the process of dehumanisation

For some reason I've always had a mental image of bison as water buffalo, probably because we have them here in Australia and not bison

On 12/29/2016 at 1:20 PM, TRose said:

As far as swords in metal poor area, the Dragon Newts use swords that look like the Aztec macuahuilt and I can see the Praxian tribes and poorer  warriors using similar weapons , although they would be made out of wood and obsidian, not dragon bone.

Trolls as well, with their well-developed stone knapping culture. 

Here's a weapon I have on one of my PCs, a trollkin (RQ3, as 'naginata'):

Saw-Tooth Spear. A five foot in length weapon with a four foot elf-bone shaft tipped by an eighteen-inch long flint or obsidian blade. The last two feet of the shaft has a serrated cutting edge of flint and obsidian leaf blades horizontal to the shaft. The blades are socketed, wrapped in leather then the entire section is laminated with chitin strips soaked in resin. This limits the razor edges of the flint but makes the weapon far more robust. There is a small crossbar halfway down the shaft. Although Verzeg doesn't know it it's known as a 'Trollkin Bread Knife' in New Pavis. 2.0 Enc