Godlearner

58 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Let me rephrase... It should stop people acting irrationally when such things are attacking. Not necessarily any particular chaotic powers, just regular fear/terror.

Too bad it does not work on players.

18 hours ago, Murf said:

So way back in the the day we freed Firshala. We sacrificed POW to her to get her "back on her feet". We didn't stay and develop a cult and eventually left for the next horizon. One player dropped out at that time and the story is his character stayed and became her "High Priest".

What Rune magic are you giving her under RQG rules?

3 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

On hindsight, we would have skipped redoing some of the older titles because they didn't meet sales expectations. (i.e. redoing a book to sell a couple of hundred copies just isn't worth it)

I would suggest redoing those as JC products. Couple of hindered copies there would be worth it. I am sure there would be people willing to work on that. If you can't find one, message me.

22 hours ago, ffilz said:

There have also been RQ games on Unseen Servant ( https://www.unseenservant.us/forum/ ). I did try running one there, but realized that running detailed combat in play by post was going to be tortuous.

That is an issue with play-by-post, but it can be dealt with by asking for multiple rolls from players with statement of intent. 

Is there are any actual none roleplaying uses for this spell? Does it work against Demoralize of Fear perhaps? Or is it flavoring only to be assigned to NPC Chalana Arroys?

51 minutes ago, RhinoDino1973 said:

I have not considered Play by Post.  I'm not sure how that works as I have little experience with that form of play.  Do you have a Play by Post game with an opening, Godlearner?

I do not currently run one, although I have in the past. There is a site called RPOL.net which hosts such games. You need to create and account, but its totally free. You can search for games in their forums. I have seen RQ games there. The play by post has the advantage of the player not having to be online at eh same time, in fact a lot of times players and the GM are in vastly different time zones. The posting rate differs by game from multiple times a day to once a week. Its up to the GM to fix that.  

Have you guys considered playing with Play by Post instead?

For a while we were trying to fool around with varying Initiatives, as in the other game, but in the end we went back to strike ranks. Not really happy with anything I seen in this respect. 

6 hours ago, Kloster said:

Or you were using RQ3.

Perhaps. We started playing with big mix of RQ2/RQ3 rules and no one really tried to separate them out.

My first character was a Waha worshipper from the Zebra tribe. He had the absolute worst luck with mounts and must have had at least five killed under him until one day the group came across an Argar Argar merchant with riding beetles. To make a long story short, my character got a beetle and rode it for the next five years of gaming. After a successful HeroQuest he was able to Release the beetle's Int and joined Gorakiki. Made an interesting team.

Looks like we were more generous than the rules called for.

44 minutes ago, David Scott said:

3. Location Receives 6 More Points Than Available
A limb hit for 6 points more than it can take in a single blow is severed or irrevocably maimed. Only a 6 point Healing spell or potion applied within 2 full turns, will reknit the limb.
RuneQuest Classic, page 20

These are new rules and we are talkin 80s and 90s

25 minutes ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

Our group was Yelmalians, who fought a lot of trolls, who could do big damage.  And we were out in the boonies a lot, so perhaps we had to rely on ourselves more than those in other campaigns.

Hmm, troll tend to use blunt weapons, which would mangle limbs as opposed to sever them. Do not need Heal 6 to restore mangled locations. 

11 hours ago, Dissolv said:

When they absolutely had to heal someone who was clobbered by a critical hit, giant, or other gloranthan life menace, Heal Body was the go-to.

Heal Body is a great spell, but it was either 2 or 3 points of POW previously depending on the source you read and only few cults offered it. Since Rune spells were one use for the most part, that was even worse. Sure, people got it if they could, but we always considered it more of a "well its either that or a DI" type of magic.

11 hours ago, Dissolv said:

Heal Wound was used sometimes, but it costs both Rune points and magic points. 

Magic points were mostly available in games I been after a session or two. Everyone had at least one POW spirit or a magic point matrix.

Heal 6s started to disappear from the party once people started to make Acolytes or Priests to free up the INT for other spells.

13 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

Either way, it means that accessibility to Rune Magic is limited to shrines and temples. In comparison, Spirit Magic is accessible from any wandering shaman or God Talker tending to a site, in addition to the same shrines and temples as Rune Magic... so my reading is that new Spirit Magic is more accessible than new Rune Magic if you're out in the wilderness (in addition to Spirit Magic obviously replenishing way faster). Did I miss something?

For the initial sacrifice, but once you have it, getting it back is simple (no matter the method you use). Getting Spirit Magic away from 'home' is not easy. Good luck finding a shaman or God-talker willing to teach someone who is not an initiate or a tribe member.

15 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

make enchantments for you,

That's a whole separate topic.  I just do not believe that priest do that for initiates except in very rare cases and at much higher rates than most people believe. 

6 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

One question that emerges is whether they can just choose not to take pay and hand out all the free Spirit Magic knowledge they feel like (and have time for) to other cult members (lay membership counts and is often easily accomplished to minimal cost) in the party? It seems so, and there doesn't seem to be any inherent cost involved.

We always assumed that there would be a minimum charged equal to the tithing that the teacher must give to the temple. So a priest may give a discount, but the temple takes their share.

32 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Except for those severed Left Legs... don't want everyone to end up at Gimpy's Tavern.

And a Heal Wound with 6 magic points will do the job.

2 hours ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

Heal 2 is sufficient to cauterize severe bleeders, and can be recast during the day to incrementally heal the rest.

Exactly the reason not to bother learning Heal 6

20 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

For established cults, the expectation is that priests initiate new members.  But we have the examples of spirit cults (typically started by shamans) and situations in both the Quickstart and in the RQ Adventures scenarios where PC's become the initial "priests" of a new cult. 

Pretty much all religions start this way. Someone has to be the first. 

14 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Interesting. During play, what was that fixed INT stat used for?

You could Befuddle or Mindblast a creature. The chance was not that good, but it was there. People already mentioned the Familiars, but it was also useful for see what a various pets could do, and what you could train them to do. I tend to use the Handle Animal skill from Pathfinder now in absence of any clear rules in any RQ editions.

15 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Another potentially important point is that, IIRC, Godlearner's game has been going on for decades? I think they half-upgraded to RQG from RQ3, so it's also possible that the characters all have more than 15 Rune Points each? And that's another important thing to mention, I'd say. And I would be totally open to believe that some things starts to break down with high-powered characters.

The game has been goin on for decades, but we switch characters every few years with old ones becoming NPCs. At teh moment the PCs have about 6 to 10 points in their Rune Pools. We are pretty much using RQ2/RQ3 rules, but are using RQG Rune Pools. The issue with temples and cults is that the PCs are in a relatively unexplored area of the world. There are several population centers about 3k people, but they are spread out. The cults are semi custom being subcults of major ones. 

Perhaps it is the accessibility to Spirit Magic vs Rune Magic which is influencing things. It is a lot easier, and cheaper, for PCs to get access to Heal Wound than a Heal 6 which is influencing their choices. Just wanted to know what others have experienced.

12 hours ago, lordabdul said:

I'm also curious what your problem was with the holy days -- was it the problem of always having to check the calendar to keep track of them?

Keeping track of calendar. Our games do not rely on set a set time schedule. Nor do we use standard cults.

4 minutes ago, Hteph said:

And this I can talk about for hours .

Sounds like you have a beginnings of a JC supplement on Alchemy. 😉 Drop us a line if you want to talk about it.  

17 minutes ago, Jeff said:

If adventurers don't have cults in the area, then replenishing Rune Magic is supposed to be hard.

We disagree on that. Given the time, a Sanctify spell should be enough to re-pray.

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

Mechanically we find it very easy. Players go to their temples and that becomes a significant event. It becomes key pillars around which they structure in-game time.

Sure, if the player worship the well known Gods, and are in the area with temples. It just does not work from our games.