JRE

Free Int is so powerful that allowing anything over 25 starts to break the world, as you get duration in centuries and range over a thousand kilometers. So actually doing some numbers, I think any increase in Free Int should be reserved for Caste benefits, and we need a different mechanical effect if I want sorcerers to use grimoires. As we work to convert spells, our impression is that Sorcery is less broken than RQ3, if only by taking out the general multispell and adding the multispell effects in the spell descriptions, but some spells are already broken in the rulebook (Steal breath, for instance), and the invitation to make your own spells is a pandora box. It will be compoundedd, but I will do it anyway we add the compulsory but not present in the rulebook Project Sight or Remote viewing, the spell all sorcerers that read the rules want to have, though a Farsight spell could do well enough. My design of Remote viewing (Summon Truth Movement, though I could accept Combine Truth Movment), similarly to other spells, would move at 12 m/round, but I would have each 4 points of Intensity add 12 m to speed, just because it is no fun to have the sorcerer spend an hour to move the viewer to wherever it needs to be when they have Range and Duration to spare. No fun. It can de detected and countermeasures would be effective, but usually you can put enough range (counted from where the sorcerer is standing). A potential limitation could be that the viewer does not fly but moves as the sorcerer, but besides making islands surprising anti magic fortresses, what happens if the sorcerer actually can fly?. Flying viewers adds the Predator drone remote attack to Glorantha, but I fear it corresponds to what the Glorantha myths and stories tell us. Crystal ball or mirror a must. The character I am converting is peaceful and detests violence, so he uses Palsy a lot, I suppose that as most RQ3 and derivatives sorcerers, as well as Command Human and defensive spells, healing and utility spells. He however has fire bolt for magic duels and undead clean-up. It will be a modified finger of flame that is instant rather than having a duration, but starts at 1d6 at strength 1. Strength 13 allows either a 4d6 bolt of fire or 2 3d6 ones, 3 2d6, or 4 1d6. Hit by DEXx5, can be dodged or parried by a shield if aware of the attack. All bolts go to the same target, but it makes dodging or parrying harder. Still working on Palsy. The doubt is whether to keep Strength against hit points in the location as in the past, or to add some full body palsy effect. Lacking multispell really decreases the effectiveness of the spell, but it was too powerful anyway. Still working on the Runes. Command Human is too similar to, obviously, Command Human. Separate Human Life requires a less useful technique and three components seem too much for a simple spell. Summon Stasis is my current favorite and adds the possibility it could function on anything, even undead or constructs, as a compensation for decreased efficiency and that you need to succeed in two tests, POW vs POW and Strength vs HP. The player has the Movement rune, so even if the MP cost is high, at least it does not change too much the player concept.

Where do you get that lust is a perversion of love? Lust is quite separate from love, and for most Gloranthan cultures, an expression of life, to be enjoyed and shared. Forcing your lust on others is perverse, and it may open the way to chaos, but it is the forcing, not the lust, which is to blame. After all, Uleria is probably the only member of the Celestial Court that survived. That has nothing to do with berserk chaotics, but Glorantha is quite explicit in enjoying shared lust. You can create your chaotic spirit cult with berserk, but it will be impossible to get the powerful Storm Bull package (Berserk, Shield, Face Chaos, Impede Chaos, and if at need Earthpower and Cure Chaos Wound). Half of these comes from associates, and that is not a chaotic thing. I think that is why Ralzakark goes with humakti broos. They do not need to be illuminated, and with enough of them, you can get powerful magic. And Sword Trance more that compensates for Impede chaos and berserk.

The only way to get this to work is to use it, and see what works and what does not. I considered most of the options Godlearner mentions, but I found it difficult to justify improving Free Int without a good reason, or making sorcerers magic resistant. A sorcerer normally would rely on neutralize spells rather than its own POW. However for Magi I like the idea of the defensive familiar. With Enhance INT you can get INT +5 for a while, so, with enough MP you can get Intensity 8 for a season, without enchanting further matrixes, or INT +3, which also means Neutralize Armor 8, Neutralize Spirit Magic 8, or Boon of Kargan Tor 8 (+2D6 damage for a season, or +1D6 for 4 years). I would prefer to have more specific, Gloranthan effects, such as the Aeolians have +10% and one extra intensity in all sorcery with the Air rune, or that a Rokari that respects the caste limitations has +2 Free Int, rather than getting it just for being a sorcerer. It requires planning and a ton of MP, but it gives certain huge long lasting bonus to a party, specially as other players can use other magic such as speedart of bladesharp with the sorcerous bonus. The proposals for sorcerer and Magus try to let a sorcerer some autonomy, though that is really what other party members are for. The INT 18 limit of 7 techniques and runes is quite limiting, at least if you do not want characters that require hundreds of MPs. Even then, with a minimum of ten runes to access all and six techniques, I felt a Magus needed more, but no mortal will master more than a few runes. For Worship Malkion or IG, depending on the sect, I would use a lower percentage, to make it more of a pyramid and assuming you may have, for example among the Rokari, 5 or 6 levels between Leblanc and you, and all will take a portion. I would be generous with worshippers MP, so a town with fifty adults may yield 500 MP. I would let 25% to stay at the kirk, but it must be shared among the leading worshippers. 25% for the parish, 25% for the bishop or whatever they are named, and 25% for the watchers, including Leblanc. 4 is how the West arrange things, from castes to cardinal directions.

As I have mentioned already, I am slowly converting my campaign to RQ:G. As the main character is a Jrusteli university student doing intern work for some diplomats/agents of the Middle Sea Empire in Kethaela, sorcery plays a big role. I do not see any big problems with changing sorcery rules to conform to RQ:G, except that I will need to add quite a few more enchantments to make his grimoire. The other character, a graduate of Slontos Universal Eurmal School / Temple, acting as his bodyguard, wingman and nemesis, has some spells but never did anything with them, focusing in Spirit magic and some Rune magic. The main thing missing, in my opinion, besides a ton of spells more to represent the widespread RQ3 and MRQ sorcery, are status positions similar to priest / Godtalkers and Rune X, with mundane and magical benefits and obligations. It feels convenient from a game reward balance point of view. I would propose two stages too, based on the old RQ3 sorcery discussions, and also because that is what the character actually was working with, but reversing them a bit. The first level would be actual Sorcerer, or Zzabur for caste schools, with the requirement of having one spell at 90%, obviously RW school language at 90%+, as well as Meditation, School Lore and five mastered Runes and techniques. The Sorcerer must prepare a grimoire with at least six spells, that means six sorcery spell matrixes. Usually that means a book, but certain schools may prefer tattoos, engraved breastplates, or a quarterstaff of power. I would apply several benefits to sorcerers. Improved POW rolls if they have a religious role in the community, only for schools with a religious bent, and the subsequent time requirement. Those also will have extra MP after the ceremonies, a good moment for casting long lasting magics. The second benefits are school dependent, access to a bonus technique and rune, over the maximum for INT, and a mechanical bonus for casting tied into the Grimoire, such as bonus intensity for spells cast through the grimoire, only to be used in one specific technique, or a smaller bonus to free INT, to a flat bonus to spellcasting certain spells or on certain conditions. Casting through the grimoire will always take an extra round, as you page through it, or find the right tattoo. Finally I would propose, purely as game balance, that Sorcerers can keep a spell ready in their mind, occuppying Free INT equal to its total intensity, so it can be cast in SR5. Just to give lone sorcerers a survival chance. It can be kept indefinitely, but the Free Int used in holding it is unavailable till the spell is cast. Obviously you cannot get grimoire bonus in such a "ready" spell. The roll is made at the time of casting, so you do not know how good it is till the moment of truth. The top level is Magus. A magus must create a familiar and master (90%) six spells in their grimoire, though they can add more. They must have mastered their INT maximum of Runes and techniques, including the school bonus. They can also create additional grimoires from other schools, if they get to join them, though they will not get their rune and technique bonuses. Familiars can hold a "ready" spell for their masters, as described above for sorcerers, but that also limits their Free INT. They can use their familiar's POW instead of theirs to resist magic, if it is higher and the familiar is within POW meters. Preferred familiars will depend also on the school, and I am still unconvinced if you can have only one Familiar at a time, or more. Most schools have their Magi with either teaching or religious functions, so usually they are quite busy. A few schools allow solitary independent Magus, but they will not get any community support. Familiar creation is a ritual that must be learned, combining Create and Tap techniques, similar to RQ3, but limited to animals or inanimate objects. The ritual must succeed and casting it always costs 1 POW. The animal awakens without INT expense, but you must sacrifice one characterirtic point of your choice. You can increase any of its characterirtics, including INT (maximum 18) but you must reduce a characteristic of yours, including the racial maximum, the same amount. An inanimate object will receive a spirit of law, identical to an allied spirit (random INT, POW and CHA), by increasing at least its SIZ (depending on its size) and if you want it to act independently, other characteristics, by sacrificing in the same way. Other aspects are identical to allied spirits Other schools may have stranger familiars, such as golems (requiring less sacrifice for its SIZ), elementals or Godtime animals. But no powergamers making familiars out of Nymphs, Wraiths, Demons or other abominations. An awakened animal or a potentially mobile ally spirit on an object. That should be enough. You need to keep the animal friendly, though you can use sorcery, if the duration is enough to last the ritual. If your luck holds it still would allow you to have Death Lizard as a familiar. The PC is still at sorcerer level, so no big concerns yet about the details of Magus status. What do you think?

We met at Tentacles, Castle Bacharach, in 1997, so there are witnesses we are two separate people. We could be different Arkats, however. I GMed him in the Tower of Xud PBEM, 1996-1997, and by the end I had saved our correspondence to and fro and it exceeded a million words, ten times as much as the second most prolific, with Paolo Guccione. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for the rest of the universe, the 31/2" disks were corrupted when I checked them a few years later.

For Lunars, Yanafal Tarnils does nicely... I would expect most Chaos cults be more in the style of Spirit or Shamanic cults than fully theistic, so unless a shaman gathers several powerful chaos spirits, it will be difficult to face the chaos bashers openly. It also feels mythically correct. It may be what Hezel Darong is offering to the Chaos cultists in Karia, as otherwise I do not see them faring well against Delela.

Probably just a nitpick, and it is a great idea, but I would have the cults refer to a false dragon rune, rather than the true dragon rune. Something like Godunya's rune, or even the Dragonewt rune, as going that path you get easy power, but you deviate from the true draconic path. Alternately you might need a mechanic where you lose 1% of your Dragon rune each time you roll for a spell or power. Reflecting a moment, the Dragonewt rune seems more appropiate for Dragon Pass, as it is a recognized rune but clearly not the direct approach. Lacking reincarnation, humans cannot follow the Dragonewt path to its conclusion, but they can yet get power out of it. That keeps Godunya's rune and its potential false dragon status to Kralorela.

My problem is that although I have checked some private interests and checked previous discussions, I would hate to reopen something already discussed to death and boredom, or even worse, scorched earth and sunspears. As you surely have noticed, I tend to use too many words.

Returning to the question of Divination, I assume the worshippers believe their divinity to know much more than they do, even if we (as GLs) have read the rulebook and know that there are pretty hard limits to the spell. It does feel just polite asking your divinity if we should induct this guy or gal in some secret knowledge. I would also consider that in most cases the god may know if the person in question has killed one of his worshippers (initiate and above), and maybe even if they were present at such a death, unless the worshipper was killed in holy ground or trapped in some way. IMG, if the spirit is allowed to go to their afterlife, it will share these last moments, as whatever killed them may well be a menace to the cult . Which is why that the divinity does not know of the person is quite good for open, geographically localized cults, because it is not a repentant apostate, or a known enemy of the cult. I probably would allow that even if they do not know details, if the character is an avowed enemy of water, a river god would get such a feeling from the general connection with the water rune. For other cults that would include other aspects, such as: they have attended ceremonies as a lay member, they donate much or little, they really know and use the right words... Small temples may afford to know all their lay members, but in large towns or cities it may be hard to know them all. It also serves to confirm if they really were a lay member in Wilmskirk before moving to Pavis, as they try to shorten the period as a lay member, or if it is true they lapsed during the Windstop but were a good initiate in Nochet temple previously. All those are things the deity could confirm. The question I framed is what I think would give the better feedback for just one point. Depending on the answer, more questions could be in order. The deity may not know they are illuminated, but might know they killed other worshippers (not a negative in itself, depending on the deity but something worth investigating). Usually an unsatisfactory but not negative response is part of the failure chance, try next year, for not well known candidates.

As I do not feel confident opening new threads, or ressurrecting dead ones, I will keep using this thread as sounding board. If something seems interesting to others it can be moved to its own thread. The diadvantage of being a few years late to the party. After reading the fascinating Western Hero Wars Status Quo thread, and as Safelster has been my main Gloranthan interest for years, I would like to put forward a couple of dumb theories... The Five Arkats. Since Genertela through the Guide we have been pushed for seven Arkats, yet we have five archons (which do not really equate to five Arkats, but let's play with it) in Safelster. As it is highlighted in the Guide, I expect the initial gaming period (1625-1630) will be dominated by the New Seshnelan invasion, and the surprising Safelster resistance highlighted by the renewed contact with Arkat. We will also have the Karia chaos upsurge, but I am not sure if that will be mostly an Orlanthi concern, and possibly the reason why they cannot rely on Lankst to push the Rokari back. My first theory is that Arkat is too big a hero (or too contradictory) to fit in one body, so as expected he does return in seven, but two of them are not in Safelster, or even in Ralios. We all have a clear candidate further to the East, and you can speculate whether he is the Liberator or the Destroyer, or maybe a different one. We have some pictorial evidence that a trollish one is in Safelster. I would theorize the missing one is in the Lunar Empire, is also a well known multibody user, and apparently will even become Emperor. So Arkat Gbaji is happily plotting in Dorastor and probably destroying the other incarnations of Ralzakark, and the absence of two of the seven will hamper both the power and the collaboration of the other five, as well as eventually forcing them to get involved in central Genertela, once their own crisis are over. Killing an Arkat is pretty useless, as he will be back, quite soon, in the body of one of his chosen companions, that are groomed as proto-Arkats. However, if two or more Arkats die in a short time, you might get a different Arkat than you expect... The second theory concerning the Arkats is that I do not see them as being the mighty and powerful characters in Safelster now. If we are thinking of secret societies and cabals running things from the shadows, all the obvious candidates are off. I would prefer if, apart from one or two (the troll, that surely should come from Naskorion, will be difficult to wrangle), this is player character territory, or at least a potential player character development. It does not need to be even a Malkioni, as I am sure an orlanthi could well qualify for Arkat Chaosbane in Vermonstram and the Karia conflict. I think Argin Terror is a red herring for an Arkat. As in the TV police procedurals, he is too obvious, and not all dreadful menaces need to be a stand in for an old enemy. He can do his thing and be a perfectly new menace. makes him more interesting that way, and he was around being terrorific much longer that the supposed opening of the way to Arkat.

Bonsai actually recreate some conditions of low cover rocky ground, as actually found in mountains, so it feels right. Bonsai runners it is for me now. It explains why all of the casualties were (white) horses. They could not reach higher, to the riders!

I can only add that "dai-ichi" is "number one" in Japanese. Seems a strange name for anything found in the Mislari mountains, but your own explanation would fit very well with their description as sprites. Killing demon horses of darkness seems like a sun power.

I think that would be more frequent in the magic rich past than in the present, and probably become also more frequent in the near future, with many heroes breaking the rules. That said dryads are probably the easiest way out. Alternately, if you want the high Fantasy version you could have Androgeus as one of your parents, and whatever you want as the other. Finally, many people could prefer a lover that was not interfertile, specially if tradition or myth would preclude the use of anticonceptive methods. Sex does not necessarily mean children. I would expect dryads can choose their pregnancies, and will be attractive to practically anything with a man rune, so great lover potential. I wonder why they do not breed with green elves. However that would mean that only in special occasions will they do the same with humans. I would keep duality in the runes for any dryad born, but the dryad chooses the runes. In most cases I would use Human / Plant rather than Human / Beast. That would make them weak in animal cults, as they should, but could be great in Aldrya, again as they should. I also would expect a strong Earth, unless justified.

For a city like Nochet, you cannot think of a minor (in terms of population) player. You need something like Alexandria (for the wheat trade) or Antioch, which mixed land trade and sea trade, linking the Mediterranean with Persia and the Silk Road. Both exceeded Nochet's population in their heyday, even without magic. Nochet actually combines both, in my opinion. Antioch is for me the best ancient city, though you could argue for the trade center it replaced, Tyre, as another alternative, as they were the gateway between the Mediterranean trade and the continental trade to Persia and further East. Alexandria tried to replace Tyre too, but it was too isolated to really attract the Eastern trade, though Egyptian grain was enough to make it great. In the same way, I think what made Nochet great is the meeting of continental trade through Dragon Pass with the sea trade with most of Glorantha, supplemented by the bounty of Esrolian crops. The trader princes replaced part of it during the Closing, but only after the opening did it recover its position as the largest city in the world. Unfortunately I cannot recommend a good book on Antioch, specially of the good times before Christianism, when it was the most wicked city in the Mediterranean. If you really want to think about grain and trade, or why the Romans ate Egyptian wheat and not Gaul's wheat (mostly), try Paul Erdkamp's, The Grain Market in the Roman Empire: A Social, Political and Economic Study, but it is quite specialized and pricey. I do second Nick Brooke's recommendation of Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds and its two sequels, though the sequels are simply good, rather than brilliant.

IMG one secret of the diamond dwarves and the explanation of the immortality of dwarves is that they gradually transform themselves, by replacing the clay with their designated element, into Mostali. This is a gradual and slow process, but it keeps dwarves immortal while they progress towards it. That also satisfies my personal peeve with Isidilian, the dwarf of Dwarf Run, being considered a Mostali in most sources. Dwarves that do not reach diamond status in their allocated time, fall victims to entropy and are recycled. That means only dwarves remain at the end of the Hero Wars, but they will claim success and that the World Machine is finally repaired. Free from their duty, dwarves can do as they see fit.

The elder races are aware of this process, and see the extinction of humans as the only way to avoid the separation of the Timed and the Timeless. Their plans will cause huge suffering but will eventually fail, and cause a backlash that combined with their growing weakness effectively means their separation from the world or their extinction. I am not totally sure about the dark trolls and the dwarves, but I see them also as time creatures. In any case I would expect humans to be the main Time beings. Mostali, Uzuz, most or all Aldryami, but also the animal part of Hsunchen or the divine part of temples just leave the world.

The Dragons know this is coming, and from their side it is the last opportunity for the last True Dragons to leave their breeding grounds in Glorantha, to roam other universes, and why they make available the resources of the old EWF, as they try to force growth and enlightenment in the remaining proto-dragons. They also play all sides, as their aim is enlightenment and then leaving the world in a ritual Utuma, and that cannot be achieved from only one direction.

Loren Miller's version tries to solve the problem of the Chaos rune, as that limits its usefulness as a society cult to Lunars and some city states of Fonrit. If there is a non-chaotic version, that would make it interesting in Kralorela, Safelster or Carmania, as well as possibly in some Janube city state. I think the Chaos rune applies only to some Lunar versions, reinforced by certain chaotic Ikadz cultists that reinforce the stereotype, so it is the one most applicable to Dragon Pass. I would not give Ikadz the truth rune, however, it is all about pain, not truth. Clearly a marginal cult, and one that requires either a large population base or a strong tradition of corporal punishment. However I can imagine a penal mine or some armies having a shrine and enough excruciators / Pain specialists to keep it active. Corporal punishment in armies was traditionally a job for specialists. Using the associate cult system, it could well be an associate of the local city cult if the city supports corporal punishments. Using modern (XVIIIth century) punishment statistics, a city of over 10.000 people could well need over a dozen professional scourgers. If they have other legal functions, such as the Roman Lictors, bodyguards and executioners of the sentences of Roman magistrates, as well as helping in crowd control, you could have several hundred functionaries, enough for a temple. Torturers in the Gene Wolfe form could exist in the West, and coexist in Safelster with Ikadz, probably as a remnant of the Empire of Peace, which is where you would expect virtuous torturers (Seekers of Truth and Penitence). Rivalry between the two would be fierce.

I would say that most RQ players fit one of three molds. The first one emulates the god, as a kind of archetype / character package. The second sees the archetype and decides to go against it as a way to be special. And the third one plays as illuminated from the first minute, maximizing apparent benefit (with the benefit depending on what is the player's turn-on, whether lethality, power, magic, riches...). All three have their advantages and disadvantages, so do not take this as a preference for a playing style. The first one will play the runes and passions as intended. The second one will have some problems, unless they tune down the role of runes, though passions may be a way to balance the behaviour out. They probably welcome the inner turmoil coming from passions and runes. The third one will quickly maximize runes and passions for the game benefit, while probably ignoring them in most situations, so they will probably be the cause of most conflicts between player agency and runes / passions at the table. In brief, it lies between exploring the world, exploring the character(s), and exploring the game. And all mixes of them. For this situation, runes are ambiguous enough, specially the elements, to be flexible. Powers are more evident, as the duality and opposition makes it easier to categorize. However I consider extreme rune affinity to be quite clear to anyone that meets the character, in Glorantha, and to be accompanied with small magical effects as soon as you get to the extremes. The runes were the easiest part of the conversion, as any player that has been run for some time will be evident for the exremes, and for others the difference between 60 and 65% is not so critical. The conflict just generates stories more easily. So, low passions and high runes for us, with passions seldom used, mainly due to the low values, and runes sparingly. We are still considering how to pair traits with runes, so you can rule the chaste / lustful trait pair by focusing on the Fire rune, the Earth rune, or even possibly the pairs Truth / Illusion or Life / Death. You can be a lusty solar, if your fire is not linked to it, but your Life. Or a chaste sage, even with high Earth, because it is your Truth that governs it. Extra work, but it avoids the simple stereotypes, or the cookie cutter characters. Still a work in progress, as we discuss this by e-mail

I do not see much conflict, as long as they do not communicate... The Patriarchy takes concubines for granted, the Lunar establishment supports equality but also probably polygamy and polyandry. Makes me wonder if the New Pelorian for second wife and second husband may not be based in the Dara Happan for concubine, so they can believe they understand each other...

That is a good idea. Maybe they are part of Blue moon lore that did not make it into the Red Moon, so they will have to return before the white moon can take her place in the Middle Air.

I see the Hero Wars as actually a war between Time and God Time. I see humans in time as different from the humans of the God's war, even if they claim continuity, because they incorporate chaos in their intrinsic being after the Compromise, and that is why humans in time are easier to turn to Chaos, no longer a threat from without as in the Godtime, but a threat from within. Gbaji and the Red Moon are just manifestations of this inherent chaos. By adopting the techniques and trappings of their enemies, the winners keep burning the power of the God Time too quickly. At the end of the Hero Wars, there is a forced separation between the world in Time and the world without time, which is actually a victory of the common human over the heroes, demigods and dragons. Heroes fight each other, but what they believe is a conflict over supremacy, is actually a fight over dwindling magic resources, and at the end, they cannot remain in the world unchanged. I see that also the way mortals can defeat demigods. This chaos in time, or entropy, will cause the disappeareance of immortals from the world, having to choose between staying in the Godtime, or becoming subject to Entropy. Although our sources do not say it clearly, as the Wars progress the divine gets weaker, so humans with power become exceptional, and now able to face the diminished demigods, even if they are weaker than the heroes of the previous generation. At a certain point, Heroes are just similar to the current rune lords, as the diminishing power makes such abilities exceptional. My last image of the close of the Hero Wars, when the White Moon rises in the sky, is of Jar Eel, a normal woman, dressed in white and with white hair, helping the multitudes escaping the destruction of Glamour, while Harrek can finally shed the white bearskin and go to sleep, something he has not done since donning it. The last Argrath, finally satisfied, leaves the world of time for his star, his work finally over, the Liberation complete, but staying in the timeless side, in case he is still needed.

We do not see that in the West, or even any dwarven animosity to Humakt / Yanafal Tarnils, who probably represent a sizeable amount of the iron in human hands in central Genertela. So, they do not like thinking about it, but just working iron is not a problem, at least IMG. It could be a fun setback to an overpowered group of players to have a diamond irondwarf with stacked iron chain and plate and -200% to any magical effect appear to "liberate" their iron items, but I dislike such heavy handed adjustments. Being the first thieves is clearly more serious, but I would not mind having something more ambiguous, not a clear black and white picture of why the dwarves really have it against Third Eye Blue. It would open the door to a secret knowledge that TEB did not steal the knowledge from the dwarves, but the founder discovered it on their own, working on iron recovered from destroyed iron mostali (though the dwarves will call that stealing as well). It is a personal feeling, but that would help make the TEB dangerous innovators, rather than the holders of a secret and severely protected knowledge). As a humanist, I am in the human side in both Human vs. Old Gods and Human vs. Elder races in the coming war. I am also pro-human in the Human vs. Dragon conflict that lies in the shadows of the Hero Wars.

We have been using for many years the extended traits in RQ3 extended character sheet, so we are used to it. But it was not linked to any game benefit. We used it as an aid to roleplay, or a way of counting score, and in some cases undecided players rolled to see what way the character would go. That made Pendragon easy to follow, and as mentioned the setting justified losing player agency once in a while (and with a lustful 18, that was clearly exploited by the GM). I have not yet fully played with RQ:G, and we are still debating what will probably be a mix, but we will give it a chance. This is not a community driven game, so players actually are aiming for low passions, being skeptical of giving up control, even if the game benefits of being over 80% are big. I see what Chaosium is trying to do, creating emotional, passionate heroes and heroines, but it requires a particular understanding between GM and players. My players do not fully trust I will not exploit their passions to make them do something they do not want, so they prefer low passions, just in case. It fits as well with the rootless wanderers game, driven more by curiosity and greed, than loyalty and faith. Some early conversion experiments had players with 3-4 high passions and it was clear they would try to use them all the time, till we saw the effect of a fumble. The current consensus is that if you refuse a passion the efect was as we used the traits, automatic reduction but no other game effect. Right now they are joking how long will it take Loyalty to drop down to a value it never has to roll.

Riddling and mixed features not seen in ages is also a general Lunar thing. Sphinxes could work as mystical advances of the coming White Moon.