tnli

In the one ransomed encounter our party has gotten so far personal equipment was kept by the owners, but any "loot" or such was transferred over to the party (just some camping supplies and rations). Total ransom amount was about 2,000, and it was paid as 25 Gold wheels (500 L), 25 heads of cattle (500 L), 4-point Lightning rune spell matrix (~800 L), and a 2-point spell strengthening crystal (~400 L). The payment came over the rest of the (about half a season) season as it was downtime between adventures. It was a good scene, the opposing leader had a strong shield on, but threw their sword to the ground after they realized that they couldn’t get a single hit in through the Humakti’s Sword Trance -enhanced parry.

Speaking of which, what is the point of not being able to transfer sorcery inscriptions to other sorcerers? I mean, is it an in-world thing, or some sort of game balance issue, or a bit of both? Or is it something completely different? The reason I'm asking is because I find that there is pretty much no specific loot available for sorcerers, besides books that contain spells (as in, you can use it as a reference when studying a sorcery spell), but those are only mentioned in passing. Spirit bindings and Magic point containers are universally usable for everybody! So, anyway, I'm thinking of a house ruling that one might attempt to be able to use someone else's Inscription as their own. I'm thinking that it might be somewhat similar to attuning to a crystal, but always cost a point of POW whether successful or not, and also have a chance of destroying the Inscription. And before I do that, I would like to know the reasoning behind the rule in the book.

It depends. If it's viewed as money or something used in lieu of money, then generally yes. If it's more like gear, then in general we go with the pretty standard notions that merchants are happy to buy it for about 50% of it's resale value. Special stuff (magic items, HUGE gems, LOTS and LOTS of gear) need to be brought into markets that can absorb such things, or traded in smaller markets for lesser value, favors, other items or what have you. So, for instance, a small village shopkeeper (really a local farmer with a side gig) might be happy to purchase a couple sets of wargear from the adventurers for about half of their local resale value, but would probably balk at the thought of getting ten or more sets at even 20% of their local resale value. At the same time, the main armourer at the Clearwine Fort wouldn't even blink at getting ten sets of wargear at 50% of resale, but would probably need heavy justification for getting a hundred sets at 20% of resale. And the huge markets of Nochet can probably absorb just about to anything short of legion's worth of wargear in a week or two.

That is a really good point. I also considered writing it in the way of RQ3, where sorcery matrices are activated with your skill with the spell in question, and if you don't have it, you would start with a base chance of your magic skill category modifier (in RQG terms), which I find rather harsh, to be honest. So I went with the POWx5% chance as that is similar to how Rune and spirit spell matrices work. But, if you want to go that route, I'd give the user that +20% bonus, and also allow a non-sorcerer to learn the spell skill, but only for activating this kind of magic item (so the skill would apply to all items that store the same spell). Also, if that person would later on learn proper sorcery, they would still need to learn the spell properly, but could then use this skill percentage as the starting point for their spell. This item attempts to fulfill the role of what are called "amulets of power" in the Xeotam dialogues [0], which I understand to be tools which you can use to "precast" your spells in your stronghold, and then you can more easily release the magic on the field when there is need. [0] https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/glorantha/the-xeotam-dialogues/

Is Worship Invisible God a [Tap] [Magic] -spell?

Learning a spell from a teacher takes a season of teaching and study, learning is automatic, and you start with your magic category mod + 1d6%.

I've been thinking about how to get sorcerous spells to non-sorcerers, and this idea hit me from the recent sorcery rant thread: Sorcery Spell Matrix Enchantment [Magic], [Command] 2 points, Ritual (Enchantment) This spells is used to create a storage for a non-ritual sorcery spell in an item. Each point of POW sacrificed in this enchantment can be used to store one point of Intensity for one specific non-ritual sorcery spell the caster must also know. This ritual takes one hour per point of POW sacrificed. The item can contain one or more castings of the spell, but their total Intensity may not exceed the Intensity limit of this enchantment. The enchantment can be later on expanded by another enchanter who knows both this spell, and the spell to be stored into the item. Anyone who can use the item and knows the spell may cast that spell into this item in a ritual that takes one hour per point of Intensity of the spell being stored into the item. For the purposes of sorcerous spell matrixes, a sorcery spell has an intensity of 1 plus 1 for each added level of intensity. Activating a sorcery spell matrix in combat happens on the user's DEX SR + 1 SR for each point of intensity on the spell they attempt to cast from the item. The user of a sorcery spell matrix does not need to have any level of knowledge with the runes and techniques of the spell, does not need to have any Free INT, and has a chance of casting the spell equal to their POWx5%, or their skill with the spell in question (if better), modified by sympathetic magic modifiers, meditation and ritual practices. A failed attempt to use the sorcery spell matrix costs the user 1 magic point, while a successful use of the sorcery spell matrix costs the user 1 magic point per point of intensity on the spell they cast (modified for Lunar Sorcery as normal, if the spell includes the Moon -rune). Once a spell has been cast, it needs to be stored again into the item, before it can be recast. The user of the item decides how the levels of intensity are divided between the spell's strength, range, and duration. A sorcery spell matrix cannot be used to increase a sorcerer's Free INT for any purpose. If you wish to cast a larger spell than what you have Free INT for, see Inscriptions. Example: Moonfire Sorcery Matrix (5 points) This item can store up to intensity 5 casting of the Moonfire -spell, or 5 separate castings of the Moonfire -spell with intensity 1 each, or any combination totaling up to 5 points of intensity. When Gareth discovered The Amulet of Moonfire, it contained one casting of Moonfire at intensity 4, and another one at intensity 1. After finding the amulet, they later end up into a combat on a Fireday of the Disorder week of the Fire season (a half-moon day) and decides to cast the intensity 1 -version of the spell from the item, first concentrating until the combat round advances to SR (their DEX SR + 1), then they roll against their POWx5% +15% for the appropriate weekday and season, and on a success pay 1 magic point and have the spell produce their base effect, doing 1d3 damage to everyone on a 5-meter circle within 10 meters of the caster for 5 minutes. Later on, they get into another fight, now on a Waterday of the Disorder week of the Sea season, (a dying/dead moon day) in a forgotten shire of a moon goddess, and decide to cast the remaining 4-point version of Moonfire from the item. Casting takes a total of their DEX SR + 4 to cast, and they roll against their POWx5% -15% for inappropriate weekday and season, but +10% for the location, for a net modifier of -5%. If they fail the roll, the attempt costs them 2 magic points (double the normal, because of the moon rune), and on a success it costs them 8 magic points (double the normal, again because of the moon rune), and they can choose how to divide the thee extra levels of intensity among the spell's strength, duration, and range. Assuming both casting were successful, the amulet is now empty, and Gareth needs to locate a sorcerer who knows the Moonfire spell and is willing to cast it into the amulet - Gareth would love to get a bit more range for the spell, and hopes to convince the sorcerer to cast the Moonfire twice into the item, once at intensity 2, and again for intensity 3. Any thoughts? I tried to keep this worse than spirit spell matrices and rune spell matrices, so it requires elements from both (costing the user magic points, and requires recharging in a ritual after using it), but at the same time, keep it usable (hence the POWx5% chance to use it), and give it something that would make sense for a proper sorcerer to use it (faster casting, and being able to use their skill with the spell, if better than their POWx5%), and keep it more flexible (the option to put in several castings of the spell, with total intensity equal to the limit of the item), and still keep it tied to the sympathetic magic. As a side note, I didn't include it in the example above, but would you count this amulet as being an appropriate sympathetic magical component for casting this spell? If you would, it would be good for +20% when casting the spell that is stored into the item, and maybe even when you cast the spell out of the item? Maybe that's too good, maybe lower the chance to POWx3% if going with this (in essence, the user would have the better of (their POWx3% +20% + other modifiers) or (their skill with the spell +20% + other modifiers) chance of casting the spell from the item)?

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for: scary and innovative, but not power-gamey like combining the Free INT of all members of the sorcerers' circle.

As of now, there are no rules on how sorcerers could combine their casting efforts. Do you refer here to them casting separate spells and doing other things to help each other, or something like them casting the same spell together and manipulating the intensity of that spell by up to their total combined Free INT?

So, essentially these pre-casting talismans that you imagine would be like Rune Spell Matrices, except that instead of it recharging in a worship ritual, it is recharged by re-casting the spell into it? Neat take on the idea! Edit: If anyone could then cast the pre-cast spell from the talisman, this would enable the sorcerer to lend a part of their power to their underlings!

Interesting idea on pre-cast spells, a ritual that take hours equal to the intensity of the spell, and maybe each pre-cast spell takes a point of Free INT untill released or dismissed? Would you pay the MP cost when doing the ritual, or at the time of releasing the spell? When would you roll for it? How long would it take to release the spell? DEX SR + Intensity SR? Speaking on empowering the sorcerers, I've been thinking on maybe allowing a sorcerer to claim an Inscription taken from another sorcerer as their own. I figure it would take a season's worth of study to claim it, and require the would-be-owner to fulfill all the requirements of making the Inscription (like mastery of each rune and technique of the spell) and to sacrifice a point of POW to claim the Inscription as their own. A roll would likely also be included, maybe opposed spell roll against the previous owners spell skill, or POW vs. POW, or something. Ideas?

In my game, the Orlanth's assistant priest was down to POW 1 due to a Divine Intervention, and managed to get decent rolls when talking to Idrima. I rolled a really good reaction to Idrima, and she decided to help the assistant priest, calling him her husband. Basically, all present PC's (4) sacrificed a POW to her, and she took them into her cult and got 1 rune point for Maran Gor (whose subcult Idrima is), and she even gave 3 POW to the Orlanthi, bringing him up to POW 3 (4-1 for the Initiation). After this they then sacrificed half of the herd to Her, and promised to bring more worshippers to Her from Clearwine. Good thing they have contacts in Clearwine to fulfill this promise!

So, how do you transfer a bound spirit to another person? As far as I can tell, if the new would-be owner fulfills the binding enchantments user conditions, it's probably just tossing the binding to the new owner and have the new owner cast Spirit Binding on it, no resistance for the spirit! Now, if the new would-be owner does not fulfill the binding enchantments user conditions, they need another binding enchantment, and follow this procedure (here it is assumed that the spirit is an Umbroli): 1. (Optional) Have someone who fulfills the original enchantments user conditions cast Control Air Elemental on the Umbroli. 2. Someone who fulfills the original enchantments user conditions (like the caster from 1.) commands the Umbroli out of the binding and to show itself. 3. New would-be owner cast Spirit Binding on the Umbroli, and then beats it in POW vs. POW (as all spells require that). 4. If 3 is done successfully, the Umbroli is now bound into the new owners binding enchantment and counts against the new owner's CHA/3 limit, and no longer counts against the previous owner's CHA/3. If 3 was failed, the spirit is free to leave, unless 1 was done. If 1 was done and that spells duration has not ran out, the would-be owner can try again. Now, if 1. was done, and Bob fails, the spirit is still controlled. If 1 was skipped and Bob fails, the spirit is now free to leave! With rune magic, it would be one or two Command Cult Spirit -spells from a cult or cults that can command the spirit in question. Am I even close to correct here?

In my Glorantha, assistant shamans need help to discorporate, either with various herbs or drugs (like the samples from the Glorantha Bestiary), or the Discorporate rune spell. And I would assume that they do this regularly as part of their studies with the shaman. Once a full shaman, it takes just a bit of time and MP's. Oh, and the book does mention that the cult might give you access to the cult's special rune magic spell in exchange for a donation of about a handful of cows, or as a special reward, so yes, you can learn more special rune magic than you have rune points.

I would charge an extra point or two of POW for that, when enchanting it.

Humakti have really hard time regaining their Rune Points, like, one chance per season! I'm pretty sure that in My Glorantha the night before a battle is a Humakt minor holy day, or even greater, if the battle is going to be a big one, for all the Humakti who are about to fight in the said battle. Divine displeasure will come to those who abuse this, by calling a skirmish against some farmers a battle.

Mostly seasonal, (one season, so far), but will depend on where the chaps go.

I've been reading through the last adventure in the Smoking Ruins and thinking about using it as a model for hero questing.

I let them have up to 3 weeks of adventure and one training or research project per season without penalties to occupation rolls. Have not yet decided on how long spell training takes.

The rune-die is pretty useful when I'm hashing out anything rune-related I don't already have an opinion for.

I wouldn’t allow extension matrix to recover it’s use before the extension has expired, or the spell has been dispelled.

Although, the ability to shoot two arrows at once at half-skill each is a neat heroquest-ability in my book. If you’re worried about the ramifications, state that it costs 1 magic point per use. Actually, is it then weaker than multi-missile? An extra heroquest could widen it to three arrows at third-skill each.

For simplicity, I'd rule that any gifts gained from the PC's own clan/cult are free of cult-tax, but gifts from the outside do require the tax to be paid.

You could as well take some D&D -like adventures, like the Snakepipe Hollow (available for pretty much every version of RQ except the RQG) and let them roam that. Plenty of loot available.

Presumably if it's in their book on Sorcery, it's not being determinedly presented by an initiate or a higher up in a Death cult. Quote from the bestiary: "Vampires are greatly affected by the determined presentation of the Death Rune by one consecrated (initiate or higher) to a Death cult." Might be an interesting scene where a death cultist ends up in a Vampire's library and the only weapon they can find is a book of necromancy spells with a prominent death rune on the cover they use to smack the Vampire with.