g33k

Not seeing this "theme" as a problem (at least, not yet). I mean... scroll back up to "The Pack Train" and the most obvious & vivid warrior is a man. I guess he's not "significant" because he's not one of the two leader-figures in front? We've got a long, long way to go before we hit comparable disparities to these classics ...

Yeah, PC's are frequent exceptions to the "general" rules / the generic case. Also, shamans are mostly -- AFAIK -- a bit iconoclastic, so it seems almost natural for a tribe with no Darkness links to have a Shaman with Darkness ! Last but not least, the whole "fighting fire with fire" approach -- what better way for a non-Darkness Tribe to be savvy about Darkness, than to have a Dark-aligned tribe-member like this?

Personally, I find this profoundly unsatisfactory; but that's me. As noted, there's a bunch of sub-skills involved in being a "Minor Noble." "Working" nobles (who manage their own estates) will have a suite of skills not possessed by others who just leave it to a chatelaine/etc; Courtly etiquette might be broken further down into "formal occasions" and "social occasions." I tend to think of this class of people having parties where the "young ladies" might play an instrument, or sing (and those skilled-enough might even keep it up as they move out of their parents' into a new home with a spouse; others might abandon the skill). Many would dance at such parties, so knowing the steps and performing them well is a skill; the VERY skilled can even make a less-skilled partner look better. Some may know dueling/fencing, etc. Someone who -- for example -- dances well, but isn't particularly skilled at the whole "formal court etiquette" schtick, could well be a "Minor Noble 57%" and really very popular at social gatherings ("My, doesn't s/he dance divinely!") and have a lot of consequent social "clout," but no real political clout because their political counterpart (with 2 left feet, but also "Minor Noble 57%") has the attention and respect of all the people at court who lean in that direction. There will be some variation from the dice, it's true; but someone with near Master levels of dance skill will be known as such, and will reliably be able to dance well; to stand out from their peers. OTOH, if your game ISN'T court-centric, it's very likely none of that matters -- out in the countryside, on "adventures," both characters are likely equally known (or unknown), and equally able to impress the local Mayor-or-whatever, to whom the "Nobility" is really what matters, rather than the "Minor" or any Noble-centric subskills.

Near where I live, there's a wild-bird-rescue center. Birds they cannot rehab, they try to place with zoos &c. Every year, they have a competitive-entry exam to the part of the program that handles their raptors; they have a couple of dozen resident raptors, birds that cannot be rehab'ed and (for whatever reason, cannot / will-not go to zoo's); I was fortunate enough to get in, one year. There's a college professor (biologist, specializing in raptor ecology) running that program... who is also a Master Falconer, an entirely separate skillset.

I vote for a new skill. The one you want is "Falconry." Note that the Vrok, in particular, is a Sun/Sky - Rune critter; I hope the character-concept can encompass this? It's a GREAT hunter-rune, IIRC, because I think the rune gives bonus on Perception skills... Also, it makes for an interesting variation of the Storm thing that Orlanth's bud Yinkin normally has going on... 😁 But Animal Lore is really over-broad; I've never bothered narrowing it, because I have never had a player who cared... It sounds like you do! Consider: the professional carter -- a guy who owns a cart or a wagon, and some draft-beasts (horses, oxen, bison, donkeys, whatever) -- is going to have a reasonably high Animal Lore, because controlling his beasts is a core professional skill for him. But frankly, he knows jack-all about training a war-horse... or a raptor! (Similarly, FWIW, the falconer and the warhorse-trainer don't much understand one anothers' critters; nor the stolid draft-animals!). It's not (IMHO) generally worth considering, for most adventure-centric RPGs. But at your table... I think it might be. And I think I envy you that!

Representing "skills" in RPGs is something where I've never found a satisfactory solution. Playable mechanics are unsatisfyingly over-simplified, and more-realistic mechanics are frustratingly unplayable. === I find "acrobatics" to be a subdomain of "athletics," FWIW. Athletics have DEX-centric and STR-centric specific skills, but mostly want both things. Often, CON/endurance is a key issue as well. There's also body-type considerations -- baskeball players are mostly tall, gymnasts are mostly compact, linebackers (USAian) are big&strong, etc; all three will have a high Athletics score, but mostly won't be very good as competitors in the others' sports. This is particularly hard to represent in a pure-BRP skills-centric mechanism. One obvious thing, to me, would be to make "Athletics" into a "[varies]" skill -- Athletics[acrobatics], Athletics[climb], Athletics[swim], etc. Maybe say that a PC with any Athletics[X] skill has 1/2X or 2/3X in all other Athletics skills not specifically excluded (e.g. a fit athlete from a desert culture just wouldn't have Athletics[Swim]; from a plains culture, they wouldn't have Athletics[Climb], etc; but in general, they're both "Athletic" overall...). === I'm increasingly fond of "Profession as skill" but... I have qualms about the generic-ness of it... What distinguishes Stefan's "Minor Noble 57%" from, say... Aleksandra's "Minor Noble 57%"? Are they both equally proficient at every element of being Minor Nobility? Is neither one better at gathering rumors/gossip, or witty banter? Do they dance equally proficient quadrilles? Play the fortepiano equally well? Etc etc etc... I know that it's an unpopular POV here on BRPC amongst the grognards -- and given that you're looking at simplifying, may be totally off-track for you! -- but I'm eyeballing some sort of mechanism along the lines of feats/stunts/specializations/etc, as a way to represent this ... I've also begun to consider deriving something from the HQ Keyword/Breakout mechanism. Does any of this help you?

Or maybe just a bigger shell, in back? I like how you've made smaller ones into pauldron / spaulder pieces! I might wonder if poleyn pieces (knees) might have been similarly constructed, at some times / in some places ... ?

That's a good way to get them to Sartar... if the point is to get them to Sartar...? If what you really want is just to run the Apple Lane content, it's very easy to just re-label it as "Date Palm Oasis" or some such, situate it not too far outside the Zola Fel valley, and run them there. This is a pretty common variation to do. Make Gringle a valuable contact/supplier of Raus, and Raus can even assign them the adventure as part of their duties, no "leave of absence" needed!

RQ6/Mythras are actually pretty much Glorantha-free. However, they're well-supported in Glorantha by fan efforts (Notes From Pavis blog is your central resource here), if this is the branch of the d100 tree you prefer. === RQ2/RQClassic, RQ3, and RQG are the "central trunk" of the tree, and inherently Gloranthified (especially RQG) -- you have "a fair volume" of RQ3 and you're "not in a hurry to buy RQG," so it looks like you've got a plan in mind. I'll join the others in suggesting the Glorantha Sourcebook when you're looking for more info. It's pure setting material, mechanics-free, so your specific rules won't matter to the content. Given that you seem to be starting with RQ3, I'm going to echo others -- Pavis/Rubble, the River of Cradles, Prax. It's probably where most of your source material is already set, and offers huge amounts of rich Gloranthan flavor! To answer that, I think we need to know what specific titles your RQ library has (and doesn't have). 😉

BAH! Your rhetorical tricks cannot disguise the EVIL that is necromancy! Neither sorry corpses and spirits (enslaved to their vile master), nor "free" undead (inflicting their unnatural hungers upon the living) can ever be anything BUT evil. No doctors, they: true resurrection, return to Life, is beyond them; and their horrific acts are the exact opposite of what doctors do, a horrid mockery of that sacred service! (also, necromancy has been one of the hallmarks of villainy in myth & fantasy since LONG before the first pre-publication playtesters for Gygax&Arneson were running levels 1-13 of Castle Greyhawk, murderhobo'ing their merry way) (cos SOMEBODY gotta speak up for the Honorable Opposition) 😉

I too prefer the material the Mostali produce (I think raw Aldryami are the primary input to their process) for reading and for enjoyment. But I cannot deny the utility of the Illuminated experience (with CTRL-F and other secrets only available to those who partake of Illumination) ... For your reference -- if screens are at a premium at your house -- Chromebooks offer a LOT of utility, and can be had as cheaply as US$250 these days (occasionally even cheaper, but that's damned rare with the covid-19 market impacts). I just bought an Acer 314. I see tablets under $100 (latest Kindle from Amazon, and a decent-looking basic model called "Onn Pro" is showing up at Walmart). I am keenly interested to find out if the "paperwhite" aka "e-ink" technology is available in larger screens (at a decent price): although not color, their battery life is incredible & high-visibility even in direct sun... they're text--readers' dreams!

Yep! And TYVM! <glares suspiciously> Looks like that there... moss-tal-ee make, t'me...

I'm afraid your link is broken ...

I think @Jeff is the primary author on both the Gods' Books (how many volumes are expected now, 2 or 3? or has that not yet been decided?) and the GM's Guide. So writing either one puts pause to the other (except when work on one informs and advances work on the other (which does happen, I think!)). To an extent, we are subject to Jeff's specific inspirations/productivity: not all bits of text (and game-mechanics) flow from the pen (or the keyboard) with equal readiness. IIRC, the Gods book(s) took a huge leap forward as he was writing the RQG core, because developing the Gods content for the core-book got him to write a bunch of other cults earlier (and more productively) than he had planned to. I think that @lordabdul is mistaken -- Gods will be ready before GM book. The last things I had read (which may not be the last word from Chaosium, and -- even if it were -- things may have moved on from that "last word from Chaosium" status) was that the Heroquesting rules (and maybe other bits) were still under development / being written, but the Gods were mostly done writing. On 18 March (about 2 months ago) @Rick Meints wrote, "Gods of Glorantha is in final editing and art commissioning. The RQ Starter Set is written and going through editing. The GM book is still being written." This is why I think the Gods books will come out before the GM book. Art direction / artist output can be a BIG delay, and is expected to take a BIG chunk of time with the Gods (possibly allowing the GM book to pass it in the production pipeline?) . In the end... Chaosium won't really know, until each project gets through layout (and maybe not even then) which will actually get to market first... I could even envision an odd confluence of events where they're ready almost simultaneously. Chaosium has been too-often bitten by releasing a best-available ETA in these earlier stages, discovering that issues outside their control prevented them from hitting that ETA, and having to field angry customers throwing their earlier estimates in their faces. So, they don't do that -- as I understand it, "making customers angry" is generally considered double-plus-ungood, in the business world.

Nick has replied elsewhere that DTRPG fulfillment offers no way to do this: the Jonstown Compendium content-creators don't have the logistical infrastructure to offer these sorts of options.

RE the problem of the NPC's being the Big Damn Heroes: I'm interested to see how Chaosium handles the Argrathsaga that (AIUI) is being developed. I've got no problems with the notion that the PC's can become the "movers and shakers" of the Hero Wars, competing with (or even replacing) Argrath, Harrek, Jar-Eel, & others. I've got no problems with those figures being essentially "plot devices" rather than "NPCs" as such. I've got no problems with the notion that the PC's will be primarily reactive, leaving them perpetually on the 2nd tier, watching as Harrek shrugs off Sunspears and slaughters the Solars casting them; as Argrath Illuminates, and learns Sorcery and Draconic magic and more and more Deep Secrets, forges the SMU, &c.

Obviously a Death Drake who has nicknamed his greatsword "The Final Word."

I could be happy with either, personally But I have the strong belief that -- if you're talking about a Jonstown Compendium supplement, and you're asking because you want to interest the most people -- you "should" choose a post-Dragonrise sandbox. I think RQG (in the 1625ff era) is where most of the players are, these days. OTOH, it's also possible (given the grognardia of the forums &c) that the JC customers aren't representative of RQ players in general...?

<weeps quietly> So many amazing adventures that I clearly will never get to play... as I'm the only GM I know actually running RQ / Glorantha... (n.b. may possibly try to get into a VTT or similar game; but... there are separate logistical challenges with that, such that I don't think it would work.) edit: oh, by the way -- fabulous piece of work, TYVM @AndreJarosch!!!

I consider the Lay/Initiate boundary to be when you sacrifice permanent POW to a deity, not just temp MP's. I think a God can tell (by way of Rune Pools most likely; but also just -- because they're Gods, and we don't need mechanics!!!) when an existing Initiate goes slutting their POW around to other deities, or conversely comes to offer POW with the lipstick stains of another deity on their collar...

In my Glorantha... I haven't decided! I am considering that Flintnail might have had an Original Idea (dangerous, but not necessarily heresy or apostasy) that "pretending to be" apostate/heretical might elicit different attitudes & behaviors (usefully different... productively different) from the Problem Species...

It's also worth considering not simply the Gods/Cults (which may have a default disposition), but also the specific Temples... and their priest(esse)s. Going from B.Gor to M.Gor (or vice versa), or adding either one to the other for dual-membership, could be made relatively easy, or relatively hard, depending on the Chief Priestesses (and their relationship) at the two specific temples where the postulant is making their pitch... are they friends, personally? Rivals? Enemies since childhood? Or...?

I'm gonna just assert that transferring to an "associate cult" is easy. You are free to make it harder or more complicated, if you want (YGMV), but... The RAW explicitly address the topic. They say that the disincentive (Spirits of Reprisal) do not apply. I conclude that it's relatively easy. The difficulties are Your Glorantha Varying. (Now I need to consider whether I agree with the RAW, or whether My Glorantha Varies, too) . Also, leaving one cult for another is a different thing from serving actively in both...

So tell us: How's the "Complete Psionicist" project going? I haven't seen anything on it in... uhhh... THREE YEARS ??!? Get cracking!!! (more seriously, I have some interest in some good BRP psi rules...)

Only the randomly-encountered ones. The non-random traders might ... just be traders. I mean... there's strong implication in the RAW that it's a helluva longshot... but it could happen!