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If it says Variable, you can LEARN IT at a variable level. If you learned it at level 3, you cannot cast it at level 4 or higher. You can only CAST at up-to the level you have already learned it. But if you know it at level 3, you can cast it at level 1 or level 2, also. One other use for extra MP's in casting -- they can provide extra penetration, to get past Countermagic & Shield type spells. This can be a very important use, too!

n.b. to use a "Passion," the object of the Passion needs to be relevant to the situation somehow. If you're an Orlanthi just along to help your bud the Praxian Shaman (cos your bud helped YOU last season), your "Love:Boldhome" you feel for your home-city isn't going to be terribly useful in tracking some rival Impala riders through Morokanth territory...

For example, Spirits of Reprisal. Ominous dreams. Other Runelords sent to "remind you of your oaths & obligations..." with extreme measures, if need be. Rune Magic, in the end, belongs to your god... not to you.

A key point is that spells are not like other "knowledge." You cannot "learn" them in an ordinary information-transfer sort of way the way you can learn other "knowledge" (e.g. by book-study and/or by watching other people do it).

I am having a hard time NOT expecting this to be <wink-wink> <nod-nod> I-can't-believe-they-actually-installed our "poke around in ignorance" & "you'll be sorry, after it's too late" game... that is thinly-disguised malware... 😉 Mythos-Cults and Mythos-knowledge being, in effect, "malware of Reality."

But the Broo lean-in much harder on the "almost like breeding" inherit-features-from-host issue. The default Broo form is a very satyr-like Goat/Man, and that's what comes from breeding with one another, or with humans (and I presume with goats). But when they breed with something else -- anything else -- much of the goatlike form is replaced by that "something else." Mating with a Wyvern, for example, might give wings, and a spiked tail. Mate with an Allosaurus will give a huge SIZE boost, and a toothy head. Etc etc etc.

whales 😁

Where do you live? I presume the cost & delays of international shipping do not appeal, so UK replies to some Colonial Scum help neither USA nor Aussies, and vice versa in triplicate... 😉

A somewhat snarky -- and yet not! answer is: The first rule of Heroquests is -- there is no first rule of Heroquests. This is where you go to break the rules of Middle-World "reality." The "rules" of what comes back with you are ... more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules. Welcome aboard Glorantha!

Hmmmm. I mean, "don't judge a book by its cover" and all that; but if I saw a "funny" cover I would presume the interior was funny, too... But this seems like a reasonable criticism of the promo-text on DTRPG... I mean, if you already knew -- roughly -- what you were getting into, the "blurb" makes it clear that's what you're getting into. But if you don't already know... Does it let you know that the product is so full of jokes??? hmmmm...

This began life 20some years ago as a convention-centric adventure, a 1-shot thing. It was intentionally frivolous and in many ways light-hearted, in part (IMHO) as an antidote to Gloranthan over-seriousness and "anthropo-wankery" (which was a well-known thing even then). It was filled with anachronisms and jokes and pop-culture references... and it still is, being true(ish) to the original. But Glamour herself, the goddess, is all about pop-culture; it's apropos! If you read it as "mostly official" but simply written with an ironic and humorous lens, I think it still has tremendous value... even for "serious" campaigns!

TYVM! A question: if we buy it now -- as part of the covid-19 charity effort -- can we buy it again later, to reward you for your great products and for doing this generous thing?

No, he was "on leave" or something, for medical need. His partner (and I'm forced to confess I don't know which is Cakebread or Walton) is simply unable to do the work of two. Plus, I suspect, each brought their own strengths (and weaknesses) to the partnership; depending on the task, a solid day's work from one might take a week or more from th'other... and vice versa for a different task. (all time estimates pulled strictly from my own hat, without reference to anything real) So while I /think/ (& hope) that products are still progressing... it is /certainly/ progressing v-e-r-r-r-y---s-l-o-w-l-y . I too hope the one gent who's been unwell is getting better!!!

Even before the medical issues, I believe they were one of those (many, I think) smaller game companies that was finding the whole a "maintain a webpage and/or social-media presences" to be a huge time-sink. They wanted their time spent on C&W to be spent on products (writing, layout etc), not web/blog/etc stuff... Hopefully, they'll begin ramping back up, in time... And maybe will comment on this thread... 🙂

Mention of "Lighthuggers" make Vernor Vinge's "Zones of Thought' seem like it has very usable setting material, too...

Nah. In the RW it just takes 1 volcano. In Glorantha, 1 dragon should more than suffice...

^^^ This! ^^^ Ye gods, people! This is Glorantha! Mythomagical Glorantha, where heroes mostly find "death" to be an annoying inconvenience, where "time" was constructed as a Compromise to stop Chaos from eating/dissolving/whatever all of creation... Where the Hero Wars are upon us, and NOTHING is impossible. Maybe some enterprising Eurmali sets himself up with a Hero Cult* & a variant on the Swallow spell, and Saves Us All... * it's called "The Frat." Nobody knows why. They have only one Holy Rite, an eternal bacchanalian debauch called "the paaar-tay!" and it's the whole of their duty and worship: they chant the Sacred Chant** 24/7, unceasingly; they collectively (as a Cult) sac at least 1 RP per day and at least 1 MP per hour. ** The Chant is a simple mantra, very meditative and calming... "Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!" &c... (all those other Cults' adventures and Heroquests and whatnot? Well, I'm sure they helped a bit. But what really saved us all was the paaar-tay!)

Twofold: 1. F' with all the plans of the Elves and Dwarves any everyone else. 2. Soggy food is still food. (it's a Troll plan, after all)

One of the things I enjoy from a "feats" system is getting "unusual" traits that would be too expensive any other way. Stuff like "knack for languages" which gives someone fluency with a BUNCH of different languages, but doesn't leave them with a huge deficit of skill points for other things.

How about "all of the above?" What we'd call today a "coordinated media campaign..." mostly CHA-driven skills.

@Hionhurn your VTT & AP/streaming ideas look fine, but (as per @Jason Durall above (and n.b. he's Chaosium!)) it appears you need to work those via BBC, or whoever they run the games-license through, if/when they do it. Until/unless it comes "home" to Chaosium, their hands are tied.

Dunno. Depends on the reason, I guess. 😉 Leaving it ambiguous has the VERY distinct advantage of encouraging Everyones' Glorantha's to Vary. I mean... for those anal-retentive enough to notice this as an oddity, and who care enough to create this bit of backstory. It's rather Prax-centric, I think... most of Dragon Pass isn't going to care about some battle over an obscure oasis in the desert; nor Esrolians, and etc.

This seems like a pretty authoritative source! TYVM! Unfortunately, it conflicts with the RQG corebook... In itself, it doesn't actually matter that much. I don't see much reason to care, mostly. There's a few knock-on issues, though; those actually matter more, IMHO, than the direct datum. For those to whom it matters, this will need to be reconciled: RQG needs to be errata'ed, or the draft of SunCounty-2 (TGWatToTC?) will need to be revised before publication... or campaigns will just need to choose which "canonical" date they prefer. I launched into this tangent specifically in response to the notion that the Sables might have schim'ed at 2nd Moonbroth in large part because the Dragonrise made it look like the Lunars might finally be loosing it. I mean -- why DID so many of them choose that moment to go anti-Lunar? (as an explanation, the Dragonrise has a huge advantage there -- nobody wants to be allied to whoever made a dragon angry!).

Also (though it's sufficiently famous that I hardly dare suggest anyone here may not have read it) The Mote in God's Eye by Niven & Pournelle.

<stares pointedly at Ian, looking back and forth between the man and his desk> If not you, who? If not now, when? 😁 I think it doesn't take any "benefit," or have any "doubt." Such a project is entirely in the clear. Ya know who I think is most likely to roll their eyes and call you "derivative"? The WoD/Vamp crowd. Scope tightly, my friend! 🤔 😇