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That... Actually looks like a pretty funny April Fool's stunt. If it's real, I may need to cry like a baby who lost his... Binky.

+1 Not that I don't take ruthless advantage of it when I get to be a player ... 😁 I may need to IMG this issue... Maybe there's some wood that blocks 2nd Sight, that looks like emptiness beyond. Or Illusion-rune magic. It doesn't have to be terribly common, but shouldn't be so rare as to make folks operate on a normal assumption that there isn't any around. Likewise for some sort of pseudo-item aura effects. Maybe trickser spirits that like to invest a MP into an item so it's all glow-y to 2nd Sight ... Dunno. It wants more thought...

I won't miss G+ all that much, honestly. I regularly run into extended stretches of "cannot spend much time online" and end up missing content on all the platforms that presume an always-connected customer-base. BRPCentral, and similar fora, suit my own preferences much better. That said, I am absolutely enraged by shit like this -- the bad guys winning. G+ served the wants and needs of a LOT of good people, and seeing a few asshat crackers murder it like that... It just makes me pissed as hell. RE the MeWe option -- does anyone know if they have any sort of independent auditing, compliance-verification, or transparency? Or does everyone just have to trust that MeWe is and does exactly what they say, and does it all to an extremely high degree of competence (which is usually a VERY expensive proposition... kinda tough to maintain in the long term, for a free service!)

Do some/all spirits get a similar perspective? Seeing the Shaman, and maybe other things like active magic, but not the rest of the mundane world (geography etc)?

<squints> Cannon cultist, eh? Bit tall for one o' them Moss-Tall-Eee, aincher?

I can't speak for them, but I might speculate that they are trying to be good sports about it, playing the game that their friends love. Also, it's worth noting that for most of Glorantha's lifespan, the only official mechanics (beginning with WBRM) have been crunchy. So a player may put up with the crunchy bits they dislike, in order to get to the chewy Glorantha's goodness that they want.

<flips aside cloak, eases hand to hilt of rapier> "Careful there, pardner! Yer a-wanderin over inta GNS theory a bit... this here is BRP country, 'taint the Forge. Our crits take the limbs offa them Indie folk..." 🤠

Wait... Oakfed is a subcult of Kolat? Hrm. Is this canon?

This (handful of dice) is how I learned RQ, 3-4 decades ago. Attacker rolls d%ATTK + DMGdice + d20LOC & defender simultaneously rolls dodge/parry. The attacker "racks" the dice in-hand -- in a line across the palm (underside of the knuckles) -- and wraps their fingers 'round. The cast is a pinky-first sideways slew, with the dice often (with practice, almost always!) ending on the table in the same ordering they were racked into the hand. This let's the attacker simply read the roll out as a sentence: "42% ! That's a hit with my rapier *** doing 5 points to the 14 Right arm" with a pause at *** and glance to the GM/defender for them to announce parry results, possibly preempting the rest of that sentence. The d20 and DMG can be reversed in-hand and in the grammar of the sentence: "hitting the right arm for 5 points." It's a single cast of the dice, and the "sentence" structure makes for a straight forward read... It's not Chaotic, @Mankam, it's Esrolian -- there is another way! I think I will nickname this "the Esrolian roll" or "the Esrolian cast" at my table. 😁 I'm fine with any/all of this going into a Chaosium product, @Jason Durall , with or without credit, but (a) I don't see how to snippet it down to your requested wordcount, and (b) I don't even want to TRY to imagine the scorn and pushback if Chaosium published a section of the rulebook on "the right way for you to roll your dice" <shudders>

+1 to Phil Hibbs' comments. I think riding in a trance is a likely proposition. I'd probably just flat-out allow this for a Praxian or other born-in-the-saddle culture. Skilled riders can SLEEP in the saddle, after all. For "mere" professional skills, I'd probably allow a Ride roll, and only if it fails require the Concentration-check. Adjust as seems right for a walking mount, get a bit harder for a canter or trot, be VERY hard at a gallop. For walking on foot "in a semi-trance" I'd allow only a very-slow pace, and (except on flat surfaces) very likely to trip (and likely a Concentration-check!) .

I see it, now that you point it out. But after some time squinting, and turning my head, and holding up a paper to block the fold at the spine, and generally acting OCD & goofy, I conclude that it's better as-is than it would be centered on just the flat cardboard, without regard to the spine. YGMV.

Actually, this probably wants to be offered as a tidbit (per the OP) -- editing accordingly:

I can see that; but I think at least as big a bit of the intention is to embed them into the culture -- jobs, family, rewards, etc. When they save a village, the village remembers and is grateful. Their Thane or clan-chief assigns them better lands, bigger herds; they are given bigger roles during important rituals. "Important" (to an adventure) NPCs return, outside the "adventuring" context. Etc etc etc, And they get to see the world from that other, non-adventurer perspective.

Yeah... if you just consider Chrome/Firefox/whatever to be your Dedicated Roll20 Application instead of a "general" browser -- and DDG's PE under another browser for everything else -- the exposure would seem much lower. Unless you aren't willing for the Internet to know which RPGs you play on Roll20. Dunno... do they host That Kind of roleplaying? Come to think of it, that could be a real moneymaker for them... 🤡

While I see the attraction of being able to do a pagewise update (e.g. 3-ring binder) I find myself entirely unenthusiastic about any of the prospects offered. If I really love a game, I tend to play the hell out of it, including using the books pretty hard. Back in my student days, I never had a 3-ring binder survive a school-year; most needed replacing on a per semester or even quarterly schedule. Some of them chewed through the punched holes & began losing pages, before I even realized they were failing. Spiralbound books also suffer in the Durability Dept. I just don't want to do that much physical maintenance on my RuneQuest, TYVM! (not that I think there's ANY evidence that Chaosium (with their top-tier-product vibe) might take this path) YGMV p.s. -- I recall TSR doing the "Monstrous Compendium" thing in 3ring for a while, but I think they abandoned the idea and haven't looked back... As a datapoint & fwiw.

TYVM! Is there a plan to maintain an "exactly as-printed" PDF locked-down & un-changing? Will there also be a "most-current / Live Doc" (with subsequent corrections/errata/etc rolled-in)? I don't mean one where every "erratum" goes in as soon as reported, but after a period of review & collation I presume sets of changes will be incorporated... Presumably there will be a "2nd Printing" with stuff not included in the 1st round of Tribal Edits?

I like your theory a lot!

Maybe you could mention which VTT/etc sites DO work with your essential add-on? Or cite the add-on... maybe someone has made it work somehow?

I think "assassin" in Glorantha is a function of how you act. It is a surprise attack (not necessarily combat, e.g. poison) upon your specific target(s) in a context where the target would have every expectation of NOT being in a combat (or other deadly) situation. Anyone, from a soldier to a spy to a sage, who acts this way is an "assassin."

Sure ... everyone'sGMV. Some folks put a higher priority on playing in very-canonical Glorantha, some lower priority. Both ways are the Right Way to play! Personally, I always prefer to know what the "canon" is, or says, about any given issue; I always feel free to alter it, but I like to know when I AM altering it! But I don't get all OCD about it, either... If the info does't come readily to hand, I add to My Glorantha without worrying over canon.

It's not clear to me that spirits cannot reproduce in some fashion, so I wouldn't rule that out. The Broo race, for example can implant not only a larval Broo but IIRC the "seed" or "egg" of a disease-spirit (or indeed a full-blown disease spirit; but that's not to the point of this issue). I would also posit that a powerful-enough disease spirit could "spread" to infect (for example) everyone in the same hut, then a small cluster of huts, then a whole village. It might become TWO disease-spirits if one of the victims wandered far enough away, a sort of POWrthogenesis. And to the OP's "water/sanitation" point... once water is fouled (whether in germ theory or disease-spirit theory), it might spread in trickles or leaks or droplets or etc etc etc.

The parallels are striking! Thank you.

Rune tattoos are common, as foci & other spell linkages, or just as a loud&proud statement of allegiance. I would presume that when casting they would glow, shimmer, float off the body, seem to be (or reallly be) the origin of the magic, etc etc etc. Not that any of this would make a difference to the spell-effect, or have any game-mechanical impact (other than the "oh shit" moment when the ENTIRE group of foes suddenly pegs ONE caster as a bigger threat than the rest of the party ... ) Dragonwing tattoos might we'll have a similar occurrence for a character with Draconic links/affiliations/aspirations/etc.

Cult Compendium in $60 hardback (not the cheaper softcover) may still be had from at least some of their warehouses .... I see it in the USA. WHOOPS, no I do not, sorry!!! No "Add to cart" button. 😞

Mine is also now in Des Moines, according to the online tracker: Arrived at USPS Regional Origin FacilityUSPS DES MOINES IA NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER Somewhat worryingly, Chaosium still reports my single copy as: This order is marked as Partially Shipped Humakt's power of Separation comes to mind...