PhilHibbs

I can't think of any way to exceed the caster's Ernalda rune pool. Spells traded are "a casting of a spell", you can't stack them together. You can't stack Rune Points from a different cult, if you are in Orlanth and Humakt then you can't use your Orlanth Rune Points to cast Truesword. A high priestess might be able to use the wyter's Rune Points, but if you buy into the "Rune Points are tied up while the spell still runs" deal, then that's a big risk leaving the temple or clan severely under-defended. Why only "up to 10 points" though? If you have CHA 21 and 21 RP then you can sink 19 into characteristic boosts. If you get Charisma cast on you and blow another 20 POW on Rune Points then you could cast it with +39 characteristic points. What a way to retire, eh?

None of these are humans. The SIZ dice roll was changed to leave more "room at the bottom" below the human scale, for example the smallest trollkin should be smaller than the smallest human.

The stats say that he has both spells up most of the time. I don't see why @RHW didn't just put "Permanent Shield 6", or "Shield 6 at will". Well, he kind of does, in that Harrek "can cast virtually any Rune Magic Spell that the GM feels is appropriate".

It doesn't "use them" in the same way that Rune magic does. I don't know what the current thinking on the manifestation of sorcery in Glorantha is, but I'm sure it doesn't depend on the game system being used. It may not be consistent, for example Malkioni sorcery might indeed be subtle and spooky whereas Lhankor Mhy, Aeolian, or Lunar sorcery might have more sizzle to it. And I don't find that readoning persuasive either, but then again I've never heard it before. Has someone said that that was the reasoning? Implying that "spooky sorcery" with few if any side-effects is not current thinking? Or, that the reasoning is not persuasive?

Sure, it used the RQ3 game mechanics, but I don't think those mechanics say anything about how spellcasting manifests in Glorantha.

"Three meters square" is indeed ambiguous. I think the later statement "the area affected increases by 1 square meter" to me implies that it is 3x1 rather than 3x3. If it were the other way around, it would take a lot of Strength to merely double the size of the wall, and 3x3 is a LOT of wall of fire for a 1 point spell. That would mean that it starts out 3mx1m or 1mx3m or 1.732mx1.732m or some other dimension that adds up to three quare meters. For 1 extra Strength, it's 4 square meters, so 2mx2m, 1mx4m, 1.5mx3.2m, etc. I wouldn't impose a minimum width, if you are blocking a really narrow gap then you can make it just that wide and stretch all the way up. When you initially asked about thickness, did you mean width? I assumed you meant the other dimension, the depth, how much you had to press through to get from one side of the wall to the other. If it were less than 1m tall, it would be fairly easy to jump over. 1.5m should do for most opponents, I don't think Gloranthans have developed the Fosbury Flop, but eventually you will meet someone who can heroically leap over whatever you put in their way.

The wall is "three meters square", so I guess it's a square, not a curve. I might allow a roll to bend it, maybe another roll on the spell skill while concentrating on it. As to the thickness, it doesn't say so I guess the thickness is fixed at... whatever the GM reckons is reasonable. Maybe it gets thicker as the Strength scales up, so you take more damage because it takes longer to get through it rather than it getting hotter. By default the former - I think if the Strength had to be explicitly divided between size and damage, then it would say so.

I think it actually does mean that. Certainly the majority of Gloranthans believe it.

You can always use the Trickster as a scapegoat afterwards - banish him from the clan, and hope he takes the chaos curse with him.

What trick? There's no "trick" going on. The magic is real, the connection to Ernalda is real. Western sorcerors might scoff, Lunars might ignore it, but Orlanthi would not. Their connection to the gods would be weakened by denying the gods' ability to manifest. And that Ernalda priestess is definitely less likely to choose you for the next Bless Champion spell. Of course he's psychotically insane. That's a given. But if you foil your trickser at every turn, you let chaos in.

Not quite. If you're fighting in the dark against trolls, I think a little buzz from your sword is the least of your worries... What would happen is that it becomes obvious to everyone that she is infused with the power of the Gods, that Ernalda literally speaks through her, everyone is very impressed by it, and in game mechanical terms her CHA is doubled. Why do you think anything else would happen? More likely, yes, because EVERYTHING that an Eurmali does is cheating, buy definition. Then again, he's allowed to. I think my answer is "Yes they can do this, but no they generally don't". It can be very dangerous to foil a trickster. Sometimes they are doing awful things for very necessary reasons.

With HeroQuest powers, anything can be justified. HeroQuest power. Shield does this, so it's clearly possible somehow for the effects to be applied together. Ooh, you're going to get into trouble for that!

The casting of a spell has effects, not all spells have effects permanently. Glamour and Charisma probably don't, illusions don't have obvious "THIS IS AN ILLUSION" wavy lines or sparkles, but I think Bladesharp does have effects when the sword is swinging, like cinematic WHOOM noises. Bladesharp 10 in my game would sound exactly like a lightsaber.

Is that all?

And if you want an excuse for the adventurers having good stats, you can say that their mothers all had Bless Pregnancy cast on them with a ton of Rune Points stacked on.

The only published reference that I can think of that is clear in this regard, in that it specifically says that sorcery is creepy because of its lack of side-effects, is Strangers in Prax. Other than that I'm relying on conversations with the Great Old Ones themselves, memories of old digest posts, etc.

I think so. It's always been the case that sorcery is "spooky and alien" to Heortlings and Praxians because it doesn't have visible and audible side-effects.

Seems slightly on the generous side, but not by much. I allow individual dice to be swapped around form one characteristic to another, so you can swap dice between your STR and INT if you want. I think "reroll ones" is generous enough without rolling an extra die and discarding the lowst, I'd use one or the other but not both. There's the other options in the box on p53, such as "reroll any 6/9 or lower if you don't have a 13+", are you using those? Also, STR 8 isn't so bad. The Strength spirit spell increases your STR by 8 for 2 minutes so you can be "fairly strong" if you need to.

Here's my take on "canon". I don't care about it. So Whitewall has changed from a previous map. Fine, I'll run the new Whitewall material with the new map. And if a few years down the line a new writer comes up with a new Whitewall scenario in which the layout is different again, so what? I'll use that. Maybe the new scenario material works better with a different map, maybe it needs a spooky ancient EWF building that was never detailed before, or has a dramatic final confrontation on a cliff edge that wasn't on the earlier map. I really have no problem with that, why would I? This is my pragmatic approach for stress reduction. Sit back and enjoy it, why not? Maybe poke a little fun about buildings popping up out of the ground, then move on.

So, if geases are mythologically linked to the compromise, breaking a geas lets chaos into the world. Nice. So, you don't break a geas even when fighting chaos, because it literally makes the problem worse.

Again, maybe a lot if it can be gained theoretically, by listening to the songs and watching the shaman with Second Sight, backed up with practical experience oncer or twice per season. I expect there are other ways to do it, getting stoned or travelling to special places, but it wouldn't surprise me if some shamans insist that Discorporate is first of the spells learned so that the assistant can use it as necessary in the service of the shaman. I woulnd't impose that on a player, but I'm sure that they will find the spell useful during the time that it takes to become a shaman, which may be the majority of the character's played time. Worrying that the spell will eventually "waste" one of the rune spells learned slots is just bizarre to me. It's a bit like worrying about wasting time learning offhand sword skill, because it will be wasted when your main hand skill gets to 200%. From what I understand, that's one of Argrath's special magical tricks, but one that he can teach. I can't provide an official answer, but since Assistant Shaman doesn't say that you must take the spell, I assume that one or both of the following is true: It is not a requirement. There are other means of becoming discorporate - I see now that this is definitely true, since it can happen by fumbling in Spirit Combat (p370). Also, Spirit Travel has a base of 10%, so everyone has some basic instinctive knowledge of it. I'm not sure what that says about learning it, but game mechanically there's no prohibition on learning any skill.

Some parts of the Rainbow Mounds are quite dangerous enough as they are!

Time zone difference.

You don't spend Rune Points to learn spells, and you don't lose any Rune Points when a spell becomes redundant. By the time you get to be a shaman you've probably got more Rune Points than there are spells anyway.

I think the Discorporate spell is an early choice, so they can learn Spirit Dance and Spirit Travel. You can learn the basics as theory just by being told, though.