PhilHibbs

Maybe. I thought it was about a potential third printing. The "second printing corrections" document that I remember seeing was just the changes already in the second printing. And the OP explicitly mentions The Well. Yeah, if this is the file that Jeff posted (that is 403 Forbidden): ...then that's the errata already in the book. I'm pretty sure that this thread is about incorporating the changes in The Well into a new printing. Am I so far wrong? If so I can't see how I went astray. @Mordante Can you clarify that that is what you are talking about? One of us is clearly confused.

The corrections on The Well are far more extensive than the second printing corrections.

I agree, I know it's over-used and in some ways outdated but I like the King of Dragon Pass model. A proper "heroquest" is something that the community seldom does and plans carefully for - either it's great need, such as to fix a problem, or it's a way of honouring the gods and spending resources in the good times to get a big reward.

I guess the premise of all these narratives is that there is some underlying cosmic principle that requires a unique focal point for the power that is needed to "save the world" or whatever the film is about. There doesn't have to be a conscious chooser, in the same way that nobody chose the value of the fine structure constant, or the value of pi or e. Or if there is, it's God, who also exists because of the same cosmic principle of singularity.

Characteristics are supposed to be somewhat exponential, so a difference of 10 is a huge difference at any scale. The SIZ chart in RQ3 had each point of SIZ being slightly more than the last point, so the scale accelerates gently until you get to 100 whereupon it's flat. So that doesn't really back up the exponential theory. Just another example of how the rules don't really scale that well. But they don't need to. They work well enough that you can play a game and have fun and kill a giant monster. What's not to love?

Vasana's Saga ignored the problem of no Devotion and no Loyalty (Temple). Maybe they assumed that Loyalty (Mentor) works instead. Or they just don't mention that he picked up a Devotion (Waha) passion at 60% at some point. But in that saga, Vishi just goes to Pavis, meets up with her, travels with Argrath's army, and initiates on the journey at a sacred site in northern Prax. We're planning something similar. There is also the problem of giving enough POW to your fetch to have it be useful, whilst retaining the 18 POW requirement for priest. Vishi does NOT do this, he goes below the minimum. Scotty in the Q&A said that this means he's not a priest until he gets his POW back up. So I guess you don't need to qualify for priest to become a shaman of Waha. If you become a shaman, and you qualify for priest, they you're a priest of Waha. Otherwise you're just an initiate who is also a shaman.

Well, this is one of the reasons that Devotion is in my opinion the far better choice. It's hard to pick up a passion for your temple when you're an outcast from your homeland.

I'd just like to point out that that would be a dick move by the GM. Unless the player goes out of their way to bring their mentor into play and deliberately gets them into a dangerous situation, this should never happen!

I might give +1 for having one or more impressive magical items, and a separate +1 for either conspicuous displays of wealth, or being famously ascetic.

That's what the rules say. I'm not entirely convinced of it, but I think a character would have to have a lot of famous stuff to get a second point.

Yes, you could sacrifice 2 extra POW and get Charisma for an entire season. Or 3 POW to get Bear's Strength. That's all your Rune Points locked away for the duration though, so you can't cast anything else. And if the next seasonal holy day doesn't coincide with the expiry of the spell, you lose it until the next worship opportunity. I can only see 40 STR as being achievable though without something like a Humakt or Yelmalio gift. So yes, you can do that. You'd get +25 to all your manipulation skills. That's starting to get a little strange, that a huge strength suddenly makes you a proficient flute player, but it doesn't bother me too much.

Can't wait to get a big one of those on my wall!

On the one hand, that's true. On the other hand, it might not apply in a magical world. On the gripping hand, Glorantha to some extent "really is how ancient peoples thought the world worked", and if the mundane ancient world was riddled with self-serving bureaucracy, then maybe the magical world should be too. But maybe for different reasons.

I think what is happening here is that Scotty is interpreting the rules as written, and hasn't gone back to the current authors (Jason, Jeff) to get a change considered. Maybe it will be when the new revision is done, I've heard rumours that it at the very least intended, if not actively worked on.

Truesword does the extra damage to Telmori in my game. And a Humakti weapon blessed to do double damage once armour is penetrated would do normal damage, the "extra" from doubling counting as magical.

That might be the case if the other senior rune levels also are highly temple-oriented rather than devoted. You could just as easily construct the narrative the other way around. "Right, so you're going to perform your duties in devoted service to our god?" "No, I'm going be worldly and political!" "Er..."

The priest requirement is trivial, since new passions start at 60% and you only need 50%. Which is a bit daft... 50% means you really have no passion at all, you're as likely to not care as you are to care. I'd make it 75% for priests, or even the same as Rune Lords.

Well we know that not all the "initiate" rules apply to allied spirits. They can't become rune lords or priests, Humakti allied spirits don't get gifts and geases (although that has been proposed in a zine article). Similarly I would say that an allied spirit, as a dedicated servant of a specific deity or cult, can't initiate into another cult. Oh, and we already discussed the possibility of a Yelornan's unicorn becoming a unicorn rider. Awesome though that would be...

Sure. Those that don't devote themselves to their god, and aren't fanatically loyal to a temple, can't become Rune Lords. But I would suggest that most adventurers who join cults with Rune Lords would have an eye on that level of promotion at some stage (even if it's something that the player doesn't think that they will actually get as far as doing in play). I've met even fewer actual Rune Lords than you have in real life! (yes, I know you didn't say that, couldn't resist though)

It's quite possible to come out of character creation without Devotion (Deity). Pregens with it: Vasana, Yanioth, Sorala, Vostor (has it in the starter set, but not the core rule book), Aranda, Dazarim, Ionara, Mago, Makarios, Varakos. Pregens without it: Harmast, Vishi Dunn, Nathem, Narres. Pregens with neither Devotion nor Loyalty (Temple): Vishi Dunn (but he has Loyalty to his mentor). Devotion and Loyalty (Temple) are pretty important. Rune Priests have to have one or the other at 50% (easy), and rune lords need one at 90%. Does the pose a problem for Vishi Dunn becoming a priest of Waha? Does his loyalty to his mentor work here, and what happens if his mentor dies? If you know about this at character creation, then you just take Devotion or Loyalty as an optional passion. Loyalty to a specific temple is a risky choice as you might not be anywhere near that temple. If the campaign moves from Sartar to Pavis, or vice versa, and you have Loyalty to the wrong temple then that could set back your career by years. Devotion seems to me to be an essential choice at character creation, and if you're not lucky enough to come through family history with it, then definitely take it as a personal choice. Hm. Issaries doesn't have that option at the Cult step. Interesting. Quite a few of the cults don't have Devotion as an option. Odayla and Yinkin don't have either! So if you don't get it in family background, you're starting off from nowhere (60% for new passions gained during play) on your journey to Rune Lord. (Yinkin has priests instead, my mistake) Eurmal is fine. I have no problem with them having neither, although Narres has Loyalty to a temple.

5 and 20 are the "comfortable range" for the RQ rules. Anything outside of that gets a bit weird. That's the way it's always been, nobody is going to "fix" RuneQuest at this stage of the game's life cycle (although people do house-rule things like proportional resistance tables and alternative category modifier charts, I mean nobody is going to "fix" it officially).

I see no evidence for that at all, and it certainly isn't true in my game. So non-intelligent spirits can't sacrifice POW. Fine by me. Or if they can, it's just something that happens according to their nature. Perhaps you could learn the conditions under which they naturally leak POW into natural magical processes and take advantage of that, but that isn't coercing sacrifice. It's just good old fashioned plundering of loot. "Oh, when these fertility spirits gain POW, it ends up in the Passion Peaches of Pennel. The party shaman will follow one of the spirits that he knows has a high POW, and when it drops, we use Second Sight to find and harvest the peach, and...." then whatever, anything from a free point of POW to add to an enchant, to give to a Wyter, or the peach stone becomes a Bless Crops or Preserve Food matrix that can be recharged at the local earth/fertility worship. So yes, there might be ways of harnessing the power of spirits, but not a simple "Dominate! GIVE POW!" That would be a fast way to get attacked by the spirit's natural allies.

Another thing to bear in mind is the difference between what the adventurers do, and what the players do. The players might be inventing a new myth, but the adventurers are "discovering that it was true all along".

Although that has me thinking now... what magic does Yelmalio get from that? Where is his "survive taking an absolute drubbing" spell? Seems that that myth is one of the ones that you have to go experience yourself in full, to gain immortality, rather than one that gives a lesser benefit to the whole community. So if you weaken it, you threaten the immortality of all those that did it.

Changing myths is a step too far. If it's even possible, then it is extremely dangerous. Yelmalio's defeat by ZZ is fundamental to his nature, and much magic will be derived from his ability to take a kicking and come back from it. All that magic would be lost if he didn't suffer defeat by ZZ. When a Yelmalion questor goes to the Hill of Gold, he goes there to be defeated by ZZ. Being defeated is victory. Accidentally winning is a catastrophe! You can "discover new myths", but discovering that existing ones are false is a perilous path. At the very least you will find resistance from those who have a vested interest in things being the way they were.