Rodney Dangerduck

43 minutes ago, g33k said:

although not in such powergame-y terms -- they want actual faithfulness, worship, earnest regard from their Initiates

True.  I have requested that the players work to get their Devotion skills up to 70% to show "faithfulness".

Thanks @Jeff!  Even if the fine details of the fate of Bagnot are obscured, that's YGMV material anyhow.

One thing that we, mainly I, noticed is that the bulk of Argrath's forces, and his key allies and Companions, are weird Arkati westerners and sorcerers, Esrolians, Harrek and his Wolf Pirates, Praxians, etc.  Not exactly King of Sartar material.  At least, in 1627-1628.

In our campaign, that is stirring up some trouble with our largely Colymar group of PCs and the proud Leika.  All fun and good plotlines.

1 hour ago, Wheel Shield said:

Written in agreement:

The Yelmalio / Elmal topic is something I have chosen not to engage over the years. I've just skipped the threads for the most part. It's going to be great (for me at least) to open these books and read about these entities from a clear, definitive perspective. Just the straight dope, as the expression goes.

I'm not kidding. A clean fresh start is thrilling for me.

I completely agree.  A fresh clean start will be wonderful.

The reason for my original question is that two of our PCs, in a typical RQG Lightbringer group, are minor member of Yelmalio / Elmal.  In D&D terms, they "took a dip" to get the two good rune spells and some weapon skills. Yeah, we do some powergaming...

Too late to change for us, but wondering if that was o.k.  If Yelmalio is friendly, yes.  Otherwise, well, they got away with it and next time we will know better.

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Yelmalio was not a Lightbringer, and from earlier previews Yelmalio was part of the Sky pantheon section. I'd expect him there.

I'm with OP - is Yelmalio or Elmal, or whatever that variant is called this year, considered a friendly cult of Orlanth?  If so, he might belong in the "Lightbringer" book.
I guess we will find out in a while.

38 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

being familiar there is usually one or typically more sensible ways to adjudicate. 

It's the "or ... more" that's the problem.  🙂

I have some D&D / PF playing friends with some interest in Glorantha.  I'll try to GM this for them.

Speaking of GMing, in my limited experience, Pathfinder is an order of magnitude easier to GM than RQG.  Far clearer rules, less need for GM creativity and thought.  Note, this isn't always a good thing & sometimes GM creativity is good!

5 hours ago, EpicureanDM said:

How can a GM properly give this advice if they don't know how to compare a group of PCs to groups of enemies?

I think that RQG system, which is, for better or worse, pretty fast and loose (or just plain fuzzy) about a lot of the rules, many of which get ignored, makes very large demands upon the GM in many many ways.  Don't have any real advice here other than "get used to it".

As for some of the tactics described, I agree with most.  Darkwall is nasty.  Dismissing the PCs' magic is dull and boring, I tend to avoid it as GM as "not fun", but it is very intelligent.  At a minimum, Dismiss the obvious stuff - in my mind, True Sword, Sword Trance, and any Light spells!  Maybe leave up the Shield 4s, that costs a lot of MP, and will piss off your players, especially if you pick on one.  My Vingan PC had TWO separate Shield 3s dismissed and I felt "picked on".  Though I can't blame the GM, she was the best target...  But, anyway, some spells are overpowered, you know which ones, and must be dismissed as soon as "reasonable" by the GM.

I haven't read the scenario, but if the trolls have Strength spells, that would often be more effective than Bludgeon and IronHand and so forth.  Strength typically adds +10% to hit and +d6 damage, so it's kind of like a Bludgeon 2.  It also adds to parries and dodges.  And, most importantly, it applies to all of those multiple limbs!

One suggestion for maintenance. especially if you feel the armor is "too good".  Charge a periodic "maintenance fee".  The PCs need to pay some skilled armorer X amount of money (or something) each year.  Or, if you prefer more mystical / magical, they need to sacrifice 1 POW a year to renew the bond.  (the exact rate may vary).

One of our PCs has allied with a very powerful Umbroli (giant air elemental) and must renew the bond with a period sacrifice of POW.

36 minutes ago, General Confusion said:

My biggest suggestion for running a fight with a 'complex' enemy like a Rune Lord is to pre-program it.

I think this applies to any fight - have a battle plan for the NPCs.

But, also be willing to roll a Battle or INT for them to see if they follow through, or get distracted, confused, react to the wrong threats, etc.  As @Jon Hunter posted, NPCs can and should make tactical mistakes.

I often have  couple of battle plans in mind for the NPCs, a well thought out Plan A, a decent alternative Plan B, and a sub optimal but not completely stupid Plan Z.  Makes the battle more "realistic".  And also easier for the GM.  A bad plan is easier to run than making everything up on the fly.

I agree with most of this, including considering running away as things turn bad.  Though our group does seem to have too many D&D / GURPS / Video Game types so they hardly ever do.  Lately, we've been burning through D.I. though, I guess that's kind of the same...  (OT: this is probably an unintended consequence of the new RQG Rune Lords D.I for cheap rule)

What I don't see is fights being anywhere close to "decided" after a couple of rounds.  I'm not saying you all are lying or anything!  Not at all.  Just that something you do is very very different than what we do.

One possible difference is that we have a Humakti with a good Sense Ambush skill, a Uroxi with good Sense Chaos, a Shaman who can see the spirits, and a few PCs and familiars who settle for non-magical aid: excellent skills at Spot or Listen.  So the PCs very seldom get ambushed.  And our Humakti has the dreaded no fun at all "don't participate in an ambush" geas, so vice versa.  For most battles, both sides have a few rounds to get prepared.

Our PCs are now pretty high level, so Shield 3 / Prot 4 is common, and Shield 5 / Prot 6 is not unheard of.  That could play a role too.  (And the baddies usually have up some Shield too).

Thoughts?  I'm really interested in what about your combats make them more decisive sooner, because ours take a long time.  Even a "minor" one.

1 hour ago, Cloud64 said:

and now being aware of the Dragon Rise and the potential return of dragons the king's ghost has taken guardianship of the weapons until such time as they are needed to slay more dragons

Very good move to have Berevenos take back the anti-dragon items.  This really should have been suggested in the scenario.

1 hour ago, Cloud64 said:

'They've got a cult spirit, can I have one?

Our group has the same problem, just with elementals instead of cult spirits!

Sounds like you are on the right track for your group.  Good luck.

I agree, for the most part, with @svensson that the rewards are very high.  And the Dragon didn't seem all that tough, though that could be GM inexperience).  However, most of our PCs returned some of the loot - the iron weapons, because there were unsuitable for everyday use, or they didn't want to live with the oath to Benevenos. 

For example, my PC had the spear.  It is nice in normal combat.  It is priceless when fighting dragons.  If she were to break it in combat vs, say, trolls, the loss to the tribe is immense.  It's like using Leika's Black Spear in a normal melee - nice to have, but lose it or break it and you would be cursed by the Colymar forever.   So, she returned it - it really should be a Tribe item for use in extremis.

Also, she heard that the "Argrath guy" was into Dragons, and didn't want to be constrained by the oath.  For example, she still has that favor owed her by the Dragonewt.

3 hours ago, Cloud64 said:

I think rather than brutally having it disappear in an instant, having it fade over time, reducing in efficacy as it does, could be the way to go. 

I agree, that's a better way to play it!

Maybe the PCs will then contact the Dragonnewts, or, better yet, the dreaming dragon, to find ways to preserve or even increase the armor's effects.

But - remember the PCs' oath to Berevenos.  If one or more of them made such as oath.  I won't say more cause it's a possible spoiler...

We ruled that the dream ended a day or two later, and the skin disappeared.

If you prefer, have the PCs put in a lot of time, effort, and money, then have the real dragon stop dreaming at a key time, and the armor will disappear.  🙂

1 hour ago, Soccercalle said:

As there are no skill category categories a Passion of 100 is much more uncommon than a skill level of 100. There will be a lot of sword fighters with 100+ in skill than people with a 100 (or 100+) passion. So 100 in a Passion is "higher" than 100 in  a skill.

This is a reason I'm a bit skeptical of the proposed "coming soon" heroquesting rules, at least as I understand them, where skills do not apply, and Runes and Passions take precedence.  The primary Runes and Passions will all cluster together at roughly 90-95% and it's hard to "tell them apart".  

Hopefully it will work out - our group is really looking forward to them.

7 hours ago, soltakss said:

If you have a Passion at 100% and then get a +10 increase then why not have the Passion at 110%?

It is playing by the normal rules, unless the normal rules cap Passions at 100%.

One only gets a flat increase to a passion during character generation.  At least, how we play it.

After that you have to "make your check", and when you are ~100% with no bonus that's rare.  Even getting that required passion or rune up to 90% to make Rune Lord can take years.

It's very hard to get a passion much over 100%.  I'd just play by normal rules.

14 hours ago, Paid a bod yn dwp said:

For example the Dance skill could be used as an augment to effect a deliberate feint.

One of our PCs constantly asks to use Dance to augment his Dodge.  Reasonable.  Yet I, the current GM, say no.  My two cents:

As described in RAW, Dance is not an Agility based skill.  It is "Communications"; there is nothing particularly physical about it.  For the record, I think that maybe Dance should be an Agility based skill, but the authors decided otherwise.

Nor is Dance a deceitful skill for feints. Maybe use Fasttalk?

Dance already applies as an augment to Magical skills.  Making it useful in physical combat is perhaps overpowered.

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

It is perhaps worth pointing out that the Arkat cult largely has to exist as a secret society in most human societies

I agree that this is reasonable and probably how it should be.  This is definitely not the impression I get from the scenarios: e.g. Duel at Dangerford features an Arkati being, and all the "woo-woo" weird stuff that Argrath is doing.  Argrath uses "Arkati insights", and his magic "uses an eldritch blend of Arkati secrets..."  It's obvious to the Earthly players (maybe not their Gloranthan PCs) that Argrath and many of his magical teams are highly Illuminated.

Argrath's companion Mularik is "deeply initiated into the mysteries of Arkat".  Sir Ethilrist isn't exactly hiding.

47 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Only Orlanthi believe that. Other cultures are far more accepting.

True.  But RQ, including the current iteration, is highly focused on Orlanthi and Ernaldan cultures.

What would you guess - 90% of all RQ PCs are Storm Tribey?

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

The human Arkat cult has ways of sniffing out Illuminates, and unless those Illuminates are Arkati, the Arkati usually try to kill them if possible.

How does this work out?  Sounds like it often involves "secret murder", which is chaotic.  Interesting ...

According to Cults of Terror, p90, The Arkat Cult has a "strict moral code clearly within the bounds of acceptable non-chaotic behavior".  One might assume that this precludes the use of chaotic magic.

@jajagappa  I love that we came to exactly opposite conclusions.  🙂

The RQiG Second Sight description (page 264)  (emphasis mine)

"This spell allows a person to view the POW aura of a living being and to gauge its relative strength. This spell does not allow the user to view the Spirit World."

Note that the Shaman section (p 358) talks about a living entity.  And their fetch lets them see the spirit world.

What's a living being?

For example, our Shaman has

1. spirits bound into inanimate objects
2. spirits bound by his fetch
3. his fetch
4. he was overcome by a disease spirit
5. he was covertly processed by an insane spirit from a Thanatar head.

If you forced me to rule this moment, I believe that 2 & 3 are probably "living beings".  Not sure about 4.  And the others aren't.

Thoughts?

Excellent question.  I have no idea.  But it's a good roleplaying question for characters.

My soon to be Colymar mother of twins picked Joreen (Pegasus Plateau, she befriended her and they teamed up for the final climb) and, as I recall, the male leader of the Eleven Lights whose name I've forgotten - need to verify, and maybe rethink that choice (made a while ago)