Rodney Dangerduck

6 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Flamal, Father of Plants, is the most obvious.

Perhaps should be "was the most obvious."? 🙂

If the one male nature spirit we can cite was killed in the God Time, that seems to answer OP's question.

I find it humorous that, at the same time, this thread is praising Passions, while another thread Negative Passions During Character Creation) points out flaws or confusions in the implementation.  I agree with both.

Since a real world friend is having a "significant" birthday, it begs this exceptionally nerdy and geeky question:

In Glorantha, do most cultures use base 10 for their counting and math?  Base 12 like some ancients?  Or something else?  (Thumbless Morokanth?)

Special hits all doing slightly different things, some of which are scattered over different pages, are a freaking nightmare and waste of time paging through the rules at the game table.  Luckily, most of our players use swords so there is less to remember.  Though we always forget the "shock" rules.

(added) The rules bias towards slashing weapons is an expression of the general rules bias towards Humakt and Orlanth.

Arguing with myself, I do realize that replacing two feuding flawed leaders, Kallyr and Leika, with one awesome heroic leader, Argrath, makes Chaosium's task of writing and publishing The Great Campaign a lot easier.

6 hours ago, jajagappa said:

But why a waste of time??? 

Mainly, because Loyalty Leika is also  useless (or nearly so) upon the arrival of Argrath.  Whoever you "bet on", you lost.

What's even worse, some PCs used metagame knowledge and just backed Argrath from the get go.

37 minutes ago, radmonger said:

Canonically, Kallyr fails her LBQ and dies in battle shortly after the default campaign start date

I found the Kallyr - Leika rivalry very interesting to role play for our PCs.  Especially as both protagonists have great flaws to go with their many strengths.  IMO, too bad that they both "go away". 

Also, we put in considerable thought into which PCs would get Loyalty checks for Leika / Kallyr as they battled for our loyalty.  A shrewd PC could (slightly) play them off against each other.  And it brought out your PC's attitude - are they "smart and pragmatic" (Leika) or more "bold and heroic" (Kallyr)  Maybe you'd learn to respect both sides.  Fun.  And, in retrospect, a complete waste of time.

2 hours ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

not waste all your rounds just trying to throw a single Disruption

A prime reason we award checks (see above) and don't use the rules.

We are considering limiting stackable spells.  Protection 6, Bladesharp 7, and Shield 6 are becoming pretty common (as we get higher level) and make the game difficult to GM.  One idea is that most spells top out at 4, with exceptions for certain cults get a "cult special": Humakti can go higher in Bladesharp, Eurmali higher in Shimmer (perhaps?) etc...

Has anybody tried this and have feedback?  Thanks.

1 hour ago, EMH said:

But they both had CHA 21 and Orate 110%. That counts for a lot.

Churchill was more like 200%.  Though I agree completely, that skills other than tactical prowess and sword are important to a leader.

1 hour ago, Martin Dick said:

I really hope that in the Great Argrath Campaign, there's a chapter on choosing the Lunar's side.

I'd like that too.  Based on the fundamental assumptions and comments here by Jeff and others about Argrath being central to RQG, that seems unlikely.

Hopefully @Nick Brooke or MOB or "fans like us" will come up with something in a supplement...

We generally don't give checks for using a skill.  Instead, end of session, everybody gets the same amount - a die roll, usually 2D6 or so. 

Avoids check grubbing and let's you build up your weaker skills.  You do have to put the checks into "reasonable" skills.

I like the concept of Argrath as the ultimate trickster charlatan, essentially a Gloranthan version of Gilderoy Lockhart (from Harry Potter).  Claims to have done all these great things, but he's really just good with Lie and Forget spells, stealing all his great accomplishments from other heroes.

Maybe this belongs in the "Your Wackiest Idea" thread...

17 minutes ago, soltakss said:

So, the consensus of opinion is that this is not a good idea. Shame, really.

For the record, in our campaign Argrath keeps delaying trying to relight the Flame due to unspecified problems.  Maybe he will finally light it when the Gods book comes out?  🙂

So we are keeping the possibility open of Argrath failing.  Though I doubt it will happen, especially as several PCs have very high Loyalty Argrath.

3 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

The problem I find with Argrath, given the elevation of heroic level escapades in this version of RQ, is that he occupies a position that the players ought to have.

Fair point.  Especially since most PCs are not heirs of Sartar.

In our campaign, the PCs are aspiring to replace, or having interactions with, Argrath's close companions, such as Annstad, Elusu, GolGotti, and the leader of the Brotherhood of Death, whom we have named Hengist.  For that reason, those characters will probably be more important and interesting than Argrath in our campaign.  And, I imagine, in many others.

I hope to see more stories and information about them.

1 hour ago, Darius West said:

The only things that matter are (1) Does he have Sartar's bloodline? (2) How well does he fight ? (3) How are his tactical skills ? (4)  Is his cult status acceptable to lead?  Ultimately it is his tactical skills that will make him a leader or not, and frankly, flawed heroes are cooler anyhow. 

#2 and #3 don't matter.  Louis XIII and King John were great "leaders" for two of the best adventure sagas of all time: The Three Musketeers and Robin Hood.  Winston Churchill isn't noted for his tactical successes.  Elizabeth I couldn't fight a lick.

2 hours ago, Darius West said:

Well I've never subscribed to that way of thinking.  Art imitates life imo.  In any case, demoralize works on animals in the rules last time I checked, only befuddle doesn't.

"the victim loses faith in their own ability and of their allies to win a fight"

I'd argue that an unintelligent creature like a horse doesn't have faith to lose.  Even if it did, the spell does not force the horse to run away.  The enemy rider should, in general, be fine.

The rune spell Fear would work.

On 12/19/2022 at 8:43 AM, PhilHibbs said:

There's nothing in RuneMasters about it, although it does say "Befuddle the horse".

As @Darius West pointed out, you can't (unless they are an ally or awakened).

Much of the advice in RuneMasters is munchkinnery, or exploiting rules mechanics instead of "reality", or outright bogus.

2 hours ago, jo77yroger said:

Hi, I have another question about AS. I received an AS as a random boon through the family history process.
the POW value of this AS is 3D6. As you know a Rune Lord can have an AS with 3D6+6 of POW. I would like to know what to do with my current AS when I become a Rune Lord. If I decide to keep my AS, can it increase its POW ? or do I have to throw the dices again for INT, CHA and POW?
Thanks

If you mean #20, "You have a spirit bound into an animal or item. It has a POW of 3D6 and a CHA of 2D6...." that is a bound spirit, not an Ally.  Still very useful.  One big difference is that it doesn't get an independent "action" - you can draw on it for spells and MP, but that is your action.

13 minutes ago, David Scott said:

Note that quite a few of these NPCs ignore the CHA limit of Rune points

So the rules cause "no issues" if you ignore some of them?  🙂

(It is good, practical advice)

4 hours ago, JRE said:

To regain RPs at an associate you need a seasonal or high holy day, and I would only allow it either if the associate is in the CA temple, or CA is present as an associate in the other deity's temple.

In our campaign, it has been an interesting plot device to travel to other temples, located in other clans or tribes to recover rune points on their seasonal holy days.  Makes you more aware of the calendar and seasons.  And some fun role playing too.  My Vinga worshipper once attended a Eurmal holy day, and hopes to never have to do that again!

It's one of the great mythical strengths of the Lightbringers that they have so many associates from whom to regain rune points.  And one of the main drawbacks of Humakt.

As for CA specifically, I would expect them to travel a lot to regain rune points at associate cults, cause each time they gain, on the average, one Resurrection, or 3.5 points of other very useful and specialized magic.

If we take the estimate of @Jeff that an average priest has 10 rune points, wise use of associated cults could pretty easily let them regain 6*3.5 = 21 additional rune points per season, tripling their effectiveness from 10 to 31.

5 hours ago, Summersong said:

One of them at 90% could make for a very reliable buff to all sorts of rolls

Depends how strict one is on using augments and inspiration.  We are pretty strict, one inspiration per scene, and you can only use a skill to augment once.  Assuming that a PC already has a relevant rune or passion around 90%, (ours typically do) getting another one to 90% isn't very useful for a single scene (the big battle). 

But it could be useful in other circumstances.  Or if you thought that one particular passion might be especially relevant.  Thanks!

p.p.s.  Also isn't clear if Arouse Passion is a "defensive" spell.

8 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Ummm - Impede Chaos!

Excellent catch!  And yes, that's a great spell in the right circumstances.  Far better than Berserk IMO.

Any thoughts as to whether Impede Chaos helps in spirit combat?  (if the spirit is chaotic)

The party is going into combat with the big bad guys at the Thanatar temple (I'm the GM) and I've allowed the Storm Bull to get a casting of Bless Champion from an NPC Ernaldan.  It seems like a great spell.

However, looking at the details, we are coming up a bit short on defensive spirit and rune magic to support it.

As for spirit magic, Vigor and Shimmer look best, and are reasonable enough.  Note that Protection and Counter Magic are not taught by Ernalda, so shouldn't be readily available.  (or will be at low levels).

As for Rune Magic, Absorption makes no sense.  That leaves Charisma (if one is willing to call that "defensive"), Spirit Block, and Shield.  Super super useful but not very "exciting".  Not that Earth Shield is out - it is cast on the shield, not the husband-protector.  Which is too bad.

Any advice?  What combinations have you found effective or interesting in your games?

1 hour ago, mfbrandi said:

Hi, Bill. I meant the point of introducing the spell into the game (by the designers) was to enable Trickster pranks, not to break the game by handing the Eurmali a superpower. I may be wrong, of course.

I have no idea of their thought processes.  One of our players said it best:

"The Lie spell has never not been broken."

As for a possible Lunar response, one might be to just start hauling away clan, friends, or family of the perps for "questioning" or worse.  Details depend on just how dark is your campaign.