Rodney Dangerduck

We think alike - I had a rough idea (currently abandoned) for adventures in an unknown, rundown village downstream of Swordvale, which I was calling "Lower Sword". Good luck with your JC adventures!

Good point. Little of this seems to have made it to the RQG rules.

Odalya as a "Bear who happens to hunt" has to be the one of the least appealing Gloranthan god concepts. Imagine the recruiting materials. The Orlanth Brochure: "Roam the world having many adventures, throwing lightning, slaying dragons and mighty beasts. Woo and bed countless beautiful women and goddesses. Then lead the most famous heroquest, save the world, get The Girl, and become King of the Gods" The Odalya Brochure: "Be a bear"

Maybe true for bronze age earth and self bows, but Glorantha has comp bows with Speedart which have good stopping power

The solution to that is to give those hunting cults some archery rune magic.

True. Same for NPCs not dispelling PC spells like Charisma is a social situation.

This would tie in nicely to the Vinga's Ford scenario on the JC. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/315517

No. By quickly dispelling the spell. Or perhaps by running away,which is a very reasonable option

It depends on whether the opposition has the ability to Dispel, is intelligent enough to do so, and how strictly you play the rules for targeting a spell to dispel (or dismiss). And it depends if the GM is willing to "spoil the fun" of a Humakti PC by "picking on" their Sword Trance. That's actually an aspect of the spell I like the least... One thing for sure, against unintelligent creatures, especially those who attack with natural weapons, Sword Trance is all powerful. Due to the greatly increased parry skill (over 100%), they will probably miss their attack. Then you parry and damage their claw or bite. I played in one game with Todd Gardiner (of Chaosium) and his poor Scorpion Men totally stopped attacking with their stingers after several had been chopped off in one round on parries. The standard tactic of ganging up with multiple attacks on the Humakti Duck backfired completely. The Duck did have up Truesword, some sorcery spell, and a lot of Bladesharp as well, so this was an extreme example.

In CoP, Humakt had neither Sword Trance nor Strong Sword. (Assuming they do get Strong Sword in RQG when the Gods book comes out). Sword Trance is truly game-changing, and Strong Sword is very good. As for Orlanth, it gained way more than just Lightning. Leap and Wind Warp, Thunderbolt (the best attack spell in the game). Their Associated Cults provide many very good rune spells such as Bear's Strength, Charisma, Heal Body, and Earth Shield. Maybe in the fuller God's book Yelmalio will gain a few good spells from his associates.

I think this is a good real world analogy for what has happened to Yelmalio over the years as we move into RQG. Yelmalio was a Jaguar E-type (from the 1960s-1970s). Easily recognizable as a fast performance car. It had its quirks, and it's style. One could argue that the harder core Humakt Porsche 911 was a better performance car, but both were worthy choices for warrior adventurers. Now, its 2022. Porsche has added tons of horsepower (Sword Trance) and fixed one of the 911s weaknesses, the tricky rear-heavy handling (Strong Sword). The current 911 is vastly better than the 911s of the 1960s. It will utterly crush an E-Type on a racetrack. The versatile Orlanth "hot hatch" rally car (e.g. Volkswagen GTI, Honda Si, Subaru WRX,...) has greatly improved. A good everyday car with many options, and it will crush an E-Type on a racetrack. Even the Ernalda minivan has improved a lot, and, in addition to hauling a soccer team, many minivans can compete with an original E-Type on a race track. (Grassroots Racing tested them a decade or so ago and it was close) However, the Yelmalio E-Type is exactly the same as the 1970s (RQ2). Still has it's quirks. With time, they have gotten even more noticeable. Still has style. But, as a performance car for the warrior adventurer, Yelmalio is no longer recognizable as a good choice. Now, the powers that be are very happy with this decline in Yelmalio's relative value, so this discussion isn't going to change anything. I've heard of campaigns where the PCs openly mock NPC Yelmalians. I just thought it was a good analogy. Hope somebody enjoys.

Good, we are in complete agreement. If the archery add won't step on anybody else's toes, it's o.k. and reasonable. I might not do it on "mythic" grounds, but it is reasonable. The fact that your players outright mock Yelmalio cultists is a sad (and true) reflection on that cult's decline into irrelevance.

Depends. If I am playing a character from an actual archery cult, it's not fun that the Humakti character not only outshines me in melee, as is to be expected, they also outshine me in my specialty. It would be MGF if the Humakti could talk with snakes, fly, resurrect people, and speak many languages. Doesn't make it right...

Remind the player that one of the three geases could well be 68-71 Use no non-cult weapons.

We've played that you just need a Sanctify spell on the Holy Day. And throw in MP to boost up your worship, since you won't have any bonuses.

A or B are both correct. Whichever math is easier for you. You messed up the Adventurer vs Dryad math in part B. The correct result after subtracting 7 from both is 11 vs 21, a 0% chance Note that 1-5 always succeeds, so "0%" is really 5%. Likewise, "100%" is really 95%.

Our RQG characters, especially my brash glory hound Vinga worshipper, we racking up lots and lots of reputation going through many of the standard RQG modules. She desperately needed more CHA to get up to 18. Our GM was nice enough to let me "trade in" some of the Reputation for one CHA.

I agree with @mfbrandi The "thief" aspect of Orlanth is called, ... Orlanth. Lanbril wishes he could be half the thief that Orlanth is.

Ray is still around. He did suffer a stroke a decade ago and has speech aphasia, though he understands others well.. Let me know if you want contact info.

If your character is in a cult with Rune Lords, you almost certainly want them to become one. And if you neglect to start them with a decent Devotion, you are basically screwed. We ended up fudging this for some of the characters. Same for CHA. If you are on a Rune Lord path, better start at 14ish or higher. Would be nice to have advice like this somewhere. Without descending into egregious munchkinnery ...

So, 5 lines of differing rules and lots of paperwork to track what got used for what and when I am increasingly skeptical of Augments. Especially as players spend a minute searching their sheet, find their highest Passion, and ask if they can use it,even though it is totally irrelevant.

We didn't quite get to it this session, but next session for sure. Thanks to everybody for the comments.

Since my semi-NPC-just-testing-a-concept Babs Gor character might cast it tomorrow, some questions about when you come out of Berserker. She will be fighting chaos, so her CON will double, as will (perhaps with a rounding error) her hit points. Say, from 17 -> 34. Not parrying, I expect that she will take a lot of damage, possibly in the 20s. Lets assume 24. She can't heal herself. Our Ernaldan is very brave, but maybe not that brave to get close to a Berserker. As the spell expires, does my Babs Gor Drop dead instantly (I believe this true is by RAW) Have a GM is nice to the PCs round or two where the party healer can cast Heal Body. Has anybody actually used this spell in a tough combat? Thanks for any ideas on how to make this somewhat workable...

Until the slightly better off Orlanthi obtains an iron broadsword, worth 18HP. One point I haven't seen mentioned is that augmenting (or "inspiring") your weapon skill affects both attack and parry, further discouraging shield usage. So a good initiate can parry with a 12 point medium shield at ~100%, or with an 18 point iron broadsword at 120%. (assuming 100% skill and a normal +20% success on Inspiration). Unless you've got Earthshield, the decision seems pretty easy, with a few exceptions.

Most mini-maxers would do most of that as soon as possible, dropping Vasana's POW to around 10-13. She has an Ally Spirit to cast spells for her, compensating for the lower % chance to cast. She resists at 21, so her POW doesn't matter as much for defense. In any case, the change went from D10 POW lost in RQ2, to 1. Huge change.