Rodney Dangerduck

18 hours ago, Darius West said:

that this Season the clan had a major epidemic or battle,

Maybe within the last week or so.  CA has several associated cults with whom they can worship to regain rune points.

Follow @Nick Brooke advice.  Or, if you do want other options:

A missing head prevents Rez, and might throw suspicion elsewhere (on a Thanatari).

The Resurrect spell must be cast within a week of death, so if the bodies are well hidden and take more than a week to find that will  work.

If a victim is a Humakti it is very unlikely that a CA will try to Rez them.

Rules for Hero Quests are coming.  They have been for 40 years.  They may arrive before the final Game of Thrones book.  Or possibly not.

Poster I remember from years ago.

2 minutes ago, svensson said:

But it could be devastating to an opponent who is unfortunate enough to find themselves in melee with the Odayla priest.

Am I missing something?  The Bear can't parry and has 4 points of armor.  (Plus any magical armor).  I guess Odaylans could be o.k. if they have a high Dodge.

@HreshtIronBorne  My Vingan warrior gets STR into the 40s when she is all mo-foed up.  But she uses an iron sword with perhaps some bladesharp.

15 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

I would imagine the Empire's corrupt folk and those seeking to control corrupt folk

True 

There are also corrupt folk in Sartar, Esrolia, Prax and Tarsh.

Hs anybody found the three parts of the Transform rune spells, i.e. Bear's Skin, Bear's Strength, and Claws, to be very useful in game play?

Bear's Strength is really good - one of my Orlanthi warrior's favorite spells.

As for the others, other than the "coolness" factor they seem, to me, pretty marginal as spells.  But maybe I'm not creative enough.  Wondering if others have found them useful in reasonable situations.

I think the emphasis on cults with ties to the Mobility rune is misguided.  Since one of the first mobile shrines was the Wooden Sword, for a cult that has nothing to do with Mobility.

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!

12 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

BoHM: "Odayla: God of Hunting in all its fashions: the chase
from horseback, the stalk with bow and arrow, the
stampede of herds over cliffs, the capture of great monsters
in pits or with humble traplines and deadfalls."

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"

10 minutes ago, Godlearner said:

. Bows just did not have the stoping power

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

2 hours ago, svensson said:

@Andrew M Well, YGMV, mon frere.

I think the subcult idea isn't a bad compromise for your game though. I don't know if it shows up in mine, though.

The benefit to a 'Bow-Humakt' subcult is that it gives Storm worshipers in your campaign access to some fairly nice archery Rune Magic [Arrow Trance, etc.] that neither Odayla or Yinkin teach.

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

22 minutes ago, Eff said:

So it relies on an implicit social contract that NPCs won't use it

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

4 minutes ago, Richard S. said:

Do you mean enforcing the "trance" part of the spell? If you don't do that then yeah of course it's horribly unbalanced, it's meant for the Humakti to be doing nothing but nonstop fighting.

No.  By quickly dispelling the spell.

Or perhaps by running away,which is a very reasonable option 

29 minutes ago, Richard S. said:

If I can ask, though, have you had any experience with those spells in-game? How powerful spells are theoretically can be pretty different from how they actually perform in the players' hands.

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.

40 minutes ago, Richard S. said:

Humakt and Yelmalio have the same options they've had since Cults of Prax.

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.

34 minutes ago, Andrew M said:

Having been gaming for nearly 40 years I am aware of the issues of protecting the niche each character has in the party, and try to make sure that does not happen.

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.

3 minutes ago, hipsterinspace said:

think you have to consider MGF, and to me it's MGF to have it on the bow and not the arrow.

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%.

45 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

It would be Interesting to hand it out for very high Reputation as well, although since we can’t separate Infamy, it could get iffy.

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.