Rodney Dangerduck

Maybe not one, but a shaman, under the errata rules, should certainly drop to the 2-4 range and stay there forever.

That's what we have been doing. However, the player of the shaman character noticed that the "corrections" page in Well of Daliath change the wording to "The fetch’s POW is always added to that of the shaman’s. This combined POW is used in all situations involving the shaman’s POW." This is, needless to say, a huge change. At first glance, it helps the shaman a lot. However, pne of our keen thinking players notice that using this change, it is much harder for a shaman to get their combined POW up to large (25 or higher) values. They more or less "top out" at ~21, like most PCs. They can no longer simply blow away opponents with offensive magic in POW v POW contests. I don't think this was the intent, but could be wrong.

Will do. BTW, if the fetch always adds its POW to the shaman, pretty quickly said shaman is going to have a heck of a time making POW gain rolls. Just saying... Am I missing something there?

I find this belief that contracts make matters of the heart clear, simple, and conflict-free rather, er, let's say "not compelling". 🙂

Brief followup to @Eff long and useful post. This discussion is great, and reminds me that Sartar customs are very different than say, western Europe, but as a GM and player, I'm more interested in how marriage affects PCs than society as a whole. Perhaps that should be spun off into another thread? Thoughts? Anecdotes of how marriage has affected your PCs welcome! Our group has had very few marriages, and usually they occur around the time that the character retires from active play.

This also means that the couple may find it hard to divorce, contrary to what many on this thread assume. As I questioned earlier, and @Eff did just above, if "cheating" is commonly accepted, and divorce is easy, just what are the social (and legal) functions of marriage?

I sometimes idly speculate on how Bless Crops compares to Haber–Bosch for crop yields.

What is considered a breach of marriage vows in Glorantha? Casual sex? Apparently not. Serious short term romances? Well, just make it a "temporary marriage". A.O.K. Permanent long term polygamy / polyandry (Like Ernalda's husband protectors)? Not a breach, it's very common.

So by your very timeline, it starts at an affair. That, later, becomes a "divinely blessed year-marriage" that doesn't even last a year. Sounds like a Hollywood couple. Very sacred. I'm not a prude, sure, people cheat, but to claim it's all o.k. and divinely sanctified strikes me as baloney.

That's far too close to Popes openly having children and other infamous Church shenanigans, such as annulling marriages for political or monetary reasons, for my taste. RQG page 427: "marriage is sanctified by divine oath". As I read it, the appropriate God (Ernalda? not sure) is involved. It's not just the priest telling the pretty slave girl "sure, we are married for today..." as he slips off her clothes. True. Interestingly, there is no form of marriage listed on page 427 where both man and woman can have multiple spouses. Which everybody here assumes is common: Orlanth / Ernalda, King of Sartar / FHQ, etc... I guess it exists, but strange that it isn't listed among 7 other options. (I don't yet own a copy of 6 Paths, does it list more?)

Thanks. Raises more questions though. Should we assume that Argrath sleeps with all the help, perhaps even the men? He is a "David Bowie" rock star type. But seems, well pretty sleazy... I guess Billy Crystal was right in Sleepless in Seattle? If so, why don't we call them what they are: AFFAIRS. I'm very tired of this "oh, no problemo, it was a Temporary Marriage" stuff. It's completely implausible to believe that Argrath (and lots of other powerful Gloranthans in other examples) went to a priest to get divine blessing before sleeping with them. Really spoils the spontaneity, don't you think? And the fun. Let them be affairs, but, since they are powerful men or women, they can usually get away with them. It would also be a better story, IMO, if sometimes they didn't get away with these affairs. There would be almost no English Folk Music or American Country Music if it weren't for spurned lovers and adulterers, leading to jealousy, heartache, revenge, and murder.

Could you please cite dates and sources? One of our GMs (we rotate) comments that, as of 1627 at least, he has found no reference to Argrath having any children, or even showing much interest in women. Thanks. He's pretty darned busy on other things, so that is not necessarily a reflection upon his sexuality.

To be fair, a lot of everybody's Glorantha theories don't really work. 🙂 That's why we love Glorantha.

I stole the idea from that Sharpe episode.

My Vinga worshipping PC has an explicit long-term goal (mainly a section to give GMs ideas). Along with "Stick it to Annstad" and "Outshine her brother" she has: "See Jar-eel from a distance and survive. Even better, meet Jar-eel and survive."

I take this as more evidence that the Trance spells are horribly broken.

If you are nice, she laughs and walks away. (Or maybe does one formalistic duel and walks away) Otherwise, they die. Unless somehow they prepared and planned for all this. Those are the only stats you need.

In our group, nobody gives a crap about it being "bronze age". We go for the weird, magical, dramatic, humorous, and fantastic.

How do you interpret "income"? We have, perhaps erroneously, interpreted that as your yearly income, say, 60L for a Warrior. And not including what you gain in gameplay. Under that ruling, an extra 6L a year is nothing. If you do include stuff gained in gameplay, tithing is a pain. And also a pain to calculate. One of our players is a tax lawyer and we joke about how he could hide our income as "capital gains" and deduct "expenses" etc...

RQG encourages parrying with your weapon, since, unlike RQ2, it "comes free" with your weapon skill, and, should you augment your weapon skill, or use a Trance spell, it boosts attack and parry.

Somewhat more relevant to game play, how many experienced adventurer PCs are "expected" to be multicult? Our group is 3/8.

Where the rules start going funky is when an iron 1H sword parries more damage than a large shield.

Good points. Thanks. For GMs who have dealt with Yelmalian PCs (or other "weaker" cults), what have you done to make those players feel more relevant? Lots of stuff at night? Anything else? Our group is combat heavy. But it's been pretty easy for GMs to keep the Issaries, LM, and Ernaldan engaged and significant. Those cults have clear and excellent strengths.

Agreed. However, the GM can't reasonably rule that no more than 4% of the PCs may be Hunakti.

Your original post, as I quoted, said use one of your rune points to associate into Orlanth. Not three. Your corrected solution is to use 3 of your 4 rune points in Orlanth, not Engizi. Reasonable. But it's just proof that Orlanth is the far better cult. "Engezi is a fine cult. Just be sure to put almost all your effort into Orlanth". Not persuasive.