Rodney Dangerduck

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.

That simply does not work. You need 3 Orlanth rune points to cast Thunderbolt. Associate cults don't help.

Is there a prohibition, or even a suggestion, against Orlanthi forming Shield Walls? No. Is there a rule against Humakti using bows, daggers, javelins, or lances? Only if they roll a 68-71. Those skills explicitly count towards becoming a Rune Lord, see page 297: "any other weapon attack". I bet that almost every Humakti PC is capable with one or more of those weapons. Or some non-sword weapon. (I'm not clear if Dagger is a "sword" or not.) Orlanth Wind Lords are also allowed any other melee or missile weapons to qualify. Yelmalio must be bow, javelin, or spear.

A ironic aspect of this is that a high Water Rune is useful for the near-desert dwellings Praxians, as that is the element that can augment Agility skills such as Ride.

This may be a good use for Yelmalians. And it would be a truly great character background - Guarded the camp and happy ending version: drove off the enemy, gained Great Glory dark ending: watched them slaughter the queen and princes, gain Hatred ThoseGuys However, "camp guard" hardly strikes me as a worthy goal for a player character. Bodyguard for somebody very important, o.k. Camp guard, no.

The one thing clear from that massively long and often contradictory correction thread is that the fetch always adds in POW v POW. Thanks for the link.

They can only learn rune magic specifically offered. Usually a single spell. For example, Orlanth: Provides Summon Air Elemental (small) to Odalya. None of the three hunting cults provide rune magic to each other. Their "benefits" to being associated is that they participate in the same Great Hunt together. Nothing more. Well, I guess it is more o.k. to join both (or all three) cults. In the example on page 283, Flight is the one, specific spell that Orlanth offers to Issaries. (see page 298)

Probably for another thread, but these seem to be three hunting cults that are mediocre at hunting, though they'd be effective if combined. And how they fit in mythically / culturally is fuzzy to me. For example, Bear's Strength is awesome for a warrior, one of my Vingan's favorite spells (she's also in Thunderous) . I'm not sure how it helps a "hunter." Hopefully GoG will elaborate.

In other words, they found one of the few cults worse for a PC than Yelmalio.

Even from a roleplaying, non-powergaming perspective, how a PC performs at their primary role matters. At least, for many players it does, as it affects their game fun. I participated in a one-off game, GMed by @Todd@Chaosium, where a small party of the PCs called in their favors to hire some muscle for a major assault on Snakepipe Hollow. I got to run White-Eye, a large intimidating troll, who was around 100% in weapons skills and, especially with some sorcerous help, did a ton of damage. Basically every round, I took out a bad guy's leg (I think I rolled 1 or 2 for most every hit location die!). That felt pretty awesome, except... Another PC was a small Duck, but a Humakti Duck who had Sword Trance. He was even more awesome in combat, taking out multiple opponents a round (mainly by parrying their 5% chances to hit, and then destroying their weapon, arm, or teeth) All the enemy magical focus was on him. All their Befuddles, etc. They eventually got their act together and Dismissed the Sword Trance. Next round he put it back up. Enemy focus resumed. Had I been an actual PC playing in their campaign, this would grow tiresome quickly. All the songs and glory would go to the Duck. I want to play a tough intimidating fighter, and I'm completely eclipsed by a Duck? BTW, another guest player, very experienced, ran a Yelmalian. We had great fun insulting and quipping with each other. Once the battle started, she was barely noticeable. At least I could do enough damage to take out opponents. Her character pretty much tinked the whole battle. Now, maybe some players enjoy playing the equivalent of Joxer the Mighty. Most don't.

Followup question: Does the fetch get a separate action when "in combat" (using strike ranks)? e.g. can both the shaman and their fetch cast spells during a melee round?

Or in the pregenerated characters. Dazarum, from the Starter Set, rides a Sable Antelope, not a horse. I concur, the suckiness of Yelmalio is completely intentional. Silently curse at MoB and others and move on...

And training up your Kuschile skill is a poor use of a PC's time and effort. Instead of training your Kuschile archery up from 25%, why not train up your Ride skill? It does start lower, but it's way more useful. And you save a geas. Yelmalio has a lot of bothersome geases, including "Complete Celibacy". Avoiding them is a good thing.

For 3 more rune points they can add "Nor am I a Trickster"

Also, far fewer mothers dying during, or shortly after, childbirth. A few years ago I read Daughters of Chivalry, by Kelcey Wilson-Lee. It's about Edward Longshanks' many daughters. When they faced a difficult birth, and called for the sacred relics for aid, I found myself surprisingly affected and fearful for their lives.

Not quite on topic, but very related: Our group now has a lot of Rune Levels (with Allies), and a lot of MP and rune points. So, in a big thrilling climactic combat, if they take a nasty blow and lose a limb, or their Head goes slightly negative, it gets fixed up pretty quickly. How can a GM knock a player out of a combat, adding tension and drama, without just killing them? Mindblast (and similar spells like Fear) Demoralize and Befuddle tend to get Dismissed pretty quickly. I think we may be too easy letting the PCs do so. er, I'm running out of ideas... What have you done? D&D has things like "send them into another dimension" and "lose levels" which have end results I like, scaring the affected PC and making the other PCs nervous, even if the effects themselves are somewhat corny and artificial.

I agree. IMO, the idea that Honor is solely a "martial" virtue is artificially limiting. Alternatively, there could be something similar, just with a different name, for non-martial characters. Scholars and merchants and healers etc. have their own sense of "honor" or "correct behavior", even if they sometimes break it. For simplicity, I'd still call it "Honor" instead of "Follows Hippocratic Oath" or "Doesn't Sell Guicci Knockoffs". YMMV. As for Babs Gor, Storm Bull, and similar cults, they just don't believe in Honor or other behavioral norms. They are true believer fanatics following a "higher" principle.

I really like the @Nick Brooke concept of Honorable, Dishonorable, and "o.k." acts. Next, he needs to sweet talk Jeff. 🙂 It would be improved with a list of examples of honorable acts, to contrast with the existing list of dishonorable acts.

I'm pretty sure that his style is extremely different than ours. Though I generally appreciate his posts and insights

I realize "there is no physics" in Glorantha, but math and topology is math and topology. I've seen several adventures where it is physically impossible to turn around a long spear, not to mention a pike.

Not if they come from behind you.

Agree. The whole "Yelmalios are effective because they fight in a shield wall" theme is ultimately a "Yelmalios aren't effective adventurers" message, unless you are in an atypical campaign.

My impression was that Chaosiums' draft HQ rules ignored skills. I'll await the official release. And then, no matter what, try your excellent idea of reversing things so that skills augment Runes or Passions.

Much agree. I'm ok with throwing out most of a PCs skills when Heroquesting. But not all. A "signature skill" (or two), particularly if it isn't super powerful in ordinary game play, should count. I've used this analogy a lot, but if Eric Clapton goes Heroquesting he better be able to use Play Guitar somehow. My PC is ~125% at Sing. That proves that she loves singing and put in a lot of work to get there. We never bothered tracking some nebulous singing passion that would be a pain to track, duplication of effort, and tops out at 100%. Sometimes the skill proves the Passion. HQ rules should recognize this.

This is an excellent summation. Yelmalio should be a good cult for warriors, not merely "passable." The fact that it doesn't even rate as passable, and is arguably weaker than Ernalda, is a significant problem.