Rodney Dangerduck

22 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

But there is an open door for an "overpower" spell, something like 10 rune points spell (of course one use) to change a feeling

Ernalda has "Arouse Passion" that somewhat matches.  Stackable, each point adds 20% to one Passion.  Even a non-existent one.

But only lasts 15 minutes, or however long you cast Extension.  Not forever or until disproved.

@Nick BrookeWhen asked by somebody else why Jolene, you did not reply "because it's about a beautiful woman" ... (generally matching Jar-Eel).  You gave a snarky reply, as anybody can see up above, because it's about a lesbian love affair.

I have nothing against people, imaginary or not, loving whom they please.  But if you ask 100 Gloranthans who Jar-Eel loves, 99 would say Beatpot.

Likewise, the great song "I'll be your Emmylou" does not sing about Johny Cash's affairs, it describes him and June Cash.  Emmylou Harris and Graham Parsons probably had other lovers, but it describes them.

A love song about Jar-Eel should be focused on her and Beatpot.

6 minutes ago, Storm Khan said:

Hmmm, I would have suspected that Jar-Eel would swing both ways without hesitation or guilt. Lunars strike me as people not bothered by tiresome rules . . . any rules, really.

True.  Not as if Heortlings have strict rules in these matters either.

Just seems that the **first** song that comes to your mind about Jar-Eel should not be Joleen...  To each their own...

5 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

It's about a lesbian love affair. Really.

Given that Jar-Eel's great love is Beatpot, I don't see the relevance.  Really.

It becomes "The Ruins"?  🙂

6 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Emptying the tank is pretty different when you have 9 Rune Points compared to 3...

Good point.  Associated cults are your friends for this, or just in general when you need to recover quickly.  My Vingan has probably recovered more of her Rune Points at Ernalda ceremonies than at Orlanth ones.

One good feature of Roll20 is that you can create weapon damage specific macros.  For example, my character has

Sword   which for my PC is d8+1+d4, yours may vary

Bow       d8+1

and, more importantly to save time looking in the rules, it also has

Sword Special     see, I actually forget and would have to look it up...

Bow Impale

We use Roll20 for maps when a battle is possible or expected.  For example, go into Snakepipe Hollow, put the map on Roll20 and follow along.  We also use it, sometimes, to roll dice - it has some nice support for that.  We do not use it for character sheets or anything.

We use Zoom for the general conversation, possibly briefly screen share a map or picture.

We use Discord as the overall "chat" (or the "help, my computer crashed, I'll be back...") and for a lot of the dice rolling when battle is not happening.  e.g. social interactions, most roleplaying, etc...

@Scotty I'll work on my Xena ululate war cries!

Thanks for clarifying that singing is the augment, not sung.  That works for me.

5 hours ago, Scotty said:

For further info have a look at Galdr as an example of magical words and singing

Thanks for the great reference, very interesting.  I still doubt that any of those examples can be "sung" in 12 seconds.  Maybe Gilbert and Sullivan style?  🙂

As for augmenting Spirit Combat with Sing, much as I hate to say it (my character is a great singer) page 139 pretty much kaboshes that:  "typical" time for Sing (or Dance) is minutes.

We didn't have that much deep mythology.  Even though our characters were all Lunars, we kept messing with it.  They lost roughly a province every campaign.  Eventually, in some dim future:

A huge battle which "saved" the Empire resulted in the loss of Jar-Eel, Moonson, many other heroes, and much of the army.  A Danfive strongman (not so subtly patterned after Putin) came to power, backed by the naive PCs, secret service forces, trolls, and Delecti.  He offed or imprisoned any likely Moonson replacement candidates so they could not complete the Ten Tests.

Likewise he suborned or threatened prominent Dara Happen families, while Yolanela waged a vicious Dart War in Carmania, supporting House "Anister" over the "Tarks".  The replacement Inspiration of Moonson was called "Jar-Uz".

24 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

David already noted that Hon-eel provides it.  And Hon-eel was the one who courted and won the Sun for her lover.

And I believe Hwarin Dalthippa may offer it as well.

There's been discussions with Nick and Jeff that Red Emperor has it (at least, his "voice" does) as well as the city cult of Glamour.  I assumed they provide it to the Red Goddess (or vice versa) but apparently not.

13 minutes ago, g33k said:

meh...  7M is the "central" cult for the Lunars, the way ErnaldOrlanth is for those folk.

This is where we disagree on "canon".  IMO, 7M is the provincial, "missionary" aspect of the Lunars.  Sedenya / Natha/ whatever you end up calling it is the real central cult, and they should certainly have the Charisma spell.  And I agree that there may be other cults that got overlooked.

Depends on your players' interests.  If they really get into the bargaining, haggling, finding the best place to sell an item, yes, roleplay it out.  If they just want the cash, I'll typically have them sell it, but typically 10-20% below full price. 

22 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

Do you also have trouble with Issaries characters because not every adventure features things to sell? Or with Lhankor Mhy because not every adventure features learning about stuff?

Issaries can always travel and communicate (and keep an eye out for future sales opportunities).  LM can always learn something.  Even if it is mainly to chronicle heroic events and deeds of others.  (As Sorala is portrayed in RQG).

OTOH, I'm reading about the Iron Man subcult of Humakt, and it takes a tactical nuke to game balance, allowing one to wield a greatsword with one hand.  And, relevant to this thread, parry with a shield in the other hand.  So depends on your group and play style.

13 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Yes, and it wouldn't be at all unreasonable to have higher-damage bows with a higher strength requirement. For the bow, unlike the javelin, the bow itself creates a limit though.

A bow with a full or even half damage bonus would likely break game balance.  Something you can shoot twice a round from relative safety that can't be parried.

A bow with a +1 would be reasonable.

2 hours ago, davecake said:

And in general I find the reasoning that says shields are weak defensively to be implicitly ignoring ranged, especially thrown weapons

To be honest, our PCs, who almost all use shield & 1H weapon due to cautiousness and similar advice, have, so far, faced almost no hostile missile fire.  Murphy's Law I guess.

Babs Gor is a great fighting cult, but, IMO, not a playable PC cult unless the GM is willing to "go along".  How many campaigns involve sacriledge against the Earth?

55 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

RAW lets you in theory parry a SIZ 80 dinosaur with your knife

Unless you roll a Special or Crit, who cares?  The dinosaur does 86 damage, and your knife deflects 8.  You still fall down.
True, a Special or Crit spares you from all damage, but think of that as a "dodge" that was rolled as a parry.

Your other points that melee should be less static are fine.  Though adding too many fancy movement options will slow combats either further, which IMO are already pretty long.

1 hour ago, davecake said:

quite a few advantages for a decent shield (parry thrown weapons, passive protection, etc) that make it the best choice for most

I disagree.  Or at least, I'm not sure yet.  With augments and Trance spells, two handed weapons look mighty good, not to mention their much better damage.

Even when you use Shield and 1H weapon (e.g. Sword), if you cast Sword Trance, or make a great Sword Augment, you are likely to parry with the sword.  My Vingan crit her Air in Duel at Dangerford and didn't use her shield at all.

Page 200: "An adventurer may make a subsequent parry with a weapon they have already parried with.  Any subsequent parry is at a cumulative –20% penalty..."

So, a parry with a weapon or shield that you have not parried with is not "subsequent" so is not penalized.  This is a minor benefit to using a 1H weapon and shield.  You get two parries at full skill.  Assuming both are good...

I don't think you can parry and dodge in the same round but I might be wrong there.

8 hours ago, John Biles said:

Probably the same reason that Jar-Eel the Razoress, most noted for murdering the Pharoah, has Harmony, when she leaves a trail of bodies in her wake.

If she were most noted for killing the Phaorah, wouldn't she be "Jar-eel the Murderess"?  No, that's the nickname of Argrath's favorite trickster.

More seriously and less biased, there's many things about her that, IMO, are more notable than killing the Phaorah.  Her Razor, her Lyre, Beatpot, being an Inspiration of Moonson, fighting Harrek, and storming Whitewall (or was it Boldhome?)  Six without really thinking very hard.

I do like your take on old sad useless Fat Elvis.

1 hour ago, ChrisJ said:

I have given all my players the option of a weekly holy day for their cults.

This is the most fair and logical.  Why a few big cults rate weekly holy days and most other cults don't is unfair and a bit stupid.  Orlanth and Ernalda are already greatly favored in rune point recovery by their large pantheon of Associate cults.  They don't need the added benefit of weekly holy days.

"Hey, Elmal, I like horses and all, but until you offer similar Rune Point recovery, plus free delivery, like that Orlanth guy, I'm sticking with him."

I believe that giving him a sock breaks the bond.