Rodney Dangerduck

7 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Also, it's entirely possible that healing is not as easy, plentiful or reliable in a literary sense as RQ rules might make it seem. 

I've seen many postings, from both fans and more official" sources, that healing is plentiful, other aspects of health care are great: women have nearly complete control over fertility, childbirth is almost completely safe (unlike the bronze age real world), there's no Black Death or Cholera sweeping the countryside, etc...  I have argued that everybody should become an initiate to get 1 point of rune magic and access to the common spell Heal Wound (Universal catastrophic Health Care!) and get push back that "no, there's plenty of Ernaldans and Chalana Arroy around", so, in canon, half or so of all NPCs are mere lay members.

You make a valid and good point as to it being "possible", but, in this case, I believe you are wrong.

1 minute ago, Kloster said:

With RQG, you don't choose the geas anymore. They are rolled on a table (a reason for me not to play an Humakti anymore).

Agreed.  Take your one gift at initiation.  Don't voluntarily choose an extra gift, like that PC did, so you don't have to roll on that table.  I guess you could even refuse to become Rune Level, though that is going too far.  🙂

12 hours ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

I've already had to do that so no big deal. RAW allows Humakt initiates to pick “Other Weapon (pick type) + 10%”, and a character in one game used that for Composite Bow but then picked up a “no non-cult weapons” geas. Since she learned it as part of Initiation I ruled that Composite Bow is a cult weapon for her home Humakt Temple in Alone. It probably isn’t recognised as such anywhere else, but it is there. YGWV indeed. 😀

I know this got three likes, and YGMV, but this is, IMO, way overly lenient. 

The geas isn't "no non-cult weapons that the player never planed to ever use anyway". 

The geas isn't "no non-cult weapons except useful ones the player is skilled with".

As modified, the net effect of the geas is near zero.  Has it ever significantly affected the character in your games?

If you don't want to pick up a nasty geas, limit the number of those awesome gifts you choose to take.

29 minutes ago, g33k said:

Where's the merciless-but-cold tracker, calmly chasing down a runaway kinslayer, a hidden oathbreaker?

Could be Babs Gor too, true.  But also save some roles for Orlanth / Vinga, or the hunter cults.

So there's a lot of cults that restrict or prohibit "marriage".  How common is it then, and how is it viewed by Heortling society, to just shack up long term, without formal vows?

E.g. Snarlnash the Storm Khan can't find an Earth Priestess, but just lives happily with the lovely local Minlister brewer.  Barbash the Babs Gor shares a house with Darbon the dashing Donandar and they live happily ever after?

35 minutes ago, ChrisJ said:

Babeester Gor warrior maiden criticaled with her Great-axe and did 42 pts of damage to the dragons abdomen - instant smear.  Contra-wise a few sessions previously a Large Chaos Demon critical-ed the Bezerking Storm Bull initiate (also in the abdomen) for 30pts of damage.  The difference between these two scenarios was that in the second case the Storm Bull initate had a friend nearby able to cast Heal Wound. 

I disagree.  The difference is that 30 is much less than 42.  Even so, 30 would have killed almost any adventurer.  Except the Berserker spell saved the Storm Bull from instant death.  42 points damage would have been an insta-kill.

The friend nearby was nice, but only the #3 reason the PC lived.

2 hours ago, Dissolv said:

The reason it doesn't play out this way is normally because all encounters are run as if everyone in the world was heavy infantry

Excellent point.

Not sure if it is our GM, our generally melee oriented group style influencing him, or the scenarios we have run, but we have been able to do basically zero scouting and tactical preparation before battles, there has never been a reasonable option to avoid battle, and there's been only one battle where my PC could use archery effectively for more than a single quick snap shot.

I've participated in one other group's session, a hack and slash in Snakepipe Hollow.  And watched one full session from "White Bull", when the PCs protected Argrath from assassins.  Both of those were also basically "instant melee".  (The first understandable)

So I completely understand that a different approach, as @Dissolv advocates, that allows pre-combat maneuvering, tactics and magic, would tone down the Humakti, and, more importantly for this thread's original topic, lower lethality.  Or at least you can blame the PCs for when they die.

I'm just not seeing these options in practice.

3 hours ago, Dissolv said:

Shield 6 on your Yelmalian, let him tank the hits -- and then Heal Body when the critical comes in

So you are going to burn 9 points of Rune Magic to counter their 1 point Trance Spell?  Good strategy.  This just proves how good Trance is.  What if they cast Mobility and run away for 15 minutes?  🙂

>Humakti and Babeester Gori are professional warriors.

So are Yelmalians.  And many other cults.  Our party contains a Storm Bull and two Orlanthi who are professional warriors.  Or at least have that as their profession.  They cannot compete in melee.  (They are still very fun in other aspects)

In any case, we are off track of the original topic...

16 hours ago, g33k said:

Wading through a horde of mooks is actually do-able for such fighters.

Some players go so far as to call the rules "broken" in such areas

The problem isn't that the Tranced warrior can wade through a horde of mooks.

The problem is that the Tranced warrior can wade through a horde of high quality opponents (or the PCs). 

RQ prides itself on not having "character classes".  Yet here they do: if you don't have access to a Trance spell, you aren't a real melee warrior.  You can be an archer, or spell caster, healer, face, or versatile skills/spells monkey, but leave the serious combat to the Humakti and Babs Gor.  And, like it or not, combat is a big deal in most RPG.

I'm trying to adjust, and maybe this isn't "broken", but I don't think it should be glossed over as "a-ok".

Interesting thread.  In the RQG player character backgrounds, I guess I assumed that your parents were married.  And it is definitely implied on page 33:

"If one of your parents dies, you may decide that the surviving parent remarries."  (emphasis added)

But the possibility that they are not married, or your father is somebody mysterious (or just a rat) is interesting.

There have been several scientific tests of The Bat's capabities.  As soon as one of the grad students survives the test, a full report will appear in the journal Chaos.

9 hours ago, metcalph said:

Everybody sails the waves with a little fear and a great deal of respect.  

"The Sea is so wide and my boat is so small" would be part of any sailing rituals on Glorantha (and Brittany).

A culture that can predict and control the wind would make a superb naval power, even with limited experience at sea.  Your hypothesis strikes me as bizarre.

On 6/26/2020 at 9:54 PM, Crel said:

The title adventure of TSR is perhaps the most interesting story published thus far, but I feel the adventurers are more along for the ride, than making active choices.

I agree.  TSR had very interesting NPCs.  But too much of "NPC#1 has a long talk with NPC#4 while the PCs sit around..."

Scenario writers please take note: don't fall too much in love with your NPCs!

11 hours ago, Stephen L said:

Secondly, I’ve Yelmalians in the party.  Do not believe the threads that say Yelmalian rune magic is rubbish. They have access to heal body.

So do Orlanthi and Ernaldans.

It's a great spell, but note that it is 3 points, one can often use Heal Wound instead, and the runes needed to cast Heal Body don't match up with many warrior / PC type cults.

IMO there's a few too many "ah ha you're dead" moments in the standard scenarios.  Requires some judgement from the GM.

Fun art!

In our campaign Leika sent our party to "check out the Lysang" and try to return them to the Colymar.  After investigation, we told her the Colymar were better off without them.  🙂

21 hours ago, Jeff said:

Orlanthi do not segregate their bathing areas by gender.

Thanks.  I was wondering about this during the ritual bathing portion of the Pegasus Plateau scenario.

I also note for Sedenya.  But, since you don't want a "winner", pick her Gerra aspect.

She sings songs of sorrow and suffering.

Seriously, do you guys play FRP games so that you can negotiate treaties for your superiors?  Or so you can whack monsters?

For those who prefer the later, +100% is a game changer.  In a one off special session with Todd Gardiner, I played White Eye the Dark Troll who was buffed to do like +5D6 impact bonus.  He was totally ignored by the "bad guys" because they were completely focused on our Humakt Duck.  Being totally overshadowed is not a recipe for long term fun.

3 hours ago, David Scott said:

CHA17-18 = +30%

But please note that her bonus was +10% without the Charisma spell.  So the net gain to her Communications skills from the Charisma spell is +20%.

The convention is that the immediate target of the Charisma or Lie is unaware.  A bit of suspension of disbelief, but otherwise those spells are pretty worthless.

But how about somebody else?  You are on roving patrol around the Palace, and you notice a suspicious character go to the gate, possibly cast a spell, chat up the guard and enter. Is it fair for you to continue to be suspicious?

It's wonderful, I gave it 5 stars.  Works great for any low or moderate level campaign set anywhere in Sartar.

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

with 200% Defense

Getting rid of Defense was the best thing RQG did.  It too often rose to absurd levels.

12 minutes ago, Fred said:

I haven’t figured out what healing would be needed before 12 strike ranks for a character who has his chest, abdomen, or head “destroyed” this way though.

The Heal Body rune spell should be good for this.  But not much else.