Rodney Dangerduck

In our very non-canonical Glorantha, Gbaji had a powerful, devoted wife.  After the final battle, to which our bold PCs heroquested to save her and restore the proper timeline, Arkat tasked her, some might say cursed her, with preserving Gbaji's good aspects.  She thus acts as a significant counter to Ralzakark, and some of the worst aspects of the Empire.

YGMV.

Thanks for all the answers.  Sounds like there are many different approaches that work for different groups.  Next our group needs to figure out what works for us.  🙂

1 hour ago, lordabdul said:

Well, if you augment your main skills recklessly, then you won't have the augment available anymore for your weak skills, or available for that one important roll at the final scene... so.... it works as intended I guess? What's the problem then?

Not sure what you mean.  Players would only augment main skills if it mattered.  There's a significant fight, augment your weapon or spirit combat or whatever.  That's not "reckless'.  If at the end you need Insight to interrogate a prisoner, too bad, but at least you won the fight.

If you mean use Loyalty A in scene 1, Death in scene 2, and you have run out of good Runes or Passions by the climactic scene, yes, I agree that's possible, and desireable.  But only if GMs enforce the limits (many have replied that they don't, or are generous on resetting).  And only if they are a bit strict on which Runes or Loyalties apply.  Which was the question of this original post.

If a GM tends to be loose and allows, say, Mobility to augment Climb, then the fact that one recklessly used Water in an earlier scene is unimportant.  Under a stricter GM, the player might think harder before using that key Augment.

For example, we are in the middle of the Pegasus Plateau scenario, and **everybody** is saving a good augment for Climb.

7 hours ago, soltakss said:

I have never understood the argument of "well, that makes it too easy to make rolls". My skill is higher and I can make rolls more easily? Good!

Most of our group really like the chance to augment your poor offbeat skills.  Your warrior needs to try some Intrigue?  You can augment and go from a pitiful 10% up to a "I feel like I at least got a chance" 30%.  And you might get a check!  Your character might develop some flavor...

We are less sure about constantly augmenting your main skills, and generally prefer to reserve that for the "climactic" scene.  

One suggestion for @Jeff: occasionally push back on the PCs when they try using Passions or Runes for augments.  I find them all more or less reasonable, but it would be educational for how a GM and the players should think about them.

See also this link, specifically about using Mobility for Climb.

Thanks!  Great job on the videos!

Our group is struggling with how to decide whether to allow Form Rune augments.  For example, in the White Bull Campaign episode #2, one PC used his Mobility Rune to augment (technically, "inspire") their Climb skill to climb the walls into Pavis.  @Jeff allowed it, didn't bat an eye.  My initial reaction, watching, was "o.k., reasonable, but let me think about it".  (Note - Jeff, might be nice for education if you occasionally questioned the players, asking them to explain why their Passion or Rune made sense as an augment.  They usually do, but this might help others learn )

Certainly Climb involves movement.  But so does every other Agility skill.  And there's already a runic augment for that - Water.  If a GM allows Mobility to augment all agility skills, plus dozens of other skills that involve movement, the it becomes a pretty all powerful augment.  OTOH, if you don't allow Mobility to augment any Agility skill, that seems restrictive.  

Note: my character has a high Water, chosen specifically so that, when I really need to Dodge or Climb, I have a chance at a bonus.  When I really need to Spot or Communicate or Hide, I'm on my own...

Our group is very much confused and on the fence.

1. One player is "certainly that makes sense". 
2. I am leaning towards "if there is another official Rune for that skill, the player should really use that instead, or a Passion". 
3. Another player is "Certainly not".  In his view, Mobility might make you climb faster, if speed matters, but it won't augment your skill percentage.  I find this an intriguing approach too.

Thoughts?

55 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

I'm looking forward to Claudia doing cool stuff with her character.

One thing that I'd like to see is a few more quirky unofficial passions that develop for your character.  Claudia clearly has a "Gotta Dance" passion at like 85+%.  In our campaign, my character is "besotted by Goldeneyes", but there's no official in-game mechanism.  But if it came down to Loyalty Sartar vs. "Take a Goldeneye bribe from a Lunar spy", my character would likely take the bribe.  🙂

I guess each group can work this out for themselves - we are already giving characters a "Loyalty Party" passion, or, you could just make up a number for "besotted by Goldeneyes" when the time comes.

25 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

I don't remember that (do you have a timestamp?)

Don't have timestamps, but when Kulbrast  healed his arm against the assasins, and cast Glamour when debating Nisk in the 2nd session.  But, as you say, maybe the players are rolling behind the scenes?

A bit OT, but watching Nisk being so big on Meditate to regain MP...

We are currently playing the Pegasus Plateau scenario, with the contests, and my Vingan has declined to even try to enter the "magic contest", which involves long Meditations.  Why?  Her Mobility Rune is 95%!  I frankly don't see Meditate being much of a skill for a "good Orlanthi".  Is this off base?

Not sure what Nisk's Mobility Rune is...

P.s. Sorry if this seems nitpicky.  The major parts of the game are all very well done, and the players are doing a great job replaying.  So I'm left with pretty minor comments!

One minor thing I've noticed watching the first video, and the first part of the 2nd video, is that Jeff doesn't call for POWx5 rolls when Kulbrast casts spirit magic spells from matrices.  Is that a rule I don't know or is he just being slightly nice?

One nice tactic that SR adds is when and whether to cast magic in melee.  For example, your opponent plans to cast Bladesharp or Sword Trance and then attack late in the round.  If you forgo spell casting to hit first, and manage to damage them, big edge to you as their spell gets cancelled.  OTOH, should you fail to damage, advantage them as they will be better in Round 2.

That said, I'm not fanatic about SR and we will ignore them in our next campaign.

4 hours ago, EricW said:

As for Argrath, lighting the flame of Sartar would have been overwhelming evidence of Orlanth's approval for his actions.

Proof that Orlanth is not "utterly hostile to all illuminates", which you wrote in an earlier post.

If one made a "Top 10" list of reasons Orlanth opposes the Lunars, I doubt that the term "illumination" even appears.

1 hour ago, Darius West said:

Based on the cult compatibility chart on p91 of Cults of Terror, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, and Orlanth are all utterly hostile to illuminates. 

Given that Arkat and his "son" Argrath are clearly Illuminated, this poses a problem, no?

I know some might say "most Gloranthans don't know that" but it seems painfully obvious to me.  Do most Gloranthans also hide from the Axe murderer in a room full of chainsaws?  🙂

I prefer to say those cults distrust Illuminants, and are utterly hostile to those who use Chaos.

4 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

It's really what works for your game in regards to a Session.  If you cross into a new day, etc. within your "session" I would just go ahead and reset.

Good point: We have the GM decide what is a "Session".

9 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Effectively it's a scene, battle, etc. with maximum duration of a day.  Next day, you can attempt to be inspired again.

Thanks, that seems to parse!  We've been too strict.  The one issue is that, as pointed out by @cmagnificent, if it is the same "session", you must use a different Rune or Passion.

In addition to using their Battle skill, be sure to let the players use a rune or Passion, say "Loyalty Kallyr" or "Hate Lunar".  And maybe a couple of key skills.

"Leika needs someone to gallop over to the wavering Taraling clan and rally them to attack NOW.  Who will go?  For Sartar and the Storm!".

Roll your Ride and Orate ...

One minor drawback of the "loose declarations of intent and two actions per round" is that Nisk cast both rune magic (Dismiss) and spirit magic (Demoralize) in the same round.

I noticed that no players augmented with skills, they all inspired with Passions or Runes.  Our group tends to use (and overuse) skill augments because of the once per session limit for inspiration.  Are we reading that limit wrong?

3 hours ago, Jape_Vicho said:

The character in question, albeit human, comes from a family which are all troll-descendents...

How does this even work?  I thought trolls were cursed to birth trollkin, not humans. 🙂

46 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

I don’t see why not. Vostor the Tarshite is one of the standard pregens, after all. And Prince Argrath recruits folk far stranger than renegade Jakaleeli into his Sartar Magical Union.

And if you think a Jakaleeli Witch would be insane to sign up as one of Argrath’s warlocks... boy, have I got news for you.

1. It may be hard to attend worship, recover Rune Points, etc...
2. A fellow PC might have "Hate Lunars" at 90%.  One of ours does.  🙂

That said, it would be fun to try with the right group and GM.

If you are willing to go over to the opposition, @Nick Brooke would say "see the light of the true goddess", as did some Sartarites, Jakaleel is a wonderful fit and has fun atmospherics.  But not a good fit for most campaigns.  YGMV.

Fun watch on YouTube.  Thanks.  Good to confirm that our group isn't doing anything horribly wrong.

Now that the question has been clarified, the correct answer:

Yes

Violence is always an option.

Depends.  Why do they want to kill the illuminate? That's not an "instant go kill them" thing for Lightbringers.

Is he named Argrath?  🙂

The Gloranthans Songbook is great.  I've had June Tabor singing "and the Band Played Dance of the Goddess" in my head the past day.  Curse you @Nick Brooke

I've got some other songs at http://gloranthagame.pbworks.com/w/page/135313113/Index

(Scroll down to "Songs related to the Saga").  Trust me, you don't want to hear me singing them...

On 6/7/2020 at 10:34 AM, Sumath said:

Treya sacrifices herself to bring back Thinala from the dead. But why does Thinala accept the sacrifice of her own granddaughter's life? And how does Thinala justify this to the adventurers afterwards?

I agree here.  Why Thinala accepts the sacrifice is totally beyond me.  Not that we are likely to meet her again, but she's horrible.

For the record, my PC also swapped with her mother.  After about 10 seconds of thought, the mother broke down in tears and insisted that her daughter be returned to life.  The whole swap thing is, well, stupid as a plot hook, (I agree that omens and dreams would be better) and as an event that can permanently kill a PC.  The rest of the scenario is pretty darned good, so that was disappointing.