Rodney Dangerduck

11 minutes ago, Jeff said:

Eiritha is really common in Sartar. She's got shrines in most Earth Temples and even a few minor temples.

In this post from 2020, you say there are only a few hundred Eiritha initiates in all of Sartar, a fraction of a percent.

https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/cult-membership-in-sartar/

Eiritha could be more common if many Earth Cultists are dual initiates, e.g. of Ernalda and Eiritha.  Is that the intent?

Real world bison are poor candidates for domestication.  So there is presumably some Eiritha magic going on there.  We always played Eiritha as extremely rare in Sartar, hence, few tame bison (none in fact).  YGMV.

Since Ride Bison, Ride Llama, and Ride Horse are all different skills (by RAW, some may be more liberal), it probably depends on your PC's background.  For example, Vasana has Ride Bison.  It may stretch credulity, but it's MGF.

1 hour ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

but I may be totally wrong.

🙂  I think so

Historically, mothers died in 1-2% of births (each birth) , and roughly a quarter of all children didn't make it to a year old.  (Not sure how many died shortly after childbirth vs. later)

If this could be fixed with a fairly common 2 point spell, which also, oh, nice little side benefit, eases the pains and sicknesses of her condition, I really think that everybody would do it.

2 minutes ago, Malin said:

Is it? It says Duration (special) just as Pregnacy. Bless Animal is instant however...

Hmm, in the core rules (at least the version I have) it is Instant.  In Red Book of Magic it is Duration (special).

So the example is for a player character who has taken general HP, but survived the encounter.  They need "out of melee round combat" healing.  O.K.  (If they need "in combat" healing, then Healing Trance is clearly inappropriate)

If a super-strict GM rules that the Heal spirit magic spell does not work, the solution is not Healing Trance.  The solution is to find a new GM.

Bless Crops is Instant, so should be recoverable.  As for most of the longer ones, I'm with @Nick Brooke, it "makes sense", though I agree with OP that this could be clearer in the rules.

The tricky one for me is Bless Pregnancy - whether it is recoverable affects the rune economy and Glorantha background.  Not so much typical heroic day to day adventures.

 1) If it is recoverable, this should be noted in the rules as an exception.

 2) If not, it means that a woman of child bearing age cannot rely on their local Ernaldan Priestess for the spell.  Therefore, most all Ernaldan NPCs will have sacrificed 1 extra POW to get up to at least 2 rune points, so as to have access to this spell for themselves, or for their close friends or family.

On 9/19/2023 at 3:29 AM, Brian Duguid said:

The adventurers in the campaign that I run recently killed a Telmori ituvanu shaman's wolfbrother.

The consequences have not yet played out, but they'll be finding out soon enough! 🐺😤

In our campaign, during a Great Hunt, my Vingan PC killed a Telmori priest's wolfbrother, but spared (and even healed) the fatally wounded Telmori, out of pity and Honor.  Eventually, after some very interesting trials and strange paths, they were reconciled, and are now mythically bound together.

p 120, Meld Form, the first sentence, "This ritual must be undergone whenever a cultist sacrifices for the spell of Proteus" makes little sense in RQG because characters no longer sacrifice multiple times to gain multiple uses of a rune spell.  The sentence is confusing and should be deleted or undergo major corrections.

Check out Ray Turney's Fire and Sword rules, which you can dredge up on this site.  Though written for a D20, they are easily modifiable for D100.  In a nutshell (dropping many of the nuances that would not work for RQG)

In any battle of skills, say a melee, if there is an equal level of success, the higher successful roll wins.

e.g., if two combatants are 80%

If attacker rolls 30, and defender rolls 40, the defender's parry completely blocked all damage. Don't bother rolling damage, marking damage to the shield, rolling hit location, adding up armor and Protection, and probably coming up with "tink" anyway.  Saves a boatload of rolls.

If the attacker rolls 40, and the defender rolls 30, the attack hits, and ignores the parry.  Roll damage and hit location normally.  You have a large number of rolls, just like in RQG, but, since the shield or parrying weapon doesn't reduce the damage, you are likely to actually do some damage.  (Note: In one variant the shield provided a little protection)

Obviously, there are some issues if the attacker is a Giant, but, for most combats, this saves a lot of rolling.  To be honest, we haven't tried this in RQG, so there may be other bugs...

Going slightly OT, but I strongly believe that most NPC initiates should have 2-3 rune points

A young man, SIZ 12, joins Orlanth.  He "pays" 1 POW.  For just one more POW (o.k., maybe 2), he can fly.  One of the great dreams of mankind through thousands of years, available for 1 POW?  Who isn't going to do this?
 

A young woman joins Ernalda.  She pays 1 POW.  For just one more POW she can cast Bless Pregnancy.  Unlike real world women for thousands of years, she won't die during childbirth.  Who isn't going to do this?  Well, maybe she waits until she becomes pregnant to sacrifice the second POW.  And maybe a friend can cast the spell for her.  But it still seems like a very likely thing spell to obtain by the tie she is in her mid-20s.

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

you will have to overcome her POW for the Ritual and spell to succeed

I agree that this should be true.  This addition should be added to any clarifications.

Using the ritual on intelligent beings is morally challenged.

 1) If a PC turns into an animal, then back to their original form, what happens to their clothing and equipment?  Some spells, like Guided Teleport and Bears Skin are more specific, but this one (and Teleport) aren't.

2) If you captured, say, Vasana, and Meld Form with her, would your spell form always look just like her (as for a T1000 terminator), or is your form more generic, like "red haired warrior woman".

49 minutes ago, ZedAlpha said:

The Illumination came in the form of realizing that there's no point in breaking any of the rules, just as there's no point in following the rules. Kinda broke the poor little bastard's brain.

From Cults of Terror, page 19:

"... you or I must obey the laws, because they are the laws; the chaotic being must disobey the laws, because they are the laws.  Since even the most powerful chaotic cannot defy all laws at once, they feel forever enslaved..."

41 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

or probably during a passion roll fumble.

I think the mechanics maybe should be reversed.  Instead of Illumination "causing" or showing up as a passion roll fumble, the passion roll fumble should "cause" or give a bonus to the change of illumination.

2 hours ago, EricW said:

You could have a lot of fun with this. Tempt the player to break the rules, like finding a scroll of sorcery skill

If sorcery doesn't make sense for the PC or your group, they can always join another cult to get that "one important rune spell" that is needed to help accomplish the next mission.  🙂

1 hour ago, g33k said:

But the 50% gate (of a POWx5 roll before you can even try for that 25% chance) means a net 12.5% chance to succeed... and really, 1 in 8 is awfully low odds in a life-or-death situation

We can all agree that this POW 10 PC is a piss poor attack caster.  They should have a poor chance of success - 1/8 per try sounds about right to me.  Hopefully they are good at something else, like whacking the baddies, scouting, or social skills etc.

Deleted my post, it wasn't adding to the conversation.

When I'm GM, we skip these.  Why allow certain select cults access to ~28 more rune points a season?

4 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

The story of the Trojan War, of course, is a variant where the story is all about the men.

Not seriously disagreeing.

But, it is interesting, to me at least, that Penelope and Athena are two of the very few intelligent and admirable characters overall.  🙂

There is a great minimax temptation to sacrifice a lot of POW to get rune magic, and also to get a much better chance to "make the roll" to increase your POW.  Or, when creating the character on a point system for stats, to keep POW moderate, since it is the one stat that can be easily increased.  Since rune magic is reusable, this approach is even more tempting in RQG.

Requiring a POW x 5 roll to cast spirit magic is one way to discourage a player from overdoing it.  (Spirit combat is another)

If you are a Facebook member of the Runequest Group, and you haven't noticed much lately due to their mysterious algorithm, you can always click on the group to see recent posts from that group.  Sometimes I have to do that.

As for privacy etc., yes, there are concerns.  😞

3 hours ago, Godlearner said:

We only roll to cast a spell "in combat", outside of combat they are auto cast. This goes for all spells no matter the type spirit, divine, sorcery, whatever.

One exception.  If they are trying to cast a Rune Spell with a poor rune, and I sense that the real purpose is to get a check in that rune, I limit their chances.

5 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

It is not entirely clear how much agency Helen had in leaving Menelaus/Sparta for Paris/Troy — if you are promised as a prize by Aphrodite, presumably you will go, willingly or not, with good reason or none

That nicely supports my point from the other perspective - the Four Winds Ernaldans in Pegasus Plateau are promised as a prize by the gods.  Their real husbands might choose to pull an Agamemnon and do harm to the PCs who win the contests.

I agree with your point that it might be more the long term abandonment than  short term adultery.

As for the original topic of "is it adultery?", YGMV. 

But I'm with @Nick Brooke  Jealousy is a big human emotion, and I don't see it just going away.

Also, to bring in good advice from @Andrew Logan Montgomery from another thread, one should bring their own background and myths to Glorantha.  As a fan of Greek mythology and traditional folk music, in the great myths people don't just ignore adultery.

• Agamemnon did not say "sure Helen, you can run off with Paris"
• Medea, well, let's just say you don't mess with Medea
• When Lord Bernard (or Donald, his name varies) comes home to find his wife in bed with Matty Groves, he doesn't say "That's o.k., it is a religious Holiday"
• Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere did not live happily ever.
• countless more...