Rodney Dangerduck

2 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

that was my idea too

However, the "canon" is that honor is the shared system of warriors values

Your initial idea is correct.  Honor varies, slightly, by culture and individual.
Ignore "canon" on Honor.  (... minor rant deleted... )

Wyrm's Footnotes #12, pages 16-18.

You'd also need to think about his guards, aides, and servants.

48 minutes ago, JRE said:

that often the negotiated solution will be a transfer to another temple, rather than an expensive wergild

Kind of like how we all too often handle rogue cops and priests today?  😞

1 hour ago, metcalph said:

Babeester serves the temple not the clan nor tribe.  I've never heard of a temple being responsible for wergild before.  

So, if a BG incorrectly chops up my brother, what should I do?

I don't see any reason that BGs (or others) don't make mistakes and occasionally "punish" the innocent.

Leading to another cycle of revenge or weregild...

We've done the following, which I believe vaguely follows some upcoming (next year?) ideas from Chaosium.

On the normal plane, one uses skills, possibly augmented by Runes and Passions.  On the Hero Plane, one "fights" with Runes and Passions,  possibly augmented by skills.

So instead of a Humakti using their Death to augment their Sword skill, they use the Sword skill to augment their Death.

It's a fun and interesting twist.

13 hours ago, hipsterinspace said:

the Axe Sisters are some of the best investigators around

Has somebody run a BG Investigator type PC?  If so, what skills or spells did they use?  Listen, Search, and Track look like useful cult skills, but, beyond that, it seems lacking.  Not that many other cults seem greatly better for investigation, maybe LM and Issaries?

Most discussions I have seen of BG PCs focus on whether they are better combatants than Humakti.

2 hours ago, hipsterinspace said:

Excepting secret murder, which is seen as chaotic and will probably get you a visit from the nice ladies with axes

Why them?  Not saying secret murder is good, somebody may investigate and bring the perps to justice, but it is (usually) neither oath breaking nor an offense against the Earth temples.  

If there is a BG duty to avenge secret murder, that's actually interesting news for an upcoming campaign.  I'm just unaware of it.

Mainly just a rant, but I find Roll20 to be the worst software I have used since, well, forever.  I'd prefer punch cards.

I guess you get what you pay for, but it's really sad.  Rant over...

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

1. Robbie can do this in person, if he is brave or sure enough. Or he can use intermediaries who might be able to more safely approach the aggrieved clan.

2. The weregild is paid to the other clan - usually to their chief, but sometimes directly to the immediate family leaders.

Thank you!

I gave the player a heads up, so he has a week to prepare a short speech or bad poetry.

Resurrecting an old thread...

Is there a Official Protocol for paying weregild?

(or, did one of you ever make one up in one of their games?)

One of our Colymar PCs, Robbie Two-Braid, killed a Cinsina guard during A great cattle theft.  While Argrath has smoothed over things for the theft, Robbie needs to, and wants to, pay weregild for the death, and has collected the appropriate cash and cows.

1. Does Robbie go in person, or use a more neutral intermediary?
2. Is the weregild paid to
   1. the family (I think this is true historically on earth) or
   2. the clan / tribe?  (makes some sense on Glorantha, after all, it's inter-tribal strife we are really trying to avoid)
3. Is there a formal ritual, some Orlanthi "Bad Poetry"?etc...

Thanks.  Mainly looking for ideas for our next session.

8 minutes ago, Darius West said:

An Empire of Broos run by Ralzakark?  Seriously not the bad guys?  Anyone who thinks that should go and become a citizen of that empire and see what they do to you.  It is going to take some seriously demented illuminated doublethink to convince anyone that a Broo empire is not the bad guys.

They are bad guys for sure.  My argument is with your earlier post where you say

1 hour ago, Darius West said:

the Lunars choose to turn to the Enemies of All Existence,

Did "the Lunars", whatever that nebulous phrase means, really "choose" this?

Nor do I think that earlier (circa 1620) "the Lunars" set out to destroy other people and their cultures.

20 minutes ago, Darius West said:

No, what justifies the genocide...

One of the few things Greg was very clear on was that "the Lunars are not the bad guys".  You can give them black hats in your game, but then Your Glorantha Has Varied.

For the record, I think your points are questionable, but I'll leave that to others.

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Orlanth goes to restore the Grand Order. There is no reason to think that Argrath does anything more than that when he sets out.

Minor nit:  Orlanth went to restore the Grand Order with a change: himself as King.

As for Argrath, sure, nobody knows.  But, given that he returned with Sheng, used Sheng to anihilate the Emperor, which then brought about the horrors of the Monster Empire, many reasonable people would conclude that Argrath had other plans than restoring the Grand Order.  Creating a new, vastly different and arguably better Order, maybe.  Restoring, no.

7 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

but it seems slightly harsh (even to Argrath) to blame him for what the Empire does when it's losing.

Gonna disagree, at least part way.  Argrath deliberately acquired Sheng for the explicit purpose of exterminating the Emperor, thus crippling the Pelorian government and society. Argrath should expect something very bad to happen.

8 hours ago, JRE said:

The following decade the pendulum swings and we have Phargentes the younger rebuilding the Empire and beating everyone, possibly for a decade or more. So strong that a desperate Argrath has to bring back Sheng Seleris in a double hard LBQ to take him out.

Interesting that Argrath brings back Sheng, aptly described by others as "Ghenghis Khan without his good features", before the real rise of the Monster Empire.  Should we blame the Monster Empire on Argrath's actions?

Wakboth as Emperor is existentially fatal to Glorantha As We Know It.  I wonder how many campaigns will choose to diverge from that timeline.

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

I can’t help feeling some people were happier playing D&D, with all the inherent alignment bollocks and “Detect Evil” spells.

 I agree that Glorantha is more interesting without "evil" Lunars.  I know that was Greg's take.  Keep up the good fight!  Our RQ group played Lunars for ~20 years and loved them.

However, the newer RQG material definitely takes the Lightbringers perspective and emphasizes the horrors of the Bat, Chaos (see recent FB post by Jeff), the Red Goddess, and the Great Winter.

My PC, Thane of Apple Lane, gets a lot of cross looks from the other PCs for even allowing Lunars to live there.  I think it's proper roleplaying by all.  And been funny a few times 

6 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

. and any deals must be done very much in secret. If word got out that Khan X did such deals, then I'd expect their tribe to rise up against him (certainly the Stormbullies would have him quickly removed)

I completely agree.  Rare deals in times of crisis, such as 1610 Moonroth, might be rationalized.  The Nomad Gods dogma that Praxians tribes often ally with Broos makes no sense.

19 minutes ago, Jeff said:

And so both cults consider the Red Goddess a more malevolent entity than the Crimson Bat.

Thanks - good point, that makes sense to me.  Don't blame the tool.  Blame the being using the tool.

1 hour ago, Eff said:

whether Chaos should be understood as having a moral valence outside of the beliefs of Gloranthans

30 some years ago, when we still chatted on Glorantha newsgroups, I pointed out what seemed obvious to me: chaos is just as "natural" as air and death.  That created a real s**t storm of heated and angry responses (and, in truth, by me too).  The calmer, rational responses likened chaos to Original Sin.  In effect Sin / Chaos isn't "natural", it came into the world through bad, unnatural acts.  I may not agree 100%, but I can understand that take.  

I believe that shortly thereafter canon added this officially to the Great Compromise, where the victorious Gods declared that Chaos is unnatural and, effectively, "evil".  If one accepts that, then Chaos has an innate moral valence.  (As I understand that term which I just googled)

8 minutes ago, radmonger said:

is your argument that the Bat Riders don't exist?

My argument is that everybody except Nick considers The Bat a chaotic abomination, and it's a primary reason to oppose the Red Goddess.  Even Humakt and Chakana Arroy, two of the most neutral and forgiving gods, hate the Red Goddess.

If Praxians (and your PCs) sink to the same moral level as the Bat, that's a fine campaign, I might enjoy it, but its more Joe Abercrombie than Glorantha.

19 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Let Chaos destroy Chaos first, and then destroy what's left. 

That what the Bat Riders say too.  🙂

3 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

Sure, but when we make deals with the Devil

When we "make deals with the Devil", he isn't real.  You can't go see the proof of him buried under a giant Spike, one so huge that you see nearly every day of your life.  Nor is your God definitely 100% real, as proved every Sacred Time, and every time you cast Rune Magic and feel their power course through you.

@Jeff At Moonbroth 1610, the Praxian forces gained the forces of broos, but surely lost the services of their Storm Bulls.  Seems a dubious tradeoff - maybe that's why the Lunars Won.

9 minutes ago, metcalph said:

I don't see anything in Cults of Prax and subsequent sources that actually contradict Nomad Gods.

You're not looking very hard.  Actually, not at all.  No point continuing a discussion with you.