French Desperate WindChild

In my opinion the core rules book provides what is needed to start. Then as you say a lot of supplement may give some interesting points focusing on local background but one page for one god would give nothing more than what the core rules propose. Or so ridiculously that it would give more frustration than nothing 🙂 the cult books are designed to allow deep exploration (well I hope )

in the same way that bronze age people explained it 🙂 or in other way, it is not important to me and if one player ask me : "your character doesn't know. Will she ask this weird question to a priest ? is it a riddle ? etc...". Of course if the question is between player and gm I would answer "there is no answer in the books, imagine what you want, my position is magic / runes explains everything " You may consider this answer as a poor answer but that is the only explanation able to not be challenged by what is written but on what kind of base ? baboons are like baboons but they can speak with the same "shape" than irl, they seem they are less strong than irl (old discussion where the author then criticized the designers because it was not like irl) . I consider only what is written as "fact", the rest is " Our Glorantha Is What We Want When it is Not Written" and "Our Glorantha Vary When What is Written is Not What We Like" mmmm ... that could be my new moto ^^ yes you are right 🙂 you like what you want and noone should say you must like this and not that, I agree no the facts you describe are only facts IF / WHEN people follow what you like 🙂 They have right of course; but it is not a fact for everyone. That's the only purpose of my message In my glorantha the fact is, no problem In glorantha the fact is, mm I disagree 🙂 PS Note that i like a lot of your answers, it is not a personal / frontal assault, and I learn a lot of irl knowledges people share, but that doesn't prove, to me, anything about glorantha. It may explain, it may be an answer, one answer I would pick or not, but nothing obvious or fact I just say that because my poor english.. I don't want any misinterpretation 😛

to say that, you based your demonstration on some assumptions : a) there are stomach flora in glorantha like IRL b) runes are physical elements, like atoms / molecules / what you want IRL but is there any proof of that ? and what if : a) first being bodies are made of clay b) life is the result of the transformation of this clay by the use of the power of runes c) sentience, communication, etc... is the result of another use of the power of runes d) pregnency is the result of a "sexual ceremony" magic, where two bodies share some intimity e) everything which is not described in the gloranthan background is the result of use of the power of runes. do my assumption propose a more bronze age flavor ? Why what is not explained in glorantha books should be explained by what actual science explain in our world ?

I think it is a question of perspective being initiate means you are closer to the entity you worship. It is "translated" in all the cults of the RQ:G rules as "in the same time you learn a rune spell" but you (anyone) may want an entity people worship who doesn't provide any "efficient rune spell" for players but something else : (I = god / great entity) " If you worship me well and sacrifice enough of your life/soul power, I will not destroy your village" "I need to be feed to save your lands, if you can't provide me enough spirtual food, I will not be able to block the volcano evil spirit and it will burn your lands" " Share your soul and I will teach you some knowledge [secret skill] / [secret spiritual magic]" "Prove your faith and you will eat with me every sacred time, be sure I will protect you when you will die" I agree we can consider that the 2 first as some very specific and located "rune spell" from my perspective, rune spell and rune pool are a game design model, it is not a background thing rune spell is the term to define "when characters pray their gods to do something, if they know the prayer and have enough "provision" to fuel it they may obtain a good answer from their gods" but the rules propose at least six other interactions * between worshippers and their gods : gift /geas (yelmalio, humakt, ...) secret skill (storm bull , ...) divination divine intervention gain of pow during worshipping (you become stronger thanks to your god) save the world during the sacred time ceremonies * I mean game design interaction, from a gloranthan perspective it seems to me everything is "prayer"

if you don't know from a background perspective, manage it from a "power perspectives" Does initiate of your spirit cult have access to all Orlanth+Thunderous rune spells ? If yes it is a subcult If no, it is an associated cult

Thanks David, however my question may have been not very clear : What I call the "common spells of Orlanth" : Dismiss Air Elemental (small or medium only), Increase/Decrease Wind, Summon Air Elemental (small or medium only), Summons of Evil, and Wind Warp available to all subcults. Then do the Odayla subcult of Orlanth provides these spells ? (like Thunderous and Adventurous. Of course the specific of each subcult needs a dedicated initiation)

mmm not sure at all . It depends how you interpret the rules (for me the rules then are only rqg core rules book, as we.. or at least I... have not yet the cults books) : your version : the common spells are for all Orlanthi subcults. If Odayla is a Orlanthi subcult, it must have the common spells my version : the common spells are for all Orlanthi subcults listed in the chapter, aka Thunderous, Adventurous and Vinga and, in the rules, their is no common spells of Orlanth in the list of spells the cult of Odayla proposes maybe the cults books will clarify it in a way or another, but at the end of the day I would consider weird to have the cult of Odayla with all the bear hunter magic and the subcult of Orlanth-Odayla with all the bear hunter magic AND the Orlanth common spells. 🙂

And what about Odayla as a subcult of Orlanth ? Do they use the Orlanth Rune pool ? Do they have access to the common spells of both Thunderous and Adventurous/Vinga ?

how complex are this question and their answers ! 😛 from my perspective, I make a big difference between cults and gods. cults are people organizations. Gods are ...individuals with a lot of powers. Some gods are so complex than when you worship them you may not know all their stories, feats and even names. What you call Sun and worship it, could be called Hot Star by others, and "another others" would say, or know, that "Sun" is only a part of the great emperor of Light and Heat. Then I consider that a god has several aspects, dedicated to some activities. Of course (in my opinion) their is no myth, and no "true" action where two aspects of the same god meet themselves. For example Heler and Vinga are not two aspects of Orlanth, because Heler meet others aspects of Orlanth. Heler is a god by his own. that means, but some will disagree, that if Adventurous and Vinga are in the same story well.. Vinga is a goddess by her own, and that's fine for me. Even if she is a "fork" of the primal Orlanth, she has the right to be called goddess. Then we have the gods and the aspects of the gods. That the "reality" of (mine) Godtime citizen. What about Hero, great Spirits, big Dryads,etc ? well they are citizen of the godtime/hero plan now, so they ares probaly just weaker than a majority of gods, no other difference for me Now the cult A cult is a community of people with a hierarchy (archi priest, priests, rune lords , etc...) worshipping one god or a "group of gods" However a cult may not know all the aspects of a god, for many mundane reasons. And this lack of knowledge may create some religious debate, schism, etc.. (Yelmalio, Elmal, for example). What a cult propose is the knowledge of some aspects of the group of gods. Sometimes, there are different aspects with so different ways of life, values, etc... And depending of the "distance" between two aspects you may have to sacrify a part of your soul power to join and understand another one. That is called subcults Of course a god (or a Hero, a dryad, etc...) can be found in different cults, under the leadership of different other gods, or independant in some places (and no exclusivity then) For example the seven mothers cult (rqg core rules at least) is one cult of seven gods. Worshipping the seven mothers means you know some aspects of each of these seven gods. Maybe there are other aspects, maybe somewhere you will find a cult of only one of this god, with more aspects, or not (we will see with the gods book). But based on the 7M core rules, you need to be initiated once then you have access to all the spells proposed by the cult. the yelmalio cult is one cult of the god Yelmalio and some of his heroes (Kushile, ...) you need to be initiated once then you have acces to all the rune spells proposed by the cult (and for the spirit magicn you have some restriction with Kushile) the ultra complex orlanth cult... maybe cults, with a s because is it only one ? Focusing of my understanding of the rqg core rules book and in this forum*, the Orlanth cult in Sartar worships a lot of gods. The cult worships Orlanth with all the aspects sartarites know, but also worships the god Heler, the god Odayla*, Barntar... etc... And because the cult of Orlanth proposes radical way of life, very different secrets and powers, the cult is organized in subcults: the thunderous aspect, proposing the "standard Orlanth" powers and some dedicated powers the adventurous aspect, proposing the "standard Orlanth" powers and some dedicated powers, same for Vinga the Heler, orlanth friend aspect, proposing the "standard Heler" powers but not the "standard Orlanth" powers (i don't know I suppose, after all Heller is not Orlanth) the Odayla, orlanth friend aspect, proposing the "standard Odayla" powers but not the "standard Orlanth" powers (If I understood well, after all Odayla is not Orlanth) etc There are then two differences between being initiate of the cult of Odayla and being initiate of Orlanth, subcult Odayla : 1) the leader of the cult... As a subcult of Orlanth, the big boss is an Orlanth priest probably not from the Odayla subcult 2) the resources... You are Orlanthi before everything, you are part of the full community of Orlanth, by right. Now maybe the Odayla cult (without Orlanth) knows some secrets, even some powers... Not sure my answer is less complex than others, haha * in the core rules book Odayla is not a part of the Orlanth cult but is worshipped by "his own" cult for example

I think that there are so many legend about trolls screaming out in pain once hit by some humakti ancestor / local hero that everyone know that death metal is deadly In my opininon a non warrior would believe that iron hurts anyone more than bronze. Maybe some experienced warrior would know that is more dangerous for trolls / elves / etc ... than human. But in all cases, those who wear iron are deadly (or fool thieves customers) so what is dangerous ? is it the warrior ? is it the metal ? 😛 now what does it mean to know legend and know reality about iron. Of course no one would say hey this sword makes double dammage again trolls. We just have to manage with belief and knowledge, proofs and legends.

I hope it doesn’t ! imagine a shaman with some healers: +10 - 20 - more pow per season to the fetch ? in all cases I would play that anything you decide to sacrifice cannot be restored Too easy I do a big sacrifice… wait a minute can I get back my sacrifice and keep its benefit ?

maybe there are enough LM scribes for that. Maybe as a citizen, you must go in these delivery area and not another one to eat (and the manager knows who you are). and you have too all these loyalties, oaths and others (and the judgement of the gods, after all everyone is at least lay member - or about - of Orlanth / Yelm / Moon / any local leader god) but yes the outlaws, travelers and strangers should have some way to eat I believe. Maybe the same for those who want / need to eat more than one ration.

That would mean you (the pc) depends on your « worshippers » (well we don’t have the rule, My answer is based on what I understood from the white bull campaign ) so it depends a lot on the gm and the campaign. The ability is for you, at will, without « fuel »from others

that is true but... this is not how the rules work too 🙂 and my answer was about your proposal, not about the rules. (Note that I m not saying your proposal is dumb or whatever, I just try, with my poor english, to challenge positively it, no offense then !) that is what you disliked in the proposal 1)movement phase 2) fight phase. And it is not exactly what I understand with yes but in reality you can hit during its move, so that means you need to include move in the same "timeline" than hit (aka if we stay in rq round system, within SR model) your solution, as those I can have, solves some points but creates new ones. What about one opponent with move 10 and another with move 3, what about one able to attack SR2 SR7 SR 12 ? etc... so based on your initial question of charging : - if there was no engagement, as I said previously a round to let the charge movement. a round is not by RAW a constant time, so it is RAW a round to fight (aka longspear attacks first) so it is RAW - if there was already an engagement and a third party (longspear) charges one of them use the movement SR to determine which SR the attack will occur. The already engaged target may a) be surprised so unable to attack longspear (surprise is up to gm so it is RAW 😛 ) so no question of who is first, the only point is if the longspear's target attacks her engaged opponent before the charge's impact or not (so you need the SR of longspear's charge) as RAW b) see longspear charging, then (is it RAW ? not sure but very near I think) b.1 if longspear arrives before (SR) the target is able to attack, then longspear attacks first. b.2 if longspear arrives after or in the same time (SR) the target and longspear attack at the same time or if you want a simplier option (MGF rule so RAW 😛 ) for all b), decide that longspear will charge at SR0 of the next round and cannot be hit by any melee action before note that in my opinion, if you are charging you don't need to add your melee weapon to the impact's SR: you need more than one round to reach your target, so you have "the time" to prepare your weapon, the charge is an attack by itself. Of course I call charge an attack with a spear or thing like that, when the weapon and the mount are "one", not with a sword a hammer, etc (in that case the charge would be the mount percussion = bonus damage = riding skill roll, then, adding SR, a "standard" melee attack, on a mount)

hard for me : SR 3 I am here, i hit her; SR5 she wants to hit me, hey I m not here, she can't impossible to hit a bowman if you don't include a minimum the movement in the round, the bowman has just (the one with best SR) to move out of range just after firing. That's why, I think they tried to split movement phase then combat phase in a previous version. I prefer the rqg system (and some previous rq version too, it is not new) merging movement and combat (well... I would prefer no round and action point, but it is another story) but yes that means some situations are not covered explicitly by the rules and GM with players have to decide how to answer them case by case.

it is both order and kind of measure of time : you can hit one or two or three times in a round... and it is defined by your dex, your weapon (or spell) etc... but it is not a "true" action points system as every round is reinitialized (when there would not be "round" notion in a "true" action points system)

I split the action in two : round 1 : Larry is charging (or takes his spear then charges): then Stevie has 7 SR ( 12 = 7+5 to take his spear ) to cast a spell or prepare himself for melee round or use a bow etc... Think about the +5 for Stevie if he is not already in the right posture round 2 : Larry and Stevie are in melee, I start the round with Larry MSR 6 then Stevie MSR 7 (or MSR 12 if he must take his sword -> the +5 for example drop the bow and take the sword)

yep before @Jeff's post I followed the way of spirits but my understanding of Jeff misundertood me. I concluded that's curse is only spirit magic but ... I was wrong, except if healing is only spirit magic too 😕 so apologizes my misunderstood... the -only me- confusing words : however we don't have specific rules, but it is easy (for me) to imagine some spirit able to provide anything to their ... "patients"

it is true that the rule book from Oriflamme (don't know the english version) did not describe enough glorantha. I had the same feeling : AD&D but with skills and no class so better than AD&D for me 😛 however comté du soleil, dorastor, les dieux de glorantha, genertela, etc.. changed totally my perspective, I entered in glorantha and I was prisoner there, for ever ... what is good with the rqg core rules book is it includes background (one of the good new things), not enough to understand the world, but enough to look for more

yes I would understand that but Jeff put curses in the spirit magic part. That makes sense with the background, of course shaman can curse... but how ? !

an other option is to choose what fight will be played with attack dodge parades rolls and what fight will be played with the battle skill roll or with some "wargame light rules". you may propose your players for this or this step to determine how they prepare the defense of the boat (so more rp, maybe with some carpentry, orate, ... rolls ... or not) then add if needed (is there any pc with a good battle skill ?) some bonus depending on their choices. maybe play the first fight as a fight then discuss with the players if they want to play the other fights in the same way (in case of there will be other fights... who knows ?) and if they feel it boring, coincidentally, Argrath noticed them during the first fight and asked them some organization tasks : 1) lead the groups (if they were good) = wargame light rules; 2) support the groups (if they are too wounded for example) = battle skill to survive + heal and other activities; 3) explore and do some weird tasks in the boat's hold (if they were too ridiculous for example) = what you need to play it In all cases the boat will probably succeed to escape, with or without the pcs, thanks to Argrath and the giants magic, the main point is to determine if pcs will survive

If I understand well : as a GM you want your pcs to stay few days in a CA temple but not too much (and what Scotty proposed seems to much to you) In that case, I would propose that : - pc will be healed by CA magic after the time you GM need - but there is no opportunity before because the present healers don't have yet enough RP (they keep them for emergency, the already spent a lot, see the other sick npcs in a more critical condition, etc...) - of course the priests will welcome the wounded and they will heal them as soon as possible - but they have to prioritize - so they will take care the pcs (they stay in the temple) as well as possible, until their turn comes that let you the time to set an adventure in the temple or just to show that characteristic losses is not a little business and that pcs must be cautious

there are the words and there are interpretations. My view is more in that case that this kind of bonus covers one action in fact a roll doesn't mean a lot of things by itself. a GM may ask one roll or several rolls to determine the success. for example, there is a race, and pcs have to run. option 1) the race by itself is not very important for the story, for the players. For example it is just a challenge between young men and that's all. Ok let's roll 1 time to determine the winner. option 2) the race is very important. the winner will mary the ernalda new initiate and will become a thane for one year.... GM may want to create an atmosphere of stress, a challenge where players will want to see each of their rolls as an option to change the fate of their character. so let's roll every 10 meters (for example) now the gm decides that those who trained physically last season would have a 10% bonus for this race. Should we apply this 10% only for the first roll ? so for me it is the same with the bad man. The action is a critical challenge between 2 opponents, with more than one output (how many taboos, abilities,...). And it is important for the player. If it is important for a player, create suspense and surprises (good or bad) so there are a lot of options to determine it (opposition, fight, one skill roll, ...). The rules propose a spirit combat with several rounds. For me it is like the race : there are 50 meters to run, each 10 meters determines if it is a taboo or a new ability. but the apprentice was prepared for the race, no for the first 10 meters. Of course my answer is not RAW but it is my interpretation of RAW

I like the idea of geas however, your specific one is very hard to be a good Orlanthi: How hard will be to seduce women (except vingan, no reason to speak stormspeech) so yes 10% to hope being understood. Poor adventurer not able to follow the full path of Orlanth 🙂 In the other hand, 90% (or more) to no be understood by a yelmite, so probably a fight. Orlanth way is not for you, follow Valind now ! but yes geas... of course !

so it is not spirit as game mechanic entity, more as background "a being representing (maybe created by) a nature aspect" ? Am I right ? or I miss something ?