Dragon

On 3/31/2022 at 4:43 AM, Shiningbrow said:

Maybe - the Bully didn't sense anything at all... and thus, perhaps it's time for the GM to quickly slide an ogre into the local townsfolk....

I see that most of you assume the effect of a Sense Chaos fumble is to wrongly sense chaos nearby. Shiningbrow was the one who suggested that may not be the effect of a fumble. I think perhaps the rules should suggest what happens on a fumble, such as the Storm Bull gets some other effect. Like fumbling a Passion gets you turmoil. I am NOT suggesting the Storm Bull lose 1d10 skill. That would be extreme. Something more akin to doubting his Sense Chaos for the duration on the Psychic Turmoil chart (page 229 of Core Rules).

I will note that Sense Chaos doesn't suggest how to adjudicate critical or special rolls either. It does state "The skill does
not single out the source" (page 183) so I presume that still applies to critical or special rolls. So I don't think a fumbled Sense Chaos should cause, or at least necessitate,  the Storm Bull initiate to feel that familiar sense of unease around the candidate. Of course, each GM can adjudicate that differently.

50 minutes ago, Joerg said:

So, does your Glorantha hire Storm Bull examiners to check all candidates for initiation for Chaos traits, or would your Gloranthans be (righteously or mischeviously) be outraged at the implied accusation of being chaos-harboring scum?

If your answer is yes, then in your Glorantha McCarthy has a field day.

What happens when the Storm Bull rolls a fumble when close to the hundredth normal humanoid candidate? Which will happen 1% to 5% of the time. The Core Rules do not state what happens on a fumble. If it that the Storm Bull wrongly gets that pain of Chaos, and yells out 'There is Chaos about' could have nasty repercussions.

6 minutes ago, Soccercalle said:

How about Storm Bull Detect Chaos and Telmori? The later got a chaotic taint by Gbaji.

Storm Bull's Sense Chaos may trigger when a Telmori is near. That is how I always played it. Barring an Illuminate Telmori, of course.

3 hours ago, Stephen L said:

No matter how I read it, just can't make it mean that that their chaos taint is unreadable when trying to join a cult.

Agreed.

11 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

1) Why?  What if the other participant wants to use magic?  Do they play Rochambeau to decide?

2) Again, why?  If the gift is bound to a bad geas, why does the gift (say +10% to Swords) count, but not the 
bad "no armor on your head" geas?

Between two Humakti where Honor is near paramount, if ONE participant does not agree to the rules, the duel doesn't happen. I am certain there may be a couple exceptions, but for the majority of formal duels both contestants must agree to the rules. So a single veto stops the duel. I wasn't talking about two Humakti who meet on the battlefield, we are talking formal duels. There is no Rochambeau or rolling of bones. An example of an exception would be something akin to Achilles fighting the giant where both were champions of their army. That could be called a duel I suppose, but not a formal duel.

All bets are off with members of other cults.

I was saying that Gifts must be included in the duel rules. Same with geases. I certainly did not mean that a Humakti with the geas "no armor on your head' could put on a helmet for his duel. Hence a Humakti with some gift that cannot be removed (say +10 Sword, or +1 STR) could not honorably ask the other Humakt to not use his specific weapon that does double damage when it penetrates armor. Of course, an Illuminate Humakti could ask - but that might make people suspect something odd.

When two Humakti decide to have a duel, they would agree on ground rules beforehand and abide by their honor to uphold their part. So all it takes is one to state 'No Magic'. Gifts, of course, must be included.

I recall that Zorak Zoran's try to find Humakt and challenge them to single combat - and then gang up on them. Many Humakt will have a geas to accept such challenges. Where the ZZ's do not. So, of course there must be a discussion of rules to apply to that particular duel. Since ZZ's abide by the DIsorder rune, along with Death and Darkness, they would not want an Honor Passion.

7 hours ago, davecake said:

Though if it is a loose Berserk equivalent, why does Babeester Gor get both? (Because they are awesome, that’s why)

Mythically, of course. When Babs killed all those people and Eurmal turned all their blood to alcohol...Babs wasn't doing it because she was in Axe Trance. She had gone Berserk. She must have used Axe Trance when she crossed weapons with Wakboth...because that fight didn't end with one side dead. QED.

Back in RQ3, I invented a pair of boots with a sorcerous magic spirit bound to it. The magic spirit knew Bless Boots and Animate Leather. The boots would fix themselves to anyone who tried them on due to the Animate Leather - making them the most comfortable boots you ever wore. You could take them off as well. The boots also constantly had Bless Boots 4, giving a 20 bonus to all boot-related skills. Which made them very nice indeed.

Those spells are not yet defined for RQG. They may be active these days, so the magic spirit wouldn't be likely to keep them both active on its bound object.

There is a depiction of Muriah in Shadows on the Borderlands, page 67. She looks reasonably like a 10 year old girl there.

That is in A Tale to Tell.

On 3/8/2022 at 11:26 PM, Nicochan said:

Hijacking the topic to ask one thing about Spirit Combat:

If a creature does not have a Spirit Combat skill (e.g. a Giant Praying Mantis), can it roll anything at all to defend? If not, does it automatically fail or critically fail?

EDIT: bonus question. Do creatures that lack INT automatically pass or automatically fail concentration checks and INTxN checks?

I believe the Skills chapter of RiG specifies the base skill level. Unless a Bestiary or other document overrides that skill level for other species, they have the same base skill level as humans.

Since Giant Praying Mantis does not specify a different Spirit Combat base as it does for Fly, Hide, and Move Quietly; the base is 20. It could have a bonus for POW, but not for CHA. So, it is likely at 20. Likewise it has the same base Listen and Scan as a human. It is not incapable of listening or scanning.

When does a creature without INT need to make a concentration check? Is there one that maintains active spells? Is there a creature without INT that is riding a Riding mount? Taking damage while Meditating? Pretty sure creatures without INT wouldn't meditate, but could be convinced there is one exception out there. How about taking an action other than spirit combat while engaged in spirit combat? I would rule they never attempt that, their instinct makes them fight the spirit.

I am having trouble finding another example.  Bet one will come to me. 

On 3/2/2022 at 6:08 AM, jajagappa said:

Hands can be removed...

Perhaps the size/patterns of the tattoos conflict (i.e. overlapping might destroy the foci for each, or seeing one distracts from the other).

Hands can be covered. Frequently in combat they tend to be covered by gauntlets or gloves. Maybe you should embroider your glove or score your leather gauntlet. Tie an arm band with foci around your lower arm over whatever armor you wear at the time.

13 minutes ago, soltakss said:

I don't roll for Augments, I just add the Special value of the augmenting skill. So, a Rune at 90% would add 18 to the augmented skill.

More interested in Passion augments, as Rune will get increase checks for casting Rune magic still. Do Passion and Skill augments get a check for a potential increase?

If they do, then augmenting with a 35 Skill would only gain you 7%, but it would allow a skill check you might not otherwise receive. Just in case you have power gamers.

I generally really like the RQ:G rules. Still, I have a few house rules and they tend to be minor. 

I grant POW gains and stat training to use the RQ2 POW gain (01-10 3; 11-40 2; 41-00 1). I didn't like that someone could spend the rest of the season working on something and gain nothing. The average is only 1.5 rather than 1 anyway. For the same reason, I have Skill and Rune training increase a flat 5% (capped at a result of 75/100 depending on skill). For something that an experience check would give you d6, on average if you spend about 5 weeks working on it and no other skill increases, you should get more than 1d6-1. My Glorantha has a bit more literacy for starting characters. 

My 'House Rules' otherwise are mostly clarifications. e.g. if you learn a spirit spell by defeating a spirit in spirit combat, you must cast it unfocused until you take a day to make yourself a focus. If you learn more points in a spell, the same focus still works. Five examples of combining Evaluate and an occupational skill - to ensure I rule consistently every time it comes up.

Starter Set Book 4 page 27:

"...but any successful attempt at healing (magic, First Aid, or Medicine)..."

What is Medicine in this context? It appears from the bolding that it should be a skill called Medicine, but there is none I could find.

In the skill Alchemy, you can make medicines, but that is specific to a disease it cures (RQ: RiG, page 175). I suppose it could be using the spell Refine Medicine to turn healing plants you already located via Plant Lore (RBoM page 72) to "8-10 Wounds" so they can be used on Markal. That would be easier to mention as a healing potion (such as the one in RiG page 83, roll of 13). And such potions would easily full under 'magic'.

Hence 'or Medicine' seems to be an error. I suggest "...but any successful attempt at healing (magic or First Aid)..." or "...but any successful attempt at healing (magic, First Aid, or healing potions/plants)..."

11 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

The reason is that the newer authors hate the crap out of Yelmalio.  They have made the classic RQ2 PC cult of Rurik and Starnia (Griffin Mt.) into a nerfed lame useless uninteresting cult of slaver misogynists.

If some Yelmalios had the chance to awaken a Giant Hawk, re Starnia, that would improve its appeal. But even in RQ2, that was limited to Dykene. In RQ3, they had a Light Lady, Vega Goldbreath, in Sun County, which lessened its misogyny slightly. 

1 hour ago, Shiningbrow said:

I take shield to fall into the "other weapon" category. Still not part of Babs though.

Good point on Humakt/Orlanth. It isn't a cult skill for either, but it is allowed as 'another weapon' or 'another melee weapon' in the Sword of Humakt or Wind Lord requirements. And still not for Light Son optional skills.

I was thinking Yelmalio would have it for phalanx training. But then again, there are geases that forbid use of various shields. So maybe that is the reason it is neither a cult skill nor a Light Son skill.

56 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Also, even several of my group’s non-Humakti PCs prefer parrying with their swords. It’s a significant source of damage against certain opponents. Just get yourself an iron greatsword with the nice gifts on it, it’s shockingly good even before you start using rune magic.

Agreed!

IMHO Humakti should nearly always parry with their weapons. For them, shields are only used against missile fire. Think about it, when you Augment your weapon skill, the shield gets no bonus. But your entire Sword skill gets the bonus from Augment, and thus your parry is approximately 20 better. depending on the Augment roll. When you cast Sword Trance, the shield gets no bonus. Big two handed weapons break things when parrying. You can't be a parry tank against a score of trollkin when you cast Sword Trance with 20 MP and then use a shield to parry.

Babeester Gor Rune Lords specifically should use both one and two handed axes, and hence the needs for both skills. They get all the same benefits as Humakti do above with Augments and Axe Trance on 2H Axe, but they also get Earth Shield and thus know that at times they really need to parry with a shield - hence 1H Axe needed.

Neither of those cults have Shield skill as Rune Lord optional skill, nor even as a Cult Skill they can use for those seasonal rolls. Even Orlanth doesn't have Shield as a cult skill or Wind Lord optional skill.

You know, I expected Yelmalio would have Shield as a cult skill or an optional Light Sun skill...but no.

So yeah, a shield is something you hang on your arm to cover a few locations from arrow fire, not something you parry with. Except when Gors or Orlanthi have cast Earth Shield/Shield of Arran. (This paragraph is tongue in cheek.)

On 2/17/2022 at 7:19 PM, Shiningbrow said:

My personal take on that is that it feels more Gloranthan for the former view - your god actually manifests in some small way when you cast your Rune Spells

Then I think you mean 'latter' rather than former. But maybe I misunderstood.

On 2/11/2022 at 9:24 AM, Eff said:

Prax, which is literally of limited fertility and ability to support life, is not beholden to some fierce Earth goddess, but is simply absent an Earth deity of any sort

In the case of Prax, it depends on semantics. We are aware of the sort: poor Genert. It is absent in the sense that Genert was destroyed by Chaos, and thus Prax lost its Fertility. Thus, we know the mythic reasoning.

On 2/10/2022 at 8:40 PM, Shiningbrow said:

Because you can end up in.the situation of having a Stormbull Counter-Chaos being extended by a Thed Extension. (Ok, I didn't check the rules for Counter-Chaos, but the general principle is what I'm getting at).

As said above, a Rune Spell is invoking a piece of the god and it's power. It's not sorcery ("a spell is a spell is a spell").

That sure sounds like you are nerfing Thanatari with multiple Heads. Why can't the Doomed pull Counter-Chaos out of the troll head and Extension out of the Orlanthi head? Or would you allow it if and only if the Thanatari had expended their own POW to make the head's Rune Points reusable (and thus the god Than helped them steal the magic and make it their own)?

How about vampires which steal some Rune Magic and Rune Points from someone just as they take their last magic points with their Touch attack? Are they incapable of combining Rune Magic from multiple sources too?

Note: I am extrapolating from previous editions on how Thanatar and Vivamort will work in RQG.

i.e. that view just creates more complications and bookkeeping. If you want that in your campaign, it is your Glorantha🤦‍♀️. Personally I don't want to document all the caveats and implications and somehow make them consistent with how I interpreted it 5 months ago. (Note: I do keep a house rules file, just not that complicated.)

8 minutes ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

Self-Resurrection seems hella ridiculous OP

I do not think it is OP. You need to sacrifice stats (like all Shamanic Abilities) to even be able. So let's say the shaman spent 1 point. He can self-resurrect after 8 weeks. That also means his body needs to be preserved by his people for 8 weeks until he can return from the Spirit World.

The next consideration is that the shaman is dead. So let's say the shaman took a wound that took him to -5 GHP. So the dead shaman needs to spend 6 POW (permanent) to heal himself to 1 GHP. The Ability description doesn't say someone else can heal him to 1 hp. If he lost or maimed a limb, he might need to cast Healing on that too - adding to his POW cost. If the shaman just got hit by a slash with a great sword with Boon of Kargan Tor 8 on it, that shaman is going to have to pay some serious POW to live again.

Finally, we get to logistics. The Malkioni will know shamans are sometimes reputed to do self resurrect. So all they really need to do is grab the body. We all have heard of the mythic tales of someone dismembering a body and burying different parts in different places. The shaman is going to have to at least get his head reattached to his chest and abdomen to self-resurrect. 

So, really it costs to have a Shaman Ability that you hope to never need. You don't want it to take 8 weeks when the community presumably needs you to finish the adventure. Hence, you really need 3 or 4 Ability points in it. The shaman has to spend permanent POW to heal his dead body. (A bit like Divine Intervention). The community needs to rescue his body and keep it safe until he is done. 

Hence, I am of the opinion that it is a decent power, but I would recommend those 3 or 4 Ability points go into something that makes the shaman more useful in dealing with the spirits first. At least for player shamans.

3 hours ago, g33k said:

HOWEVER, this ru;e seems to nerf the archers harder than anyone else -- they drop to 100, but it's meaningless to drop ranged foes' parry and melee-attack scores.  And while I guess one "could" drop opposing archers' skills... that frankly kinda seems silly!

Archers would only reduce their skill if the foe has an opposing skill. Shields don't parry missile weapons - instead they cover a few locations. And a great sword or battle axe never opposes a missile. Thus no skill opposes the archer skill. Hence the e.g. Composite Bow skill is not decreased. 

Dodge is another story. Against missiles, dodge takes the entire round and the dodger cannot fire back. Example: Archer with 140 Composite Bow fires from 70 meters away and someone dodging with 75 skill. Then the Archer rolls as though 100 skill and the dodger only get 35%. Which is actually marginally better for the Archer.

Archer critical success 7% vs 5%. But the dodger goes from 4% to 2%. And every roll above 02, the dodger receives critical damage. Archer impales 08-28, but the dodger goes from 05-15% to 03-07% special dodge. And every normal success is ignored. I think the archer wants the dodge to be decreased. The archer never cares is the dodge is a better level of success, because they miss anyway. It isn't as though the critical dodge is going to damage the bow.

Thus, when you get the critical and special results through a lucky roll, you want the dodge skill as low as possible.

At least as I read it.

19 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Of course, they can. But 5 Rune Points - one the spell, four for Extension for a season - permanently dedicated to Find Enemy is a lot. Really useful, but a lot! Sure, someone will do it, but it will be rare. There's also the chance that you will succeed in casting the Find Enemy but fail the Extension roll, so you need a spare point for that eventuality. If you regularly put your group up against foes willing to throw 5 RP around all the time, then fine. I don't, maybe the occasional spell to liven things up, more if it's a special occasion. Random guard? 3 RP at most.

Interesting. I have thought stackable spells were cast with one cast roll. Extension is effectively stacked with the spell with which it is cast. Extension can be cast with any Rune, and hence at the same percentage as the spell with which it is cast. The spell states 'The Extension spell and the spell to be extended must be cast by the same person in the same melee round, and for all game functions are cast simultaneously." RBoM page 49-50. I can read all that as backing up my assertion that it is cast with one roll. Not one roll for Find Enemy and another for Extension. I can also see it is open ended enough that it could be two rolls.

An corollary is that if a critical is rolled, in my Glorantha, all points for both spells use 0 RP. In yours, the caster could succeed normally on the Find Enemy and critically on the Extension and have just the 1 RP tied up until the entire spell ends. Or roll the other way and have the Extension RP tied up, but not the original. I am not positive which one I prefer. For simplicity, I would go with my current interpretation.

It would be really weird if when casting Shield 4, the caster would have to roll four times, and might get Shield 3.

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

Focusing crystals are by far the most powerful of the basic crystal types.

Second to Power Enhancing. Together they are easily more powerful and generally useful compared to the others. I do give Power Enhancing a slight edge over Heal Focus.

9 minutes ago, ffilz said:

The PC with Heal 6 has not done a lot of healing because he only recently got it. Previously there was an elf PC who had Heal 6 but the player was asked to leave. When the party realized Heal 6 was an issue, and noticed the current healer had started with Heal 5 (rolled from previous experience) they gave him a larger share of treasure so he could learn Heal 6. In fact right now he is the ONLY PC in the party with Heal at all... Everyone is bummed the player of the PC with Healing 3 had to drop out... He was also a shaman which would be useful in their current endeavors...

That makes a lot of sense then. Sounds like a pretty inexperienced group of characters (not players). When I first joined Glorantha, back in 1982 or 83 and RQ2, the rest of the party were pretty experienced characters, so many had paid for Heal 2 at least. The one Rune Lord (our leader) had Heal 6, and the Xiola Umbar had Heal 6 by the time I joined.