Squaredeal Sten

Have you never heard the phrase "third leg"?

As I read it, since they have spirits they have magic points. But they may not know how to Worship, depending on age and training, and will not be asked to give MPs to the gods. In season the Voria rites are how children are first taught to Worship.

I am thinking Sartar exports both wool and wool cloth. According to the Guide, also bronze - but if you read the Boldhome entry in the Starter Set, the Boldhome bronze smith guild's usual source appears to be mines that I believe are in Tarsh, though I can't map spot the location. Probably now in hostile or disputed territory. If so they should be trying to source bronze from...Caladraland?

For NPCs anyway. I don't recall the advice being extended to creatures/monsters.

What do you think the state of Sartarte trade south to Heortland, to Nochet etc. Would be following the Dragonrise, 1625ST through 1627ST.? I would think it would have been seriously disrupted 1623-1625 ST by the Lunar invasions of the Holy Country. But with Sartarte trade northward to Peloria and Tarsh now disrupted, there is every reason for Sartar to trade southward. Plus, Ernaldans can make pilgrimages to Nochet again. The obstacles would include: Anarchy and warlords in Heortland. A Wolf Pirate presence in Choralinthor Bay. Chaos from the Print unleashed by the Lunars and not bottled up again. What am I missing?

Disease spirits turned out to be a great source of POW for the Chalana Arroy in my campaign. It didn't take too many to get to POW 21 either, and to pile up rune spells. If a munchkin wants a powerful magicker and can control the bloodthirstiness, CA is a great cult.

The Auroch Hills are in southern Sartar, south of the King's Road, west of the Stormwalk Mountains, SE of Wilmskirk.

The circled illustrations on the left include clacks (square coins) so seem to be copper.

Incidentally, The Seven Tailed Wolf is now completed and available as a PDF from Jonstown Compendium: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/405734/Six-Seasons-in-Sartar-The-Seven-Tailed-Wolf I just bought mine. Buy yours and let's push this into hard copy.

Just looking at the calendar, you are right: Flamal high holy day on the first day of the year, Freezeday, Disorder week, Sea Season Flamal seasonal holy day day 23 of the year, Waterday, Fertility week, Sea season. Other Flamal holy days: -Fire season: Fertility week, Clayday -Earth season: Fertilty week, Clayday -Dark season: none listed. . -Storm season: none listed. I take it that this season Flamal is dead - Sacred time: none listed, but then only high holy days of some gods are listed in Sacred Time..

In such a detailed and varied world as Glorantha, no single encounter table can be true to the background. The possible encounters should vary along several dimensions: geographic area (after all Griffin Mountain has different encounters than Borderlands) , type of terrain, urban vs rural vs. Oceanic, and political (in Lunar dominated areas you may meet Lunar military, not so where Moonson's writ does not run), even season.

That looks like a good and not necessarily destructive way to run the Sex Pit. And a good explanation of why it is only in the male initiation.

And they are to be found on Chaosium's web site. No real need to be buying obscure stuff second hand. Though for some reason it is a little harder now to find the RQ2 stuff, it really is on Chaosium's web site. And they do link to Jonstown Compendium too. (https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-community-content/ ) And RQ2 is very compatible with RQiG. But I agree that Chaosium could make the older background material a little harder to miss on the web site. I'll plug links in here: Old gods book, obviously shorter than new gods book: https://www.chaosium.com/cults-of-prax-softcover-pod/ New background https://www.chaosium.com/the-guide-to-glorantha-pdf/ Old background https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/ https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/ https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/search-tips/ Stafford library, here is an example, https://www.chaosium.com/the-book-of-heortling-mythology-pdf/search Chaosium web store for more. Old sandbox campaigns (incl their regional encounters and background) https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-classic/ by the way tis same link is another path to old background stuff. Old adventures: https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-old-school-resource-pack/ Treasures & magic stuff https://www.chaosium.com/plunder-softcover-pod/ What I don't agree with is the expectation that Chaosium can somehow compress all this stuff into a single chapter of a GM book, or maybe a couple of pages. Yes, if you want to take advantage of the most detailed fantasy world WITHOUT running pre written adventures, you have to devote time to it. You don't have to do it all at once. And no one will shoot you for running pre written adventures while you read background. The pre written stuff IS big swathes of the background, buy Borderlands or Trollpack or Griffin Mountain and you get both, and GMing it is the best way to study it. Just like teaching a class is the best way to learn mateiral really well.

Seems to me that in case of a generalized "help me" the GM should give help that fits the God's specialties. For example Orlanth's help might come with a teleport and / or a big lightning strike. But Mallia's might leave her adherent dead and a spirit of disease. and give enemies all an attack by disease spirits.

As the dart wars morph into real wars, the intermediate stages will produce more demand for Adventurers in the Lunar heartland. Yes, I can see that. But we need a Lunar Heartland sandbox campaign or two to put just a little meat on the existing skeleton description of the areas. Now what is the likely situation and progression of those adventurers, in the spirit of RQiG's emphasis on community?

Runequest began in the 1980s with no GM guide. And plenty of people are GMing now without one. Maybe most of us already have a pretty good idea of how to gamemaster. It would be nice to have the heroquesting rules, which we know have been playtested in various versions, but that's not a deal breaker as we already have at least two fan-based models plus Arcane Lore. So, I could GM better, "there's always room for improvement' as the cliche goes, and I'm willing to read advice. But I'm not stuck doing nothing waiting for that book. It's too bad Zelmor feels that way.

I can certainly see opportunities for a Lunar Sartar campaign, just working inside the existing timeline, beginning pre-Dragonrisse and then having to cope with the collapse of all their dreams in Sartar. I'd think the campaign progressing that way would be a downer for the players. Whatever you build up for yourself will eventually be torn down by the Orlanthi: If you built your Etyries up to be a prosperous merchant in Boldhome, then Kallyr's army takes the city and mobs burn your shop. Now you are a refugee. However is that any more negative than Orlanthi pre-Dragonrise, heavily taxed, oppressed, then Orlanth banned and the Great Winter?

I had seen references to the Lunar Way being more popular in Britain. If true that would indicate that there is a lot of unpublished campaign material with a Lunar point of view. Can anyone verify that?

Let's note that this does imply male Ulerians, who do not appear in the canon material I have seen so far. Also note that the female adulthood initiations described so far - and I am thinking of Six Seasons in Sartar - do not have anything comparable to the sex pit, nothing producing insanity. Even though sexual scenes exist there. So why the implication that sex is especially a mental danger to men? Or is that an accident born of (1) The sex pit being 40 year old canon material, (2) the Ernalda initiation being written with care not to put off the minority of female players in a hobby that is still majority male?

That reminds me: a year or so ago in my campaign on Zoom, the adventurers had a random encounter with a group of Babeester Gor initiates on pilgrimage, essentially a holiday off of their usual guard duty. The ladies were friendly, outgoing, - and cautioned the adventurers not to try to actually enter the Ernalda temple the two parties were approaching: "Then we'd have to kill you boys."

More likely, the experience of sex is so overwhelming that it was easiest for the ancients to explain it in supernatural terms: the goddess possessed you for a few minutes. Or as you used an apt word. the "whorephobic " could describe it as demonic. But I wonder when that started. We do have iron age documents that describe temple prostitution, and none of the translations I saw say "demonic." But when all this got translated to 20th century minds steeped in 17th century puritanism, that's when we see demonic. And I suspect that is how we get Uleria described as a demon. Whether we really want that in Glorantha, and what the original concept of Uleria was, are two slightly different questions. IMHO to literally demonize sex - and in this case to demonize communication too - produces psychological problems, it doesn't prevent them. Why keep that trope alive?

If I recall correctly, a successful DI will suck away several more rune points unless you have a very lucky roll. Isn't the procedure to roll D100 vs RP, and to lose the difference? D10 for priests or rune lords? Well i was almost right; RQiG p.272. For initiates, D100 roll to get under POW. Lose the difference in POW. For priests, D100 to get under POW+RP. Lose the difference, RP first and the RP are recoverable next holy day. For Eune Lords, roll D10, lose unspent RP first and then POW. RP are recoverable on next holy day.

Uleria does seem logical, though characterizing her as a demon seem to me to be a peculiarly antisex and perhaps anti-woman point of view. Remember, Uleria was the original owner of the communication? Harmony? Rune. Is the only survivor of the Celestial Court. Characterization as a demon seems a revisionist view. Perhaps God Learner manipulation. Uleria would seem to be a choice for people who view the secrets of their adulthood initiation (in the immediate case the sex pit ) as the only things they need to know. People who tend toward fundamentalism? But Uleria's rune being communication would indicate the Ulerian should be open minded. That runs directly contrary to fundamentalism. Maybe characterization as a demon is propaganda from a puritanical cult like Yelm. I wonder why such options [toward insanity] are only part of the male adulthood initiation. The female initiation in Six Seasons does not have anything similar to the Sex Pit. Rather, the female sexual options all seem positive. There are off ramps toward Ernalda, Vinga, and Babeester Gor, but none of them indicate insanity. Interestingly none toward Uleria.

If the kid does well in the sex pit, perhaps to Orlanth. Orlanth is mythologically no stranger to sex. We don't have. and are unlikely to get, a clear canon explanation of what happens in the sex pit. But in the RW adolescent exposure to sex does not normally produce ruined people. Not consensual sex, at least. An awful lot of adolescents get into it. Sex Ed is really about information and caution rather than about revelation.

Watch yourself and mask, because COVID is not over. New dominant strain is more contagious if less deadly. I caught it myself when I went to a state political convention July 14-16. Then my wife tested positive a few days later, we were both at rhe convention. Good thing we are vaccinated, but we both got very tired, coughing etc.