Squaredeal Sten

Concern understood - but my only advice is that you may be worrying too much about it. The amount of sex in a campaign is, of course, up to the GM as well as to other participants - plenty of FRP campaigns are pretty sexless. As the only child of two only children, I don't have any nieces to worry about. I do have two daughters, both grown now - but was not playing FRP games as they grew up. That required taking off from family every week and I already had hobbies that led me to do that a night or two. However I suspect that at age 13 your niece is in or post- puberty and already thinking about sexual topics. Already discussing with other girls at school. Maybe in a sex ed class, if not this year then next year. Statistically there is a chance, still <50%, that she is doing more than discussing - and no, she wouldn't be talking to her great uncle about it. Yeah, our little babies grow up. I don't watch those HBO series but I do know sex is a topic in our society, and that little girl hasn't been totally insulated from it unless she was raised in a bubble without electronics. So, as I said, you may be worrying too much about it unless your GM'ing includes graphic descriptions of sex. (No, you don't want to be the sex ed class.)

So what was the intent of the original post? Not Sandy Petersen's post in Twitter - which was in form at least an honest question - I mean the first post in this thread on the BRP forum. This appears to me to have been an experiment in starting an on-line mob. It was certainly followed up as such. I came here to read about Glorantha and Runequest, not to watch an on-line mobbing. And, FYI, I don't do twitter, where the short message length is ideally suited to short bumper sticker phrases - I am happy to leave it to twits. If there isn't already a rule against this, then the moderators should make one.

Do I agree with David Scott's interpretation? Well, I have another viewpoint, just based on reading the texts. And I thank you for the motivation to study the sorcery chapter of the RQiG rules. This is what I read: RQiG occupations pp.63-73 are part of the six cultures outlined on pp.24-27 and 103-133 of RQiG. These are archetype jobs. In the limited geographic area that is so defined, there is no usual employment as "sorceror", any more than there is a job of 'rune magic user' or 'spirit magic user". There is employment as a "philosopher", or as a "scribe". "Philosopher' appears to be a little valued occupation, since its Ransom is 150L, less than a farmer's or a fisher's ransom. This implies to me that Diogenes is the model, rather than the Zzaburi. Just as another adventurer will start with Farming skill and never use it as an adventurer, so the philosopher will start with Orate skill - and will have occasion to use it as an adventurer. It's character background, I don't have any heartburn over it. As I read RQiG, it is implied that people from those six cultures will not have a career path that easily leads them to top level sorcery knowledge, nor full time employment doing sorcery. This implies to me that no starting character from the six cultures will know more sorcery than the Lankhor Mhy cult or the "philosopher" employment provides. (Lankhor Mhy scribes may learn sorcery, but the brief cult writeup in RQiG just says "the initiate is taught to master the Truth Rune and the technique of Command" and by default the GM is to determine the availability of further teaching and teachers in his or her campaign. The list of LM sorcery spells taught is short. The game mechanic for achieving mastery of other runes or techniques is explained as an INT+POW roll p.384. I myself would require some undefined schooling before making that roll, but there is nothing official to back me up; I am curious about what you think. We can't get anything from the LM writeup in Cult Compendium because that is an RQ2 book and sorcery only came in with RQ3. We all await the forthcoming gods book.). If you want your character to come from outside the six cultures defined in RQiG, such as Malkioni or Aeolians = people coming from Fronela or God Forgot; or from the Lunar schools of magic in Peloria, then [1] There are references for the Malkioni and Aeolians on how to get the masteries and the techniques before adulthood, essentially in character generation, pp.388-389 of RQiG; not so for the Lunars. Techniques and masteries are "not skills". I don't see any more references for learning the sorcery spells, which are skills, even though no spaces for them are provided on the character sheet. Nor do I see what the starting skill would be if the sorceror creates new spells. [2] All the additional canon you have to go on for those cultures is the Guide to Glorantha, which is an atlas and encyclopedia but not rules. [3] You are getting into area in which Chaosium has not yet published a culture book. Jonstown Compendium does include fan writeups of the West, but not being Chaosium material they may be superseded. In this situation neither your nor David Scott's interpretation can be 'right' or 'wrong". There are many unknowns about sorcery which would cause me not to allow starting characters as working sorcerors in my campaign because frankly I don't know how to GM it. I will continue to watch and see how how those unknowns are getting filled in. Thanks for the discussion.

It's not the universe that does it - I'm saying at least some GMs can do a quick estimate of whether what the players do fits "a rough rectangle" of "maximum area up to 100 square meters". A triangle's area is length of side x height x 0.5. if the players can explain the layout they can explain the height. If the GM thinks that shape is not a rough rectangle - whatever rough means - will you take a trapezoid? Then so rule and move on. If the GM accepts it then I can do it in my head. I may have an advantage over you in doing that, and I promise that if it takes you out of your comfort zone then I won't hunt you down and make you do geometry,

Not much more complicated. You divide it into two triangles and compute the areas of those.

Thanks, I have the Gloranthan Classics Griffin Mountain A Moon Design publication, so it's on p.210.

So Gonn Orta sits in his castle in the Rockwood Mountains and trades. He is a priest (?) of Issaries so must trade fairly well. But he doesn't go anywhere these days- What would he have to trade? What would he be interested in trading for? Not for items of ordinary use like food: With only a mule train you would be unable to carry enough food for a large giant's snack, and Gonn Orta is very large. Trading for magic and making a profit, as in give me two and I'll give you one? Seems to me that for his own use he would be above trading for most common magic items humans use. A magic ring wouldn't fit his finger. Maybe a magic barrel hoop would.

The Balazar map pack now on Jonstown Compendium has a "political map". That only defines the three citadels' territories, and does not go down to clan level.

or to round it off, for generic construction, working in wood 13 lunars per cubic foot. working in stone: 22 l per cubic foot But in the case of a clan building its own new longhouse and felling local lumber, not using any manufactured components, and doing no masonry, money is negligible but man-days are the critical issue, and that would be 3 cubic feet per man-day in wood, 1,6 in stone. So to raise a log cabin 20'x12'x12' high with 6" thick walls, that's 64 feet of perimeter x 12' high x.5 = 384 cubic feet /3 = 128 man-days? No, I think it should be less, at least until you attempt higher quality construction.. Why? I understand from a book about Lincoln's life that a frontiersman would fell trees inside of one year and then before winter invite maybe 12-20 neighbors to a one day house raising - and still manage to feed himself and family. Of course that's a frontiersman with an iron axe. How much to allow for bronze or stone tools? What's the nature of the real world historical data?

This thread - "A House" ended up with a consensus cost of 200L for a house with a chimney. But IMHO the average Satrtarite house doesn't yet have a chimney. YGMV but for a new settlement I'd advocate saying chimneys are a luxury, so save the cost of a mason. This is construction coast, does not include clearing land or sacrifices.

That sounds like a doable program. But why not do the Earth temple later? It would have great usefulness. Whose PC hasn't needed to go to the Earth temple?

There are references to "Lunar hell' or hells, but I have never seen specifics of what is there except the souls of leading Lunar enemies. However i get the idea that these are NOT the generic Gloranthan underworld.

My hard copy arrived this afternoon. It's great to page through it, game ideas come to mind more than with the PDF - I'm just a hard copy kind of guy.

I've been looking at the 2019 and 2020 topics on training, but would still like your opinion on this narrow question: What should be the limit on number of skills an "adventurer" can train in at the same time? "five" seems reasonable to me. I saw Jeff's 1/20/2019 restatement of the (p.416 RQiG) general training rule , but that's in a context of the adventurer having to work for a living. and I accept that the limits are really a GM's choice- and that simplicity is a virtue in rules - But I am also aware of (A) GMs and players who want to arrange a full-time training situation, whether by spending sudden riches or by giving someone what amounts to a scholarship- (B) The volume of training at least one well known GM gave - in Six Seasons in Sartar, where new adults are getting 100L of training per season and that might be in common skills tat only cost 10L to train, or might be in rare skills. I rationalized this as the clan really wanting the new adults to succeed in life, so they don't actually work seven day weeks of 12 hour days - (C) The proposition that new Initiates (inexperienced adventurers) are going to be educated in Cult Lore and Worship skills, in addition to any other cult skills, and that this happens in the five years from ages 16 to 21 to make an Experienced adventurer. This is rarely gamed out but you still have to admit it happens in the abstract background. (D) the proposition that someone might go to a Lhankor Mhy library and get what amounts to a bachelor's degree After reading the discussion i am thinking of saying" you can train in at most 5 skills." My rationale for why that's a ballpark number: 1) if you can get occupational and cult experience on four skills, and train in one, while working a full time job - that's five things you are learning during the time you are not adventuring. 2) If you can take off up to three of the eight weeks of a season and adventure - and in the other five weeks you get that occupational and cult experience - Then I'm looking at the ability to learn 5 things if you are not working a job. And in terms of time alone if adventuring more than three weeks displaces training then we have to say that training takes no more than five weeks of spare time if you ARE working a full time job. How much spare time per day or week does the individual have/? undefined. But if they work 12 hours a day farming (which seems to have been a pre industrial RW reality) and sleep 8 hours then that's max 4 hours spare time for all activities including eating and dressing. Say take half that to train? So if they didn't work, that's about six training subjects worth of time freed up.

So soon after the Red Book of Magic hit the warehouses! This is an eventful summer. I will check daily to see when it becomes for sale.

Summoned indoors, a Darkness elemental will not go outdoors into full daylight and I don't see that it has a reason to wander around when it is already in a dim building.

Summoned darkness elementals in choke points, right on top of the enemy. The elemental doesn't have to go anywhere to be effective. If it just stands it's driving them crazy with fear. Now if you wanted it to pursue - IMHO that takes Control.

I got my hard copy with yesterday's mail. It looks great! And I find hard copy easier to read than PDF. Used your rebate certificate code last week to get more color hardcopies before the prices go up. 😀

Same in my campaign, as of year 1620.

Good point. That should be part of the skills sheet History column, column F. But some of it goes to the runes, not the skills.

OK, this is two documents: 1. My character creation checklist ("notes") 2. The skills spreadsheet Genericized Notes on character generation.docx Blank Skills spreadsheet.xlsx

Mine is not nearly so fancy. I originally tailored it to my campaign but have genericized it, and will post if anyone asks for it. I hereby grant free permission to use and copy to anyone who reads this and to Chaosium.

The giant's sweep is retained in RQG. It's in Glorantha Bestiary, p.46, the small print under the giant's weapons.

I have made up a checklist and guide plus a skills spreadsheet. I THINK it may speed character generation up a little, but what I really did it for was to help spot and prevent omissions and mistakes. Things like skipping the extra rune %, or getting confused about characteristic bonuses and skill%. I've made omissions myself and realized it when i was playing the character, why not help my players past that?