GAZZA

3 hours ago, Thaz said:

I love some. 

Others sucked. 

Fatigue anyone? 

Everyone harps on fatigue. I honestly never saw what the big deal was. More book keeping? In RQ? Where you have to track location hit points, several different magic point sources, armour points for individual weapons, half a dozen spells for even novice characters ... was this really the straw that broke the camel's back?

I'm inclined to go with the separate Attack/Parry skills myself. IIRC, one of the reasons they were combined was because nobody trains only with Attack or only with Parry; however, at least in RQ3... nobody did. If you trained your Attack skill you automatically trained Parry as well, either in the same weapon or in a shield (presumably, you used whichever of the two was highest to determine how long it took, but that's no longer an issue with the RQG training rules). I'm somewhat sympathetic to the Combat Style idea - games like GURPS, for example, with more complicated skill trees acknowledge the fact that (e.g.) a master of one weapon is not going to be a complete novice at another - but it isn't really how BRP works, so I'm not sure it's a good fit for RQG.

9 hours ago, Hijabg said:

Make Arkat Gbaji Again !

Yep yours is better. I bow to a master.

Just now, PhilHibbs said:

I think this is referring to the caste system - Zzabur caste use sorcery, but most Malkioni are not Zzaburi. Everyone else uses Spirit Magic, which they may call by a different name such as Common Magic or Folk Magic.

Interesting. This certainly wasn't the case in RQ3 - the lower castes simply had restrictions on manipulation, they still used sorcery.

2 hours ago, EricW said:

Most psychopaths are not deranged killers, a lot of psychopaths function well in society because they choose to try not to hurt people. But I'm not sure I would describe their decision to try to function within their understanding of how to avoid offending others as "empathy", except maybe in an abstract sense.

I'm so glad you have such an enlightened moral relativist view of illumination. Now if you will just lean forward a little, while I test the fit of this beautiful tarnished silver wire necklace around your neck... 😉 

"Nobody can make you do anything." "Violence is always an option."

Illumination isn't required or sufficient to be a psychopath in Glorantha, IMO.

What about a bumper sticker on your bison that says, "Don't blame me, I supported Gbaji!"?

1 minute ago, Leingod said:

What's Eurmal, his "lucky" rabbit's foot?

I was thinking more his Travel Games set, but yours works too.

Just let's not get into what his Flesh Man is.

9 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

We have very little idea so far how the “non-standard” runes will even work.

Agreed. Orlanth per RQG still has the Mastery rune, but there's no real sense of what that actually means at the moment. I believe the old situation was that the current owner of a Rune got two copies of it (Orlanth has doubled Storm), source of a Rune had the Rune plus the Infinity Rune (so Umath would have Infinity and Storm, Uleria should have Infinity and Harmony I believe, Kargan Tor presumably Death and Infinity although technically that's debatable since Death didn't kill you until Eurmal stole it). For non-gods, Heroes had Mastery and Superheroes had Infinity. It isn't clear to me how this works in RQG and (since none of my players are at Hero status yet) not tremendously urgent, but it would be good to know.

15 hours ago, David Scott said:

Although Humakt always accompanies him as Humakt is Orlanth's lightbringers sword / Unbreakable sword. 

See the Arming of Orlanth in KoS

Likewise with Babeester - his axe.

And CA is his bandages, LM is his cheat sheet, Issaries is his map...

In all seriousness, yes, fair enough - but I don't think it's reasonable to conclude from that, that Humakt and BBG are Lightbringers (doubtless there are hidden myths that reveal otherwise, but that doesn't seem to be a mainstream belief). I was merely pointing out that the idea that Humakt was more important to a particular Orlanthi/Clan/Tribe than CA is, at least, not a given.

50 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

2) death is Humakt.

How many sartarite nobles / ring will try to challenge humakti ?

They need good reason to rob Humakt , don't they ?

After all, some humakti kill(ed) CA cultists just because Chalana is.

Well... CA is a Lightbringer, Humakt is not. Humakti are somewhat like Uroxi - you need them handy, but they're not exactly good citizens (in the Uroxi case, because they are wild and beligerent, in the Humakt case, because they are somewhat single minded). Of course these are stereotypes, but I think that's largely inevitable if you're talking about preferring Humakt over Chalana Arroy (or vice versa).

At the very least I don't think it's a given that all clans would give preference to Death over Harmony. I suspect, ala KoDP, most would take a balanced approach, some would indeed favour Humakt (war clans), some would favour CA (peace clans).

4 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

Trying to get back to the subject, has anybody computed the total number of Rezs that can happen in Sartar each season?  There are a limited amount of CA cultists who know Rez, they have limited Rune Points, and there are limits to how many RP they can recover per season.  And many of the RPs will be used for other healing.

So an interesting exercise would be to calculate, at least roughly, how many people can be Rezed per season vs. how many die violently.

Plus they need to beat down the prospective resurrectee in spirit combat. That either means that they're casting Spirit Block or Spirit Screen a lot, or that they're really good at Spirit Combat, but in either case I'd say you could reasonably conclude that 1 resurrection per day per priestess was pretty much a hard maximum.

@David Scott my campaign has 4 players, it's been going about a dozen sessions. There are a total of 7 PCs (I have different groups in case one of the players isn't available), and I'm playing RQ2/3 converted material in Prax for the most part set in 1616 - not obscure stuff, just River of Cradles and Borderlands. There's at least 3 MP stores (not crystals, surprisingly, they're all matrices) that have been found so far (some haven't yet been identified as such) and that's not counting the ones that they had to hand over to Duke Raus. They're not that uncommon.

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

Robin Laws and I have been working on two books set in Pavis and the Big Rubble, set in 1625-1627. The city has undergone an awful lot of changes.

Sounds great, I'm a big fan of Prax and Pavis.

11 minutes ago, Richard S. said:

Popping in here to say that the mortality rate rate is definitely higher sheerly because of how many of us died trying to increase our weapon skills in RQ2.

Indeed. 1/200 Fumbles are still a critical hit to your own head, after all.

Can we add in the 1d6 CHA Tusk Riders here, or is that still heretical?

Yeah I'm basically going to chalk that one up for another "fair enough but not iMG" official ruling. It isn't the first. I doubt it will be the last.

3 minutes ago, Crel said:

No worries, the mistake's not rare.

I will note that many of the new adventures do seem to me like they'd fit fine in older time periods, at least if you're in Sartar. The new material's less supportive if you're in Prax (though there is some stuff).

Anyway, hope you're enjoying your campaign!

Seems to be going OK, but yeah - I'm in Prax for the most part. However I am intending to get all of the newer stuff - it's just a priorities situation (and honestly I want more of the supplements for RQG than I want more adventures, at the moment).

There were at least a couple of those "you have answered your own question" responses where I had to scratch my head and say, "err... so, what was the answer then?"

1 minute ago, Crel said:

Quick nota bene, Six Seasons in Sartar and other Jonstown stuff isn't official Chaosium stuff; TSR and TPP aren't part of the Jonstown Compendium.

As for Fred's question, I much prefer TPP over TSR. The adventurers feel much more at the center of the action, to me. The title adventure of TSR is perhaps the most interesting story published thus far, but I feel the adventurers are more along for the ride, than making active choices.

Ah, yes, thank you for the correction. Regardless I haven't read (or purchased) either; my own campaign is set in 1616 so I've more or less given most of the RQG stuff a miss so far as essentially "not particularly relevant for my current time period". SSoS was an exception because I'd heard it had some useful stuff in it to steal; I was quite surprised to find that the actual campaign setting itself was so good.

15 hours ago, Fred said:

I know they are very different in build and format, but which one of the other two  (Smoking or Pegasus?) do you prefer in terms of quality of adventures and storytelling? Role-playing and mood is more important than battle for my players. Which book made you more excited to run stuff as a GM?

This is the first of them I've bought and read. There are however several places that the other Jonstown stuff have been reviewed; off hand I don't have the link, but it should be on the recent activity page.

I have a whole pile of Jonstown stuff on my DTRPG wish list that are just waiting for my birthday in a couple of months; if SSoS is a decent example of the quality I'll be very pleased indeed.

I finally got around to reading it. To put this in perspective, I'd been informed that SSoS had a useful "summary method" of running RQG NPCs rather than have to use full stat blocks for all of them - and that alone was the main reason I purchased it.

Ironically I'd say that was actually the weakest part. Oh don't get me wrong, those rules are there, and they're useful... but they're not (IMHO) substantially time saving over a full stat block anyway. If you were looking for something that, for example, meant you didn't have to track location hit points for Random Broo #3, you won't find that here.

But you should absolutely buy it anyway.

I can think of no higher praise for the campaign within than to note this: I wish I hadn't started my existing RQG game, so that I could instead have my players experience this campaign instead. And one way or the other I will find a way to make that happen - whether by having them make alternate PCs, or by adapting the scenarios somehow to serve the existing PCs (who are from varied backgrounds and will be in their mid 20s by the time of the events, so this isn't necessarily straightforward).

This is a tour de force, and the standard by which all other RQG supplements should be judged. Kudos to the authors, and to anyone who has yet to check this out, do yourself a favour and grab a copy for yourself, you won't regret it.

1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

Has it? What was stated was that the Bloody Tusk doesn’t have Cha restrictions for its runelords. Pretty sure ducks aren’t exemptex from Cha restrictions to become Rune Lords of Orlanth or Humakt...

(shrug) Don't ask me, I'm just repeating what I was told. Apparently in the clarifications stuff on Well of Daliath, or possibly in the "Ask questions" thread, it's mentioned that the RQG CHA 18 requirement is intended for humans and may not be applicable for non humans. (IMG I just give all sentient creatures 3d6 CHA and be done with it, but I've been told in no uncertain terms that the 1d6 CHA for Tusk Riders is not a mistake, so I'm very aware that this is a conscious choice for MGWV).

Firstly, welcome to the tribe!

It has recently been clarified that certain restrictions (e.g. CHA 18) only apply to human PCs (otherwise such creatures as Tusk Riders would never be able to be Rune Lords). I would imagine and hope that these sorts of details will be clarified in the upcoming Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha book.

To your specific questions: Chalana Arroy is more or less a "if you're a pacifist, we're basically not going to judge you for anything else you are", so she explicitly allows sorcerers, shamans, and potentially even Chaotic creatures to join as long as they will obey cult restrictions. The cult restrictions here are genuinely harsh enough to be a sufficient deterrent to what would otherwise be an attractive cult for power gaming purposes. That said, I don't think they're exempted from the POW 18 requirement.

RQG is a little clumsy about this sort of thing. There are some offensive spells that do not explicitly say that you need a POW vs POW roll for, but they nonetheless do have that requirement as it is spelled out earlier that any such spell has that requirement. Similarly I believe that one should be careful about assuming that just because it doesn't explicitly say "standard" that the standard restriction therefore do not apply; I would instead take the more conservative position that unless it explicitly says it does not have to follow a particular standard rule, that it does. That's what the Chalana Arroy bit about sorcerers and shamans is for - by default, sorcerers may not become Rune Priests, and one cannot assume that because "Standard" isn't mentioned in Babeester Gor that the axe goddess is therefore happy to accept godless heathens or shamans in her cult.

With the Odayla example, what you mention there is not really a contradiction, it is at worst an unnecessary addition. You won't have to look very hard to find similar examples. I don't think there's any real wiggle room to say that you can get away with 89% Peaceful Cut, which is really the only important bit.

Specifically with the Great Hunt, frankly I let any initiates of a hunting cult participate whether or not they qualify as Rune Lords. If such an initiate won, then no new Master Hunters for that hunt. But certainly Odaylans and Yinkini are participants in the hunt; it is, as you say, mostly Rune Lords and a few initiates trying to become Rune Lords. Note also that there isn't just one Great Hunt - anywhere these cults exist, such a Hunt will take place; if the competition is too fierce for an aspiring Rune Lord in one area there's no reason they can't try and find a Hunt with less skilled Master Hunters next year.

I ran a Great Hunt a few sessions ago in my campaign, because there is an Odaylan initiate. He's nowhere near being a Rune Lord, but since the Great Hunt is effectively a bunch of High Holy Days for Odayla I didn't see any reason to forbid initiates of hunting gods from participating, and I created a bunch of NPC hunters from different cults (including a dark troll Zong initiate) so the other PCs wouldn't be bored. I don't really like the rules I threw together too much, and I'd certainly be interested in seeing better ways to run it, but the concept seemed clear enough to me.

10 hours ago, John Biles said:

13th Age Glorantha PCs are assumed to be people on the Hero track.  Some dude with 450% Tend Herd probably is not.

Meaning only combat based characters can be Heroes? That seems somewhat unfortunate. Or meaning that only combat based Heroes can easily return to life?

Either way I'm not exactly sure how they're pulling that off to be honest; shamans in RQG have some capability to self resurrect, but I don't know how the seven day limit can be bypassed, and the 13G method even works for Humakti - of course I'm not saying that because 13G does it so should RQG (or Quest Worlds), I'm just noting that other than the LBQ I'm not sure how many hero quests there are that can pull this off. Perhaps it shouldn't be as easy as 13G makes it seem, but unfortunately that means that Harrek and Jar-Eel are just one lucky trollkin slinger critical or two away from death.