GAZZA

I mean, I'm unaware of any official write up of the Cult of the Bloody Tusk that predates RQG. So possibly that is a new spell designed to cover their weakness. However, Tusk Riders didn't have inferior INT in previous editions, so it is at least possible that this is a significant depowering that was unintended. It certainly looks like their RQ3 APP score (1d6) was simply ported over as CHA without any further thought.

Why not? Nothing in the special description that says it doesn't work on Rune levels, as far as I can see. I mean, probably the Bat has some sort of Shield or Countermagic effect, whatever, but the point is that RAW you can absolutely cast Harmony and then belt the living snot out of your unable-to-retatliate opponents. (They can try and Dispel or whatever, but they cannot get violent). Very potent for a 1 point spell, and there are plenty of ways for non-Chalana Arroy casters to get it. (But as I say, I suspect that it's supposed to end if the caster initiates violence, which would bring it into line).

The Harmony Rune Magic spell is basically an aura that, for anyone within it (presumably excluding the caster), "keeps them from getting violent". Does that mean it's legal for someone to cast Harmony, roll 01-05 on the resistance table (sufficient to overcome any POW), and then walk up and wail on the Crimson Bat without fear of retaliation? It doesn't say anything about the caster having to refrain from violence. I suspect that it is supposed to imply that, but perhaps I am wrong?

My personal theory that the whole "INT -> CHA" conversion for spirit magic has missed a few tricks. According to the Gloranthan Bestiary, Tusk Riders have a pathetic 1d6 CHA, which gives them a 7 species maximum, and therefore complete inability to learn more than 7 points of Spirit Magic (or Rune Points, for any one deity). Can this really be right? Borderlands and Beyond, for example, has Tusk Riders with plenty of spirit magic that would need to be removed significantly lowering their threat level, and honestly that would mean there's no such thing as a Tusk Rider Rune Priest (yes, the Bloody Tusk doesn't have any, but not all Tusk Riders follow that cult, just most of them). Given the importance of CHA in RQG I would suggest they get 3d6 CHA like most other sentient species; yes, this does mean that they will have better communication skills than otherwise, but I don't really see that as a particular problem.

Yeah I did think of that. I'm not sold one way or the other yet - the advantage of getting them to Sartar is that I can (at least potentially) run some of the newer stuff as well (thanks for the tip there @jajagappa, I'll look into that too), but as I've also thrown in the first dwarf encounter from RQ3 Elder Secrets (one of the players expressed an interest in a dwarf secondary character, and this was before I realised that the Flintnail dwarves weren't apostates) and a later adventure in that sequence wants the PCs to find them a home (Apple Lane caves are specifically suggested), it would be useful to be able to throw that in early. I'll play it a bit by ear. They are likely to want to do the Cleansing One Hero Quest at Sacred Time in the current year as a couple of them now have double digit Doubt scores (Doubt is brutal in RQG - in RQ3 you would only ever fail a Divine Magic spell on a 96-100, so it would increase rarely, but without a 95+ Rune score yet the chances are a lot higher).

Indeed.

Life? Don't talk to me about Life.

Wind back 7 weeks and I was in more or less your position @HeirophantX. I'd played RQ3 a few times, never really got much of a campaign going, largely because I wasn't able to transfer my enthusiam for Glorantha successfully to my players. RQG, for all its faults (and I'm far from blind to them), is IMO (and more importantly the opinions of my players) the best RQ yet to get into Glorantha. Like you, I had a bunch of RQ3 material and some of the Moon Design stuff too, so I decided to make the starting year 1615 and kick off with River of Cradles. I had the players make PCs according to RQG, choosing whatever homeland they wanted, and gave each of the four of them a (contrived, but what campaign starter isn't?) reason to be on one of the banks of the Zola Fel at about the same date in Dark season, and then all of them at various points got dumped into the river, waking up as the starting scenario outlines (i.e. being robbed by baboons). A couple of weeks ago they offed Oll, signed up with Duke Raus (Borderlands and Beyond), and tomorrow night we're going to hit scenario 3 there. I am thinking of having a death in the family of the Humakti PC (the only Sartarite) to get a leave of absence for the PCs and get Apple Lane done on a brief sojourn to Sartar, before finishing up Borderlands and moving on to either Sun County then Griffin Mountain, or possibly Griffin Mountain immediately. They might get a grant of land for the Dorastor bit too at some point. Essentially with just the RQ3 material alone I expect to get at least another twenty or more sessions. You don't have to use the same stuff in the same order I did, I share it mainly in case you're looking for ideas.

Thanks guys - I'll check it out. I own Hero Wars and Hero Quest, though I've never actually run or played either - will be interesting to see what's changed.

OK complete n00b comment here - I assumed, very clearly incorrectly, that Quest World was a reference to the old circa RQ2 product Questworld (which I happen to have a boxed set of sitting on my shelf), essentially RQ mechanics in a non-Glorantha setting. Am I to understand that it is, in fact, what Hero Quest is now called?

Yeah I house ruled all skills to be tickable skills. Sue me.

And of course these vampires worship Smeyer, a Hero of Vivamort that discovered the connection between Yelmalio and the Lesser Darkness, to the extent that unlike other vampires under Yelm's influence, they give off a distinctive sparkling glow... (I'm so very very sorry...)

Any Chaos is all Chaos! RRAAARRGGHHH!

Sounds like Chaos propganda to me.

I'm with @g33k - if it's a quality supplement I'll buy it regardless of what year it's set in. I'm comfortable enough with YGMV to pull events ahead of time if need be.

I suspect many Hero Questers would dispute that. And to a God Learner "effing" gods is what they are all about.

OK having just read Greg's essay on why he did it, and following it with that... can we make this official? Nick's answer to this mess is perfectly suited to lazy buggers like me that don't want to get Elmal sauce all over my nice Praxian based River of Cradles/Borderlands/Sun Country game.

Plus there is the fact that the metaplot of Glorantha is a lot more interesting that WoD, and Argrath isn't just a Gandalf/Merlin clone. But yeah, I agree @Leingod that your suggestion is a perfectly good way to handle it. Personally as far as I'm concerned I'm not even sure Argrath exists IMG (there will likely be a dude called Garrath Sharpsword, because I want to run the Cradle, but it may not be Argrath and I'm not 100% sold on even that much). Kallyr does, because she was the one who had the failed rebellion (I have no problem with NPCs that fail at things ). But I'm partial to Super Rune Quest so I want my players to do the world shaking stuff - it's certainly absolutely fine for GMs that want to focus on more localised things and arguably they even have better mechanical support than I do.

I don't have a problem with metaplots per se but I do question whether the people that create such things wouldn't be more comfortable as novellists rather than game designers. Any GM worth his salt has had his carefully laid plans creatively annihilated by his players and that's part of the reason GMing is fun. The main issue with metaplots is not "having a plan for what happens" - many good scenario design guidelines involve that. You have "here is what the villains are trying to do, here is where the heroes start" and depending on what the players do, some things will happen according to plan and others may not. The issues with metaplots, as I see it, are twofold. Firstly, the sense of inevitability and the consequent feeling that you're not running the game "right" if things go off the rails (e.g. if the PCs kill Garrath Sharpsword, and you feel as a GM that you need to figure out some way to get him Resurrected even if they did the Grisly Portions on the corpse). Secondly, since metaplots never involve PCs, the sense that NPC actions are what drive them. You can run campaigns where the PCs actions are ultimately futile and they are doomed. I wouldn't say that's exactly "fun" but it can be entertaining - I've never played CoC myself (and likely never will) but I understand that's pretty much the situation there, and it certainly seems to have been what the Werewolf The Apocalypse writers were after too. However, I suspect most players, most of the time, would rather play heroes that could actually make a difference, even if it's only a small one. Even the most "kick in the door, kill the monster, take his stuff" dungeon crawling game eventually evolves to the PCs caring about what happens to the town where they spend their loot, in my experience, and certainly RQG with the family history tables attempts (successfully!) to instill this sort of wider focus right out of the gate. But you have to start somewhere, and 1625 isn't innately a terrible time to set a campaign (certainly I understand the implicit desire to make a fresh take rather than just cover the old ground again). As long as it doesn't become Kallyr and Argrath's story with the PCs just along for the ride, and I don't have any particular reason to believe that anyone is making that mistake.

Yep, I'll be grabbing this purely for how I've heard it handles NPCs. Cheers Andrew and thanks for the link Nick!

Fair enough. Who is the solar warrior deity then? Do they have a Humakt variant? Or do they just not think that war is important enough for its own god? (I'm not being facetious, I'm genuinely curious).

Hmm. I do really appreciate the effort but I'm missing too much context to "get" this. I don't understand "Yelmalio that was brought back by Monrogh" here - did Yelmalio bugger off for a pizza for a few centuries and let his "friend" "Elmal" who wore a domino mask take over until Monroph revealed that Bruce Wayne was actually Batman? I think I'm a lost cause here; I'm just going to continue to ignore this Elmal chap as it seems for the era I'm playing at that's more or less fine.

And strength is pureeing that tomato into soup!

I guess we'll have to wait for the gods book, but my understanding was that Elmal still got fire magic. Given that Fireblade and Firearrow are amongst the more popular and powerful spirit magic spells I think a lot of players might consider that Elmal is the more powerful of the two (though geasa and gifts are always a wild card). Or does Elmal not have fire spells now, and if so does that mean that ZZ nicked them from Elmal too? I must confess that most of my notes are from RQ3 publications; I've tried to muddle through this Elmal stuff but I don't really know where to look other than KoDP.

Wow, thanks a lot man, that's really helpful. I had gotten the impression that the gods book was next and we were waiting an unspecified time after that for the GM guide; to hear otherwise has honestly made my day! Cheers, and thank you for the link.