Diana Probst

Fancy a challenge? The Dead Place not enough for you? Have the boys been saying you should go raiding more lately? Beer With Teeth promise no scorpion folk, hardly any irritable shamans, and a very low chance of being personally killed by Storm Bull. However, we're not sure this is going to make you more manly in the eyes of Waha. Beer With Teeth have been working hard on our latest publication, and here it is, the Temple of Twins! http://tiny.cc/Temple-of-Twins is 30 pages of adventure including (but not limited to) a crash course on being a woman in Prax, plus a 15-page BWT encounters appendix for those special moments when your players look at each other and wonder why they chose to travel in Glorantha Australia, and why they have just been attacked by thirty peccaries.

The A to B structure that you are assuming isn't always what happens. Assume several writers are working on something. It's merged into a master document. It gets checked by someone who has opinions on all of the writing, and marks them in, but doesn't know where everything cross-references. Getting them to hold the entire document in their heads while checking each problem area is impossible. Someone who knows prices adds in prices. Someone who knows Kralorela or Innsmouth puts in some details which are true and interesting but were not known to one of the original writers. Meantime the table of distances has been updated because a mapping error was solved in a different product, which means there is a new master distance chart. However, that means another bit of writing vital to a plot has been upset which means three new paragraphs of text to add in a complication that keeps the timing on track. Then the art gets flipped because the layout artist absolutely has to put a table in a certain place, or else it can't fit in the chapter, and you've now got people talking about left-handed warriors and an image that clearly shows a minor NPC with a patch on the wrong eye, but if you turn the whole page around the document flow is wrong. It's not a simple process that goes along a measured or even measurable path. It's multiple parallel paths, some of which are lit only by burning torches being juggled by people who would like there not to be 7 of these things please. To have the process going from A to B would mean it took far longer for each book, so to stay in business, any company is going to have to write in a way that fits everything in as efficiently as possible. That means trading time for the higher possibility of errors. I was the final external writer and editor for the Culbrea book, and towards the end of it, I was still combing out errors. I was just about able to hold it all in my head, at least for long enough to comment on the document so I could check them all, and keep the plots and the setting consistent, but it took me three months and a lot of writing to get to the point where I was that familiar with the document. That's not available to most people.

I have run it in an RQG setting, but in 1615ish. See https://beer-with-teeth.games/updating-borderlands-i-mechanics/ for details. My GM had him exist in 1626 as someone who had already dug in his castle and would take a huge amount of effort to move, and was also useful to Argrath. Other options including him moving into a 'haunted' fort (explaining why others were not there) or him being completely exiled from Lunar lands and maybe on the run, so he can be an ex Lunar.

Beer With Teeth are proud to release The Lifethief into the world. A 46 page scenario (including a Praxian encounters appendix with new creatures) for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, it's based on one of the plot hooks in Stone and Bone, although you don't need any previous adventures to enjoy this one. It's got art by me and by Kristi Herbert, and you'll finally get to find out what the Impala shaman, Maserelt, looks like. Then she'll tell you to do something really dangerous but vital. After all, this is Prax. Find it at http://tiny.cc/Lifethief

A few people here already know the program and may be able to help, but if you are using Affinity and find yourself stuck, feel free to let me know. The PDF that Bill linked had a lot of things set up right, but the colour choices are for printing, not PDF. It shouldn't matter, but the colours will be a bit brighter if you can change that. However, it's a fiddly job. Someone else might do it for you. I could fish out a non-print file for you as well if you like.

The God Learners podcast recently broke news of a Culbrea RQG book, written by some of the Beer With Teeth crew, that's in the process of being submitted to Chaosium - the final MS is probably getting handed over this week.

P110 the Land Improvements table Time to build for Caravanserai, Large and Caravanserai, Small seem to have been transposed. The larger one should presumable take longer. The prices are different in the table and in the main text. In fact, that table disagrees with the main text in prices throughout. The alphabetical order is wrong, and should be Aqueduct; Bridge, Stone; Bridge Wood; Caravanserai, Large; Caravanserai, Small; Cistern, Coppicing... This is correct in the main text. All of the prices for that table need to be checked against the main text.

From my GM: p14, "Enchanted ron does normal damage against creatures such as werewolves" p17: "Dried pomace is an important fuel as it burns more efficiently than wood. It is also used as animal farmer and even fertilizer. " animal fodder perhaps? I am of the opinion we just capitalise 'Ron' and Enchanted Ron should exist and he's an awesome bloke, but maybe it should be iron.

I am amazingly OK with this being how it works, and I believe you.

The principle is different for that exact reason; there isn't any spare money. The margins on the printed version are, for Beer With Teeth, less than the cost of the printing. We make less on each printed book than we make from each PDF sale. If we gave a rebate, we'd be making a loss on each book. Even if we gave a small rebate, we'd be giving back money we had already earned, and that had been distributed to different people in the team. We do that so that the books are affordable, but we absolutely cannot afford to pay you to take our books away. We love you, but not that much.

We are so massively grateful to fans like you and @PhilHibbs, both for supporting us in the first place, and by making sure people know that you like our work that much. By people, I include the creators there. It's a boost like you wouldn't believe.

They're not smart, but they still have INT. I think, given that they worship Telmor, that they're rather in favour of the invulnerability, and anyhow, you're in their way, you really want to just hand over the cattle and leave. It's not werewolfism as we know it from Earth tropes. It's people who turn into semi-intelligent wolves because they were given a gift. They might dislike the Chaos of the gift, but the thing itself? It is the basis of their entire lifestyle. Can you point me to where we're told the Telmori rage? I think they have to change, but there's no frothing at the mouth involved unless they want to, RAW.

Thanks to the God Learners for having us, and sorry about the unearthly beings we summoned by using Ludovic's microphone stand as a pentagram. I hope you cut that part.

As far as I can work out, Structure Points are not hit points in an ordinary fashion. You cannot stab a stone wall to death. I think Quality has something to do with the armour value, or the difficulty in damaging the wall, but fortunately that was not mentioned in the spell so I am assuming it does not matter. I under-estimated the size of the walls, but I am OK with that given we did not go with the plan of trying to bring them down.

So it looks like something between no and yes - not a sure thing, but given what Glasswall and Alda Chur are made of, you might be able to get through one of the cracked bits. Thank you.

The Create Fissure Rune spell came up in play last night, and we had to make a hurried ruling on it, because we were not sure how much damage a particular wall could take. Can anyone let me know about how many structure points the city walls of Alda Chur would have? It wasn't in any of the RQ books we could find at the time, and I'd like to know about how much damage we COULD have done. (We went with a different plan.)

I'd look at this from the three-point PoV. A three point Elemental has a certain amount of power it can put down and/or people it can effect. A three point power Rune spell might not have the area of effect, because powers do not necessarily have physical manifestations, but it's a start. The other three point spell I would look at is Sever Spirit. It is a single insta-kill if you pass a POW vs POW. So, for three points I would say you can summon a spirit that physically duels one person to the death, which is less powerful than sever spirit, given the person it is attacking can heal, and friends can help. It might also be a spirit that fights one round of combat against everyone within a certain radius, but that sounds like a lot of dice rolls. If I did that I would probably run it like the Harmony Rune Spell, where there is one single roll against everyone. (People might or might not have a parry roll, or you might just say what level of parry/dodge it beats, depending on where you are on the rolling vs fiating scale.) A two point fighting spirit would go on until one person cannot, and a one point version would stop when a wound is inflicted. Again, this might vary by area, for a shorter effect. The conservation of ninja rule says that the fewer people attacking you, the harder they are. So, each blade in a whirlwind of blades attack is weak, but there are a lot. If it's a single attacker spirit, it's strong. Those are probably two different sorts, and you could be guided how to summon one or the other, but I'd say you'd need different spells (for reasons that make sense to me in my game). I tend to randomise the spirit you have, unless you have a specific Summon spell. There might be other sorts of spirits of Death, but I think you could also use Truth. (I am pretty sure Ernaldans can summon spirits of harmony and fertility, just not elementals of those powers.) A three point Truth spirit sounds like a Lhankor Mhy thing, but a two-point spirit sounds a bit like the level of the Oath spell. So it looks like you could find an enforcer-of-Truth spirit, who might smite people who lie in court. Two points is more than the one-point Detect Truth, so they could do it over a wider area and/or not be limited in the numbers of times they could use it. I'd say they could dole out what they spend in MP as HP damage, if someone has lied. This might require a POW vs POW but given the size of spirits for 2 points, it might already be too weak. The size of the effect depends on your game. A one-point Truth spirit could hold an Oath for as long as it stays manifest, which is long enough to have a short meeting where it is REALLY important everyone keeps to the rules. You could get bigger versions of that as well, although I'd be leery of a 3 point version. It probably powers itself with MP, so you might want a bigger version, but it might also need more POW. YMMV. Other thoughts: spirits of certain types of swords could be called on to inhabit your enemy's blades (or even blunt weapons). Humakt hates it when people use Death wrong, and they will try to take back the power. Effectively this casts Dullblade, lasting for as long as the spirit wrestles with Death. POW of the spirit vs HP of the weapon, per round, for levels of Defeat Death effect inflicted. If the total damage is ever 0, the weapon is conquered, and breaks. The nature of the sword is to cut. Some spirits might just cut everything around them that is softer than they are. Want to show your disdain for the worldly goods of your high-fertility enemy and their collection of velvet hangings? Bring a little separation into the world. Spirits of Honour exist, no doubt. They act on the summoner as guides. Don't go against what they say, or you'll find your score drops. However, if you let one inhabit you for a season it's a season's training. Possibly this will work even if you are already over 75 in Honour. (I think that is the limit for training all things, so I'm saying it is for this conversation.) Some sword spirits have a physical manifestation. Free hidden weapon! But... don't mis-use it. They'll know. Essentially, the different aspects of swords and truth can be combined with different things spirits do, but a lot of spirits are, aheh, double-edged.

F*cking well done.

Yeah. If it got called 'Colours' then we'd have a note explaining that. We need something thematic to the weavers' community we want, though. Webs of Clearwine is what we want for the weavers bit, but not for the wine part, and every other title we might produce has a double meaning. It's finger-tappingly frustrating to not have this one match,

Not common at all. Pretty upper-class. So ANYWAY, our book is available in PDF and you should buy it. You've all bought it, right?

Now, I want you to think very hard about what you did... No, stop looking proud! (We already rejected Legs of Clearwine, but had not got to Butts. We need to aim higher!)

Craters of Clearwine would be about the failed dwarf attempt to bring the Cannon Cult to a new audience.

That's too long to make a snappy title BUT Distilled Clearwine would be two words that are about the right size. That would fit in the title space and let us keep the effect of words piled up. Yes, I am the layout artist. How could you tell?

'Nobs of Clearwine' is the working title... But we'll find a different one. Heads of Clearwine is possible. Floaters in Clearwine, probably not.

It is probably (although not definitely) too big a project for the level of detail we like to use. It has multiple chief priestesses, multiple sub-cults, and literally thousands of initiates, some of whom will be there all the time. It's also covered to some degree in Chaosium books, where the map of Clearwine is two pages with a lot we could fill in, in those gaps. It's a big project, probably far bigger than you realise. I wrote https://beer-with-teeth.games/writing-a-bwt-book/ about Cups, which is a far smaller project and still took six months. Clearwine Earth Temple, done in a BWT style, would be at least a year of work. It's also heavily bound up with itself, so it would be difficult to go into detail about one part without defining the others. We can do a single geographical area of Clearwine more easily and believably than we can do a single cult like the Temple of Voria, say. The Priestess there WILL have a relationship with everyone else of importance in the Temple, so we would have to define everyone important. Ouch. We could use that time to create different things instead, that will be equally awesome, but will come out three or four times more often. So, that's a cool but big project that is not high up on the list.