Arcadiagt5

On p250 of the rule book there is the following: "Others, such as Swords of Sharpness, can be made by anyone who knows the procedure."

Would I be correct in guessing that a Sword of Sharpness is a sword with a permanent Bladesharp enchantment, such as the iron rapier with a permanent Bladesharp-3 found in the Urvantan's Tower adventure?

If so, are there rules for how this could be created in game? I'm guessing it requires a Matrix Creation, and possibly another Rune Spell (not yet published) along with further POW sacrifice to make it permanent?

Are there any guidelines for this anywhere? Google is not being particularly helpful.

4 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Yes, I mean basically follow the pattern of the existing cults, doling out the average amount of skill points. Rune Magic selection is probably the most important part. The kinds of normally lesser cults that don’t get covered yet probably shouldn’t get a wide selection.

I’m planning to introduce some subcults (Hedkoranth ftw!), but I’m waiting to see how the Cults book handles them.

I was hoping to wait as well but when a player asks to be a crafter and enchanter...

15 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

You start out with a lot less skill percentages than others, though, and you're missing critical skills like Peaceful Cut. Some players at my table noted that Herders make for better hunters than Hunters do.

I might check that and maybe award some retrospective compensation. 

Although this is seriously off the topic I wanted to discuss which is guidance generally for designing cults.

25 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

It's been often noted that this game hates hunters.

I'm running two campaigns that each have a hunter. The Odaylan in one is doing OK (although he wants expandable armour for when he casts Bear's Skin), and the Vingan in the other seems to be thriving.

7 minutes ago, Crel said:

There is a rule stating that! The caster must sacrifice at least one POW, but others can voluntarily contribute.

Goes looking. Oh, there it is on p249! Thanks for that. 

10 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

That's a solid start right there.

Thanks

14 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

Gustbran is a solid god of smithcraft, but far from archetypal in nature -- there's other crafting gods about, so his skill bonuses should be about on par with others.  He presides over a specialty, though, so his skill bonuses shouldn't get short shrift.  If he doesn't confer more than the standard 45% in skills, make up for it in specialist magic or effects that emphasise his role in society.

I was guided to a significant extent by the Gustbran initiate seen in The Rattling Wind so there's specialist magic aplenty. Commentary elsewhere seemed to confirm that Gustbran is the exception to the rule of only Rune Masters getting access to enchantment spells. 

So we're currently expecting this PCs POW to yo-yo like nobodies business. 😁

"You want me to make you what?! OK, that'll be X lunar for the thing, and 1,500 lunar so I can spend three months at the temple getting my POW back."

(I may allow the future owner of the item to be the one who sacrifices the POW, there may even be a rule for that somewhere already)

I'm currently helping a player generate a Crafter (Redsmith) character for whom Gustbran would be the recommended god. Alas, Gustbran does not have a writeup in RQ:RPG. 

However this thread was immensely helpful, as was a snippet of lore on Well of Daliath:

So, I've come up with a draft cult writeup but I was wondering if there are any general design principles that should be followed for this?

I worked out that 15 of the 21 cults in RQ: RPG give 45% to 3 skills (usually +20/+15/+10) so I applied that here. Craft (Redsmith or Pottery), Evaluate, Bargain for the record based on that thread and the lore I found. I considered Mineral Lore, but left that as a Cult skill in the extended writeup. 

But what's the design rationale for the outliers? Ernalda's +65 at the high end vs Yinkin's +35 at the low end is quite a spread. 

7 hours ago, Puckohue said:

Although I largely agree with the criticism my players enjoyed their trip to the Smoking Ruins.

My players enjoyed it as well. Especially the climactic battle at the end*. It was just really hard to run and I'm not sure I hit the right dramatic notes as GM. 

An update with Treya's story laid out in full really would help immensely. 

* I think I had 7 players for that session (FTF before COVID), and the battle started with the Ernaldan initiate stuck down the well trying to find the mirror whilst Varmargic and about twice their numbers in spirits & undead trolls charged towards them. Unfortunately for the spirits they elected to mass tackle the Assistant Shaman with the appallingly high Spirit Combat skill and he successfully (for values of success = 1 MP left at the end) took down all four.

That makes sense, thanks. 

I checked the Between Adventures Q&A but didn't see an answer there, and I'm slightly confused as to how Noble income works in Sacred Time. 

1. Step 4 - Adventurer Income (p422 & table on 423) ==> A noble makes an Orate or Manage Household roll for each hide of land.
2. As far as I can tell, the tithes and standard of living come out of this income
3. Then it looks like Manage Household rolls are made for additional income? Or should this be before standard of living/tithes with a choice to run it yourself or delegate to someone else?

I was using the checklist in the new players pack (really useful to have, thanks) and the sequencing is confusing me.

On 6/23/2020 at 1:07 AM, lordabdul said:

Since @Arcadiagt5's player guides contain entire pages of text copied verbatim from the rulebook, then no:

I'm not actually copying entire pages of text. I'm mostly producing bulleted/numbered lists that distill the rules from various pages. 

I'm still not going to risk crossing the line with them though. 

13 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Cheatsheets are usually OK, since they, by definition, collate very small bits, often rephrasing them completely for brevity, and fit on a single page. So you can share those. These are usually the most interesting things IMHO.

If by "guides" you mean "booklets containing a dozen pages of copy/pasted paragraphs" then yeah, those would probably be forbidden... but you can share a description of what you put in them an why, that might be interesting.

13 hours ago, g33k said:

If it's not too much work, can you cite the page-#'s and any other necessary identifiers for the (c)'ed content?

That way, anyone who has the books can assemble comparable DIY game-aids for their own campaigns...

So as an example, the guide for learning Rune Magic cited: RQG:RPG pages 313-314, 275, and as advisories 57-59 & 254

• 313-314 covers where, duration, number of points of POW to sacrifice, and number/type of spells gained.
• 275 covers the entitlement to do so - donation per Rune Points of spell, you've just done something spectacular for the cult, or the cult is about to send you off to do something spectacular.
  • Because this is buried in the Rune Cults chapter under benefits of being an initiate it's easy to miss.
• 57-59 covers reminding players what will happen if they cross bonus bracket ranges. e.g. sacrificing from 17 to 16 affects a lot of skill categories. 
• 254 covers reminding players about resistance rolls and that dropping too much POW makes casting offensive spells successfully harder. I should ptobably add that it makes base casting of spirit magic harder as well. 

I won't do the others but that's the sort of thing I was generally collating, usually as a numbered list of steps. (e.g. Step 1 in this one is "Visit a temple"  )

Apologies all, I won't be uploading or linking these. I have been reminded by the moderators that the Fan Policy includes:

Quote

You may occasionally quote small sections of text, as long as you make clear where the text is from. By “small sections” we mean up to a few paragraphs.

Some of the guides I put together may well have breached that, so I'll keep them private. 

3 minutes ago, Thaz said:

Check out the GM's shield and the GM's quick reference book in the same pack for a good start on handy stuff to have around.

The GMs shield and reference book are constant go-tos for me. 😊

The issue is more having things I can share with my players online, and also distilling bits from multiple places in the rule book (e.g. the customary donation for learning rune spells isn't in the Rune Magic section, it's under benefits of being an initiate under Rune Cults.

The battle system could be interesting. 

I haven't seen such, but agree it would be useful. 

One thing I've been doing for my Roll20 games is compiling cheatsheets that distil particular topics such as spell casting, learning spells, etc from multiple locations in the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha rule book. @Wookie has been very helpful in my games in this regard.

I do currently have these on private blogs, but if there's interest I'll post them to my main blog and link them here. So far we've needed:

1. Spellcasting guide, including Roll20 screenshots for the commonly used character sheet.
2. Between Adventures, also with some Roll20 screenshots
3. Replenishing Runepoints - how, when, and where, and adjustments to the Worship roll
4. Learning spells - including my interpretation of how the Ancestral Spirits option would work. 
5. Handling Major Battles - house rule adjustment to the Battle skill after I looked at the published rules and the official clarification and went YIKES. 

There can be a cost associated with learning Rune Magic but it's buried in the Rune Cults section (p275):

Quote

At the gamemaster's discretion, an initiate can gain access to the cult's special Rune spells in return for exceptional service to the cult, by donating the equivalent of 100L per point of the spell, or for other reasons that further the cult's goals and standing.

The way I tend to read this is:

• Do something spectacular for the cult? Get access to Rune spells with the customary donation waived.
• Make the applicable donation(s)? Get access to the relevant number/level of Rune spells.
• About to be sent on an insanely difficult quest? The cult gives you the spells that they think you'll need for that quest. 

The other point to remember is that sacrificing POW takes a full week (p313) so may conceivably interfere with other training activities for the season (depending on how much of the season the adventurer spent out and about). Against that, if the adventurer has the POW to sacrifice, and the coin to donate, multiple Rune spells can be learnt in that week. 

On 6/15/2020 at 8:42 AM, Paid a bod yn dwp said:

I know “Your Glorantha may vary” , but I’m getting a distinctive medieval Norman keep vibe from the illustration of Miskanders Tower. I only bring It up because the art direction for RQG has so far been brilliant at getting that ancient  bronze age vibe. Is it just me or does that illustration feel more like something you’d see in a medieval keep? 

True, but I'm trying to set this up on Roll20 now and I'm having more problems with the map than that.

1. "The tower door on the west side opens to a tall room (about 5 meters/yards high) containing a large rectangular table." -
   • The door appears to be on the south side in the map,
   • the table is not shown.
2. "The stairs from the first floor lead up to a small chamber. The stairs continue upward, but that part of the tower is long gone. The chamber contains a fireplace in the north wall and some sort of bronze contraption in the southwest corner. There’s also a door in the south wall leading to the rest of the second floor."
   • The second floor appears to be a single chamber with no interior doors
   • The fireplace is not marked
   • The bronze contraption is not marked
3. "Part of the north wall is blasted away and a hole drops through the wall down into darkness. This hole was once a chimney leading up to the fourth floor from the basement."
   • The north wall of the second floor is shown as intact
   • The hole is not marked. 
   • Presumably such a hole would be visible in some form on the first floor as a protrusion in the interior wall? If there's a chimney built into the second floor, I'd expect some sign of it on the first. 
4. "There is a doorway without a door in the south main wall leading out to a balcony with a treacherous floor:"
   • This is there, kinda, sorta. But as drawn it's directly above the main door into the tower - see 1 above.
5. "Once the adventurers descend into the cellar, they find themselves stepping out of a large furnace."
   • It's not clear to me where the furnace is. Is it in the the room with Miskander, or is it the brown rectangle in the other basement room?
   • If they land in the room with Miskander, then there's no description of the other basement room at all as far as I can tell, including that skeleton marked on the map

I have run the scenario and it's great but I had a lot of trouble with having to flick back and forth all the time. It's an extremely long adventure so being fully across it is highly recommended.

There's a chunk of it on p54 "After the Performance". Some of her (unfounded) speculations are tied into the descriptions of the Smoking Ruin on p55.

Now that I'm looking over it again, I don't think that there is a single section with Treya's story laid out in it. That's a flaw in the adventure IMO. The encounter with Four Steps on p61 provides a bit more info on what parts of her story are wrong.

Speaking of Four Steps, I'd try to emphasise the At. One. Ment sequence fairly heavily. Maybe play up how unusual this sort of thing is for a Dragonewt, my players talked about it for a bit but then mostly forgot about it. 

On 5/31/2020 at 3:21 AM, Scotty said:

They are also part of the Players Pack included in the PDF versions of CHA4029 - RuneQuest - Gamemaster Screen Pack from our website or DTRPG

This includes:

Character Creation Checklist

Four page Adventurer sheet

Four page colour Adventurer sheet

Single page Adventurer sheet for non-humans from the RuneQuest Bestiary

Players Reference book

Between Adventures Checklist

Please note that updated Adventurer sheet 1.0.1 is not included in thePlayer Pack (yet), but is available here and included in Gamemaster Screen Pack itself.

Oooh. I don't think the player pack was there when I bought the PDF, looks good. 

The absence of scales from too many maps is the bane of my existence as a GM. Especially when I'm trying to load those maps to Roll20 for tactical use...

7 hours ago, allenowen said:

What's a good way for GM's to handle Divination? I understand the game mechanics, I just want to know how GM's handle it.

It's a tough one for me as well. I think the trick is to be vague but say something that will be accurate in hindsight. 

How good are you at riddles?

Battlefield promotions are a thing...

One option that could be considered is to incapacitate the knights that they're serving somehow (e.g. a sudden illness) and then something comes up. The bedridden knights, seeing no other option, send their squires out to deal with the task. Successful completion is then seen as the squires proving their worth and winning their spurs. Hence promotion early to knighthood...

On 5/11/2020 at 7:15 PM, Jason Durall said:

Okay, hopefully this clarifies things for everyone: 

• If a cultural skill modifier refers to a specific weapon, then apply that to the specific weapon . For example, a bonus to Lance is just Lance. 
• If a cultural skill modifier refers to a category, apply that to a specific weapon within that category. For example, a bonus to 1H Spear could be applied to Javelin, Short Spear, or Lance. 
• If a cultural skill modifier is even more general and applies to multiple categories, pick a specific weapon and apply it there. For example, a bonus to Battle Axe could apply to the 1H or 2H Battle Axe, as desired. 
• If a cultural skill modifier refers to a weapon that hypothetically could be a skill category or a specific weapon, use the specific weapon. For example, a bonus to Dagger goes to Dagger, not to Parrying Dagger, Throwing Dagger, or Sickle.  

Thank you, much appreciated.

On 5/8/2020 at 2:04 AM, Blindhamster said:

Think it can be summarized as:

• skills are always for a specific weapon, if a weapon can be used in multiple ways (2 vs 1 hands, melee vs missile), its two separate skills.
• if a culture/rune/occupation gives a bonus to a weapon category, you must choose ONE weapon from that category.
• if a culture/rune/occupation gives a bonus to a weapon, it applies to all skills for that weapon
• any increases via customisation points or improvements during play must be against a specific skill for the specific weapon (if you use it 1 handed, increase that, if you throw a javeline, increase missile weapons javeline etc).

That's useful, thanks. I'm not sure I entirely agree with the third bullet point, but as a starting summary that's really good.