Minor holy days

[Akhôrahil]

13 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Sacrifices can also be valuable objects (see RQG  p.316-317).   I suggest that burning or melting will be the method of sacrifice. 

Burying or throwing in a lake or marsh is also very historical.

[Thaz]

8 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Burying or throwing in a lake or marsh is also very historical.

Sometimes the Gods take them also. 

 

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 6/12/2020 at 8:20 AM, Joerg said:

There are other distant pursuits for a clan - resource-gathering panning for metal, digging for gems or high-quality clay, cutting specially-grown branches for purpose carpentry (or barrels, or arrows and javelins, or collecting bast for ropes and seams, or simply for basket-making), collecting truffles, gathering nuts for winter fodder (acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, hazel), collecting mushrooms, flowers, herbs, roots in the wild for all manner of purposes (medical, flavour, dyeing, scents).

It would be interesting to know the exact duties and tithes of tenant farmers. How many side jobs can they get away with?

I'd like to offer a possible answer;  The side jobs are seasonal.  And a lot of the other things discussed are seasonal too.

In Sea Season and Fire Season and Earth Season the agricultural field  work will be done.  The people whose main jobs are farming work will be planting, hoeing, and harvesting in the daytime.  In the night they sit around the fire and tell legends while making those baskets etc.  The herders will be abroad with their herds, distance from the village depending on the security situation.

When the weather turns bad in Dark Season and Storm Season, that's when more of the indoor ("side") jobs are done, the non-specialists doing arrow making etc..   The herds will be pulled in, and in Storm Season will feed on hay or stubble, close to the village.   This is also when the people will be practicing the dances for Sacred Time. 

People with non-agricultural main jobs will do them in most seasons:  The redsmith, the scribe, the potter, the full time arrow maker or weaver.  In a city this may be associated with a temple if your Glorantha follows the early Middle Eastern pattern.   In an outlying village,  we should expect fewer specialists (probably no redsmith or scribe), but also more lower-quality and seasonal part time home production.   

 

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 6/14/2020 at 1:26 PM, Thaz said:

Sometimes the Gods take them also. 

 

Good points, the first (throwing items in the lake or marsh) is historical indeed.  And if the GM wants to throw in some atmosphere both will be good.  .

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 6/11/2020 at 11:36 PM, GAZZA said:

An interesting side point: if I have Worship Orlanth 5, and via expenditure of magic points and sundry bonuses on a High Holy Day have an effective skill of 95+, I will likely succeed at my roll. Does this garner a skill check, even though if rolled say 45 (which would not otherwise have been a success)? RAW seems to suggest it is, and I allow it IMG, but it is a bit cheaty.

In my mind the 'check" system is easy to read as combat oriented.   But how do you improve skills such as Worship or Farming that are not about acts that you can complete in a few melee rounds?  And if you really have gods who provide miracles / rune spells, why would you routinely NOT do worship in a holy site and with a sacrifice?  It makes a lot of sense to me to allow the player characters to improve the skills that they use when they use them in the way Gloranthan people do.  

So, IMHO not cheaty if it's done when it's important to the ongoing story. That's a check mark in these skills when they successfully perform the skill on important occasions (not routine occasions, not every minor holy day) during game play, not just deadly occasions but when doing game events relevant to what the PC is pursuing..    And under reasonable conditions.   Just as you give players to their combat skill checks when they hit and have sense to come up on the enemy's unshielded side, so succeed -   for Worship sacrificing something to the god (and getting that bonus)  is a reasonable plan and true to the Gloranthan background.

 

 

[French Desperate WindChild]

13 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

In my mind the 'check" system is easy to read as combat oriented.   But how do you improve skills such as Worship or Farming that are not about acts that you can complete in a few melee rounds?  And if you really have gods who provide miracles / rune spells, why would you routinely NOT do worship in a holy site and with a sacrifice?  It makes a lot of sense to me to allow the player characters to improve the skills that they use when they use them in the way Gloranthan people do.  

 

this way is exactly the occupationnal experience check "between adventure"

[Akhôrahil]

14 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

In my mind the 'check" system is easy to read as combat oriented.   But how do you improve skills such as Worship or Farming that are not about acts that you can complete in a few melee rounds? 

Worship is ridiculously easy - you roll for it on holy day ceremonies and it's trivial to get a 95% chance of success, so Worship might be the single easiest skill in the game to raise.

Farming you at least roll once per year (for yearly income), and you can put seasonal experience into it if you want to accelerate things (one PC in my campaign was the first player to hit a skill of over 100%, in his Farming).

[Akhôrahil]

12 minutes ago, Fred said:

It’s made me wonder at the point of the skill and the roll. Perhaps it adds a touch of something that you can fail. That you need to solve things differently.

I see it mostly as flavor - it makes sense that priests need to have high Worship. Plus it can result in funny effects like how one PC kept critting Worship rolls and got a reputation as unusually holy. 🙂

[PhilHibbs]

On 6/12/2020 at 10:14 AM, Akhôrahil said:

Related issue: to what extent do people in Glorantha know that they are "low on Rune Points" and "need a refresh"?

Not aware at all, in my opinion, except in exceptional circumstances. They are aware that if they ignore their cult obligations then their magic weakens, but that's it.