Okay, who’s played an odd race or adventure archetype?

[ffilz]

41 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

RQ2... Aldryami...

Who had to earn enough money to afford to have at least one stat, if not two, trained up a point! This was an elf that could not use a bow as generated. Had to train the stats to use a mere "self-bow" since it would take some time more to get to the point of growing an elf-bow.

 

I used previous experience which grants some stat improvements. But not sure why the elf as rolled couldn't use a bow. In any case, the previous experience left the character all ready to go with an elf bow. Oh, and I use RQ1 not RQ2 (well, I do use some bits from RQ2, but not weapons and armor unless I need stats for a weapon not in RQ1).

[Alex]

42 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

RQ2... Aldryami...

Who had to earn enough money to afford to have at least one stat, if not two, trained up a point! This was an elf that could not use a bow as generated. Had to train the stats to use a mere "self-bow" since it would take some time more to get to the point of growing an elf-bow.

Think I might nominate that more as ironman-rules GMing!  Or lack of foresight on the part of that aldryami forest.  "Just had your character rolled up, huh?  OK, we'll start growing an elfbow for you now..."

[Dragon]

When I first learned RQ, way back in college, the campaign included at various times: duck, mostali, trolls, minotaurs, baboon, centaur. My first character was a dark troll and died in Snake Pipe Hollow, as did the other two trolls in a battle that everyone else survived. That included my 'secondary' character who was a human Erlin the Harper cultist. Erlin was a cult from something other than Chaosium. The Harper became perhaps the most powerful character in that campaign. The GM also loved mostali, and at one point there were four in the group. Two were LMs. The duck died pretty early on. The centaur came in and out of the campaign because he couldn't go underground. The entire time I was in college, one minotaur survived. At one point, the player who had one of the Lhankors also brought in a bigger stronger minotaur.

So Mumar, the SIZ 21 and long lived minotaur, had a 2d6 damage bonus. The new minotaur was STR 30 and SIZ 27, so just hit the 3d6 bonus. Both were Storm Bulls, as expected. Ten characters including those two fought a bundle of Lunar soldiers (16+ iirc) in one big battle. Unfortunately both minotaurs went berserk in the battle. Mumar from getting a slash. The other one from being hit for a minor wound. As the last of the Lunars were being dealt with, everyone else either hid or tried to convince them to stop. Even that person hid eventually. Amazingly, we all hid successfully, and the minotaurs failed their Scan rolls while bashing the unconscious Lunars into actual death. Then they went at each other. Not a pretty sight. Mumar won due to superior skill, very quickly. Then he turned his rage against a Lhankor Mhy who would have died quickly. So my Babeestor Gor Axe Sister interposed and broke his weapons until he stopped berserking. 

In my campaigns, I have allowed a few trolls. One of them was even an Arkati sorceror. So that was pretty unique. I also had in various campaigns; a baboon shaman, a wind child, two elves, and a pixie. The pixie, Charlatan, was an Eurmali, so was a load of fun. I will admit that character was far too good at intelligence gathering, if she could stay on task. The wind child, Stormy, was Orlanth Adventurous (not Thunderous). 

One party actually had a single brown elf and a single troll in a party of humans. That elf was an odd one because she worshipped Lodril. She was a terror in combat with mastery of spear (previous xp and stat bonuses, though her stats were not quite as good as the one mentioned earlier in this thread) and used either Fireblade or Firespear in nearly every battle. But she was a glass cannon if anyone could survive a round against her. The troll was Xiola Umbar who patched her up on the remarkably rare times she had maimed limbs. You would think that would happen every major battle, but it did not due to her excellent parry skill. Note: The troll was considerably more skilled in First Aid (80+) than troll maul (50+), but when he hit he killed things or broke shields. That campaign also had a Vinga and a Babeestor Gor who had considerably more armor, so they just kept the elf between them to avoid her being overwhelmed with too many opponents.

In my groups we also had two human Humakti that became Swords. One was huge and eventually got a few uses of Royal Jelly and trained strength to match. He used great sword and 2d6 damage bonus without magic. The other became Sword and took all geases to never wear armor on any location, with the gifts to match so he did double damage after armor on every location (RQ3 version) - and used protection and/or Shield often. Again, great sword. Those two were true death dealers. Neither ever used Berserk as they wanted to parry.

So in all, I would say using non-humans doesn't make any particular character too powerful, and it brings different strengths to the party.

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Dragon said:

Erlin was a cult from something other than Chaosium. 

IIRC Erlin the Harper appeared in one of the earlier issues of Different Worlds (published by Chaosium, but not an official Glorantha cult).

 

[Ian Absentia]

On 11/2/2021 at 3:10 PM, PhilHibbs said:

A friend of mine has played a wind child and a trollkin.

Just making a note for a wish-list.  And maybe the "Your Dumbest Theory" thread.

!i!

Edited November 3, 2021 by Ian Absentia

[Dragon]

14 hours ago, jajagappa said:

IIRC Erlin the Harper appeared in one of the earlier issues of Different Worlds (published by Chaosium, but not an official Glorantha cult).

Ah, that could be. I knew it wasn't official Glorantha. Decent cult though.

[PhilHibbs]

I played a character created with a points-based system. He was a magical experiment gone wrong, an attempt to create the perfect human. He had all stats at straight 18, but so many points in skill improvement penalty disadvantages that it was almost impossible for his skills to ever increase (the system didn't allow it to be truly impossible). The perfect human, but unable ever to change. His nickname, of course, was Max.

How did he learn a language? Well, a person's magical potential is revealed at around puberty, so that's when the downside kicked in. All skills were stuck at human base chance.

[Baron Wulfraed]

21 hours ago, Alex said:

Think I might nominate that more as ironman-rules GMing!  Or lack of foresight on the part of that aldryami forest.  "Just had your character rolled up, huh?  OK, we'll start growing an elfbow for you now..."

GM at the time didn't use the experience supplement -- all of our characters started out as 16 year old brats finally allowed out of town...

From RQ2/Classic emphasis is mine:

Quote

BOW, ELF - a bow which is grown by elves from special seeds. Only the elf who planted the seed can use the bow. To another member of the Aldryami cult who uses it, the bow will be a self-bow. A non-Aldryami who tries to use it will cause it to wither and die. These bows are sometimes used by Priests and Lords of the cult to house their allied spirit.

While the elf bow doesn't have strength/dexterity requirements, the self bow has 9/9 for those, and since Aldryami strength roll is 2D6+2 (and even using a best 2 of 3 D6) still makes it somewhat easy to roll STR <9.

From Cults of Prax, benefits of Initiate status in the "Elf Cult" branch of Aldrya's cult.

Quote

Also, every elf receives his elf seed. This will be planted on his initiation day and, in one year, will be ready for harvesting and finishing to become a fabled Elf Bow. It will take another year to finish, and each new Initiate must dedicate one week each season to making it. In two full years it will be done.

Only the maker of such a bow can use it. If another race takes it in hand it will become brittle and dead. Even other elves cannot use its full potency, but can use it as a normal Self Bow.

Elf Bow specifications are: Range 120 m., Power of storage 2D6+2. The bow’s range is halved in the woods.

Elves will have only one bow at a time. They must begin anew if theirs is broken and take two years to make a new one

Getting initiate status:

Quote

Candidates for initiation must prove themselves to be ready for adulthood in the tribe. They must have been lay members for at least 2 years (for outsiders) and know all of the skills listed for lay members at least 50%, plus at least 1 point of all three spells.

While the "lay members for at least 2 years" doesn't apply to an elf, since my GM started us as 16yo rookies, it took some time to get the listed skills up to 50%. Since one only gets an elf-bow after two years as an initiate (presuming you managed to grow and finish the bow in those two years), a new aldryami character is forced to use a regular self-bow. My character didn't have the strength to use a self-bow -- hence the expensive training in strength just to get a usable missile weapon.

[Alex]

5 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

GM at the time didn't use the experience supplement -- all of our characters started out as 16 year old brats finally allowed out of town...

I won't quote the red boldface (those were my good seeing-eyes! well, best ones I have, at least), but I understood the stat-minima for self-bows part, was specifically asking about the elf ones.  Wasn't expecting the starting as 16yo's;  previous experience is in the main rulebook rather than a supplement, but granted it's in an optional appendix, not baked into chargen.  It's far from starting characters have 100% Axe skill that we were reared!

Had very much forgotten how steep a a step RQ2 Aldrya intiation was.  The RQ3 bar ("may join automatically on reaching maturity") sounds vastly more sensible.

So on balance I'm standing by my ironman-rules diagnosis, but sharing responsibility for that between the GM, the RQ2 rulebook, and CoP!

[ffilz]

2 hours ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

GM at the time didn't use the experience supplement -- all of our characters started out as 16 year old brats finally allowed out of town...

From RQ2/Classic emphasis is mine:

While the elf bow doesn't have strength/dexterity requirements, the self bow has 9/9 for those, and since Aldryami strength roll is 2D6+2 (and even using a best 2 of 3 D6) still makes it somewhat easy to roll STR <9.

From Cults of Prax, benefits of Initiate status in the "Elf Cult" branch of Aldrya's cult.

Getting initiate status:

While the "lay members for at least 2 years" doesn't apply to an elf, since my GM started us as 16yo rookies, it took some time to get the listed skills up to 50%. Since one only gets an elf-bow after two years as an initiate (presuming you managed to grow and finish the bow in those two years), a new aldryami character is forced to use a regular self-bow. My character didn't have the strength to use a self-bow -- hence the expensive training in strength just to get a usable missile weapon.

OK, that all sounds reasonable. I thought your original comment was aimed at the elf PC in my campaign where with previous experience all that was pretty much washed away (though MAYBE we missed a 50% skill, unlikely though with all the +40% ability bonuses the elf in my campaign had).

[Spockahontas]

Not in RQ, but in Stormbringer (also BRP), they had the rule that you could trade in any of your stats for more POW on a 2-for-1 basis. So our pal Tom rolled up a sorceror, put his best roll into his INT (he got a 20, not out of hand for Stormbringer), and sold every other stat down to 1 -- STR, CHA, SIZ, everything -- for a POW of 37. He lived in our big bruiser's backpack and stuck his head out to cast nasty spells occasionally. Probably he should have died on a couple of occasions, but he was too cool a character, and Tom was never an abusive gamer.

The weirdest I got in RQ was a duck who was sold into the Lunar Empire as a gladiator, promptly won his freedom, and threw in his lot with the Lunars, ending up as a Rune Lord of Yanafal of the Seven Mothers and going on his first heroquest just as our GM moved out of state, after ten real-time years of weekly/bi-weekly play. Good times...

[French Desperate WindChild]

it is sad to see that nobody tried to play a stone, or even more interesting, a drop of water.

i understand, we need more scenarii !

[PhilHibbs]

2 hours ago, Spockahontas said:

...and sold every other stat down to 1 -- STR, CHA, SIZ, everything -- for a POW of 37. He lived in our big bruiser's backpack and stuck his head out to cast nasty spells occasionally...

So tiny-sorcerer-in-a-backpack is a trope now?

[metcalph]

31 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

So tiny-sorcerer-in-a-backpack is a trope now?

The minute shaman in the Black Robe (1991) was carried on long journeys in a backpack.  

[Alex]

2 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

So tiny-sorcerer-in-a-backpack is a trope now?

"SIZ 1" and "anything ducky" certainly seem to be heavy adders to the trope-tally and odd-audit!

[Austin]

3 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

So tiny-sorcerer-in-a-backpack is a trope now?

In one of my old games, it was my sorcerer comrade's goal. He planned to use the silver halo of soul stealing to turn a well-statted slave into a soulless automaton, slap a create familiar on the handsome, brain-dead hunk, then cling to his back like a horrible twisted gremlin. Never quite reached that point, but we did have a few soul-zapped rock lizard pets when the game unfortunately stopped.

Or same create familiar idea, but with a herd man bought from traders returned from exotic Prax.

We were using a few house rules.

[PhilHibbs]

2 hours ago, Crel said:

Or same create familiar idea, but with a herd man bought from traders returned from exotic Prax.

We were using a few house rules.

Oh, I also created a pair of sorcerers who were twin brothers. They each in turn had "Fix Intelligence" cast on them and made each other into a familiar. I only ran them as NPCs though.

Edited November 5, 2021 by PhilHibbs

[Shiningbrow]

Back in the mid-late 80's, I was generally the adventurous ones (or, perhaps, also the useless* one who died a lot!).

So, I had my minotaur - Godda (Minotaur II), an elf (briefly my main), and even tried an orc (cos I bought an RQ monsters book in hardcover as soon as I saw it!). I let the orc die when we had a new RPG player come along - entering an enemy (Chaotic?) temple, and we all warned the newbie "don't touch the altar!"..

"Why not? What will happen?"

Me (oh well, not happy with this character anyway) - puts an axe into the alter - zap! 3D6 lightning direct to HP.... dead!

I had also bought Stormbringer around the same time (cos, back then, Moorcock was the big thing!), and I was allowed to port a Melnibonean sorcerer into Glorantha (no real reason why not - especially with demons of transport able to create gates between worlds!) He was my favourite character...

I also, briefly, had a Windchild.

The rest of the party - a Humakti duck (with black, soul-stealing greatsword... where did that idea come from???), a cave troll, a great troll, (maybe also a dark troll) and, a baboon (who only said "Oook" - guess where the inspiration for that came from!)... and I think, maybe once... OMGs - a human!!!

(yeah, playing the standard races wasn't all that standard for our group...)

 

(*ok, well, mostly just luckless - 40-60% skills allowed for a lot of bad rolls! Of course, the occasional really bad decision was duly punished)

[coffeemancer]

My group have a trickster with passion: Honour

[Shiningbrow]

16 hours ago, coffeemancer said:

My group have a trickster with passion: Honour

Honour-bound to wreak havoc at every available opportunity?

[coffeemancer]

No. regular HONOUR

[Baron Wulfraed]

On 11/4/2021 at 2:24 PM, Alex said:

Had very much forgotten how steep a a step RQ2 Aldrya intiation was.  The RQ3 bar ("may join automatically on reaching maturity") sounds vastly more sensible.

Lay membership is automatic in RQ2, Initiate is difficult.

On 11/4/2021 at 2:53 PM, ffilz said:

OK, that all sounds reasonable. I thought your original comment was aimed at the elf PC in my campaign where with previous experience all that was pretty much washed away (though MAYBE we missed a 50% skill, unlikely though with all the +40% ability bonuses the elf in my campaign had).

For a bog standard elf (are there elves living in bogs 🙄) {that is: one with exact average characteristics), and using the RQ2 previous experience section to jump from 16 to 21 years, still doesn't qualify for initiate (at least, by my interpretation of the rules, a GM might modify it some). Using the Lt. Inf. mercenary category I (in a quickly done exercise) got Bow, Hide in Cover to over 50%, but ID Plants, Listen are stuck at 30, Move Silently, Climbing at 35. The Militia category focuses on spear/shield, not bow (GM might rule elves focus on bow) but only trains the primary weapons "It will be equal to 900 Lunars worth of training for the first five years, split between the militia weapons of one-handed spear and medium shield." (is that 900L per year, or is that total, for 180L per year? Given that going beyond five years provides 200L/year)

[Alex]

24 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

For a bog standard elf (are there elves living in bogs 🙄)

Probably more of a slorifing thing. 😄 (AKA "red elves", but not strictly speaking aldryami.)

 

24 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

at least, by my interpretation of the rules, a GM might modify it some).

24 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

(GM might rule elves focus on bow)

Or GM might just borrow the approach from RQ3 (and I assume RQG?), problem solved.

 

[ffilz]

3 hours ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

Lay membership is automatic in RQ2, Initiate is difficult.

For a bog standard elf (are there elves living in bogs 🙄) {that is: one with exact average characteristics), and using the RQ2 previous experience section to jump from 16 to 21 years, still doesn't qualify for initiate (at least, by my interpretation of the rules, a GM might modify it some). Using the Lt. Inf. mercenary category I (in a quickly done exercise) got Bow, Hide in Cover to over 50%, but ID Plants, Listen are stuck at 30, Move Silently, Climbing at 35. The Militia category focuses on spear/shield, not bow (GM might rule elves focus on bow) but only trains the primary weapons "It will be equal to 900 Lunars worth of training for the first five years, split between the militia weapons of one-handed spear and medium shield." (is that 900L per year, or is that total, for 180L per year? Given that going beyond five years provides 200L/year)

The elf in my campaign was a rich noble with practically perfect stats. Many of his ability bonuses were +40% and he could afford to train up some skills. He also got some stat bumps from the previous experience system. But I may have also missed something. 

[Stephen L]

On 11/7/2021 at 7:48 PM, ffilz said:

The elf in my campaign was a rich noble with practically perfect stats

I remember playing an elf in RQiii, and, even without perfect stats, it still did get rather good skill bonuses.   Whilst it was quite fun to play (I recall it used a lot of ranged weapons, only closing to finish things off).  He was the only character I ever remember where dodge was workable as a primary defence tactic (which was very useful when it came to the giant).  However, across the board good skill bonuses meant the experience checks usually went well, and it got rather dull that his skills were so wide ranging and so good.

However, relying on dodge was very exciting.  Things did either go either spectacularly well or very badly indeed, and he did need to be put back together quite often.

Also he had no concept of wealth or property, which got him into trouble on the odd occasion.

Ducks have always featured very prominently in campaigns I've run, but I think I only ever played one once in a short lived campaign, but he was great fun.  I remember one fight he got befuddled, and got very excited that all the combatants were trampling the pretty flowers.

As an aside, Baboons and Elves seem to feature quite prominently in peoples lists.  One thing I noted, in a thread discussion POW gain rolls, in the RQ in G rules (p. 418), both baboons and elves have much greater chance of going up.  At max rollable (18), the chance is min rollable (8) x 5 or a whopping 40% for 2D6+6.  Our house rule is that the POW gain roll is failing against the species average on the resistance table.