Nomad Culture character, Lizards/Dino riders ?

[Syssiah]

Heya

 

One of my player asked me if there are tribes of Nomad in Glorantha that actually ride big lizards/Dinosaures ? 

If so, what are they called, and where can I find informations about them ?

 

Thanks in advance for the help you RQ-scholastic people 🙂

 

[JRE]

There is a lesser tribe in Prax that ride Bolo Lizards, but they are not too big, average SIZ 19. Those are two legged vegetarians, so no big human devouring lizards here, but well known and established.

The Old Tarsh exiles have a weird relationship with dinosaurs through the goddess Maran Gor in Earthshaker temple, and some of them ride dinosaurs up to Brontosaur or possibly even T. Rex size, but they are not nomads but bloodthirsty earth cultists.

Both are with some changes among the initial cultures for Dragon Pass. Maran Gor is the mother of dinosaurs, so a good starting point. Dinosaurs are a bit over the top in RQ, as big size means huge damage and lots of hit points.

The real primitive Dino riders, fighting against machine advanced dwarves and enslaved humans are in Slon, in Western Pamaltela, the other side of the world. Difficult to get one to Dragon Pass, and even harder with a dinosaur. You can find more in the Guide To Glorantha Vol. 2.

There are also Dinosaurs in some Eastern islands and lands, but as far as I know there are not Dinosaur riders, rather monsters in Godzilla / Gojira scale.

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, Syssiah said:

If so, what are they called, and where can I find informations about them ?

For Bolo Lizards, have a look in the Bestiary, page 153. For Bolo Lizard folk, use the impala riders mods in the Core Rules, as they are pygmies. They are an Earth Tribe so give them +10% to their Earth rune. They favour Bolas, sword as their cultural weapon, and are light cavalry. Beast prices are covered in Weapons & Equipment.

 Outline from HeroQuest Glorantha

[Syssiah]

Thanks JRE and David for your info and help 🙂

 

 

[JRE]

You are welcome. David has covered the specifics of the Bolo Lizard Folk. Unfortunately I only have in hand the Guide to Glorantha, so I could not quote the rulebook or the bestiary. Those are quite balanced compared to other starting players.

Maran Gor gives "Command Dinosaur", if I remember right, but she is heavily skewed against males, so if you want to ride a big dinosaur it is better to be a woman. And a big dinosaur opens many problems, both in the relative power of players (most dinosaur attacks are instant kills) and by dominating many of the concerns during play (How do you feed it? Where do you keep it while visiting a town? How do you avoid it becoming food for a whole clan in lean times?).

 

[PhilHibbs]

5 hours ago, JRE said:

Maran Gor gives "Command Dinosaur", if I remember right, but she is heavily skewed against males, so if you want to ride a big dinosaur it is better to be a woman.

I don't have a problem with that. Most of the image searches for "woman riding dinosaur" are very cheesecake but this is entirely wholesome:

 

[Syssiah]

thanks again ^^

 

and IF I would play such a character, it would be some looking like this one ..

 

Feel free to invite me to your games lol

[g33k]

22 hours ago, Syssiah said:

Heya

One of my player asked me if there are tribes of Nomad in Glorantha that actually ride big lizards/Dinosaures ? 

If so, what are they called, and where can I find informations about them ?

 

Thanks in advance for the help you RQ-scholastic people 🙂

As others have noted, "canon" offers the Bolo-Lizard Tribe in Prax (but those are small-ish dino's in canon (but see below)), and also the "Earth Shakers" of Maran Gor, centered around Shaker Temple near Mt. Kero Fin... they ride the big'uns, the Bronto's and Ceratopsian's &c.

HOWEVER... Your Glorantha May Vary!

IMG (in my Glorantha) the Bolo-Lizard Tribe is a bit more... complex than that:  they adopt some of the big sauropod herds (brontosaurus/Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, etc), and travel with them.

IMG, each family-unit of the Tribe sets up "camp" on an individual sauropod's back.  They use tents, howdah-like platforms, glorified sacks, and other such accoutrements.  They don't "break camp" to move, they just fasten things a bit tighter.

IMG, some species of juvenile sauropod's walk bipedally, and are virtually indistinguishable from adult "Bolo-Lizards."  Outsiders basically cannot tell how many BL's vs. juvie-sauropod's are in the herd... and "raiding" gets the whole herd kinda angry (at the raiders)...  Stompy-stompy-stompity-stomp-stomp!  With an occasional tail-lash to liven things up.

IMG, every brave of the tribe must make a pilgrimage to the Shaker Temple, and win the blessing of the High Priestess there, before they can aspire to leadership among the Bolo Lizard people.

IMG, one of the more-common heroquests among the Bolo-Lizard people, is to find a "better" mount... bigger, faster, fiercer, etc; maybe just more suited to arid conditions ... it is the Survival Covenant, after all!  And they have the blessings of the Shaker...

Edited May 18, 2022 by g33k

[Syssiah]

Nice!

 

Thanks g33k 🙂 If you have any note or documents you created for your Glorantha, that you'd be willing to share, I'd be interested.

 

 

[svensson]

@Syssiah I've been following this conversation and there's a lot of good advice here.

Something you might be interested in is an adventure on drivethru set in Prax and centered around a Bison People shaman looking for revenge.

It's called 'The Gifts of Prax' and it might be helpful to you. I have not purchased it, but the author is Diana Probst and she is one of the Chaosium authors.

Link below. Good luck!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/344911/The-Gifts-of-Prax

[French Desperate WindChild]

1 hour ago, svensson said:

Bison People shaman looking for revenge.

Argrath ?

[svensson]

36 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Argrath ?

From the description, Argrath has nothing to do with it.

[French Desperate WindChild]

bison (adopted), revenge (lunar) shaman (well at least brumia addict but maybe shaman, who knows)

but it was  just a joke 😉

 

[Syssiah]

Again thanks for the pointers ^^

 

Slowly building my group and campaign

[g33k]

18 hours ago, Syssiah said:

Thanks g33k 🙂 If you have any note or documents you created for your Glorantha, that you'd be willing to share, I'd be interested.

No notes... I don't really see the need of any.

What I wrote is pretty much everything I need to GM (add the Bestiary or similar source, for different Dino's at need), or to run a Bolo-Lizard Tribe PC.

Feel free to use it as-described, or just as inspiration for your own Glorantha Varying.

For example, I know some groups run with big Dino's as draft-animals and/or pulling plows & other loads, over near the Shaker Temple (this may even be canon?); if you like the notion, you could have a Dino-Rider from a hardscrabble farm in Old Tarsh.

Etc.