Bless Pregnancy

[DrGoth]

21 hours ago, JRE said:

I place the anticonceptive magic as something between charm and minor magic, below even MP cost, and I assume that there are many such magics that are below the game scale but that show that this is a magical world. From cleaning your tools or clothes to killing vermin, and all things that improve quality of life.

I've always assumed that sort of thing was spirit magic. I seem to remember seeing something somewhere (yeah I know how specific and useful that is) that these are the sort of things most people (ie NPCs) actually sue spirit magic for.

[JRE]

My own playing style has lots of effects that would be magical on earth to magnify the magic of the setting, usually family or cult magics. And to give extra use to the runes, so some of those minor effects may be impossible depending on your affinities.

A few examples of what I have used, and a couple of player suggestions I accepted:

Humakti can sharpen a sword without any tool, by focusing their Death (and rolling below Death affinity).

Focus on your Beast affinity to have your sheep flock follow your whistling, as long as you are taking them somewhere familiar.

Know at a glance if someone is pregnant, using Life. Ernaldans, Ulerians and similar cults.

Focus your Death after sexual intercourse to make sure you are not pregnant. Maran Gor sells cheaply charms that increase your death affinity by 50 for this purpose. You know if you succeed or not, but you do not know if you and your partner were fertile to beging with. Does not work against fertility magic, from a holy orgy to a broo rape, or the Pregnancy spell. 

Use Harmony to know when food is off, and how to combine flavors in a good way, limited by the ingredients.

Use your Stasis to know where all of your tools are in your workshop. Artisan family. 

Use your illusion affinity to improve slightly your appeareance without tools. Your hair untangles, your breath smells sweet and your clothes no longer seem creased and sweaty... 

These are minor effects, mostly tricks, though the pregnancy one could be quite major, without the failure penalty you get from augments, and without significant game effects. Normlly you have to learn them, from family, clan or temple, and usually you know only half a dozen, though a well travelled Eurmali may know hundreds. They are indicated in a general way in the character sheet, such as "Anticonceptive Magic +50", or "Family good with sheep", "Harmony cook" or "Dazzling smile". Others are powers I give to some cults, similar to the Orlanthi weather sense, such as the Ernaldan "life sense" or the Humakti "sword always sharp", or my Issaries "Well behaved mule". If a player wants, they can possibly get a new one, if I agree it makes sense, or they find someone willing to teach them and spend the time.

[JRE]

I would have Ernaldans discourage the use of anticonceptive magic on themselves, but conversely they can roll Fertility to know if they are fertile or not, so they can use the knowledge to their advantage.

[Joerg]

I wonder whether conception requires an actual ritual to work, making any pregnancy an act of will (although not necessarily on the part of the participants in the actual impregnation).

[JRE]

I would prefer not, as that would mean all creatures that use sex for reproduction should be doing the same... 

[JRE]

I had a thought that Bless Pregnancy works on trolls, but it always makes the pregnancy Enlo. Otherwise we would have plenty of Trolls switching to propitiatory Ernalda worship, or some Issaries making a killing with Spell Trade, while it seems a cop out just to make the spell not work.

[French Desperate WindChild]

6 hours ago, JRE said:

I had a thought that Bless Pregnancy works on trolls, but it always makes the pregnancy Enlo. Otherwise we would have plenty of Trolls switching to propitiatory Ernalda worship, or some Issaries making a killing with Spell Trade, while it seems a cop out just to make the spell not work.

there is no mention that bless pregnancy change the species (or sub species ?)

so if the fate was enlo, bless pregnancy would just provide "better" enlo

[Squaredeal Sten]

6 hours ago, JRE said:

I had a thought that Bless Pregnancy works on trolls, but it always makes the pregnancy Enlo. Otherwise we would have plenty of Trolls switching to propitiatory Ernalda worship, or some Issaries making a killing with Spell Trade, while it seems a cop out just to make the spell not work.

Not my impression since Bless pushes toward the most desirable result.  It could be that the Curse works on Uz regardless of Bless Pregnancy.  In which case you just get healthy trollkin if the die roll says you get trollkin.. 

But mostly, the cult of Kyger Litor is so basic to Uz that they don't abandon KL for Ernalda.  After all your family is all most Uz have going for them, and KL is an ancestor cult at its heart..  The spirit of retribution plus cutting yourself off from Uz society is a daunting prospect.  So you get BP but no one will mate with you?  Not a good deal.

It seems to me that Bless Pregnancy will work on Uz, is probably done as a favor to Uz, but since human- Uz relations are fraught it's not often offered.  An Argan Argar priest might do well participating in Spell Tradig for Bless Pregnancy.  Why preclude such an in game action?

 

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Squaredeal Sten
Spelling / typing

[Akhôrahil]

6 hours ago, JRE said:

I had a thought that Bless Pregnancy works on trolls, but it always makes the pregnancy Enlo. 

Even by RAW, this would happen at least half the time (in a way) - Trolls have so few Dark Troll twins that they assume any multiple births are trollkin, and you get twins more than half the time with Bless Pregnancy...

[JRE]

Game Balance, justified as a secondary effect of all the magical questing around the Curse of Kin which means that any magical influence that does not come from poor Korasting just doubles down the Curse.

But they will be so nice value trolkin... I also consider the twins result is maximum litter, so probably six Enlo in one go.

We know the trolls would exploit any magic that would give them a fertility edge. Which means Earth cults fertility is not really helpful. And we already have trolls adopting other cults different from Kyger Litor, they just stop being Uzko and become something else. If Earth could help, I am sure the OOO would have had his mother helping his people, even if they no longer were Uzko.

In fact, that may explain how the Kethaela Argan Argar cult could field quite efficient Enlo spearmen armies. Because they are superior Enlo. Or maybe that is how you get the Kitori. Uz children blessed with Ernalda's magic...

[Akhôrahil]

7 minutes ago, JRE said:

Game Balance, justified as a secondary effect of all the magical questing around the Curse of Kin which means that any magical influence that does not come from poor Korasting just doubles down the Curse.

But they will be so nice value trolkin... I also consider the twins result is maximum litter, so probably six Enlo in one go.

We know the trolls would exploit any magic that would give them a fertility edge. Which means Earth cults fertility is not really helpful. And we already have trolls adopting other cults different from Kyger Litor, they just stop being Uzko and become something else. If Earth could help, I am sure the OOO would have had his mother helping his people, even if they no longer were Uzko.

In fact, that may explain how the Kethaela Argan Argar cult could field quite efficient Enlo spearmen armies. Because they are superior Enlo. Or maybe that is how you get the Kitori. Uz children blessed with Ernalda's magic...

Yeah, I mean, if over a thousand years of Mistress Race and Cragspider heroquesting hasn't the solved the Curse of Kin, it's not like starting PCs could do it...

[PhilHibbs]

On 6/17/2023 at 4:27 PM, Shiningbrow said:

But the change in POW/RP economy changes this significantly. As does the change in spell selection.

The RuneQuest rules do not change the world of Glorantha. They enable us to play games in it, perhaps different rule sets make it easier for different stories to be told, but Glorantha is still the same. Yours will vary, of course, and it's okay for that variation to change, mine certainly has, but the "baseline" Glorantha is independent of the game rules. The rules are attempts to describe it.

Of course, that's me laying down my perspective as though it's the law. I am aware that other points of view exist, one of the players in my long running Glorantha campaign was convinced that the rules changes when we switched editions were measurable in the world and would be noticed by the characters.

[PhilHibbs]

On 6/29/2023 at 3:29 PM, Squaredeal Sten said:

Not my impression since Bless pushes toward the most desirable result.  It could be that the Curse works on Uz regardless of Bless Pregnancy.  In which case you just get healthy trollkin if the die roll says you get trollkin.. 

Yes, that would be my take on it. There might be some special circumstances that could, in combination with a Bless Pregnancy, produce an Uzko to an otherwise cursed mother, but that would be the stuff of adventures. Personally I think it would be odd to involve Ernalda in a quest to birth healthy Uz, but there's no reason why not if the party has an Uz and an Ernaldan in it.

[Squaredeal Sten]

22 hours ago, JRE said:

......

In fact, that may explain how the Kethaela Argan Argar cult could field quite efficient Enlo spearmen armies. Because they are superior Enlo. Or maybe that is how you get the Kitori. Uz children blessed with Ernalda's magic...

Good point about the Uz Kitori.  Association with human Ernaldan Kitori could make such desirable Earth magics much more available.  That would be a major advantage to Uz from participating in the hybrid tribe.  

You make my children come out healthy and I love you like a sister, even though you are a wimpy human with no Darksense and a crazy attachment to sunlight.

Edited June 30, 2023 by Squaredeal Sten
A couple of wprds

[Rodney Dangerduck]

6 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Of course, that's me laying down my perspective as though it's the law. I am aware that other points of view exist

Relativity was a rules change (see atomic bomb) that changed Earth.

With the change to reusable rune magic, "all" Sartarite males would join Orlanth and sacrifice 2-3 POW.  Why? 

It allows them to achieve one of mans' greatest dreams for thousands of years:  They can fly.

Not to mention catastrophic health care (Heal Wound, possibly Heal Body?) and a host of other benefits, such as protection from spirits and in combat.

Likewise, for "all" women, going through pregnancy without major pains, and in great safety, seems amazingly useful.  I would expect that any Ernaldan, upon discovering that she was pregnant, would either get somebody else to cast Bless Pregnancy, or sacrifice a 2nd POW to get the spell for herself and cast it.

[Akhôrahil]

9 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

The RuneQuest rules do not change the world of Glorantha. They enable us to play games in it, perhaps different rule sets make it easier for different stories to be told, but Glorantha is still the same.

I think it does change the world - the Glorantha where initiates can cast a ton of Rune Magic yearly is different from the one where Initiates can only use Rune Magic in the direst of emergencies and Rune Magic is the job of the magical professionals. Similarly, the Glorantha of HQ is different from the one of RQG (just go into a Lhankor Mhy temple and check what runes he has if you doubt me).

[PhilHibbs]

21 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

... the Glorantha of HQ is different from the one of RQG (just go into a Lhankor Mhy temple and check what runes he has if you doubt me).

I went to the Lhankor Mhy temple several times in my Glorantha, and the runes carved above the temple gates are the same runes regardless of the game system I was imagining when I entered the realm.

Edited July 1, 2023 by PhilHibbs

[PhilHibbs]

Hm, that's odd. Earlier I was in Jonstown. I just checked the Boldhome temple and they're different.

But, as I said, this is my Glorantha. Yours might change depending on rule system.

Apologies for hijacking this thread. I will post no further on this subject here.

Edited July 1, 2023 by PhilHibbs

[Shiningbrow]

Have we seen/read 1984??

I'm getting that sort of feeling now 😛