Starting My First Game

[jajagappa]

2 hours ago, Techpriest said:

Polaris is the Pole Star, also known as Rigsdal.

Adding to this note, the Pole Star is the fixed point at the top of the Sky Dome (i.e. straight up at the highest point in the dome). Pole Star does not move but all the stars dance around him. He is also known as the General of the Sky and he can direct his Star Captains to stop invasions of the sky.

[Jens]

11 hours ago, Anlúan said:

is there a good R:RiG book that covers the Elder Wilds

In addition to the books that were mentioned, next week (October 9) sees the release of the first Lands of RuneQuest book, covering Dragon Pass- https://www.chaosium.com/bloglands-of-runequest-dragon-pass-will-be-available-in-october/ . This includes 28 pages on The Wilds, including the Stitched Zoo (where some beast men were created/recreated) and rules for Newtling and Wind Child adventurers, as well as a 10 page Bestiary of the Wilds.

[Anlúan]

Oh that'll be wonderful! Thanks for letting me know.

[Nick Brooke]

(Different Wilds, though.)

The Elder Wilds proper are north-east of Balazar, and are (loosely) described in “Griffin Mountain,” one of the RuneQuest Classics.

[Techpriest]

There's also the new Back to Balazar book from the Jonstown compendium which updates some of that material for 1625 ST. Both are worth reading. 

[Anlúan]

Thanks for the updates!

Has anyone built new sorcery spells a lot? My Lunar Tarsh Philosopher really wants to lean into learning to craft new Sorcery spells. The core rulebook has some rules, but as I am new the R:RiG system I am concerned with balancing. Any suggestions?

On an unrelated note, what Cult would a Sartarite Noble in Alda-Chur probably lean to? I don't want him to lean Lunar nor Yelmalio as they'll be their own factions, nor Humakti as I want him to be a foil to the Humakti that's honourbound to him, rather than a out-and-out superior. So instead I have a few options: Orlanth Rex, Ernalda (Husband-Protector being Orlanth), or maybe Asrelia? Any other suggestions?

[Jens]

42 minutes ago, Anlúan said:

Has anyone built new sorcery spells a lot?

I've "invented" a few across different characters. Some are straightforward, and easy to allow- take a spell like Enhance INT that uses Fire and change it to Enhance DEX using Water for the same intensity costs and benefits. Others are more tricky, and the power & interactions with other spells may not be clear until you test them in play; I'd come to an agreement with your player that you reserve the right to modify how a new spell works if it ends being unbalanced in play.

45 minutes ago, Anlúan said:

what Cult would a Sartarite Noble in Alda-Chur probably lean to?

Orlanth. Unless they're a weapon thane (Humakt) or a merchant (Issaries), most Sartarite nobles worship Orlanth.

[jajagappa]

3 hours ago, Anlúan said:

Has anyone built new sorcery spells a lot? My Lunar Tarsh Philosopher really wants to lean into learning to craft new Sorcery spells. The core rulebook has some rules, but as I am new the R:RiG system I am concerned with balancing. Any suggestions?

Not a lot, but have created some. Use the existing sorcery spells and spirit magic spells as general guides - a basic sorcery spell should be functionally equal to a 1 pt. spirit magic. You may get some variance, but that may be a foundation. Correlation with "equivalent" Rune magic requires a bit more care as Rune magic is typically twice as powerful as spirit magic. 

I'd focus initially on developing around a single Rune and several Techniques. The Element Runes are somewhat easier to think about.

E.g. Command + Water: what might you do with that? You might command it to flow away, and water likes to do that so fairly straightforward. You might command it to form a "wall" of water (think Darkwall or Lightwall here) - that might be more difficult, unless you're forming it into a wave, so that might be a basic spell "Wave of Water" and you can send it off downstream. Or if you're in a lake where the currents are weak, you might form such a wall in the water itself. But if you want a wall of water around you on land, now you need to Combine it with Stasis to hold a shape. And so on...

Once you get to the Power Runes there's more abstraction to think about. What does it mean to Command Harmony? Or to Summon Harmony? The latter make create a peaceful setting where anyone who wants to commit violence or Disorder must overcome the strength of the Harmony. The former might mean that a target must act harmoniously or overcome their innate Harmony (opposed roll) in order to do anything violent. The core book has a fair number of examples with the Truth Rune, so use those as guidance for interacting with the other Runes.

Generally, for 1 point of strength, you affect one target or one small area for a short duration of time. 

[Geoff R Evil]

Kudos for pulling together such an eclectic crew of players and exploring so many aspects of RQG in your first game.

Just hope it does not get too complex too fast. Others advised keep it simple to start. Common background, compatible cults etc.  I can only agree…..but then I like the ambition too. But limiting yours and their needs for lore understanding is good, going deep on a few well known and documented cults is a lot lot easier than going wide across a lot of different cults.

Just some real simple advice. Combat is deadly. Guide the players to avoid being ganged up on, ideally gang up on the enemy. So use terrain, like doorways. Surprise is key. A round or so of free attacks after you have buffed and the enemy has not can make a tough fight easy….either way. Ambushing newbie players is sure to lead to a death or total party wipe unless the enemy is totally inept or your players very competent.

Experience gains can be very slow if you only allow them as per the rule book. I let my players do experience gains every time they have a week or so of rest and time to Contemplate. Trust me, as they gain higher levels in a skill their progress will slow markedly, but at early levels progress can be good. Encourage them to train, which means ensuring money and rewards need to be enough to pay for training, it’s a big money sink. Spells cost a lot too.

 

[metcalph]

8 hours ago, Anlúan said:

Has anyone built new sorcery spells a lot? My Lunar Tarsh Philosopher really wants to lean into learning to craft new Sorcery spells. The core rulebook has some rules, but as I am new the R:RiG system I am concerned with balancing. Any suggestions?

IMO a sorcerer can craft a spell to create an Atomic Bomb or the Ruling Ring and it wouldn't affect game balance one bit.  Why?  Because the nature of sorcery provides its own balance.  Even if a sorcerer had the perfect death spell, they are going to cast a spell which takes longer thana round while setting themselves up as a target for enemies multispelling disrupts or firing multimissiles. Nine times out of then, the sorcerer is going to going to have their ass spanked in such circumstances.  

[Squaredeal Sten]

Re. your 3rd question, " usually slipped up" mechanics:

You will note that because RQ is a skills based system, character generation takes more time than in D&D.   Which is one  reason the Starter Set provides pre generated characters: It gets the newbies past the slow start part and into the fun of playing the game.  But there are also drawbacks to pregens: One drawback is that the pregens are not really "theirs".  Another is that not going through the Family History steps deprives them of an orientation on the background lore.  

If you do use pregens, sooner or later a character will die and the player will roll one up from scratch anyway.

So let's look at generating characters from scratch:

In my experience it is easy for players to skip over sources of skill% during character generation. This, despite the step by step sequence provided in the RuneQuest in Glorantha book.  These omissions result in less skilled starting  characters, which is not fun.

Therefore I developed a spreadsheet as a skills checklist. It also saves a lot of erasing on the character sheet.   I email this spreadsheet to players.   It has page references for each column.  The Y axis has skills listed in the same sequence as the character sheet, and the X axis is the relevant steps in character generation.  Fill it out as you do chargen and copy results over to the character sheet when you are through.  

Tell me if you want a copy of that.

 

[soltakss]

On 10/2/2024 at 10:59 PM, Anlúan said:

Recently, I have left 5e (with only a few sessions left in my last game) due to a multitude of factions. AI art, WotC/Hasbro, etc.

Welcome to the world of RuneQuest and Glorantha. I hope you enjoy your stay, as I have done for 42 years.

On 10/2/2024 at 10:59 PM, Anlúan said:

What resources would people point me to? My players have picked out their Homelands, Occupations and Cults, but their biggest irk at the moment is that they don't have access to the knowledge I do, as they're used to having a deep wiki to trawl through. Are there any good resources they can view?

The RuneQuest Rules has a basic introduction to the major Homelands. That should be enough for Players at the start. The Gloranthan Encyclopaedia is a good introduction for most of Glorantha. If they want more knowledge then they can look at certain supplements that cover individual areas.

On 10/2/2024 at 10:59 PM, Anlúan said:

What safety tool would be best to have in place? I use the X-card, but does anyone else have suggestions?

X-Cards work well, but I prefer to say "Don't be a dick", unless it's me being a GM, in which case what did you expect?

On 10/2/2024 at 10:59 PM, Anlúan said:

Are there any 'usually slipped up' mechanics that people may want to point out?

Don't overthink things or overcomplicate things. Don't extrapolate magic and ask questions like "What if I cast 100 points of this spell, doesn't the world break?"

Some people think that some magic, for example Sword/Axe Trance, breaks the game, but I don't.

Combinations of spells have unusual effects, good, let them work in unusual ways.

The Spells from the Red Book of Magic are not always available to everyone, a lot of them are Cult Special magic.

Shamans don't easily get access to all Cult Special Spirit Magic from all cults.

On 10/2/2024 at 10:59 PM, Anlúan said:

And most importantly: Oh by Orlanth, how do weapon skills work?
For example, if a character gets +15 to Battleaxe, Battleaxe is a weapon that can be used in 1 or 2 hands. Do they get:
a) +15 to "1h Axe" & "2h Axe"
b) +15 to "1h Axe (Battleaxe)" & "2h Axe (Battleaxe)"
c) +15 to "1h Axe" or "2h Axe"
d) +15 to "1h Axe (Battleaxe)" or "2h Axe (Battleaxe)"
e) Or something else entirely?!

Those are badly broken in the rulebook, as some point to weapons categories, others point to individual weapons, and they are often used interchangeably

I would say that you choose a skill and it adds to that. So, you could add it to 1H Battleaxe, 1H Hatchet, 2H Great Axe, 2H Rhompia, or whatever the skill is. That keeps things nice and easy.

 

 

[soltakss]

20 hours ago, Anlúan said:

Has anyone built new sorcery spells a lot? My Lunar Tarsh Philosopher really wants to lean into learning to craft new Sorcery spells. The core rulebook has some rules, but as I am new the R:RiG system I am concerned with balancing. Any suggestions?

I don't use Sorcery for lots of reasons. 

If your Player wants to build Sorcery spells then use the rules from the Rulebook. Until Malkioni (Western Sorcerers) are fully described, you are probably not going to see many examples of Sorcerers building spells, although @Godlearner might have some ideas. he does all my Sorcery stuff for me, as he claims to understand it.

20 hours ago, Anlúan said:

On an unrelated note, what Cult would a Sartarite Noble in Alda-Chur probably lean to?

Orlanth Rex is the tribal ruling god in Sartar.

 

[Techpriest]

4 hours ago, soltakss said:

Orlanth Rex is the tribal ruling god in Sartar.

While Orlanth is the ruling god of Sartar he is not the only god tribes of Sartar follow and select nobles from. You could make arguments for Ernalda, Orlanth, Humakt, Issaries, Yelmalio (As Elmal or not), Daka Fal (though this would be through an ancestor cult), Lhankor Mhy  and Odalya and Yinkin as having potential as the god of a nobleman. That noble doesn't need to be a tribal ruler, but could instead be someone important to a clan or tribe because of what they've done in the past, what they're currently doing, or what their family does. For Alda-Chur which is firmly under Lunar control even after the Dragonrise, a noble following Orlanth is less likely. 

[Anlúan]

7 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Therefore I developed a spreadsheet as a skills checklist,

...

Tell me if you want a copy of that.

Thank you very much for the offer, but I'm using a Foundry module at the moment. ^^

[Anlúan]

1 hour ago, Techpriest said:

While Orlanth is the ruling god of Sartar he is not the only god tribes of Sartar follow and select nobles from. You could make arguments for Ernalda, Orlanth, Humakt, Issaries, Yelmalio (As Elmal or not), Daka Fal (though this would be through an ancestor cult), Lhankor Mhy  and Odalya and Yinkin as having potential as the god of a nobleman. That noble doesn't need to be a tribal ruler, but could instead be someone important to a clan or tribe because of what they've done in the past, what they're currently doing, or what their family does. For Alda-Chur which is firmly under Lunar control even after the Dragonrise, a noble following Orlanth is less likely. 

I'm fascinated by the idea of an Odalya / Yinkin Nobleman. How would you think that would work, as I would feel very "typecast" into hunter/survivalist/scout types?

[Rob Darvall]

39 minutes ago, Anlúan said:

I'm fascinated by the idea of an Odalya / Yinkin Nobleman. How would you think that would work, as I would feel very "typecast" into hunter/survivalist/scout types?

Odaylan hunters are my go-to character at the start (always called Braggi. Thank you John Hughes). What he becomes depends on what he does.

Yinkin does a lot of charisma based stuff and so can become a diplomat, a spell slinger (Cha is the limitting factor on spirit magic), a troll hunter, etc.  A good Odaylan will do more Odayla (bear) stuff in the wilderness and be more of a loner. Also Odaylans, being loners, are less likely as nobles. There's a history of Yinkini being involved in national politics.

While some typecasting can happen, the absence of the D&D style class system means it's less likely, less intrusive, and much more the players' choice. That said there's an onus to play as an intitiate of your god which is less a set of hard limits and more signposts to what are the right actions.  

• For example I had a very aware GM geas Braggi for failing to use Peaceful Cut when he used his hunting skills to take out a bandit chief. He ruled (and I agreed) that if I'm using cult skills then I'm bound by cult behaviour. The geas was also a useful plot hook.

 

[radmonger]

1 hour ago, Anlúan said:

I'm fascinated by the idea of an Odalya / Yinkin Nobleman. How would you think that would work, as I would feel very "typecast" into hunter/survivalist/scout types?

Orlanthi law recognises thatl settling a minor land dispute by having two Humakti duel is a waste. So Odaylan initiates get to qualify as a noble by being a tribal champion. This is a specialist role of standing in for the king for any ritual duel or challenge that doesn't involve weapons.

Such champions often travle to the Lunar provinces where Odayla is more common to pick up magic that will help them win those fights.

Yinkin is more of a stretch. But shamans of Yinkin (cat witches) can end up being one of the top magical specialsts in a clan, so so invited to the ring.

 

[Anlúan]

I'm leaning towards Odayla, I think. An Odaylan Nobleman in Alda-Chur trying to keep the city somewhat under the boot of Sartar whilst the military of Sartar recovers from the post-Dragonrise battles. He'll be opposed by Yelmalio (Elmal? Not sure on the difference) cultists of the Vantaros Tribe, and Lunar Nobles who are well-aware they can't start throwing down without having their relative idependance as a "neutral" trading hub thrown into question.

This nobleman is aided by the party, and local Lightbringer-leaning folks, including a Lorion-Worshipping messenger who will act as a point for travel via rivers when the party progress beyond the local area.

Those of Earth Pantheons are somewhat split, with Red Earth leaning to the nobility (if they should be here?), and the rest split between the Yelmalians and Orlanthi.

That gives a good skeleton of a political layout to build stories on!

I might add some Polaris followers? Though, similar to by Yelmalio/Elmal questions, that may be answered when Sky Gods comes out.

[Anlúan]

One other question. I read that the Red Goddess tamed the Sky Bear? How does that play out considering Odayla?

[Joerg]

6 hours ago, Anlúan said:

One other question. I read that the Red Goddess tamed the Sky Bear? How does that play out considering Odayla?

IMG both ways - some outright hostility, some acceptance of submission. Hwarin Dalthippa married Sylila into the Empire, bringing the Odayla worshippers there into the Provinicial fold. But then Odayla is used to be non-reconcilable positions, both hunter and prey.

[Anlúan]

Who is Sylila?

[radmonger]

Where, not who.

https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/the-lunar-satrapy-of-sylila/

 

Edited October 6 by radmonger

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Anlúan said:

Who is Sylila?

It's the southernmost of the Lunar satrapies. The land was Orlanthi (with Odayla an important deity), but the leading tribal king married the Conquering Daughter and together they pacified that land (bringing it into the core of the Lunar Empire), and then defeated the nearby lands (now the Lunar provinces). 

In Orlanthi culture, Odayla is also the Sky Bear (i.e. the constellation of Orlanth's Ring). The Red Goddess riding the Sky Bear is symbolic of her conquest of and acceptance by some of the Orlanthi people.

[Rob Darvall]

9 hours ago, Anlúan said:

 Yelmalio (Elmal? Not sure on the difference) cultists of the Vantaros Tribe,

Real World: Elmal is a semi retconned precursor/avatar of Yelmalio. 

In Glorantha: Elmal was the Orlanthi god of the little sun displaced/subsumed into Yelmalio by Monrogh Lantern's quest.

I'd use Yelmalio for the Vantaros because:

1. Elmal is considered no longer canon and Yelmalio simplifies the lore (you don't want to go there. The argument has been raging for over 2 decades now)
2. More importantly the Vantaros are explicitly pro Lunar and Elmal is very much an Orlanthi heterodoxy

For what it's worth I still use Elmal in The Far Place for those tribes who resisted Harvar Ironfist. But that's more because it provides me with political/schismatic plot hooks and priestly arguments as colour.