But what if we think you are odd/perverted? :-) (actually, the answer is simple - if we think you areodd/perverted, there is quite a good chance we will ask you to write some more....)
> If Avalon Hill is not going to RQ 4 because of "problems", it
>seems to me that they might be willing to sell the rights to a group who
>would be willing to develop the game.
This has been raised in the past. I think the answer is yes, they are willing to sell, but the price they ask is higher than anyone is willing to pay.
>I don't fully understand the attraction of playing
>most odd races, and I am stunned that anyone would want to play a spawn
>of Chaos!
There is always what we called the 'rule of 92' - the odd tendency of some players to play the useless or incompetent becase 'then any victory is so much the sweeter'. I think it comes from Stormbringer (the explanation is given in the rulesbook as a reason for wanting to play a beggar (in Stormbringer, usually missing sensory organs or limbs), which was a roll of 92 on the table.
I agree, though, that playing a broo should be so disgusting that no one would want to do it. But there are other chaotics, a little saner and subtler, that could make an interesting PC. Krarshti, vampires, and so on.
>Isn't chaos self-defeating. Leave Doraster alone long
>enough and it will collapse upon its chaos-riddled self.
Unsustainable, but not necessarily self-defeating. Leave chaos alone long enough, and sometimes it might die, but more likely it erupts outwards into new territory.
Excommunication
>But the RW (Catholic) excommunication is not quite the same thing.
>It can be rescinded for a start and doesn't prohibit people from
>entering Heaven if they are virtuous enough to avoid going to
>hell. Whereas in a Gloranthan context, an excommunication pretty
>much damns you out of the afterlife of your religion as the tie
>between you and your god has been shattered.
Nah. If you are sufficiently virtuous, you can heroquest and walk to the appropriate section of the afterlife and demand that you be let in. Its just.... difficult.
>But why can't an illuminated High Priest excommunicate his rivals?
Precisely why the Orlanthi have a particular hatred of exactly this. Its called 'Lokaymadonism', and accusing someone of it is probably a good way of having them lynched by an outraged mob.
Becoming Rune Lord/Priests
The way I handle it in my campaign is partly that you must fulfill all the requirements more thoroughly than usual - you must be a really good and experienced rune lord before you become a priest.
More importantly, I also assume that the ritual of becoming a priest or lord involves a small heroquest. In the case of normal priesthood or lords, this is a purely ritualised heroquest, undertaken in the temple in safe conditions. In the case of someone who is already a person of some mythical importance, this ritual has the habit of turning into a more serious heroquest.
For example, in my game becoming a Wind Priest of Orlanth Thunderous involves collecting the Six Winds (and the Seventh as well, but thats a cult secret). Becoming a Rune Lord involves something along the lines of the Arming of Orlanth. For normal priests, a bunch of either associate cult priests or Wind priests take the part of the Winds, and bless the guy in a big ritual, and he is a priest. But if my heroquesting Wind Lord PC wants to become a Wind Priest as well, things are a bit more serious. If he tries to do the ritual the easy way, mythic forces will attempt to disrupt it (and Divination will reveal this). What he probably needs to do is to go and find the Winds in some bigger quest, probably travelling to the various directions to gain help, and get something that is a bit more than just a blessing (bound sylphs make a good substitute for the winds).
(As it happens, my Wind Lord PC is doing this right now anyway, for different reasons - he is collecting the winds in order to put them in a bag that can take on a dragon-slaying/ rain freeing expedition. Perhaps he gets two birds with the one stone? or perhaps it won't be that easy.)
Its a bit less serious in the case of acolyte status, but the same basic principle applies.
In both cases, its quite possible for someone who qualifies for priest and lord to become both according to the GOG rules. In practice, I'm going to make it a little difficult for my PCs to do so, partly because its fun to play out. And NPCs that do so are generally respected and powerful as well as just competent.
It also varies by cult. For some cults, its reasonably expected, for others, its difficult or special. In Aldrya, for example, its impossible to become a Wood Lord and a Shaman or Elder Sister, but Gardener is the equivalent, and it has its own requirements (20 years service for a start).
If you wish to become a Priest/ Lord in more than one cult - in my game, its mostly impossible. You can't serve two masters. But becoming Priest or Lord or equivalent in one cult, and an associate priest/ acolyte in another is quite possible, and even routine for some cults. A few notable exceptions exist, such as Ancestor Worshipping Kygor Litor priestesses. And there are a few heroes who bypass the normal channels and achieve something that is practically the same.
>The only cult left out is the Sun Lord in the Yelm Cult which
>has no acolyte station and gets no reusable divine magic nor
>any 1d10 divine intervention.
I too have noted this peculiarity (that Sun Lord is very hard to qualify for and gets few benefits). Perhaps they should have some magic. I've just assumed that most Sun Lords enter some associate/sub cult, such as Hastatus, and get some magic from that.
Which reminds me of another Yelmic question I was meaning to ask. The Yelm writeup has all these great Furies that are his spirits of reprisal, which are really cool. Anyone want to speculate on how these fit into the fabulous new world of Yelmic myth? I can see no direct parallel - but some of them do remind me of Annara Gor and other Yelmic oppositional figures, so I don't think they should be rejected out of hand. Though from GROY, you get the feeling that the 'spirit of reprisal' for Yelm is more like a lot of Sunspears in your direction.
>I always thought of Arkat's
>rebirth as a Troll as being the first instance of this transformation.
The description of his rebirth in Trollpak sounds like it was already a known ritual when it was performed on him.
Is Glorantha too Chaos centric these days? I think there is a tendency for the published material to be too alittle too chaos centric. I had a look at recent supplements, and over 50% of scenarios feature chaotic opponents - and that is not counting Dorastor. Even MOB has around 50% chaotic villains - and Shadows on the Borderland is all chaotic, even though the scenarios were originally unrelated (Strangers in Prax, however, was refreshing light on chaos - a couple of cameo appearances only).
Why? Its not from Gregs stuff (which has been very light on chaos lately). I think its simply because chaos is the easiest villain to use. Its bad, it needs no justification for its villainy, its easy as a GM because no one is likely to want to be on their side. So in part its something that makes it easy as a scenario writer.
But its also because its interesting. There are at least a dozen well developed major chaos cults now, and all of them have their high points. With so much on offer, chaos is going to be used quite often just because the creative potential is there. Basically, Cults of Terror was such a good piece of work that we keep mining it again and again.
And its also been used because most scenarios published so far have been set in Prax, a place that is relatively empty and has a mythology obsessed with how evil chaos is - is it any wonder that a lot of scenarios concern it? I look forward to the chaos interest fading at least a little when more Pelorian stuff is published, for example, and the enemies will tend more towards rebel/barbarians and dark powers, in keeping with Pelorian mythical obsessions and available opposition.
In any case, I agree that the recent stuff has been relatively chaos obsessed, but I don't think its a problem we should really be too worried about.
Cheers
David
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #26
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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