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Everything posted by soltakss

  1. Oh, I missed that, thanks. Time to change some stat blocks, then.
  2. Sun Dome, Mountain Sun, Forest Sun, there are different ways of describing the cool light of Yelmalio. He's a cool dude, after all.
  3. Vampires used to have double hit points in each location, which made them awesome in combat, but that has gone now in RQG, unfortunately. Hopefully, that will come back, with their special vulnerabilities, with the Vivamort cult.
  4. In Secrets of Dorastor, Arkat cursed Dorasta for helping Nysalor, so he salted the earth and made it barren. However, Pocharngo married Dorastor and taught her how to mutate plants to escape the curse, so Dorasta's crops are always changing. So, you get lots of different crops and a wheat plant might change to become something else and need weeding out.
  5. A Jonstown Compenium supplement that I am near to finishing. It's partly a writeup of my Dorastor Campaign, but has a lot more material. I have attached the Table of Contents from a couple of weeks ago. It has changed slightly, but not by much. TOC_Secrets_of_Dorastor_10052020.txt
  6. Possibly, but it is a brave GM who gives adventurers a prediction of the future via Divination, as PCs tend to go their own way. I normally say "This is what is going to happen unless you act to change it", so it is a warning more than anything else.
  7. Essentially the same skill, but I might impose a Penalty to the skill, depending on what was being asked. At the start, the temples backing the HeroQuestor would get the benefit. so, if the HeroQuestor is backed and given support by his local Elmal Temple, then the benefit would go to that Temple. If, however, he got the backing of all the Elmal Temples everywhere before he did the HeroQuest then all those Temples would gain the benefit. Basically, they shared in the Myth to get the benefits, so they have access to it. After a while, though the HeroQuestor could establish the myth in other Temples, by teaching it or taking others on the HeroQuest. Similarly, he could teach it to the Yelmalio cult and so would become the head a shared subcult.
  8. Hmm, probably not a big help! I am sure if I made all the Horrors of Dorastor female, that would lead to complaints as well. Dorastor does not discriminate, its denizens will abuse, mistreat and eat people of any gender, or no gender, equally. Except the cult of Thed, as Thed just hates women and doesn't allow them in her cult. The Personalities of the Borderlands describes the following: Barstan Ram-Friend, Ketil Eriksbane, Hakon the Swimmer, Bolthor Brighteyes, Renekot the Stone, Hahlgrim Ironsword, Oddi the Keen, Lanstan Longspear and Halim, all very eligible warriors, many are chieftains and only one is an ogre.
  9. A Jonstown Compenium supplement that I am near to finishing. It's partly a writeup of my Dorastor Campaign, but has a lot more material. Land quality, I should add that as well, as Riskland might have poor quality land.
  10. p209 says STR 9 DEX 7 for a Lance and Short Spear or STR 9 DEX 9 for a Javelin.
  11. The "Lunar Soldiers" in Pavis largely consisted of paid mercenaries rather than regular Lunar Soldiers. Many of their patrols in Prax were Sable Riders rather then regular Antelope Riders. Why would the Lunars use mercenaries instead of regular troops? Because they were spread too thinly.
  12. If you regard the outcome of the game as a narration, over-generous or too strict handling of these abilities will create plot holes and precendences that you are going to be saddled with in your next scene already as the narrator. Alongside with the narrative techniques of the pass-fail cycle, there is also something like a spotlight cycle to keep in mind. Which is harder to maintain if the plot hook that creates the scene or scenario is anchored in a specific player character. Personally, I think that HeroQuest works best if you forget about myriads of rules and just concentrate on the basics. For me, the Pass-Fail Cycle is meant to be a tool that enables the story to continue while keeping track of consequences, it is not meant to be minimaxed or broken down into detail.
  13. I have a vague recollection that Citizenship of Pavis is only available to those who own property, but would have to look it up to be sure. Joerg has got it right, I think. In rural or traditional areas, all the land is owned by the Clan or the Temple and is allocated out on the basis of need and reward. Those favoured by the clan will get the best land, those out of favour will get the marginal land. Sometimes, the land is owned by bloodlines rather than clans, but the principles are the same, the different families in the bloodline are allocated sections of land. In Clan-based towns and cities, it will be similar, with most of the land held by organisations and allocated out. So, a building might be owned by one clan and apartments allocated to families from that clan, or a Guild might own a building and allocate rooms to craftsfolk to use. In cities, instead of bloodlines, families might own land, but they are effectively the same anyway. Private ownership of land can be tricky.Are you given usage of the land until you die? Does this carry down to your descendants? What is the difference between permanently having usage of the land or owning it? Can such title be transferred to someone else? I think that is the difference between being permanently allocated land and owning it, you can transfer the title to someone else if you own it. Although Glorantha has a tithe for every cultist, it does not seem to have much in the way of taxation. nowadays, we assume that tax is an individual burden, with each person paying their own tax, but historically that wasn't always the case. Landowners would be taxed and they would then raise their own levy on their tenants, to pay the overall tax. So, Tax Collectors would come to a clan and demand 10% of the Clan yield and the Clan would ask its members to pay something towards that. Owners of land would be thus liable for taxation.
  14. Unfortunately, that's what appears to have happened. They may have had several people looking at it, but not someone who is really picky about rules. Fortunately, we have many such people on this forum, myself included!
  15. One thing that the rules don't have is values for other problems. So, for example, there is no Harvest modifier for Disease, Drought, Flood and so on. I have a section on the Sacred Time economy in Secrets of Dorastor, so might add the following: Event Light Moderate Severe Raid -10% -20% -40% Drought -10% -20% -30% Flood -10% -15% -20% Disease -10% -20% -30% Cattle Raiding +10% +10% +10% Rustling +10% +10% +10% The Cattle Raiding and Rustling Bonuses are when you do it to other Clans. When it happens to you, it counts as a Light Raid. Disease can be mitigated by using Sunripen or sacrificing to Mallia, Floods and Droughts can be mitigated by using extensive irrigation, as the canals can be used to drain away floodwater more easily.
  16. Sun County describes farms with a little white stone marking each farm, these are sacred to Ernalda. I would think that these allow the land to be included in one big casting of Bless Crops, so the Priestess can bless all marked hides of land in one go. Ideally, I would like a way for multiple Ernaldan cultists to pool their Bless Crops so they can cast them together, perhaps using some kind of Ritual. In RQ2/RQ3 you would just use Mindlink, but Mindlink no longer exists. That way, a Clan with a powerful Ernalda Temple could cover all the clan lands at once. In Sun County, the Ernalda temple covers the whole of Sun County in one big spell casting. Assuming they do any healing at all (which they normally would), likely including a herbal garden. They would definitely have some land to support the temple. A herb garden makes a lot of sense, especially one with healing herbs. To a certain extent, it doesn't matter that much. a really good farmer without Bless crops will be as effective as a mediocre Farmer with Bless Crops, but a really good Farmer with Bless Crops might get better Income from a single Hide. The best you'll get is to double the Income, no matter what the Bless Crops used, so there is kind-of a limit there. No, the difference is that a good farmer with Bless Crops has, on average, a better yield so has a higher average Income, due to Specials and Criticals. But the major difference is between having a lower skill and failing fairly often or a higher skill and usually succeeding.
  17. Don't worry, Secrets of Dorastor has more men than women warriors, not particularly by design. There is a Scorpion Queen, a Water Nymph, several daughters of Doasta, a very dainty Unicorn Rider and the Mistress of Light, Guardian of the Fires of Heaven, who is a proper hard Vampiress Angel. The men are probably more dangerous though, both as Horrors and as normal encounters.
  18. Also, the difference between using Bless Crops and not using it isn't that much for a single Hide. It gets really useful when you have multiple Hides, as each one is increased to around 150% of the normal Income.
  19. Yes, sorry, I was ignoring the first point.
  20. Bless Crops is stackable. However, I would say that any piece of land only benefits from one casting.
  21. That's how we do it in our currently-stalled Dark Ages game. Players can use the Background or Profession as a Trait, as well as their One Unique Thing and so on. It can be a bit confusing, as they are written in different places on the Character sheet and don't link to a skill.
  22. Ok, even better. We cast Bless crops 10 on 1 Hide of land. This gives a +200 to our Income skill of 50%. On a Really Bad Year without Bless Crops, you are likely to have a -60/-30/0 Income, equating to 5%/20%/50%, with an income of 41L/48L/63L, but with Bless Crops it becomes 190%/220%/250% and an income of approximately 95L/98L/101L. On a Really Good Year without Bless Crops, you are likely to have a 0/+30/+75 Income, equating to 50%/80%/125% and an income of 64L/80L/90L, but with Bless Crops it becomes 250%/280%/325% and an income of approximately 101L/104L/108L. So, the difference between a Really Bad Year with no Bless Crops and a Really Bad Year with Bless Crops is just over 50L. The difference between a Really Bad Year without Bless Crops and a Really Good Year with Bless Crops is between 45L and 60L. So, really, just having 1 Hide means that using Bless Crops gives you a bit more, but not much. I have attached the spreadsheet that I used to work out the average values. SacredTimeIncome.xlsx
  23. So, looking at a couple of scenarios and apologies for a long and detailed post. Please correct me if my figures are way out. Really Bad Year: Previous Years Omens: Cursed -25 to Harvest Roll. Invasion: -40 Harvest. Previous Harvest: Famine -10 Harvest. This gives a -75 Harvest, so the possible results are: 01-85 Famine, 86-95 Bad, 96-100 Good. There is a bug in the table, where it has 95 twice. So, in all likelihood, we are going to get Famine (-60 Income), but have a chance of Bad (-30 Income) or good (No change to Income). As we have a +100 Income, that really equates to Famine +40, Bad +70 or Good +100. The Bless Crops gives +100 to Income. So, let's assume the Adventurer has the Farm skill, they get Farm + 40 for Famine, Farm +60 for Bad and Farm +100 for Good. For the other Hides, they get Manage Household + 40 for Famine, Manage Household +60 for Bad and Manage Household +100 for Good. Assuming a middling skill, this equates to a chance of 90/110/150, which gives a good chance of succeeding. Really Good Year: Previous Years Omens: Blessed +20 to Harvest Roll. No Raids no effect on Harvest. Previous Harvest: Superlative +15 Harvest. This gives a +35 Harvest, so the possible results are: 01-25 Good, 26-60 Excellent (+30), 61-100 Superlative (+75). So, for a Good Harvest we are on +100 Income, for Excellent +130 and for Superlative + 175, which for our 50% skill gives us Good 150%, Excellent 180% and Superlative 225%. Again, this gives a good chance of succeeding and an improved chance of getting a special or critical. In practice, what it means is that an Adventurer is likely to get a full income for hides, rather than a half income. Bear in mind that every extra hide has income shared between Adventurer and Tenant. Assuming a farmer with Farm (80L for the first Hide and 40L for other Hides). On a Really Bad Year without Bless Crops, you are likely to have a -60/-30/0 Income, equating to 5%/20%/50%, with an income of perhaps 80L/100L/160L, but with Bless Crops it becomes 90%/120%/150% and an income of approximately 240+L/240+L/240+L. On a Really Good Year with Bless Crops, you are likely to have a 0/+30/+75 Income, equating to 50%/80%/125% and an income of 160L/220L/240+L, but with Bless Crops it becomes 150%/180%/225% and an income of approximately 240+L/240+L/240+L. So, on a Really Bad Year, the difference is between an income of 80L-160L or over 240L, representing an increase of 80L-160L. On a Really Good Year, the difference is an income of 160L-240+L or 240+L. Specials and Criticals make a bit of difference, obviously, but they particularly affect the higher skills, so further increase the benefits of Bless Crops. So, what does this mean? Casting Bless Crops 10 on a 5 hide estate effective triples income on a Really Bad Year but just moves it up slightly on a Really Good Year. It effectively makes a Really Bad Year the equivalent of a Really Good Year. Assuming a Free farmer for the original hide and a Poor farmer for the others, the Cost of Living deductions are 60L + 4x15L or 120L in total. so, with Tithes taken into account, an unsupported Really Bad Year means you cannot pay your people enough to maintain their standard of Living, so they presumably drop one level. Using Bless Crops means that even a Really Bad Year means that their is a surplus.
  24. Some people say that is routine, but I would say it is extra. That way, those areas with a higher number of cultists with Bless Crops get more benefits. So, the first point adds +20 to the occupation skill rating for Sacred Time calculations, then any extra points used in addition to expanding the number of hides give +20 to the Income roll. Interestingly, this applies to the Income Roll, not the Harvest Roll. To me, it would make sense for this to affect the Harvest Roll (Actually, working through the example, it doesn't). As a GM, I would say this needs to be cast on the High Holy Day of the cult, or on a Holy Day, with the land only benefiting from one casting. So, if your stead has 5 hides of land, casting Bless Crops 5 gives a +20 to your skill at sacred Time. Casting Bless Crops 10 gives you +20 to your skill and +100 to the income. For a single Initiate, having 10 Rune Points is quite an investment.
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