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Julian Lord

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About Julian Lord

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    Senior Member


  • RPG Biography
    De Immod
  • Current games
    too much out of the loop really for anything except DDO
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    I'm one of those pesky Camino "True Pilgrims" -- it's a real life HeroQuest experience done right, and for my sins, I did

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  1. The two major shapeshifting gods in the Orlanthi pantheon are Eurmal and Heler -- but whereas Eurmali tricksters as player characters can shapeshift fairly easily, it's a rare power among Heler worshippers, and where it's possible it could be limited in many cases to which particular form of Heler (cat, hawk, ram, blue woman, etc) that your particular subcult is devoted to. Another difference is that trickster changes shape and then back again fairly easily (except when he tricks himself of course), whereas in Heler's myths he usually changes and then stays that way. There are bound to be a small number of more specialist Heler shapeshifters in Glorantha, so I guess your player's character could be one of those if you really wanted -- though personally I'd limit the ability to whatever is mythically appropriate, so mainly various animal forms rather than say being able to shapeshift into a hatstand or whatever. Other than that, I suppose that there might be a certain rare type of Illusion Sorcery that might let someone do this ? The fact that the player is running a Sartari nobleman does somewhat complicate matters of course ... He's a Helering Rune Master. The Heler cult is fairly different in Maniria than in Sartar, it's the major cult for several of the more inland Manirian clans. FWIW I did do that short "Blue Lion" write up in an old issue of the Tradetalk fanzine, and though it didn't mention Greymane, I did have him in mind when I wrote it. Good points about the Odayla cult BTW.
  2. Love your avatar Qizilbashwoman -- and both of Sfar's drawings. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd guess that Sfar may be a bit of a Moomintrolls fan as well ...
  3. I dunno about others, but IMG I always treated Elmal and his worshippers basically as being some weirdos in their strange tiny clans up in the hills. Oh, and some of them in the Pol Joni, but they're weirdos anyway. I could never work out how to put Elmal worshippers anywhere except in the fringes, as it's abundantly clear from all of the published sources that of the two of them, Yelmalio is clearly dominant in Sartar proper.
  4. Seseine is this or that, but in my experience, honest Uleria stories are a total minefield and very difficult to get done right. Then even when done right, they tend to be overtly disturbing and destructive. It is easy to say that Uleria is the only living member of the Celestial Court -- but the consequences from that fact are massively irrational. I *think* I'm the only person ever to have seriously attempted a full long-form and formally accurate Uleria cult write-up -- though maybe Greg did too, once ? -- but once you reach any degree of meaningful insight into Uleria, such a write-up stops being possible. Closest I ever got was a text that Greg actively hated, The Glorious ReAscent of Dayzatar's Toe, which is in an issue of the old fanzine Tradetalk -- but writing it led me to understand that any prospect of a Uleria write-up was a bottomless well of, well, everything. I do remain very impressed that Greg still managed to write a perfectly good Eurmal cult text.
  5. Maybe some games are marketed in that manner during development, but in whatever experience I have here, stuff is only rarely communicated about when it's still at the Alpha stage (or earlier) ; and when so, and it's exceptional, it's very often because the developers and other creators find that feedback from the public & target audience at such an early stage would be helpful in those particular individual circumstances and for that particular title -- which very often will not at all be the case, sometimes not even from private NDA-protected select focus groups, and such feedback can even be detrimental as a time-waster. Some games also require far more extensive playtesting than others, so that the marketing cycle will start earlier for such games compared to some others where a shorter and more internal cycle of testing may suffice. Point is, all things are not equal in the world of games development, and it's very mistaken to suppose that they should be.
  6. Most of the SuperRuneQuest stuff exists in the form of some only very partially formalised house rules, nowhere near publishable or even semi-publishable as such. Mine too. One of the better criticisms of it is that it's "RuneQuest with bigger numbers" (so implicitly, what's the point ?) But the basic counterpoint is that RuneQuest (unlike say CoC) is theoretically an open-ended gaming system, where skill % numbers in the 300s or 400s plus are supposedly achievable, and so on. But the rules system tends to break down up there ; hence various flawed attempts at patch jobs over the years, collectively referred to as SuperRuneQuest. I've personally found that the square that's hardest to circle is the necessity IMO (elegance and design -wise) that RQ and SRQ should not theoretically nor mechanically contradict one another ; else you'll just end up creating a different BRP/d100 game related to RuneQuest, but different to and non-compatible with it. So implicitly, again what's the point ? If RQ and SRQ characters can't interact with each other seamlessly, then your SRQ rules need fixing. That's my opinion anyway ...
  7. Sure, but my issue with it isn't there, it's in the focus that your downtime stuff is suggesting. Calling the entire variety of "normal stuff" that a character can get up to during "downtime" at home just "occupation" IMO does not encourage roleplaying possibilities, but it encourages at least to some extent (though of course I don't know your players personally) playing your character sheet instead. I just think that as much as possible should be described in "real" terms, as little as possible in game mechanics ones (though these are very important too of course). If you like, the "downtime" should IMO do as much as possible to serve as a portrayal of the ordinary daily life of the characters when they're not in a Quest ; including the possibility of dedicating time to self-improvement, but I'd view the consequences of doing so aggressively, as in real life, as increasing social isolation with all the negatives to one's clan, religious, & family life that would ensue.
  8. I'd add a few things like Farming, Family Business, Working for the Clan, Fyrd duty, and so on ; to put less of a focus on the more obvious character stat & skill improvement stuff.
  9. You mean as Yemalio Rune Magic rather than as a spell from Yelm as an associated cult ? Interesting.
  10. It's fairly standard to suggest that Magic and Miracles intrinsically violate causality, so I'm not sure that it can even exist in Glorantha, where Myth and Magic define everything.
  11. Great question, and the answer is yes !! (though I think you mean cults rather than religions) Gloranthan fake priests typically siphon the magical sacrifices for their own benefit alone -- offhand I can't thinlk of any published example except the Vivamort cult, but I'd imagine there are others. A fairly marginal question anyway, as the Gods of Glorantha do not act in secret.
  12. Just as long as we refrain from turning it into the worst bits of the old Glorantha Digest list ...
  13. I should soon start to have enough filthy lucre to get physical copies of the current RuneQuest / Glorantha books into my fingers -- I would in any case have made a ritual sacrifice of some portion of food money for the RQ book, but a probable incoming upturn in fortune should likely make things easier again -- at last !!! Getting my hands on a copy of the Guide to Glorantha will be particularly sweet, for a while it's been the only major Gloranthan source book that I've lacked physical ownership of. And heck who knows -- maybe at some point down the line I'll feel strong enough for one of the French or German Cons (last Con I attended was a disaster for me because my enduring state of illness commenced that very weekend) ; I'd like that, but health permitting and &c. ; and even though it will undoubtedly feel weird there without Greg, many other people there are I would like to see again.
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