Category: Tools

Link Your Gloranthan Character with Gloranthan History

One of the easiest ways to get your players tied to the Gloranthan background is to have them read one of the fabulous “What My Father Told Me” about their Gloranthan culture and one of the “What Everyone Knows About XXX” – for example this for Afadjann in Fonrit. Some of them are linked here. One could also ask the players to read Cults of Prax or even parts of Guide to Glorantha but that might be asking a lot of them.

Here is a new way of integrating character to Gloranthan history and environment. It uses the information in Gloranthan Timelines where the historical events of Glorantha are tied to generations of family.

Here is an example of the links produced.

Our History in Dragon Pass – My GreatGrandPa: In 1538 at Dragon Pass my GreatGrandFather was part of Palashee Longaxe Rebellion and overthrow of Lunars 

Our History in DragonPass – GrandPa: In 1569 at Dragon Pass my GrandFather was in the camp Jarosar, king of Sartar killed by Lunar spirits

Our History in Dragon Pass – My Parents: In 1605 at Holy Country my Father was fighting as a mercenary when Building Wall Battle thwarts invasion of the Lunar Empire into the Holy Country. 

Our History in Dragon Pass – My Time: In 1613 at Dragon Pass member of my family (me or my sibling or my cousin) fought for freedom in Starbrow’s Rebellion- Outraged by Lunar presence and urged by social unrest – Sartarites rebelled in force and temporarily expelled the Lunar Army. Lunars regrouped and defeated the rebels 

It contains all of the historical dates published in Guide to Glorantha, Wyrms Footnotes and couple of other publications. It ties them down to what the family member of that generation was doing on that event. This very first version only have the paternal ancestors, next one will contain also maternal ancestors and more variation. Currently it only tackles Dragon Pass and the immediate surroundings but eventually will return to my current favorite area Fonrit.

Background generation generates also parent, sibling and extended family information in addition to connections and family reputation all generated according to Mythras/Rq6. In addition it also generates generic background events.

You can generate all of this by using an Encounter Generator party called

You will also find that the Pregenerated Characters for your games contain this information either for all or some generations.

 

 

 

Pregenerated Characters for One Off Mythras Scenarios – Standard Barbarians

There are situations where you need quickly either many or a single pre generated character. You might be running a one off and do not want to spend any time for creating the characters. There might have been a very nice total party kill early in the game night and players want to still continue. There might have been even an unlucky character death in the middle of the evening. In all these cases you just want to get back to the railroad.

Encounter Generator solves this neatly for Mythras and old RQ6. Here is a first quickie fix for the problem. Here is a pregenerated characters party that can be used both in Sartar or Prax or even non Gloranthan environment. Characters are at novice level. Generation follows majority of the steps included in the chargen – cultures, careers, appropriate weapons for three different professions that seem to be universal.

Here are all of them in a pack

All of these could be easily used also in non Gloranthan settings by changing the language names and shield names. In case of combat styles – just change the names. If you want to allow only one combat trait for a character – select one of those.

Later on I will publish more pregens for other professions and civilizations.

Here is a link to the Charts that the GM might need and the way Encounter Generator can be used to support game night.  If you need a tavern to let the group meet – here are several. Markets are just nearby.

 

Mythras (and old RQ6) Magic Situational Modifiers

In the hunt for the perfect GM reference material and GM Screen I created reference sheet for spell caster for Magic Situational Modifiers. This gathers all the modifiers for all the forms of Magic into one place. Some of the modifiers are optional – for example wearing armor iron in Glorantha, Monster Island options for orchestrated casting and sympathetic armor.

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As always comments are welcome. The file is available here and of course also in the RQ6/Mythras charts page which collects all the charts I have made available (Combat flow, offensive and defensive special effects, healing and wounds, diminish effects, weapons, shields and passive blocking, close and ranged combat situational modifiers, movement and swimming effects, encumbrance calculator, sorcery tools and Gloranthan ships).

GM’s might also find the RQ/Mythras Encounter Generator useful

Sorcery Tool for Mythras (and friends) updated

Sorcery tool described here has been updated based on user feedback.

The new version of the tool (1.1) contains both the standard durations for spells and the optional long durations. You select as per your GM’s choice using the campaing duration rules field.

The unenchanted iron version is a house rule that is now explained.

The new version can be downloaded from the same location than before in Sorcery Tool for Mythras (and friends like RQ6).

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There are other charts available for RQ6 and Mythras here. RQ and Mythras Encounter generator is found here

Sorcery Tool for Mythras (and friends)

Sorcery in Mythras (and prior to that in RQ6) is one of the most flexible forms of magic. Because it is so flexible it also has a path to mastery for both slightly mathematically challenged and for those mastering the game for others – therefore often busy. I discovered the so called Sorcerors’ Calculus that The Machinerati school of Dark Learners has created to excel rapidly in sorcery. The tool takes into account all the known spell components and the effect of choosing them and prevents the master and apprentice alike from misusing or overreaching both themselves and the laws of magic.

The calculus takes into account how much you can shape the spell components, informs how long the preparation for the spell takes, whether you still have magic points left to do such a complex spell combination. It even can take into account the effect of unenchanted iron that you might wear. It also calculates how much harder the spell is to invoke if you combine spells and readily calculates the reach of the spell and its duration.

There have been many who have exceled with ease using this secret calculus – it is of course desired by the crowds and despised by the masters of sorcery mathematics. There are those who having acquired the Mythras Combat Cards have started to yearn for sorcery cards.

Any feedback is welcome – as gremlins might have installed bugs in the system. 2016-09-03_14-46-31.png

The Sorceror’s Calculus in Excel format is here

More tools and charts for Mythras (and RQ6)

 

Encumbrance Calculator and Equipment List for Mythras

For the longest time I have wanted to make it easier to handle equipment and encumbrance in RQ6 and Mythras.

List of what the character carries can sometimes be longish but it usually contains standard items that exist in the rulebooks.

Encumbrance affects character’s movement speed – which will usually determine whether he can getaway once Sorceress and her minions find out that he has been looting the treasure chest. It also affects all STR and DEX related skills negatively.

Here is an Excel spreadsheet where character can easily mark all the equipment that they either wear or carry in their backpack. Spreadsheet calculates the effect on move and skills either with backpack on or not. Spreadsheet can be printed out and added to character sheet and it can be filed away to be added to later on. Excel has in it all the armor types derived from Mythras Full Edition and Monster Island.

One can easily filter with standard excel features to see only the items that character carries or is interested in. Example Encumbrance Calculator

Other useful charts are available here

Combat Special Effects updated for Mythras Full Edition

 

Mythras full edition has been launched a short while ago. It brings quite a few new special effects with it and also small changes from Mythras Imperative. These will be nice additions to already very smooth and tactical play of Runequest 6.

The game play will be even more interesting with the new Prepare Counter, Remise, Marksman, Pin Down, Drop Foe, Overpenetration and Scar Foe. There are others as well. The new combat cards look to be a cool way to handle the multitude of special effect.

Pay attention to Regain Footing action change as well. Spirit combat looks to be more interesting – have to dive down to that one.

Here are the Special Effect GM Screens updated for Mythras Full edition.  Only the portrait versions have been updated for now.

All the charts are available here. Old ones will remain available here

 

 

Combat Special Effects – Mythras Update

The combat special effects for offensive and defensive have been updated to V1.3. This now contains all the effects from Mythras Imperative and the ones from RQ6 updated to Mythras Imperative way of working. Some tweaks to existing ones have been added. Added also house rule for Shift Location that seems to be popular. Mythras Imperative contains really neat Prepare Counter Special Effect that I cannot wait to start using.

Here is the portrait mode for Offensive Special Effects and here the same for Defensive Special Effects. 

This has also been updated to RQ6 Charts and Tables page

Trade and Markets in Glorantha

What are the things available in the market – local produce of course, groceries, poultry, meat of local kinds. Guide to Glorantha gives background to import and export of the goods. This can give some flavor to your market. I took the data from Guide to Glorantha and used it to create local market availability of goods. The system is as follows:

  • anything the area is known to export is available locally in the market as well
  • anything the area is known to import is available from all the markets that export it
    • artifacts, silk and iron are rare in all the markets.
    • article is common if it is available from nearby region
    • article is rare if it comes from non nearby region OR has to cross ocean
    • rarity could be used as price modifier (for example 30-50-100% more price) as it is exotic and might be considered be of better quality to be worth to transport from far reaches of lozenge
    • rare goods (and even some of the common ones) might not be available and might be also subject to seasonal fluctuation (for example riding beasts, herbs and spices)

Created first markets for Umathela, Fonrit, Nochet, Dragon Pass and Pavis. Others will follow if there seems to be demand.

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Here are some markets created with RQ Encounter Generator that contain above items as trade goods.

In the future more exploration about what you might see in the trading routes as some goods need to pass areas which have no demand for them.

Other useful links might be

The Sea, The Sea – Gloranthan Ships for RQ6

Glorantha has inspired a largish variety of ships and maritime vessels over time. Most of the sources are out of print, out of date or incomplete. Some of them are not even canon anymore. I decided to gather all of the ships and maritime vessels that have been published and update them to the latest of the ship rules – the gem of a rulebook called Ships & Shieldwalls for RQ6.

Here are the ships The list contains also the physical size information about the ships that has been gathered from all the source material or extrapolated from other ships.

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The full list is here

  • Raft, Small
  • Kayak
  • Dugout
  • Rowing Boat
  • War Canoe
  • Small Fishing Boat or Ski
  • Raft, Large
  • Reed Galley
  • River Transport
  • Viking Longboat
  • Small Merchantman/Cog
  • Small Galley
  • Medium Merchantman
  • Bireme
  • Trireme
  • Large Merchantman
  • Hexareme
  • Grain Transport
  • Kareeshtu Warsail
  • Dwarf Floating Castle
  • Elf Gallegas
  • Knorr
  • Kobaya Support Ship
  • Large Cog
  • Maslo Catamaran
  • Seki-Bune Pirateship
  • Waertagi Fastship
  • Xebec
  • Wolf Pirate Penteconter
  • Kralori Barge
  • Black Galley – troll rowed
  • Black Galley – trollkin rowed
  • Black War Galley – Zorak Zoran
  • Haragalan Tallship (New)
  • Haragalan Tallship (Old)
  • Haragalan Tallship (Very Old)
  • Dragonewt Skeletal Ship
  • Submersible Sharkboat
  • Luvatan Merchant
  • Ratuki Requiem Galley
  • Haragalan Merchant
  • Dhow- small
  • Dromond
  • Fonritian Sambuk
  • Dwarven Submarine
  • Vadeli Merchant Ship
  • Duck Patrol Boat

Feedback welcome.