CHA4028 RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – Chapter 09 Passions & Reputation Q&A

Official Answers by Chaosium

This covers Chapter 09, pages 232-241:

Contents

Basic Passions (page 233)

Devotion (deity) (page 233)

Examples of Devotion (deity)

Devotion (deity) is described in RQG page 26 and page 233; but I think there’s only one example of a use in play (regarding insults to a character’s deity). Any good examples of what character actions may result in checks in Devotion? Doing what the cult’s favored Passions describe? Getting to 90% in Devotion requires a lot of seasonal checks. [Edit: I guess using Devotion as an augment quite often …]

The gamemaster might call for a check on Devotion when an adventurer doesn’t respond to something their god/cult favors:

An Ernaldan ignoring something despoiling the earth
A Babeester Gor cultist ignoring a call for vengeance
A Chalana Arroy cultist ignoring the wounded or sick
An Issaries priest failing to do something about a threat to free trade
A Lhankor Mhy scholar turning away from the pursuit of truth, or allowing knowledge to be destroyed

More positive examples might be:

An Odayla hunter getting the chance to encounter (and perhaps defend) bears in the wild
An Orlanthi building a temple in the mountaintops
Helping expand the reach of the Seven Mothers cult
A Storm Bull resisting the chance to settle a conflict peaceably and instead hulking out

For an inspiration, it basically it boils down to Is this action in line with my cult’s beliefs and based on my own devotion?

Hate (Group or Individual) (page 233)

Hate (Homeland) Clarification

Just to make absolutely sure: If the Passion is Hate, the object of the hate is always the people of the homeland, not the homeland itself (so Hate (Esrolians) not Hate (Esrolia), but Loyalty is always to the Homeland (so Loyalty (Esrolia)). But if it is the Lunar Empire, your Passion is always (Lunar Empire), even with Hate (Lunar Empire)?

That’s the general rule, yes. The Empire itself is a political entity that occupies many countries, so you’d hate it just like you’d Hate (Republican Party) or Hate (ISIS).

Loyalty (City, Clan, Tribe, or Temple) (page 234)

Using Loyalty to Augment Combat

Can Loyalty (City, Clan, Tribe, or Temple) be used to augment your fighting skills if you are fighting side by side with members of the same city, clan, tribe, cult, even if you’re just adventuring around, and not actively working on a mission for that organization?

Given that when using Passions:

a player may suggest and request one, with the gamemaster’s approval. Remember that the gamemaster has the final say on the appropriateness of attempting to use a Passion for inspiration. .
Using Passions, page 236

and that

Loyalty is the cornerstone of all of society beyond the family. It is the social bond which members of a community feel for each other. It is the prerequisite to be able to call upon that community for support.
Loyalty, page 234.

If the GM feels that the players description of the use of the loyalty passion is appropropriate for the situation at the table, then yes.

Using Passions (page 236)

Clarification

All augments as a combined table:

Augmenting with Passions, Runes, and Skills

	Result	Experience check?
Critical	Add +50% to the ability	Yes
Special	Add +30% to the ability	Yes
Success	Add +20% to the ability	Yes
Failure	Passion: Adventurer is despondent. Subtract –10% from all further rolls	No
	Rune: Adventurer is despondent. Subtract –20% from all further rolls using that Rune	No
	Skill: Subtract –10% from the desired ability for the roll intended.	No
Fumble	Passion: Adventurer is distraught or wracked with psychic turmoil. Adventurer is incapable of doing anything other than retreating or hiding. Roll on Despair table to determine duration.	Immediately subtract –1D10% from the Passion
	Rune: Adventurer cannot use Rune, that Rune’s magic, or even act in its accordance. Roll on Psychic Turmoil table to determine duration.	Immediately subtract –1D10% from the or Rune.
	Skill: Subtract –50% from the desired ability for the roll intended.	No

Can you have a Passion and an Rune augment simultaneously in a given scene for separate abilities that aren’t already augmented?

It depends on the gamemaster and circumstances.

Using a Passion or Rune to augment an ability represents invoking a spiritual or emotional response to push past one’s limits with an attempted action, so it’s generally a bit awkward to have a character go from that and then turn on a dime from one augment to another.

Gaining a Passion (page 236)

Loyalty Awards

If you get a Passion award that raises your Loyalty by 30%. If you didn’t have that specific Passion earlier, what will your Loyalty be now?

If you already had a loyalty passion to the individual from other events, perhaps through other encounters, it would likely already be at 60%, so you would add the 30% directly, otherwise use the guidance on page 236-237. If you wish to even take the loyalty, it could range anywhere between 60 and 90%. Review the adventurer’s relationship and interactions with the individual and make the decision from there.

Remember that Loyalty (individual), is also used to gain the personal support of that individual.

Mandatory Rolls (page 237)

Vasana example (page 237)

Replace the entire example

Example: Vasana has a Hate (Lunar Empire) Passion at 90%. When joining Biturian Varosh’s caravan as one of its guards, this is put to the test when she realizes that Vostor, one of the other guards, is a former Lunar soldier and an initiate of the Chaos-loving Seven Mothers.

Her Hate would naturally make her want to distrust and possibly even attack the mercenary, but she has also sworn fealty to Biturian during the term of her employment, and thus Vasana’s player decides that her Honor 90% is the relevant Passion to oppose her Hate (Lunar Empire). She rolls a 06 for Honor, a special success, and a 41, a normal success for her Hate. As the special success is superior to the normal success, the gamemaster announces that Vasana’s Honor overrides all—she would sooner die than break an oath she swore. Furthermore, the gamemaster determines that Vasana is not only willing to accept the newcomer, she is intrigued by him.

She asks how Vostor came to be one of Biturian’s guards. He tell how his Honor and Loyalty to his commander was challenged when a new regime within the empire took hold of the army. Faced with imprisonment or assassination, he looked to Seven Mothers teachings and deserted to seek his own path in the world.
Vasana decides that this is good enough, though others in the caravan find it an odd situation.

Passions, Q&A, Reputation

Page Last updated: 2025-04-17 13:52:49