CHA4028 RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – Chapter 18 Between Adventures Q&A

Official Answers by Chaosium

This covers Chapter 18, pages 414-427:

Contents

    See also

    Experience (page 415)

    Experience & Animals

    Can animals gain an experience check from an adventure or training i.e. herd Alynx, war dogs, cavalry horses, riding horses etc?

    Most of this is subsumed into the relevant adventurer skill, but yes if you train them. Your GM may wish to rule that they get experience rolls too. 

    Experience & Spirits

    Can bound spirits or allied spirits?

    Bound spirits, skills, and only a 5% POW gain roll if they receive a POW check through normal means per:

    Quote

    Disembodied spirits can increase their POW by successful use of it, but their POW gain roll is only 5%.

    RQB, page 154.

    Embodied spirits like Allied spirits in animals, can improve skills by experience where appropriate and have a normal POW gain chance if they receive a POW check through normal means.

    This is also an MGF question too. If a player has an investment in an animal of some kind that is part of their everyday world then yes of course, play them as a full adventurer. It’s Bert the entertainer and his swearing parrot vs I have a pet mouse in my pocket.

    Making an Experience Roll (page 415)
    Change
    Part of Second printing corrections

    Third paragraph, second sentence modified to “A modified roll of 100 or more is always a success…”

    Correction

    Vostor‘s player looks at the abilities he checked and begins to make experience rolls.

    Exceeding 100% in an Ability (page 416)
    Add
    Correction

    Further, if the adventurer has a negative skills category modifier, they cannot improve much beyond 100% in any of the skills within that category without extraordinary effort, though a result of 100 (before the skills category modifier) always merits improvement.

    100% or 101%

    Does a modified experience roll of exactly 100 result in an increase?

    p415 “Making an Experience Roll” says “A modified roll over 100 is always a success”.

    p416 “Exceeding 100% in an Ability” says “A result of 100 or higher is always successful”.

    Yes. 100 or over is a success.

    Experience Between Adventures (page 416)
    Change
    Correction

    Harmast’s player looks at his occupational and cult skills and picks the following: Bargain, Worship (Issaries), Manage Household, and Orate. He can make experience rolls for each of these as if he had used the skills successfully during an adventure.

    Clarification

    “At the end of each season, an adventurer can select up to four occupational skills and cult skills to get an experience check.”

    I assume that’s a total of 4 skills from both occupational skills and cult skills, and not 4 of each?

    yes. See the example.

    Training (page 416)

    Change
    Correction

    To have a chance at improving a skill through training,

    Her player updates her adventurer sheet accordingly.

    Clarification
    Quote

    To have a chance at improving a skill though training, an adventurer must train with an instructor for an entire season, and can do little else.

    Training, page 416

    To clarify:

    • An adventurer may train a single skill with an instructor per season OR research a single skill
    • This still allows three weeks adventuring.
    • This still allows your your normal occupation and community roles. The adventurer still receives Experience Between Adventures (page 416).
    • The adventurer is now “Fully Booked” and can do no more, or Sacred Time roles will be penalised in Additional Penalties to the Occupation Income Roll (page 422).

    Full time training

    How would you handle a character training full time instead of working? 5 skill increases per season and allow skill increases in lores too?

    Jeff Richard says

    I will defer to individual GMs how to handle that in their campaigns. In my campaigns, the idea of “training full time” just isn’t plausible. All characters have cult responsibilities, occupational roles, community obligations, etc. Even if you were living in a Humakt temple as some kind of devoted initiate, you need to eat, sleep, worship the god, pray and meditate more than persuade a Sword Lord to train you. In a Knowledge Temple, you are going to be copying scrolls, writing down records, and working as a scribe. And so on.

    Once upon a time, Greg and I played around with breaking down the percentage of time a character can devote to any type of activity – working, cult responsibilities, family obligations, praying and meditation, dreaming, sex, whatever. It was an interesting exercise but waaaaaaay too much book-keeping for a game system. What is in RQG gets you to more or less the same result without the bookkeeping.

    Paying for Training (page 416)
    Change
    typo

    As a student’s skill improves, they require more attention from their teacher, and the cost of training increases.

    Increasing Characteristics (page 417)

    Increasing POW Through Spell Use or Spirit Combat (page 418)
    Change
    Correction

    If an adventurer wins a round of spirit combat or has a successful POW vs. POW resistance roll, POW can be increased.

    Increasing POW with Worship Rituals (page 418)
    Worship with no Rune Level
    Quote

    The Worship skill allows a cult member to participate in a Worship ritual to the deity specified. If the Worship ritual is held in a temple, holy place, or sanctified ground on a holy day of the god, the presiding officials (High Priest, Rune Priest, God-talker, etc.) receive a POW gain roll if they succeed with their Worship skill.

    Increasing POW with Worship Rituals, page 418

    Do Initiates that have no priest etc available have the right to lead a worship service and gain a power roll? On a Seasonal Holy Day. Like at Apple Lane at the Temple of all Deities.

    As initiates, they do not receive a POW gain roll, High Priests, Rune
    Priests, and God-talkers only.

    How many POW checks per Year?

    Does an initiate gets one or two POW rolls yearly. Is it one for (HHD + Sacred Time), or one each for HHD and Sacred Time?

    An initiate can have one POW gain roll per season, counting sacred time as a season thats 6 maximum. Each season they qualify for a check if:

    • Successful spell or spirit combat use
    • Attending High Holy Day Worship rituals and/or sacred time rituals
    • Leading Holy Day Worship rituals.
    • Training

    Once you receive a check, check your POW box. If it’s already checked you can’t check it again. If you have a HHD in sacred time and attend it, you check the box. You can’t check it again as it’s already checked in that season.

    I think POW gain rolls need clarification. There is a place on the character sheet for POW Checks but there does not seem to be any POW Checks in the rulebook. The only mention I could find for POW experience checks is in the Battle Results Table (page 176). The example for it, though, says that Vostor gets a ‘POW Gain Roll’ for his special success in Battle. Are there POW checks in RQ:G or just POW Gain Rolls? I think there are supposed to be

    See below.

    When do you get a POW Gain Roll for worship? The description of worship on page 184 says “A successful use of the Worship roll allows…and even attempt a POW gain roll.”, which I understand to mean the you make a POW gain roll each time you worship. On page 275, it says “Initiates…get an annual POW gain roll by participating in holy day and Sacred Time ceremonies as described…on page 315.” (Page 315 does not include anything about when worship gives you a POW gain roll).  This says that you get “an annual POW gain roll” (so once a year) but says you get them when participating in holy day or sacred time ceremonies. For most Cults there’s at least one holy day a season. Does that mean you are you limited to one a POW gain roll a year through worship? page 418 under ‘Increasing POW with Worship Rituals’ says that you get a POW gain roll from High holy days and Sacred Time, so I am not sure if the rule on page 275 is also supposed to read “high holy day” or if this one should read “holy day”.

    See below.

    Can you get multiple POW gain rolls in one combat? page 418 under ‘Increasing POW Through Spell Use or Spirit Combat’ I understand to mean that every successful spirit combat roll and POW vs. POW, gives you a POW gain roll. I assume those are both supposed to be cases where you get POW checks, but if you do get POW gain rolls, could you get multiple in one combat?

    No. As with all experience checks, any after the first are lost. You cannot save them up.

    Page 418 under ‘Making a POW gain roll’ it says that “POW gain rolls are made at the end of a season, as with other experience checks.” This is unclear as I am not sure which of the above rules are supposed to be when you get a POW check and when you are actually supposed to make a POW gain roll. If there are no POW checks, do you also get a POW gain roll at the end of every season?

    Quote

    Mark (tick, cross) the POW box on your Adventurer sheet when:

    In Spell Use or Spirit Combat  you succeed on POW vs POW roll where the chance was less than 95%.

    In a Worship Ritual on a High Holy day or in sacred time when you succeed in a worship roll.

    In a Worship Ritual on a Holy day when you are one of the presiding officials (Rune level) and you succeed in a worship roll.

    You have paid for Training.

    At the end of every season [including Sacred time] if you have managed to check your POW (same as all skills that can be increased by experience), you may attempt a POW gain roll along with your other experience checks.

    POW Increase, page 417

    So there are six opportunities to increase your POW per year.

    The only automatic POW gain is for assistant shaman who get 1 point per year (page 352).

    Remember that when you succeed in your POW gain roll, you have the usual option for a fixed increase of 1 point or D3-1 (possibly 0, 1 or 2 points). I’ve seen many players get the 2 points!

    Your GM may of course modify these rules to suit their game. I have played in many games where the GM has given a free point of POW / an extra POW gain check /extra skill check for extraordinary acts or excellent roleplaying (and will occasionally do it myself).

    Other Characteristic Increase (page 418)

    When rolling for a characteristics increase, are you supposed to compare the current value to the (species’ max roll + min roll) or (max roll + the number of dice rolled + 1 if the characteristic has any addition to it) or to something else? 

    Follow the instructions on page 418.

    This only applies to research as with training the increase needs no roll (see page 418):

    Quote

    If done by research, the player must first roll to determine if the research is successful by adding together the adventurer’s maximum rollable characteristic value (not including any Rune characteristic modifier) plus the minimum rollable characteristic value. For humans, this is always 21.

    Next, subtract the adventurer’s current value for the characteristic being trained from that sum. Multiply the remainder by 5. Attempt to roll that number or less on a D100.

    Other Characteristic Increase, page 418

    A human with a CON (3D6) of 12 (Earth affinity bonus not included). It would be 21-12 = 9 x 5 = roll 45% or less. 

    A duck with CON (2D6+6) of 12 (Earth affinity bonus not included). It would be (Maximum = 18+ minimum = 8 = 26)-12 = 14 x 5 = roll 70% or less.

    A minotaur with STR (3D6+12) of 22 (Air affinity bonus not included). It would be (Maximum = 30+ minimum = 15 = 45)-22 = 23 x 5 = 115, so roll 95% or less.

    Then roll D3-1 per page 418 and hopefully don’t get a 1!

    Please note that generating the roll for characteristic increase does not mention species maximum.

    Example: A minotaur with STR (3D6+12) of 22 (Air affinity bonus not included). It would be (Maximum = 30+ minimum = 15 = 45)-22 = 23 x 5 = 115, so roll 95% or less.

    As a GM you are free to change it to species maximum.

    CHA Increase and Decrease (page 420)
    Change
    Part of Second printing corrections

    Second bullet point changed to “Becoming a Rune Master, or shaman in the course of play or…” (reference to God-talker deleted)

    Sacred Time (page 420)

    How is Sacred Time viewed in terms of being a season, in the context of experience rolls?

    Sacred Time is the sixth season. All accrued experience checks taking place (including POW) at the end of the season as normal. Quote

    Not the usual  adventuring- and profession-derived checks. I mean checks based on the fact that a character makes skill rolls during Sacred Time, such as Worship and their occupation skill to determine yearly income. Would a successful roll in these prompt a box-ticking experience roll?

    Yes.

    If so, would that take place at during Sacred Time,

    Yes.

    or would they carry over to Sea Season.

    No.

    Is the Sacred Time POW gain roll separate from regular seasonal POW gain rolls (assuming you managed to earn one)? Or is your Sacred Time POW gain roll merely resolved at the next end of season in the usual way (i.e. end of Sea Season)? That is, can you get a maximum of 5, or a maximum of 6, POW gain rolls in a year?

    Sacred Time is effectively the sixth season, so six POW gain rolls, that includes one at the end of Sacred Time. 

    Also, does an Initiate get one POW gain roll for each of HHD and Sacred time, or only one (in Sacred Time) for doing both that year? The rules point in different directions.

    You only get to roll for a POW gain roll at the end of a season, so one. You cannot tick your POW more than once per season.

    Sacred Time Example

    Vasana (Orlanth warrior see page 84), 1625 Sacred time:

    1. Worship

    • Roll and makes her worship roll, gets all her Rune points back

    2. Perform Heroquest (if applicable)

    • Not applicable

    3. Determine the Harvest

    Apply Previous Year’s Omens

    • Dragonrise, Ill favoured, –10% to Harvest roll.

    Raids or Invasions

    • Apple Lane was raided by Tusk Riders:
    • Light Raiding: Being raided during a season imposes a –10 penalty to Harvest results.
    • Trolls or Tusk Riders: An additional –10 to Harvest results.

    Previous Harvest

    • Excellent +10 to Harvest roll

    Heroquests

    • None

    Determine Harvest Results

    • Total of all modifiers -10 (-20+10)
    • GM rolls D100 and gets 12, add -10 gives 2! Famine.
    • Income Roll Modifier -60%

    4. Determine Adventurer Income

    Determine Adventurer Income

    • Occupation income table page 416, Vasana is a Warrior and so has to roll her Battle skill of 65%, her player rolls 29, a success and so receives her base income of 60L.
    • The Occupation income table also states for a Warrior, A warrior’s income is not subject to any Harvest result modifiers.
    • Vasana does not lose 60% of her income due to famine.

    Additional Penalties to the Occupation Income Roll

    • Vasana has no penalties

    Pay Cult Tithes

    • Vasana is an initiate of Vinga (Orlanth Aventurous), page 301 Orlanth initiate membership is standard. Per Initiate Duties and Restrictions page 275, Vasana must pay at least 10% of her income to her cult: 10% of 60L = 6L. So 60-6= 54L.

    Paying for Standard of Living

    • The Occupation income table also states for a Warrior, A warrior in the service of another (such as a king or captain) need not pay for their Standard of Living—that is the responsibility of their liege..
    • Vasana is not in the pay of a liege. Her Standard of Living is determined by her occupation of heavy cavalry on page 72, Standard of Living: Free.
    • Free is 60L, so 54L – 60L = -6L. She is short. The player decides that they want to keep the Vasana standard of living at Free, so dips into her loot, and crosses off 6L.

    Manage Household

    • Vasana has no household

    5. Check for Aging (if applicable)

    • Vasana is not old enough to age.

    6. Make Family Rolls (if applicable)

    Marriage

    • Vasana’s player decides that Vasana has married the son of Ma Rotroot after the falling in love with him during the Apple Lane adventure.

    Children

    • Vasana’s player decides that Vasana has not had time to have a child since meeting her husband. so no Children or Child Birth Roll.

    Family Events

    • A roll of 31 reveals that there has been a marriage A roll of 35 reveals that it was her Brother

    7. Omens for Next Year

    • A roll of 10 reveals that next year is cursed for some reason –25 to Harvest roll (Is it that Vasana has married a Varmandi?)

    1. Worship (page 420)

    Change
    Correction

    With a successful Worship roll, all initiates and higher-level members of a cult get a POW gain roll.

    2. Harvest (page 421)

    Raids or Invasions
    Add
    Correction

    The following modifiers are applied to the Harvest results, if an event occurred:

    4. Adventurer Income (page 422)

    Shortage of money at the end of the year

    Adventurers make, in a normal year, just enough to maintain their standard of living. The Warriors make 60L, the noble makes 200L. Then they pay tithes. Then they pay cost of living.  Which means they are ten percent short each average year on what they need to pay Cost of Living and have to dip into reserves. Is that what’s intended?

    Yes. Adventurers should always be looking for means of bettering their financial situation, through adventuring, plundering, gaining or increasing their holdings, doing (paid) service for their clan/tribal leaders, and improving their professional skills to increase their chances of getting critical or special successes when performing their year-end income rolls as described in Determining Adventurer Income (page 422). 

    The rules don’t call it out (or rule it out), but allow players to augment those year-end rolls where and if appropriate.

    Rune Lords and noble standard of living

    How does a rune lord who started as a noble continue to live that life style (with the required income base) AND afford to pay 90% of their income in tithes? There are dependents they need to feed, people they nees to impress, etc and a temple to keep happy.

    Jeff Richard says

    Rune Lords and Rune Priests are supported by their temples – the temple is expected to provide them with the resources they need to maintain their status, their followers, etc. In return, most of what they “make” is to be dedicated to the temple.
    Now in a minor temple this might not seem to make any difference. The local chieftain is in charge of the local Orlanth temple, and so uses the temple’s resources to support his chieftain activities – if he dedicates stuff to the temple, he still controls how it is to be used.
    But in a great temple, there might be dozens of priests, and that temple might possess vast wealth that is under the control of the high priest. Other priests and rune lords need to keep that priestly hierarchy happy if they are to get a better share of the temple’s resources.

    Does every Rune Lord get Noble Standard of Living, as Priests do?

    Is a Noble Wind Lord maintained at a higher Standard of Living than a Warrior Rune Lord (or heavens forfend, a Hunter one)? Or does every Rune Lord get Noble SoL, same as Priests do?

    They are supported by their temples, so they don’t pay standard of living. That’s why they tithe 90% of their income to their temple.

    If your adventurer is a Rune level at Sacred Time, just alter step 4:

    Determine Adventurer Income
    If they have land, Manage Household for each hide
    Pay Cult Tithes: 90% (Ignore hide income)
    Ignore standard of Living
    Then step 5.

    You need to look at how the adventurer fits in with the hierarchy of their cult and base step 4 on that.
    For example a Bearwalker (Odayla Rune Lord), at step 4, is likely the person running the temple, so just needs to roll for (as a hunter) for income at base 40L, Standard of Living, Poor. They tithe the 90% to themselves (they are the temple), their initiates tithe 10% of their income to the temple so just waive the Bearwalker’s 15L Standard of living, you could reasonably say that they can bump their standard of living to Free, if they’ve enough initiates (don’t forget they are teaching them skills and magic).

    Augmenting Occupational Income Rolls

    Is it possible to augment the occupation income roll (RQG p 422) with a skill (ex: augment Craft with Art for a crafter), with a rune (ex: water rune for a fisher), or with a relevant passion ?

    Yes. However, remember the occupation income roll covers the whole year. As a GM I’d want to hear how this augment works over this time span. For a crafter, using Art as an augment is a shift in what they are producing. Who is this new market they are supplying? are they making fewer pieces for more income? Are they needing to source new materials to do this?

    If the skill to be augmented is Manage household, can it be augmented with another skill (ex: augment the Manage household for the tenants of a hide of land with Farm) ?

    The same with Manage household, however the point of manage household is that you don’t need to do the farming. You are managing others to do it. I’d want to hear how an adventurer is their using farming skill over the year to help manage their household. They may also have more than one tenant they are managing. How does the augment work?

    Players need to think about how they are going to present this augment otherwise the GM should say no. If they are away for longer than three weeks per season, I would not allow an augment.

    Individuals without families Cost of Living

    Can single people without families pay less than the rate of Cost of Living which is supposed to maintain a household?

    The rules aren’t that granular, but assume that the standard of living cost applies to the household, even when it’s just one person. 

    Does Occupational Income include Plunder?

    A question came up about income in our game session last night.  One player firmly believes that the requirement to give 10% of your income to your cult only applies to your occupational income, not anything you get from plunder.  My feeling( I’m the GM ), is that anything that adds coin to your pocket is income. 

    As support for his argument, the player pointed to page 422, where it states “The adventurer should now pay cult tithes from their occupation income.”  Another player pointed out that is in the section that is specifically talking about Occupation Income, so it might not be a general rule. 

    So, what’s the official interpretation?  Is the tithe based on all “income”, or just “occupation income”?

    The occupational income phase is an abstraction of the whole year’s income. While there is room for interpretation, income is income.

    Page 422 – The adventurer’s income represents the amount of income they make before their expenses from Standard of Living are deducted. 

    If the adventurer’s occupation includes any plundering, then it is certainly occupation income.

    If you plunder items relevant to your occupation, that’s also occupational income.

    A herder acting as a bodyguard on an adventure getting plunder from bandits they fought off, counts as income.

    It will also depend on who you are working for and if they give you plunder rights as part payment.

    Items that are gifts, are not included as adventurer income.

    Cults look poorly on those who don’t pay their correct dues. Certainly a roleplaying opportunity for players who’s adventurers don’t pay up. 

    How does a warrior spend their income?

    If a warrior’s thane is responsible for maintaining the warrior’s SoL, how does a warrior spend his income?

    Note that income can support a family of two adults and two children. If the supported warrior is single and not supporting their aged parents, assume that they have a disposable income for training, goods, and drinking. A sensible warrior will be buying livestock and saving… A soon as they have a family this all changes. They will be hoping to maintain their family to a good standard. Given a cow costs 20L, it will take a few years to get a herd equivalent to a hide.

    A farmer with a hide would have about 4 L of discretionally income at the end of a year. He or she would be paying taxes and tithes shelling out for expenses such as food, clothing, repairs etc. 

    How much discretionary income does a warrior have remaining after paying out his expenses? 

    Single Warrior with no family to support – all of it. You eat at the thanes table, they clothe you, shelter you. You buy the occasional shiny weapon, and bits of fancy armour. You donate money to the temple for rune spells and spirit magic. You gift cows to temple to pay for a votive image.

    Warrior with to support – none of it. You eat at the thanes table at important events, they clothe you (but not your family). You likely have your own dwelling. Your remaining money goes to better your family. You likely carry some lunars in cash to pay for stuff when you need too.

    My players are supported by the Thane of Apple Lane. They use their Loyalty Thane to have him pay for beer / other expenses outside of their direct work role.

    Overall this is a GM / player interaction. Once the equipment book comes out you’ll see what else you can spend your money on.

    Occupation Income Table (page 423)
    Change
    Correction
    OccupationOccupational SkillsBase IncomeNotes
    PriestManage Household for each hide40 L per hideA priest does not have to tithe income generated from lands allocated to them by their temple.
    ScribeAlchemy, Bureaucracy, Customs, Read/Write
    Depends on their main professional skill: Alchemy 160 L, Bureaucracy 200 L, Customs 160 L or Read/Write 120 L.: Alchemy 160 L, Bureaucracy 200 L, Customs 160 L, or Read/ Write 120 L.     		A scribe’s income is not subject to any Harvest result modifiers.

    Manage Household (page 424)
    Penalties

    Roleplaying in Glorantha p. 423 has the table for Occupational Income skills, and priest’s skill is listed as Manage Household, and their income comes from managing their tenants:

    Quote

    The Occupation Income roll assumes the adventurer is engaged in their occupation each season, gone no more than three weeks or so (“adventuring time”). If an adventurer is absent for more than that in a season, the penalty is a cumulative –20% per three-week period. No Occupation Income roll is possible if the adventurer is gone for the full year. At that point, they need a tenant or agent to work for them.

    Additional Penalties to the Occupation Income Roll, page 422

    Does this mean that priests and other tenant havers don’t get penalties to their Manage Household skill if they’re gone for more than three weeks per season, since their income comes from tenants?

    No. See page 424 for the description and example of manage household: 

    Quote

    An adventurer with a tenant or tenants rolls their Manage Household skill to determine how much surplus the property generates.

    Manage Household, page 424

    See the example following the description.

    Can Manage household be augmented

    Can Manage household be augmented with another skill (ex: augment the Manage household for the tenants of a hide of land with Farm) ?

    The point of manage household is that you don’t need to do the farming. You are managing others to do it. I’d want to hear how an adventurer is their using farming skill over the year to help manage their household. They may also have more than one tenant they are managing. How does the augment work?

    Players need to think about how they are going to present this augment otherwise the GM should say no. If they are away for longer than three weeks per season, I would not allow an augment.

    5. Aging (page 425)

    Effects of Ageing (pages 81 vs. 425)

    On page 81 the costs of additional experience for an adventurer “for each two-year interval or fraction above age 40 subtract –1 point from STR, CON, or DEX”

    On page 425 an adventurer upon reaching 40 rolls on two tables. As a consequence they might lose STR, CON, DEX or SIZ

    Should page 81 be consistent with page 425 in this respect? Also should not the rate of loss be the same, for an adventurer (they differ in the rate of loss)?

    The rules for adventurer creation are intentionally more forgiving (and more deliberate) than those for aging naturally over the course of a longterm campaign.

    The first method is to allow players to create older characters who are not incapacitated out the door by aging rolls.

    The second method takes place after the adventurer may have had ample opportunities to increase characteristics, and emphasizes the encroaching mortality that all humans must contend with.

    6. Family Rolls (page 425)

    Children
    Change
    Correction

    Optionally, adventurers should make a D100 roll on the Childbirth table once per year whether they are married or not, whether rolling for a spouse, concubine, lover, camp follower, or simply someone they have encountered during play within the previous year. This assumes sufficient opportunity was present during play to allow conception.

    If the gamemaster allows it, a male adventurer may be permitted up to one annual childbirth roll per wife, love, or concubine, if sufficient opportunity was fulfilled during play to allow conception.

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