Griffin Mountain in Runequest 6e

[Carcosa]

Would Balazarings be considered Barbarians or Primitives according to the new Runequest 6e rules?

[David Scott]

Primitives

The Guide says “The Balazarings are a Neolithic hunter-gatherer people divided into many small clans. Their tribal leaders dwell in massive citadels of cyclopean stone built in the Second Age. They use dogs extensively, but do not domesticate riding animals.”

and RQ6 defines primitives as “Primitives are typically hunter-gatherers with either few, or poorly developed, systems for farming and
husbandry.”

[Simon Bray]

We had them as primitives, I ran an RQ6 Griffin Mountain game for several months, it converted really well.

Simon

[Simon Phipp]

Definitely primitives.

The only exceptions might be the Yelmalians in Dykene, who are trying their best to be Sun Domers, but I would say they are primitives in Sun Domer armour.

The balazarings in Elkoi would be primitives in lunar clothing.

[David Scott]

I think that’s is an over simplification. The royal families and influence of the cults in the citadels skew the system. The royal families are descended from a Second Age Foreigner and his imported cult. Not so primitive. I’d classify them as Barbarian as on page 20 of RQ6:

Quote:

Barbarian
Tribal in nature, barbarians tend to shun civilisation, viewing those who live in large towns and cities as weak and corrupt. Although their own settlements are also sedentary, they tend to be far smaller and closer to nature. Barbarian tribes occupy distinct territories, often half tamed wilderness, which they regard as their own for hunting, grazing and farming purposes.

The pig herders are primitives.

In Elkoi, only the royal family’s clan would affect lunar styles – Glyptus has fully embraced the Lunar lifestyle and religion, his wife Jocestis is from Peloria, and she is a full on Lunar.

In Dykene, the same applies to it’s royal family and entourage. Skilfil Heartpiercer is an initiate of Balazar (Yelmalio). The 30 warriors are likely all Yelmalio initiates. They’ve numerous bronze weapons and armor. I’d say they are Barbarians as well. They are Sun Domers, but with a twist – they fly giant hawks.

Trilus would be the same, if it wasn’t for Yalaring Monsterslayer – he’s certainly a primitive!

[Guy Hoyle]

In the real world, the Neolithic age was the age when agriculture was developed, animals were domesticated, and people started settling down into villages. Outside the citadels, I’d say that the RQ6 primitive definition fits reasonably well.

[Carcosa]

Been studying Griffin Mountain a little more, and I might be starting a campaign in about a week or two probably having the players be members of the Red Sable clan. Could someone explain to me what Battlemagic is and how I might fit it in with the new rules? Also Magical Matrices and I can’t find anything on Broos. Checked my Monster Colliseum book and they have Broos but barely give any information on them.

Also, I’ll have to look through the book again, but it says that each clan has a traditional meeting ground, so are the clans semi nomadic moving around certain borders within Balazaar or do they have more permanent residencies in there traditional meeting grounds? What kind of shelters do they have? Any suggestions on what the Wind Sword might be capable of or what powers it might have?

[David Scott]

Battle Magic = Folk Magic in RQ6 p183.
Magical Matrices = Folk magic in an item powered by the user (some self powered).
Clan Centres, look at the map on p18 of Griffin Mountain, the “diamonds” are the clan centres. That’s the centre of their territory and clan. Hearths move and vary in size depending on season, see table on p21. In sacred time, most will be at the centre, ready for the Great Hunt.
Shelters, depending on the season, semi-perminant – something like this – http://www.moulsecoomb.brighton-hove.sch.uk/HE/2009Mesolithic.html (don’t you wish you went to this school)
Page 224 lists the Wind Sword’s powers.
i’d suggest reading through the book a few more times. It’s very dense, with lots of info. It took me a while to fit all the politics together.
As for Broos look in the encounter section and/or start a separate thread and see if Pete or Loz will put up some preview info on them from AiG! I’d like to see official RQ6 stats myself.

[Lawrence]

Quote:

As for Broos look in the encounter section and/or start a separate thread and see if Pete or Loz will put up some preview info on them from AiG! I’d like to see official RQ6 stats myself.

An indication of how to use broo in RQ6 can be found on pages 341-342 of the rules. They worship Malia, Thed and a variety of disgusting Disease Spirits (there are rules for the latter already in RQ). I would also be tempted to give all broo the ‘Reproduce’ Passion at 50+ POWx3%. This is their natural drive to attempt to breed with whatever they come across. Succeeding in a Passion roll wold mean a broo is driven to copulate rather than necessarily infect and/or kill.

[Carcosa]

Thanks guys, that helps alot!

[Carcosa]

Is a Sable the same as an Impala?

[Carcosa]

[David Scott]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sable not to be confused with Sable antelope, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sable_antelope
It’s the former in Balazar and the later in Prax (unless you want to complicate things).

[Tim Ellis]

And for completeness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impala
The Sable Antelope is a lot larger than an Impala – there is a reason that Impala riders are pygmies!

[Simon Phipp]

In our old campaign, we played that the Sables of Balazar could breed with the Sables of Prax, to create a “War Sable”, in the same way that the Zebra Riders bred zebras and horses.

We also played that the bison on Balazar and Prax could breed, but the results were large bison that could breed with either type.

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