Questions about Cults of Glorantha

[daddystabz]

I just received my copy of Cults of Glorantha in the mail today. My local face-to-face group is getting ready to begin a new campaign of MRQII the week after next, which we will all be playing for the first time. The GM had some experience with earlier versions of RQ. After I bought the core rulebook and Arms & Equipment, I figured another important book to have would be the Cults of Glorantha book given the importance of cults in the setting and especially for any pure casters in the group, for access to spells, grimoires, etc.

I have a few questions though:

1) Originally when we rolled characters we had to make up what spells we started with since we had no Cults of Glorantha book. We have no divine casters in the group but we do have a sorcerer and may have a second one playing too. I consulted the boards here how we should handle a beginning grimoire for a sorcerer without access to the Cults of Glorantha book and I basically invented a grimoire for the character that contained 4 spells important to the character but that were all related in nature, in this case healing spells. I was told this is what most people do for a beginning grimoire. However, now that we have the Cults of Glorantha book should we change this and make the character have a baseline membership in one of the cults in the book and thus having to take its grimoire and spells?

2) Do ALL adventurers need to choose a cult membership even if they are not pure casters? For instance, my character is a Barbarian Warrior. If so, do we just ignore the divine/sorcery/spirit magic parts but he would still have access to the common magic parts?

3) If all adventurers do need to be part of a cult then should all our characters drop the common magic spells we chose when we made our characters without the Cults of Glorantha book and then choose an appropriate cult from the book and simply choose from those common magic spells from that cult?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Pruneau]

In our games most people choose a cult at the outset. This is not mandatory, and they can decide for themselves whether they want to nurture the membership, but every character currently in play is initiate in one cult or other.

Some characters have no talent for magic, but they will still get a heal wound or something once they dedicate a POW. Divine magic is not lost when the lore roll fails, so it's always useful.

 

[PhilHibbs]

2) Do ALL adventurers need to choose a cult membership even if they are not pure casters? For instance, my character is a Barbarian Warrior. If so, do we just ignore the divine/sorcery/spirit magic parts but he would still have access to the common magic parts?

I think they should all choose a cult, but I wouldn't force someone to do so if they really don't want to. Religion can turn some people off, so don't worry about leaving that for later on or for a subsequent character.

3) If all adventurers do need to be part of a cult then should all our characters drop the common magic spells we chose when we made our characters without the Cults of Glorantha book and then choose an appropriate cult from the book and simply choose from those common magic spells from that cult?

I'd give the player the choice, if they want to switch some of their Common Magic for something more appropriate to the cult then I'd let them. I'm letting the players basically make any changes they want between the first and second scenarios, to go back and re-make any choices that they aren't happy with.

 

[Loz]

Your barbarian warrior will most likely be an Orlanth lay-member, so he can ignore Divine magic and stick with the Common. Being a lay member really means 'yep, I believe, but I don't want to commit too much'. Simplest way. He can then become an initiate later if he chooses.

But cults are hard to ignore in Glorantha; just about everyone is a member of something. Its really a case of how far they take their membership.

 

[DramaticExit]

3) If all adventurers do need to be part of a cult then should all our characters drop the common magic spells we chose when we made our characters without the Cults of Glorantha book and then choose an appropriate cult from the book and simply choose from those common magic spells from that cult?

Don't forget that the Common Magic options listed in Cults of Glorantha are in addition to the cultural Common Magic options in RQ2Core. As such you'd probably only want to switch them around if, as PhilHibbs says, you found something more IC suitable.