Rune prices

gran_orco

Mongoose
Has someone a price-list of the runes? I would like to know which is the approximate price that you believe that they have
 
The way I figure it, any rune that comes up for sale will command a pretty decent price. 900-1000 silvers in areas like Jrustela, a small kingdom somewhere in the frontier
 
Hi guys,

Just to chip in, this was one area we deliberately left vague. The idea was that GM's could adjust such pricing to reflect the relative scarcity of runes in their campaigns, allowing them to be magic rich or magic poor, as they desired.
 
And if you want a campaign that's magic-rich (like Glorantha) and Rune-poor (also like Glorantha, IMO), just use the interpretation that cult membership gives enough effective rune integration to learn/cast spells, without the need for physical Runes.

Yes, I agree - "priceless" (Good one, Verisimilitude!)

Or at least so valuable that, if the whereabouts of a physical Rune are discovered, the related cults will launch a 'Rune Quest' to get it. Mere cash doesn't come into it.
 
gran_orco said:
Does the worship give runes to his initiated members?
No. It's just an interesting approach that membership at a particular level (say Initiate) in a cult automatically gives enough association with that god's runes that the Cult's Rune spells can be cast. Some (most, I think) suggest it could be done with Lore(Specific Theology:<Cult in question>), others that it grants the relevant Runecasting skill.

In general the spells are limited to the Runes of that god and the Rune Spells that are special to the cult.
 
It's a House Rule. Mr Sprange gave the official line, above: deliberately no prices given.

(But, with a position like that, how Mongoose will ever be able to publish adventures or anything else with any NPC/monster stats, I don't know...)
 
(But, with a position like that, how Mongoose will ever be able to publish adventures or anything else with any NPC/monster stats, I don't know...)

I don't understand what you mean here...can you explain this?

-Bry
 
Mongoose Steele said:
I don't understand what you mean here...can you explain this?

Sure. If a character is published, it will have a certain number of spells and associated integrated runes and abilities to go with them. That would immediately show how common spells and runes are in the official Mongoose world-view, which is what Mr Sprange says will not be done:

msprange said:
Just to chip in, this was one area we deliberately left vague. The idea was that GM's could adjust such pricing to reflect the relative scarcity of runes in their campaigns, allowing them to be magic rich or magic poor, as they desired.
 
Not necessarily. If you're playing a high-magic campaign, then Mr. Boss is nothing out of the ordinary. If you're playing a low-magic campaing, then he's something exceptional.
 
Yes necessarily. If Mr Boss is supposed to be exceptionally tough in the scenario (as his name implies) then the reward for defeating him should be more than normal - but if he's just ordinary (compared to others in the campaign) then the reward should be ordinary too (and he would be a guard, not a boss).

So any character, in their context, will reveal what the officially normal levels of spells/runes are in MRQ.
 
They have in fact published some direction on how common runes should be in the rules for creating experienced characters. But it is certainly something tweakable.

I find most published adventures often require tweaking of NPC's to fit the power level of a game. It is certainly not hard to add or drop a few runes to a NPC to fit your game.

I for one plan on runes being common in Glorantha. Magic is supposed to be common, therefore runes need to be pretty common. I'm not saying everyone is running around with 10+ runes, but that a seasoned adversary can be reasonably expected to have 2-3.
 
frogspawner said:
Yes necessarily. If Mr Boss is supposed to be exceptionally tough in the scenario (as his name implies) then the reward for defeating him should be more than normal - but if he's just ordinary (compared to others in the campaign) then the reward should be ordinary too (and he would be a guard, not a boss).

So any character, in their context, will reveal what the officially normal levels of spells/runes are in MRQ.

I disagree - the reward for defeating the boss will be proportionate to his power, not his rarity. Mr. Boss the Runelord with lots of integrated runes isn't any tougher than Mr. Boss the Master Axewielding Maniac who has no runes, but a really high Axe skill.
 
Mongoose Gar said:
I disagree - the reward for defeating the boss will be proportionate to his power, not his rarity. Mr. Boss the Runelord with lots of integrated runes isn't any tougher than Mr. Boss the Master Axewielding Maniac who has no runes, but a really high Axe skill.

I disagree. I have cooked an eaten them both and I found Mr. Boss the Runelord with lots of integrated runes was much tougher than Mr. Boss the Master Axewielding Maniac who has no runes, but a really high Axe skill.

Which is odd, I thought he'd be more tender, being all soft and magicky compared to big and axe weilding. But I'm just telling it like it is.
 
Elemental Runes will be alot more common, and even more common in certain areas. In the Monsters book it says that there is chance equal to the Elementals POW that it will "drop" a Rune of its element.

So in Orlanthi areas plenty of Air runes, Trolls will have lots of Darkness, Dara Happens Fire, Esrolia Earth etc.

There may a higher supply for the Elemental Runes, but I guess there would be high demand for them as they would have cult significance.
 
I find it a lot more interesting to determine for myself how the wortld looks, than to have some guy in Nottingham or wherever tell me how it looks.
 
Rurik said:
Magic is supposed to be common [in Glorantha], therefore runes need to be pretty common.

There's no 'therefore' about it. Until MRQ came along, Glorantha had always been magic-rich without any physical runes at all. And it still can be, even if you want to use the MRQ rules, with interpretations similar to these (lately from the "Seeking opinions..." topic):

frogspawner said:
- Cult membership allows spell learning (without the need for rune integration): Lay members can get their cult's spells; Initiates+ can learn spells of associated cults too. (Use whatever you're used to for casting: a straight 95%, or POWx5, or even Theology/Runecasting skills).
- Runes are crystals of godly blood and are very rare (even more so in 3rd Age than 2nd). When attuned, Runes are absorbed into the host's bloodstream, and re-crystalize/re-emerge only upon their death.
- Normally, though, Runes are sacrificed ('returned') to the gods - and disappear permanently, but sometimes Rune-Lords/Priests may integrate one. Only Rune Masters are deemed powerful enough to do so because attuned Runes can be located via Divination by related cults - who will often send hit-squads on "Rune Quests" to get them....
Extreme Rune-rarity should explain why existing characters hadn't come across them before.

With these interpretations there is no need for physical Runes at all.

Mongoose Gar said:
I disagree - the reward for defeating the boss will be proportionate to his power, not his rarity.
True - but powerful means rare, unless you're running a very-high-powered campaign (Monty Haul?).

But that is just a distraction. The point is that if a character is published the context would imply it's relative power (tough/weedy, Lay/Initiate/Rune Master, Hero or whatever) from which we would immediately see the 'official' common-ness of spells and (separately) of Runes.
 
Divine magic is available to everyone (which is the core of Glorantha.. you get magic from the cults).

Sorcery is taught to just about anyone, that shows enough interest in the right places

Animism is pretty "matter of fact" to those that live where its practiced.


Rune magic is there for people who stumble across runes.


So there's still a metric f**kton of magic available to any guy that cares to pay a few silvers to the right cult or dude with funny hair, with the rules as written (incidentally, using the above split also mirrors Heroquest, which is pretty much Greg's definitive "this is how Glorantha works")
 
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