cthulhudarren
Mongoose
Loz said:
But I want my Aztec, Norse, Greek, Egyptian and Indian mythos Cults!
Cthulhu has to be homebrew, sadly.
Typo in RQ Vikings
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But I want my Aztec, Norse, Greek, Egyptian and Indian mythos Cults!
Cthulhu has to be homebrew, sadly.
Jujitsudave
Mongoose
I agree. Having a big ol' real world cults book would be cool.
languagegeek
Mongoose
Loz said:
Dear Mr. Sprange:
There’s this idea about a "Deities and Demigods" book where various religions have their cults worked out...
sdavies2720
Mongoose
...Loz was particularly keen on it in the forums...languagegeek said:
Steve
(perhaps we should write the whole letter as a group writing exercise)
Loz
Mongoose
There are a few reasons why I'm not struck on a Book of Cults, despite its obvious utility.
1. It'd be an utter bugger to write. What do you include? Some pantheons could fill a book on their own. What do you leave out? I have, for example, J A Coleman's 'Dictionary of Mythology' which is one of my key references sources. Its by no means exhaustive but covers, in one to two sentence descriptions, just about every culture, god, hero and myth in the real world. It runs to 1200 pages with a small font.
2. Does the magic always fit the cults chosen? If not, do you use valuable book space to describe new magic systems to fit? How far do you go?
3. You'll always be sacrificing context, which is all-important, especially for myths. Its that context that makes the cults significant, which is why in Cults of Glorantha and Cults of the Young Kingdoms there's such a lot of weight given to it.
Its far better, IMO, to keep cults to their historical context where the appropriate depth and cultural relationships can be focused on properly. 'Deities and Demigods' was really nothing more than a list of AD&D stats for gods. Clearly RQII wouldn't handle them that way, but assembling a satisfactory - and satisfying - generic bulk cult book would require a huge amount of effort and a huge page count to do things properly - at least, to do things in the way we've established with RQII.
So I'm firmly resistant to such a book. Not to deprive you all, but because I know, first hand, how tough books like this are to write if they're to be done properly. We could churn-out a Cults Encyclopedia without much trouble, but just about every cult would be very trimmed down to the point that the all important flavour, mythical context and cultural context would be missing. If you'd like an example of this, take a look at the AH 'Gods of Glorantha' boxed set. Zillions of cults in there; none with any real meat or detail.
1. It'd be an utter bugger to write. What do you include? Some pantheons could fill a book on their own. What do you leave out? I have, for example, J A Coleman's 'Dictionary of Mythology' which is one of my key references sources. Its by no means exhaustive but covers, in one to two sentence descriptions, just about every culture, god, hero and myth in the real world. It runs to 1200 pages with a small font.
2. Does the magic always fit the cults chosen? If not, do you use valuable book space to describe new magic systems to fit? How far do you go?
3. You'll always be sacrificing context, which is all-important, especially for myths. Its that context that makes the cults significant, which is why in Cults of Glorantha and Cults of the Young Kingdoms there's such a lot of weight given to it.
Its far better, IMO, to keep cults to their historical context where the appropriate depth and cultural relationships can be focused on properly. 'Deities and Demigods' was really nothing more than a list of AD&D stats for gods. Clearly RQII wouldn't handle them that way, but assembling a satisfactory - and satisfying - generic bulk cult book would require a huge amount of effort and a huge page count to do things properly - at least, to do things in the way we've established with RQII.
So I'm firmly resistant to such a book. Not to deprive you all, but because I know, first hand, how tough books like this are to write if they're to be done properly. We could churn-out a Cults Encyclopedia without much trouble, but just about every cult would be very trimmed down to the point that the all important flavour, mythical context and cultural context would be missing. If you'd like an example of this, take a look at the AH 'Gods of Glorantha' boxed set. Zillions of cults in there; none with any real meat or detail.
Loz said:
Strange my copy of 'Gods Of Glorantha' says "60 religions for Runequest" on the front. These gaming companies they always short-change you.
Seriously I wouldn't go back to the level of detail in GoG - even though it is better than nothing (and was great for its time). Cults Of Glorantha just plain had more good stuff.
Development of further cults for real world religions is probably best developed on a wiki by a community of users.
cthulhudarren
Mongoose
Loz said:
Your point is good, obviously. My thought was not to stat up all the deities in MRQ2, but the cult specifics. To do a cult properly you'd need to describe the core tenants, myths, even outline ways of advancing in the ranks of the cult (one of the more difficult things to work out in a good way IMHO). It'd take several pages per cult, I'd think.
Though I understand why a Deities & Demigod supplement is not necessarily a good thing, I think a collection of sample cults (especially divine cults) would be a good idea.
For instance, what are the cult skills, divine and common magic for :
-Air deity;
-Death deity;
-Sea deity;
-Sun deity;
-War deity;
-etc.
Even if Cults of Glorantha gives good examples, but for people not interested in glorantha it is a non-sensical recommendation...
For instance, what are the cult skills, divine and common magic for :
-Air deity;
-Death deity;
-Sea deity;
-Sun deity;
-War deity;
-etc.
Even if Cults of Glorantha gives good examples, but for people not interested in glorantha it is a non-sensical recommendation...
Mugen said:
Amen to that! Sorry, I bought the Golrantha book and, while it is wonderfully written, it is just not my cup of tea. Let me add, though, I am really happy for all the fans of the setting that it is getting such obviously loving support!
I really like the historicals and more general runequest 2 books that Mongoose is putting out and hope the line continues to grow! (Well as long as there is enough interest to make it profitable to Mongoose, of course!
)duncan_disorderly
Mongoose
Loz said:
I tried to say this last week, but my reply was eaten by the internet, and I didn't feel like retyping it!
I'd love to see some guidelines and advice for creating cults for homebrew settings, or even for published settings. How to create a new specialized Orlanthi cult, for example, as well as how cults work as cogs of an overall religious/cultural outlook on the world.
I doubt there's a whole book in this (unless it's accompanied by tons of new cults, spells, sample characters, etc). But it might make a great chapter in an overall book on world building, gamemastering, etc.
I doubt there's a whole book in this (unless it's accompanied by tons of new cults, spells, sample characters, etc). But it might make a great chapter in an overall book on world building, gamemastering, etc.
languagegeek
Mongoose
I just picked up Vikings a couple of days ago and have read through it. You (yes I mean you) should also go buy this as well, it is simply awesome.
I'm not even planning on running a Viking game, but there are lots of sections I'm going to port over to my homebrew: the magic systems especially.
I've found building my own campaign universe that real-world settings are extremely useful as I can already identify with the history and culture immediately, that is, I don't need to learn a new setting from scratch before I know what I want to use or not. Also, it's easier to quickly grasp technology levels, religion, society, and so on. And giving the option of historic/fantastic/mythic is a superb idea; again, it's so easy to pick and choose.
Thumbs up to Pete and the team for selecting this topic and doing such a great job on it. My eyes are peeled for the next historic-style supplement. Hell, I just ordered BRP Rome on the basis of RQII Vikings.
I'm not even planning on running a Viking game, but there are lots of sections I'm going to port over to my homebrew: the magic systems especially.
I've found building my own campaign universe that real-world settings are extremely useful as I can already identify with the history and culture immediately, that is, I don't need to learn a new setting from scratch before I know what I want to use or not. Also, it's easier to quickly grasp technology levels, religion, society, and so on. And giving the option of historic/fantastic/mythic is a superb idea; again, it's so easy to pick and choose.
Thumbs up to Pete and the team for selecting this topic and doing such a great job on it. My eyes are peeled for the next historic-style supplement. Hell, I just ordered BRP Rome on the basis of RQII Vikings.
