Itachi, maybe I was less clear than I thought I was being but my point was that anthropological descriptions only get you so far, and moreover they take a lot of reading before the GM (and players) can even begin to portray them in-game. Granted that RQ/Glorantha may have more detail in this area than other settings but that still raises the question of how you make it relevant to play.

The Hârn approach described by Estar is different--even though I don't remember the mechanics of religion being all that special--because it promises a concrete, specific portrayal of the actual people and places "doing" the religion, while things like religious calendars and specific resources that can be accessed (similar to RQ here) provide ways for the players to see and participate in the religion as practiced.

Arminius, religion in Runequest is integrated in the mechanics. For a character to learn skills, spells, gather social influence, etc. he/she must go through the cults hierarchy. From Lay Member to Initiate to Rune Lord/Priest etc. Each cult has it's own organization, practices, behavioural rules, rewards, etc. So it's far from being pure "anthropological descriptions". The GM don't need any effort to make it relevant in play - he just need to read cult descriptions and follow the rules.

Edit: Though all this may be ignored by the players if they wish, or course.

HeroQuesting has mechanical rules in Mongoose RQ2. See Cults of Glorantha pages 12-15. Success grants rewards.

QuoteThe types of rewards most common to HeroQuests are as follows:

•    Becoming Rune Touched.
•    Gaining specifc mythic knowledge to help overcome a foe or obstacle.
•    Gaining one-off, large-scale Divine Intervention or a Miracle to life a curse, alleviate a famine, improve crop yields or fertility.
•    Gain the use of a mythic or Divine weapon, artefact or spell.
•    Gain a Heroic Ability.
•    Become closer to one's god.
•    Understand a competing myth, or the nature of an enemy.

Quote from: Itachi;986665For a character to learn skills, spells, gather social influence, etc. he/she must go through the cults hierarchy.

And how does one go through the cult's hierarchy?

In RQ cults determine a character's identity. The game has no 'character classes' and often the character's membership in a Cult characterise her/him even more than her/his cultural origins. There are warrior-cults, healing-cults, merchant-cults, scholar-cults, and so on, and progression within the cult is the only meaningful road to power, as they provide resources and teaching of skills and spells that otherwise are difficult to acquire. So, in practical terms, when you create a new character he/she is already a cult member or is about to become one.

You raise in the hierarchy by working for the cult (doing errands, communal work, tutoring novices, etc), succeeding at examinations applied by higher members (usually through relevant skill rolls), and keeping a behaviour in accordance to the cult's beliefs. Each cult comes with a bunch pages describing it's founding myths/stories, organization, duties, benefits, prominent members, etc.

Here, a sample cult description. (I think this is fan-created, but it seems to follow closely the format of the ones in the official supplements)


*edit: Hah! this sample cult has an example of the "imitate the deeds of the gods" aspect that we were talking about earlier: for becoming a full shaman of Kolat, an Initiate must enter a secluded place and fight an opponent ("Molanni's Arm"), reenacting a story of Kolat from the godtime where he got trapped in a cave by an old god he called the Bad Man. Neat.

Quote from: Itachi;986683Here, a sample cult description. (I think this is fan-created, but it seems to follow closely the format of the ones in the official supplements)

So this: "In all cases the potential Spirit Master must fufil the requirements to become a shaman."

What does that entail? Something similar to what's already linked?

Hmmm, hard to say. It may be referencing some complementary rules ( shamanic magic is an important topic in the corebooks), but I ain't sure. I'm far from my books so I can't confirm now.

Quote from: Itachi;986665Arminius, religion in Runequest is integrated in the mechanics. For a character to learn skills, spells, gather social influence, etc. he/she must go through the cults hierarchy. From Lay Member to Initiate to Rune Lord/Priest etc. Each cult has it's own organization, practices, behavioural rules, rewards, etc. So it's far from being pure "anthropological descriptions". The GM don't need any effort to make it relevant in play - he just need to read cult descriptions and follow the rules.

Edit: Though all this may be ignored by the players if they wish, or course.

FFS (again) I know that, I even alluded to it in the thread. My question is specifically about the heroquesting and community rituals. On those things, I wanted to know if there were rules in the game (again we were talking about rq2/3) or if you were dragging in setting fluff and commentary from HQ/HW/KoDP, and fan commentary.

Oh ok. Yeah, those things are mentioned in some places (Waha cult in Cults of Prax mentions the initiate can aquire power through heroquests - I remember because it's one of my fave gods), but never given actual mechanics in RQ2/3. Only later this was included.

Heroquests also exist and you need to go on them in Kings of Dragonpass, which is from 1999.

And they were dangerous as fock. Lost a bunch of good people to them. :mad:

Yeah me too. Never had the patience to figure it all out and would try and bumrush it and get wasted near the end.

I think there was some randomic factor involved. I swear sometimes I chose the right options and my character died anyway. Other times I would randomly click around and the character would succeed anyway. Lol

Thank you, Itachi, I was  beginning to worry that you were trying to post while driving.  Be safe out there.

In RQ, deities have cults that support them, or rather allow woshippers to worship them and gain benefits.

A cult is an organisation with a structure, although different types of cults have slightly different structures.

Members of a cult, i.e. worshippers of a deity, are organised in a hierarchy, normally of Lay Members, Iniates, Acolytes, Rune Lords/Rune Priests, High Priests and Heroes. Each level in te cult gains access to more powers/abilities and suffers more restrictions.

Lay Members - The lowest level of the cult, these worshippers pay lip-service to the cult and are seldom restricted, some Lay Members cannot use certain weapons or cast certain spells. Lay Members often have access to some skill training and certain Common/Battle/Spirit Magic.
Initiates - The first committed worshippers of the cult, Initiates go through an Initiation Ceremony, the rough equivalent of Christian Adult Baptism. They are restriced in certain ways and should follow the teachings of their deity. Initiates gain access to cult Common/Battle/Spirit Magic and some access to cult Divine Magic.
Acolytes - Leaders of small shrines and assistants in larger temples, these learn more of the secrets of the cults and gain access to some reusable divine magic, as well as access to all cult Common/Battle/Spirit magic.
Rune Lords - The martial leaders of the cult, Rune Lords are more restricted than lower levels. They gain access to Iron Armour and Weapons, special Divine Intervention and Allied Spirits.
Rune Priests - Leaders of the congregation, Rune Lords are the magical leaders of the cult. They gain access to reusable divine magic, allied spirits and lead some minor temples.
Chief Priests - The middle members of the Temple Leaders, Chief Priests have more independence and autonomy than Priests.
High Priests - The leaders of Great Temples, High Priests get to keep all tithes and lead the temples
Heroes - Independent, all-action members of the cult, Heroes interact with deities and do more powerful things than other cult members. Some Heroes grant divine magic to other members of the cult.

Members move between levels by virtue of spending more time in the cult, becoming more skilled in cult skills and in gaining cult abilities. Normally this brings them closer to the deity in terms of activity and behaviour as they need to pass a Test to advance to the next level, cult members who act differently to cult expectations should receive a penalty to theor chances of progressing in the cult.

Each cult has specified behaviour expectations, so Storm Bull expects his worshippers to kill Chaos, Humakt expects his worshippers to be honourable and kill undead, Chalana Arroy expects her cultists to be pacifists and heal those who need it and so on. Many cults often have members of a certain profession as worshippers, so Issaries has merchants and shop keepers, Lhankor Mhy has scholars, sages and lawspeakers, Waha has animal nomads, Chalana Arroy has healers and so on.

Each cult gives access to certain Common/Battle/Spirit and Divine spells, so Chalana Arroy gets Heal Body and Resurrection, Humakt gets Truesword and Server Spirit and Issaries has Create Market and Lock. Worshippers of different deities get access to very different spells and does have a big impact on the spells, abilities and even weapons a PC uses. This is different than D&D, for example, where all fighters have access to the same weapons and all Clerics have access to the same spells (I am talking 2nd Edition, I believe 3rd Edition uses a system more like RQ).