It is less that, and more that IF has us do the magic through DMs and only after can we inform the rest of the community of what we learned. We have to do it alone and through the use of a major action.

Now compare it to being able to use runes with just a passive action and have it be a public effort where even someone who cannot speak runes can help 'code' it properly.

We had people die to mosquitoes the first turn. Let them experiment on their own and see what happens after.

I mean, someone died to a mosquito because they were out alone, and we can't very well go with you on spirit quests and be very useful, I don't think. Runes meanwhile, we can actually just discuss in-character...I will say that doing so publicly means that using them against other Norsemen runs into the 'I planned for that' issue, so it's not without cost to do rune stuff in a public venue. Other people can also steal your work and use the phrases themselves.

Like...public rune-brainstorming is useful if you can find someone willing to be helpful, but it can easily still miss things and it's not actually free for the person doing it in practice.
 
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If you would like some help in spirit events or communing with spirits you could put out a general call beforehand? Just asking people if they'd like to donate or over ideas to how you should go about dealing with them preemptively.

And tbh I count spirit stuff as much more important than runes so I can see how the difficulty would be more intensive, Grid can't pacify a spirit of ice coming down from the mountains with runes and even then Runes are something that logically should be advanced through study and communication as long as literate people discuss it.

Seidr and Seeress activities are much more esoteric and beneficial long term.
 
A question about Runes.

If you engrave an Arrowhead, and that Arrowhead penetrates a target that bleeds, and that blood makes contract with the engraving, does the Rune Effect activate?

I have an idea about HEAP Arrows if that's the case? At least when dealing with things that are thick enough for an arrow to strike deep enough for its shaft to be soaked in blood.

General idea is that the Arrowhead would be the Armor Piercing bit, and the Shaft would contain the explosive effect.

Probably something like:

"After being launched from a bow, this arrowhead will continue another [Norse definitional distance roughly correlating to 1 foot] when it would otherwise stop"

"After being launched from a bow, this arrowshaft will explode [with thunderous force? with the might of Thor? neither of those? with no other qualifiers?] after it has been coated with blood"

We could probably fiddle with it so that it works as an Anti-Material Script and doesn't rely on the target's blood, but I'm thinking about Oni and Tyrant Hunting at the moment.
 
If you engrave an Arrowhead, and that Arrowhead penetrates a target that bleeds, and that blood makes contract with the engraving, does the Rune Effect activate?

It would, yes.

Bone Arrows and Bone Kunna ftw! Hopefully anyway.

Thank you!

Using runes on Kunna generated items is a bit fraught, though. Runes want to be permanent, using them on temporary stuff is dicey. Ragnarr needs to sacrifice to them after every fight if he uses runed up blood items, and those are more permanent than Kunna items (at least the material making them up is real). I'm not sure this works, and may have a high price if it does.
 
Bone Arrows and Bone Kunna ftw! Hopefully anyway.

Thank you!
You also need to be literate. Bone Kunna won't help you with carving runes if you don't know your runes.
Using runes on Kunna generated items is a bit fraught, though. Runes want to be permanent, using them on temporary stuff is dicey. Ragnarr needs to sacrifice to them after every fight if he uses runed up blood items, and those are more permanent than Kunna items (at least the material making them up is real). I'm not sure this works, and may have a high price if it does.
I think they mean using bone kunna to carve runes on their non-kunna bone arrows. Which should work if Bonetyrant wasn't illiterate.
 
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If you would like some help in spirit events or communing with spirits you could put out a general call beforehand? Just asking people if they'd like to donate or over ideas to how you should go about dealing with them preemptively.
While appreciate the offer of help, I was not asking for it to be easier for me.

I was asking for runes to be harder for you guys :V

I want to see people blow themselves up and this teamwork and proper scientific methodology is messing that up. :mob:
 
You also need to be literate. Bone Kunna won't help you with carving runes if you don't know your runes.

I think they mean using bone kunna to carve runes on their non-kunna bone arrows. Which should work if Bonetyrant wasn't illiterate.

Yeah, that's fair. You need to be literate, but real bone arrows would avoid the other issue.

While appreciate the offer of help, I was not asking for it to be easier for me.

I was asking for runes to be harder for you guys :V

I want to see people blow themselves up and this teamwork and proper scientific methodology is messing that up. :mob:

I'm pretty sure if you expect this to stop IF from causing some rune-related problems, you're underestimating IF.
 
I was asking for runes to be harder for you guys :V

I want to see people blow themselves up and this teamwork and proper scientific methodology is messing that up. :mob:
Normally the Norse would be more secrective about their runes to conserve their advantage, but right now, it is us against the world so people are being more free.
 
You don't technically need anything other than "This arrowshaft explodes." No timing needed.

The other conditionals are supposed to be safety features, though I can see how the blood coating would be redundant.

Well, unless there's some sort of Magic Energy Field that charges Runes that we're unaware of.

In retrospect, I'll keep the blood coating safety feature.

If you're using Runes on your arrows then might I suggest a modified version of this?

"This blade's bite burns blood, spreading fire through their veins like straw in a barn"

Ooooh, that sounds delightful!

When I get around to trying this myself, I'll see how many runescripts I can fit onto a bone arrowhead!

It would, yes.



Using runes on Kunna generated items is a bit fraught, though. Runes want to be permanent, using them on temporary stuff is dicey. Ragnarr needs to sacrifice to them after every fight if he uses runed up blood items, and those are more permanent than Kunna items (at least the material making them up is real). I'm not sure this works, and may have a high price if it does.
I think they mean using bone kunna to carve runes on their non-kunna bone arrows. Which should work if Bonetyrant wasn't illiterate.
Yeah, that's fair. You need to be literate, but real bone arrows would avoid the other issue.
You also need to be literate. Bone Kunna won't help you with carving runes if you don't know your runes.

I did indeed intend to use actual Bone Arrows and use Bone Kunna as a crafting Skill for them. Projected Runed Bone Arrows will wait until Bone Kunna 4 before I even try that :V

And I'm aware of the Literacy requirement, the potential runescript just came to me while reading about the Rune Shenanigans going on, and it's not like Bjarneson is the only one with a bow ya know? Better to share the idea and possibly save a life if it works out as intended.

Normally the Norse would be more secrective about their runes to conserve their advantage, but right now, it is us against the world so people are being more free.

Exactly!

I actually thought about trying to check the scripts and script locations for validity over PMs, but decided against it for that specific reason.
 
I did indeed intend to use actual Bone Arrows and use Bone Kunna as a crafting Skill for them. Projected Runed Bone Arrows will wait until Bone Kunna 4 before I even try that :V
Runes don't work with kunna. The runes want permanency which kunna are not. Ragnarr only gets away with it thanks to a bloodline and martial style and even then, he has to make a sacrifice after each battle.
 
[X] Kare Sky-Dancer's Actions, Winter Year 2
-[X] Major Action: Accompany Anja Giantbone on her Lightning Punching adventure
-[X] Minor Action 1: Scout out the Oni's Quarry from as far away as possible while still getting a decent understanding of what's changing over there, flee immediately if discovered.
-[X] Minor Action 2: Take lumber from my uncleared plot of land and deliver it to Hulfr Hardwood, avoid clearing the entire area and leave some trees for next turn.
-[X] Minor Action 3: create a pair of compasses like Grid's, only using the Void Eagle feathers I found in the mountains instead of using skin with the modified wording being "Will point in the direction to the closest alive beast that is the same race as the beast's feather that is attached to this compass" giving 1 to the general public in case of another Void Eagle attack and keeping the other for myself.
-[X] Minor Action 4: Create a rune inscribed wooden amulet with the words "The wearer of this amulet can never have their emotions forcibly changed by external magic" and "Hostile Magic will not effect my wearer."
-[X] Minor Action 5: inscribe "Arrows shot from me will always strike exactly what Kare Sky-Dancer wants them to" and "Magic cannot turn aside my attacks or afflict others with them." on my bow.
-[X] Minor Action 6: inscribe "After this axe is thrown and hits a target the axe returns safely to the hand that threw it" on the axe of Stigg Drythroat @The Chilly One in exchange for a promise to teach Astrid (Kare's adopted daughter) about Axe fighting.
-[X] Minor Action 7: inscribe "Wearer has their normal speed and reflexes increased by half-again" on a wooden arm ring which I will keep for myself.
 
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Beyond keeping them soaked in blood and making sure your runescripts don't accidentally yourself, is there any real limitation beyond GM patience regarding how much Rune Swag you can wear?

Runes are only active when blood (or other pigment) is put on them so they're a buff that requires time to activate and has a time limit to run out, and there are some practical limitations on how many you can use for that reason among others.

Also, anyone can use the runed item, so...being literate is more "I can create these" than "I have these" which is a worthwhile distinction.

The only current limitation is the GM being a literal genie about runes. As they currently stand, runes are overpowered.

I'm not sure I agree...if everyone gets Runed Stuff (which is pretty achievable) then they stop being overpowered between PCs in a meaningful way...the whole 'if everyone has super powers no one does' thing. People who actually have knowledge of the runes have some advantages, but considering the practical limitations, I'm dubious that it's overpowered in a meaningful sense. Like...runes are great, but if we all have them being great, that's no more overpowered than anything else about being Norse, y'know?

If IF wants to set a limit, I'd recommend number of runed items a person can use at a time and set it to 3 for thematic reasons, but that's basically just to make things easier to keep track of.
 
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FWIW, I agree that the benefits seem outsized in potency for the rewards expended, and also casually overpowers the niche protections present in the system so far. I'm not really convinced limiting it to three runes/runes items will work either. Some explicit limits on what the power of runes can do on a handheld item powered by blood would be helpful.
 
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If you're we're dropping things in a suggestion box, maybe runes should burn out faster the more effect they have. So something that says "I stop all fire damage" burns out immediately when you get near the sun and then you die but might protect you from sticking your hand in a campfire pretty much forever.
 
If you're we're dropping things in a suggestion box, maybe runes should burn out faster the more effect they have. So something that says "I stop all fire damage" burns out immediately when you get near the sun and then you die but might protect you from sticking your hand in a campfire pretty much forever.

I believe this is canonical already, actually. Like, I'm pretty sure this is already how they work.
 
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