Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 17:15:06 +0100 From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Subject: The RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 18 Mar 1993 This digest was generated automatically. You may find messages that should not belong here, like subscription requests, etc. Sorry. You will of course send such requests to RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM. All mail sent to RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM will automatically be included in a next issue. Selected articles may also appear in a regular Digest. If you want to submit articles to the Digest only, contact the editor at RuneQuest-Digest-Editor@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM. -Henk Langeveld -- Send Submissions to:Enquiries to: The RuneQuest Daily is a spin-off of the RuneQuest Digest and deals with the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. Maintainer: Henk.Langeveld@Sun.COM --------------------- From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake) Subject: Third Eye Blue Message-ID: <9303170832.AA13129@cs.uwa.edu.au> Date: 17 Mar 93 16:10:28 GMT Regarding Third Eye Blue - I had tended to think that as the TEB people are supposed to have stolen the secret of ironworking from the dwarves, that they used sorcerous enchanting to craft their iron - and possibly also Form Iron the sorcery spell. However note that according to RQ3 (though perhaps not RQ4) there is no reason that using sorcerous enchants requires you to be competent at other sorcery (only at enchant skill). I must admit I kind of liked the idea that TEB ironsmiths could have this great magic skill (enchanting iron) yet otherwise be quite primitive magically. This also fit in well with the hypothesis that the other Westerners learnt to craft Iron from the TEB. I certainly never figured them as having any decent magic other than the Iron-crafting skill. The only example of TEB magic that we have other than knowing that they can craft Iron is a real old one. In Apple Lane (the old RQ2 version) the blacksmith, Piku Gastapakis??, is a TEB. The only unusual magic he knows is 'a song to craft sword pommels into animal heads', I think. Does it say any different in the RQ3 version? In short, I don't think that I'll use that TEB writeup - but a good try anyway. Dave Cake --------------------- From: tzunder@cix.compulink.co.uk (Tom Zunder) Subject: POW*5 to cast Message-ID: Date: 17 Mar 93 18:20:00 GMT I like POW*5 to cast spirit magic, I also like the basic feel of sorcery, albeit tweaked to fix the flaws. -------------------------------------------------------------------- tzunder@cix.compulink.com.uk "May the Red Moon Illuminate You All! -------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- From: duganw@alleg.edu Subject: The RuneQuest Daily - Runes Message-ID: <9303171926.AA29585@alleg.edu> Date: 17 Mar 93 19:26:11 GMT Hello! After reading what information there is on Runequests Runes, I am still not quite sure on there affect. So, what does each Rune affect? And in what ways? For example: The Fire rune defines the natural proporties of fire. But does this mean that a God that "owns" the Fire Rune can make any flame do his bidding? If so, in what ways. Please, I'll take any info : ) bewildered, Joe Dugan --------------------- From: mabeyke@batman.b11.ingr.com (boris) Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 17 Mar 1993 Message-ID: <199303172132.AA12574@batman.b11.ingr.com> Date: 17 Mar 93 21:32:21 GMT > > The Cult of Elmal > [much deleted] > > Also, some divine spells would be added, such as Summon > and Command Salamander, Command Hawk, and (perhaps) Truespear. It may be gauche to correct my own post, but I noticed something after I sent this in yesterday. In KOS, Jalk's Book, it says the following regarding Elmal. The deity gave it's initiates blessings upon the earth, good barley crops, healthy horses, and winter protection. (King of Sartar, (c) 1992 Greg Stafford, page 196.) So, for divine spells, it should also (or maybe instead) have Bless Horse (perhaps from an association with Hippoi or Hyalor Horsebreaker), Earthwarm (as the Lodril spell), and possibly the Yelm spell Sunripen (perhaps only effective for barley). Bless Crops or such sounds more like an Ernalda spell, but it is the one She offers Yelmalio, so that may suit. -- Boris Mikey, aka |"Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive Maurice Beyke | for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if mabeyke@ingr.com | you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire." Intergraph doesn't want Nietzsche my opinions. --------------------- From: mace@lum.asd.sgi.com (Rob Mace) Subject: Bicky Dart War Message-ID: <9303172222.AA12197@lum.asd.sgi.com> Date: 17 Mar 93 06:22:43 GMT Skip if you are not interested in the two Bicky Dart War Campaigns. carlf@Panix.Com (Carl Fink) writes: > > mace@lum.asd.sgi.com (Rob Mace) writes: > > >In the campaign(Steve Maurer's) in which I play the characters were hired > >to stop a Dart War in Bicky. We were not too successful and eventually > >open hostilities broke out. I believe that some of the others on this > >list were involved in a campaign that was also in Bicky at the time and > >the events from the two sort of cross fertalized with out the knowledge > >of the players at the time. > > You were trying to *stop* the Dart War? We were convinced you were > *behind* the Dart War! I told you we did not do a very good job. Here is the back ground on what happened in Steve's game. The PCs were hired in Dragon Pass to stop the Bicky Dart War. They were hired by ??? Windbane, a Humakti High Priest who sided with the Lunars when they first invaded Sartar. He had been contacted secretly by the King of Bicky. The King offered him a True Sword of Humakt(a sword once wielded by Humakt). There were rumors that such existed in the area of Bicky. Most of Windbane's troops were in Heortland with the Lunars at the time, so he needed to hire people to do the task. The PCs were offered everything that Windbane and his temple had if they could bring back the Sword. The way the PCs were supposed to stop the Dart War was to eliminate the assassin groups working in Bicky. We had a contact in Bicky and we had to keep it secret that we were really working for the King. By the way the King was nominally Orlanthi. PCs of Note: - Juliette, Yelmalion Rune Lady, Heroin of Yelm - She was the leader of the group, her followers could use Sun Spear once a day against a target that she declares to be an enemy of the Sun. - Adraen, Yelmalion Rune Lord. (My PC) - Velia, Rune Lady of Orlanth Adventurous. - Rolf, Hero of Humakt (he joined about halfway through) Important factions in Bicky - The King and his house, weak but still in power. - House Venta, Lunar Spell Archers School, strong - House Yem, The Army, Yanafals and Yelmalions, strong - House Galdur, Tax Collectors, moderately strong, most ruthless We first hired on to investigate the killing of a monk at the Red Moon Temple. It eventually turned out to be a group of Storm Bulls in the area. They had done the assassination for extra cash and because they were informed that the target was highly chaotic. We managed to run the group out of town, but it was sort of a nominal victory because some PCs were Orlanthi and felt uncomfortable about it. Time passed as we investigated the situation further and found out more about what was going on and the factions involved. We had no real luck in identifying other assassin groups. Eventually we decided to knock over the Black Magicians Market as that was where most of the assassins weapons were coming from. We took a short side trip to the Hill of Gold at this point. We wanted to lay low for a little while before the attack. Juliette also hired ~100 laborers to be her followers for the attack so as to use her Sun Spear power. Adraen went on the Hill of Gold quest hoping to come back with a Hippogrif ally but instead recovered fire from ZZ and came back with a primal horse. The PCs except for Adraen decided they would hide out in the Maze after the attack. The Maze is a part of Bicky strongly associated with the Disorder Rune. Things do not stay constant in the Maze. Buildings and streets are constantly being rearranged. One can not be tracked by normal or magical means in the Maze so it was a good place to hide out Adraen decided he would go to the Hill of Gold. He was feeling more and more squeezed between his vow to attempt to stop the Dart War and obligations to his cult which was getting dragged into the Dart War. (I had decided to retire him for a while.) The attack on the market was a success. However the results were not quite what we wanted. We had hoped that denying the assassins their toys would calm down the situation and give us breathing room. Instead it just forced the participants in the conflict to go into open war fare. One of the factions got a corrupt Lunar magistrate to declare the PCs outlaws and to issue warrants for our arrests. House Venta started a big regimental magic ritual to attack House Yem by Mind Blasting all members of House Yem. Only the Yelmalion Hero Hill Climber and those that were able to mindlink them selves to him were able to keep from getting Mind Blasted. Adraen who had gone to the Hill of Gold found out about the warrant for his arrest. Not having a place he wanted to go, Adraen decided to have Yelmalio send him were he was needed. A ritual was performed to send Adraen to Yelmalio. To make a long story short Adraen was sent to rescue the wives of the Yelmalions that were being held by House Venta as hostages. He ended up in the middle of the ritual that House Venta was performing, destroyed to the focus of the ritual and blew up himself and all the leadership of House Venta. (I will give more details on this when I finish my Hero Quest artical.) This left house Venta leaderless but with troops. And House Yem without troops but with leadership. So House Galdur started to become the dominant player. More warfare broke out between the different factions as they fought for control. The PC destroyed a chaos garden that House Galdur was growing One PC was assassinated. Lots happened in the Maze that was not related to the Dart War. Eventually the PCs contacted the King and offered direct support. Greg, an advisor of the King suggested that we go and get the Sword of Humakt. To make an even longer story short, it eventually turned out that there was no Sword of Humakt. Greg turned out to be Gregrog the Broo Thanatar Hero. The item in question was a Tine of the Claw of Gabaji. Gregrog had been manipulating things so that the king would release the tine. The King was the only person able to release it. He also did not know it was a tine. Arkat's followers after hid and locked up the pieces of Gabaji after Arkat cut him up and this is where one of the tines was. As another of the tines has shown up and we know that Gregrog and others from chaos are attempting to get the parts, the current campaign has turned into a Hero Quest to attempt to better dispose of the parts of Gabaji. I hope that at least some of you found that interesting. This ended up a lot longer then I intended. So Carl, what happened in your game and what were your PCs trying to do? Rob Mace --------------------- From: mace@lum.asd.sgi.com (Rob Mace) Subject: Re: Simplified Monster Descriptions Message-ID: <9303180208.AA12811@lum.asd.sgi.com> Date: 17 Mar 93 10:08:10 GMT Oliver writes: > Loren, Rob, et. al. - this is a great idea - I'd love to hear > what people consider the minimal information you need to stat > out a RQ critter or individual. Here's what I generally use: > > Attack % > (list deleted) > Spells > > Any of this strike people as unnecessary, or does there appear to > be anything missing? Looks fine. The only thing I would add is that what I use is dependent on what I am writing up, who the PCs are, and the tactics they use. Rune Levels need more detail then thugs. A lot of the things can also be determined on the fly if and when you need them. I consider the minimum needed is something like: 4 Moderate Orlanthi initiates, Drunk. 1 Moderate Storm Bull Initiate, Very Drunk. This is an example from an encounter that happened at in a game I ran at DunDraCon. This was all I determined about the encounter before it started. The PCs were guards trying to keep order in a town. The PCs eventually subdued them. By the end I had determined that the Storm Bull had an 18 pow and wielded an axe, and the leader of the Orlanthi had a 15 pow. Nothing else became relevant. If hand to hand combat had broken out then I would have given the leader of the Orlanthi 65-85% attack and the others at 55-75%. Minus some amount being drunk. etc. The only things I really feel the need to know before hand are those things I plan to use as plot elements and those things that would disrupt the flow to determine it on the fly. What disrupts the flow probably depends on how long you have been playing RQ. Rob Mace --------------------- From: mace@lum.asd.sgi.com (Rob Mace) Subject: Re: Spirit Magic and Spirit Combat Changes Message-ID: <9303180236.AA12894@lum.asd.sgi.com> Date: 17 Mar 93 10:36:37 GMT Tim Leask writes: > I don't know what others feel on the subject, but I never liked the changes > to spirits that occurred between RQII and RQIII. The concept of spell spirits, > intellect spirits, power spirits and magic spirits seemed extremely contrived > game mechanic devices. I agree. I never liked the changes, and for the same reason. > What I propose for RQ4 is something half way bewteen > (Tim's ideas which I liked a lot deleted.) > > Alterations, suggestions, criticisms ? I presume from what you said that only one binding or plundering attempt can be made per spirit. If this is not the case then everyone would just keep fighting the spirit until they had bound it fully or stolen everything from it. Since the spirit is already at 0 there is no risk to the binder/plunderer continuing the fight. My question is, what is the Gloranthan physics that restricts one to only one attempt? Here is one thought. When s spirit is reduced to 0 pow its hold on the world and the worlds hold on it is reduced. The binding/plundering is done at the same momemt that the spirit is reduced to zero pow. Any delay and the spirit can no longer be interacted with. For binding one could still unbind the spirit when it reached 1 pow and beat it up again. Making the binding cost something could solve this. Also since spirits have to be reduced to 0 pow to bound/plundered why do they not just run away when they get low on pow? Rob Mace --------------------- From: MAB@SAVAX750.RUTHERFORD.AC.UK (Mystic Musk Ox) Subject: RE: The RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 17 Mar 1993 Message-ID: <9303181015.AA10145@Sun.COM> Date: 18 Mar 93 09:12:00 GMT ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Simplified Monster Descriptions >Loren, Rob, et. al. - this is a great idea - I'd love to hear >what people consider the minimal information you need to stat >out a RQ critter or individual. > > etc, etc The main difficulty I've always found is not so much generating the NPC's in the first place, as with a bit of practise you know how tough you want the opposition (and can just write down some numbers), but actually keeping track of their condition if there is a reasonable number of them. This tends to be due to hit location systems I think - running a scrap with 6 PC's, 10 broo, a shaman and his pet chaos goat is a lot of bookkeeping. Having said that, I *like* the RQ hit location system as it gives a good feel to the game. I have run a lot of Stormbringer, which just uses HP overall, with a classification of Light Wound, Serious Wound, Mortal Wound and Death, that has proved to be a good fast system, which feels right, but also much easier to keep track of what is happening. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spirit Magic and Spirit Combat Changes. >I don't know what others feel on the subject, but I never liked the changes >to spirits that occurred between RQII and RQIII. The concept of spell spirits, >intellect spirits, power spirits and magic spirits seemed extremely contrived >game mechanic devices. What I propose for RQ4 is something half way bewteen >the two systems which is cosistent and far less contrived than RQ3. > > etc,etc I like this idea, it is a nice 'unified field theory' which seems to tie everything together rather well. > If the roll is a success, the spirit has one of its aspects bound, > if the roll is a special success two of it's aspects are bound... Would any difficulties/problems/interesting things occur if 2 people bind different/aspects of the same spirit? I.e. Does the binding PHYSICALLY hold the spirit to the binding object, or just maintain some connection with it to draw upon its abilities? The latter seems to fit in better with my view of the spirit plane. Perhaps in this way people could be found via the spirit plane if you know the spirits/aspects bound by that person. > A special success enables the plunderer to steal a skill from the spirit > or to steal two spells. What does stealing a skill entail? I can't remember if GoG etc explains this. > A critical success enables the plunderer to steal 1D3 POW directly from > the spirit and add it to their own. Is this in addition to getting a POW tick? Do species maximums still apply (I guess so). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Buckley Don't let THEM immanetise the eschaton ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- From: staats@MIT.EDU (Richard C. Staats) Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 17 Mar 1993 Message-ID: <9303181459.AA27451@MIT.EDU> Date: 18 Mar 93 14:59:38 GMT Greetings! I read some entries on the net a few weeks back which indicated that there were a non-trivial number of campaigns running where it was not only possible but actually common to cast Poison with an intensity of 30. I thought the intensity+duration+range of all combined spells had to be less than or equal to the caster's free INT. (This puts a large emphasis on enchanting staves with spell matrices, etc.) How do folks handle this? In service, Rich