Date: Fri, 16 Apr 93 17:15:27 +0200
From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: The RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 16 Apr 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: sogcity@aol.com
Subject: Response to Adam's "Flame"
Message-ID: <9304152304.tn07453@aol.com>
Date: 16 Apr 93 03:04:14 GMT
Fixes, errata, and Avalon Hill
In response to Adam (awr0@aberystwyth.ac.uk)
First off, I think it is a bit naive for you to think that every
product coming out is going to be perfect, and need no correction.
These things are complicated, they are produced under a deadline
whether we like it or not, and the world of Glorantha is extremely
complex. Given that combination of factors, there is no possibility
that there won't be mistakes. I for one feel that the number of
mistakes has dropped remarkably across a very short number of
products. This seems to me an excellent sign that AH and Ken are
getting their organizational house in order. If you think things are
in bad shape compared to RQ 2 or RQ 1, I suggest you look back through
some of those old products and notice the often poor graphics,
amateurish layout, huge sections of white space, and sometimes
laughable typoes. Not to say that it wasn't the best stuff out at the
time, nor to suggest that I don't want to buy your old copy of Pavis.
:-)
Adam writes:
"The point is, that AH expects to find errata in there products. "
As explained above, it would be close-minded of Ken to expect his
product was perfect. Would you prefer that he had the attitude of
companies like Palladium, where if you offer the slightest criticism,
the head guy decides you are Evil Incarnate?
Most people who do RQ keep up with the magizines and every other
source (like this list) as best they can. Certainly, we can use the
Digest, America Online, and GEnie to distribute erratta. But there are
people who have no access to them, and mag article and the like are
the best way to reach them. Mailing lists have been discussed, but
simply are not practical. A SASE gets you all the erratta available
for RQ. WE want to compile that erratta so that the SASE gets you all
erratta for all RQ material.
Adam writes:
"Another method would be to consider changing the published packs, by
including errata sheets, or (This may seem quite logical really)
correcting the publication."
A fine idea, but any of these suggestions entail an entire new print
run, with all the associated work and costs. I'm sure you don't want
to make people buy the product again to get the erratta.
Adam's various "flame" points:
>1) Issaries write-up in Cradles, where did the Rune-Lord status go to?
>Merchants need protecting. Similarly, I would conisder that Lankhor
>Mhy would possibly have 'Explorers'.
As you probably know, many priest or lord categories were eliminated
in the RQ3 version of the cults. I prefer this, since it makes each
cult more individual. Issaries need protecting, true. In Orlanthi
society, it is Orlanth cultists who do this. Traders trade, not fight.
Same for Lhankor Mhy. This specialization helps to eliminate one of
the major complaints about RQ2, that every character ended up capable
of doing everything. (On a side note, this also matches the
restriction of spirit magic availability, which I also like for the
same reasons.)
>2) Do the words Lanbril, Pavis, Flintnail(Not sure on this one) mean
>anything. Pavis was half covered in Cradles. It would of been nice to
>have the more 'Cult'ural aspects of the city covered.
Books can only be so big before they cost $40 or break their spines,
or both. What would you have cut from the book to put those things in?
And regardless of your personal dislike for the "skeleton" format of
Cults of Glorantha, the short form of the cults does give the basics
necessary to run them, at least for me. Note that Lanbril appears in
CoG, Pavis falls under City Gods, and Flintnail is a TINY and
extremely secretive, elite cult.
>3) Thief God's, what happened to the trickster cult? I haven't seen a
>write up of that cult anywhere. It would be nice to have a decent
>write-up of a thief cult. The only one I've seen is in the old Pavis
>pack. Which is not published anymore.
I can't follow this. Do you want more on thieves, as you stated in 2),
or on tricksters? Everybody wants more info on everything, and there
is only so much that can be published at once. I want to do the West,
but for the moment I have to help Ken get the Center going, so he will
sooner feel it has been properly covered, so I can do the West.
Adam says " If I had enough money I would like to buy the rights to
RQ2 from AH or whoever owns the rights and print it. I know it would
sell."
You are not the only person who feels this way. Until one of those
persons hits the lottery ( and decides to put a big chunk of those
winnings into a long term possible money pit) we must live with the
arrangement Chaosium made. If wishes were publications, we'd all be
able to run a campaign set in Glamour....
Does anybody know if the original material published in the early
eighties will ever be published, ie The Big Rubble, The Original
Cradle adventure, etc. ?
Portions of this material will be recycled into new products. I have
mentioned the Cradle to Ken several times. He is less than convinced
of its desparate need to be published. Balastor's barracks needs a few
changes to be redone, but really, I think that most of the other
_scenarios_ from Pavis and Big Rubble are pretty forgettable. It is
the source material that really made it.
None of the above is Official, but I guess it does come from someone
who thinks he knows a bit about what it takes to publish RQ. I can't
wait to read what you guys think of Shadows. My first big RQ
contribution, unless you count the Ostrich Riders in HEROES magazine,
years ago.
And Adam, it didn't really strike me as a flame.
M >|< Mike Dawson (not Kirsten Niemann, my patient
girlfriend)
sogcity@aol.com eco0kkn@cabell.vcu.edu
---------------------
From: marks@slough.mit.edu (Mark S. c/o Tom Yates)
Subject: Flames and Society
Message-ID: <9304160710.AA24552@Sun.COM>
Date: 16 Apr 93 07:13:46 GMT
Flame On
>Ok where to start, how about a flame.
Evidently not a Yelmalio.
> Excuse me?! We should correct your material? That when I
>go out and spend my 15 pounds or however much this supplement
>will cost me, I must also buy magazines etc which support RQ
>just to get the corrections to the product that I have bought.
>Personally I would prefer waiting an extra 2 weeks for
>a quality product rather than a shoddy 'Get it published as soon
>as possible so we can make money quicker' product.
You may, perhaps, have taken Ken's friendly colloquial banter a bit
too seriously. There is no good reason to believe that our Rune Czar
expects us to find either huge mistakes or prose worthy of hosanas.
If you have engaged in a creative project, you must be aware that
small minor glitches are inevitable. It should encourage you that AH
wants to hear about any faults we find. Playtester's can't catch
everything. Besides, we're not talking ASL here, what sort of
crippling Errata can there be in a scenario?
>I'm in a flaming mood so onto other points.
> 1) Issaries write-up in Cradles, where did the Rune-Lord
>status go to? Merchants need protecting. Similarly, I would
conisder that Lankhor Mhy would possibly have 'Explorers'.
RuneQuest Three did away with silly rules-mechanics driven Rune Lords
for non-fighting cults. Deal with it.
> 2) Do the words Lanbril, Pavis, Flintnail(Not sure on
>this one) mean anything. Pavis was half covered in Cradles. It
>would of been nice to have the more 'Cult'ural aspects of the
>city covered.
This was a River of Cradles product, not a Pavis specific one. It had
a hell of a lot of source material for the money. We live in an
imperfect world, and can not expect to get everything we want at once.
> I could go on about GoG and what a waste of paper that was, and
>maybe a book with 10 cult write-ups rather than 400 would have
>been more worthwhile.
Really. As a GM, I find that the GOG Cults book is my most valuable
reference, both when gaming and when designing. Also, as an aside,
I'd like to air my hunch that the Seven Mother aren't "healed" or
"corrupted" Lightbringers, but rather a cheesy way to fit as many
Lunar gods as possible into Cults of Prax.
**************************************************************
Magic and Culture
>This is all getting off the track really, as I intended it as an
>example of how ordinary people might have their lives changed by
>widespread use of magic. I think the culture would tend to be much
>more like 20th century than ancient.
There was a big discursion about along these lines on GEnie. The Gang
O' Four (back before they were the Gang O' Four) and the rest of us
were talking (arguing) about Sorcery. Someone consulted Stafford and
confirmed that there is NO Gloranthan Internet or Fed Ex based on
teleport. Bad Things happen when mortals start doing stuff like that.
Besides, the gods don't have to kill innovators who alter the course
of nature; the fanatically conservative lynch mobs will string up the
"God Learners" first. In the end, of course, Gloranthans are neither
ancient nor modern.
The RuneQuest rules were written for a game, not a social or physical
model. Extrapolating from them can be tricky.
>In fact the magic has always been there right from the start,
>whereas early cultures on Earth initially got along without any
>technology/magic at all, and thus developed before it became available.
>If the magic was there before the culture, that is going to cause
>BIG differences.
This is very true.
>I suspect that those tables have been frigged for player character
>backgrounds, and don't necessarily reflect the 'real' population
>breakdowns. I don't really have any idea on how real populations
>do break down into percentages...
Yes, this has been my interpretation as well. I mean, one may dislike
Lunars, but does anyone believe that one Pelorian in twenty five is a
thief?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Sabalauskas-Marks@slough.mit.edu
---------------------------
"The laws of economics are statements of tendencies
expressed in the indicative mood, and not ethical precepts in the
imperative."
Alfred Marshall
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------
From: rab112@cscgpo.anu.edu.au (Rex A Bean)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 15 Apr 1993
Message-ID: <9304160749.AA08768@cscgpo>
Date: 16 Apr 93 22:49:07 GMT
Adam writes in the Thursday Digest:
>
> The point is, that AH expects to find errata in there products. If that
> is the case and it cannot be helped, then provide a mailing service for people
> who have bought the product and keep sending them updates to the various
> products that need correcting.
> Another method would be to consider changing the published packs, by
> including errata sheets, or (This may seem quite logical really) correcting
> the publication.
I would suggest that AH could also use this Digest as a Forum for
publishing errata. It would get to a lot of people as well and obviate
the need for physical mailing by AH to those of us who have access to
email. Just a suggestion and I hope Ken Rolston reads it,
For another topic. I've haven't had a chance to read the new RQIV
draft rules but with all this discussion re. Martial Arts I wonder if
people aren't falling into the trap of making the system much more
complicated in an attempt at their idea of realism. This is fine for
inidividuals who want to go to all that trouble but is AH doing
something like this for RQIV? Sorry that I don't have time to read the
RQIV draft myself but could someone who has, please comment on whether
it looks like the proposed combat system is getting more or less
complicated and time-consuming?
Steve wrote:
> True, the effectiveness strictly goes roughyl as the square of those who
> actually fight (excluding logistic tail). The argument goes roughly as
> follows: if you have a force k times bigger than the opponent's then your man
> only has to kill [incapacitate, rout, whatever] 1/k men to wipe out the
> opponent, whereas each of his men have to kill k. Thus each of his men has to
> kill k**2 times as many for parity - but given equal quality of men , this
> means that your force is thus k**2 as effective.
Please run that last sentence by me again! I don't think my maths is
that rusty and as I see it his men only have to kill k times as many
to maintain parity. To achieve victory you would have to kill more
than k times but is k^2 really the lower limit for that number? I'm a
physicist so mathematical proofs are not something I like doing.
Mark Buckley writes:
> True, but I suspect that there is an awful lot of communication in
> Glorantha (telepathy spells, teleports, air elementals, spirits...)
Yes, all this communication magic is available. However considering
Priests are comparatively rare and they have to spend a day
worshipping in a consecrated spot to recover the spell once used and
have all their normal day to day duties of ministering to the flock to
keep them busy. I really don't think this magic would be used enough
to make a huge difference. Maybe in the Lunar Empire there would be
special Priests on special duty for veerrry important information
communication but to the person in the street I don't think it would
make any difference. I have always thought of this communication magic
as being only useful for emergency situations or for helping turn the
tide of an important battle. Trying to find time to rest in one spot
for a day or more whilst on active campaign would be a nightmare for
the general concerned.
One advantage I have heard cited for the Lunar Empire is that they
were able to organise regiments of magic wielding priests or
magicians. Very few other societies have the degree of organisation
necessary to do this. However I still don't think that someone
important enough to have made the priesthood is going to put up with
being a messenger boy for long, even for the Red Emperor. Unless
there was a very good reason for it. In barbarian societies they rely
on visions from their Gods when something really drastic is going to
happen. Otherwise they just use whatever messengers are available.
Another thought is why would most people in Glorantha really care what
happens outside their small patch anyway. They will probably never go
more than 20 miles from their village . It is only lunatics like
adventurers or merchants that do such dangerous things as travelling
through unknown and potentially hostile areas - according to your
average small country town mentality. It is only in the past few
decades of our world that travelling long distances has become more
commonplace in the First World. I'm sure it doesn't happen much in the
Third World at all just due to the cost.
> I have a suspicion (and am probably completely wrong here...), that
> excluding the use of nukes, modern warfare actually causes less
> casualties than previous wars.
I've always wondered about the logic of barbarians likeing to go on
war parties or cattle raids. If only 10% died then it would only take
10 years to kill off all the able bodied males (assuming it is not a
geometric progression). Does this mean that in fact casualties from
raids etc were very low and thus they did do a lot of raiding. Or was
the number of raids low eg only every couple of years and we have been
overdoing our estimates of barbarians willingness to fight.
Comparisons to historical pre-fire-arm data would be interesting if
anyone knows any figures.
Whew! I was feeling expansive.
Regards,
Andrew Bean
---------------------
From: tzunder@cix.compulink.co.uk (Tom Zunder)
Subject: Martial Arts
Message-ID:
Date: 16 Apr 93 09:08:00 GMT
I don't really like rules but here goes.
RQ Martial Arts stinks.
Therfeore Loren's ideas are refreshing.
BUT they don't fit with RQIV.
I think that the special options concept in RQIV could be developed
further into all skills.
In other words, like Ki skills in Lands of Ninja (will that seev
RQIV?) those who know what they're doing or are members of
guilds/cults/professions can do "tricks of the trade" that others
can't. These are over and above the norm, but not quite as good as
magic.
I intend to use this idea, but I felt the RQIV 2.0 draft made the
availability of combat special options a little loose.
If combat special options exist, why not others, including a set to
accurately create the special knowledge of a martial artist?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
tzunder@cix.compulink.com.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------
From: L.P.Williams@newcastle.ac.uk (L.P. Williams)
Subject: RQ2
Message-ID:
Date: 16 Apr 93 11:29:26 GMT
I should have read Adam's 'flaming' message before sending mine. Then
I could have included this
REPRINT RUNEQUEST 2 REPRINT RUNEQUEST 2 REPRINT RUNEQUEST 2 REPRINT RUNEQUEST 2
Adam is dead right, all the original material would sell. Why? Because
it is brilliant, simple and very playable. All these rewrites are
pointless. RQ2 had it right. Quite frankly Chaosium where idiots to
sell the publishing rights as Ah have f****d the best game ever
written. Who needs a profession? I think being in the priesthood (or
lordhood?) is good enough.
Long live Runequest Two !!!!!!!!!!!
Humakt would turn in his grave. (or maybe not)
Death to Chaos and AH!
---------------------
From: L.P.Williams@newcastle.ac.uk (L.P. Williams)
Subject: Chaos 'n' Armies 'n' Stuff
Message-ID:
Date: 16 Apr 93 10:58:48 GMT
In a campaign I ran some years back a Stormbull Initiate contracted a
chaos feature while exploring Griffin Mountain. This was despite my
best attempts to avoid it. His reply upon realising his fate:-
Oh shit !!! My High Priest's going to knack me!!!
As it happens he was thrown out the cult until such time as he
aleviated the problem.
However on reflection this was hardly fair. It was not his fault and
he was infact on cult buisness. Therefore I would suggest adding a
RUNE spell to Stormbull's list. Remove Chaos - 3pt only usable by a
temple High Priest. It could even be limited to being cast on high
holy days.
Several other alternatives exist.
1 Join the cult of Nysalor.
2 Become a beserker and wage a true holy war against chaos
3 Embrace chaos, this may well happen as obtaining a chaos feature may
well effect the mind as well as the body.
Also, it mentions (I think in borderlands ) that on the plains of
Prax, both Storm followers and Broo live in relative peace. The reason
being that if they were continually at war with each other they would
wipe each other out. Life is hard enough in Prax without making it
impossible. Therefore the Stormbull noted by Mark Gagnon would be
unlikely to feud with friends even if they are unfortunate. I think
too that even on three power skuling around at the rear is hardly
heroic.
On to armies:-
It is written somewhere in the vast archive that is RUNEQUEST TWO that
there exists within the scummy Lunar Empire a Vampire Legion. Now a
legion is a lot of wo/men and would require alot of food, but how the
hell do you feed a legion of vampires.
One final point RUNEQUEST TWO IS GOD sorcery belongs only to those
such as Crag Spider and Delecti
Aldryami - Go Barmy!
---------------------
From: burt@ptltd.com (Burton Choinski)
Subject: Martial Arts
Message-ID: <9304151553.AA09454@vino>
Date: 15 Apr 93 15:53:43 GMT
Loren J. Miller notes:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|SKILLS, MARTIAL ARTS (I suggest we totally rework martial arts as
| follows)
|> 1. How to fall. This is Acrobatics skill, or perhaps Dodge.
Slapping out is not exactly the same, but You could apply MA like
Acrobatics where having the skill allows you to fudge acrobatics at
half level or something.
|> 2. How to fight fair. This is the Fight Fair skill, above. It
|> 3. How to punch hard. This is a twist of the wrist that
|> 4. How to fight dirty (aka street fighting, self-defense). This
|> 5. Where to hit. Martial Arts teach advanced students (black
Why not just use Martial Arts as it is designated -- a knowledge
skill. Thus, You must successfully attack with your Fist skill to
actually do damage, but if your roll is also less than or equal to
your MA skill you may elect to use one of the above options. A
special success allows the use of two options (or double one of them,
such as double "fight fair". Critical allows three options, triple
selection of certain options, or any combination thereof.
#5 How about each selection of #5 allows you to ignore 1 point of worn
armor and 1/2 point (round up) of natural armor.
#3 Is another tweaking option. Each time the option is taken increase
damage base by +1, or AP by 1 when parrying, or whatever.
-- Burton
---------------------
From: staats@MIT.EDU (Richard C. Staats)
Subject: K**2 Kill Ratios, Army sizes and the Use of Magic in Battle
Message-ID: <9304151638.AA07883@MIT.EDU>
Date: 15 Apr 93 13:49:38 GMT
Greetings!
Just ignore this if it has already been covered, but the K**2 kill
ratio comes from the famous Landchester equations. Landchester's
model was based on the idea that if you have two forces and the
individual units in the forces can target all the forces on the other
side then the rate of kills for a side should be proportional to the
number of units on the other side attempting to kill it. This sets up
two simultaneous differential equations; the solution of which gives
the K**2 result. This works well for air warfare where the
participants can see/target all the other participants, but in land
warfare, you can only see a fraction of your opponents, and then the
kill rations get pretty close to linear.
On the subject of logistical support, I believe the adage that
tacticians win battles and logisticians win wars. The typical ratio
of teeth (combat units) to tail (loggies) in US/European armies is
currently about 3 to 1. Usually a combat unit, fully loaded, can
support itself for about three days maximum before it either HAS to
resupply/refit or become combat ineffective. (Even if you have
bullets left, it is hard to close with and destroy the enemy if your
soldiers have not eaten for an extended period.)
There are several issues that would tend to limit army sizes in a
medieval setting. Alexander the Great could muster larger sized
armies and keep them functional for a longer period of time, because
he had less fear from disease in the areas he traversed. The biggest
killer on the battlefield until WW I was disease. Any time you gather
several thousand people together all in one place and time and then
start marching them about, far away from home and sanitary conditions,
you increase the chances for disease. In a dryer climate, you have
less chance of contracting something nasty. If the water supplies are
wholesome then the chances of contracting diseases go down again. The
logistics issue is another problem. It takes A LOT of assets and time
to transport and distribute all the fodder, food, water, spare
weapons, etc. that a big army needs. The 2d ID (US) lost 3,500
individual weapons out of 12,000 in a single battle in WW II. If a
Humakti loses a sword somewhere in a battle in the middle of Prax then
he is going to have a very difficult time replacing that weapon unless
the commander made some provision for that like carrying some extra
weapons in the baggage train. The more logistics tail you have, the
more slowly your organization is. Also, there is a huge Command,
Control and Communication factor involved with large forces. Unless
you have an excellent way of communicating with your subordinates then
you are going to have tremendous problems getting a large organization
to do what you need it to do. Together, those three factors tended to
limit the sizes of ancient/medieval armies. If you could: be close to
a water source (i.e. you could send supplies via ship), in a dry
climate (i.e. less chance of disease), and had a good communication
system then you could have a good sized force. Otherwise it was a
risky proposition at best. In all the examples of large forces in
ancient/medieval times, the commanders spent a good amount of effort
both in planning and execution trying to overcome the factors I
mentioned.
So, where would magic be used? Command, Control and Communication for
sure! Logistical support and especially medical if possible. Combat
multiplier functions where applicable. Last, where proactical in
combat. Every headquarters should have some form of medium to long
range ability to communicate with its immediate subordinates,
headquarters and supporting units. As a commander, I would want some
way to scout out enemy positions (e.g. long range vision or audio
abilities, invisibility or silence for scouts, flying for scouts,
etc.) I want someway to support my troops that doesn't require a huge
logistics tail. Large scale uses of repair spells are one example.
If there is a reasonable way of producing food and water and fodder
then I would want that too. I want some way of cutting down on
disease, and I want the wounded back in action as soon as possible.
On a more realistic note, I want some effective way of tending to the
fallen. I don't want bodies stacked like cordwood at the end of a
battle (i.e. VERY bad for morale!). I want some way of disposing of
trash (i.e. source of enemy intelligence), and I want some way of
fooling the enemy commander about my intentions (e.g. illusions,
distractions, decoys, etc.) It would be nice to have battlefield
augmentation of senses as well (e.g. magical flares, night vision, bat
sense/"sonar", etc.) If I could rapidly transport my personnel then I
would fight for that capability (e.g. teleporting a group of
DeathLords into the middle of the enemy headquarters could ruin your
whole day!). I would want combat multipliers. For example, having
some way to rapidly cross rivers or break down defensive walls would
be good. Making my archers be able to fly and resistant to enemy
missile weapons would be virtually invaluable.
Of course, I would want to be able to counter all these things
if the enemy tried them on me! :-)
Wow! Way more than my allowed $.02! :-}
I remain
In service,
Rich
Longtime RQ GM
---------------------
From: STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Entropy needs no maintenance)
Subject: Red Tsars
Message-ID: <01GX14NPNEW20020MF@UG.EDS.COM>
Date: 14 Apr 93 23:50:10 GMT
Thoughts inspired by MOB's posting a few days back:-
On the subject of the Red Emperor, one of the things that
distinguishes the Lunar deities and demi-deities from those of the
barbarian belt is that they tend to have titles rather than names (the
same of course is true of the Invisible God or oddities like
Comb&Braid). But since we know the names of Jar-Eel, & Hon-Eel, it
can't be that there's a mystical "True Name" type of rationalisation.
Something I filed away for use in such circumstances is the name of
the title character of Aphra Behn's play "The Emperor of the Moon",
Irridonazar.
Then there's my zeitgeist theory of the Red Empire - Glorantha was
developed by a person whose formative years encompassed the height of
the Cold War, including such things as the Cuban Missile Crisis; just
as in the SF of the time, what is more natural as a threat than a
creeping corrupt Red Empire? >From which, folding the analogy back on
itself, the collapse of the Lunar Empire could be explained as a
Gloranthan equivalent of perestroika. The name squirreled away here
is Theonikos (approximate translation into Greek of the Hebraic
Michael).
---------------------
From: ROBERTSON@delphi.intel.com (Roderick Robertson, SC1-5, x52936)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 15 Apr 1993
Message-ID:
Date: 15 Apr 93 17:32:00 GMT
>> Looking at the tables in Glorantha, Genertala, we see that
>>characters from the Barbarian Belt have a 89% to be in the 'carl'
>>class, with 11% in the Thane/Housecarl class (Noble, Priest, Warrior),
>>matching the estimation pretty closely. Sartar is listed on p 23 as
>>having a total of 180,00 Human adults. Using the Estimation, about
>>76,500 warriors can be mustered, 7,650 of which are heavily armed and
>>armored. This would seriously disrupt society, but when you are being
>>invaded...
>I suspect that those tables have been frigged for player character
>backgrounds, and don't necessarily reflect the 'real' population breakdowns.
>I don't really have any idea on how real populations do break down into
>percentages...
I don't think they've been mucked with too much, something like 40%
chance of being a Farmer? Doesn't sound like too exciting a career...
(Especially not to my poor player who, given three chances at the
table, still managed to get Farmer as his family's occupation).
As far as magic on the battlefield, most Battle Magic (Spirit Magic)
is just not that scary. Most usable spells enhance a person's
abilities (the Stat enhancers, movement, weapon spells, etc). A few
spells like Light- and Dark-wall are also of tactical importance. Not
to say that even the most "useless" spell can't be useful on occasion:
Ignite to set spears on fire, Light when darkness falls, etc. The
point is that even massed Disruptions don't have much chance of
breaking a unit (now Frenzy, cast at your enemy at an opportune time
could...). Even Rune Magic for the most part only usually affects one
person (Sunspear, Sever Spirit). We don't have rules for those really
nifty spells, like the Crater Makers and Earth cult pieces have in the
game Dragon Pass. As noted in the Giant's Cradle adventure in Big
Rubble (sorry for those that don't have it, I started collecting with
RQ I), the combined efforts of a Lunar Magical battalion are beyond
the scope of the current rules. When facing more "mundane" troops,
there will probably more wounds inflicted (bladesharps, etc.), but
fewer wounded troops (Heals) in relation to dead troops. Even then,
Initiates get to DI (except Humakti) to come back from the dead,
Chalana Arroy Priestess or equivalent will accompany units, etc.
Just some ramblings...
Roderick
---------------------
From: burt@ptltd.com (Burton Choinski)
Subject: RQIV NPC generator
Message-ID: <9304151824.AA09775@vino>
Date: 15 Apr 93 18:24:51 GMT
I have uploaded it to soda.berkeley.com and it should be available soon, most
likely in the programs directory.
-- Burton
---------------------
From: wroberts@magnusug.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (William C Robertson)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 15 Apr 1993
Message-ID:
Date: 15 Apr 93 10:51:43 GMT
Mark writes....
> Nice idea...but as you have to recast [bladesharp on a plough]it every 5
> mins, that is a lot of magic points. How many peasant farmers have that
> much mp? (The
I agree, but I'm sure that most farmers would have it anyway. Not
that I have *any* experience plowing, but you could run into trouble
spots. Maybe?
> True, but I suspect that there is an awful lot of communication in
> Glorantha (telepathy spells, teleports, air elementals, spirits...)
Yes, I'm sure that there is a great deal of communication by magic,
but it's still difficult to convey a LOT of information through
speech, much less compile 200 page documents to distribute to fourty
of your subordinates by next Fireday. Even today on earth were still
learning more efficient techniques of information handling, so I have
a tough time imagining this phenominon on Glorantha.
Also regarding the use of detect/sense/find [substance] spells. Sure
these are useful, and they make information available to armies on
Glorantha that earthly armies can't take advantage of, but detect
[anything] isn't going to help a commander find the third army that
was supposed to be covering his flank if they're not there. Find
enemy would be extremely useful in small scale tactics, but it's not
going to help the llama riders track down those pesky sable scouts if
they're miles away.
Cheerio!
-Bill
---------------------
From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake)
Subject: Re: Martial Arts
Message-ID: <9304160208.AA17947@cs.uwa.edu.au>
Date: 16 Apr 93 04:34:44 GMT
With regard to martial arts, it seems to me that what the Martial Arts
skill is intended to simulate is the differences between being trained
in martial arts, and actually practising special techniqiues, and
such, and just learning to fight by experience. It is a nice way of
simultaing the fact that it is easier to learn to fight just by
fighting things, but if approached scientificly, it is more sucessul.
The most important thing to note is that most martial arts techniques
(kicks, grapples, holds, and many unusualy niceties like countering)
in RQ4 are covered by seperate skills or abilities (and in RQ3 did not
exist). Martial Arts is the skill of responding in an intelligent way
(rather than an instinctive way) to attack. (it is worth noting that
our insticts are towards non-lethal combat). Learning to attack the
most vital points is not a difficult, high powred skill taught only to
Black Belts. Basic martial arts training (for hard martial arts) is
jaw/throat-solar plexus-groin. Boxing taught not as a sport would be
pretty much the same.
Note that the differences between martial arts in RQ terms is simply
the different skills taught with it, and what skills your martial arts
applies too. Full-contact boxing schools would teach martial arts and
fist attack and attribute training. Karate schools teach MA, fist
attack and parry, and kick attack. Aikido schools teach dodge,
breakfall, martial throw, martial hold, and MA. I have even been
toying with allowing fencers to use MA (but probably not).
Dave Cake