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Date: Tue, 1 Jun 93 17:15:15 +0200
Message-Id: <9306011515.AA29814@glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM>
From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 01 Jun 1993, part 1
Precedence: junk
Status: O
The RuneQuest Daily and RuneQuest Digest deal with the subjects of
Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha.
Send submissions and followup to "RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM",
they will automatically be included in a next issue. Try to change the
Subject: line from the default Re: RuneQuest Daily... on replying.
Selected articles may also appear in a regular Digest. If you
want to submit articles to the Digest only, contact the editor at
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Send enquiries and Subscription Requests to the editor:
RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld)
---------------------
From: kenrolston@aol.com
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, thanks....
Message-ID: <9305311657.tn34102@aol.com>
Date: 31 May 93 20:57:47 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 903
MOB: RE: Garhound Contest Winners
Stikklebrixx won going away in my playtest with 18 (YES, 18) PCs. The horse
race really sent him into the lead. Other substantial performers (PCs,
mostly) who told good stories or were very clever in other contests were
unfortunately from infantry cultures, and most of them didn't get past the
river ford in very good form.
---------------------
From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
Subject: Re: Garhound contest: Stikklebrixx in tie-breaking fight with PC
Message-ID: <9305312259.AA19781@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 31 May 93 22:59:37 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 904
Paul R. here. I sent this to MOB and he thought it might be of general
interest:
We had a lot of fun playing through this. My co-GM and I rolled out
the results of the contests beforehand except for those with PCs. So
when we ran the race we knew who was in the lead at what point and we
just plugged the PC's into their positions. This made for much faster
and more exciting play since we didn't have to stop to roll for the
NPC's.
Carlyon Squally came in dead last in the overall contest through bad
luck. We decided that he must have tried to talk with the Harvest Bride
before the contest, which was bad luck, and put this incident in.
Stikklebrix pulled ahead early on (riding, fights, etc. he was good at)
but one of the PCs, a bartender by original trade, caught up by winning
the Intelligence Test and Storytelling, and the the Pain Test. It
actually came down to the tiebreaking fight between them, which Stikklebrixx
won. Both of them were Storm Bulls.
We played Jarst as a half-ogre who "broke" and didn't know that he
was the killer. Being half-ogre he was open to possession by an evil
bunger spirit out of the Wastes. He was quite a sympathetic character
actually. He was a pawn in an Esrolian vs. Lunar plot and wound up killing
a Lunar priestess (PC). He would have been killed after the contest
but after being resurrected she spoke up for him, claiming that it was
the evil spirit that killed her and he should go for Lunar rehabilitation
rather than being killed.
This is more than you asked for but I thought I'd tell you that this
was one of our favorite adventures.
- Paul
---------------------
From: P.A.Snow@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P A Snow)
Subject: Where's the Magic?
Message-ID: <9306011228.AA01195@Sun.COM>
Date: 1 Jun 93 12:27:46 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 905
Paul Snow here.
In response to Paul Reilly's excellent comments on Sorcery I would like to bring
another aspect to be considered into the discussion. This bolis down to :-
How "magical" do you want magic/sorcery to feel?
The current rules for cults and shmanism do work well but ultimately lead to a
world view where magic is technology. This is fine if this is how Glorantha is
seen to be. However, if sorcery in Glorantha is intended to feel like magic in
stories from Earth, it must be made more mysterious and unknown. The latter
parts of Paul R's analysis took sorcery down the Sorcery is technology route. Is
this really what people want? If western culture/magic is going to be constructed
to parallel western european development then surely sorcery should be difficult
to master and unpredictable so society has to rely on technology and learning
and move away from sorcery in order to progress.
Pendragon took magic totally out of player's hands (well originally) so that the
magic of magic could be conveyed by the DM alone. Magic loses its mystery as
soon as the players know the rules and can manipulate them without thought to
their own ends. (I mean without worry rather than without thought there I think)
However, I believe that some of the unpredictability of magic could be
maintained in a well written system. For example, if characters made a skill
roll in order to learn a basuc spell then variations could be imposed on the
spell learnt according to the goodness of the learning roll. Variations need
to be in true game variables that affect play such as range, duration, damage
etc. , not just in irelevant chrome such as color and smell. Then there will
be genuine variation between spells in a group of Sorcerers and players can
not exploit/master the rules by knowing exactly the powers of any NPC
sorceror. This might work to keep doubt and uncertainty about spell effects in
players ind and thus work back to give the mysterious feel of the unknown to
sorcery in general.
So do you want magic magic or not?
Paul Snow
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: German RuneQuest-Convention visited
Message-ID:
Date: 1 Jun 93 12:49:54 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 906
Joerg here,
the last three days I spent talking or playing RuneQuest at the German
RuneQuest-Convention. About 40 Enthusiasts met at Bielefeld, including our
guest of honor David Hall.
The Whole thing started with a BIG Praxian scenario for five groups of
five to six players each. I happened to be an Impala-Waha-Khan-to-be on my
decisive trip to the Block with my sister and a group of stalwart clan
members. (Funny thing to play a pygmie, me being almost two meters tall).
On our trip to a friendly shaman in the Long Dry we crossed Easy Ford and
four Lunar guards (actually we fed them some arrows), there meeting
destruction and (deadd) remnants of chaos, and incoming groups of
Praxians: a mixed group of Storm Bulls ("Kill Chaos!!!") who had just
finished off some chaos scum, a group of High Llamas and one of the Bison
tribe with th e same ams in mind as our group, and last not least a Pavic
(English) speaking group of Zebra Riders. The shaman was gone, his guards'
of honor camps destroyed (except that of the Sable people, which was just
a bit disorderly), and a large track of Sable Riders joined with those of
a Lunar caravan, both heading northeast to Pavis. As my Impala Storm Bull
follower kept saying, "Small chaos becomes big chaos, kill chaos!", and
this Sable sccum had betrayed us at Moonbroth, so get at them. While we
Waha followers were involved in diplomatics (who is to coordinate the
assault), all Storm Bulls rashed off, followed closely by the Zebras who
got frustrated of not speaking Praxian. I coordinated our further efforts
(OK, let's follow them, let the Bulls take the brunt and charge in from
the flanks). Well, so we did, and mass slaughter occured. I was taken out
of the fight early by an arrow crippling my left arm, and all that was
left to do was magic. So I speedarted a quiver full of arrows out of my
magic point matrix, dealt them to my follower, and carefully followed to
the fight. That was going well, but the shaman was nowhere to be seen. It
took me a little time to remember my detect spirit spell and use that to
find the whereabouts of the shaman, but finally I did, gathered some of my
Imapala followers and assaulted this dismounted - only to discover that a
Sable Sword of Humakt with about twelve points of Rune Magigc running was
fighting a Yanafal Tarnils Lord with about 20 points of Rune Magic
running, defending the shaman who was lying bound in the wagon. We tried
our best, but what can unarmored pygmies do in this situation? Luckily the
others finally followed up, and after lots of magic and slaughter (the
Llama chief was hit in the same leg five times for altogether nearly 200
points of damage) and yes, we saved the shaman. It turned out that the
sables had saved him from the chaos horde who had killed his guards of
honor, buried their own dead and carried him off to safety, forcing the
caravan to accompagny them. The Storm Bul (naturally) didn't ask any
questions, and started a battle totally unnecessarily. All the others
joined in, and the Lunars feeling betrayed tred to kill the shaman...
The day ended four a clock in the morning after long discussions about
Glorantha. (Yes, Nick, David got his drink...)
Next morning was kind of a break - the German RQ Society had to elect new
presidents - but was followed by David's lecture about Tales of the
Reaching Moon and a lecture about RuneQuest 4. Later we had game rounds,
in the evening there was a big Cthulhu life action event.
The last day saw some more lectures, an editorial discussion about our
magazine Free INT, and some more rounds before the meeting dissolved.
To be repeated next year... We can arrange enough English language events
so that you peple form outside of Germany can join us next year at
Pentecost, most likely in Hagen. Detailed information will ollow in
time...
--
-- -- -- Mit freundlichen Gruessen...
Joerg Baumgartner
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Storm Bull Ceremonies question
Message-ID:
Date: 1 Jun 93 12:51:38 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 907
After meeting some real Storm Bulls on the RuneQuest Convention in
Bielefeld, I started wondering what exactly do these guys do to gain or
regain their divine spells in their temples.
I really can't imagine them sitting a day in prayer and meditation to
emulate the way of the Bull. More likely they'll get into trance by
drinking themselves senseless, brawl among those who seek to gain
berserker, let blood for heal wound, throw lassos for impede chaos, etc.
What do you think?
--
-- -- -- Mit freundlichen Gruessen...
Joerg Baumgartner
---------------------
From: burt@ptltd.com (Burton Choinski)
Subject: Sorcery stuff
Message-ID: <9306011443.AA14504@vino>
Date: 1 Jun 93 14:43:13 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 908
Random comments...
============================================================
To Paul Reid (I hope that's the right spelling) about his
runic sorcery...
I take it that things like Enchantments require the Infinity Rune
be bound to hold the POW sacrifice? Technically, these things can last
forever...
I was thinking on it some over the weekend...
Carriers:
Magic - spell is ranged
Water - spell carried by fluids (i.e. potions)
Spirit - spell carried by soul contagion. I.e touch.
Air - spell carried by gas (must be contained in something)
Hunger - spell is a protector.
Infinity - Spell is an enchantment
Stasis - Spell is a ward of some type
Harmony - Working with the source for beneficial change.
The Hunger carrier would be used for protective spells.
R > Hunger > Harmony -- Protection from magics cast against you
Spirit > Hunger > Harmony -- Protection from spirits.
Fire > Hunger > Harmony -- Protection from natural fire
Water > Hunger > Air -- Protection from water (including drowning...
concievably a water breathing spell)
Air > Hunger > Water -- The reverse, for water breathers.
(harmony as a result "soothes" the incoming spell...having some other element
is technically a transformation i.e. water->air or air->water in the above.
The ward, for balance reasons, holds the magic used to cast the spell until
it is released. So, if you stuff 4 MP into a warded spell casting, you will
be forever 4 MP short until that ward is released. Obviously, experienced
Sorcerers would draw the points for wards out of Magic point Matrix sources
to keep their personal reserve free.
A truely evil spell would be a warded Tap spell...if it taps enough magic
to cast itself, I suppose you could have it reset-itself.
In my view, the formula could be:
Action > Result
Action > Carrier > Result
Difficulties: 2 rune = Medium skill
3-4 rune = hard skill
5+ rune = Very Hard skill
I thing "Actor" and "Object" are more ambiguous. If the purpose of "Object"
is to restrict the result to specific, then perhaps a "/restriction" rune
could be added to the Result.
===============================================================================
In my group we changed the Duration and Range tables to be Squares rather
then doubling. I think it prevents the "Sorcerers with spells on for years"
effect. Fred the Wizard, INT 18, can get a cheap spell off with +18 duration,
which will last about 60 hours. It seemed to work pretty good.
+18 to range is 3610m, which is pretty good.
A Square table for power increase sounds more reasonable then a doubling.
===============================================================================
I feel that give the sorcerer's need to pump magic galore into spells, and
that each spell must be trained up on it's own, that a sorcerer can learn
any number of spells and they do not take up his INT.
Thinks about it. All a sorcery spell is composed of is knowing the proper
runic "formula" for the result you want. In theory, an entirely different
spell could be learned just by changing the formula a bit.
A sorcerer could use his Fly spell (Mobility > Harmony > Air) as a base and
research out a "Quickfoot" Spell (Mobility > Harmony > Earth), the equal
of the Spirit Mobility spell. Why should he have to reduce his available
power for this small change?
This makes Sorcerers very flexible. I do, however, only recomend this if
a linear or square table is used for duration and range, not a doubling one.
===============================================================================
My player is busy trying to research an enchant metal spell. I've been
giving him an INT or less on 1d100 each week when he is in a city, with a
fumble meaning disasterous results while tinkering with wild magics. Does
this seem to high? Too low?
Enough rambling. Paul? Any comments?