(Message rqd:50)
Return-Path:
Received: from Holland.Sun.COM (sunnl) by homeland.Holland.Sun.COM (4.1/SMI-4.1)
id AA05198; Fri, 25 Jun 93 17:17:21 +0200
Received: from glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM by Holland.Sun.COM (4.1/SMI-4.1e)
id AA05470; Fri, 25 Jun 93 17:16:44 +0200
Received: by glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (4.1/SMI-4.1)
id AA00520; Fri, 25 Jun 93 17:15:19 +0200
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 93 17:15:19 +0200
Message-Id: <9306251515.AA00520@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, Fri, 25 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
RuneQuest-Digest-Editor@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM.
Send enquiries and Subscription Requests to the editor:
RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld)
---------------------
From: curtiss@netcom.com (Curtis Shenton)
Subject: Lunar Sorcery and Questworld
Message-ID: <9306241541.AA23804@netcom2.netcom.com>
Date: 24 Jun 93 15:41:08 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1163
Lunar Magic:
While I've always been rather fond of lunar magic in GoG, I think it
would have made a better basis for sorcery in RQIII than what we got, I
think it should be replaced by a variant of "normal" sorcery. The
sorcery system I'd like to see should be flexable enough to handle both
Mostali sorcery and Lunar sorcery. Sure maybe it's a bit of a variant
but it can be expanded on in a Lunar pack. For instance based on the
current RQIV playtest discussion I see Lunar sorcerors having a blend of
Twin and the power donation to their god that a priest does. So that the
Twin/Presence would was and wane on the lunar cycle. And the specifics
of Lunar Sorcery don't need to be in the RQIV set. But it should be
established that lunar magic is sorcery and mentioned in the main book.
Questworld:
Now I was never all that impressed by the Questworld boxed set Chaosium
put out. But I thought the basic idea was a good one and I was really
looking forward to the GW boxed set. Oliver Dickinson and Bob McWilliams
were developing some very interesting ideas for the GW continent,
Theelar. Now my question is does anyone have an address or other way to
contact Oliver Dickinson or Bob McWilliams? I'd love to try and talk
them into sending me whatever they wrote, or better yet sending it to
this Digest.
--
Curtis Shenton curtiss@netcom.com internet & 4@3091 WWIVnet
"At the GM's option, strategic nuclear weapons may be considered
'magical'"-From the CyberCthulhu rules in Interface
---------------------
From: awr0@aberystwyth.ac.uk
Subject: Copyrighting and my underwear
Message-ID: <9306241533.AA09012@uk.ac.aber.fronta>
Date: 24 Jun 93 17:33:21 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1164
The format is going to be slightly different than originally stated. It
will be latexed and then I can provide the information in 2 formats
postscript and ascii (with Latex controls).
What I plan to do in the near future is send out a complete list of what I
have and who wrote it. Those people that object to me compiling there
material (sorry their) into one volume containing adventures, cults,
stories and other unusual but cool bits of information can then contact me.
I will then delete that information from the publicly distributed version.
I will say though, that all the material I have has come from FTP sites and
as such is freely available if you have the ability. The only problem is
that many many people do not have the ability.
Here follows a complete list of files that I have so far...just to
wet your appetite. The authors will be added as soon as I find the
time (beginnig of next week). I would like to thank Greg Fried who
has been sending me some cool stuff.
Script started on Thu Jun 24 16:25:40 1993
alchemy.hrestoli.Z items.Z
aleshmara.Z items1.Z
babeestergor.Z jmijie.Z
baboon.orl.vegetables.Z kar.tex.Z
baboon.orlcults.vegetables.Z lottery.story.Z
banding.Z malkioni.Z
boggles.block.Z maurer-cults.text.Z
bolongo.Z newpavis.kralorela.Z
centaur.trickster.Z old-wind.text.Z
cern.tex.Z ompalam.Z
chaos-features.text.Z pamalt.Z
cult.template.Z personalities.famil.trickster.Z
cults.lunar.Z praxspirit.Z
danar.text.Z raccoon-handout-v1.text.Z
delecti.windtemple.Z raccoon-heroquest-v1.text.Z
dilis.goldenboy.hippoi.Z redgoddess.Z
drag.tex.Z retrin.sorcspells.Z
dragonewts.Z retrint.vege.hrestspel.Z
dragons-past-7.text.Z saints.Z
duck-cult.Z sartsong.suncountygm.Z
eastisles.adve.Z shopping-list.Z
esc.quack.Z sunc.hand1.Z
eurmal.Z sunc.hand2.Z
garhound.chimera.perfe.Z tackyamat.Z
gbaji.Z tribout.circus.gordayan.Z
glorantha.intro.Z
godtime.Z uralog.Z
heroes.Z write.prax.Z
hornedgod.Z wyrms-footnotes-5.text.Z
hungryghosts.Z yalem.Z
hykim.Z yelm.Z
I have a few questions concerning the redgoddess write-up. There is no
author on the file! Does anybody ever remember writing up the redgoddess
Anyway, If anybody wants me to mail them the individual files of what I
have please contact me.
Adam
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Re: Extension, long duration, and mail-technical problems
Message-ID:
Date: 24 Jun 93 15:51:44 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1165
Our discussion about long-term divine magic continues...
Now it's divine magic
___________________________
Greg Fried in X-RQ-ID: 1152
>>>
I meant the system to limit learning, but if you really want to be mean, I
suppose you could use it for casting, too.
<<<
Well, in fact I'd think that it's sensible to apply it to casting only. I
personally have nothing against e.g. a Wind Lord who has learned say twelve
points of shield to apply on three different occasions stacked up to four
points. Neither had RQ2, as far as I know - I haven't got the rules, yet.
This way let him sarifice as much as he wants to, and just apply your
penalty when casting. BTW, I'd say that four points ought to have a
reasonable chance to be cast, since in RQ2 it had. There are some
six-point spells in RQ3, too, like Waha's Call Founder, which must be
possible to cast. And I agree about Shield 10 being unwanted in normal
games, and thus hard to get through. Make it next to impossible, but not
impossible.
As soon as I have found an algorithm which deals with this I'll post it.
________________________
Steve G in X-RQ-ID: 1154
>>>
The problem with letting spells run on a long time is that, while some
spells are relatively harmless w/long duration (or in fact cry out for
long durations), other spells become unreasonably effective [compare a
spell used to disguise a person may need to endure for hours for use to be
made of it; whereas a few minutes will encompass the successful use of a
combat spell such as shield. The problem is the one-size-fits-all spell
descriptions.
<<<
Why the problem with Shield? Nobody complains about Bless Woad. Ok, that
has more restrictions and is in a certain sense one-use (i.e. it's an
enchantment costing 1 POW), but it works for a long time. Yes, it is
unbalancing the game a bit, but then to learn enough Extensions to make a
one-week shield happen takes quite a lot of POW, and several weeks in
temple just to regain one use of it - provided one day of prayer and
MP-sacrifice per spell point.
But then there are some spells which woud give me a real headache if some
character had them quasi-permanently running, e.g. Sureshot, Axe Trance or
Great Parry. The problem I see with some of these is that they are gross
from the beginning, and become grosser with extended duration. Or as with
Sureshot, I hate to have people running around with "whatever happens, I'll
hit, be it dark, stormy, the target partially in cover, small and in melee
with twenty of my comrades".
The way to get real high spells running with Greg's proposed system and my
application of it would be to Mindlink enough people to get sufficient MP
to succesfully overcme the high stacking resistance.
And yes, that's how I figured regimental magics like those in Dragon Pass
Boardgame worked with RQ3-rules.
Something unrelated:
Stephen Hunts wonderful story about the dragonewt dream got mutilated by
my mail-system. Reason was that some paragraphs had no linefeed and/or
carriage return at all. I don't know why, but my system seems to handle up
to 512 bytes of this before truncating.
What I'm getting at:
I know that some sun stations allow floating text to go on and on and on,
but for practicability I'd like to see articles in the digest/dailies no
longer than 75, 78 characters per line. There are enough people out here
who have to do with VT 100, or worse.
And I have the uneasy feeling that I missed some of the most crucial
parts, such as the combat between the worm and the Drago (here my text
ends, I can add "newts", but can't guess at more) and death of Morken.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
---------------------
From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried)
Subject: Welcome to the net!
Message-ID:
Date: 24 Jun 93 17:10:38 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1166
Greg Fried here.
to Sam Phillips:
You're welcome!
As for 'domestic magic', here are some ideas. I would imagine that Dendara
especially, and many other Earth goddesses would teach 'hearth' magic. As
would Mahome (see Lodril), god of the Hearthfire. Ignite and Light are
certainly useful around the home. Chalana Aroy might provide some household
magic, eg, a spirit magic spell like Disinfect. This might only tell you
that something needs more cleaning to be sanitary, not do the job itself. A
hearth god/dess might also provide a Detect Enemies for the home, as well as
a Warding. An aspect of the Trickster god could help find lost objects!
("Now where did that pesky imp of a son put my best scissors!" ('Ping!' [use
of a spell.]) "Ah, now I remember where I saw them last!")
-------------------
to David Cake:
Thanks for filling in us new-comers. Do the gods really respond like that to
your attempts at Divination?! Wow. You must have sacrificed a lot of POW to
this game!
-------------------
to Michele Finelli:
Ciao! Welcome to the Digest and to the net! We already knew you were HUNGRY
in Italy, that's why you have such good food there. (Let's just hope you
aren't Hungry in the way of Vivamort and Krarsht, as just explained by David
Cake!)
If you are having trouble getting RuneQuest material in Italy, write to
Avalon Hill, 4517 Harford Road, Baltimore MD 21214, USA, and ask for a
catalogue of their RQ products, and for information on how you can pay in
Lire.
If it's orcs you want, they figure prominently in the RuneQuest Gateway
publication Griffin Island, available from Avalon Hill. Orcs are simply not
part of the OFFICIAL GLORANTHAN mythology. They are a creation of JRR
Tolkien, not Greg Stafford. There's no reason you can't fit them into your
own version of Glorantha, though. Perhaps as a tribe of Trolls who willingly
gave themselves over to Chaos.
-------------------
to Steve G:
Thanks for the private email, but I couldn't get my response through. It
addresses stuff of interest to many readers, so I'll just post it here:
24-Jun-93 7:14:23-GMT,2652;000000000011
Received: from mailer (mailer.ug.eds.com) by midway.uchicago.edu Thu, 24 Jun 93 02:14:21 CDT
Received: from DECNET-MAIL (STEVEG@ARC) by UG.EDS.COM (PMDF V4.2-11 #3381) id
<01GZQJ1BSMLS0064KH@UG.EDS.COM>; Thu, 24 Jun 1993 00:08:56 PDT
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 00:08:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Entropy needs no maintenance
Subject: Re: A new Sun god....
To: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu
Message-Id: <01GZQJ1BTYTU0064KH@UG.EDS.COM>
X-Envelope-To: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu
X-Vms-To: MAILER::IN%"f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu"
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
This is rather than clutter up bandwidth in the main daily
re
>It was my impression from "Cults of Terror" page 91, that the rune that looks
>like the Fertility rune on its side with a vertical line through its node is
>the Undead rune (ie, it is Life + Death runes combined). I've noticed in the
>sorcery discussions that people refer to a 'Hunger' rune. I had no idea what
>that meant until now.But where do you get this from?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Greg, eventually. The obvious Life+Death = some intermediate state has
clearly been determined to be some god-learner heresy; the official word is
now that the rune denotes Vivamort's hunger for existance - and is why Krarsht
has been assigned the rune in Gods of Glorantha.
>I know nothing about Elmal. (Is there a god Yio too?!)
The short answer is "go read _Kingo of Sartar_". To elaborate, Elmal was a
thane of Orlanth's, who guarded his homestead while he quested to restore the
Sun. His cult was that of an obedient guardian spirit of light, a solar cult
tamed to accepability amongst storm people. Later, the Orlanthi Elmal was
identified with the elves' god of last light, and other Solar myths from the
north. KoS is very revisionist, claiming that the Yelmalio cult didn't exist
until ~1450ST (compared with its activiy in Prax c800ST mentioned in _Cults of
Prax_ - or even the post-KoS published _River of Cradles_).
* * *
Unfortunately, one of the routers through which the Daily reached me has
thrown a wobbly at the formatting of the cult write-up. a "U" has been
substituted for each "'"; and a "=" thus
Yalem is the child of the White Moon and the Sun, who together concei=
inserted to break the text into 69 character lines. I've noticed that this
also often leads to long "lines" (i.e. word-wrapped paragraphs w/carriage
returns marking paragraph breaks) being truncated abruptly too.
Other attributes of Yelm are of healer and harpist; I presume that there are
different cults to carry those, if they are of importance to your culture?
GF out.
---------------------
From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 22 Jun 1993, part 1
Message-ID: <9306241733.AA03352@bondi.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 24 Jun 93 17:33:53 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1167
> Does Glorantha have room for more Sun gods other than Yelm?
There are many examples of Gloranthan deities who have 'children' that
are aspects of themselves. The Earth Goddesses may be considered as
aspects of one goddess. Yelmalio is also an aspect of Yelm. In some
cults this is quite explicit, in others it may be implicit. Thus the
Dara Happans worship the Sun of Time as one Aspect of the Eternal Sun;
youir Islanders worship Yalem as Yelm's son. I really don't see any
conflict here.
It also makes sense for the White Moon to be in the Underworld. She
is born in Godtime, is sundered. Her blood is spilled and soaks the
earth that later becomes the Red Moon (leaving the Crater). Her body is
sundered, part hangs on as the half-dead Annilla, parts crash to earth
as the Blue Moon Plateau and other areas. Her spirit (White Moon) goes
to the Underworld. It's a reasonable mythology, not consistent with
what I think, but Gloranthans don't have to be consistent with each other.
- Paul
---------------------
From: henkl@holland.sun.com (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland)
Subject: Re: mail-technical problems
Message-ID: <1993Jun24.221542.24474@holland.sun.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 22:15:42 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1168
joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner) writes:
>What I'm getting at:
>I know that some sun stations allow floating text to go on and on and on,
>but for practicability I'd like to see articles in the digest/dailies no
>longer than 75, 78 characters per line. There are enough people out here
>who have to do with VT 100, or worse.
I checked this, and the article was already mangled when it arrived
here.
I already try to check individual article size (which has now failed
a couple of times for unknown reasons?) and I am really reluctant
to perform additional checks. It's all Advanced Shell Programming
and although I consider myself quite adept at that, it takes time
to get things right. Time I'd rather spend reading the digest.
So: when you submit anything: warp (wrap) the lines at 72 characters.
Hint: If you're using UNIX, use the 'fmt' command to reformat your
text.
Hint for Sun Mailtool users: (others, please ignore)
Highlight your text, invoke the text-window Menu and choose:
Extras -> Format
or don't use mailtool...
--
Henk | Henk.Langeveld@Sun.COM - Disclaimer: I don't speak for Sun.
oK[] | RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM
---------------------
From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu
Subject: more ogre stuff
Message-ID: <9306242326.AA03431@bondi.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 24 Jun 93 23:26:25 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1169
Here is more Ogre stuff from Finula. She has rushed off to a dig
so this is the last we will have on this topic for a while. I only did
a quick look at this so it is 99% hers. Be polite if you want to criticize
it as she is away for two months and won't be around to defend herself...
- Paul R.
More on Ogres
I agree that the biology stuff is not necessary for an Ogre writeup for
RQ. It's in there because I wanted people to see that they actually work
from a sociobiological viewpoint. There is a niche for them in the real
world. They could actually exist.
Many Cultures on Earth have or have had a lower class who are the only
ones who are allowed to handle dead bodies. In several cases they are also
the only ones who are allowed to eat meat.
Ogre Disadvantages
Lest anyone think that being an Ogre is an easy win; think again. They
have many disadvantages. Besides the obvious things which I previously
mentioned, such as the fact that one mistake can lead to the destruction of
an entire clan, or the fact that any troll can Darksense that they are
different from "other humans". If the troll knows what it means they are
almost certainly doomed. Etc., etc.
They have physical disadvantages which go along with their
specialization. Yes they are stronger, but stronger means that they have
less flexibility in their arms. They are set up more like a chimps arms.
Very good at pulling something towards itself or tearing apart but not so
good at throwing. (Hence the crossbow is favored) The shoulders are
muscle bound.
Humans are far better at long distance running. If the Ogre can't win in
the first 200 yards, he isn't going to. They are designed to lie in wait and
spring rather than running something down. They are all fast twitch
muscle.
Ogres are not creative. They are excellent mimics but are very lacking
in that omnivorous curiosity that humans have in such abundance. They
stick to tried and true methods. They don't question what works. They have
serious trouble with situations where killing or mimicry won't solve the
problem.
Ogres have a shorter life span. In theory they should live as long as
humans or longer. In practice as soon as they start to slow down or fail to
adapt to a change in human society, they are challenged or murdered. Ogres
almost never live to be old.
The average Ogre is not terribly physically superior to a human. They
get that superiority by killing at least 50% of every generation.
Creating an Ogre Character
Here are the basic Ogre stats
STR 2D6+12
CON 2D6+6
SIZ 2D6+6
INT 2D6+6
POW 2D6+6
DEX 3D6
CHA 3D6+3
As you can see, only in strength do they go way past the Human norm.
The rest represents the edge they get from ruthless culling. (Note that
they are not as tough as the Agimori overall.)
All Ogres should start with 50% disguise. Our house rule says 50%
acting as well, since they are mimicing human culture.
Common professions are noble, merchant, entertainer, mercenary,
gladiator,executioner, butcher, grave digger, body collector(in large
cities), etc. The upper class professions are generally more fun to play but
the others can make for interesting encounters. In theory, an Ogre in the
Lunar empire may take any profession. In our campaign it is possible for
an Ogre to get a license to eat human bodies in the Lunar Empire - but
to do so one must fill out a LOT of forms.
Appropriate Cults
Chaotic
According to RQ, only 5% of Ogres actually have a chaotic feature. In
our house rules we played that the race in general has a very mild taint of
chaos on them, such as one might expect to find on a person who has been
fighting chaos and got some blood or something on them. Our rule was it
takes a crit for a Storm Bull to detect chaos on them specifically (Khans
with 90% skill can pick out exact sources though. Fast Talk can be used to
persuade the Bulls that they are just smelling splatters from when the
individual was recently fighting chaos. The Telmori have a similar taint of
chaos from their curse.
Only the cult of Uleria specifically excludes chaotic entities from its
ranks, though I would assume that Storm Bull and Waha should be included.
Chaotic cults generally become the refuge of the loosers in civilized
Ogre society; the ones who have been found inadequate and cast out. The
powers of chaos always offer a chance to get ahead when other routes are
closed. Random chaotic cults may of course be joined randomly.
Cacodaemon tends to be a default for these Ogres, though established
families fear that cult greatly. Random exposure to one of its lost holy
places can ruin an otherwise perfect cover.
Krarsht is popular with the power seekers. Indeed, it has become the
dominant cult for Ogres in some areas, particulary in Barueli in Pamaltela.
(this is in our campaign, Hungry Goddess = Krarsht) They look to Krarsht to
protect them from Cacodaemon. Their own instincts help them to rise high
in the cult.
Other favored cults, beside the obvious Lunars, are: Eurmal (under death
sentence anyway) Thief Gods, Humact (source: Smell of a Rat, plus C. of
Terror reaction table), Arkat (fanatical converted Chaos fighters), the dark
aspects of the Earth Goddess(Babeester Gor, Gorgorma, Maran Gor, Asrelia/Ty Kora Tek), City Gods, Donandar, and The Invisible God.
---------------------
From: staats@Athena.MIT.EDU
Subject: Dinners for PCs
Message-ID: <9306250027.AA26530@w20-575-73>
Date: 25 Jun 93 00:27:12 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1170
John,
>In the tradition of a friend of mine starting a game set in Tekumel with
>a dinner (for the players, not the characters) in Tekumelyani style, I was
>planning on trying a similar dinner with Lunar food and drink to kick off
>my new campaign. ( Maybe we'll try to eat Praxian later - YUCK! )
>Anyone have any ideas what they eat, aside from Fronelan Barley? I was planning
>on some sort of quasi-mediterranean meal (more North African and Turkish, than
>Italian), but would love any additional suggestions.
It's a good thing your party isn't in the Troll Lands! :-)
Rich