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Date: Tue, 29 Jun 93 17:15:14 +0200
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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, 29 Jun 1993, part 1
Precedence: junk
Status: OR
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: mabeyke@batman.b11.ingr.com (boris)
Subject: Runes
Message-ID: <199306281542.AA02106@batman.b11.ingr.com>
Date: 28 Jun 93 15:42:53 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1180
I ran into a friend of mine at Archon this weekend who does cast bronze
sculpture, and noticed that (among other things) he had the Moorcockian
Sign of Chaos pendants and pins. I got to thinking, it would be really
cool if something similar was done with Gloranthan runes, say for the
upcoming RQ Con. We talked some about it, and he is willing to cast
some stuff for me if I give him sketches of the shapes and sizes. The
price for these would probably be around $15-$30 for items around one
or two inches in diameter (or square, or whatever). So, before I waste
a bunch of his time and my money on this, what do you guys think? If
I could get a few advance orders, I'm more than willing to finance doing
this. I was thinking of maybe 10-20 items, individual runes or some rune
sets (say a spearhead pendant with Storm/Mastery/Motion, maybe a sword
pendant with Death and Truth, and maybe an axe pendant with Death/Beast/
Storm or Death/Earth).
So, is anyone interested?
----
(*) ZZ [] (.) @ e K| o8- |> oK <>< )o 3 8 <|
Every dark cloud is a pretty cool thing.
Orlanthi proverb.
Boris
|><| +- (| >- .: K * =|= <- (O) ( ) (o) (|) X-
---------------------
From: drcheng@sales.stern.nyu.edu (David Cheng)
Subject: RQ Feedback to Avalon Hill
Message-ID:
Date: 29 Jun 93 03:59:35 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1181
Hello all,
(Quick RQ-Con Plug)
With the summer convention season gearing up, hopefully you'll see
our fliers at any con you happen to attend. We are sending packets of
them to most cons listed in Dragon, Challenge, Pyramid, The Gamer,
Vortext, Polyhedron, and maybe White Wolf, if they begin to list cons
in time for us.
If you're going to a con not listed in one of these fine publications,
and you'd like to help spread the word, please send mail to Paul
Harmaty ( pharmaty@aol.com), and he'll send you as many as you
request. If possible, give us several weeks notice, so we can
save $ by using 3rd class mail.
The pre-reg book is coming along. Look for it soon: certainly before
Gencon.
Avalon Hill Feedback
Y'all might remember back in the middle of April, there was a thread
here commenting on AH's distribution & marketing. Well, I took all
those relevant posts and sent them to Jack Dott, President of Avalon
Hill.
He sent me a reply, thanking me for making the effort. However, he
is of the opinion that the cases of ~RQ product not being on the shelf~
were not normal, they were flukes.
I am a bit dismayed at this stance, because we all know full well that
many stores don't carry RQ stuff anymore, or they order only one copy
and don't reorder.
* I urge any of you with "I can't by RQ product" stories to write
Jack Dott directly. *
Don't e-mail Ken Rolston: he's too busy already. Please help Avalon
Hill understand that this problem is bigger than they think.
The address is:
Jackson Y. Dott
President, The Avalon Hill Game Company
4517 Harford Road
Baltimore, MD 21214
Fax: 410-254-0991
(I am deliberately not providing the phone number, as I know from
personal experience that Jack _much_ prefers letters/faxes to
phone calls. Trust me on this one.)
More soon,
-David Cheng
drcheng@sales.stern.nyu.edu
---------------------
From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried)
Subject: You Again!
Message-ID:
Date: 29 Jun 93 05:58:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1182
Greg Fried here.
Joerg:
I think you're absolutely right about using my system for casting rather than
learning points of stackable rune magic. If you do find an algorithm
preferable to mine (square the number of points to be learned/cast and
overcome that number with your POW in a resistance roll), do let me know!
----------------
For anyone who wants to get a sense of how ogres would operate covertly in
society, even a civilized one, see the movie "Parents". It'll put you off
meat for a while.
----------------
Any GM or players:
What do people in your campaign get charged for identifying magical artifacts,
and what's the rationale for this price?
----------------
Steve G:
Sorry about the SNAFU in communications! I'd try again, but don't want to
clog up the Daily. Could you post here or privately, and I'll try once more.
---------From news@glorantha Fri Mar 26 17:16:32 1993
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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: The RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 26 Mar 1993
Precedence: junk
Status: OR
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: u9061711@athmail1.causeway.qub.ac.uk
Subject: RQIV - Rules
Message-ID: <9303251659.AA01360@lis26>
Date: 25 Mar 93 16:59:33 GMT
If youre not dickmj@essex.ac.uk I'm sorry but for some reason we
cant mail e-mail across bits of the Irish Sea.
Dear Dickmj,
Please send me the RQIV rules!
Thanks
James F.J. McKenna
aka u9061711@athmail1.causeway.qub.ac.uk
aka very annoyed Belfast!
---------------------
From: henkl@glorantha (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland)
Subject: Re: RQIV - Rules
Message-ID: <9303251706.AA26922@glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM>
Date: 25 Mar 93 19:06:24 GMT
>
>
> If youre not dickmj@essex.ac.uk I'm sorry but for some reason we
> cant mail e-mail across bits of the Irish Sea.
>
> Dear Dickmj,
> Please send me the RQIV rules!
>
> Thanks
> James F.J. McKenna
> aka u9061711@athmail1.causeway.qub.ac.uk
> aka very annoyed Belfast!
>
And you think the link back is reliable?
---------------------
From: peterw@computer-science.manchester.ac.uk (Peter Wake)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 25 Mar 1993
Message-ID: <9303251807.AA02068@r2i.cs.man.ac.uk>
Date: 25 Mar 93 18:07:01 GMT
>From: mace@lum.asd.sgi.com (Rob Mace)
>Subject: Re: Holy Days and Adventuring
>Message-ID: <9303250444.AA24340@lum.asd.sgi.com>
>Date: 24 Mar 93 12:44:50 GMT
>
>SPB1@VMS.BRIGHTON.AC.UK (Ghost Dancer) writes:
>>
>> (problem of characters not being able to travel deleted)
>>
>> Does anyone have any work round ideas for this, how was it done in house
>> campaigns. It may be easier when members of the party are up to Lord or
>> Priest level but I run a starting group who are nowhere near such high
>> offices yet.
>
>Here is how we have gotten around this problem.
>No use to Cult/God: Excommunicate them.
Let's be raesonable. Look at the real world. A Catholic priest
doesn't get excommunicated for failing to turn up to a service on Good
Friday or whatever. As for initiates (confirmed) it would be
ridiculous, even if they were just visiting their aunt Florie.
At the end of the day the Priests and High Priests have the spell to
Excommunicate and they can withold it whenever they want. They decide
what is cult business. If a priest has a grudge against initiate X
then X might get excommunicated for missing a service but *everyone*
would know it was just an excuse. If a priest excommunicated X for
joining an enemy cult then everyone would think it was a soft
punishment, that's the societies work.
In Glorantha people often can't make services for all kinds of reasons
and it seems obvious that characters don't get excommunicated if they
can't attend a service. As for Rune Levels they decide what is right
and if their High Priest will wear it then that's fine. Wherever they
are they can perform their worship ceremony and their god will hear
(this is more or less indicated in the rules). They may not get any
*benefits* such as a POW gain roll but they can worship anywhere.
A temple is nothing more than a place where Priests andd Rune Lords
gather. Now a character who *forgot* his god completely on a holy day
might get some severe *warnings*, but they'd deserve them. Rune
Levels could expect a more severe response but the idea of them
actually forgetting acidentally is impossible.
What I'm saying here is that you can 'worhip' anywhere even without a
temple - if you *have* to. Most people, Rule Levels included would
want to be at a temple for cultural as well as religious reasons.
There are many cults that don't have 'High Priests' or that have
independent Rule Levels (Humakt, Storm Bull, Orlanth Adventurous) and
they owe very little to any individual temple. If you look at Cults
of Prax (don't tell me its out of date, I'm talking culture not rules)
you'll find that Storm Khans owe allegiance to nobody but their god.
Who's going to excommunicate them? It would only happen if the god
requested some other Khan to do it with his sanction. They don't need
temples, they *are* the temple. Their following determines the size.
What I had trouble deciding is what do they do with 90% of their
income. When I was playing a Storm Khan the referee decided that I
should keep the money but keep it for cult business. It was between
me and the Storm Bull what I did with it and there was no way I was
going to cheat him - damn straight. Most of the money was spent on
equiping NPC initiates or given to Eiritha. The annual present came
out of my own resources.
The bottom line:
If you want to tie characters down and make them hop from temple to
temple, unable to enter foreign lands for more than a few days at a
time then you can play it that way. The impression I get is that very
few people want to play this way. Let's just assume that things get
handled in a practical and pragmatic manner in Glorantha and these
problems vanish.
The cash problem: where does cult money go? Is far more interesting.
I have always had my way of doing things, not necessarily the same as
the examples above, probably not the same as yours. How do you do it?
--
Peter Wake
---------------------
From: dustin@ocf.Berkeley.EDU (Dustin Tranberg)
Subject: genius elf maiden
Message-ID: <199303251812.AA06743@whirlwind.berkeley.edu>
Date: 25 Mar 93 02:12:56 GMT
NEIL@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Neil Taylor ext 315) writes:
>I have a problem with the Runequest III experience rolls, which you get after
>succeeding with a skill:
> roll D100+category_bonus > MIN(skill,100)
>
> [...]
> INT 22 (3D6+6 -- not a bad roll, but not unreasonable
> DEX 25 (3D6+3 -- trained to SpeciesMax, from 17
Well, IMHO, the stats say it all. First, maybe it MEANS SOMETHING
to have an Intelligence that is higher than human MAXIMUM. This
means that this elf maiden is smarter than Einstein, Nikolai Tesla,
Rommel, or Aragorn or Ged for that matter. Yeah, I'll BET she's
a quick study!!
Second, if her DEX has been trained up 8 points, that's an achievement
in itself. My reading of the RQIII rules (they're not clear) suggests
that she would need to have found someone else who had researched or
been trained up 8 points in DEX to train her, or to have researched
it herself, things that sound expensive, year-consuming, or both.
Furthermore, it doesn't appear to be possible to research a stat above
20, as you have to roll higher than stat*5% to get the increase when
researching. Also, training DEX from 17 to 25 will take a minimum of
86 weeks, over a year and a half.
Wishing my characters were smarter than Einstein,
Dustin
---------------------
From: dustin@ocf.Berkeley.EDU (Dustin Tranberg)
Subject: skills over 100
Message-ID: <199303251830.AA06778@whirlwind.berkeley.edu>
Date: 25 Mar 93 02:30:07 GMT
T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk (Thom Baguley) writes:
>I thought the limit on skill increases for RQIII was 6 (highest roll on D6)
>plus category modifier plus 100. Are the US RQ III rules different or do any of
>the errata refer to this? I keep finding NPCs in RQ scenarios with skills
>higher than this (e.g. 150% when attack is +22) - is this a mistake?
[Also...]
etlanmy@aachen.ericsson.se (Allan Murphy) writes:
>No, she doesn't. Look again, skills are limited to 100% + modifier. Ie, if
>she has an attack modifier of 29%, her maximum attack % is 129 %, because
>the way the experience roll works is that you must roll over your current
>attack % minus your modifier.
Sorry, guys, but that's not how it works for skills over 100%. I quote
from the RQIII Players Book, p.37:
The system for the experience roll changes once the threshold
of 100 is reached. If an adventurer is 100% or better in a skill,
his player must roll over 100 on D100 to succeed at an experience
roll -- remember that an adventurer's skills category modifier
can boost the D100 result to over 100. This rule applies at any
time, no matter how much over 100% the skill has risen.
Thus, it should be quite possible for someone with a high modifier to
reach 200% in their lifetime, assuming that they keep risking their
necks in the field.
Wondering if I can reach 200% in Write Grant Proposal,
Dustin
---------------------
From: MAB@SAVAX750.RUTHERFORD.AC.UK (Mystic Musk Ox)
Subject: RE: The RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 25 Mar 1993
Message-ID: <9303260939.AA06956@Sun.COM>
Date: 26 Mar 93 08:13:00 GMT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> If you have an unreasonable category bonus, you get unreasonable amounts of
> experience... Consider CELEDORIE, an Avenger (Priest) of Babeestor Gor, and an
> Elf maiden too. She has
> .
> .
Gark! Doesn't anyone play ordinary characters? You know, the ones with
stats of 9-12, skills of 50%-75% and no money? When you start pushing
any system to its limit, it will start to fall apart...
> Why bother training yourself, just train your stats up...
I seem to remember the rules about training stats are a bit vague.
I assumed that for cost/time you treated the stat x 5% as a skill
ie STR of 15 is the same to train as a skill of 75%. That is 3 weeks
and some cash (can't remember how much) for 1 point plus living costs
(say about 160L) if you are paying for yourself. Say about 220L.
To get high stats takes a lot of money and training, not to mention
dedication. I don't believe that anyone can train endlessly without
a break.
>2. I don't think Ceremony (or any other Ritual skills) can be increased by
>experience (I could be wrong, my RQ stuff is at home). Same for Sorcery
>manipulation skills. You have to train them. Remember that in previous
>experience Priests get no more than several percentiles each year in
>ritual skills. Even if you consider that too low, characters out of play
>shouldn't get more experience gains then NPCs or starting characters in
>the same occupation would get.
Yes, Ceremony etc are only increased by training. If you are a priest,
and you have a lot of Avenging (with your Axe) to do, there isn't much
time for that.
>I thought the limit on skill increases for RQIII was 6 (highest roll on D6)
>plus category modifier plus 100. Are the US RQ III rules different or do any of
>the errata refer to this? I keep finding NPCs in RQ scenarios with skills
>higher than this (e.g. 150% when attack is +22) - is this a mistake?
I don't recall this in the AH (UK) rules, I thought it is always
d100 roll + modifier, and if that is over 100% you get an increase...
If this is a bit alarming, then give less ticks, play out the adventures
(and at that level the opponents should be pretty hard), or rule that
once you get to 100% (or even 90%), any skill increase is only 1%.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
> travelling characters
>
> Does anyone have any work round ideas for this, how was it done in house
> campaigns...
Perhaps it is possible to have someone (a priest, another initiate etc)
"stand in" for you at a ceremony. This could entail extra sacrifice
e.g. magic points, goods, money, etc. Then the god gets the flexibility
of people stomping off to do cult business, but still gets the mp's
for worship. If you are high up in the cult, then I guess this gets done
for you for nothing, if you are a lowly initiate, you have to appease
the god by providing a replacement yourself. I would think that the
important thing as far as the cult is concerned is that the arrangements
are made in advance.
Hm, perhaps there would be professional temple standins for hire in cities,
so that the rich and influential could pay to have someone go to all the
ceremonies...This just occurred to me, and I rather like the idea!
They would have to be initiates of many cults just to make a living I
guess, and I suspect that many of them would be Issaries initiates or
the like. I also think that the cult would expect some of the cash too.
Then again, it may be by special dispensation only.
To take this idea further (this may be silly), can other people sacrifice
POW for you to get the spell? After all the god can surely give the spell
to any one of its worshippers? I know this has horrible connotations
for play balance if you are free with giving money to PC's. I guess
the people doing this would only be initiates, and would therefore only
be getting the spell for one-use --> expensive!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, did anyone have any thoughts on my question about views
on reproduction/contraception etc within Glorantha?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Buckley Assertive or not, bullshit is still bullshit
--------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------
From: DO9EA00@sysa.computing-services.manchester-metropolitan-university.ac.uk
Subject: NPC's and a generator
Message-ID: <9303260958.AA07989@Sun.COM>
Date: 26 Mar 93 08:54:41 GMT
Re: Character Generators,
I have an NPC generator for RQIII, writen in Fortran-77, currently running
on a unix system, though it also works on my ATARI. If any one would
like a copy of the program and its data files, then please feel free to drop
me a line. By way of an example here is a character I generated earlier
HUMAN # 1
STR CON DEX SIZ INT POW APP
10 10 11 14 14 11 8
SIZ 2 + DEX 3 = BASE 5 SR.
ATTACK : 5 PARRY : -3 MAGIC : 5 DAMAGE :+0
HP:12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
FP:20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
MP:11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
melee missile location armour/hp
01-04 01-03 Right Leg / 4
05-08 04-06 Left Leg / 4
09-11 07-10 Abdomen / 4
12 11-15 Chest / 5
13-15 16-17 Right Arm / 3
16-18 18-19 Left Arm / 3
19-20 20 Head / 4
1H Short Spear A% 70 P% 62 SR 7 Dam 1D8+1+0 HP10
Broadsword A% 65 P% 57 SR 7 Dam 1D8+1+0 HP10
2H Battleaxe A% 60 P% 52 SR 7 Dam 1D8+2+0 HP 8
Self Bow A% 70 SR 1/SR Dam 1D6+1+0 HP 5
Target Sheild A% 20 P% 57 SR 8 Dam 1D6+0 HP12
The program copes with non-human and non-humanoid races and provides standadised
weapons lists bassed upon the cultural backgrounds in the rules, though these
can be modified. Characters are output to a file and may be printed (two on a
page) to a laser printer. With a bit of work the output could be done in TeX.
-----
On the subject of NPC's I prefer using information of the sort given above, PC
much prefer hering that the NPC has collapsed on his/her/its badly broken leg
and is now fighting for his/her/its life from the ground. As to difficulty
"levels" for inteligent NPC's sufficent weapons/magic skills will cause the
party problems while for uninteligent creatures I find numbers and surprise
the best tacktics.
May the red moon illuminate us all!
---------------------
From: dickmj@essex.ac.uk
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 25 Mar 1993
Message-ID: <9303261117.AA02263@serdlc13>
Date: 26 Mar 93 11:17:26 GMT
RQIV
I've posted off about 65 to 70 copies now, and while most seem to work,
I am still having some trouble. If you haven't received them by the end
of today, drop me another line and I'll try again. In the case where
the rules aren't getting through, the system seems to be rejecting the
address, so if you can try and send me a new one.
-Arganth
---------------------
From: dickmj@essex.ac.uk
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 25 Mar 1993
Message-ID: <9303261315.AA01976@serdlc14>
Date: 26 Mar 93 13:15:27 GMT
I'm going on 'holiday' now, but if you want RQIV, keep sending the
messages, and I'll get round to them eventually (it shouldn't be 4
weeks, but I'm not making any promises)
For those who didn't get it - Sorry.
May be someone else who has received it (and has got more computer
knowlegew than me) might like to take over this job while I'm away.
See y'all
-Arganth