From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 24 Aug 1993, part 1
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Sender: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM
Precedence: junk
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: dustin@ocf.Berkeley.EDU (Dustin Tranberg)
Subject: Shield-Smashing Rule
Message-ID: <199308210640.AA08700@locusts.berkeley.edu>
Date: 20 Aug 93 16:40:25 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1434
Chris Pringle's smash-the-object rule seems problematic:
A) Two-handed weapons won't last long with this rule, not even
beefy greatswords.
B) You can often get a lot of mileage out of simply TARGETING
an opponent's shield to smash it.
C) Spears shouldn't be able to do a lot of damage to a parrying weapon.
Just my 2 front teeth,
Dustin
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From: nrobinso@sirius.UVic.CA (Neil Robinson)
Subject: RQ-Con
Message-ID: <67984.nrobinso@sirius.uvic.ca>
Date: 22 Aug 93 02:53:02 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1435
Arrgghhhh.....
Why oh why does that RQ-Con have to in Maryland? I have to cross
an entire continent to get there and at great expense! It is ALMOST
enough to convince me not to go. Almost. :-)
David (Cheng), you and the other people setting this up look like
you have your work cut out for you. I can't wait to see it! It will
be interesting to meet the 'netters'.
Only 5 months...... (less a week!)
I guess I'll have to auction off my RQ II duplicates to pay for
the trip. Sigh.
Neil Robinson | "Never underestimate the power of human
nrobinso@sirius.uvic.ca | stupidity." - L. Long
2996 Dysart Rd. Victoria B.C. V9A 2K2 (604) 385-1642
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From: nrobinso@sirius.UVic.CA (Neil Robinson)
Subject: RuneQuest-Con
Message-ID: <68349.nrobinso@sirius.uvic.ca>
Date: 22 Aug 93 02:59:06 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1436
Arrggghhhh! I got the RQ-Con Preregistration Booklet yesterday.
It looks great!
Why does the convention have to be in Maryland? I've got an entire
continent to cross to get to it. It is enough make me miss it. Well
almost enough. :-) So much for the new CD player.... I guess I'll
have to sell my RQ II duplicates at the auction to fund the trip.
Only 5 months (less a week!)
Neil Robinson | "Never underestimate the power of human
nrobinso@sirius.uvic.ca | stupidity." - L. Long
2996 Dysart Rd. Victoria B.C. V9A 2K2 (604) 385-1642
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From: MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Subject: Chaos Down South
Message-ID: <01H22SQBLJYU9S4AWU@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
Date: 23 Aug 93 18:00:21 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1437
G'day all,
MOB here. I haven't sent anything to the Digest for a while, been too
busy in my real job.
I've got a question: I'm currently working on Tales #11 - The Pamaltela specialissue.
There's an obscure reference I've had no luck tracking down: somewhere I read
that while chaos manifests as groups of smaller, weaker beings in Genertela,
in Pamaltela chaos monsters tend to be single, unique individuals (eg. Mother
of Monsters). I'm pretty sure Greg or Sandy wrote this somewhere, but where?
I've looked through just about everything, but it must have slipped past me.
Can anyone help?
And I'll leave you with this old joke from Tales #4:
Q: "Why have all the Sun Domers got brown eyes and blonde hair?"
A: "'cos those who ain't get "Totoal Celibacy"
Anyone else got Gloranthan jokes?
Cheers,
MOB
---------------------
From: Ola.Knutsson@ina.hv.se (Ola Knutsson)
Subject: Generating npc's ?
Message-ID: <930823.143703.417@macpost.hv.se>
Date: 23 Aug 93 15:37:03 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1438
I'm posting this for a friend. Please send replies through me.
---------
hello all you RQ Gm`s with a pc out there. I don`t know if the digest is the
right place to do this, but if any of you have a pc program for generating pc`s
or npc`s i would be very grateful if you could send it to me.
thanks, Miklos Weiss.
----------
Ola Knutsson
V{xj| University, SWEDEN
email: Ola.Knutsson@ina.hv.se
---------------------
From: C442196@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu
Subject: ghosts, undead, spirits, POW in Glorantha
Message-ID: <9308231937.AA16770@Sun.COM>
Date: 23 Aug 93 19:11:23 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1439
About the line between ghosts and undead and the nature of POW:
To me the rules on this make no sense; in fact, I'd happily toss out
everything in the RQ2 Magic book. What really grates is the possibility
of spirits taking part as worshippers in temple services, which ought
to make ancestor cults incredibly powerful, not the primitive affairs
they are. Also, if spirits regenerate MPs, what can humans give them
that they would possibly want?
My proposal: POW stores MPs, but CON regenerates them. Undead have
POW, but no CON (after all, CON = health, and an undead creature is the
least healthy thing imaginable). This way, spirits would need human
contact and have more motivation to be worshipped by or to possess
mortals. This would also slow shamans down some, since their source
of MPs (fetch and bound spirits) wouldn't renew itself automatically.
Shamans need SOMETHING to slow them down.
Ancestor cults don't need great temple status anyway; they're there to
summon and bargain with spirits, not to acquire tons of rune spells.
That's my heretical idea for today. Feel free to flame the hell out
of it. At least maybe it'll change the subject from this obsession
with healing.
nh
---------------------
From: henkl@glorantha (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland)
Subject: Re: ghosts, undead, spirits, POW in Glorantha
Message-ID: <9308240024.AA09176@glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM>
Date: 24 Aug 93 04:24:32 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1440
PS: Like the idea. Although in my world, POW does not
(re-)generate mp, it just attracts it. In Prax there's
the Dead Place, where no magic exists. No regeneration
there...
Your Soul is a vessel, POW is its size.
---------------------
From: gbailey@aol.com
Subject: RQ introduction; Boldhome
Message-ID: <9308232330.tn257815@aol.com>
Date: 24 Aug 93 03:30:24 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1441
I was playing at a game store and the store owner asked me to describe RQ to
someone asking about it. Besides saying it's
a fantasy RPG, what else can I say about the game within a few
sentences that can get someone interested?
We're having a game convention, TRICON, on Sept. 18-19 near
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and I volunteered to run a Runequest game.
Title is Mischief in Boldhome, I have a few ideas to try out
but welcome other suggestions. Most players (if I get any)
will be new. I wrote up character descriptions on 3x5 cards
and players will select their character by that, then I'll give
them a character sheet with additional information (the
descriptions have a D&D equivalent listed - please don't Disrupt me). Each
character, all having run ins with Lunar activities, will
be coincidently near the Bull's Tail Tavern (a known Orlanthi hangout). A
Lunar raid will probably pull the characters together but I haven't decided
where to go from there as yet. One of the
characters will be a Lunar sympathizer.
---------------------
From: ddunham@radiomail.net (David Dunham , via RadioMail)
Subject: PenDragon Pass
Message-ID: <9308240454.AA06617@radiomail.net>
Date: 24 Aug 93 04:54:16 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1442
In 1985, I started a Gloranthan campaign depicting the colonization of
Dragon Pass. I chose to use Pendragon instead of RuneQuest as the base
rules because they were better suited to a long-term campaign spanning
decades of game time.
I tried to use straight Pendragon as much as possible, with RuneQuest's
magic system (so I could use all the existing cult material). I called the
result "PenDragon Pass." I didn't get to run the campaign very long, but I
described the experience in Tales of the Reaching Moon 6. (Refer to that
article for more detail, especially about the Gloranthan setting.)
About a year ago, Greg Stafford asked me to take another look at Griffin
Island, a campaign which I'd not given much thought to because it wasn't as
good as the original Griffin Mountain. Well, it's still not as good as the
original, but did have some cool stuff, and useful handouts (only the
religion handout makes any mention of game mechanics). I decided to dust
off the PenDragon Pass rules and run Griffin Island.
Statistics
To accommodate magic, I added POW. Pendragon doesn't use INT. As in
Arthurian Pendragon, each culture has modifiers to the stats (see TRM6 for
Gloranthan cultures), and different starting skills
Traits and Passions
Each religion has five virtues. For example, Hilme (the Sun God in Griffin
Island) values Chaste, Generous, Honest, Just, Valorous (see TRM6 for
Gloranthan virtues). To become an initiate, a candidate must make 3 of the
5 rolls (as well as the normal RQ requirements). Likewise, priests (or Rune
Lords) must not only make a POW roll (on d20) but make 4 of the 5 trait
rolls. This screens out unworthy candidates.
Hate passions seem popular. I haven't been doing the best job coming up
with scenarios to test traits and passions (Griffin Island isn't much
help).
Status
Unlike Pendragon, where knights seek Glory, in PenDragon Pass you gain
Status not only for performing great deeds, but for healing or leadership
responsibility (this hasn't come up in the current campaign, but a PC can
certainly aspire to leading a clan).
Pendragon halves Glory obtained through use of missile weapons; I kept this
rule, but haven't always been applying it. I'll probably drop it soon (it
makes sense for knights, but not for elves or Grazers), but I'm open to
argument.
Skills
I dropped several Pendragon skills because they were too Arthurian (e.g.
Hawking, Heraldry), and added Animal Lore, Bargaining, Custom ,
Devise, Industry, Mathematics, Memorize (limits magic, and can be used by
heralds), Mineral Lore, Plant Lore, Ritual (this covers all the RQ3 ritual
magic skills), Shamanism (this covers all the RQ4 shaman skills), Sleight,
Sorcery (also the various manipulation skills), Stealth, Stewardship, and
World Lore.
Combat
Pendragon combat works well and is very quick. I added several tactics
(Break Shield, Disarm, Flurry, Guard) from RQ4, but I don't think anyone's
used them. When iron weapons enter the campaign, they'll be more durable
(swords won't break them on tied resolutions).
Magic
Spirit combat is simply opposed resolution of MP. The loser loses d3; if he
makes a partial success, the victor loses one MP.
I kept most spirit and divine spells, but they tend to be weaker (since hit
points, damage, and armor are larger in Pendragon than in RQ).
You can learn a spirit spell instead of one point of skill, and can learn
as many spells as your Memorize skill. To keep things simple, you only
learn a variable spell once. You can cast it at up to POW/3. Casting is a
POW roll (the same roll may be used to oppose against a target's MP).
Divine magic is just like RQ3. Only Regrow Limb eliminates a major wound.
Rune Lords need five 18 skills -- several characters are getting close.
I added sorcery rules vaguely based on an RQ4 proposal. You cast spells as
an opposed roll of your Sorcery skill and the points in the spell. You can
use Duration, Intensity, Multiialist, he's weak at it.
Magic can heal a wound only once (and most magic won't remove a major wound
or negate the need for Chirurgery), but can be combined with First Aid.
Enchantments require a Ritual roll as well as a POW sacrifice. In this
campaign, there haven't been any magic items, but the earlier Dragon Pass
campaign did have priests as parents or grandparents, and thus a certain
amount of heirloom magic. As in Pendragon, truly powerful magic is still
the domain of the GM.
Occasionally, magic has been more powerful than it should (such as the time
a warrior with 18 points of battlemagic took on a gorgosaur), but the
transition from RQ3 cults works pretty well. A few features still feel
bolted on, and it's not as simple as I'd like.
Converting
I occasionally have to convert an NPC from RQ3 to PenDragon Pass. It's
usually straightforward, dividing skill percentiles by 5 (sometimes finding
a similar skill), figuring out what sort of armor's worn and using the
equivalent Pendragon value, etc.
Comments
Play is much faster, and the game easier to explain, than RQ4. It's a
little foreign to veteran RQ players. Wounds can have permanent effect, and
can take weeks to recover from, which makes the game feel far more
realistic than RQ (despite the lack of detail).
We have some high level PCs (e.g. a Hilme Priest), since I'm not limiting
the starting age (though aging rolls start at 35). This hasn't been much of
a problem -- the priest has rune magic, but not the gear he'd have had if
he attained the rank through play.
I'd hoped to run one year per session, but haven't always been able to (Joh
Mith's caravan route took about 4 sessions to play). Still, we've managed
to get through 4 game years, and several characters are now married with
children.
The Future
I plan to run a PenDragon Pass game at RQ-Con. By then, I may be using the
new edition of Pendragon.
And I'd still like to run a Gloranthan PenDragon Pass campaign starting in
1333...
Copyright 1993, David Dunham