From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 16 Sep 1993, part 3 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: clay@cool.vortech.com (Clay Luther) Subject: Re: Philosopher Kings Message-ID: <199309152142.AA05870@cool.vortech.com> Date: 15 Sep 93 11:42:51 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1705 > This suggests that the road to power is to join a cult like Chalana Arroy > or Lhankor Mhy. True, you won't be a leader, but you'll have access to (and > participation in) the leadership that chances are you'd never get if you > worshipped Orlanth. Oh, I have to heartily agree. I know of a Redlander expatriot Arroyan, now living in and around Prax, who is known to have often dined with and advised a Who's-Who of Praxian notables: the Honorable Sor-Eel, Count Ironpike, Duke Raus, Sa'ar of Zola Fel and Wahaza-at-Midnight of Sable Tribe. Her companions (she is said to have a Uroxi lover, of all things!), while reasonably famous by their own right along the Zola Fel, seem to lack the ability, tact or political elbow to approach persons in authority. I don't know any cultists of Lhankor Mhy -- I thought they were all dead or worshipping Irippi Ontor, anyway. But, yes, I think the same would hold true for one. Anyway, in my limited experience based on the Arroyans I've met, I've found them, almost to a one, to be inextricably drawn into politics, by whim or fancy--it doesn't matter. Of course, I've heard about these wild healer idiots, but I doubt such unreliable persons would be of any use to our leaders. -- Clay Luther clay@cool.vortech.com Software Engineer Kodak Health Imaging Systems Yelo's gift was a necklace of clam shells from the Ouel Stream strung on gut string with a delicate knot of reeds which performed the role of pendant. --------------------- From: kenrolston@aol.com Subject: RuneCzar status Message-ID: <9309151806.tn06032@aol.com> Date: 15 Sep 93 22:06:36 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1706 GF: >In the latest issue of RQ Adventures fanzine, John Castellucci writes: >"Things look very shaky at Avalon Hill these days. Ken Rolston is no longer >Rune Czar. It all came down to $$$, which Monarch Games did not want to >invest in the RQ product line. The future is uncertain." Avalon Hill and I are still negotiating the terms of my continuing service as RuneCzar. The future is uncertain, but not bleak. AH still intends to keep releasing RQ supplements as originally planned, though the schedule is delayed until negotiations are resolved. Ken Rolston --------------------- From: gadbois@cs.utexas.edu (David Gadbois) Subject: Re: Delecti: Vampire, Ghoul, or Amway Deterrent Message-ID: <9309160139.AA26755@peaches.cs.utexas.edu> Date: 15 Sep 93 15:39:33 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1707 Ken McKinney and I did some work on Delecti's history a while back, and much of the info appears in an issue of the RQ Digest from a couple of years ago. Delecti started out as a high official in the Empire of the Wyrms Friends and led the experiments that created the pain centaurs and other half-beast. I suspect that Delecti gained most of his abilities in a HeroQuest involving the event where Vivamort gave up most of his powers to the Devil -- Delecti managed to take a path where he survived his wounds without making concessions. So, he is a cult hero of Vivamort but is not a vampire himself. The quest accounts for the ability to transfer his soul into a corpse and to control undead critters. The ability to stitch together pieces of different bodies is a natural (!) extension of his sorcerous experiments. It remains to be explained exactly what he did that led to the creation of the Upland Marsh. We know that it was physically created when the Earth recoiled from some heinous crime, but I do not know just what crime it was. I also do not know how Delecti got the ability that allowed him to survive the Dragonkill War. According to Stafford, the whole swamp "does not show up on the dragon's screens." Somehow, Delecti and crew are beyond the perceptions of the dragons. --David Gadbois --------------------- From: glidedw@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Donald Wilton) Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 15 Sep 1993, part 1 Message-ID:Date: 15 Sep 93 11:29:54 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1708 Greg: I'd agree with your assesment of how to interact with pc requisites, but I never have played power gaming cults before. I have always played sorcerers interested in knowledge, or if in a lighthearted mood, Lankar mhy or chalana Aroy. The only serious power gaming happened by accident. I had a Healer, who got lucky and landed with a temporary AD&D style pile of loot. the others went off and made truly insane deals with the Issaries who promised the moon, me I bought bound spirits of power, Int, and bound reusable Divine spells via tatoo from associated cults. they had loads of dough, and my starting pc had 27 points of reusable Divine spells in enchantments dedicated to Healer use (have to be a healer for them to work, less likely that they'll get cut off by a Broo), 64 points of MP per day, and 31 points of bound Int spirits. Since the GM had expected me, fresh from D&D, to power game in money, it unbalanced the game and the LUnar had to blow off a lot of POW, to get me Illuminated. Malkioni White Moon (pacifist version, right?) Healers of Arkat, who achieve this because the gm made a slightly out of phaswe mistake, are a terror to behold. I kept doing things like resurrecting the vampires at range, and the whole game would go out of whack. The Orlanths would clean up the riff raff, and pow, it'd be over. I ended up getting turned into a pc, when I used a trickster group laghter to Illuminate the Bad Man. He gave a fetch, just to let me know that I was approaching GL status, and I better watch out. This is when I started trying to find out about GL's. This character is based on another, that was almost as bad. The road to power is from Healers and Sages, because you have to have an MP rich Healer, to survive. If the Healer can get Heal 6 (DI), and has gthe strength to continue questing, then buying him her a power spirit, is the way to survive. With people buying you spirits, it makes sense that when you inevitably take time off, that you attempt to become a shamaness or sorcerer. This seems logical. Malkionism is normal for Lankhor Mhy or Chalana Aroy, since it naturally enhances the power in council that the others need. If others give you money and power, then you use it. All of this to show, that while I may want to find ways to deal with cults in a systematic way, I'm not adverse to the needs of considering cultural ideologies. I simply recognize that most of the players I've dealth with have been power gamers, who fall into certain categories.