Bell Digest v931129p3

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, Mon, 29 Nov 1993, part 3
Message-ID: 
Precedence: junk


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From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
Subject: Lunar military, Esolian customs.
Message-ID: <9311272122.AA01777@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 93 21:22:11 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2466


  Since I brought up sevens as a base for the Daughter's Armies in the Lunar
empire (including units from Sylila, Graclodont, etc.) let me say that I
envisioned the organization to include a commander among the seven. Thus
(using modern terms) a squad has a corporal among the seven.  A platoon has
a command squad.  A regiment has a command company.

  THe command level in each case is normally held in reserve throughout a
battle unless really needed.  Compare with the strategies used by the
Red Goddess in various battles such as Dolebury - the most powerful things
are held in reserve.  Thus those 7x7 squares are typically arranged two or
three deep with a command unit behind each six units in the line.  The command
unit provides magical support, command and control (Mindspeech to unit 
comanders for example), etc.  The command unit can charge into battle if
part of the line starts to crumple.

  At the regimental level a command company performs a similar function.
In each platoon the platoon commander  (Here I am starting to agree with
Nick that a platoon has 7x7 troops, including a sergeant, + one commander)
has a command squad each of whom is responsible for coordination between
one squad and the commander.

 More on this another time...

-----------------------

  On another subject, we have been playing in Esrolia recently and
I thought I'd comment on the 'look and feel' of Esrolia.
Not much time available, so I'll just throw out a few ideas and try to write
more tomorrow...

  People:  Esrolia is pretty southern, so people are fairly dark, about
like Mesopotamians or Afghans on earth.  Hair is dark brown or black,
eyes also dark.  People are short by northern standards, with men standing
about 1.6 - 1.7 meters and women a bit shorter.  Coloring also matches
'earth-type' people from the Coins suit of the Tarot.

  Clothing: Earth tones (of course.)

  Customs:  Many Earth-cult based customs but also many customs left over
from the era of the Only Old One's rule, when trolls formed the ruling
class and humans aped their betters.  The people are unconscious of
how much their manners are troll-derived: for example dark entrance 
vestibules are just 'customary' for upper class homes with no conscious
adversion to the fact that you are extending Darkness to cover your guests.

  Food:  Little meat.  Fancy plant based dishes: elaborate pastries, etc.
Turnips carved into flower shapes, ginger treated similarly.  Much 
emphasis on presentation.

  There is a custom of an 'appreciation period' after meals, during which
you sit back, close your eyes, and contemplate the goodness of the food
you just ate.  Another troll-derived custom.  This is most important if
you are the guest at an Esrolian dinner, for it is considered rude to spend
too little time in silent contemplation of your host's food.

  more tomorrow, I hope
- paul reilly

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From: okamoto@hpcc90.corp.hp.com (Jeff Okamoto)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Mon, 15 Nov 1993, part 2
Message-ID: <9311280041.AA22211@hpcc90.corp.hp.com>
Date: 28 Nov 93 00:41:48 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2467

> From: henkl@yelm (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland)
> Subject: Re: Harmast's retirement, Pamaltela
> Message-ID: <9311122217.AA02155@yelm.Holland.Sun.COM>
> 
> >SP: suddenly Harmast balked. "I've got to go back!" he cried, "I can't
> >SP: leave my people without a leader." and the player promptly retired
> >SP: Harmast from active play. This was a difficult decision on his part,
> 
> Jeff Okamoto played in this campaign, and kept a log, of which I've
> read parts.  I think that a copy of it was auctioned at Convulsion
> last year.

Yes, a copy of just my very, very wordy prose was auctioned off to two
fellows, whose names escape me now.  I am offering another copy at the
RQ Con in Baltimore in January 1994 (with some key words changed, so I
know what copy came from where) plus the much-less-wordy-but-much-less-
detailed chronology, which goes further than the prose.  I am also
contemplating turning the next adventure in the campaign into prose,
which was played, if I remember, in winter 1992/1993.  Sandy, when were
you at my place last?

> What about it Jeff, should we start a serial "Harmast in
> Pamaltela" in the Daily/Digest?

I suppose so, but as I said, the prose is terribly wordy and should
be severely edited before any publication.  I also need time to work on
the Chronology and possibly the Next Adventure.  Where would people
suggest I spend my time?

Jeff

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From: watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk (Colin Watson)
Subject: Magic? ; Time tripping
Message-ID: <9311281731.AA15217@condor>
Date: 28 Nov 93 17:31:32 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2468

______________
Sandy Petersen replied to Dave Dunham:
>DD>What's the meaning of Humakt Geas #10 "accept no magical healing at  
>DD>all?"
>
>I think it's pretty clear. You can only heal naturally, through  
>Chaotic regeneration, or via healing potions.

So the effects of Chaotic features are not magical? Up to now I'd assumed
that some of them *were* magical (ie. they would detect as magic), regeneration
included.
Likewise I thought most healing potions (those that heal Hit Points instantly)
would count as Magic. No?
_____
Sandy again:
>Big Gloranthan Secret To Be Kept From Your Players: Time-Travel is  
>possible in Glorantha, but only one-way -- to the past. You can't go  
>back to the future again. At least, that's my opinion.

We're all traveling forwards in time naturally.
If you travel against the normal flow of time (ie. you travel into the past)
then surely when you stop traveling backwards the normal flow of time will
resume and you'll find yourself heading for the future again.
eg. I travel into yesterday. One day later I'm back where I started.
Or are you saying that once you start to travel backwards in time you
cannot stop, ever?

To avoid paradoxes it's safer to restrict time travel to the "forward"
direction.

However, if the Gloranthan gods live in a subjective Godtime which is
temporally perpendicular to "Real Time" then there's no reason why they
shouldn't know information from the future of Real Time:
 Say, a priest from the *beginning* of the Third Age goes on a HeroQuest;
 and a Runelord from the *end* of the Third age goes on a similar HeroQuest.
 Say, they both meet Orlanth and tell him everything they know.
 Now, because Godtime is completely independent from Real Time, who's to
 say who spoke to Orlanth first? Maybe the Runelord got there first,
 so Orlanth could subsequently tell the priest stuff from the *end* of the
 Third Age even though the Priest originated from the beginning of the
 age (and will return to that time when he completes his quest).

However, the way I see it, the Gods are being bombarded with info from all
Ages all the time in the form of prayers from worshippers etc.
But Gloranthan Gods have no concept of Real Time, so the info that they
know will be hideously garbled. They cannot sort it into temporal order
because they have no frame of reference. If you ask Orlanth "What will
happen next year?" he cannot answer. He might well know of events which
will occur in the following year, but he cannot separate them from all the
other randomly ordered events which he has been (and will be) made aware of.

Hence one cannot Divine the future. (At least, not with any cast-iron
guarantees).
But that's not to say that information from the future can't filter into
the past: A Priest might get a vision from his god which makes no sense;
because neither the God nor the Priest are aware that the vision comes
from the Priest's future.

And if the vision is an image of a Map with "Fourth Age Glorantha" written on
it then it's a bit of a dead give-away...  ;-)
[So all you Eurmal worshippers out there; get out your quills & parchment,
 scribble a quick map; and offer up a prayer to LhM. The public has a
 right to know, after all.]

___
CW.

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From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
Subject: Augury, etc.
Message-ID: <9311282220.AA11310@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 28 Nov 93 22:20:38 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2469


  Paul Reilly here again.   Just a short note.

  Augury is fine in Glorantha.  Basically you are determining the will of the
Gods in some matter, or in the case of sorcery, astrology, etc., determining
the influences at work - some of which are cyclic or otherwise predictable.

  Nick's quotation of the relevant passage from CoPrax concerning attitudes
toward the Lunars is much appreciated.  I was thinking of borrowing it and
quoting that myself.  Note also that RQ 2 sources tell us that Lunars can be
staunch Chaos fighters (that is, fighters against chaos) as well.  The
expedition against Dorastor in Cults of Terror is Lunar-supported.  Lunars
have more to lose from Malia than Orlanthi typically do, because of their
more concentrated population.  From my reading of King of Sartar, it
seems that Argrath is more likely to be the one allied with Malia - plagues
strike the Lunars just when he needs them to.  It may be no coincidence that
his Heroquesting begins in a city which lies above the Eye of Wakboth - perhaps
this indicates something of his true allegiance?

  Further Evidence (Spoiler Warning if you are one of the few people on this
list who has not read Ding of Sartar):
  Ote-nat at-thay Argrath-ya eeds-fay e-thay ods-Gay o-tay akboth-Way.

  - Paul R.


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From: tsl@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Tim Leask)
Subject: Killing the Bat
Message-ID: <9311290057.18937@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>
Date: 29 Nov 93 16:57:50 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2470

My alltime favourite bat killing method was to cast damage boosting 20
ironhand 10,  say 30 thirty points of shield, skin of life 10, strength of
Basmol, Counter Chaos, face chaos, seal wound and beserker on the brave
volunteer. Chuck on extra spells you feel like but you get the
idea. The volunteer is then swallowed by the bat and hacks his way out
of the unarmored internals of the creature emerging to an amazed crowd.
Particularly awe inspiring coz he is weaponless and and naked.

A few other ways:
Siege weapons: Ballistae with multimissile if you have 20 or so with
multimissile 10 and a crew skill of 50% you should get at least 3 criticals
per volley and 7 impales.

20 casts of sever spirit gives you a 68% chance of killing the bat if 
cast at the right time.
Another 10 casts will raise the odds to 82% - plus you'll have done 30d6
in CON damage
raise it to 50 cast and the odds rise to 90% - plus 50d6
100 casters will have a 99% chance plus do 100d6 damage.
Of course this all depends on which version of the bat you are fighting.

Have sylphs drop rocks on it from a great height. Remember weight of numbers
here is the key.

Cheers,
Tim
================================================================================
Department of Computer Science    /*\__/\      "Money is something you have in
University of Melbourne          <       \     case you don't die tomorrow."
Parkville, Vic., 3052, AUSTRALIA  \  _  _/     Gordon Gecko.
Phone: +61 3 282 2439              \| --
e-mail: tsl@cs.mu.oz.au
================================================================================

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From: jjm@zycor.lgc.com (johnjmedway)
Subject: shields and magic and 'surprise!' some military stuff
Message-ID: <9311290617.AA18905@hp0.zycor.lgc.com>
Date: 29 Nov 93 06:17:42 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2473

One of my recent posts was from the wrong account. Please do not send any-
thing to "root@zycor.lgc.com", as that'll get shunted to my group leader, 
and not directly to me. He'd have a few questions, I suppose.
 
 
------
SEVENS
------
Mark Sullivan in X-RQ-ID: 2416
>>  
>>  One reason is that 7 is a prime number.  If your files have seven spearmen
>>  there is no way to evenly divide your files so as to thin the phalanx to
>>  cover more front.  The Romans had definite methods to do just that, as did
>>  the Greeks and Macedonians.  With 7 man files your formation will be LESS
>>  flexible not more.=20
 
Remember, Nick added an officer, to yield 50 for a total. There is no
reason that they necessarily move about in square blocks. There's nothing
wrong with a 10 man wide, 5 man deep formation. This could be adjusted to
25 x 2, etc.
 
Besides, I'd rather have my troops in separated blocks which were thick
enough  to punch through the opponent's more spread out lines. My troops
would be faster, while moving in column, and would easily be able to face
front to flank, and with only a minor redressing of distances between
soldiers, be able to roll-up the ends of a line, or exploit a breakthrough.

We were just dinking with some minis rules today re: that.


-----------
ARMOR, ETC.
-----------
Graeme A Lindsell in X-RQ-ID: 2431
>>  
>>  John Medway on shields:
>>  >I'd prefer a more GURPS-like mechanic, here. In GURPS, a shield adds "passive
>>  >...
>>  
>>   The simplest mechanic would be to give someone a few extra points of
>>  armour as well as the ability to parry, say 2 points for a small
>>  shield and 4 for a large. Only applies to attacks from the front, of
>>  course. One thing I find weak about GURPS passive defense is that
 
I'd say just add 2-3 AP to the locations covered using the areas covered list
in the missile combat section, rather than 2 or 4 points everywhere.
 
 
>>  it doesn't take into account weapons that could just punch through the
>>  shield: chance to hit is reduced no matter how much damage you do (though
 
Supposed to account for deflection, rather than actual "penetration" resistance, 
which is separate. Still a bit more refined than RQ, though.
 
 
ADRIAN M RUSSELL in X-RQ-ID: 2436
>>  
>>      I've thought about armour and its ability to absorb damage without 
>>  affect, one suggestion would be to allow armour to be damaged by 
>>  blows of over double its AP. I think this would provide a certain 
 
What about leather armor? 2 point hits would "damage" it.
 
Also, you should think about other limits: a mace or staff hit is unlikely
to harm leather or chain armors.
 
 
-----
MAGIC
-----
Sandy Petersen in X-RQ-ID: 2460
>>  
>>  general, our players are trained to yell out that they're casting  
>>  Protection (or whatever) when they're behind one of their friends and  
>>  casting a spell, so that he'll know to refrain from resisting.  
 
Sounds like a good signal for the opposition to let the one who dropped his 
shields really have it, or do you let them selectively resist/allow spells?
How does a target know the difference?
 
 
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