Bell Digest v931215p1

From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
Sender: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
Organization: Lankhor Mhy and Associates
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 15 Dec 1993, part 1
Message-ID: 
Precedence: junk

X-RQ-ID: Intro

This is the RuneQuest Daily Bulletin, a mailing list on
the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's 
world of Glorantha.  It is sent out once per day in digest
format.

More details on the RuneQuest Daily and Digest can be found
after the last message in this digest.


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From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK
Subject: YINKIN
Message-ID: <9312141100.AA27038@Sun.COM>
Date: 14 Dec 93 09:39:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2633


Ref: Who is Yinkin

Yinkin is the god of shadow cats.  
He is the son of Kero Fin and Hykim.  
He is thus Orlanth's half brother.  
In the myths they hung out together alot, 
once when they were playing Orlanth blew Yinkin out of the cave mouth, 
and Yinkin started to fall towards the rocks below.  Typically Orlanth 
set out to fix the trouble he had caused an flew down to save Yinkin.  
I think that the cave was near the top of Kero Fin and thus has wombic 
connotations.  

Later on the LBQ Orlanth found Yinkin flayed in Hell (I bet that really 
pissed him off)!  Anyway O and Y's friendship (especially during their 
youth) is the reason why Orlanthi have Shadow Cats as familiars and why 
they regard it as very bad form to harm shadow cats.  Thus you will see 
Orlanthi being needlessly cruel to dogs (they chase cats don't they) 
and even eat them if they are starving, but cats are treated as members 
of the family (you wouldn't eat your brother would you?).  

	-----
	Lewis
	-----

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From: STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Steve Gilham Entropy requires no maintenance)
Subject: Re: _Glorantha:  The World_
Message-ID: <01H6GBSNHVDU0080Y8@UG.EDS.COM>
Date: 13 Dec 93 19:13:31 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2634

In  X-RQ-ID: 2628, carlf@panix.com (Carl Fink) advises

>Get _Glorantha:  The World_ from Avalon Hill. 

Is this something new that has suddenly been sprung upon us?  I 
don't recall having heard any mentions or rumours.

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From: watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk (Colin Watson)
Subject: elementals
Message-ID: <9312141516.AA05578@condor>
Date: 14 Dec 93 15:16:54 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2635


____________
Jeff Okamoto wrote:
>I don't know that elementals willingly/willfully manifest on the mundane
>plane until/unless they are summoned by another entity. 

My only argument with this is that it kinda relegates elementals to pure
game-mechanics. If they only manifest through summoning then they'd
hardly ever spend any time "in their element" (in fact, most elementals
would never manifest at all).

I like to think that elementals have some "natural" association with their
respective elements. It seems to me that their natural home is where the
elements are prevalent ie. on the mundane plane, not the spirit plane.

There are two ways that I see elementals manifesting "naturally" (take your
pick):

1/ They are born. Just as various fertility gods cause bunnies, babies et al
   to "manifest"; the gods of darkness cause shades to manifest; the air gods
   cause sylphs to manifest.
   A spirit is united with substance and a creature forms. This is
   easier for elementals than for other creatures because of the essential
   simplicity of their structure.

2/ Using Paul Reilly's & Nils Hammer's model of the spirit plane (from
   12 October) we view the spirit plane as a fibre bundle wherein elementals
   naturally tend to follow the paths of their element. Shade spirits tend to
   follow strands of darkness; sylphs tend to follow paths of airyness etc.
   Sooner or later they blunder into places where these fibres intersect with
   the mundane plane and, badaboom!, they form a physical body.

   Such appearances occur more through luck than good judgement 'cos (most)
   elementals are dumb. Probability would suggest that they'd tend to occur
   where the fibres are "thickest" ie. where the element is most prevalent.
   If you're really unlucky then a small salamander might spontaneously pop
   out in your campfire; but because it's not under control it probably won't
   do much except burn, so you probably won't even notice that it's there.
   I guess animists might say there's a salamander in *every* fire.

I'd still say that elementals can only be summoned when they're on the spirit
plane tho. (Maybe if you go to an element-rich area you can "call" a local
elemental from the mundane plane eg. summoning sylphs from a windy mountain
top ?  I dunno.)
___
CW.

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From: J.Ditton@vme.glasgow.ac.uk
Subject: Umath, Yinkin
Message-ID: <14_Dec_93_15:35:17_A10B0D@UK.AC.GLA.VME>
Date: 14 Dec 93 15:35:17 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2636

 re: shillada / Umath, Yinkin
 
  * See King of Sartar for info on these.
    To get a copy, just give the ISBN number to any reputable book shop
    and they should be able to Tele-order a copy. They *only* need the
    number and the distributer's computer will take care of the rest.
    Unfortunetly, I don't have my copy with me. Someone post the ISBN
    will ya..
 
    Umath - Primal Air/Storm. Worshipped by Shaman. I imagine Umath's
    shaman to be a specialised (and unruly) bunch. Quite different from
    your average Sartarian Shaman.
 
    Yinkin - God of shadow cats. Orlanth is *very* fond of him. Would
    teach sneaking about and Shimmer. It would be nice to know which
    day is Holy for Yinkin and a lot of the minor Orlanthi deities as
    I am sure they have rather nice celebrations on these days. Orlanthi
    children acting out the ancient minor-hero quest/game Yinking where
    the Yinkin's hide and Orlanth seeks.. etc.
 
    This reminds me of a load of Sartarian Nursery rhymes I wrote many
    moons ago... I wish I could remeber where I put them. Hmm!
    I can only remember the puniest one:-
      Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!
      The devil is rising from under the block
      Kleng! Kleng! Kleng! Kleng!
      Urox is beating him back down again..
 
  hmm..
     The tail is told of Morty Bold, Adventuring one day
     He met the fairest maiden, a'standing in his way
         :
     The moral of this story is both positive and brief,
     Never trust a maiden who has sharply pointed teeth.
  I wish I could remember the middle!
  Anyway.. Anyone fancy a go at a Sartarian Nursery Rhyme?
 
Cheers, Sam. x

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From: jmk@ukc.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Slarges, Lunars, and Puppy-dog tails
Message-ID: <9312141536.AA22286@Sun.COM>
Date: 14 Dec 93 14:44:07 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2637


According to Carl Fink:

> Get _Glorantha:  The World_ from Avalon Hill.  Folks, if nobody
>buys this stuff, AH won't have any motivation to publish more.

Probably true, and I'm intensely glad that rich people like you
have got the money to splash out on every overpriced product that
AH brings out.  As for the rest of us poor buggers who want to
participate in our favourite hobby, we'll have to continue to beg,
borrow and steal info wherever we can get it.

BTW, I'm sure evryone else knows the answer to this question, but
I don't, and I'm curious.  Why does AH not Chaosium publish RQ?
(yes, I know they've been doing it for years, but I've never
found out why!).

James.

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From: eco0kkn@cabell.vcu.edu (Kirsten K. Niemann)
Subject: Sorry to use the Digest for this...
Message-ID: <9312141834.AA22081@cabell.vcu.edu>
Date: 14 Dec 93 18:34:15 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2638

My apologies for puting semi-personal stuff on the Digest, but I
haven't got any other way.

Sandy Petersen,

Could you please send me E-mail with a valid email address? I could
not send a message to you via the idcube address appearing in your
digest contributions.

Many thanks,
MIke Dawson
eco0kkn@cabell.vcu.edu 
or  (slower)
sogcity@aol.com

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From: carlf@panix.com (Carl Fink)
Subject: Stuff
Message-ID: <199312142013.AA21125@panix.com>
Date: 14 Dec 93 10:13:52 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2639

shillada@gatwick.sgp.slb.com writes:

>Can anyone tell me anything about the cults of Umath and Yinkin.
>Umath I know is Primal Air - so I envisage him as a cult run by
>Shamen Priests, with Divine such as Command Slyph - sort of a
>primative Orlanth. Yinkin is a feline deity, possibly goddess of
>Shadow cats and therefore also  part of the Storm pantheon.
>Could anyone add to this, or at least give me references to check
>out ? 

  You are completely correct about Umath, except that I wouldn't
call the shamans "priests" -- they're just shamans engaging in
spirit worship as per GOG to contact Umath.

  Yinkin is male -- a son of Mount Kerofin, who is also Orlanth's
mother.  His children are the shadow cats of the Rockwood
Mountains.  Because of this familial connection, shadow cats
("alynxes") are often awakened to serve as the allied spirits of
Storm Voices.

     --Carl

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From: ddunham@radiomail.net (David Dunham  , via RadioMail)
Subject: Passion Spirits; Yinkin
Message-ID: <199312142042.AA11280@radiomail.net>
Date: 14 Dec 93 20:42:58 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2640

>From: pmichaels@aol.com
>Since not even _Dorastor_ expanded
>on the types of passion spirits, I decided to come up with a few new types
>myself.  Here are my suggestions for new types of passion spirits.

Seems reasonable. In my PenDragon Pass game, there are spirits for each of
the traits. Someone once got possessed by a Meekness Spirit, and had an
effective Modest of 25.

>From: shillada@gatwick.sgp.slb.com
>Yinkin is a feline deity, possibly goddess of Shadow cats and therefore also 
>part of the Storm pantheon.

Yinkin is Orlanth's brother (Kero Fin is their mother); he's the god of
Alynxes. "Yinkin is sometimes Orlanth's secret perception in a story, which
leads him to success."


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From: LOREN@marketing.wharton.upenn.edu (Loren Miller)
Subject: RQ/Tekumel or Elric!/Tekumel ?
Message-ID: <9312142233.AA23644@noc4.dccs.upenn.edu>
Date: 14 Dec 93 21:32:43 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2641

Fellow RuneQuestioners,

In thinking about running RQ on Tekumel I've come to the 
preliminary conclusion that Elric! would actually work a 
lot better. Before I go to the effort of making a 
conversion, anybody care to convince me otherwise?

The reasons why I prefer Elric! for this are:
1. Elric! sorcery system is closer to Tekumel than RQ 
sorcery is (IMO). This is *the* major reason I'm leaning 
towards Elric!.
2. Elric! combat system is speedier and rewards 
roleplaying in combat more than RQ combat system does. 
With military emphasis in Tekumel this is a *good* thing 
(IMO).
3. Elric! is set in an early renaissance time period, as 
is Tekumel, while RQ works best in ancient period (IMO).

Anybody care to argue about this choice?

Or... maybe Sandy would like to explain how he decided 
on the rules he came up with for RQ/Tekumel.

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller              LOREN@wmkt.wharton.upenn.edu
Into the flood again,  same old trip  it was back when

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From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen)
Subject: re: RQ Dailiy
Message-ID: <9312142235.AA01143@idcube.idsoftware.com>
Date: 14 Dec 93 10:35:32 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2642

Peter Michaels lists some new passion spirits:

ANGER: I like it. I had a similar spirit in my campaign, that I  
called a Berserker spirit. Mine basically made the user subject to  
the Fanaticism spell at all times, but he wasn't required to attack  
anyone.

GREED: This is the kind of spirit that I, as a GM, only ever dare  
inflict on a good roleplayer.

CONFUSION: a fine spirit. I assume the player can fail an INTx5 roll  
to act normally in any given round.

LAZINESS: you should call this a Sloth spirit. Only halving the  
fatigue points doesn't sound like much. Especially since the end  
result is that the player's skills are reduced (just as with the Pain  
spirit). Perhaps some other result could be produced, such as a  
tendency to fall asleep. (Like sleeping sickness.)

Ignorance: seems okay to me. It brings out the possibility of other  
Skill-Category-Specific spirits. One obvious one is an Antimagic  
spirit, that would reduce all a characters Magic Skills and  
spell-casting chances by its POW.

Carl Fink made many good remarks about Glorantha:
>[the Vadeli are] like the Brithini except that their Noble class was  
>exterminated, and without their restraint the Wizard and other  
>classes are even less bound by morals than the Brithini.
This is not inaccurate, except that the Brithini regard it as a great  
blessing that the Vadeli Noble class is gone. Also there is no Vadeli  
Wizard class -- all three classes can (could) cast spells.

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