Bell Digest v931216p1

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, Thu, 16 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: johnston@heart.enet.dec.com (Groove Requiem..)
Subject: re: Glorantha the world
Message-ID: <9312150927.AA19833@vbormc.vbo.dec.com>
Date: 15 Dec 93 09:27:41 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2643

>STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (X-RQ-ID: 2634) and jmk@ukc.ac.uk (X-RQ-ID: 2637)
>ask about Glorantha the World.

'World of Glorantha' was I think the original name of the 
'Glorantha: Genertela' box, before they removed all the info on Pamaltela.

Its been out since 1988 so I'm sure even you (James) could have scraped 
together 15 pounds in that time ;-). I thought it (along with GOG and Elder 
Secrets) were the 'must have' supplements for background info on Glorantha.
Ie life outside Prax. Its definately my favourite supplement, for sheer volume
of info at the very least.

As for why Chaosium sold the publishing rights, a magazine of the time 
(Imagine?) decided it was temporary insanity after a Cthulhu game...

njd

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From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK
Subject: Glorantha the World and AH Prices
Message-ID: <9312151237.AA07184@Sun.COM>
Date: 15 Dec 93 09:33:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2644


Ref: 2637 (James) and lots of others.  

1) Glorantha the World --- There are only two general products published by 
AH which look at the whole of Glorantha as a world.  The first is the fairly 
slim booklet included in the RQ Deluxe box and the second is the Glorantha 
Genertela Boxed supplement.  


2) AH prices are too steep.  OK yes I would have to agree but:

************************** TOP SECRET ***************************
Don't tell them that I told you this, or the lads will be round.  

Here is a little dodge which I have successfully used in the past to help 
my players who were not keen on spending loads-a-dosh to buy various RQ 
products.  What would you say to being able to buy The Gods of Glorantha Book
and the Troll Gods Book at only 6 dollars each!  Well you can (plus P&P)!  

If you can get hold of an AH catalog you will find that they sell spares for 
just about all their games (space counters, spare maps (2 dollars?), spare 
rule books).  SPARE RULE BOOKS!  Yes, because AH is primarily a board game 
manufacturer this is their stance.  Thus you can buy all the books from the 
boxed sets individually (they cost 6 dollars each when I did it a couple of 
years ago).  Obviously if you buy the whole boxed set as bits it works out 
more expensive, but if you only want to buy the Troll Gods Book and not the 
box it came in it is a real snip, GoG Book is also a snip (I have 2 now), but 
there you miss out of the Prospedia of Gods which is occassionally useful 
(still you could buy both for $12 which is less than the total cost for GoG).  

So, I hope that I have helped all the poor RQ players out there, and also 
those not so poor ones who want to save a bit of dosh.  I recommend using 
a credit card with your order as this is easier and cuts down on the overheads 
associated with changing currencies.  

If this saves you dosh and you want to thank me you can do so by buying me 
a drink at Convulsion next July (what do you mean you are not going, everyone 
who is anyone is going and we are 80% full!).  

	-----
	Lewis
	-----

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From: brandon@caldonia.nlm.nih.gov (Brandon Brylawski)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 14 Dec 1993, part 1
Message-ID: <9312151532.AA20144@caldonia.nlm.nih.gov>
Date: 15 Dec 93 15:32:24 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2645


shillada@gatwick write :

>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.

Umath is Primal Air, the original air God. In comparison to Orlanth, who
represents the power of Storm used to smite enemies and bring rain to make
the crops grow, Umath represents uncontrollable, destructive Storm - Storm
before it learned Mastery (Remember, two of his sons are Valind and Ragnaglar) .
To my understanding, Umath is no longer worshipped,
at least not in Dragon Pass. Even in the far north, where a few at the foot
of the glacier worship Valind, nobody knows even where Umatch is to be found.
In Phil Davis's campaign, I found him (on the hero plain) only with the
assistance of an item from each of his sons. I suspect Umath has no ties
to Glorantha at all, except as the father of his sons.

Brandon


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From: T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk (T.S.Baguley Thom Baguley)
Subject: Sloth
Message-ID: <9312151628.AA00983@Sun.COM>
Date: 15 Dec 93 16:27:41 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2646

>From: pmichaels@aol.com

>Lazyness: A lazyness spirit appears as an amorphous blob which hangs in
>space.  Inside the blob, two half-closed eyes, which slowly blink
>occasionally, peer dully out.  The blob consists of very slowly moving shades
>of black and grey.
> If posessed by a lazyness spirit, a person acts as if their maximum fatigue
>points are halved.

I agree with Sandy that Sloth is a better name. I'm not sure fatigue is a good
mechanic for it, though (most people don't use the fatigue roles as written).
How about a motivation roll to perform any strenous activity (INT or POW times
4 ??). People with Sloth would try not to fight (too tiring), expend MP (too
draining) and so on. They would prefer to use stealth (hide etc.) and would try
and avoid hard labour (perhaps by figuring out clever schemes or by using fast
talk and or oratory to persuade others).

Thom

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From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen)
Subject: re: RQ Daily
Message-ID: <9312151719.AA03556@idcube.idsoftware.com>
Date: 15 Dec 93 05:19:36 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2647

An Interesting Note:
Annilla, A.K.A. the Blue Moon, is the goddess of assassins and secret  
societies, tides and secret powers. Her specialty spirit magic spell  
is Invisibility (remember from RQ I?), and her specialty Rune magics  
are Concealment and Vision (also from RQ I). She can also summon up  
blue Lunes which operate a bit different from regular Lunes. 


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

James K. answers:
>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. 


*mount soapbox*
Vote with your pocketbooks, by all means, but despite my lack of  
royalties from RQ, I encourage folks to purchase at least the good RQ  
supplements. Failing to do so will NOT make prices drop! Quite the  
contrary. It's like the old software pirate excuse, "Games are too  
expensive." I know guys who simply xerox their gamemaster's copies of  
GoG to save $$$. This hurts us all. 

*dismount soapbox*

Loren Miller says:

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

1) I completely altered the RQ magic system for RQ/Tekumel. There is  
no spirit magic, no divine magic, no sorcery. Only Tekumel-style  
magic, which I used to try to get the lethal flavor of Tekumel as  
much as possible, while still using the ease of RQ rules such as d100  
rolls, resistances, etc. It took several months to get the stuff  
hammered out, along with converting all the Tekumel spells to my new  
magic format. 


Because of the enormous amount of toil expended on this project, I'd  
like to publish it in the RQ Daily, but I feel diffident about it,  
because it's actually aimed at Tekumel fans, not Glorantha fans. If I  
get a huge chorus of requests for publication, I'll release it, but  
not otherwise. 


2) Loren feels that the Elric combat system rewards roleplaying in  
combat more than RQ. This is manifestly a matter of personal choice,  
but I do happen to disagree. I feel that the greatly wider range of  
choices in combat in RQ enhance rather than diminish roleplaying. I  
will admit, however, that when running RQ with non-RQers, I drop out  
hunks of the RQ rules to make things simpler. 


As an aside, I have always felt one of the great strengths of RQ was  
the modularity of the combat system. You can dump hit locations,  
critical hits, even parries, all while still keeping the basic flavor  
of the game. For non-RQers, I generally drop hit locations and all  
the little optional rules (like attacking weapons to damage them,  
knockback, etc.) I keep crits and fumbles, because they're easy  
enough to figure out and everyone loves looking up results on the  
fumble table. 


3) Loren feels that Tekumel is set in an early Renaissance time  
period. I'm not sure how he determined this, since I've always felt  
that Tekumel resembled Mogul India or the Aztecs at the peak of their  
power. He also feels that RQ is best for an ancient period, which I  
also feel is strange. It seems to me that the RQ rules (possibly  
aside from magic) work fine for any age up until the Civil War  
periodl. Guns can easily be added to the rules. 


Bottom line: Elric! rules will probably work just fine for Tekumel.  
Almost any rules will work better than the lame stuff published with  
Tekumel -- it's heartbreaking to me to see such a great background  
world saddled with such terrible rules. 

 

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From: euregemon@aol.com
Subject: King of Sartar
Message-ID: <9312151602.tn12295@aol.com>
Date: 15 Dec 93 21:02:55 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2648

I purchased my copy of King of Sartar directly from Chaosium (or was it
special order via the local game store from Chaosium?).  Nevertheless, I have
not ever seen it at the usual mainstream bookstores.  Chicago may be
similarly undistributed.


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