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, Fri, 07 Jan 1994, 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: watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk (Colin Watson)
Subject: Various comments
Message-ID: <9401061134.AA12031@condor>
Date: 6 Jan 94 11:34:14 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2743
____________
Geoff Gunner wrote about plot ideas:
>re: tiphareth@aol.com's plot - sorry, that would never go down with the motley
>crew I play with.
I liked the plot idea, but I agree that the Stormbull PCs would have to
be outstandingly dumb (which is not beyond the realms of possibility;-) to
follow the plot without question.
I'd prefer to run it from a different angle: set up the PCs in the role of
the Orlanthi delivering the supplies; have them inexplicably attacked by
a band of berserk SBs; let them try to discover what's happening after
they (hopefully) suppress the SBs; then they can try to track down the
Trickster who set it all up and/or proceed to the fort as they were
originally instructed.
This way there's less chance that the PCs will spoil the plot by
asking sensible questions: and you have the SBs as NPCs who can be as
dogmatic as you like.
>They'd be smart enought to query the information - Orlanthi
>sending weapons to chaos creatures ? Very suspicious.
I dunno. There are some fairly shifty Orlanthi around these days...
____________
David Dunham wrote:
>Orlanthi culture is sort of a cross between Cymric/Celtic and Viking.
I never really saw what was so Celtic about Orlanthi. A Storm God certainly
doesn't seem very Celtic to me. They're more like Vikings without ships.
>Check out King of Sartar, which has the most detail of any work on the
>Orlanthi.
I think I will. I must've missed something.
_______________
Human Sacrifice:
My tuppence to add to the ongoing discussion:
Remember, in the real world it wasn't only outsiders and enemies who were
sacrificed; victims were sometimes extracted from the ranks of followers
(and even leaders). Sometimes it was an honour to be sacrificed; folks even
volunteered. This is true of the Celts, tho I dunno about the Aztecs (didn't
one of their methods involve playing some kinda ballgame to elect victims?).
In Glorantha I think chaos cultists are as likely to go around sacrificing
each other rather than outsiders who's souls are pledged to other gods already.
_____________________________
Sandy wrote about Yara Aranis:
>...some kind of anti-archery spell, the exact nature of which escapes me.
>...no doubt the RQ Daily can come up with a
>better spell than we had then. I hereby throw it out to you guys.
>What's the anti-archery spell of YA?
Well, I don't know if YA has any runic justification for this, but the
best way to screw archers would be with a spell which increased the
strength of the wind locally (like Cloudcall increases cloud cover). If
they could whip up a gale (with several/many castings I guess) then any
missile fire would become pointless. Granted, the downside is that the YAs
couldn't use their crossbows, but so what? real men fight toe-to-toe.
(I suppose the perfect spell would have a lull every coupla rounds so you
can fire yer crossbow - but that's a touch game-mechanicky...)
(And note, of course, that Sureshot whould ignore the effects of wind-strength.)
'course, a wind-affecting spell would have other uses too: at sea for example;
or against airborne attackers.
___
CW.
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From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK
Subject: Home of the Bold
Message-ID: <9401061225.AA22759@Sun.COM>
Date: 6 Jan 94 11:24:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2744
Hi Slavering Hungry RQers who want to buy Home of the Bold
I have I couple of spare copies which I will auction at Convulsion'94.
So if you missed out last time be sure to sign up (there are not many
places left). Also there will be an opportunity to get hold of the
book which David Hall et al. are writing for the Malkioni FFG "How the
West was One".
There you go, can't get to RQ Con from the UK, but now you don't need to!
-----
Lewis
-----
PS. Nick: Glad to see that there are two of us who own (and have read!)
Griffin Mountain.
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From: gwdugan@mcs.drexel.edu (William Dugan)
Subject: digest
Message-ID: <9401061428.AA01610@mcs.drexel.edu>
Date: 6 Jan 94 14:28:40 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2745
Please include me on your mailing lists rfo the RQ daily difest. My adrress is gwdugan@mcs.drexel.edu
Thank you!
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From: staats@MIT.EDU
Subject: Eating those poor humans and other rambling thoughts!
Message-ID: <9401061935.AA04716@al-burro.MIT.EDU>
Date: 6 Jan 94 19:35:06 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2746
Greetings!
However well intentioned eating sentients is poor form. I cast one
'yea' vote for calling the Aztecs evil for doing so. The difference between
casting a Divine spell or not for the Morocanth is the difference between
eating a sentient and not. I am looking primarily at human motivation here.
There are several races that are interested in sacrifices and
consuming sentients. Most of the ones I can think of are Chaotic, e.g.
Tuskriders, Undead, etc., but there is at least one example of a non-Chaotic
race that practices the eating of sentients whenever possible
The trolls are quite fond of Dwarf and Elvish flesh; then again, Zorak
Zoran is not exactly my idea of a great role model for the kids.
The trolls also consume their own at the time of death if memory
serves me properly. Just out of curiousity, what was the old Mistress Troll
view on consuming sentients? They were all immortal. The Curse of Kin came
*after* the Great Compromise, during the Second Age right? So, Zorak Zorak
and gang existed when there were just Mistress Trolls true? It would be
interesting to think that somehow Trollish society had 'degenerated' after the
Curse of Kin, but the theory does not seem to fit Gloranthan history.
Given the Troll example, it does not appear to be strictly Chaotic to
consume or sacrifice sentients in Glorantha, but it is kind of 'disturbing'.
The Trolls consider the Elves to be plants and the Dwarves to be rocks, but
the Trolls also consider these races to be sentient don't they?
Sandy: I chafe at the notion of alignment as well, but I would call the
madman who serves the evil Lord CE(Chaotic Evil). The fact that he serves
some organization ultimately is not a total reflection on his personality. He
is probably being cowed into it. And, *how* one serves is very much a matter
of personal choice. The Judges Guild had a three digit code for alignment
where each letter specified the persons conviction to a world view in
decreasing order of importance; so, the character could be CEL (Primarily
Chaotic with Evil tendencies, but way down deep may be willing to act in a
coherent and organized fashion to accomplish some end.)
Got to go, off to a thesis committee meeting!
In service,
Rich
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From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen)
Subject: re: RQ Daily
Message-ID: <9401062008.AA12318@idcube.idsoftware.com>
Date: 6 Jan 94 08:08:15 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2747
Tom Zunder sez:
>I think Ompalam is not only not chaotic but strikes me as
>potentially very lawful. I think he is incorrectly classified,
>unless his slavery is based on deception. I cannot see an overt
>reason to make him chaotic. Again, unless his cult is actually evil
>or corrupting, it could be regarded as a decent and upright
>institution.
I don't think that Law is the opposite of Chaos (in Glorantha), but I
agree that Ompalam is not chaotic. As an American Civil War buff who
has had plenty of thought about the practice of slavery, I feel that
it is both evil and corrupting. In Fonrit, Ompalam is regarded as an
integral part of society, of course. His cult institutionalizes
slavery, and is not "Seductive" at all. It behaves the way slavery
does -- coercion and force. The slaves are forced to worship Ompalam
(he is one of the very few gods to receive involuntary worship), and
the masters receive all the benefits, amongst which are heightened
control over their slaves.
>I'd like to ask Sandy how much of Cthulhu or the Dreamlands has
>crept into his RuneQuest Glorantha gaming?
A fair amount of Dreamlands, not so much Cthulhu, I don't think. When
I feel a desire for horror gaming, I pretty much play CoC. On the
other hand, Jeff Okamoto, or other guys who've played both games with
me might have a different opinion. I like the Dreamlands feel of
travel, exploration, and wonder, and I try to put that into my
Gloranthan games -- we do a lot of traveling and seeing new strange
sights never before beheld.
>I ... liked the way that cultic power varies. ... an odd cult ...
>may be weaker. It reflects the power of the cosmos, not game balance
>(spit!).
I, too, dislike "game balance", a boardgaming term first misapplied
to RPGs by Gary Gygax.
Thom Baguley sez:
>[Yara Ararnis would thus seem to have an organizing role ... and an
>active combat role .... Maybe this would be reflected in the
>Priest/Rune Lord split in the cult (if Yara Aranis has Rune Lords)
I would expect such a militantly active cult to have Rune Lords. The
fact that the cult seems to have two roles also seems to support the
existence of priests as well, so Yara Ararnis wouldn't be like
Humakt, Zorak Zoran, or Storm Bull, who lack priests.
Dave Dunham sez:
>I don't recall anyone coming up with real effective tactics against
>the Mongols
Most of the Mongol's enemies were low-quality infantry (Chinese) or
other cavalry (Europeans, Arabs). Good defenses against cavalry
didn't appear until a century or two later, with the development of
really skilled infantry -- English longbowmen, Genoese crossbowmen,
Swiss/German pikemen, etc. If effective anti-horse troops had been
fielded vs. the Mongols, the Mongols might still have triumphed by
virtue of their superior morale and generalship, but it wouldn't have
been a walkover.
> Last time you said [Yara Aranis] provided Kill Horse (cannot be
>resisted)
I misremembered, When someone else in the Daily said that she should
Frighten horses, my memory returned like a shot and the entirety of
her anti-horse spell became clear to me.
>Note that arrow range is 120 metres for a composite bow (which we
>can presume nomads use, since Earth nomads did), and rune magic
>range is 100 metres
It can't be easy for nomads firing from a galloping horse to ensure
that they're always in that 20m zone between rune magic and archery
range. Surely this isn't a precision affair. And let's not forget
that Lunar Magic lets magicians in the Lunar army cast Slow at very
long range.
Graeme Lindsell sez (re: Morokanth eating humans):
>What about the opposite? I'd think a hungry tribesman would probably
>prefer to eat a Morokanth before one of his own herd animals.
For some reason I suspect this is uncommon. After all, there are no
"herd morokanth" around to serve as an example. I think that most
Praxians would not eat a Morokanth any more than he would eat a troll
or elf. Murder and rob them, yes.
I view the Morokanth as very much the "odd man out" amongst the
Praxian tribes. While the human tribes freely steal slaves and wives
from one another, I play them as reluctant to sell humans to the
Morokanth, and likewise as more willing to kill a defeated Morokanth
than to take it prisoner.
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