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, Wed, 19 Jan 1994, part 1
Content-Return: Prohibited
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.
---------------------
From: klaus@diku.dk
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 14 Jan 1994, part 1
Message-ID: <199401181333.AA21404@rimfaxe.diku.dk>
Date: 18 Jan 94 15:33:47 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2816
I have seen thank you notes for the RQ Tekumel rules posted here,
but not the rules themselves. How can I get these rules?
Klaus O K
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From: brandon@caldonia.nlm.nih.gov (Brandon Brylawski)
Subject: runequest-con
Message-ID: <9401181511.AA01655@caldonia.nlm.nih.gov>
Date: 18 Jan 94 15:11:50 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2817
Whew! RQ-Con is over and I can relax! I'd be very interested in hearing from
people who played in Home of the Bold and Mark Wallace's games
(Blood of the Earth, Ties of Bread and Salt, and Bones of a Nation), both
praise and criticism. HOTB will probably be run once again, so your advice is
very important. How did you like the games? What was especially fun, and what
was boring?
Brandon
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From: crawford@explorer.clark.net (D.Schubert)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 18 Jan 1994, part 1
Message-ID:
Date: 18 Jan 94 06:12:44 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2818
Hello everyone,
hehe, I'm still recovering from RQ-Con....some time next week I should
have positive fatigue points again... It was great! Best con I've been
to (others being Origins). What a blast it was to spend a weekend with
140+ RQers (and not a bad one in the bunch). David Cheng deserves much
praise. The quality of GMing/Scenarios was super. John Boyle ran a great
adventure into the Big Rubble. Another good adventure was Bones of a Nation.
This scenario was filled with politics and deception and (hack) Lunar
scum. The best part was having two GMs run it, which allowed more
interaction and avoided the problem of break periods when the party split
into groups (since each GM could run one of the splits). Having two GMs
was a great experience and is something others should try.
Personal highlights: got the new single bound RQIII, met other
RQers in the Baltimore/D.C. area, purchased a copy of White Bear/Red
Moon, met folks from all over the world (france, north of Ireland),
played in Sandy's CoC (btw, Kwame is opening up his own practice if
anyone needs medical attention, hehehe), and lots more...
Personal regrets: wasn't able to get a copy of Nomad Gods (hint, if
anyone once to sell a copy please email me), was unable to attend the
Orlanthi story telling and Gregg Stafford reads due to fatigue (I'd love
to get a copy of either if anyone taped them, and did not aquire a
playtest copy of RQIV.
Suggestions for RQ-Con II: hmm, the only thing I can come up with is the
handicapped accessibility of the hotel. The Columbia Inn was terrible,
stairs were plenty and elevators were few. Oh, another idea, include
email addresses on the name tags.
>>BTW, in the local paper, the Sun(!), was the headline "Huge Raid Closes the
>>Block."
hehe, for those not from the Baltimore/D.C. area, the "Block" is the red
light district in Baltimore.
bye,
David Schubert
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From: scuw5@central.sussex.ac.uk (Jonathan Eyre)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 18 Jan 1994, part 1
Message-ID: <6279.199401181507@solx1>
Date: 18 Jan 94 15:07:20 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2819
Reading those RQ-Con auction prices makes me appreciate my AMAZING
good fortune in finding perfect copies of Borderlands, Big Rubble,
Apple Lane and Griffin Mountain in a second hand bookshop, all priced
at two or three quid. Sickening, huh?
Jon
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From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried)
Subject: The CON!
Message-ID:
Date: 18 Jan 94 18:40:24 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2820
Hello all, Greg Fried here.
Before I read what everyone else thought of the RQ Con I want to toss out my
own impressions.
First of all, I think we all owe a mountain of thanks to David Cheng. He was
a bit hard on himself for the late registration and events tickets -- as far
as I could tell, everything went as smoothly as can be expected among people
as anarchic as we gamer-folk. David did a tremendous organizational job.
For a non-profit venture, the quality of the brochures and his writing and
organizing was outstanding. I cannot imagine the quantity of trivial details
he must have had to cope with, and I sincerely hope he had some spare moments
to enjoy himself! Always cheerful, always witty, always composed -- my hats
off to you, David!
The Live Action PR. Well, I didn't partake in this, by my ow choice. But,
from the outside, I can say it looked like everyone had a whale of a time!
The writers and organizers did a supurb job with background (e.g., _A Rough
Guide to Boldhome_, excellent character profiles) and play detail (e.g., real
minted Lunars!).
Roleplay. My favorite was _Ties of Bread and Salt_, which involved a
party of Praxians of the White Bison Clan following their totem herd
beast into the Grazelands on a mysterious quest. This was GMed by 3
GMs, and was REALLY well done. It was a unique experience to
play in a game with the flexibilty and dramatic effect made possible
by having three GMs.
People. It was GREAT to m eet so many of you face to face! It was
SAD that we were all so busy that I had so little time to hang with
you! This is my only regret from the Con.
The auction. All I can say is, hold on to your RQ stuff -- this stuff
is getting valuable!
My favorite: table top minis! Now, not many will sympathize with me
on this one, but then this was the first time I had EVER played
miniatures wargaming! I really enjoyed it (maybe because my side's
armies won each time!). I play one Tekumel battle, but the one that
particularly caught my attention was the battle played with the rules
being developed by Rory Robertson. Rory has converted RQ rules for
table top battles, and has done a most impressive job. Rory posted his
rules here many months ago, but has since polished and improved them.
The result is a game with that "Gloranthan" feel, which is easy to
learn and which plays fluidly and realistically. The beauty of it is
that it forms a bridge between the ultra detail of RQ roleplay rules
and the abstraction and large scale perspective of war games like
RBWM/Dragon Pass and Nomad Gods. I think this has a real future. Go
for it, Rory!
My one idea for next time: If we decide on the Battle of Moonbroth for
the LARP for next year's Con, how about this: use the LARP for all the
pre-battle intrigue and diplomacy, then use Rory's RQ war game rules
to play out the actual battle after all the diplomacy and intrigue is
done?! What say you all?! Rory?
Enough from me. Thanks to everyone for contributing to a great time.
And thanks to GS for making it all possible.
-- Greg Fried
(PS: I loved the story-telling event, and I LOVED hearing GS read!)
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From: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu (Loren J. Miller)
Subject: RQ/Tekumel answers
Message-ID: <01H7TZ57KZV69GW5SP@wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: 18 Jan 94 10:52:22 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2821
I was privileged enough to be able to play in Sandy's RQ/Tekumel game
and got to play Siod hiKotaharu (I think that's the spelling) a
feckless apprentice priest of Thumis who was better with his
greatsword than his spells. Luckily for his studies the first thing he
did in the game was shatter that sword while springing a gate. Anyway,
enough war stories... I think I understand a few things about Sandy's
system, at least enough to answer Roger's questions.
pearse_w_r@bt-web.bt.co.uk (pearse_w_r) asks:
> MAG is presumably Pedhetl. But what is it used for? Everything seems
> to use 'Magic Bonus'. I'm deeply confused about how the magic system
> works.
RQ/Tekumel mixes a few new things into the RQ3 sorcery magic system.
Mainly, this MAG stat. If it isn't positive then you can't use magic
no matter what your "Magic Bonus" is. Ignore the RQ3 requirements that
state you must have a positive Magic Bonus to learn sorcery, a
positive MAG is good enough in this system.
MAG does a few things.
1. MAG is the limit for all manipulation. So if you have MAG 8 then
you can cast Doomkill intensity 6 and multispell 2, or intensity 8, or
any other combination of manipulations that add up to 8.
{Multispell note: By the way, there is an erratum in the multispell
description in RQ3. If you multispell a spell then all the other
manipulations apply to each of the multispells. Thus Doomkill
intensity 6 multispell 2 would produce 3 doomkills of intensity 6
rather than 3 with 2 intensity each or one 6 and two 1s.}
2. MAG is the limit on how many spells you may know. If your MAG is 6
(like Siod) then you may know no more than 6 spells (Siod knew 4).
3. Every time you roll a critical success on a spell your MAG goes up
one. The upper limit on MAG is 18. At least I think that's the upper
limit, we didn't bump into a situation where it was important.
Also, your MP are computed differently than in RQ3. Add your POW to
your highest sorcery skill/10 (rounded up, and spells count) for your
MP.
> Is sorcery the only type of magic in RQ/Tekmel?
Yes. At least it's the only kind that is known in Tsolyanu and
environs. But who knows what the inimical races do in their poison
cities or what lost galactic civilizations lurk on the other side of
Tekumel?
> Magic Bonus - how can this be less than zero? (Character Generation
> section 2)
Ignore the rule about not being able to learn sorcery if magic bonus
is not positive. MAG is more important.
> Character Generation section 4 - what is the sorcery stat? And what
> is the INT+POW-20?
MAG is the sorcery stat in RQ/Tekumel. INT+POW-20 is the way to
compute the RQ3 magic bonus.
> Something is missing from the paragraph about speciality weapons like
> the 'Whispering Death'.
I suppose Sandy meant that he adapted other RQ3 weapons lists, like
those in Land of Ninja, or that he invented them out of thin air.
> In the magic rules, reference is made to the five basic magic skills.
> Intensity, Duration, Range and multispell are detailed later. What is
> the fifth one?
I think they mean Ceremony, which is central to all magic use. But of
course Enchant and Summon are just as important.
> What starting spells do you have? Do you memorise chosen spells, and
> if so is it INT related as in RQIII?
You choose starting spells or are assigned them, according to the whim
of your temple's tutor. The limit is your MAG, and free int has
nothing to do with it.
> What do you do about monsters? I know the Tekumel Bestiary is in
> print, so presumably it can be adapted with a bit of initiative.
This question I'll leave mostly to Sandy. But when I used a monster
very like the S'su in my Entelechy campaign (OK, I stole the S'su
outright, and even called them the Enemies of Mankind) I just decided
it was a tall humanoid with extra arms, a tough integument, and all
sorts of weird hypnotic and/or mystical abilities. You pretty much
have to reinvent monsters when running RQ/Tekumel.
> All input gratefully received.
>
> Roger Pearse
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
"Enough sound bites. Let's get to work." -- Ross Perot sound bite
---------------------
From: LOREN@marketing.wharton.upenn.edu (Loren Miller)
Subject: Invisible Orlanth question
Message-ID: <78BE7C7F10@marketing.wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: 18 Jan 94 22:13:23 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2822
In the cult of Invisible Orlanth is Orlanth a prophet of the Invisible God
or an (invisible) representative of the Red Goddess or merely the breath
of the Invisible God? Or what?
"I believe in three gods, the Invisible God who created the universe of
all that is and all that could be, his daughter the Red Goddess, and her
child Orlanth the Healed, who is her breath, subtle and invisible."
--
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller LOREN@wmkt.wharton.upenn.edu
Into the flood again, same old trip it was back when
---------------------
From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried)
Subject: East Isles
Message-ID:
Date: 18 Jan 94 23:48:19 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2823
Greg Fried here again.
Nils asks about the East Isles for a campaign there. I have no specific
answwers to his questions, although speculation might be our only recourse,
I'm afraid.
In the past, I have placed my own pseudo-Gloranthan campaign in the East
Isles. I doubt my materials would pass as orthodox, but if Nils or anyone
else would like my adventure, "Atek's Ghost", I would be happy to send it. I
have offered this scenario, along with its campaign background, before to the
readers of this list, but there are probably many new subscribers now. Write
to me privately, and I will send you the adventure by email. It is suitable
for beginning players.
-- Greg
---------------------
From: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu (Shannon D. Appel)
Subject: RQ-Con Report II: Secrets of Arkat
Message-ID: <199401190605.WAA03733@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Date: 18 Jan 94 14:05:30 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2824
David Dunham has already provided some notes on the Greg Stafford
HeroQuest seminar, so some of this will be repetitive. However, for
the sake of completeness, I'm including I have below.
GENERAL NOTES
Greg started off by talking about HeroQuest in the most general terms.
He said it would be, in its final form, nothing like his old attempts,
which were basically Super RuneQuest. Unfortunately, Greg doesn't
know when HQ will be written, and he doesn't plan to do so himself at
this time.
BEING A HERO
To be a hero, you need to be close to your cult's ideals. For some
cults, like Orlanth, this is very easy to do. It's a much harder task
for others, like Humakti, however. Greg spoke of how close Humakti
are to death, but mentioned that he had never seen a Humakt who was
_really_ willing to undergo a HeroQuest that simply involved dying.
Yet, what would be a better way to meet the ideals of your God?
TYPES OF GODS
In speaking of the different types of gods, Greg went on to describe
certain "stats" which described gods. There were three in all: "Order
& Justice", "Power & Prestige" and "Love & Desire". Most Gods only
fall into one or two of these categories. Only a few (like Orlanth)
fall into all three.
SUPPORT ON HEROQUESTS
Support is very important on HeroQuests. Not only does it help you
(as when a feather which denoted Orlanth's support revived him from
death upon the LightBringer's Quest), but it also can help the
community that provides the support. If you do well on a HeroQuest,
the community that supports you will benefit. Likewise, if you do
poorly, they will get the bad result as well. HeroQuests which
actually benefit the community are much more powerful than HeroQuests
meant to help only an individual. While a Hero may gain a +100% for
himself in Sword from a Quest, for as long as he lives, he may be able
to give an entire community a +10% forever and ever (at least as long
as they retain some sacred item that he brought back). It was stated
that only those people who help their communities are _True_ Heroes.
ARKAT'S SECRET
Most people probably already know that Arkat's big secret was that he
was able to cross myths, entering one and exiting another. This came
about because, as he was initiated into more and more cults, he began
to recognise certain places in the Hero Plane (such as the Hill of
Gold). Since the time of Arkat, other people have been able to use
this secret, to create new paths in the Hero Plane, such as when Sir
Ethilrist made a new myth, which provided him with the Doom Hound.
GLORANTHAN PLACES OF POWER
All places of power in Gloranthan are powerful because they cross into
different realms. The example of Cragspider's castle was given. Its
basements are, really, honestly, in hell, while its towers touch the
realms of air.
HEROQUESTS & THE REAL WORLD
Greg mentioned that most HeroQuests move in and out of the real world.
You might walk upon the Hero Plane for a few moments, re-enter
Glorantha, and then move back to the Hero Plane once more.
ENEMIES IN THE HERO PLANE
Once you've HeroQuested a few times, you'll probably gain an enemy
there, someone who knows you because you've opposed him in the past on
the Hero Plane. After you've HeroQuested, you'll learn the
unfortunate fact that you can be pulled into a HeroQuest through no
choice of your own, due to your enemy waiting until you are weak, and
then conducting certain rituals to create a HeroQuest which you are
required to participate in.
THE PHAROAH
The final fate of the Pharoah was revealed. Apparently, he was
begining a regular HeroQuest at the start of the MoLaD tournament.
The Lunar Empire was, of course, aware of this HeroQuest, since it
occurred regularly, and so Jar-eel was sent to ambush his spirit in
the Hero Plane. She took the place of one of the Red Guards in the
Hero Plane (the Pharoah had never known who the Red Guards were
before, or why they were there), and easily defeated the Pharoah.
Assumedly, Pharoah was then dragged off to the Lunar Hell where Sheng
Solaris was hidden.
THE TRICKSTER
The final point of the HeroQuest seminar was this: "No change in
Glorantha can occur without the Trickster". That's all.
RQ-CON 2
Finally, just as a reminder, let me say that if you'd like to get on
the rqcon2-info list, to be kept up to date on next year's Con, which
will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area, just drop me a line.
Shannon
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From: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu (Shannon D. Appel)
Subject: RQ-Con Report III: The God Learner Speaks
Message-ID: <199401190617.WAA03789@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Date: 18 Jan 94 14:17:06 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2825
The Nick Brooke Cultural Exchange was one of the most fun seminars of
the convention. Unfortunately, I have almost no notes on it. A wide
variety of stuff was discussed including: HeroQuests, Invisible
Orlanth, the Lunars, the Seven Moths, Arkat and the West.
A few of my favorite Brookian theories:
* The Pharoah is really John Carter, Warlord of Mars.
* Chaos is an entirely safe energy source (and, if you just wear these
suits, everything will be fine; all levels are well within acceptable
limits).
* The Lunar Empire is really trying to recreate the Golden Age of
Yelm. They've already gotten rid of the storm gods and placed a Sun
in the Sky that sits, unmoving. Clearly, once they conquer the entire
world, all shall be fixed again.
Again, I'm sorry that I don't have more notes... It was a fun talk.
Time pending, I'll continue tomorrow with some notes on the Gloranthan
Lore Auction. Many interesting things were revealed.
Shannon
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From: jjm@zycor.lgc.com (johnjmedway)
Subject: Survivor's Report
Message-ID: <9401190635.AA24298@hp0.zycor.lgc.com>
Date: 19 Jan 94 06:35:25 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2826
RuneQuest-Con was an absolute riotous blast! I am very glad I went,
and am definitely planning on next January in the bay area.
Hmm, maybe even Leichester in July ...
It came off very well, especially Home of the Bold. Let's raise our
glasses to toast every one responsible
for managing bits of Chaos so well. See, it is a safe energy source. 8)
It was truly wonderful meeting all of you who made it, and finally
getting to attach faces to the names of many of you. The seminars
were quite good stuff, and even better was getting to corner and
chat with a good number of you folks, especially when it had little
to do with RQ & Glorantha.
Home of the Bold: Glorious Incompetence and Magnificent Decadence
No, I don't mean David Hall and Kevin Jacklyn, when I say incompetent.
I mean MOB and the rest of us running the Lunar High Command. We did
have some flashes of brilliance, such as the great poll tax/vote-rigging
scam of MOB's and Susan's and mine.
But we also had some real wonders, such as General Lergius Cassius
( played by = ? ) deciding to not buy the 300 weapons he had shipped
to Boldhome. Where did he think they'd go? Back to Esrolia?
Also, twice, I had to spend 15 minutes to get an XO@#! Arrest Warrant.
That felt perfect. ( At least I got to have Stafford arrested, and got to
torture him in exchange. Later I got to have him assassinated, but there
was no paper work for that. )
Great sloppy fun.
And on that note, w.r.t. Sunday night:
Paul - Where did you get that schnapps with the gold flakes in it?
Nick - Are you still alive? How much would you pay for the negatives?
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"We weren't all that corrupt, but we were *gloriously* incompetent."
-- the now fugitive, ex-Provost of Boldhome, Gordius Silverus (MOB)
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| john_medway@zycor.lgc.com | Landmark Graphics Corp | 512.292.2325 |
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