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, Sat, 19 Mar 1994, part 1
Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM
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.
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From: SMITHH@mr.mgh.harvard.edu (Harald Smith 617 726-2172)
Subject: Literacy
Message-ID: <01HA3YPW6AY8PMT2ZB@mr.mgh.harvard.edu>
Date: 18 Mar 94 02:20:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3344
One issue that came to my attention after running a scenario
recently was the extent of literacy in Glorantha. Generally,
I've assumed a low level of literacy, but certain groups are more
likely to be literate than others.
In my own Imtherian campaign, the Lunar bureaucrats, the temple
priests, and local nobles are all fairly literate. The city
temples teach initiates to read and write (presumably to
understand basic instructions vs. arcane symbols), but not
significantly unless they are scribes. Certain city crafts such
as scribes and lawspeakers are also highly literate. But what of
other crafts--would master craftsmen have gained some literacy or
would they entrust their guild secrets to outsiders to record
(particularly financial transactions)? Also, how much literacy
is implied in certain crafts such as mapmaking?
Most mercenaries/adventurers are not literate--at most 10%, but
what are they likely to know? (How to read a map? Basic
instructions like "march north two days"?) What have others done
with literacy levels.
And what of other regions? I imagine a reasonable level of
literacy in Dara Happa (after all, they write things down there
as David Dunham aptly pointed out). But would this be restricted
to those in temples and guilds, plus the nobles? How about
Carmania or Jonatela? Is reading restricted to the noble and
wizard classes? (Death to any peasant possessing a writing
instrument!) When would Hrestoli start learning to read and
write? When they enter the knight class or earlier? I generally
assume that Praxians and Pentans are illiterate except for sign
or knot language, used primarily as warning markers. Comments?
--Harald Smith
(SMITHH@A1.MGH.HARVARD.EDU)
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From: gbosch@vaxa.weeg.uiowa.edu
Subject: Race in Glorantha
Message-ID: <0097B9DE.C7EEBFE0.5925@vaxa.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Date: 18 Mar 94 17:59:57 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3345
Greetings All!
I really liked Greg Freid's posting concerning race and RPG's.
I agree that this is a subject that is worth some discussion here.
Glorantha is certainly not as overtly racist as some of the other
RP worlds out there, but there are some things worth thinking
about. Race, in our world, is usually a question of cultural
meanings applied to biological (actually phenotypical) difference.
I believe the only meaningful biological definition of race
concerns the ability of two organisms to successfully reproduce (am
I wrong? I'm a historian, not a biologist). The problem with
cultural ideas of race when applied in a role-playing situation is
that the biological differences are real. We have no real-world
analogue for the interaction of humans with another sentient race.
Let's consider the best documented of the non-humans, the
Trolls. Trolls aren't just culturally considered to be different
from humans, they are different. So the question becomes: How real
is the influence of biology in determining the differences in
racial behavior in Glorantha? If a Troll child were raised by
human parents, how "Trollish" would his behavior be? We could use
the parallel fiction of Lt. Worf on Star Trek. He represents a
combination of human and Klingon elements. Even here, however,
there is the question of how much of his behavior is determined by
his own delving into his culture.
I'm interested in finding out what people think about all
this. What does racial difference mean in Glorantha? Also, how do
we reconcile this with the fact that we are playing this game in a
society which is very racially divided?
In my game, the phenotypical differences between humans are
accorded much less weight than observed cultural behavior. A
Kralorelan who dresses, acts, and talks like a Theyalan would be
considered a funny-looking Theyalan by most Theyalans. The point
is that humans' sense of the "other" is strongly affected by the
existence of multiple "others" who are not human at all. In the
end, a human from Dragon Pass has more in common with a human from
the interior of Pamaltela than either has in common with a Troll or
an Elf. This means that a Gloranthan's definition of "us" vs.
"them" will be different from a real-world human's. This doesn't
mean an automatic sense of unity, more one of identity.
On another item:
Someone recently asked for Gloranthan slang. One of my
players has compiled a list of such things (mostly epithets and
curses), from which I've selected some of the choicer bits:
Go feed Gorgorma's second mouth!
Upon which of Kygor Litor's six teats have you been sucking?
By Dormal's holy barnacles!
(This would happen) Only should Donadar play a false note!
About as easy as stealing a clack from Asrelia.
You would have better luck debating Babeester Gor's axe!
Faster than Mastakos!
(describing Lunar sympathizers) In bed with the Red Goddess
As cold as Valind's beard!
By Yelmalio's cold light!
and
The subtlety of Zorak Zoran, but none of the style.
Well, back to the dissertation
Gerald
Gerald Bosch
Department of History
University of Iowa
gbosch@vaxa.weeg.uiowa.edu
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From: u9066837@athmail1.causeway.qub.ac.uk (Mad Mark Lamki)
Subject: Q-CON Announcement.
Message-ID: <9403181849.AA01170@lis7>
Date: 18 Mar 94 18:49:43 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3346
Q-CON
THE DRAGONSLAYERS
The Queen's University Roleplaying and Wargaming Society
DATES:
Fri 16th June From approximately 5.30 pm to 9.30 pm.
Sat 17th June From approximately 10.00 am to 9.30 pm.
Sun 18th June From approximately 11.00 am to 6.00 pm.
LOCATION:
The Student's Union
The Queen's University of Belfast (QUB)
University Road
Belfast
Northern Ireland
United Kingdom.
THE GAMES:
Competitions Include:
(1) Command Decision.
(2) DBM.
(3) AD&D.
(4) Call Of Cthulhu.
Participation Games Include:
(1) Vampire: The Masquerade (7) Star Trek
(2) AD&D (8) Blake's 7
(3) Warhammer FRP (9) Shadowrun
(4) Magic: The Gathering (10) Traveller TNE
(5) Heroes & Heroines (11) Space Hulk
(6) Paranoia (12) Battletech
(13) Blue Max
Many more games will be held, including the Star Trek Mega Game, and possibly
Mage, Werewolf and Runequest.
Exhibition games will also be held.
All competition games will cost 1 pound sterling to enter, the exhibition
and participation games are free and open to anyone. However you are advised
to book early for participation games to avoid disappointment.
THE PRICES:
CONVENTION ENTRY:
5 pounds STERLING for the 3 days
or
3 pounds STERLING for each day.
ACCOMMODATION:
The Queens Halls of Residence will provide single room accommodation for
those wishing to attend Q-Con at the following prices.
Student: 12 pounds STERLING per night with full breakfast.
Non-student: 15 pounds STERLING per night with full breakfast.
Meals can also be provided on site (The Halls of Residence) but we need
numbers and payments before hand. The provisional prices are 7 pounds for
three meals and 5 pounds for lunch and dinner.
The accommodation must be paid for be paid for one week before the con starts
at the latest (this is to aid in the costing of rooms etc.) but in certain
circumstances pre-booking, without payment, may be accepted and payment made
on the day. Contact the people below for details. Those who turn up on the
day wishing rooms will be accommodated to the best of our ability but no
responsibility will be accepted.
There are also various B&B's around Belfast which will need to be booked
directly by individuals.
REGISTRATION:
Pre-registration for games must take place at least one week in advance to
ensure that there are sufficient GM's and to get an idea of the numbers of
people attending. Games will be open to those who have not pre-registered but
there will be no guarantees made as to availability of places. Name, contact
details, games to be registered for and numbers of people attending are
required.
Team games will be announced as soon as details are finalized.
CONTACTS:
Fintan Jennings
INTERNET: u9232842@athmail.causeway.qub.ac.uk
JANET: u9232842%athmail.causeway.qub.ac.uk@uknet.ac.uk
Graham Boyd
INTERNET: u9350136@athmail.causeway.qub.ac.uk
JANET: u9350136%athmail.causeway.qub.ac.uk@uknet.ac.uk
SNAIL-MAIL TO:
Fintan Jennings
18 Riverdale Park North
Belfast
BT11 9DL
Northern Ireland
United Kingdom.
ALL CHEQUES / POSTAL ORDERS TO BE MADE PAYABLE TO:
Q.U.B. DRAGONSLAYERS.
This announcement is sent by Mark Lamki. I can be contacted at;
u9066837@athmail.causeway.qub.ac.uk
OR
u9066837%athmail.causeway.qub.ac.uk@uknet.ac.uk
---------------------
From: al76188@cs.tut.fi (Lahtinen Antti Jussi)
Subject: Elves and Elder Secrets
Message-ID: <199403182055.AA29681@kaarne.cs.tut.fi>
Date: 19 Mar 94 00:55:14 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3347
Subject: Elves and Elder Secrets
When I was reading through Mike Dickison's post about elves, I
noticed that though his ideas about elf physiology were interesting,
they were completely incompatible with those given in Elder Secretes.
If elves of this kind were to be installed in Glorantha, the Elder
Secrets would have to be completely rewritten.
I don't like the idea of elves being shit-eating walking composts, so
I greatly prefer the way the elves are described in Elder Secrets and
'In Shadows under Red Moon'. The 'shadows tells very much about the
vronkali, and it does not directly disagree with ES in any place.
However Mike Dickison's ideas seem to fit to slorfings, who are
'relatives of ferns and spore-bearing plants'. See pages 28-29 in
Elder Races Book.
About True Elves (Mreli, Vronkali, and Embyli)
'ELVES: All true Aldryami include a good-sized highly intelligent
form: the classic elves' (page 29, Elder Races Book)
According to the 'shadows, aldrya created the vronkali using the life
force (POW ?) of living evergreen trees as raw material. The vronkali
resemble plant only in the beginning and in the end of their long
lives. They are born as seed, and they begin to have plant-like
features only when they are dying of old age.
The elves have bones, muscle, skin and blood, but these are composed
of vegetable matter. However, an elf has less things in common with a
carrot than human has with a rabbit. Elves are not true plants, for
they do not have roots and can not take nourishment from soil and
sunlight, so they have to eat other plants to survive. Elvish blood
is 'very dark in colour, with a slight greenish cast', probably it is
copper-based, opposed to iron-based human blood.
The greenish colour of elven skin and hair comes from the copper, not
from chlorophyll, in a similar way as human skin and hair have red
colour from iron.
As iron is poisonous to elves, they do not eat meat, or anything that
contains iron-based blood.
Of the three races of true elves, the vronkali are the most human-
like, thought some would say that vronkali do not resemble humans,
but _humans_ resemble vronkali, for elves existed long before man.
Unlike the mreli and embyli, vronkali have two sexes and do not
mate with dryads. The vronkali live, mate and die quite like humans,
but their culture and concept of life is alien to humans. A very few
humans have understood the way of aldryami and have been accepted
in the cult of aldrya and subcult of the High King Elf.
Half elves are extremely rare, but apparently they do exists. One
well-known half elf was (or actually is) Pavis. (One other half-elf
is described in RQ II 'Rune Masters' book, I just can't remember his
name.)
The 'pollination dances', etc. are probably something that humans have
completely misunderstood, or those stories are just 'urban legends'
made by travellers who were hunting for free drinks in exchange for
wild stories.
Dryads are capable of creating temporary bodies of trees, so there
can be 'apple dryads', 'cherry dryads' or even 'pangwood dryads',
but elves are not capable of this, and can not copy the properties
of their familiar plant type. Oakwood elves, birch elves, etc. have
slightly different height and colouring, but the differences are not
so striking.
Because mreli are active all summer and hibernate during winter, they
very seldom bother to build any shelters or houses. Before winter
they pack all their belongings in wooden or ceramic containers and
bury them for next summer.
Embyli also do not have any buildings. They are active all year, and
have daily rest periods. However, as they live in warm tropical
forests they have no need for any kind of shelters.
Green elves live in northern forests and are active all year. In summer
they do not need buildings, but during winter they need some kind of
shelter and clothing. However, humans have never seen and elf-made
building.
PS. After reading 'In Sahdows under Red Moon', a thought of 'happy
little elves' feels very remote. The story of the vronkali defending
Winterwood against troll marauders is very cruel and bloody...
"Wait, don't kill it. Just break the arrowshafts very short"
"Why, elder, why should we let this troll to live?" I asked, still
full of anger and disgust.
"Look at its earmarks. It is from a high family, so the other trolls
will not abandon or kill it. Without a healer they can't remove the
barbed arrowheads. If they try, this eater will surely die."
I drew my blade and carefully cut the shafts of all four arrows. One
arrow was high in chest, two were lodged deep in his gut, and one was
in his thigh, just above knee. I looked at Halian and said "I thought
that a group of this size would have a healer with them. And the
trolls surely know some healing spells".
She looked back at me, smiling, and said "Nobody can heal a wound if
there is an arrowtip inside, and they do not have a healer anymore.
I killed her this morning and buried the body in three different
graves. They have to carry this wounded troll with them, and it will
slow them down. It will buy us time to set up more traps."
--
Antti Lahtinen : Justice is Only a Whish of a Weak
al76188@cs.tut.fi :
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From: jdegon@vega.iii.com (Jim DeGon)
Subject: Fanzines and Lead Men
Message-ID: <9403182131.AA26574@enrico>
Date: 18 Mar 94 05:31:05 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3348
Hola,
I picked up some flyers at Dundracon a montha ago that might be of interest
to some recipients of this list.
There was a flyer listing three Runequest or Glorantha oriented fanzines
RQ Adventures
"The publication dedicated to explorint the world of Glorantha"
c/o John Castellucci
2006 22nd Ave
San Francisco, CA 94116
Has released three issues filled with background info and scenario info for
the RQA Duckpak and a Stormbull Block Special.
I believe this one is $5.00 a copy
You can email Eric Rowe for info per his earlier message
rowe@soda.berkeley.edu
*****
Tales of the Reaching Moon
"The RuneQuest Magazine"
c/o David Gadbois (in the US)
gadbois@cs.utexas.edu
PO Box 49475
Austin, TX 78765
Has released 11 issues and has re-released some too. A major resource
on Runequest Rules and/or Glorantha. $4.00 US I beleive, but this is
probably wrong.
*****
Codex
c/o Mike Dawson
codexzine@aol.com
812 Brook Hill Rd. #122
Richmond, VA 23227
Has released one issue and has announced a second to be mailed in April
The first issue is beautiful and apparently made a splash at its debut at
RQCon in New York a couple of months ago. $5.00 US
*****
The Trollkin Forge Glorantha miniatures are still available from Chessex
for 50 cents apeice (un-blister-packed).
The list has lots of Broos, Trolls, Trollkins, a Baboon, and Morokanth, as
well as some humans described by Cult affiliation.
This is the -only- one of their products that they will take mail-orders
from consumers for. The procedure is:
1. Get a copy of the one page order form from them or from me by mail.
2. Fill it out and send it in with a check totalling 50 cents for each
miniature plus 25 cents per 2 miniatures for shipping. They will fill as
much of your order as possible from stock and send the balance of the
payment back to you.
Chessex West
2990 San Pablo Ave
Berkeley, CA 94702
(510) 843-9257
Jim DeGon
jdegon@iii.com
Hope there's still some folks out there who don't know this.
Hope that Shannon the archive-master at soda.berkeley.edu saves it away...
Jim D.
---------------------
From: kenrolston@aol.com
Subject: Sun County's Jarst Daro
Message-ID: <9403181924.tn135867@aol.com>
Date: 19 Mar 94 00:24:35 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3349
Nick recently graciously speculated that my genteel taste was responsible for
the changing this ogre character's name from Mike O'Brien's original Mohenjo
Daro to the current Jarst Daro. Carl Fink and Mike Dawson have both posted to
correct Nick misapprehension of my delicate judgement. In fact, I liked the
original Mohenjo Daro name, and would have kept it if not for the raucous
clamor of blindtester protests. I admit to being a bit too puckish by nature,
but for me the humor of the name was even more delicious, because my Garhound
town layout (see the inside back cover of Sun County) was borrowed from an
artist's reconstruction of Mohenjo Daro.
Henceforth it is safe to assume that any instance of weak humor averted in
a Gloranthan supplement is in spite of, rather than in evidence of, my sage
judgement.
Ken Rolston
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From: hmangold@muselab.ac.runet.edu
Subject: Kudos to Codex
Message-ID: <9403190423.AA26472@muselab.ac.runet.edu>
Date: 19 Mar 94 04:23:35 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3350
Well, this is my first post to the mailing list, and it may as
well be positive...I finally got the time to read my first issue of
*Codex*, and dammit if I wasn't impressed. Terific job overall. The
article on the maskes of pavis was the standour, IMHO.
Just as a sidenote; could Davbe Gadbois please contact me at hmangold@
muselab.ac.runet.edu. (please excuse any por writing, but I', on the edge
of inebriation, and my manual skills are hardely at their peak)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hal Mangold >> hmangold@muselab.ac.runet.edu >>"Patience is like bread
Savage Henry >> Radford University,Radford Va.>> they say,I ran out of
SvgeHenry@aol.com >> Apathy capitol of the USA >> that yesterday....
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Geek code under construction.
---------------------