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, 14 Sep 1994, part 2 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk --------------------- From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen) Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 13 Sep 1994 Message-ID: <9409131625.AA13668@idcube.idsoftware.com> Date: 13 Sep 94 04:25:09 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6187 David Cowling: > How often do broo get to within half to one and a half days of >Jonstown? In a powergaming campaign, almost every day. In a wargaming campaign, every season. In a roleplaying campaign, whenever we've been spending too much time screwing around in town. In a storytelling campaign, when it suits the GM. If you want "realism" -- it's only a one or two day walk from Snake Pipe Hollow to Jonstown for a hardy critter like a broo. >What are the local Storm Bull Forces like, if any? Just barely weak enough to need the help of the PCs. >What kind of Chalana Arroy and Humakt temples are in Jonstown, and >who are the personalities associated with them? I would expect to find a large and powerful Chalana Arroy temple, because I play CA healers as town-based, but traveling around the land, like old-time country doctors making their rounds. Dunno about the Humakt Temple. Probably have a reasonably good-sized one, and all the Humakti from the various local tribes attend for at least the high holy day (sticking to their own shrines for the less important holy days). Dunno about the personalities. If my players visited Jonstown, I'd make 'em all up out of whole cloth on the spot regardless of what had been published. Nick Brooke: >In my games, a priest who cast all his rune spells into a Truestone >would only be able to regain the use of each spell when the spell >had been cast from the Truestone. This is how it happened to >Biturian Varosh, it seems. Clarification from my own and Steve Perrin's campaigns. When you first get an _unset_ Truestone, and cast your spells into it, they're gone for good, and the stone's got 'em. If you get a _set_ Truestone, and cast your spell into it, it just fills the slot, and, when cast, you can regain it. >IMHO, Yelmalions who wanted to *win* at the Hill of Gold would be >like Christians who thought the Crucifixion was a bad thing, and >HeroQuested/ time travelled back to Judaea with a ladder and a >claw-hammer to stop it from happening. Spot on. In the heroquest as I have written it, while it is possible to "win" and thus retain your fire powers, this _does_ have the alarming side effect of NOT being able to gain immortality. Fireblade -- immortality. You be the judge. >Victorian Public School Heroes = Yelmalions Wow. So now it's _okay_ to kill them, right? Pam Carlson said, some time ago, that she thought it was unlikely that a Praxian would sell a herd beast to someone who didn't even _know_ Peaceful Cut. Now, obviously a Praxian who was starving, or irreligious, or had some other excuse, might sell a herd beast to an Orlanthi. But I think in general they sell living beasts only to other Praxians, though goods made from beasts, hides, and jerky are all traded eagerly. While on the subject, a sable rider might be slightly more willing to sell a captured herd beast (impala or something) than he would a sable, but I suspect that even this is frowned upon -- considered unethical but legal, kind of like eating herd men or raiding another clan of your own tribe. Of course, if a sable rider sold _sables_, he'd anger his clan's Eiritha women unless he had a mighty good reason. Now for some biological talk Useful To Glorantha. The Wapiti is extremely feisty -- approximately 5% of all adult male wapiti in a given year die in combat with another wapiti. Hence, I believe that the Pralori hsunchen are also exceedingly aggressive and ferocious. I'm sure they fight among themselves all the time, and would probably be dangerous to visit. For sure you don't want to mess with their women. SABLE ANTELOPE INFORMATION Raising sables? Here's some facts: Both males and females are horned. They graze almost exclusively on grass during the wet season, but when it's dry, they'll resort to tree leaves (but only if they have to). They dislike getting too far from water, but don't need it as often as impalas. When the grass is growing (i.e., during the rainy season, or on good ground), the land can support 4 sables per square km. Sables live up to 20 years, when well-kept. The sable antelope has no specific breeding season, but mates year-round. Females enter estrus 2-3 weeks after giving birth, and produce a calf every 10 months or so. The single calf weighs 13-18 kg (30-40 lbs), and remains hidden at least 10 days (no doubt accompanied by the herd's owning Eiritha woman). Females attain sexual maturity in 2 years. A typical herd consists of 20-150 or more females (and young). During the dry season, the herd concentrates together. In the rainy season, the animals disperse into small bands. When the calves are about to be born, at the end of the rainy season, there is even more dispersion. The males maintain fixed territories at all times (i.e., the females band together and then fragment, but the males stay "stable"). In addition, bachelor males form together in groups of 2-12. Bachelors are driven from the herds at the age of 3-4, and badn together. When they get 5-6 years old, they become solitary, and try to form a territory. A male takes possession of any female herd that enters his territory, but when the females leave, the male has to wait till the next time. The individual herds of females are, of course, owned by individual sable riders. The bachelor males are ridden by sable bachelors, who travel, raid, cause trouble, and are generally bad news until they are ready to get married, when they return to the clan and settle down. IMPALA Unlike other antelope (like the Praxian sable), the impala requires a source of free water. NOTE: female impalas do NOT have horns. Female impalas are hence not ridden, even by women, since the horns are important to steering antelopes while riding (personal opinion). Impalas graze on grass, and browse on leaves, and must drink at least once a day. They live 13-17 years, tops. Impalas generally give birth during two breeding seasons each year -- any one female only gives birth once in a year, but the herd as a whole has two "birth peaks". One such peak is at the end of the rainy season. The other is at the start. The calf is born about 6-7 months after conception, and weaned 5-7 months later. Males are physiologically capable of reproduction at 13 months. During the dry season, impalas, male and female and young all congregate together into gigantic herds and social structure breaks down. They just all travel together. During the wet season, it's more complicated During that time, a typical herd consists of 10-100 females and young. The bachelor males form into bands of 60 or so and go wandering around on their own. The individual herds belong to "clans" (a behavioral term) which associate loosely together. Impalas from rival clans are NOT fought, nor is there overt hostility, but association is rare (except in the dry season), and females usually stay in their clan of birth. The individual herds are, of course, owned by individual impala riders. During the dry season, the impala riders get together into exceedingly large groups unlike, say, the sables or high llamas. The bachelor males are ridden by impala bachelors, who raise hell all the rainy season. The bastards. Impala raids basically disappear during the dry season, when they've all grouped together, but they're also hard to raid at that time. BISON Bison are mainly grass-eaters, and rarely eat anything else. Bison mate in the fall, and give birth in the spring, to a single calf. In a given herd of bison, all the mating basically takes place in a single two-week period (which is usually also the occasion for many fertility dances/festivals/orgies for the riders). The calf weighs 15-30 kg at birth, can walk and run within 3 hours, and is weaned 7-12 months later. Hence, the bison do not go off and seek secret breeding places, unlike the sables. The mother guards her young closely, and charges intruders. Sexual maturity is reached at 2-4 years, and physical maturity at 6 years for males, 3 years for females. Females give birth once every 1-2 years. Bison are long-lived, up to 40 years. Bison band together into as large a herd as they can, and make huge seasonal migrations for the winter. The whole herd goes traipsing to the traditional wintering grounds, then heads back north (or wherever) for the summer. This may sound less complex than the social dance performed by other tribes, but internal politics and dominance within a herd are pretty sophisticated. Other plains animals later, if interest warrants. ---------------------