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, Fri, 30 Sep 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. X-RQ-ID: index 6405: MOBTOTRM = MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au - Venice & Genoa, Light Sons in Drag 6406: JARDINE = JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK - Lewis on Tythes 6407: joe = (Joerg Baumgartner) - Several things 6408: dave_cordes = (Dave Cordes) - Bad Luck Yelornans 6409: Argrath = Argrath@aol.com - Risklands 6410: Michelle_Ringo = (Michelle Ringo) - Risklands - Tithing - Farming Profits 6411: ddunham = (David Dunham) - Riskland; Land Goddesses; Red Moon visibility 6412: jacobus = (Bryan J. Maloney) - Dark Arkati magic 6413: joe = (Joerg Baumgartner) - Magic Crystals <> Matrices 6414: carlsonp = (Carlson, Pam) - Riskland details 6415: sandyp = (Sandy Petersen) - Pamaltela and other matters 6416: WALLMAN = WALLMAN@VAX2.Winona.MSUS.EDU - RQ by email? 6417: KEMREN = KEMREN@aol.com - Placement of Eldarad, Darkness 6418: 100270.337 = (Nick Brooke) - I Fought We Won --------------------- From: MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au Subject: Venice & Genoa, Light Sons in Drag Message-ID: <01HHP0AG7JSE9N7L1K@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au> Date: 30 Sep 94 04:35:37 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6405 G'day, ______________ Venice & Genoa Martin Crim: >>>>> Re: Porthomeka Thanks for the kind words, MOB, and I heartily concur with your take on the trader princes. Do I get any points for saying to myself "Genoa and Venice" before I read your comparison? >>>>> Full points there! The Capratis and du Tumerine enclaves are meant to be something like what the Venetians and Genoese had in Constantinople, <1453. There are similar enclaves in Sog City too (see "The Lonely Lozenge Guide" in the SOG UNIVERSITY GUIDE), but there they also have to compete with the Vadeli! ______________ Women Templars There has been some discussion lately on whether the Sun Domers would let a female Yelornan join the Templars. The example of the female Light Lady Vega Goldbreath is often cited. Despite creating her long ago, David Hall and Nick Brooke have been trying to convince me of late that Vega is in fact, really a *Light Son* (seen "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", anyone?). Of course, that cannot be true because Light Sons are forbidden to disguise themselves as women... (see Yelmalio cult write-up in CoP or SC) ...but then, why have such a weird rule if there wasn't such a problem in the first place??? Food for thought... Cheers MOB --------------------- From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK Subject: Lewis on Tythes Message-ID: <9409290901.AA07242@Sun.COM> Date: 29 Sep 94 08:58:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6406 WRT - Risklands I have always taken the 10/50/90% of income donated to cult to mean exactly that. Income is the amount of new money you get. Thus the cult tythe is NOT a transaction charge, but a tax on increase in wealth. So for the specific example of an Issaries merchant who invested 10,000L and made 2,000L profit; he would tythe to his cult based on the 2,000L profit. The high priest happily accepts the 200L and the little bit extra (200L) and starts contemplating the new robe he wants to buy... Also this leaves the merchant with enough money to invest in a slightly bigger caravan and generate even more money for the temple! So Issaries are not stupid and do not want to eat the goose that lays the golden eggs... Cheers Lewis --------------------- From: dave_cordes@cl_63smtp_gw.chinalake.navy.mil (Dave Cordes) Subject: Bad Luck Yelornans Message-ID: <9409291613.AA27743@Sun.COM> Date: 29 Sep 94 00:24:56 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6408 CL QM-SMTP gw Bad Luck Yelornans >Michelle Ringo X-RQ-ID: 6397: >On the issue of GM wife favoritism. I think that Chris has felt a need to >prove you that he has no favoritism [Thanks]. You're Welcome. > ..... >thwacked my just recently healed and revived Kelsey on the head and KILLED >her!!!! > ..... >Chris has now killed both of the Yelornans 3 times total and of the six >Yelmalians only 1 has been killed. Both Yelornans now have powers at or >below 10 and One is out an 11 point power crystal which until recently was >worth 1,000 stars. I think that Chris is obviously showing favoritism here. He has given the two Yelorans three opportunities to experience the divine act of ressurection. Yet the poor Yelmalians have only had one such mystical experience between the six of them. Doesn't sound fair to me. Have you had Chris analysed? He may have been scared by a Yelornan as a child and his subconcience is getting revenge now. Actually I don't want to sound too unsympathetic or cynical. But sometimes this sh-- happens. In our current campaigns we have a player who is on his third character. Another player is also on his third character (and he joined us half way through our current adventure). There are three of us with our original characters and one NPC that is still an original member. I haven't noticed any favoritism on our GMs part. I just seems that certain characters seem to attract trouble. I think you should be happy that you at least have the option of ressurections or DI. We have not yet found a healer capable of ressurecting. Additionally the divines in the party are only initiate status so DI is difficult. So for us, death has been pretty permanent. In all fairness, two of the lost characters were Humakti, so we wouldn't have ressurected them even if it would have been available. This situation that we find ourselves in (permanent deaths) has led us to try some different options. What I want to know is if it is possible for a shaman to ressurect a dead character. I would picture the steps to achieving this to be: 1. Heal the body to a positive 3 hit points or more. 2. Enter the spirit plain and find the spirit. This is where the greatest chance of failure occurs. If the deceased was a divine worshipper the spirit has gone to join it's god. If a non divine it may have wandered off during the few hours it took the shaman to get there. 4. Beat the spirit in spirit combat. 5. Learn the deceased spirit's true name, or store it in your fetch If you have room. 6. Return to the material plane. 7. Using summon ghost spell and the spirits name - summon the spirit to you. 8. Defeat it again in spirit combat. 9. Force the spirit back into the body, thus bringing the person back to life. 10. Make the person pay through the nose for all the trouble you went through. Success in all this would rely on being able to: find the spirit, defeat it, know summon ghost spell, defeat it again. Failure at any one of these would doom the whole enterprise. For those GMs of you who like ressurections to be really hard to get. Just make sure the spirit has wandered away. This process doesn't seem to differ from the ressurection process described in the Magic Book, page 36: " Resurrect: ... This spell summons the deceased spirit to approach it's former body. The caster of the spell can then start spirit combat with the deceased. If the initiate or priest succeeds in causing the deceased to lose magic points, then he can force the spirit back into the body and return to full life. If the caster fails the soul is lost to death. ...." My shaman character tried this when one of his friends was killed. But after finding his spirit, beating it in spirit combat and learning it's true name He had no way to get it from the spirit plain to the material plain. He didn't know summon ghost nor was his fetch big enough to hold the spirit. So I had to just wish him well and say good-bye. After this failed attempt we started discussing if my attempts would have been successful, if I could have gotten his ghost back to the material plain. Finally someone found this quote from the Magic Book page 28: "Only Divine Magic can bring back an adventurer from the dead, a capability which greatly encourages such characters to learn or convert to that approach to magic". Why???? What is the difference between what I detailed here and the resurrection spell? --------------------- From: Argrath@aol.com Subject: Risklands Message-ID: <9409291312.tn25143@aol.com> Date: 29 Sep 94 17:12:36 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6409 Richard Ohlson asks some sensible questions about Risklands, viz: >I resent the fact that they do not EVER >mention what the common language of Riskland is. (Is it Bilini >like Renekot's dad's tribe, is it Stormspeak since almost >everybody is an Orlanthi, or did they invent a language called >Dorastan?) Immigrants usually bring their language with them, especially if they come as a group large enough to be a separate economic unit. (Ever been to Miami?) So I'd rule they speak Bilini. Stormspeech is a ritual language, the way Hebrew was before the founding of Israel. There may be some beings around who speak Dorastan (hint: see Codex #1), which is more or less mutually intelligible with Bilini--like Swedish and Norwegian are reputed to be (I bet I hear from some Swedes or Norwegians on that one). >How much time do people let go by without any encounters? How >do you roleplay farm life? Or do you just say, "And the rest >of the season goes without event." I don't like doing that, >but farm life sounds boring to me! It all depends on your style of play, including how often you game and whether you're willing to do a lot of solo stuff. I doubt that farm life in Riskland is boring, however. Not only are there lots of adventurous-type things to do, but there's also a lot of decision-making. "Do I take in those rotten Soderfal steaders, give 'em some grain and make 'em leave, or just drive them off and hope they don't burn my crops?" "Do I spend the 120 L. bounty on a draft animal or more armor?" "Should I marry Bergtha, who is beautiful and rich, or Valgarda, whose old mother would come live on my stead?" (At least as much as in historical Earth societies, having an old person around is important because they are wise; in Glorantha, they also have amazing skills and lots of spells. Thus, the above question is not a no-brainer.) You can certainly abstract the boring stuff. None of that "Oops, you failed your Farming roll, so the furrow's crooked." Other things can be kept in the background by using them to set the scene ("You're threshing grain when ...") or just reminding the players about them ("The tinker comes by this way once a season"). I can't help you on the Weekly Stead Production thing. It reminds me of Pendragon's economics rules, only less realistic. For one thing, the number of people in the stead doesn't seem to matter. Alynxes coming at ya by private email. Let me know if you don't get 'em. You have Gloranthan Bestiary, right? --Martin --------------------- From: Michelle_Ringo@ed.gov (Michelle Ringo) Subject: Risklands - Tithing - Farming Profits Message-ID: <9408297808.AA780875037@ed.gov> Date: 29 Sep 94 19:34:45 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6410 TITHING IN RISKLANDS With Regards to the 10% tithe. Normally, when you have inventory in which you invested 10,000 then both income and profit are both estimated based on return minus cost of inventory. Therefore, the 10% is on 2,000 in the example provided. A tithe of 200. This based on a tax on income or profits, because the income is the amount over initial investment. Therefore, the farmer in your example did not make 10,000+, but 2,000 - the 200 tithe = 1,800. --------------------- From: ddunham@radiomail.net (David Dunham) Subject: Riskland; Land Goddesses; Red Moon visibility Message-ID: <199409291915.AA03934@radiomail.net> Date: 29 Sep 94 19:15:56 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6411 RISKLAND Richard Ohlson had some questions about Riskland. I assume that the most common language in Riskland is New Pelorian, since most of the immigrants come from somewhere in the Lunar Empire (even if they don't consider themselves citizens). Most people speak one of the Theyalan tongues, like Bilini. I think it would be difficult to carry on a conversation in Stormspeech -- it's not really a human language, and it's probably specialized for religious use. It's probably like Latin in some regards -- perhaps universal across all Orlanthi, but difficult to discuss anything that was invented since Godtime. >How much time do people let go by without any encounters? How >do you roleplay farm life? Or do you just say, "And the rest >of the season goes without event." I don't like doing that, >but farm life sounds boring to me! I'm not the GM of our Riskland campaign, but that's exactly how I run my PenDragon Pass game -- you want lots of time to pass so you can portray long-term events, like raising a kid. And most of daily life is boring -- just like a novel, the game ought to focus on the interesting bits (with other bits thrown in only to establish character or setting). BTW, "alynx" is Greg's new name for shadowcat. LAND GODDESSES I've been doing some thinking (aided by Jonas and Joerg) about what Gods of Glorantha calls Grain Goddesses. It also calls them "Queens of the Land" or Land Goddesses. I believe all these goddesses also have a sovereignty aspect. This isn't mentioned in GoG, but neither is Orlanth Rex, which is in many ways similar (a subcult devoted to rulership). The land goddesses were there all along, even if not seriously worshipped. For example, in Ralios, the Hsunchen probably worshipped her as one of many local spirits (she happened to be in all the localities). When the Orlanthi dominated, her worship became more important. How did land goddesses get a grain aspect? Many grains grow in their land. One may or may not be the favorite. A fairly standard heroquest is to raise the agricultural productivity of a grain, which has the side effect of associating it with the land goddess. More important is the sovereignty aspect. The goddess represents the land itself. To maximize the fertility of his land, a king has to marry the land goddess (this might happen even with Hsunchen). This marriage also legitimizes his rule. An example of a sovereignty goddess with no grain aspect is Kero Fin -- marry her and you are the legitimate ruler of her land (you actually marry one of her incarnations, see KoS.127 where Moirades marries the Feathered Queen of the Kerofin Temple and becomes King of Dragon Pass). Note that it's possible to be a Grain Goddess without being a Land Goddess -- Hon-Eel and Rice Mother being two examples. VISIBILITY OF THE MOON The editor of Heroes of the King objected to a passage in my story where from Pavis, people see a cloud blow over the moon. I did a little research, and still believe that you can see the Red Moon from Pavis. KoS.141 mentions the moonlight over Runegate, which has always been outside the Glowline. KoS.153 mentions the "distant black moon, hanging in the sky." It's black because it's Clayday, and it's hanging in the sky outside the Glowline. I believe this later work supersedes Biturian Varosh's long-out-of-print description in Cults of Prax. --------------------- From: jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney) Subject: Dark Arkati magic Message-ID: <9409291930.AA20273@sonata.cc.purdue.edu> Date: 29 Sep 94 09:30:27 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6412 I've got a new PC who is a Dark Arkati (she's also a Xiola Umbar). Anyway, the way she understands her Arkat magic is that it is special secrets that Arkat stole from devil worshippers to make Trolls strong and help them fight chaos. These are holy secrets and work because Arkat sits above in his home in the sky and listens to all his worshippers. When a worshipper says the right secret prayers, Arkat gives him a gift (the spell works). However, since Arkat is now hard to get hold of, you have to get the prayer JUST right so it can make it straight to the Dark One. Other beings who do not know Arkat claim to know similar magic. They are devil worshippers, of course. They still have some of the power that Arkat was not able to steal and eat before he had to go fight Gbaji. Even Arkat had to take time to eat. (That last is an Uz proverb.) --------------------- From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner) Subject: Magic Crystals <> Matrices Message-ID:Date: 29 Sep 94 21:04:46 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6413 Michelle Ringo in X-RQ-ID: 6397 > The Yelorna Saga Continues: > Thanks for everyones clarifications about the Errata, > presumably the Gloranthan economy my Yelornans have been > living in has a huge rate of inflation for crystals, but I > hear the bottom may be dropping out of the crystal market at > least in Sun County and Pavis County. Not really. Crystals cannot be made by men (except if they enter the godplane, hit a deity real hard and collect the crystallized blood of the deity - not your mail order service). Thus, they have quite a lot of ideological value - either you carry along a piece of a friendly god, or the trophy from an overcome enemy. Either has some importance, and makes even a dead crystal valuable beyond its magical benefit. If the old RQ2 use as spirit trap is retained, they become even more valuable. > Both Yelornans now have powers at or below 10 and One is out > an 11 point power crystal which until recently was worth > 11,000 stars. POW >= 8 after a DI is not what I'd call bad... -- -- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de --------------------- From: carlsonp@wdni.com (Carlson, Pam) Subject: Riskland details Message-ID: <2E8B2F70@emssmtp.msm.weyer.com> Date: 29 Sep 94 21:20:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6414 Richard Ohlson askes about the Risklands. First off, I resent the fact that they do not EVER mention what the common language of Riskland is. (Is it Bilini like Renekot's dad's tribe, is it Stormspeak since almost everybody is an Orlanthi, or did they invent a language called Dorastan?) I do believe it says that the people in the area mostly use (sit down Rich - brace yourself) New Pelorian! In my game, the Orlanthi all speak Aggari, or Talastari, or Sartarite, which are closely related. But everyone knows New Pelorian, and the party uses it because two of them don't know anything else. I use New Pelorian as a sort of "official" language of the area - you hear it in Hazard Fort and Relain, but among themselves the Orlanthi speak their local Theyalan dialects - Talastari, I guess. How much time do people let go by without any encounters? Depends on the season. Here's how my players have trained ME: Sea Season - no encounters. We're planting. Don't bother us. Orlanth himself couldn't get us to leave. Fire Season - good enounter season. Crops are just growing, and the hundreds of NPC's we've collected can pull weeds and chase sheep. All kinds of interesting foreigners show up in Hazard Fort, looking for guides. Earth Season - nope. Harvest time. Have to go to Oxhead for Ernalda HHD. Well, MAYBE we can be persuaded to do something if we're already in Oxhead.... Dark Season - this is a good time to do things like, oh, climb Thunder Mountain. Snow? Who cares? We'll prepare...(and they did!). Sacred Time - no encounters. ( I haven't gotten into the mythology enough to do this season justice. Much guilt.) Storm Season - Elmal and Orlanth HHD's. We have to train and study up on Orlanth, then go to Oxhead. See Earth Season. How do you roleplay farm life? Or do you just say, "And the rest of the season goes without event." I don't like doing that, but farm life sounds boring to me! Au contraire! You can get the PC's excited about improvements: water wheels, grain storage pits or root cellars, walls, a sod roof (saved their bacon last night), and just maybe, A SEPERATE BUILDING FOR THE ANIMALS! And things can come a-visiting - drunken Storm Bulls (is that redundant?), cave trolls, baby-snatching hellwood elves, nice, clean broos wanting to trade (thank you, Barron), Telmori, or worse - Lunars. Do other people use the Weekly Stead Production thingy? I used it their first year. They came out moderately well off. How do other people convert it to money/stuff? How does buying new tools help? I gave them about a 100L profit from piglets, extra seed-corn, and hides they sold in Hazard Fort. There's not a lot of demand for farm products in the Risklands. The party traveled to Thubana to get a better price for their wild animal furs. (And see a play put on by a travelling actor troupe - the Story of Orlanth and Thed!) As for tools - what bugged me is that the Lunar advertisement for the Risklands promised everybody an ox and a plow, but there was no mention in the book about when the players received them. I decided it was a cheap enticement trick, and there were no free plows and oxen. Renekot was pretty ticked at the Lunars for that one. Fortunately, the PC Ernalda acolyte brought her own. How does the Bless Crop spell affect it? Um, well, er.... Frankly, I fudge it. Your ideas on tools and spells adding to plant lore rolls are good ones. How much do they have to tithe? 10% of the profit or 10% of the income? Profit, natch'. Otherwise everybody would constantly be in debt. One last thing-the Kalf's Hunting Alynx's. Can anybody tell me anything about them? I can't find anything about Alynx's or hunting cats anywere. I'll send you the info I saved months ago on alynxes. Mostly, I remember they don't herd sheep very well. I made my plane reservations for RQ Con II today. Yippeee! Pam --------------------- From: WALLMAN@VAX2.Winona.MSUS.EDU Subject: RQ by email? Message-ID: <01HHP53PVQEG004HE7@VAX2.Winona.MSUS.EDU> Date: 29 Sep 94 16:01:10 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6416 Has anyone out there ever ran RQ by email? I am thinking of running something on the myths and heroquests of a small Hsunchen clan. If there are people who want to play that is. The problem is that I am not exactly sure on the mechanics. If anyone has tried running RQ by email, please let me know what you did and how it worked. And if this sounds like something anyone wants to PLAY, you could drop me a line, but I think I will stew on it for another month or so. I just heard Sandy on NPR. What? No mention of RQ? Congrats on the good Doom publicity. Ed Wallman@vax2.winona.msus.edu