From: owner-runequest-rules@ (RuneQuest-Rules-Digest) To: runequest-rules-digest@lists.MPGN.COM Subject: RuneQuest-Rules-Digest V1 #9 Reply-To: runequest-rules@mpgn.com Sender: owner-runequest-rules@ Errors-To: owner-runequest-rules@ Precedence: bulk RuneQuest-Rules-Digest Tuesday, February 3 1998 Volume 01 : Number 009 RuneQuest is a trademark of Avalon Hill Games. All Rights Reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS [RQ-RULES] Sorcerous Initiation [RQ-RULES] matrices Re: [RQ-RULES] matrices [RQ-RULES] Magical Initiation RULES OF THE ROAD 1. Do not include large sections of a message in your reply. Especially not to add "Yeah, I agree" or "No, I disagree." Or be excoriated. If someone writes something good and you want to say "good show" please do. But don't include the whole message you praise. 2. Use an appropriate Subject line. 3. Learn the art of paraphrasing: Don't just quote and comment on a point-by-point basis. 4. No anonymous posting, please. Don't say something unless you're ready to stand by it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 19:40:40 -0500 From: Tal Meta Subject: [RQ-RULES] Sorcerous Initiation Since Mr. Wallace was kind enough to share his magical initiations with us, I thought I'd share mine. A version of these rules appeared in the Chaosium Digest (v18, issue #3) but I've made some minor changes since then. Then, as now, they're strongly influenced by Sandy Petersen's Malkioni Saints (even if the current version doesn't look like it anymore) and by various people's posts on the old RQ4 playtest/discussion list. I'd appreciate nitpicking, actually. If you see something you don't like, let me know, and (more importantly) let me know why. INITIATION When a sorcerer chooses to follow the path of initiation, he sets himself apart from his fellows by making a deeper commitment to his studies. He also places himself at risk, as the deeper levels of magical interaction open him up to domination by the very powers he has sought to master! Initiation creates a source of 'shadow POW', usually referred to as a Twin (some cultures refer to it as a shadow, or doppleganger, etc..). Like a shaman's fetch, this POW exists on the Spirit plane, and makes the sorcerer subject to a certain degree of distraction. However, unlike the shaman's fetch, the sorcerer has no access to his Twin's magic points, nor will it assist him in spirit combat. The Twin is comprised of the sorcerer's suppressed desires, darker emotions, and whatever other 'spiritual baggage' the sorcerer seeks to purify himself of. (Vows are a good source of ideas concerning what the Twin is comprised of; Celibacy, Never Kill, the various Abjure Vows, make good 'repressed' desires). However, by the very act of concentrating such emotions into the spirit plane, he slowly forges an enemy which may someday come to challenge him for the control of his own physical body! A sorcerer's first initiation is generally the most taxing, requiring a sacrifice of POW equal to HALF his original POW attribute, rounded down. It is strongly recommended that the sorcerer in question have a current POW higher than his original stat, or the battle of Self vs. Twin can end prematurely in tradgedy. With the first initiation, the sorcerer gains the ability to expend POW in spellcasting for certain direct benefits. (i.e. a spell can be cast with no MP cost in exchange for one POW, spells that strike a random hit location can be made to strike specific hit locations, etc..) In almost every case, the initiated sorcerer gains the ability to trade POW for distinct effects that would otherwise have been random. Each initiation after the first requires a POW sacrifice equal to one quarter the sorcerer's original POW attribute. They can be acquired in any order, at any time, but the POW sacrifice for each new initiation must be made all at once (i.e. you can't 'bank' several small sacrifices, the POW must be given up in one continuous ceremony for each new initiation.) An initiate's Twin grows in POW at a rate of 1/2 the POW sacrificed for individual injunctions. [Example: Fred Parker, sorcerer extraordinaire had an original POW of 15, and a current POW of 18. He becomes an initiate, costing him 7 POW (his Twin is founded with a POW of 4). Each future initiation he undertakes will cost him 4 POW and increase his Twin's POW by 2. Once an initiate's Twin has a POW equal to that of the initiate, every time the sorcerer loses a point of POW (either to disease, casting ritual magic, using injunctions, etc..) the Twin has the opportunity to match it's POW vs. the POW of the sorcerer. If successful, the Twin will dominate the sorcerer for a number of days equal to the amount the percentile roll succeeded by. [Example: Fred Parker and his Twin both currently have a POW of 14. Fred, needing to guarantee that a Palsy spell he is hurling at an attacking warrior strikes him in the head uses an injunction to insure that it does so, bringing his POW down to 13. His Twin attacks, and rolls a 41 (the Twin's POW of 14 vs. Fred's POW of 13 gives it a 55% chance of success), defeating Fred by 14 points. For the next two weeks, the Twin dominates him (for the sake of example, we'll say that Fred had the Vows of Celibacy, Shun Darkness, and Abjure Rune Magic), and spends it's time alternating between a whorehouse and a Temple to the local Night Goddess. When Fred's mind reasserts control over itself after those two weeks, he's broken one of those vows and dented the other two... Using (invoking) initiated abilities does not add to the time required to cast a spell. If a sorcerer has access to more than one type of injunction, he can use them all at once (i.e. he can use the Injunctions of Permanency & Intensity with the casting of the same spell to render a truly large spell permanent...) Examples of secondary initiations are as follows: Injunction of Intensity: Invoked only while casting a sorcery spell. The POW of the initiate's Twin is added to the spell's Intensity at no additional MP cost. Injunction of Multiplicity: Invoked only while casting a sorcery spell. The POW of the initiate's Twin is added to the casting's Multispell at no additional MP cost. Injunction of Range: Invoked only when a sorcery spell is cast. The POW of the initiate's Twin is added to the casting's Range at no additional MP cost. Injunction of Permanency: Invoked only when a Permanent sorcery spell is cast. This turns the spell into an enchantment, so that it no longer requires maintenance, and cannot be dispelled. The sorcerer must, of course, have access to the Art of Permanence to use this initiation. Injunction of Hold: Invoked only when a spell is cast using the Art of Hold. It enables the user to Hold that spell in mind even if he already has a Held spell. Any number of spells can be Held, each requiring a separate invocation. Once the spell is cast, the user can re-Hold the extra spell without re-invoking this injunction, but only if it is the exact same spell. (i.e. if this injunction were Holding an Evoke Fire 5 Range 3, Multispell 4, Hold 5 spell, it could only be refilled by another Evoke Fire 5 R3/M4/H5 spell.) Injunction of Banish: Invoked only when a sorcery spell is cast. The POW of the initiate's Twin is added to the casting's Banish at no additional MP cost. Injunction of Force: Invoked only when a sorcery spell is cast. The POW of the initiate's Twin is added to the casting's Force at no additional MP cost. Injunction of Reinforcement: Invoked only when a sorcery spell is cast. The POW of the initiate's Twin is added to the casting's Reinforce at no additional MP cost. Injunction of Presence: Invoked only when a sorcery spell is cast. The affected spell takes no Presence to maintain (if temporal), but cannot be maintained for more than one day. Injunction of Power:: When invoked, the initiate's POW doubles, and remains thus for a full day. At the end of the day, POW drops back to normal. Any POW expended during this period comes from the initiate when the injunction wears off. [Example: Joe Barghest, a sorcerer with a POW of 12, invokes this power. His POW jumps to 24, increasing his magic points, Presence, spellcasting skill, etc. He spends the next few hours crafting an enchantment requiring 8 POW. When the injunction ends, instead of his POW dropping to 11 (12 minus 1) it drops to 3 (12 minus 1 minus 8). Injunction of Intellect: The user's mind is expanded. For the next week, all research & experience checks automatically succeed, plus the amount of increase is always the maximum possible (this last also applies to training). Thus, if the initiate does research in Mace Attack, and uses this injunction, not only does he automatically increase, he gets 4 full points. Injunction of Concentration: Until next nightfall, the initiate has great force of mind. He automatically succeeds in any INT roll, including Concentration rolls. He automatically succeeds in sorcery spell casting and manipulation, with no die roll necessary, and no critical successes possible And that's it... *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 01 Feb 1998 02:24:53 -0600 From: "Michael A. Pastorello" Subject: [RQ-RULES] matrices Quick question how do you of the list run matrix magic during combat? For example you have a Multimissile matrix in a bow, no spirit to cast or power it, how do you run the SR requirements? I am not happy with the way it works in my game and would like some suggestions. Thanks, Mike *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 01 Feb 1998 09:29:51 -0500 From: Tal Meta Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] matrices Michael A. Pastorello wrote: > > Quick question how do you of the list run matrix magic during > combat? For example you have a Multimissile matrix in a bow, no > spirit to cast or power it, how do you run the SR requirements? I > am not happy with the way it works in my game and would like some > suggestions. I've always run spell matrixes just like normal spells in memory, i.e. if it's Multimissile 3, it takes 3 mp and 3 SR to cast. For a brief period I tried using spell matrices as spell 'multipliers' i.e. a multimissile3 matrix would turn 1 mp into a 3 point spell, but that rapidly unbalanced my game. (Although it did allow for some pretty impressive effects; flying ships became possible with fair sized fly matrices ). I guess it depends on how much magic your campaign has; one or two pc mages and you can tinker a bit, but if everybody and his cousin knows disrupt, it's probably better to make them all spend the time casting their spells normally, or they'll just stand off at range and annihilate each other at range with spells. *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 17:56:53 -0000 From: "Hibbs, Philip" Subject: [RQ-RULES] Magical Initiation >Hope this is of interest Very much so! I mostly play/ref in Glorantha, so I'm not too sure whether this is applicable. I think I might rule that this applies to Malkioni farmer caste, Kingdom of War peasants, etc. philip.hibbs@tnt.co.uk or phibbs@compuserve.com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/phibbs +--------------+ | Philip Hibbs +---------------------------------------------+ | What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy perfect symmetry? | +------------------------------------------------------------+ *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ End of RuneQuest-Rules-Digest V1 #9 *********************************** *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. RuneQuest is a Trademark of Avalon Hill Games. 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