Subject: HeroQuesting for Fun and Profit, Volume 4, Number 9
First Distribution: May 29, 1990
This issue:
Various things (Eric Jablow)
Glorantha Questions (Jamie O'Shaughnessy)
Range and strength (Jamie O'Shaughnessy)
Ed's note: I occasionally get requests asking if I know of any RQ players in
a particular area. For many of you, I can make a decent guess at where
you are, but if you would like to make sure you are mentioned when people
in your area ask, please e-mail me an address or phone number for you.
---
(I'm not sure if this was meant to be a posting or just an e-mail message,
so I managed to treat it as neither for a while. But what the heck, why not
a posting?)
From: jablow@pilot.njin.net (Eric Jablow)
Subject: Various things
Should all skills be equally easy to learn? In RQ2, they weren't, of
course. Thrown Rock was easier to learn than Halberd Attack. Now, the
training times and costs were quite arbitrary in RQ2; what would be a
good system for RQ3? I can imagine each skill having a learning index
attached to it; the Longbow Attack index might be 2, meaning that you
would need to train for 2 times your current skill percentage in hours
to get a training roll. Thrown Rock might get a multiple of .75, while
Speak Tradetalk might get a multiple of 1. Do you agree?
One ambiguous point in the rules for both RQ2 and RQ3 is the following:
Gubik the Unruly has 10 points of 1-use Divine Magic Spells. He then
tries to become a Rune Priest of Ex-lax, god of digestion, and he
succeeds. What happens to his Divine Spells? Do they suddenly become
reusable? Or, do they remain one-use, with his future spells being
reusable as usual. The first interpretation causes his power to go up
by a hell of a lot, while the second would be hard to handle--I can
imagine the player trying to keep track of his reusable points of
Devour and his one-use points of it, and everything getting confused.
Note that TrollPak still refers to Chief Priests and High Priests
having 15 points of reusable Rune Magic; if his spells all become
reusable, then the difference between Priest and Chief Priest becomes
quite small.
A friend of mine, Stephen Tihor, runs a homebrew campaign where skill
increases are granted by "training days": in other words, the Evaluate
Beer skill is a 5 point skill, and to increase your ability in it from
level 3 to level 4 takes 4*5 days. However, for success during play,
characters are granted "bonus days of training", which may be applied
to skills between expeditions, given proper equipment. A character may
need a teacher or a grimoire to learn a skill at all, but given that,
he may use up his bonus days. Sometimes, bonus days are given for a
particular skill. Thus, if Goofy spends 10 bonus days earned on his
last adventure and goes drinking for 10 days, he will be able to
increase his skill as above.
This leads to the following idea. Whenever a character uses a skill in
an adventure successfully, he gets an experience check. After that,
each success counts as the equivalent of 0-3 hours of Research,
depending on circumstances. I'd give 0 if it were trivial, and 1-3
depending on how difficult the situation was. When a character
accumulates bonus research hours equal to his skill percentage, he may
roll for a skill increase as if he had researched the skill.
---
From: oshaughj%project4.computer-science.manchester.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
(Jamie O'Shaughnessy)
Subject: GLORANTHA QUESTIONS
Looking in RuneQuest II book at the double page map of Sartar/Prax there is
shown:
i) The Dead Place (central Prax)
ii) Troll Woods
iii) Haunted Lands
iv) Chaos Woods/Stone Woods
v) Ex (S of Biggle Stone or E of Monkey Ruin)
I have a few questions about these places which I have often
pondered about. First of all I'll start on the Dead Place (i). On any
other map of Prax I have seen this does not exist. This includes Glorantha
boxed set for RQIII. I know little about this area. I've heard that
RuneMagic is lost here or something and BattleMagic does not function.
Otherwise what is it??? It should be included right at the bottom of the
large Dagori Inkarth map included in TrollPak (RQII version) and it is
not in Glorantha as previously mentioned. Where has it gone? What is it?
Why is it there? What happens there? The only conclusion I can come to is
that it has been moved and renamed to the Krjalki Bog a few hundred miles
NE from it's original position.
[This one I can handle: When the Storm Bull battled Wakboth (the Devil),
the Storm Bull lay wounded and bleeding. Eiritha (I believe) drained
power from the Earth to help heal him. Shortly thereafter, the Devil was
pinned under the Block. This area has remained drained and dead ever
since. People tend to avoid the area, because:
Rune magic cast there cannot be recovered
You do not recover magic points while there
Bound spirits are released -- ACB]
Now onto Troll Woods (ii). Moving from the RQII book map of this
area to the Glorantha boxed set (RQIII) map of Dragon Pass this also has
disappeared! It also does not appear in the detailed map of the Holy Country
found in RuneQuest Companion. Maybe this map just doesn't show trees/forests.
It seems to me as though this is a pretty important place seeing as it is a
darkness stronghold just S of a lightbringers stronghold and should therefore
be included. My interest in this particular area is because as a new player
to RuneQuest (years ago) I played a Troll Campaign in this area which the
referee just made up due to lack of knowledge about Glorantha. Therefore
I have some self made maps of the area (and iv) which I would like to
refit to the Real Glorantha.
Ditto above for Chaos Woods & StoneWood. Also what are these places
like? In our campaign we had a large Scorpion Man castle (called Scorpion
Castle) in the middle of Chaos Woods. Would this fit in? Why are Stone Woods
where they are? What made them like that? The depression Chaos Woods is in
fact shown on the RQ Companion map of the Holy Country but not labeled.
[I believe the Chaos Woods are where Larnste (Original owner of the Mobility
Rune) stomped on Krarsht, who then bit him. Thus it is a footprint shaped
area. --ACB]
The Haunted Lands (iii)??? Where have they gone too in Glorantha and
RQ Companion? I know that the Shadow Plateau is there now (Glorantha Box)
but has this replaced the Haunted Lands? Or is the Haunted Lands just
a nickname because the Shadow Plateau is dark?
Last one, Ex in Prax. What the hell is it?
On the TrollPak (RQII version as I haven't seen the RQIII one) map
of Dagori Inkarth, the Prax side, at the bottom there is shown a large
'seasonal' lake. What is this where exactly does it occur?
PS: Anyone got ANY RQII stuff for sale??? - PLEASE!!!!!
Jamie. >>> oshaughj@uk.ac.man.p4
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From: oshaughj@uk.ac.man.p4 (Jamie O'Shaughnessy)
Subject: Range and strength
Being a new subscriber to The Digest I have just been reading through
all the back issues. In volume 1 issue 10 Andrew suggests a short list of
rules mod's. Anyway onto what I'm writing about - the strength modifier
for range.....
I'm not totally familiar with RQIII as I play RQII but this is the way I
suggest for Range modifiers due to Strength. If a character has a strength
over 12 he gets a bonus on the range he can fire missiles (see missiles
later...). If he has a strength of less than 9 then he gets a restriction
on how far he can "fire".
Strength Range
1 20%
2 30%
3 40%
4 50%
5 60%
6 70%
7 80%
8 90%
9-12 100%
13-14 110%
15-16 120%
17-18 130%
19-20 140%
21-22 150%
23-24 160%
etc. etc.
I think you get the idea. For every 2 points above 12 Strength he gets
a bonus 10% on the Range. For every point below 9 he gets a 10% reduction
in the Range. This seems to work quite well. Strong characters can "fire"
a longer distance than standard humans (I have not really thought if the
system needs any change for other races, I don't think it should) but not
too far. Weaker characters are penalized for their Strength but they can
still fire weapons at a distance rather than not use such weapons.
[I would also suggest that weapons have a strength, and that pulling a
bow too strongly would risk breaking it. -ACB]
Using this system a Super-Human with 21 Strength can fire a composite
bow (RQII rules) accurately (without penalty) at a stationary target 150m
away. A weak character with 5 Strength could do the same but only to
a distance of 60m. I think this is somewhat realistic as 150m is a very long
way for a normal (9-11 Strength) person to fire a composite bow without
penalties. Remember composite bows in Glorantha are NOT equivalent to
modern composite bows. They are by far inferior to their modern counterparts.
Weapons I class to be used with this system...
----------------------------------------------
Weapon Range (standard)
Throwing Axe 20m
All Bows variable
Throwing Dagger 20m
Dart 20m
Javelin 30m*
Rock 20m
Sling 80m
Sling Staff 100m
(* - has been changed by me!)
Amendment: Under these rules Elves may get a bad deal using Elf Bows. I
suggest that an Elf using an Elf Bow has a MINIMUM range of 120m (standard)
which cannot be decreased (i.e. An Elf with 6 Strength still has a range
of 120m). This is due to the magical nature of such weapons which is hard
for humans to comprehend (i.e. my excuse). However Strong Elves DO get the
High Strength bonuses.
[An alternate suggestion is that since elf bows know their owner's touch,
and since they are living entities, they bend at their owner's
command. --ACB]
Thanks, Jamie O'Shaughnessy >>> oshaughj@uk.ac.man.cs.p4
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