Subject: Predicate, Volume 4, Number 11
First Distribution: May 30, 1990
This issue:
Random Stuff (David Gadbois)
RQ III Sorcery (Dirk Walls)
Re: RQ III Sorcery (Andrew Bell)
Re: Various things and Re: GLORANTHA QUESTIONS (Jeff Okamoto)
Sorcery comments (Paul Reilly)
---
From: David Gadbois
Subject: Random stuff
I received permission from David Hall to make copies of the first two
issues of Tales of the Reaching Moon and sell them. The price is
$2.00/issue. (It's just a cheap photocopy of the original.) Please
email me if you are interested.
I finally got copies of Wyrms Footnotes numbers one through four, which
I'll be happy to trade for copies of RQ material. I have everything
that's been published by Chaosium, AH, and in Different World and
Heroes, but I'd be interested in obscure fanzine articles and homebrew
scenarios.
I chatted with the nice folks at King's Hobby shop in Austin, and the
word from them is that the scenario pack "Eldarad: The Lost City" should
be coming out sometime this summer, maybe in August. This appears to be
a rewrite of Pavis.
David Hall tells me he has been working with Jon Quaife on "Sartarpak,"
a package of background information on Sartar culture, history, and
cults, mostly from Greg Stafford's files. I'm not sure what the
publication status of it is, though.
Does anyone know about a gaming convention called "Conjunction." It's
apparently being held in Germany, and I hear that a copy of "The
Glorantha Encyclopaedia" will be auctioned off there. The book is
supposed to be a 280-page document written by Greg Stafford in 1980 but
never published. I'm going to be in the vicinity this summer and would
appreciate any info.
--David Gadbois
gadbois@cs.utexas.edu
---
From: Dirk Walls
Subject: RQ III sorcery
Does anybody else find the sorcery rules confusing? If an adept with
the spell damage resistance or damage increase with a high free intelligence
casts one of the spells with, say 5 points on intensity to the increase or
resistance and 10 points to the duration he can get the spell to last for
quite some time (I don't have the book with me at the moment, so I'm not
sure of the specifics). I know it is possible to get the spell to last
at least a month. This is nearly a permanent magic item. Can a mage cast
another dmg resistance the next day and stack it on top of the week long
spell he cast the day before? The spell Treat Wounds is also very confusing
In the description, it states that an intensity 2 spell will immediately cure
one point of dmg and heal one point per hour until the wound is healed. It
also says that a higher intensity spell will automatically extend the time
of the spell, which already lasts until the wound is healed. Huh? I really
like the idea of having sorcery as a third type of magic, but I don't like
any of my players to have it because we can't figure out how it is supposed
to work.
---
From: bell@cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)
Subject: Re: RQIII Sorcery
In response to the above:
The sorcery system as written allows even neophyte sorcerors to cast very
powerful skills, with the limit being free int, not casting skill. The
simplest set of fixes I've come up with is:
A) A sorceror cannot cast a spell with more magic points than his skill in
that spell divided by 5%.
Example:
A sorceror with a 40% skill in a spell can cast this spell with up to
8 magic points:
Intensity 1, Duration +7
Intensity 8, no range or duration boosting
Intensity 3, Duration +3, Range +2
B) A sorceror cannot cast a spell with more intensity, range, or duration
than his skill divided by 5%.
Example:
A sorceror with a 15% intensity can cast at most a 3 intensity spell.
C) Free int is no longer necessary.
D) Regardless of skill levels, a 1 intensity, no range or duration boost
spell can always be cast.
E) If a magic item has intensity, range, or duration built into it, this
does not count as part of the strength of the spell.
Example:
A sorceror with a matrix of a spell he has a 40% skill in, with +2
intensity and +3 duration built into the matrix, can cast a spell
of:
Intensity 3, Duration +7, Range +3
Intensity 10, Duration +3
and so on
The matrix enhancements also do not count against the sorceror's limits
in enhancing spells, so a sorceror with a 15% intensity skill could cast
an intensity 6 spell with the above matrix.
-
This change in the rules both weakens and strengthens sorcerors; it removes
their world-altering ability to cast lots of long intensity spells on everyone,
but compensates by allowing them the full use of their intelligence to store
spells.
>Can a mage cast another dmg resistance the next day and stack it on top
>of the week long spell he cast the day before?
Sorcery spell effects are non-stackable, so only the most powerful damage
resistance (or the first spell, in the case of a tie) would take effect.
Since spell strength is measured solely by intensity, this probably means
that a high-intensity, short duration spell probably wipes out a lower
intensity version of that spell, but this is debatable.
---
From: okamoto@hpccc.hp.com
Subject: Re: Various things and Re: GLORANTHA QUESTIONS
>Subject: HeroQuesting for Fun and Profit, Volume 4, Number 9
>From: jablow@pilot.njin.net (Eric Jablow)
>
>Subject: Various things
>
>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.
In RQ2, when you become a priest, any rune magic that would normally
be reusable for a priest becomes reusable by the ex-initiate. In
general, priestly one-use spells aren't available to initiates, but
if so, then they stay one-use.
I'd use the same interpretation in RQ3.
[Does this include one-use spells that the initiate used? --ACB]
>From: oshaughj@project4.computer-science.manchester.ac.uk
>
>Subject: GLORANTHA QUESTIONS
>
>[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.
Actually Storm Bull's Earthpower spell(s) (received from Ernalda)
kicked in and gave him both Power and Magic Points.
[That's what I get for not looking it up... --ACB]
> Last one, Ex in Prax. What the hell is it?
I can answer this one. It's where the Block first bounced. If you
draw a line from where the Block is now to the circular "Ex", you
should also intersect a more oval-ish depression. That's where the
Block bounced a second time (and skidded for a bit).
[Must have had some backspin or something, considering that the Spike
(which the block is a piece of) was where Magasta's Pool now is. --ACB]
Might be worth taking an expedition there. Who knows, there may be
some truestone fragments lying about!
Jeff
---
From: paul@bondi.phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
Subject: Sorcery comments
I have been GMing and playing Runequest for over a decade now. When the
Sorcery rules came out, our group liked the flexibility of the system, but
there are several aspects to the sorcery system which we feel should be
changed.
We have experimented with different types of changes. From the gaming
point of view, some of these are "necessary", others simply add flavor.
One of the "necessary" changes we have found is in the matter of (Sense)
Projection. The rules as written allow a viewpoint to be used as a point
from which to cast spells. This is enormously powerful. One can target an
enemy thousands of kilometers away and then hit him with multiple Venom 20's,
for example.
Suggested changes in rough order of importance to game balance:
1. In order for a spell to be cast through a Sense Projection (either way),
the spell must be of lesser Intensity than the Sense Projection. Thus the
Range of the sorceror is not tremendously extended, unless he makes a high
Intensity or Duration matrix for the Sense Projection.
Example:
Arcon the Adept wishes to observe an enemy without being seen. He casts
a Sight Projection of Intensity 1; no spells may be cast through it. He
discovers the enemy's house is empty with lights out. Moving his Sight
Projection indoors, he dimly spies a sleeping form in bed.
Later, he goes out to within 160 meters of the enemies house, not wishing
to come closer because the guard dogs might bark. He remembers his old
viewpoint and casts a Sense Projection of Range 4 and Intensity 13. Through
this viewpoint he can cast a Smother 12, and he does so.
The enemy wakes up choking. Taking two rounds worth of damage, he manages
to stagger to the door and wake his dogs before collapsing. His servants and
guards start to wake up. Arcon maintains the Smother to make sure the enemy
is dead; a guard with Mystic Vision sees the viewpoint and tries to cast a
Venom 15 through it. The spell fails because the "hole" isn't "big" enough.
2. The caster must have a good picture of his viewpoint; either he has been
there, or has scryed there. "The other side of this door" is insufficient if
you don't know what is there. However, you could cast a viewpoint on this
side and move it through. If the sorceror can picture his viewpoint (100
meters overhead, for example) or has a painting of the target to look at, he
might be able to cast at some skill penalty, like 1/2 skill.
3. Certain natural phenomena interfere with scrying. Traditionally, running
water interferes with all magic; one could assess an Intensity penalty for
various sizes and power of streams, from -1 for a trickling flow up to -20
or more for a mighty river. Fire should interfere with scrying, particularly
Reconstruction or psychometry. Earth already counts as interfering with
Sense (Substance) at a penalty of 1 Intensity per meter; I see no reason
why this penalty shouldn't apply to (Sense) Projection.
A powerful storm could also interfere with scrying.
Certain worlds will have special phenomena that block scrying. On Glorantha,
for example, a Dead Zone cannot be scryed at all. Scrying over the Gloranthan
Ocean should be impossible due to the Closing. (Perhaps an Open Seas ritual
would allow such usage.) Scrying the Hidden Greens or other semi-real phenomena
might give a result different from what the people who are there see.
---
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