Subject: Missed My POW Gain Roll By One Again, Volume 5, Number 3 First Distribution: August 20, 1990 This issue: More New Sorcery (Andrew Bell) HeroQuest Rules Note (Andrew Bell/Steve Maurer) Trollpaks compared (Henk Langeveld) Conjunction trip report (David Gadbois) I've had a request for PostScript character sheets: has anyone done any of these for RuneQuest? If so, send 'em in and I'll make them a Digest supplement. -------------------- From: bell@cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell) Subject: More New Sorcery Notes on the Steal Spell spell: A spell can be stolen from any target and placed on any other target. The normal rules of overcoming someone with magic apply, so the new target may resist the spell if he/she does not wish to be affected, and defensive magic works normally if the target is not the caster of the Steal Spell spell. A spell can be stolen without being retargetted, in which case the magic simply disappears. Sorcerers who possess the Stygian sorcery spell See Rune Magic can steal Rune Magic spells that they see. A stolen spell is "cast" by the act of stealing it; the stealer cannot hold it and cast it later. Only one spell can be stolen by any given Steal Spell spell, although as many uses as the target has can be stolen. If the sorcerer manages to steal multiple spells at the same time that work in concert, for example most magic and the Extension spell, he or she can apply the two spells to the new target (which can be the original owner) together. The original owner of the spell cannot pray to regain the spell until the spell's duration ends. Note that ritual magic cannot be stolen. Any sorcerer who steals a spell that taints its caster with chaos will get a chaos taint if he or she retargets the spell at anyone. Yet another new spell: Aid ranged, temporal, passive This spell allows the caster to act as a magic point source for the target. If this spell is successfully cast, the target can freely draw on the caster's magic points as long as he or she stays within range of the caster. This spell is frequently the first spell taught by sorcerers to their apprentices and students, generally without cost. Typically, the student or apprentice must keep this spell in mind as long as he or she is in the service of a master. -------------------- From: bell@cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)/steve@vicom.com (Steve Maurer) Subject: HeroQuest Rules Note Steve Maurer's HeroQuest rules include one unexplained (but reasonable) change from the normal RuneQuest rules. In Steve's rules, the titles of Adept and Magus are switched, which makes sense: the definition of an Adept is an expert, while Magus merely means wizard. This explains the seeming anomaly in Steve's Will computation system: The lines +6 For being a Rune Lord / Sorcerer +8 For being a Rune Lord-High Priest / Adept are analogous to +6 For being a Rune Lord / Adept +8 For being a Rune Lord-High Priest / Magus if you are using the normal RuneQuest titles. -------------------- From: henkl@Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld) Subject: Trollpaks compared In this article I would like to compare the two editions of the Trollpak supplement for RuneQuest. When the original Trollpak was published in 1982, it soon became my favourite roleplaying supplement. And not me alone, it prompted many others to revive the saying "monsters have feelings too". After a long wait, it has finally re-appeared, but in a slightly different packaging. Whereas the original pak included Into Uzdom (adventures), the major Troll Gods and their cults, and the Sazdorf clan, these now have to be purchased separately. They are now called Troll Realms, Troll Gods, and Haunted Ruins. I think that the Troll ball rules come with either Troll Realms or Haunted Ruins. Maybe somebody else can shine some light on this matter. There is a lot of new material in Troll Gods, however, and it's really worth the money to get this. The Jonstown Compendium excerpt is very special. The Cults book deals with fifteen major cults: Annila*, Aranea, Argan Argar, Arkat* (a Hero cult of course!), the Black Sun*, Gorakiki, Himile*, Kyger Litor, Mee Vorala*, Moorgarki*, Subere*, Xentha*, Xiola Umbar, Zong the Hunter, and Zorak Zorang. The book concludes with am item on some important spirit cults. (Cults marked with an * are new in Troll Gods, Zong used to be just Hunter in old Trollpak.) Trollpak itself contains little that is new. The contents are: Book 1: Uz Lore. - Mythos, History and Geography. Book 2: Book of Uz. - Playing Trolls. Book 3: Munchrooms. - two party scenario. Troll character sheets, with permission to copy for personal use. A new and more detailed map of Dagori Inkarth. Thunderbreath Gobbleguts Restaurant Menu - The Finest in Troll Cuisine. Uz Lore is almost identical to the original. Even the line up of different Troll Types contains the same error as first: The trolls and human are drawn against a background of shaded bars, each one foot wide, to indicate the creatures' length. However, a foot is said to be 35 cm long, which is almost 5 cm too long. I wonder, did they use a Troll's foot? Book 2, the Book of Uz, contains all the RQ3 stuff. The first chapter sees character generation for RQ3 rules, including new occupation tables. Troll Monsters is one page of stats on troll-type monsters, there is a section on the Troll Military, and there's a copy of the Kyger Litor Cult description, just in case you didn't buy Troll Gods or Elder Secrets. Yes, I've got all three, so I''ve got three identical write-ups for KL. There are stats for Giant Arthropods. This used to be the Giant Insect section, but they've found a biology textbook since then. The section on Troll Encounters was moved from the adventures book. Also the Troll data from the RuneQuest Companion are now included in this book. It is difficult to come up with a good conclusion. If you're new to RQ, and don't have the original Troll Pak, you will need Troll Pak for more info on Troll culture. If you want to let Trolls be player characters, you also need Troll Gods. By then you only have about two thirds of the original Troll Pak, as you're still missing Troll Realms and Haunted Ruins. I think you will end up paying three times as much as for the original Trollpak, while the only added value consists of the extra cults in Troll Gods, the new color map, the character sheets, and the menu. If you've still got the old Troll Pak, just buy Elder Secrets Troll Gods, and eventually Troll Realms and Haunted Ruins. Don't buy the RQ3 Trollpak! The only things you'll miss are the character sheets, the stats for the giant arthropods, the adapted list of Troll war gangs and the annotated encounter table. An item of human interest appears at the end of the Book of UZ: the Designers' Notes by Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen. Still, Uz is a great people, and I am glad they're here again. -------------------- From: David GadboisSubject: Conjunction trip report Conjunction I was held in New Hall College, Cambridge, on July 27-29. The guest of honor was Greg Stafford. There were a number of very good panel discussions, the usual movies, an auction (the Glorantha encyclopedia went for 290 pounds), a reading of Griselda stories by Oliver Dickinson, an SCA tournament, and a keynote speech by Stafford. It was not much of a gaming con due to a lack of space and preparation -- I got to play in only one RQ scenario. Stafford had much to say about Glorantha and seemed very encouraged that there was so much interest in it. He went into some detail about the plans for the HeroQuest game that shed quite a bit of light on the mythical structure of Glorantha. I shall try to put together a posting describing what he had to say. David Hall hosted the Eat at Geo's food tasting. Prizes were awarded in each of three categories: Savory, Sweet, and Weird. I made a list of some of the entries: stuffed Aldryami in runner skin (dolmadas), fried runner brains (meatballs), Caladra and Aurelion (a messy goo with fruit and yoghurt), chocolate-garlic brownies (No kidding. They were nasty.), Aldrya's sweet spinach tart (a strawberry and spinach pie), Newtling tail cake, powdered Mostali cake, blood worms, Trollkin blood pie, Troll mushrooms, Elf cakes (a specialty of the Traders' Tavern in Pavis), Dwarf niblets, Weretiger claws, Tusker milk cheese (goat cheese), and my personal favorite, Powzie (190 proof Polish grain alcohol made into a garlic and cinnamon liquor) One of the most fun events of the con was the Miskatonic University class reunion party. 1990 is the 300th anniversary of the founding of the august university as well as the 100th anniversary of the birth of H.P. Lovecraft. Events included a insane laughing contest, an invocation of the great slimy one himself, a pinata bashing, a spelling bee, and a scream of terror contest. It was a blast. Info gleamed at the con: o The Avalon Hill situation is not very good right now. It seems that they and Chaosium haven't talked for over a year now, and Stafford himself has not worked on RuneQuest in a couple of years. (The stuff becoming available now has been in the pipeline for a couple of years.) However, AH are supposedly getting serious about RuneQuest and plan to hire an new editor to handle FRP games. Stafford recommended writing to them asking about contributions -- it may make them get on the ball. It turns out that there are several groups working on scenario packs, including Sartarpak and Pentpak, so there may be some new RQ material in a few years :-(. o Chaosium is now publishing an irregular newsletter called "Ab Chaos." The first issue is available now. It has info about Chaosium history, their current staff, planned projects, and other stuff. To get a copy, send them a long SASE with the number of the issue you want in the lower right corner. You can send SASEs for future issues if you want. Their address is: Chaosium Inc. 950A 56th St. Oakland, CA 94608 o I saw copies of two fanzines that looked interesting. I am not sure if either is still being published. Both are pretty amateurish. The first, "Pavic Tales," is devoted to RuneQuest. The address I have for it is: 60 Browning Close Popley 1 Basingstoke, Hants, RG24 9DQ U.K. The other, "Misers Hoard" is a general interest FRP rag but does have some RQ material. Contact: Richard Osborne 47 Trent Avenue Upminster, Essex [Sorry, I didn't get the postal code] U.K. o An amazing factoid: 50% of sales RuneQuest-related material is in the French marker. This info comes from Fabrice Lamidey, the guy who does French translations of RQ material. On a related note, the French fanzine "Broos" is still being published irregularly. For info, contact Lamidey at 190 rue de la Convention 75015 Paris France o There are two companies that may be doing reprints of RQ material. Clash of Arms may do a reprint, ala Dragon Pass, of Nomad Gods. I don't have an address for them, but they are said to advertise in most of the gaming magazines. Another company, Apple Lane Publishing, may do reprints of Wyrms Footnotes articles under the name of Wyrms Footprints. These are not yet available, but you may want to write to them to prod them to action. Their address is: Apple Lane Publishing 3901 Piedmont Av. Oakland, CA 94611 o John Dallman and David Hall have put together a small biography called "The New Stafford Compendium," which lists Stafford's known publications. It sells for #1.50 (one pound fifty) and is available from David Hall. The address is: 21 Stephenson Court Osborne Street Slough, Berkshire, SL1 1TN U.K. o I met a couple of Digest subscribers at the con (Hi Henk!) and found a couple of people with net access who were interested in subscribing. I hope they can fill in any information I have left out or gotten completely wrong. --David Gadbois -------------------- The RuneQuest(tm) mailing list is a courtesy of Andrew Bell. All opinions and material above are the responsibility of the originator, and copyrights are held by them. RuneQuest is a trademark of Chaosium, Inc. Send submissions, mailing list changes, requests for old article lists, etc. to: bell@cs.unc.edu ...!mcnc!unc!bell Request old articles by volume number and issue number.