Subject: The RQ Digest, Volume 5, Number 5
RQDIGESTV05N05
First Distribution: January 14, 1991
This issue:
Module ideas (Harry the Dirty Dog)
Re: RQ note automagic (Runelord)
RQ Prices (Burton Choinski)
3 snippets for the rq list (James Andrews)
RuneQuest Demons. (Andrew J C Blyth)
Ed's note: sorry about all the delays (sounding like a broken record,
aren't I?); unfortunately, they will continue for a little while. Let's
see what I can cobble together now though...
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Subject: Module ideas
From: s861022@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (Harry the Dirty Dog)
One thing that I've always been on the lookout for is specific module ideas.
Seeing as Glorantha such a huge place, where 20 years of thought have gone into
there must be people out there with loads of stuff. Has it been suggested
before to set up some kind of an 'Idea Library' where people can put in ideas
that have worked for them in the past, which other people around the world
can draw on ?
Harry the Dirty Dog
s861022@minyos.xx.rmit.oz
--------------------
Subject: Re: RQ note automagic
From: runelord@nacjack.gen.nz
Here's an idea that I've been thinking about lately. As I am a fan
of both RuneQuest *and* Dragon Pass, I was wondering if people have
tried to think up mass combat rules, to bridge the gap between RQ and
DP. The system should be compatible with both (and possibly with
HeroQuest).
Are there any existing systems that could be adapted?
As an aside to all this saga, a small plea, does anyone in the RQ list
have copies of the cults of Geo and Caladra & Aurelion. They are the
only two for RQ II that I can't get here in NZ and if someone has them
in emailable format or whatever I would be real gratefull. I have gone
to the trouble of typing all by favourite RQ II cults that they missed
out of GoG (including the NEW IMPROVED Thanatar now in cherry flavour)
all in RQ III format with runes and all - laser printed and looking
damn fine if I do say so myself. I'd be more than happy to offer those
to any whose interested.
Oh well, lemme know what comes of all of this.
TTFN, (a potentially much poorer :-) RuneLord.
runelord@nacjack.gen.nz
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Subject: RQ Prices
From: CHOINSKI%s35.prime.com@RELAY.CS.NET
The price list as given in Book 3 is somewhat skimpy when it comes to
non-combat goods. Does anyone have a listing of prices for other stuff,
such as travel gear, medical stuff, containers, furniture, land, etc?
Any information you can send me (at CHOINSKI@S35.PRIME.COM) would be
most appreciated. Thanx.
-- Burton
[Alternately, send it to me and I'll have it in the Digest
*someday* ... :-( -Ed]
--------------------
From: Countzero
Subject: 3 snippets for the rq list
English readers of this list will be interested to hear that Greg Stafford
was interviewed by Game master ( formerly GM ) magazine when he visted
Cambridge for a convention in august this year. In the article, written
by that Wayne blokey, he explains about how he came to first write rq as
he had got hold of a d&d set and thought he could do better, his early
fraustrations as a would be sf/fantasy writer and the current direction
of the Chaosium game company.
On a completely different subject :-)
You people are network connected so therefore quite a few of you could
well be expert computer users. So do you use any software to generate
characters? The RQ character generation system is complex, but well ordered
and looks at first glance as if it would be easy to implement. at the
Moment I use a as-easy-as shareware spreadsheet, and then load the results
into wordperfect using a macro to merge the numbers into the right places
on a blank sheet. Before this, I used a database which would have been great:
for all the different kinds of creature and previous experience that RQ
supports, but it didnt like the number of calculations involved and so
didnt prove ideal in the end. My current method sadly only does barbarian
warriors but its very easy to modify the spreadsheet / the results for
other creatures / previous experiences. Has anyone got a program which
covers a this wide range which I currently lack? It would be "fun" you
(code)hackers out there to write the generator in a object orientated
language because the bonuses and skills are all organised hierarchically.
[Ed's note: I started writing a program for generating characters in C,
but never finished it. If anyone else is interested in writing one, I
can send you the code I have and you can see if it's useful to you. (It
even has lots of comments so it *might* even be understandable...)]
But enough of this techno-babble...a serious question topic.......
Vampires in RQ
In my third edition GDW creatures book, it says under the entry for
Vampires that they would make potent sorcerers. In glorantha, however
Vampires operate to some extent through the Vivamort cult, which if I
remember rightly from cults of terror ( its been a while since I looked
at a copy of this ) "vampire-izes" its initiates upon becoming priests
or runelords. The priests can continue with the rune magic they have,
but obviously cant sacrifice for more because they dont have POW any
more. In terms of 3rd edition rules this makes sense, because now the
qualification for being a priest is, amongst other things, having ten
pts. of rune magic. so whats with this sorcery thing? Is it a "generic
RQ" nasty? Comments please...
--------------------
Subject: RuneQuest Demons.
From: A J C Blyth
In the best of white dwarf III there where some RuneQuest Demons. How
ever the stats for these monsters are for RuneQuest II. Does any body
know of any publications that have stats for RuneQuest III? If not
then I will convert the stats for RQ II to RQ III.
Andrew
[And by now, he probably has. Sorry about the delay, Andrew...-Ed]
--------------------
From: bell@cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)
Subject: Riding unfamiliar animals
I began writing this before my workload got heavy, and now I don't have
the time to finish it. Thus I'm presenting it here not as a complete
product, but as a possible basis for discussion.
In RuneQuest, riding is treated as a separate skill for each type of
animal. However, there is certainly similarity between riding a horse
and riding a zebra, or sable, or even a rhinoceros, bolo lizard, or
griffin. In "Elder Secrets", Chaosium gives their first hint of what
this similarity should be when it says that hippogriff riding skill is
half of one's ride horse skill. The following uses that as a guideline
in establishing similarity factors for various riding skills.
There are five factors that characterize a riding animal for the purposes
of the ride skill:
Temperament: A temperamental mount is more likely to throw its rider,
although it can be trained to be a better combatant. Note that there
really is a continuum between passive and combative, but I break it
down like this for simplicity.
Passive (example, a mare or a gelding)
Aggressive (a stallion horse/bison/sable, perhaps a female rhino)
Combative (a griffin or hippogriff, a bull rhino or elephant)
Riding skill modifier:
Passive: 0
Agressive: -10
Combative: -20
Body Shape: Riding a biped is substantially different from riding a
quadruped.
Riding skill modifier:
Skill in biped, riding quadruped: -10
Skill in quadruped, riding biped: -10
Normal vs. Wide: The normal/wide breakdown is whether a normal saddle
can be placed on the animal. It's easier to hold on when your legs can
clamp around the sides of the creature. Note that giants might find
elephants to be "normal", while pixies might find ponies to be "wide."
Difficulty modifier for "wide" creature: -10
Movement Type: The technique by which the creature moves.
"walking" (horse, elephant, rhino)
slithering (snake)
swimming (dolphin)
flying (griffin)
special (earth elemental, kangaroo, tree sloth)*
Skill inpp
R Wa Sl Sw Fl
i Wa 0 -10 -20 -30
d Sl 0 -20 -30
i Sw 0
n Fl 0
g
* Handle special creatures and skills on a case by case basis.
Sapience: An intelligent mount can help keep a rider on if it wants to,
or make riding difficult if it does not want to be ridden.
fixed int (horse, griffin, elephant)
sapient (unicorn, crimson bat, centaur)
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