Assorted trivia

From: Mike.Dickison_at_vuw.ac.nz
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 1995 12:06:52 +1200


Hi gang - first post to the new list. Let's hope the New Zealand Mail Gobbler doesn't consume this. All sorts of bits and pieces, motivated by the recent "smothering" complaint. A sentiment I sometimes share when wading through screen after screen of Yelmic esoterica, or urine/fish sauce/plough trivia. But hey - as the initiator of the Great Moose Debate (Never have So Many posted So Much about So Little) I'm living in something of a glass house here.

It's nice that someone sits down and thinks about this stuff from time to time. This is just the sort of thing a harried GM needs - local customs that not only add some depth to what is, let's face it, probably the most reliably recurring feature of a RQ adventure, but which generate adventure material too. The earless PC sucking up to the local healer, who might well sympathise with his attackers. The novice hunter who goes along on a raid but takes his bow, making an enemy sentry jump to unfortunate conclusions. The value of an Ironhand matrix finger ring to a dirty fighter. And so on.

To build on Martin's ideas - the Yanomamo and the Australian aboriginals have/had a custom that seems to be an extension of the chest-punching stage. They stood back and took turns at swinging at the opponent's head as hard as possible with a big stick. Unfortunately RQ makes clubs fairly lethal, particularly in the hands of a strong warrior who won't (of course) be pulling blows. In a game, whoever gets first blow would probably win. Perhaps you're allowed to wear helmets? This is the sort of activity I can imagine Wenelian barbarians pursuing - they're basically hsunchen in armour in my Glorantha.

I was watching Shortland Street, our local medical soap, the other week, and a thought came to me; nearly the whole cast would count as Healers in Glorantha. Healers have rigorous rules regarding harming living creatures, to be sure, but I think we as GMs impose a whole slew of other stereotypical personality traits on them. Why can't a Chalana Arroy initiate be as foul-mouthed, earthy, hard-drinking and promiscuous as a couple of nurses I once flatted with? I'm not trying to impugn the nursing profession, just to point out that health workers are human beings too. But all the healer NPCs I can think of that have even been given personalities (from RoC, RQ Adventures, Cults of Terror, CoP) seem to be "meek and mild", and mostly women too. The centaur in RQA is a notable exception, but still a complete wimp :)

Here's a challenge. Pick a fictional doctor or nurse from TV or the movies and imagine them as a Gloranthan healer. Better still, turn them into an NPC and use them in your game. You might actually get PCs lining up to join Chalana Arroy.

(Or should that be Earthed Arcana?) I was recently givin some photocopied fragments of an early Wyrm's Footnotes (c. 1980). Most amusing. Sophomoric cartoons, typewritten text, variant spellings (Barbeester Gor), lots of typos, and Dragon Pass cost only $15. Anyway, in part V of the "Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha" series, dealing with the Earth pantheon, is an interesting paragraph which I don't think made it into any more recent publications.

THE YEAR SONS is a former cult of human sacrifice practiced in Esrolia but since outlawed by the Pharaoh. In it there was a person selected who would recieve (sic) divine powers and rights in return for performing certain rituals. At the end of the time, which was either 1, 3 or 7 years (depending on secret Divinations done by the priestess at the start of the year), he was sacrificed to the goddess Ty Kora Tek.

Intriguing, huh? I'm sure this custom would be revived after the disappearance of the Pharaoh. What sort of divine powers and rights, I wonder? I suspect that the man chosen would be given warrior rather than intellectual powers, and the Holy Warriors were used as champions when one queen invaded another's holdings (qv Martin's last post; see, Glorantha has a knack of dovetailing nicely). Of course, one can only speculate what would happen if a woman or one of Erik's weird black-skinned manwomen became a Year Son. I confess that Wonder Woman and Superman comics have played a role in my speculations.

In post-Pharaonic times, the Year Sons could be used in royal feuds again, be generated at a furious rate when open war breaks out, and be turned against the Lunars when they finally invade. I think that "secret Divinations" is Esrolian for "when the Year Son gets too uppity". I can imagine Lunar spies trying to convince the Ty Kora Teks to fudge the Divinations, and get rid of a potentially troublesome superhero...whoops, Year Son. This is getting far too silly. What do you folks think of it all? I'd appreciate ideas, because the cult may play a big part in my campaign.

I'm a biologist cum science journalist in sunny (not!) Wellington, New Zealand. Though most of my time at the moment is spent in the Philosophy department, so I guess I qualify as one of the humanities horde previously identified. I've been GMing RQ, like everyone it seems, for about ten years, but have only played in ONE game in my entire life. That's what happens when you buy all the rulebooks... The adzebill in my e-mail address is a turkey-sized flightless New Zealand bird, accidentally hunted to extinction 500 years ago by our conservation-minded indigenes (sarcasm mode off).

Two major campaigns since I started playing in Glorantha about a year ago. One on the New Coast, trying to break the Handran dyestuff monopoly, in which I learned lots about the Wenelians and the Trader Princes. The party were in the purse of the Kaxtor temple, and included a Lunar trader, a swashbuckler, a barbarian psychopath, and a poor Damali who never quite understood what was going on. The campaign ended decisively when Harrek himself sacked Kaxtorplose, breaking up the party and quite a lot of the local architecture. Before then we had played diplomacy in a newtling fen village, a micro-heroquest with the Marsh People, a covert operation in Handra in which the swashbuckler nearly drowned three times, and a Scooby Doo whodunit.

The present campaign, in the Holy Country, has Lunars and an Esrolian translator playing out the events in KoS. I'm still trying to name and describe all the Queens and factions, and have decided on the Hollywood method (Anvalasta is Glenn Close in _Dangerous Liaisons_, etc). If it gets too complicated, I plan to send then all on a Quest to the Kingdom of Ignorance. Which prompts the following question for the scholars in our midst...

What is something (an object, person, macguffin etc) that the Lunars would want very much that could be found in the Kingdom of Ignorance?

I'd prefer something made up, with a spurious-sounding mythological history. I'm toying with the name Black Moon [something]. It would need to be important enough to be revealed to a Jakaleel priestess by prophesy or dream, and small enough to fit on a boat. Other than that, it's up to you. Oh, and some connection with Anilla and the Zaranastangi would be great.

I'm willing to offer an actual prize for the best submission - a souvenir of New Zealand, mailed to your doorstep, encrusted with abalone shell and with a vague kiwi theme, so kitsch that even 40 retired American tourists would not consider buying it (I procured 40 retired American tourists specially to authenticate the above claim). Happy New Year!



Mike Dickison, science writer / Learning is the dictionary, /
Wellington, New Zealand        /   but sense is the grammar    /
adzebill_at_matai.vuw.ac.nz      /    of science. - Sterne       /



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End of Glorantha Digest V1 #80


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