Ok, I have been really behind in my reading (about 100 issues) due to many things but my wife has been absorbing some responsibilities (read: spending time on housework and kids) to allow me to catch up. I am very impressed at the quality and content that I have been seeing, this is by far THE best list I have been on, as all the subscribers are working real hard on something they really care about. Congrats to you all!
Now, the other mail has been backing up and most of that has been taken care of. I got everyone who sent me a email regarding The Chaos Society, but I did hear a few AOLers did have a loss of email at some point so if I did not reply, please send it again.
My web pages are being worked on, I have been holding off uploading some due to some rework that was needed, improved software, and a few links seem to not want to work (my fault, I forgot that I have to be case sensitive).
I have been RQ/Glorantha, The Chaos Society and Tradetalk on AOL and have been getting a good response, I think even some of the new maturing gamers (i.e. tired of The Other Game) are coming into the fold. I have also been trying to get web links for RQ/Glorantha up so hard I think I fumbled a roll. They now have listed along with such notable games as Ars Magica, Shadowrun, Vampire, The Other Game...the famous Jane Williams Homepage Page and Nick Brooke's Hompage in the web link are of the Game Information Exchange (keyword: GIX). They were supposed to be listed under RQ/Glorantha, but I guess the forum leader goofed.
Also in speaking to Jack from AH, he said RQIV should not be considered dead, and to wait a few months for an announcement, we shall wait and see.
Are their accessible archives for the GD out there Shannon? If not I have ALL of this volume trimmed and zipped into buncehes of 10, if anyone needs back issues, let me know. If there are no archives I think I have enough space to FTP them somewhere and make them accessible from my pages. Let me know.
I have a few responses to old issues, hope this does not disrupt ongoing threads too much (nah! blow them out of the water! <g>)
Thomas <Thomas Doniol-Valcroze <tconrad_at_orbital.fr>
Subject: Undeads
From: GD #71 (way back)
<<In my last game session, one of my players, playing a Humakti, tried a Turn
Undead against a thanatari Mad Head Ghost. I said that a Mad Head Ghost was
not an undead. He said it was. We eventually wondered about the true
definition of an undead. In the description of the Humakt spell, it says it
affects zombies, vampires, skelettons, mummies and ghouls. >>
I have defined "Undead" as a being that has no POW, such as vampires, ghouls, wraiths, and yes, even the Crimson Bat! Things that are cut off, or were not part of the normal "circle of life" (sorry, just got my daughter LK, and it is burned into my brain).
<<(BTW, where and how can you find mummies in Glorantha?).>>
Pent, Kralorea, various western areas, but they are very rare. Also some cults seem to have something similiar happen to their rune leaders because in GM it states a Death Lord used DI to insure his ability to have vengence upon his tombs looters, and he is called a mummy. In this case I think he would be able to use his runespells and would be able to stay as long as 1) his MP stayed above 0, and 2) he had not gained his vengence (i.e. fufilled his DI)
<< But what about ghosts and wraiths?>>
Ghosts, no, they are just stopped on the "circle of life", and can return to it, so are not really undead.
Wraiths are really hard to define. In some games they are "echos" of people imprinted upon the spirit plane by some horrible event. The real soul has gone on in most cases (though in the game I was in, a PC ran into a wraith of himself, it was during a long term campaign and was the source of alot of problems the PC had run into, very well done by the GM).
IMG, they are beings which are similiar to ghouls, which hover in the deeper areas of the spirit plane. They both need to gain/restore MP in order to survive, and since both are connected to the death rune, they manage to slip into the nearer spirit plane and sometimes into the mundane by a large or strong amount of death. Ghouls are frequent after large battles, and wraiths get in after really traumatic events, sometimes you see both.
Both can gain memories from the source of their death. Ghouls only would gain them from the remaining memories from the bodies they are in, usually very little and only from that body. Wraiths pick it up from imprints of the trauma that summoned them, usually one, sometimes more, in any case they are always insane, though sometimes functionally so. They go gain spells and skills, though most are almost useless. As both are POW-less, they can only use sorcery
<<If we consider that an undead is a spirit blocked, or forced back, into its
dead body, then a skeletton, which is a magical artifact, should not be
considered as one.
If one of the particularities of an undead is: has no POW anymore, then a
ghost is out, but not a wraith.>>
Yes, I would agree, and see your point (ZZ Zombies), but I consider the use of POW to make them the creation of a being with no POW, because it has enough INT to follow orders, however badly. The zombie in the creatures book is a case where a spirit was needed to power the zombie as no god is behind the creation. And since it is suppresed, it has no POW. Someone asked why the ZZ spell is no longer reuseable, well I think it has something to do with too many zombies!
<<BTW, when somebody dies and is not happy about it (I mean, not happy at
all), what makes him a ghost rather than a wraith, or the opposite?>>
If the spirit of the person is not blocked to go onto an afterlife, made into a head, bound by a shaman at death (considered bad form by some, and can get you into bad straights with gods!), dying in a temple of an enemy god, or whatever, then if the trauma is bad enough, a wraith will be drawn in.
If it was blocked, you get a ghost. Also ghosts occur when you do not have an afterlife and are brought back by something occuring in the mundane, rare, happens alot with ancestor worshippers (i.e. babbon spirit comes back to guard the totem that was disturbed, these are spirits but have the same abilities as ghosts). But a link is needed, without it they can't comeback.
In GD #83:
Jean Durupt:
<<<<Since according to Tales#5, humakti are protected against a
transformation into zombies and skeletons>>>>
David Hall:
<<I reckon this is what the Humakti cult tells its worshippers, but whether
it is completely true is debatable. There are stories whispered amongst the
Lismelder that their great Humakti hero Indrodar Greydog has no resting place
because he is one of Delecti's undead zombies.>>
Me:
I refuse to comment on the grounds (or maybe marsh?) that more Humakti will
try to release him! <g>
David Hall:
<<Re: Runepower>>
<<The biggest problem with RunePower is stacking. Inevitably, someone with 12
points of Runepower will want to use it to cast Shield 12...>>
<<All rules break down eventually. Chaos and entropy is inevitable! However,
I've not met any players in my games (except Tricksters and Death-song
Humakti) who would blow 12 precious points all at once.>>
Me:
I also use the Runepower system (slightly modified) and have not seen a
player use ALL the precious points at once, except when they were spread out
among several spells, and that was once. It depends upon how hard it is to
get them back and other things I am sure. Also, 12 points of shield does not
mean your opponent is just going to fall over in amazement, you still have to
kill them. And, there still is the all powerful critical, of which they are
aware.
I also like Nicks idea of a GM using RP in certain situations, sounds good to me, I will try it IMG.
Scott Knowles
US Chaos Society
aka Delecti_at_aol.com
Visit my Upland Marsh at http://members.aol.com/Delecti/UpMarsh.html
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