Re: Glorantha Digest V4 #210

From: Simon Phipp <simon.phipp_at_walshwestern.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 01:30:56 +0000


David Dunham on creating Zombies in battle:

> Wow, I always knew RQ combat went on forever, but this is an amazing
> battle! Recall that first "the enchanter must inscribe the runes of power"
> and then "for each point of current POW that will be expended, one hour
> must be spent performing the Enchantment." Create Zombie requires one POW
> for each 6 SIZ points of the corpse. Now, I'm not sure how big your giant
> broo-demon was, but quite likely it was at least SIZ 18 so that's 3 hours
> before the zombie could rejoin the fray. Like I said, quite the battle!
> (Even if the broo withered to SIZ 1 after death, it would still take 1 hour
> to zombify.)

Naw, this was in the Good Old days of RQ2 - Create Zombie was instant then (snff), cost no POW (sniff, sniff) and put Fear in your enemies (sniff, sniff, boo hoo). The tactic does not work in the "improved" RQ3 rules (I was about to say "new, improved", but RQ3 is now 12 years old - Aaaaagh).

> Or is this all moot because you don't use RQ3?

We use RQ3 now, but have not always used it. (Actually, we use a hybrid RQ3 with RQ2 and altered RQ4 elements with a little extra thrown in for fun.)

Peter Metcalfe on Ice (now there's a thought :-))

> It's a filled in diamond (as in playing cards). The inherent
> obnoxiousness of the manifest abortion lies in the implication
> that merely by freezing water, you are transmuting substances.

Ice is a hard, cold solid, water is a liquid. Clearly the two are not the same. Obviously, by using Himile's powers one can transmute a liquid into a part of Valind's Realm. After all, why not? I like the idea of the Ice Rune - anything as big and nasty as Valind's Glacier deserves a rune to itself. Anyway, put a merman inside a glacier and tell him that Ice is the same as water.

V.S. Greene mentions enchanting Ice so that it does not melt. Sounds familiar - does this appear anywhere? I know that the Snow Pixie in The Snow King's Bride (they don't write them like that anymore) had various Ice spells which stopped snowballs from melting, so perhaps that's where I heard it. It certainly rings true.

Jane Williams:

> And just to get really nasty.... if a Detect Truth type spell goes up
> against a Lie spell, which wins?

Both do - the speaker has the standard smokey glow/honey dripping from the mouth/flies buzzing around his head and the caster of the spell fully believes everything he said.

I prefer to use Lie to spread rumours - they can't be disproven easily and everyone believes them unless they are shown to be false. In my campaign, Bolgar Brother of the Bull is using the Convince spell (he does not know it is Lie or he would be VERY angry) to spread pro-Lunar propoganda throughout Sartar.

Scott Atkins:

> Does anyone know if old RQ 1 and 2 stuff is worth anything these days? I
> need some money before april 15 (guess why...), and since I've been using
> copies of all my old stuff anyway, I can't think of a reason to keep the
> originals. I have an old Cults of Prax and a Cults of Terror, a boxed Troll
> Pack, a Griffin Mountain book, and I think some other things. Are there any
> RQ newsgroups or websites that deal with collecting?

No doubt you have been innudated with mail giving offers/bids - lucky you.

David Dunham:

>> I recall that the one of the songs that the Windlord is required to
>> sing when encountering a Solar priest calls the latter a 'jealous uncle'.
>> There must be something in this.
>
> Once again, I must say, "not necessarily." This could simply be a cultural
> thing. You call anyone you meet "uncle" or "grandmother" or "cousin." Lots
> of Amerindians did so, judging from their stories.

It could be, but why look for a complicated reason when there is a simple reason ready to hand? Yelm is Orlanth's Uncle - Aether was father to both Umath and Yelm. Obviously the song/rhyme is a watered down version of the Orlanth/Yelm chalenges in the GodTime.

That's about all for now.

Simon


If it has stats it can be killed.
If it is in the rules it can be abused.
If it is mentioned it can be targetted.
People can change the world and screw up the Timeline. Restrictions are for NPCs, not for PCs.

Taking Power Gaming to new extremes (in a sensitive, role-playing way, of course)



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