Nick:
"The biggest difficulty I have with Ian's worthy attempts at a "Cult
of Deezola" has always been the amount of irrelevant metaphysical
What does any of this have to do with Queen Deezola?"
Me:
Its speculation
I'm sorry, did I miss somewhere that I wrote
THIS IS TRUTH? :)
Nick tells us:
"Torang not Dara Happan. (Nor even Carmanian). Seven Mothers' Quest
not begun in a temple. Debatable whether Yanafal Tarnils had any
"forces" at this stage in his career; unlikely according to me (and I
should know). Otherwise, sound."
Me:
Which is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for apart from
the fact that it is 'unconstructive criticism' suggesting no
alternatives, Otherwise sound :)
My original text"
: The Goddess herself fed on the Mothers' emotions of arrogance,
: honour, innocence, truth, pride, anguish, and more. From this grew :
her power and ambition, and this led inevitably to war.
Nick:
"Is this *really* what you think the Deezola Cult believes?
Or is it just what Ian believes, placed inappropriately in a Lunar
cult writeup for lack of an alternative outlet?"
Me:
Inappropriate indeed had I been intending that the write-up was an
infallible piece of official lore, however reasonably appropriate for
a piece designed to include as much info as possible for people to
peruse and use or ignore at will
Nick:
"And what about the Chorus of Animals, not to mention the Sorcerers'
Assault and manifestation of the Young Elementals? The latter --
"Carmanians tried to kill the Goddess just after her birth" -- is a
more plausible casus belli than "her power and ambition led inevitably
to war". Did Queen Deezola not possess power and ambition? Was she not
therefore a warmonger?"
Me:
Fantastic, tell me more, or please give me references so I can do the
search myself. I don't know any of these things
The write-up
> The Seven Mothers is Lunar-religion-lite for the barbarians and
> provincials.
Nick:
I suspect this was written by cut'n'paste, not for a cult writeup.
Me:
Yup, I cut'n'paste any bits that i liked from other sources, because
I wanted to use as much established stuff as I could, there's no
profit in this for me, other than the fun of collecting information
> All Seven Mothers cultists in Prax are under the command of Governor
> Sor-Eel in matters of security,
Nick:
Completely meaningless and irrelevant.
Me:
Nope, suits fine the purpose I have for the write-up. Is it Digest
policy to preced all submissions with a disclaimer saying that the
piece might not necessarily please or suit everyone?
> The cult of Yanafal Tarnils controls the Red Army... due to the
> plans of the Red Goddess
Nick:
"This may be interesting as an essay on the Seven Mothers (or, for
example, in the essay on Lunar Government in Tales #16 which it is
largely cribbed from). It is not particularly useful in a writeup of
just one of their member cults. Miscellaneous note or separate essay,
not "The Deezola Cult's Ecology" (and, BTW, you seem to be putting
many mundane trappings, more suited to "The Cult in the World", into
"Cult Ecology")."
Me:
Cribbed indeed, but not from Tales, I've never read that issue, altho
I have seen the cover. Possibly from the author's site?
AND
VALID POINT!!! Separate section "Miscellaneous" Good idea, my
divisions into sections needs some work on all my little cultlets :)
Nick
" if you want to focus on Prax for campaign reasons
(the only reason I can think of to mention that "Seven Mothers
cultists in Prax are subject to the orders of the Governor of Prax"),
why not mention the Deezolan Spa at Moonbroth Oasis, cf. Tales #15?"
Me:
VALID POINT AGAIN
It seems I'm looking at adding an extra section and re-reading my
copy of Tales 15 (Yup, I have this one)
Nick:
"Unproven rumours are Miscellaneous Notes, not part of the Cult
Ecology."
Same point, but still valid
Nick:
"I disagree greatly with th(e) interpretation of Deezola's
outlook. How many cult writeups note that their founder's entire life
and works were misguided?"
Another valid point which I will look at
Weapons stuff...
Another good point, why do Deezolans teach??
I'll think on this
Poetry annotation criticism
What's wrong with being bizarre, what are you, a Hansonite or a young
conservative??
> One must be eligible in background (if not in skill level) to join
> the Lunar Army, in order to be admitted to the cult of Deezola. This
> does not mean they are members of the army
What the heck does it mean? blah blah blah?
Lets teach Nick the phrase
"I'm sorry this is too vague for me, I think the write up would
benefit from more clarity at this point. Personally I suggest (insert
useful comment here to replace sarcasm)
> Lunar Laws - after initial training this skill starts at INT+3D4
Nick:
"A perverse choice: why not treat it as a normal zero-base knowledge
skill? (And why not use the legal skills found in the Red Emperor Cult
writeup in Tales #16, rather than invent new ones!)"
Ah Tales 16, I'll check it out in the shop with an eye to re-writing. When I can afford to I'll even buy it if its good, I'd rather use an established set of rules than try and invent something new
> The Initiate gains +10% in their weapon of choice, and will commonly
> only ever carry a large weapon of this type...
Nick:
"Utterly bizarre. What the heck do you think this cult is for??"
Well, excuuuuuuse me! :) I think that part of the answer is in the
write up itself, the idea of negotiators, ambassadors, peace makers,
deal doers etc etc. I'm so sorry to introduce something odd into
RuneQuest, I mean its otherwise so 'normal'. And if you're talking
about game purism, I'm happy to spend oodles of free time reading RQ
stuff, I find it fascinating, but until I pass my Masters in RQ Lore
I'm sure I'll keep making faux pas, and putting in odd things.
Perhaps once again you are presuming I am laying down the law or
something, rather than having fun and running a few ideas around?
Nick:
"What on earth are these Rune Lords *for*???"
To provide a differential between agents in the field and those
maintaining the cult HQ and Heartland temples. Once again of thats a
mistake in pure lore, excuse me, I've never had a player who was an
expert so it works for me
Nick:
general criticisms of Rune levels
Me:
Happy to reconsider
Sorry I missed your friendly suggestions behind a barrage of scathing
witicisms
Nick:
"Lots of impractical "HeroQuesty" special magic (though not
specified, "Call She Who Waits" and "Group Avatar" look like
Summoning Ritual spells to me); "Inspire Followers appears less
appropriate than frex a reworked "City Harmony" might be; utterly
bizarre lack of healing magic, other than the selfish Pre-Healing."
Me:
My God, a suggestion! I would seriously like to hear what Nick would
suggest, altho I fear perhaps we have entered the 'clash of egos'
phase of our relationship, but perhaps I'm wrong, E-mailing is almost
utterly without intonation, so who knows what is meant with a smile
and what with a snarl. I do get fed up with little dictators parading
their status on mailers. I truly do not know if this is usual for you
Nick, or if you were just having a bad day. As a constructive
response to a write-up your attitude is more likely to drive people
off the mailer than promote useful generation of Gloranthan ideas.
Apart from that, nice try!
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #1
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