Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 02:06:57 +0100
From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Digest Subscriptions)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: The RuneQuest Daily, Sun, 14 Mar 1993, part 1 of 2
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---------------------
From: peterw@computer-science.manchester.ac.uk (Peter Wake)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 12 Mar 1993
Message-ID: <9303121921.AA02120@r2g.cs.man.ac.uk>
Date: 12 Mar 93 19:21:29 GMT
RULES RULES RULES - skip if you don't care a fig about rules
>No, according to Gods of Glorantha the strength of a spell sprirt
>is equal to 1d3 x the points in the spell it teaches i.e for a
>4 point spell spirit, average POW is 8, for a 14 point spirit, average
>is 28. This is changed from the values given in the basic set.
The rule I quote is from the Deluxe edition (or the GW books if you
have them). I would say it still applies to non Gloranthan stuff,
pity my example was Gloranthan. It just depends on what rules to
apply and from where. I liked the land of Ninja rules they made
learning a spell interesting and a very cultural experience.
Ancestral spells - cool. I note that KoS suggests that Daka Fal is a
'member' of the Orlanth pantheon and that a smallnumber of Orlanthi
(cultural) shamen exist. Check out the report on the Orlanthi. This
is as opposed to praxian shamen who they don't seem to like very much.
LOOK A BIT HERE THAT's NOT ABOUT RULES...
I am very frustrated with the way things are now scattered all over
the place. Cult write ups in particular: I have had to photocopy them
out of the various sources just to have them all in one place. The
alternative is carrying round a pile of TotRM, RoC, GoG, Troll Gods
and Elder Secrets (not forgetting the Glorantha book from the Deluxe
box). Of course you can thin your pile if you know what cults you
will want to look up that night. As I referee at a friends house this
is a big nuisance for me. Ah in the old days you just needed CoP :-)
(And a stack of Different Worlds). Worse still there long write ups
now available are not just expansions of the short write ups.
Sometimes a character can qualify for something under the GoG rules
and not qualify under the new long writeups. This is simply
irritating, furthermore a good reading of the new write ups shows some
startling vagueness in places. Wish I had the stuff here to quote
from.
> This, IMHO is something I would like to see in RQIV: inclusion of
>the rules in the supplements. Fortunately, this problem isn't as badd
>as many other games where each new supplement presents new rules.
>After a while you don't know whether you are playing by the same rules
>as everyone else. Anyone out there ever a "Star Fleet Battles" player?
>For RQ, I don't know of much outside of the GoG rules for spell training
>and acolytes that need to be included. Can anyone else think of any?
Elder Secrets has all the rules for magic crystals and rune metals.
> Actually, a lot of people (including yours truly) think that what
>nearly killed RQ was lack of support. One supplement per year put
>a lot of people off RQ more than poor but easily modifiable rules.
I thought that everybody would take this as read already, I was trying
to point out that the rules changes didn't help anyone.
I also said that I'd rather see new support material than new rules,
partly for the very reason mentioned above (which I alluded to). RQ4
will mean that some background material/scenarios will not be
developed and that something else will not be on the publishing
schedule during the year it appears. I would rather have Dorastor,
Prax Pack, Chaos Gods of Glorantha, Pamalt Pack, Maps of Glorantha or
whatever vapourware is 'nearly' finished than a new set of rules which
I'll only change anyway.
>If you look at the racks at games stores you'll see that many of
>the most successful games have crap rules but plenty of supplements,
>modules, campaign packs etc. AD&D and Shadowrun spring to my mind as
>examples. Call of Cthulhu, which has a simplified RQ system with
>more than a few holes, is more successful than RQIII IMHO due to the
>much greater volume of modules and supplements produced for that
>game.
It was nothing to the CoC publication shedule to release new rules
because there was such a big budget, so many realeases and so many
buyers. With RQ a new rules set will mean the delay of a major
supplement for another year. I'd rather see RQ4 delayed until RQ has
that same size of release shedule.
MORE RULES - Shamen and Sorcerors - the pros and cons. Read at your peril.
> OK. I'll tempt you. I agree that a shaman with a powerful fetch is
>immune to direct magical attack, but so is a Tapping sorcerer, and
>the POW used to build up the fetch is better used on binding and
>strengthening enchantments. I think that the RQII shaman rules seem
>to be fairly unbalanced as well (especially the ability to heal
>yourself after death), and someone posted recently (Loren Miller?
>Tim Leask?) that Chaosium admitted that the shaman rules had NEVER
>been playtested, in any edition of RQ. The sorcery rules are broken
>IMO: your final ability is restricted by INT, an unchangeable
>characteristic, and a sorcerer who spends his time enhancing the
>stats, damage and protection on the rest of his party will have
>gross effects on party effectiveness.
I can beleive that those rules were never tested.
Well here are a few points about RQ3 shamen. Most of this applies
only in the land of gross characters no one will ever play.
1) A shaman can push his POW down to 8 or so and still have normal
resistance to magic. He makes a lot of POW gain rolls, can incrase
his fetch or make lots of enchantments. Sorcerors cannot do this
without being very susceptible to magic, their TAP limit is reduced to
16 in this case.
2) There is no limit to fetch size, therefore no limit to magic
resistance, eventually the only person that can effect them is another
shaman or a demon or something because even sorcerors cannot boost
their magic resistance past twice POW. Divine magicians have nothing
like this except big Countermagic/Shield and that can be drilled
through with MP which are cheap cheap cheap. A sorceror has max
defensive MPs of 42 (and very few can maintain that for long, never
mind safely TAP that many) he also has defensive MPs of 42. With
shamen there is no limit and no one can effect them, 52MPs and no one
can touch you. OK this is the extreme and I've never seen a shaman
with a fetch with more than 8 POW but you can imagine it happening
very easily the way they get POW gain rolls.
3) A shaman gets a chance of a spirit encounter equal to his POW.
Think about what the eventual effects of this are. If it doesn't kill
the Shaman in his early months he will become gross because even when
out of play he still gets regular POW gain rolls and regular risks.
Providing you don't allow sorcerors POW gain rolls for spurious
summonings they have nothing as silly as this. Usually something big
turns up eventually and destroys the Shaman, they are like a
hand-grenade with the pin pulled. The rules are most broken.
4) A shaman can have disgusting spirit magic, worse than some sorcery.
Imagine Protection 18 and Bladesharp 18. How does he do it with POW
8? Spirit Shield 18 of course... This assumes he doesn't use the
spell spirit rules from GoG, I assume that they only apply to cult
spirits. Then there's the possibility of those 'extra big' spirits.
It costs the shaman only 2 POW to have a spell like that. Shamen get
lots of POW but they usually die too... At least the troublemaker
only has a 40%+magic bonus casting chance.
The most important point is shamen get gross fast, are gross by nature
and get worse. Starting sorcerors are weak and get gross very slowly.
Practically never at all if you make them research everything.
The sorcery rules aren't broken they're just brittle. It takes a long
time to be a gross sorceror because they have more skills to learn
than any other character type by an order of magnitude. The average
sorceror with 15 INT or so and not many enchantments is not very
powerful because he either has a small spell selection or lousy
intensities. Another thing is you (the referee) get to decide what
spells he knows and can keep a lid on him very easily. Just don't
hand out Damage Boost, or Enhance and he's pretty weak combat
wise. Damage Resist doesn't provide protection from anything much
unless you have one heap of intensity and even then it is way weaker
than protection. (I played a sorceror character for two years and he
invested in a Protection matrix because damage resist was of 'limited'
usefulness). You can limit the spells a shamen can find but it
stinks. The reason is that everyone has had the spirit magic spells
and so when you restrict one they howl railroad. It's against the
spirit of the rules :-) In sorcery it's not the same, you just declare
a spell you don't like is exotic or unknown in your world, no-one will
ever have it. Also remember TAP has a duration, very few sorcerors
can keep tanked up on MPs for more than a couple of hours. You can
also outlaw TAP. Given the reaction to tapping I have yet to see a PC
tap freely anyway.
I agree having a sorceror's strength fixed to INT is poor but there
are ways round it. To me the ways round it are what make the sorcery
rules most brittle. Just my opinion.
I remember RQ2 shamen as being OK but then it was a long time ago,
maybe I'm living in nostalgia land. I figure that losing POW to heal
back from the dead is worse than being ressurected - that costs you no
POW.
This is my last rules posting for a long while I hope. I'm sure
everyone else can finish the job off. -- Peter Wake
---------------------
From: T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk (Thom Baguley)
Subject: Spell learning
Message-ID: <9303122343.AB27975@Sun.COM>
Date: 12 Mar 93 08:05:41 GMT
>This seems like a mistake: Spell Spirits have a 3d6 POW roll and a
>limitation that POW must equal or exceed the points in the spell.
>There are no POW 28 spell spirits in the current rules (or is there
>something in the errata?) As a consequence 18 is the biggest spell
>that anyone can have, but it seems to be the only limit (apart from
>the INT to fit it in).
According to Gods of Glorantha Cult spell spirits have D3 POW per
spell point. I like this rule - it makes it a challenge for people to
learn very powerful spirits spells. A corollory is that finding a very
powerful spell spirit may be tricky. My unofficial ruling is that cult
libraries (or oral histories) hold (coded?) references to the true
names of appropriate spell spirits. Priests should keep record of the
spell spirits they know. Of course large temples will have access to
most sizes of cult spell spirit. When away from a cult library (or
other priests) a character could use Cult Lore or maybe ceremony to
recall the true name of the sprit they want. For realism one could
create lists for each priest, shrine and temple and cult!
Thom
_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/ Human Cognition Research Lab
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ The Open University
_/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, U.K.
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Tel: +44 908 65-4518 Fax: -3169
_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ Internet:T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk
---------------------
From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake)
Subject: Re: RQ4
Message-ID: <9303130353.AA10330@cs.uwa.edu.au>
Date: 13 Mar 93 03:54:04 GMT
Why do we want RQ4 ? The simple answer is that there are problems with
both RQ2 and RQ3, and I want them fixed. People round here tend not to
play RQ3 because of some of the big glitches, and only play RQ2 mostly
because of already running campaigns. Most people use a kind of RQ2.5,
but I want a set of rules that works well enought that people don't
need to mix and match. Sorcery and shamanism are badly playtested (if
at all) and just aren't adequate.
The important thing in the production of RQ4 is to minimise the amount
of expenditure required to upgrade to the new system. The reason RQ3
caused such problems was that RQ2 was not compatible with RQ3, and so
all the old supplements disappeared. A similar problem ocurred with
the change from Traveller to Megatraveller, and they lost a lot of
market share (though they are about to do it again with Traveller: The
New Era). But it is not necessary to remake the game system in such a
manner as to render old supplements unusable, and there is nothing in
the RQ4 rules to make this necessary. The changes from RQ2 to RQ3
where big in terms of stats, skills, and many aspects of the game
world. The change from RQ3 to RQ4 will be primarily a change of
mechanics and character generation, and only two new character stats
will be necessary - the manouver and spirit combat skills. A good
comparison is the change from Shadowrun1 to Shadowrun2. I do not know
if anyone plays SR, but the SR2 rules made very major changes to the
mechanics. However, they made few changes to statistics or the game
universe. For most supplements they were able to include a summary of
changes to those rules in less than a page of the rulesbook, and only
one supplement (of more than half a dozen), and none of the
adventures, required reprinting. This is what I want RQ4 to be - a new
ruleset, that lets you keep all your old supplements.
Why do we want the change from RQ3 to RQ4? I can speak only for myself
but: the sorcery rules are badly broken, being neither clear,
play-balanced, or particularly satisfying; ths shaman rules are too
little, and badly playtested - important points of the rules are
simply not adressed; fatigue is unwieldy, and badly explained;
numerous minor problems with badly playtested spells; and worst of
all, high powered cambat is usually very dull.
The RQ4 rules include a fix for sorcery - not a perfect system, but a
much better one that is compatible with the old rules (which I, for
reasons mentioned above, think is a very important aspect of the new
design). It gives much more info on shamanism in a way that seems
playable, seems to fill the important gaps, and is nicely expandable.
It fixes all the major glitches (such as the grotesque things that can
be done with RQ3 Befuddle). It has a new skill system, that while
being more complex, will not be incompatible with old characters (in
fact it looks to be more campatible with RQ2 characters than the RQ3
system). All of these are changes that some of us demand, I certainly
needed the changes to sorcery and the expanded shamanism for my game,
and was having to search through the RQ digest back issues and
construct my own. I like having it done for me a lot better, because
now I'm compatible, and can spend more time on adventure design, and
less on rules creation.
And for me, I think the best part is actually those rules that were
least necessary in terms of problems - the changes to spirit combat
and to the combat rules. There was nothing wrong with the old rules in
terms of game balance or incompleteness. They were just boring. Spirit
cambat is obviously boring, and cambat became very dull at high skill
levels, with 100% sucessful attacks and parries on both sides. High
level combat in RQ3 does not give enough opportunity for failure of
defenses, so degenerates into armour/damage races. RQ2 had a different
problem, to with fanaticism/berserk, which changed high level combat
so campletely as to dominate so many cambats - and I just like cambat
with more combat options (though all optional), because it is more
interesting and more fun.
I think we need RQ4. We need to bring the RQ2 players who are not
playing RQ3 back into the mainstream by presenting a system that does
not have big flaws, and does have lots of new rules and room for
exapansion. We need to make a rules system that is of a quality that
we would be happy to use, without Gloranthan supplements. We need a
rules system with room for growth and expansion, without having to
rewrite things, or hunt through supplements. We need a rules system
that will accomadate many styles of play. In short, I think RQ4 is
something whose time has come, and I think that wwe should work as
hard on it as we can to make sure we do not need RQ5 - at least for
many years (maybe RQ5 will be the changes for HeroQuest compatibility
- then its sure to be years away :-)).
I'll get off my soapbox now.
David Cake
---------------------
From: tzunder@cix.compulink.co.uk (Tom Zunder)
Subject: Dart Wars/RQIV/Third Eye Blue
Message-ID:
Date: 13 Mar 93 14:12:00 GMT
Okay what are dart wars, I don't recognise them at all.
RQ4, yes, rationalise it and support it but don't really mess around
with the core. I think that may be what Jovanovic is intending.
Support is the most important bit really.
What do you mean, if most Orlanthi could read it, what do they have
Lhankor Mhy for? To read it to them.. I thought, sod it, let's post
some versions of what might happen in the Hero Wars. I liked the jeff
okamoto alternative too, although a little less divinely involved than
mine, perhaps.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
tzunder@cix.compulink.com.uk
"May the Red Moon Illuminate You All!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
[From what I've seen, dart wars are a form of Duelling
among Lunar nobles. Keeps them busy, I suppose - HL]
---------------------
From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk (alex)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Mon, 08 Mar 1993
Message-ID: <9303132315.AA13977@barren.dcs.gla.ac.uk>
Date: 13 Mar 93 23:15:28 GMT
> From: tzunder@cix.compulink.co.uk (Tom Zunder)
> Subject: Quick Punchy Note
> 1: I also am confused about Orlanth. I wish it would be clearly and
> fully explained. What about Vinga, Yinkin, etc etc, they must be sub-cults
> in some areas.
Dunno about Vinga, but Yinkin is an associated cult. Don't think
either would appreciate being labelled as sub-cults, but it does seem
the some notionally independant cults are almost sub-cults anyways,
mentioning no Mastakos in particular. ("Greater god", indeed.)
> 5: [...] Obviously from KoS a lot of hell breaks out in the Empire
> proper, and I suspect it gets far more complicated than it once was. Again
> I cite the absence of Arkat from the KoS.
Who was it suggested that Argrath = Orlanth? Of course, Nick Brooke
avered at Convulsion that Argrath = Arkat!
Alex.
--------------------
From: mace@lum.asd.sgi.com (Rob Mace)
Subject: Re: Lunars
Message-ID: <9303140053.AA02646@lum.asd.sgi.com>
Date: 13 Mar 93 08:53:59 GMT
>>> Seven Mothers is in many ways a cop-out, they are too easily the
>>> Lightbringers in reverse.
STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM writes:
>Interesting insight; and one that could be made more of, to give the cults(s)
>some distinctive character. Too often they turn out as badge-engineered
>versions of the originals.
I believe this was the idea. The Seven Mothers were meant to appeal
to worshippers of the gods that they are copied from. In our campaign
they are all healed versions of the originals.
Yanafal Tarnils is Humakt healed of his acceptance of self death.
The Lunar knowledge god(Can't remember the name) is Lankor Mhy healed
of the need to horde knowledge.
Telio Nori is Chalana Arroy healed of her need to heal everyone.
etc.
So my understanding is that this is the way it is meant to be and is a
Lunar recruitment ploy.
Rob Mace
---------------------
From: tzunder@cix.compulink.co.uk (Tom Zunder)
Subject: Cult: Third Eye Blue
Message-ID:
Date: 13 Mar 93 14:12:00 GMT
Third Eye Blue
I'm posting my Third Eye Blue write up. The intention is that they are
like any minority culture with an enclosed and limited membership.
Like Jews they follow their own path with a helathy respect for all
others but a god of their own. I shall fax this to Greg Stafford as
well. Not many Third Eye Blue should be around in DPass/Prax but about
25-75 in Pavis and maybe 250 in Nochet. Most others will be itinerant,
returning to the centres/priest for holy days.
Here goes, comment at will, this is all unofficial of course..
The Third Eye Blue (or "Tir'in Tir")
The Third Eye Blue people originate in a land far beyond the Lunar
Empire, lost in a magical barrier known as the Syndics Ban. None have
travelled in or out of this land in centuries and none know what has
become of the homeland. The land is in the highlands of Tastolar in
Fronela and known by it's inhabitants as Sarkan. It's culture was
barbarian and isolationist, what it is now, none know. Many Third Eye
Blue people have travelled the world. The message of Third Eye Blue is
not open to other people but he/she has always preached that his/her
children should help others with their gifts. Third Eye Blue people
have always been welcomed but are often later discriminated against
and used as scapegoats. The Third Eye Blue diaspora has not always
been a happy one. Each High Holy Day (Godday/Fertility Week/Fire
Season) the family meal is often begun with a toast;
"Next year we eat again in Karlarla.."
Karlarla is the holy city of Third Eye Blue in the highlands of
Tastolar.
The Third Eye Blue people worship Third Eye Blue, a god/goddess whose
gender changes dependent on the aspect with which he/she is
associated. All aspects of Third Eye Blue involve the ability to see
within and mould, whether metals, the body or the mind. Third Eye Blue
is an ethnocentric god/goddess who worked from before Time to protect
her people from the horrors to come, horrors she had seen with her
foresight but couldn't share with her disbelieving peers. Her devotion
was such that her an- cestry is no longer known, and her exploits are
not recor- ded, so mundane and prepatory were they. Third Eye Blue
spent her talents working to protect her people and passes these
lessons down to them, along with an abiding aver- sion to the
temptations of power and vanity.
The moral strictures of the Third Eye Blue people are as follows, in
order of precedence. All of these are grounds for both civil and
religous wrongdoing;
1:One shall wear thy marks with pride and protect the people of Third
Eye Blue at all times and at all costs.
2:One may not kill a member of Third Eye Blue save in self defence.
(Atonement must be through personal slavery to the family of the
deceased or a deed so required by them. This deed may not be
inherently fatal, lest a counter charge of murder be laid.)
3:One may only offer worship to Third Eye Blue and one's ancestors.
4:One may not rape, injure, cause ruin or assault a member of the
Third Eye Blue people. (Penalty shall be reparations or slavery to the
offended individual or family.)
5:One may not consort with sorcery, knowingly carry disease or chaos
or allow such acts to continue.
6:One shall keep a fire burning in ones hearth at all times and offer
it warmth to all guests.
7:One must treat outsiders with respect and allow them the hospitality
and protection of the people, save where this would conflict with
above.
All people of the Third Eye Blue tattoo a third blue eye on their
foreheads at puberty, to disfigure or scar this of one's free will is
to leave the religion and the people. (Disfigurement against one's
will may be healed and renewed). Outsiders may not join the cult
without proving lineage to the Third Eye people. Marriage with
outsiders is dicouraged but happens, all children are considered "of
the blood" although the non-related spouse may never join.
Skills are listed for each aspect not necessarily for membership
reasons { children are always trained to an aspect } but since these
are the skills taught by the respective apsects.
In addition to local languages all Third Eye People speak Sarkan, a
language unrelated to all other Gloranthan ton- gues and with it's own
script.
Third Eye Blue cultists are cremated at death and their ashes buried
in the Earth. They believe after time with their deity they are
reicarnated in Sarkan.
Third Eye Blue is associated with the Runes of Fire, Life and
Infinity.
The High Holy Day of Third Eye Blue is Godday/Fertility Week/Fire
Season. This is celebrated by a feast at family homes followed by
celebrations at the temple or shrine. It is known in Sarkan as "Ch'san
Tor, The Day of Salvation".
Cultists may only join one aspect of Third Eye Blue at pu- berty but
may learn spirit magic of no more than 2 points from other aspects. ie
a Redsmith may learn Heal 2 but no more, a Healer could not learn more
than 2 points of Heat Metal. If a spell is forbidden or has a fixed
cost higher than 2 then it may not be learned.
The aspects of Third Eye Blue are;
The Redsmith (or "Thran'Tir")
Most common amongst the Third Eye diaspora this aspect deals with the
working of bronze, seeing its strengths and weaknessess and forging
pure and strong tools. This aspect of Third Eye Blue is female and
honours the time that the goddess spent with Lodril deep within the
Earth, forging the tools so that her people may survive the Great
Darkness to come.
Skills
Craft:Redsmithing, Mineral Lore, Evaluate, Search
Spirit Magic
Detect Bronze, Detect Flaw in Bronze, Ignite, Heat Metal, Repair,
Fireblade
Divine Magic
Third Eye Blue The Redsmith does not offer all Common Divine Magic,
Armoring Enchantment, Binding Enchantment, Dismiss Magic,
Excommunication, Extension, Find Bronze, Magic Point Matrix
Enchantment, Sanctify, Soul Sight, Spellteaching, Spell Matrix
Enchantment, Warding, Heal Wound, Summon Salamander
Special Divine Magic;
Command Salamander, Worship Third Eye Blue, Fire (Weapon) {as True
Weapon but flames as well as usual effects.}
Shrines teach Armoring Enchantment to Redsmith initiates
The Healer (or "Sarklar Tir")
This aspect is male and honours the time that the god spent with
Ernalda herself, studying the powers of life and healing such that his
people may reknit themselves when the power of Death came into the
world. This aspect has little presence to non-cult people, performing
its duties on behalf of the cult.
Skills
Human Lore, First Aid, Speak Own Language, Plant Lore
Spirit Magic
Heal, Protection, Parry, Befuddle, Dullblade, Endurance
Divine Magic
The Healer does not offer all Common Divine Magic
Dismiss Magic, Excommunication, Extension, Find Enemy, Heal Wound,
Sanctify, Soul Sight, Spellteaching, Warding, Worship Third Eye Blue
Special Divine Magic;
Comfort Song (as CA in GoG), Resurrect, Summon Healing Spirit, Command
Healing Spirit, Heal Body, Restore Health (INT and CON only).
Shrines teach Comfort Song to initiates of the Healer
Special Skills
This aspect teaches the skills of Treat Disease and Treat Poison (as
CA in GoG)
Restrictions, may not harm any member of the Third Eye Blue people.
May not learn offensive magic (as Chalana Arroy restrictions in GoG).
The Seer (or "Karlak Tir")
This aspect is both male and female and honours the time Third Eye
Blue spent with the mysterious Arachne Solara in viewing the future
advent of Time and it's effect on his/her people. Within this aspect
Third Eye Blue learnt the secrets of Time and Infinity and offers them
in a limited way to protect her people.
Skills
Glorantha Lore, Human Lore, World Lore, Cult Lore
Spirit Magic
Befuddle, Fanaticism, Demoralize, Disruption
Divine Magic
The Seer provides all Common Divine Magic except the Enchantment
spells
Mindblast, HealMind {as Heal Body but removes all madness, phobias
etc.}, MindRead {GoG}, Divination Block {GoG, note this doesn't blank
out a Third Eye Blue Divination}, Mindlink, Slow Time *
Shrines teach Mindblast to the initiates of the Seer
Special Seer Divine Spell
Slow Time
3 point
Ranged, Nonstackable, One-use
This spell is cast upon an area 10 metres squared and within that area
all intelligent life forms (ie with variable INT) perceive time to be
running at half speed. In other words, they function at half the speed
of everyone else. For the duration of the spell all within the area
of the effect may only perform one action per melee round and always
act on strike rank 10. All who attack targets under this spell are at
+25% to hit, all attacks and parries by victims are at -25%. Remember
that only fixed INT creatures can move fast in this area, if two
humans or trolls were both in the area, time would appear to move
normally and no bonuses or minuses would apply. This spell has
enormous use as a battlefield spell, slowing enemy forces so as to
allow for archery or for attacks by trained animals such as dogs,
wolves, lions etc. This spell seems to not break the Great Compromise
in that it changes perceived and not objective time. A clock within
the area of this spell's effect will record time correctly and animals
which have no comprehension of time are totally unaffected.
Priesthoods and Temples
A priest may rise through any (but not all) aspects. To qualify he/she
must possess a 90% skill in one of the skills viewed as desirable by
the aspect, posess 50% in each of the others and must have a total of
50 percentiles of ritual magic skill. They must have 10 points of cult
divine magic and, providing a vacancy exists, must pass a Test of
Holiness which may be abstracted as a POW*3 roll.
Priests and initiates of Third Eye Blue may worship no other deities
save for minor spirits. They may, however, follow shamans and join
Third Eye Blue Ancestor Worship cults, priests may become shamans if
so capable.
Any priest of Third Eye Blue may officiate at any shrine or temple of
the god/goddess and all initiates, of whatever aspect, count towards
the size of the temple. Where a shri- ne only exists, the spell
available for learning is that suited to the iniatiates aspect, not
that of the shrine, thus a Healer may receive Comfort Song at a
Redsmith shrine.
All Third Eye Blue temples, shrines and households hold a statue of
Third Eye Blue in all three Aspects, the Redsmith left, the Healer
right and the Seer to the centre. It is these which comprise the full
dignity of the religion and it is by meditating upon such a sanctified
statue in a consecrated temple that Third Eye Blue directly teaches
his/her initia- tes divine spells.
Associated Cults
Third Eye Blue does not actively associate his/herself with any cult
although she is friendly to Lodril, all Earth deities and Arachne
Solara.
Retribution.
Each aspect is dealt with differently.
Redsmith; Minor infringements are met with a total inability to work
metal until atoned or all cult spells forgotten and ones tattoo
scarred beyond recognition. Major infringements are met with the above
and the fact that the apostate will always take double damage from all
bronze weapons until atoned or renounced (as above).
Healer;Minor infringements are met with a total inability to sleep.
Major infringements are met with an inability to benefit from healing
magic, healing skills or any form of healing help. Third Eye Blue
never fully takes healing magic from an apostate even if they abandon
all others and scar their foreheads.
Seer;Minor infringements are met with a constant headache making
thought difficult and all knowledge skills at -20%. Major
infringements are met with the spirit of Third Eye Blue's son/daughter
Gerokis, who will cast Mindblast at the apostate and then steal back
one cult spell. This will occur every week until the apostate atones
or scars their forehead and forgets all cult magic.
Gerokis, insane son/daughter of Third Eye Blue
POW 32
INT 5 (fixed)
Spells Mindblast
Third Eye Blue in the World
The Third Eye Blue cult in Sarkan is now unknown due to the Syndics
Ban but originally formed the three corners of that society. The
fourth was that of Ancestor Worship, as represented by a further
aspect of Third Eye Blue. As a farming/hunting culture the Third Eye
Blue people kept themselves to themselves, known only for a certain
care- fulness with money but a corresponding generosity to each other
and strangers thrown upon their mercy. All this may or may not have
changed. Diaspora Third Eye Blue cannot divine what has occurred
although they can still communicate with their god/goddess.
In the diaspora the Third Eye Blue people have survived largely
through the aspect of the Redsmith, where they ha- ve provided good
workmanship to many cultures. Close- knit and insular they have stayed
urban, and indeed the culture of the diaspora is now certainly more
civilised than that of original Sarkan.
Many city states in Ralios have a shrine or minor temple to Third Eye
Blue although their ethical objection to sorcery has led to occasional
pogroms against them by Malkioni. In the Holy Country Nochet holds one
of the few major temp- les to the god/goddess and there are a
proportion of both Seer and Healer initiates in that part of the
world. Further North and West Third Eye Blue communities exist in
Pavis, Boldhome and several within the Lunar Heartlands where the
people are welcomed by Lodril priests as kindred spi- rits.
On the whole Third Eye Blue people are very disparate, many work as
travelling redsmiths, returning to their ho- mes only for the High
Holy Day. Many places and areas will have never seen a Third Eye Blue
person and they can cause a stir when they appear.
The Third Eye Blue people are a small and often ignored element of
Gloranthan society. They keep themselves to themselves, speak a
language of their own unrelated to all others, are often the butt of
jokes and yet are still generous and kindly to the poor and needy.
Third Eye Blue in other Worlds
It is a long standing tale amonst the people of Third Eye Blue that
their goddess has seen a way to extract them fully from the world and
travel to another land of milk and honey. Many believe that should
Sarkan ever be revealed they will find their homeland gone to this
other world. This world is reputed to be warm, full of verdant pasture
and be shone upon by different stars, a different sun and moon.
Many in the diaspora now believe that this is where their souls will
go to upon their demise to live a new life in the Holy City of
Karlarla in a new land of Sarkan.
Copyright Tom Zunder 1992, all rights reserved. Glorantha is the
creation of Greg Stafford and is acknowled- ged as such.
May Third Eye Blue protect and preserve this document.
--------------------
From: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Replies to Peter van Heusden)
Subject: Killing with a dagger [From RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 12 Mar 1993]
Message-ID:
Date: 12 Mar 93 11:17:12 GMT
>An interesting problem came up in a discussion here a couple of days ago.
>Can you kill someone with a dagger in RQ? We all agreed, if he is wearing
>any substantial armour, the answer is no, but the problem arises in close
>in combat where your opponent is unarmoured, and possibly unarmed. (Eg. a
>bar fight, a knife in the back.) It should be possible to kill the person
>with one dagger thrust to the gut. (And if you twist around a bit, you have
>a near certain kill.) So, should we have a 'assasination rule' to cover this
>situation?
From: peterw@computer-science.manchester.ac.uk (Peter Wake)
Subject: Re: Killing with a dagger
Message-ID: <9303121921.AA02120@r2g.cs.man.ac.uk>
Date: 12 Mar 93 19:21:29 GMT
You can have one anytime you want :-)
Impales and criticals go a long way towards this already. If I
thought it was needed I'd give a bonus to impale over and above the
%age due to hit an unsuspecting opponent. There are also other
bonuses you can qualify for. In a world without healing 1d4+2 damage
to an unarmoured apponent may well kill anyway, or if you've got a
strength bonus 2d4+2 or 1d4+1d6+2. Also in real life people usually
take a lot of stab wounds before they stop moving. A dagger lacks
'stopping power'. If untreated even a shallow wound might kill but it
could take from hours to weeks. To kill instantly needs a lucky
strike. -- Peter Wake
--------------------
From: carlf@Panix.Com (Carl Fink)
Subject: Fatal blows with short weapons
Message-ID: <199303130349.AA09443@sun.Panix.Com>
Date: 12 Mar 93 17:49:41 GMT
Um...you can kill someone with a dagger. If you have a 1d3 strength
bonus and are using a 1d4 damage dagger, you do an average of 4.5
points of damage. If you roll slightly high, you can give someone a
fatal wound with a single blow (six points will be a fatal wound to a
normal human in RQ). If you're strong, or special, it's all over.
Carl
--------------------
From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake)
Subject: Re: Instant kills with Daggers
Message-ID: <9303130353.AA10330@cs.uwa.edu.au>
Date: 13 Mar 93 03:54:04 GMT
I think that daggers, etc, are plenty dangerous enough already, if you
don't have armour. If you attack by complete surprise your chance to
hit is really high, and your chance to impale is pretty high. If you
are impaled by a dagger, and you don't have armour, you are in big
trouble. A dagger 4.5 on average, doubled is 9. Nine points in the
abdomen will incapacitate you, and may well put you into
unconsciousness. You will bleed to death in a couple of minutes. That
is planty lethal. If you want to make things more dangerous, maybe
allow chances to hit from complete surprise to double, or
automatically special. And bear in mind that magic, while it may help,
can really hurt too. a bladesharped 4 dagger does 8.5 on average,
plus 1d4 is 11 points. More than my points in any location, and more
than double for most. Reall bad if no armour, and with impaling is
15.5. Beware the dagger wielder assassin with bladesharp 4 and 1d4
damage bonus.
The lethality of surprise attacks, without needing special rules for
it, has always been one of my favourite things about RQ.
DAve Cake