Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 17:15:07 +0100
From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: The RuneQuest Daily, Mon, 22 Mar 1993
This digest was generated automatically. You may find
messages that should not belong here, like subscription
requests, etc. Sorry. You will of course send such
requests to RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM.
All mail sent to RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM will
automatically be included in a next issue.
Selected articles may also appear in a regular Digest. If you
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-Henk Langeveld
--
Send Submissions to:
Enquiries to:
The RuneQuest Daily is a spin-off of the RuneQuest Digest and deals
with the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of
Glorantha. Maintainer: Henk.Langeveld@Sun.COM
---------------------
From: markg@engrg.uwo.ca (Mark Gagnon)
Subject: Two things - nuts & bolts stuff...
Message-ID: <9303211711.AA23724@engrg.uwo.ca>
Date: 21 Mar 93 17:11:21 GMT
The First Thing: I've been following the discussion on the Dart Wars
in Bihky and so far have gathered all the useful bits into one file.
What I'm curious about is whether or not there will be more on this in
the form of a published adventure, or this is it? Does anyone have
more information to add to the Bihky Dart Wars, or has the topic been
mined out?
The Other thing: I was introduced to RuneQuest in 1988 and
consequently the only exposure to RQ2 that I've had has been through
the notes on it in the form of a letter from a friend and the various
solo modules produced by Alan LaVergne for Chaosium back in 1982. RQ3
has been IT as far as RQ is concerned; my only complaint with the
Delux Box Set is the lack of things like price lists for stuff, and
other completely mundane 'features' that you find in abundance in D&D,
etc. To cut down on the number 'shopping' questions in the game I ran,
I devised a list which is generally useful, easily modifiable and good
to hide behind in case of hostile player inquiries: "... Didn't I
tell you? It's on the list.... (insert other lame excuses here) ..."
Is anyone interested in this? Is so, I'll upload a copy to GRASS.
Mark Gagnon
University of Western Ontario
---------------------
From: henkl@glorantha (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Sun, 21 Mar 1993
Message-ID: <9303212359.AA16959@glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM>
Date: 22 Mar 93 01:59:08 GMT
>
> This digest was generated automatically. You may find
I guess it shows...
I'll skip Sunday in the future.
---------------------
From: STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Steve Gilham | GDS Solutions)
Subject: Various bits 16-19 March
Message-ID: <01GW38DWQQHU000ARV@UG.EDS.COM>
Date: 21 Mar 93 17:29:53 GMT
(I will have missed any posting over the weekend as we had a systems
failure here, so forgive any duplication of effort)
Third Eye Blue
==============
In Diff. Worlds 24 (the Mostali issue) Greg touched briefly on the
subject of the TEB's iron working capability:-
"[The Mostali] are the blacksmiths, and they once held the secret of
working iron inviolate until robbed by the Third Eye Blue people of
the land of Fronela many centuries ago....The Third Eye Blue people,
for instance, were once rulers of Fronela (so they say), but were
overthrown by dwarf-supported humans who resented the theft of
iron-working secrets by the Third Eye Blue Founder hero in a previous
age."
noting in passing that only bladesmithing was stolen, not gunsmithing.
Dodge
=====
brandon@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (Brandon Brylawski) writes on
16-MAR-93 :-
>> If he rolled a special hit or critical hit, only a
>> special or critical dodge works, respectively, whereas
>> parry always works.
and both
etlanmy@aachen.ericsson.se (Allan Murphy) and
carlf@Panix.Com (Carl Fink)
expressed similar sentiments
It is possible that my opinions may be influenced by the fact that our
?local? interpretation was that parry armour {however infinite} got
ignored on a critical too. [to ameliorate this we used the effective
superiority of degree of the attack over the defense so a critical
parry reduced a crit to a normal hit vs normal parry - similar to the
kind of thing in Steve Maurer's Heroquest rules that were posted here
a few years back].
This makes it a bit more of an even tradeoff; if you're fighting
trolls [who, as I have previously demonstrated can easily put damage
(2D8+2D6) through shield (12) and armour (6) even faced with a
successful parry to a normal hit, and are likely to give a one hit
takedown on a crush] a normal dodge is better than a normal parry vs a
normal hit; and you can argue the toss on taking a crush from your
sick-beds - if both of you are lucky!
Runes (various, 16-19 Mar)
=====
The runes of Arachne Solara are Fate+Infinity (superposed, they make a
6-legged spider); she clearly owns Fate.
---------------------
From: NEIL@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Neil Taylor ext 315)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Sun, 21 Mar 1993
Message-ID: <01GW3AN1W4KY000AOW@UG.EDS.COM>
Date: 21 Mar 93 18:34:32 GMT
"mabeyke@batman.b11.ingr.com (boris)" says:
> So, then, what would this cult be like? Well, it would likely be much
> like the cult of Yelmalio, with some small changes. One, Elmal's Runes
> would be Fire and Truth instead of Light and Truth, since Zorak Zoran
> never stole his fire powers from him.
> Thus the cult would have available the spirit magics of Firearrow, Fireblade,
> and Ignite, in addition to the spells listed for Yelmalio.
As Elmal, the cult derives its strength from association with Orlanth;
I don't see them as having much real fire magic -- I see them as very
like Yelmalio in magical terms. When the cultists fled and took up
with Yelm, one might have expected them to gain more Fire, but they
didn't -- maybe the tale of losing to ZZ is the reason, but maybe it's
actually an excuse for not having real Fire powers! The excuse then
becomes reality when built into Myth...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Holy Day Rituals:
Steve Gilham has been nagging me to look up my notes -- they're about
3 years old & scrappy so I can't swear to accurate recall...
We're told that initiates must attend their High Holy Day, and should
attend on the other Holy Days. They should actually attend at *their*
temple -- the one with the Priest who initiated them -- but when you
walk around on foot, it's difficult to get anywhere in time. Thus I
reckon people can attend any temple, or Shrine (if a Priest is there),
and their God knows they did it, and the Priests can tell they're
still "in good standing".
I took as a model the accounts of Biturian Varosh in Cults of Prax,
and various other fragments. After the campaign folded, I had the
opportunity to meet Greg Stafford & hear his set speeches at two
conventions -- these made me think I'd mostly guessed right. In the
set speech Greg has a tale about the origin of Myth & Ritual, about
Mammoth Hunters enacting a ritual hunt, and how it let them believe
they were there, & to work out what to do in the face of a fearsome
creature, so that when they met a real Mammoth, they were there again,
and the *knew* what to do! He elaborated this in Gloranthan terms,
where the rituals blur the distinction between the mundane plane and
the Godplane.
This isn't the same as full Heroquesting - it has no real danger, and
small benefits, but is important to the cult.
So what happens? The priest leads off with prayers, and a tale of the
God in some relevant event. The congregation is drawn into this, and
to participate. The ritual draws around them, and they see it
happening, and the re-enactment happens. If this goes as per the
standard tale, the myth is strengthened; if you fail/succeed where the
tale has you succeed/fail, the cult is weakened or strengthed a tiny
bit & eventually the Myth might change. Initiates are only drawn into
a border version - they can't be hurt for real; Priests etc are drawn
further in, and have a greater duty to get-it-right, with higher
stakes. (Note also that Divine spells aren't really expended here -
it's only-a-story)
Enough theory...
BABEESTOR GOR - the Earth Defender, "Mad Axe Murderess" etc...
The Fight Against Darkness -- drawn from the Earth Ritual which
Biturian Varosh attended, which was rudely interrupted by Darkness
Cultists. In the BG version of the tales, nearly every ritual is
interrupted and saved at the last minute by Our Heroines... (They're a
teeny bit biassed!)
The initiates find themselves in the thick of fighting, paired off
with an opponent of similar strength, but such that they *should* be
able to defeat it. (This has mythic significance -- next time round
they will meet the *same* mythic opponent - stronger or weaker
according to their & the cult's successes.) All around they can see
others fighting in the Earth tunnels, and can see their Priestesses in
the thick of it, showing what they *might* have been up against.
The fight is a good chance to show off the Cult Skills (& get extra
ticks), and to burn Magic Points for the Cult (and get POW ticks).
Even if they screw up & get "killed" they just get thrown out of the
ritual, feeling miserable & lost, and face a rollicking from the Axe
Maidens...
This is sort of my "Vanilla Ritual-Fight" -- if short of ideas, make
them fight a ritual battle!
BABEESTOR GOR - The Healers' Valley. This is yucky... BG went mad &
ran around slaughtering innocents, until Eurmal tricked her by turning
the Blood to Ale & got her so drunk she had to stop fighting. This
apparently gives her a peculiar side aspect as Patron of Brewers (!).
This one only comes round at any given temple once in a few years -
it's not one they like to stress.
The BG initiates are transported (in Myth) to a valley where innocents
mill around, imploring them not to kill them. They must! Make them
fight & kill these victims (any hit will do), until they are wading in
rivers of blood - make the player keep at it till they look sick of
it. Then stage the Blood to Ale, describing the transformation (they
know to drink it). They get to test CON*5% or pass out, otherwise
they must continue killing. Then repeat with CON*4, CON*3, etc. until
they fail & pass out (count the successes).
After the ritual, if they succeded at least once, they can test CON
"for experience": fail a (CON-successes)*5% roll to gain +1 CON.
EURMAL (Trickster) initiates can also take part in this same ritual,
as it is shared by both. They know the tale too, and there should
always be at least one Trickster turn up when the BG enact this one.
We had a player Trickster, so she go to be in it...
Tricksters get to dodge among the victims, avoiding the berserk Axe
wielders, and to test their powers of Illusion in hiding themselves.
They really did ought to survive (Trickster had no problems), so give
don't make it too hard!
This is also *the* Trickster Ritual needed to sacrifice for the spell
"Blood To Beer".
I also have Odayla, Yelorna, Yelmalio, Orlanth rituals -- I don't think the
Issaries Merchant did much in this line...
If people are interested I'll add them too.
---------------------
From: joe@tpki.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Old digests at German RQ-Con, German Zine
Message-ID:
Date: 22 Mar 93 13:04:39 GMT
I'm currently writing a review of what happens/ed in the digest/Daily
for our German RQ-Zine Free INT, and I'm planning to make some of them
available at the German RQ-Con (at Pentecost). Are there any
objections or copyright problems? The printouts wil be reformatted,
I'll correct some typos and delete some of the quotes, else it will be
what there is in the Digest, including copyright comments etc.
I'm also interest in articles for publishing in the Free NT. (We're
quite good at translating from the English, having got permission to
translate some material from the Tales of the Reaching Moon.) Besides
that, we have of course also "original" material in German language.
I'll post a short summary of contents soon. If there is enough
feedback, I might be persuaded to have some of the articles
translated, depending on authors' permission. If any of you have
graphics useable as illustrations, I'd be utterly grateful to receive
some copies for use in the Free INT. We can't afford to pay you, but
you'll get a free copy of every issue you contributed to. Right now
I'm working on the last strokes for issue 4 (a Cthulhu-feature, but
also RQ-stuff). Issue five will hopefully be out at Pentecost (at the
convention) and deal heavily on Gods and divine magic. If you feel
your read German is sufficient, contact Ingo Tschinke, Scheevemoorer
Landstrasse 33, 2800 Bremen 41, GERMANY (or me via E-mail) fo
rsubscription or single issues. Price is DM 4.80 (dunno what that's in
Dollar or Pound Sterling), value is 40 pages crammed up with
RQ/Chaosium stuff.
--
Joerg Baumgartner joe@tpki.toppoint.de
2300 Kiel
Free INT - Das RuneQuest-Magazin