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Date: Sat, 5 Jun 93 17:15:35 +0200
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From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Sat, 05 Jun 1993, part 2
Precedence: junk
Status: OR
The RuneQuest Daily and RuneQuest Digest deal with the subjects of
Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha.
Send submissions and followup to "RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM",
they will automatically be included in a next issue. Try to change the
Subject: line from the default Re: RuneQuest Daily... on replying.
Selected articles may also appear in a regular Digest. If you
want to submit articles to the Digest only, contact the editor at
RuneQuest-Digest-Editor@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM.
Send enquiries and Subscription Requests to the editor:
RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld)
---------------------
From: mace@lum.asd.sgi.com (Rob Mace)
Subject: Combat
Message-ID: <9306042325.AA16454@lum.asd.sgi.com>
Date: 4 Jun 93 09:25:23 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 965
Greg Fried writes:
> Bob Mace:
> Your SCA-inspired thoughts on brawling-combat are much appreciated. You say
> that actions like a surprise head-butt, kick to the shin, or even pulling a
> tapestry down over an opponent happen when they are "convenient" and should
> not be thought of as occurring at some (rolled) advantage -- that these
> actions simply happen in additon to other actions in a round and should be
> considered as part of a good skill in combat. But that still leaves us with
> less interesting (tho perhaps you disagree) combats, where rarer combat
I do agree, but read on.
> skills never get used! So again: how do we encourage players to use a
> variety of skills in combat, if not at some advantage? I can't think of some
> mechanic whereby a GM could roll and then say, "Sorry Ruric, your miss last
> round left you off balance and your only real option is to try a trip!" To
> say that an action would be convenient, moreover, it seems to me, would imply
> that it CAN be performed at a bonus; noticing the opportunity for such an
> advantage was the idea behind 'combat sense', but I'll drop this discussion
> if no one else shows interest, or take it to the RQ IV journal!
What I mean by them happening when convenient is that they happen in addition
to your regular attacks and not that they happen at an advantage so that you
would give up your normal attack. They just don't do significant damage to
an armored opponent. Because of this they simply work as a distraction and
make it more likely that a blow from a real weapon will get through. Having
done many head butts while playing the part of an orc or some such at con
demos I can say for a fact that while in a helm they do little damage. Just
real loud. After about 10 your head might spin a little but that is at best
a point of damage in RQ.
Also you should remember what a round in RQ is. It is 12 seconds. It is
not hard to throw a series of around 3 to 10 blows at a speed greater then
one blow a second. In a round of RQ combat you might through several of
these combinations. Most of these blows are known to have little chance
to get through the defenses. What you are doing is making your opponent
work their defenses. So you might alternately strike high and then low for
several blows and then break the pattern by throwing a second high blow.
Brawling maneuvers work into this to further distract the defenses of your
opponents.
So as I concluded in my first reply I think these are already part of the
skill percentage of RQ combat. I know that this does not add flavor to
RQ combat in the way you want but I think to do that you might have to
go to a system like Swords Path Gory(opps Glory) where things are broken
into individual blows.
You might allow for combatants to roll on a table each round for free
brawling attacks. Something like:
0 - 50 No opportunity.
51 - 60 Head butt
61 - 70 Shield Bash if shield/Weapon grapple if not.
71 - 80 Knee
81 - 90 Kick
91 - 100 GM choice apporpriete to environment.
These should be done at reduce % and damage bonus. A special on these might
give the main attack some bonus. Note: I just made up these percentages off
the top of my head and they should not be taken as an example of likelyhood.
Personally I think this would just slow down the combats and add complexity
for not enough gain.
Rob Mace
---------------------
From: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu (Loren J. Miller)
Subject: Adventure Fragments
Message-ID: <01GYZL87UWMA8WWD5Q@wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: 4 Jun 93 12:22:02 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 966
Adventure fragments such as the following are something I'd like to
see for RQ and other games. They would provide help for the harried GM
who has to come up with ways of handling a stock incident in a
reasonable way, yet may not have time to think up how characters could
be challenged in non-combat situations.
Adapt this to your own campaign if you like. Modify the introduction
and plug into your current adventure.
In this adventure fragment, set N equal to the number of characters.
DESERT SURVIVAL
Characters lost in the middle of a vast, flat, featureless desert of
gravel, sand, and glassy flats (mostly gravel). They have been
brought here and lost by the maguffin, whatever it is. It could be
an angry wizard, the current campaign enemy, or whatever.
There are no buzzards circling overhead. Instead, 4xN Wild Dogs harry
them. These dogs are extremely skinny, stringy. They barely use any
water at all, and have highly efficient metabolisms. Fortunately for
the rest of the world, they are intolerant to non-arid atmospheres.
Wild Dog
Str 4 Con 14 Siz 2 Int 5 Pow 12 Dex 13
Hits 7 MP 12 Move 7 DSR 3 SSR 3 MSR 6
Dodge 32%, Listen 36%, Track 76% AP 0
Bite 36% 1d8-1d4
During any attack N of the dogs will stay back and refrain from
attacking. The rest will team as many as possible on the adventurer
with the lowest SIZ. Each round if a dog is wounded roll morale for
them (POWx5), with each wound over the first subtracting one from the
multiplier. When morale is failed they will back away and circle
again, once they have regained their nerve (morale roll) they will
attack again and continue attacking until their multiplier is 0, at
which point they will flee and wait for the corpses of any dead
members.
The dogs only move by night. During the day they hide out, at night
you can hear them barking and howling.
---
After dealing with the dogs once, the adventurers are exposed to the
outdoors. Use the following rules.
Constant sun exposure at 90 degrees fahrenheit without drinking
water means -2 fatigue classes every 8 hours of daylight. Roll
Fatigue roll to only lose 1. Temperature goes down to 40 degrees at
night. After four days characters will likely be in sad shape. That
night they see an omen---whatever is relevant---also hearing the
maguffin that brought them here, The dogs circle but don't close in
yet. Every hour the characters may attempt heroic action, such as
shouting as loud as possible with their parched throats.
This is where any additional characters may enter into the game,
heralded by the omen and left by the actions of the maguffin. They
won't know of the earlier characters, who will have to perform
heroically to get their attention.
... After sharing water, or killing some of the other party and
perhaps drinking blood, or the like, the groups have sort of melded.
Good thing, because they're still lost in the desert without longterm
sources of water or food. The dogs are still around, but they hide out
during the day and only come out by night.
The desert is extremely arid and barren. Much of it is covered with a
reflective glassy surface, cracked in some spots. Survival rolls give
enough water and nourishment to keep alive, but not enough to travel.
Prophet in the Desert
Desert Prophet Coelecanis
Str 11 Con 15 Siz 14 Int 14 Pow 14 Dex 6 App 12
HP 15 MP 14 Fat 75 DSRM 4 +SSRM 2 =MSRM 6 Move 3
Speak City 79, City Etiquette 79, Debate 79, Orate 79, Written City
81, Human Lore 81, World Lore 81, City Cult Lore 81, Scout City 69,
Ceremony 79
No armor, Dodge 8%
Club 46% 1d6+1d2 p38% (6)
Grapple 31% 1d3+1d2 p23% (0)
He is wandering out into the desert. He can give the characters a way
of getting to the city. He will also tell them a prophecy about the
phoenix.
First the golden egg it fell
>From the void of the unknowing
Then the known got tired and thinning
Secret heartbeat kept on slowing
As a top will stop its spinning
So the egg's life will be going
An ancient must crack the shell
Or bid "Good Night" to the phoenix
And to all of us as well
[This was a prophecy from my campaign, where one of the possible
goals was to return the red giant sun to normal]
Write your own way out of it. Perhaps the prophet has something to do
with it. Perhaps he's a red herring prophet.
But by this time the desert is boring. It may still take a character
or two, but it's through as adventure fodder for now.
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
S sign lists littles what wetland received in phire bonuse --1M Monkeys
---------------------
From: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu (Loren J. Miller)
Subject: RQ sorcery discussion
Message-ID: <01GZ00C6E7TU8WWDLW@wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: 4 Jun 93 19:34:57 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 967
Since I finally got the RQ4 playtest discussion list working let's
move the sorcery discussion there. You'll get real-time responses, too,
not the day delay stuff. Once again, to subscribe send email to
listserv@mkt46.wharton.upenn.edu, the subject is irrelevant but
you might as well use one anyway, and in the first line of the message
write "subscribe rq-playtest". Then the list address is
rq-playtest@mkt46.wharton.upenn.edu
-- Loren
---------------------
From: drcheng@sales.stern.nyu.edu (David Cheng)
Subject: RQ-Con, Second call for events
Message-ID:
Date: 5 Jun 93 05:21:35 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 968
A status report on RuneQuest-Con:
We're still slated for January 14-16, 1994,
in Columbia, Maryland (a pleasant suburb of Baltimore).
This is a firm date.
Confirmed Guests of Honor:
* Greg Stafford (of course)
* Ken Rolston
* Sandy Petersen
* Michael O'Brien (author of _Sun County_, in from Australia)
* David Hall (Editor of _Tales of the Reaching Moon_, in from Britain)
* Oliver Jovanovic (head of the RQ4 rewrite effort)
* Nick Brooke (_RQ Digest/Daily_ troublemaker at large)
Pending Guests of Honor:
* Some other RQ names you might recognize
* Scott Aniolowski, and a couple of other Chaosium CoC freelancers
* Other CoC, Pendragon, and EPT celebrities, if I can trick them into
attending.
EVENTS
Seminars: Of course, our GoH's have to earn their keep somehow. Not
only can you game with them, we'll put them up in front of y'all
so they can entrall you with their gaming wisdom and folly. Debate
Gloranthan philosophy! Ask Sandy why insects are so heavily
represented in the _Gateway Bestiary_!
"Home of the Bold" A 75-player Gloranthan freeform. Loads of fun.
(Hint: I suspect spots will fill up quickly. Plan on getting
your registration materials in quickly). Hosted by David Hall
and Kevin Jacklin (another Brit coming over just for the Con).
Tournaments: Oliver Jovanovic and Mark Wallace have pledged several
RQ tournaments between them. There will be more (see below,
however)!
New stuff you ain't seen before: Remember _Masters of Luck and
Death_, the HeroQuesting boardgame that never came out? Well,
you can play at RQ-Con. Ever heard of _Warhamster_, Sandy
Petersen's custom RQ minis rules? Well, perhaps you can play
that too. Stafford's Lunar book is scheduled to be released
in December. Perhaps RQ-Con can be the official release party?
Rare materials: Lots of Digest/Daily readers complain that they don't
have enough of the old RQ2 reference material. We're doing our
best to have lots of it there. Our dealer is stockpiling it
already. Andrew Lorince will also be on hand to sell out-of-
print EPT stuff.
Not all (fun and) games: There will be live-action Trollball (it's
specifically written into the contract with the hotel). There will
will be an Orlanthi storytelling contest, judged by Stafford, of
course. If you want to start thinking about it now, here's the
deal: take some element of Sartarite mythology, and prepare to
recite it, in saga/story form. Worst of all, there will be an
honest-to-goodness "dart competition." For fear of offending
certain patrons, this is all we can say right now...
* WE NEED MORE EVENTS, AND MORE GAMEMASTERS *
Several of you have already submitted ideas, and pledged to volunteer.
We thank you very much. Please excuse our not being in more frequent
contact.
However, we still need more volunteers, and more events. The pre-reg
book has to go to press before Origins (?), so I'm now asking for
specifics from you all. Can you:
* create a tournament (single round, multi-round, whatever) to run?
* GM an event we provide?
* work registration?
* do something else useful?
If so, please contact me, so your contribution can be included in the
pre-reg book.
We are specifically looking for RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon,
Stormbringer, and Empire of the Petal Throne events, but we won't be
too fussy.
YES, GMs/Volunteers will get a discounted entry to the con.
Please look for fliers at conventions near you. They've started to go
out already, and responses are coming back.
I look forward to a flood of volunteerism from the RQ Digest/Daily
readers!
Thanks,
-David Cheng
drcheng@sales.stern.nyu.edu
313 East 85th Street, Apt 2C
New York, NY 10028
(212) 472-7752
GEnie: D.CHENG
---------------------
From: gal502@huxley.anu.edu.au (Graeme Lindsell)
Subject: Sorcery, Sorcery and more Sorcery!
Message-ID: <9306050529.AA01690@cscgpo.anu.edu.au>
Date: 5 Jun 93 09:30:14 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 969
>Anyway, Graeme Lindsell muses on the same idea (I _think_ it's Graeme):
>I don't see how MP storage devices are useless for this long-term
>expenditure of points (as long as the spell stays on). The way I'm
>thinking of this, the sorceror could use his 11-point battery to throw
>a long-duration spell, and only lose the use of the *battery* for the
>duration of the spell, rather than losing use of his own personal
>MPs or incapacitating a POW spirit for the same amount of time.
>
>It strikes me that MP storage would actually be pretty useful for this
>method.
>
>Dustin
Yep, that was me. I can see I didn't present my idea too well. What I
meant was this: that for a sorcerer to maintain a spell with long
duration, he must assign POW to support it, the POW that provided the
original magic points for the intensity of the spell. This POW cannot
regenerate MP while the spell is in effect, since those MP are being
sent to the spell, to keep it going. This implies:
i) there is a continuing link between the source of the POW and the
spell: a strong enough Mystic Vision would allow one to see this link,
either as a picture of the POW source or as a line of light going off
in its direction. The death or destruction of the POW source would cause
the swift termination of the spell.
ii) Something that cannot regenerate more MP (such as a storage crystal)
cannot perform this kind of spell maintainance.
Actually, in this system storage crystals aren't as useless as I
originally thought: they can provide points for range and duration.
I even think that spells that don't have any extra duration could
even probably use them.
This sytem has the defect of making the current (RQIII Errata)
Multispell skill even more powerful, as you only have to maintain
one lot of intensity.
A comment about the "broken element needed for INT" controversy:
enhance INT was probably made impossible in RQIII for game balance
reasons, so you couldn't keep increasing you free INT and then
casting again to get even more points of free INT etc. In the
newer systems, total manipulation is limited by skill, not INT.
Enhance INT would increase one's Magic modifier and thus one's
total manipulation, but would not be nearly as effective: we
could probably allow it in the game. A broken/inaccessable Rune
is still needed for POW: Infinity anyone?
>From: DScott@snail.demon.co.uk (David Scott)
(Doesn't seem to like the prevalence of sorcery discussion recently,
and suggests the setup of of RQ Sorcery List.)
First of all, the blurb at the start of each issue of the digest says
>The RuneQuest Daily and RuneQuest Digest deal with the subjects of
>Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha.
Note that it does not say "Glorantha only with no rules discussions"
anywhere. Sorcery is part of AH's RPG, and is thus an entirely valid
topic for this list.
Secondly, sorcery has only become big in the last month or so. A lot
of people seem to think it is broken in the current system, and are
discussing it. It will probably die down eventually.
Thirdly, if you want Glorantha discussion, start some! This list
doesn't have a limit on total lines/day (I think).
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Graeme Lindsell Email: gal502@huxley.anu.edu.au
---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------
From: tzunder@cix.compulink.co.uk (Tom Zunder)
Subject: New Zine
Message-ID:
Date: 5 Jun 93 10:47:48 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 970
UK Digesters!
I'd like to get John Castelluci's new zine but I fear the cost of a money
order, so if you too would like to buy his zine and club together on the
cost then email me and we'll do it together.
I've mailed John suggesting this or something similar-ish.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
tzunder@cix.compulink.com.uk
How Illuminating!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------
From: fkiesche3@aol.com
Subject: RQ Convention
Message-ID: <9306050754.tn15477@aol.com>
Date: 5 Jun 93 11:54:30 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 971
Greetings:
Any update on the RQ co nvention since you e-mailed me about a month and a
half ago? Is there any way that I can help?
Fred Kiesche
(FKiesche3@aol.com)