From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 09 Sep 1993, part 2
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Sender: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM
Precedence: junk
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: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK
Subject: Gross low-level sorcerors *THE END* (Hopefully)!
Message-ID: <9309080926.AA05324@Sun.COM>
Date: 8 Sep 93 09:33:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1575
REF: X-RQ-ID: 1569 (Jeff Freymueller)
Sorry to bore you all folks but I just must set the record straight.
I disagree with your analysis Jeff, to that end I will take you through the
example in more detail.
Golden Rules of Gross Sorcery:
1) Never use more than one point of multispell (notice in the example the
sorceror did not have the skill. Basically a point of duration doubles
the effect whereas multispell is linear.
2) Get Intellect spirit(s) as fast as possible to get more Free INT.
Promise the party whatever it takes to get them to pool their resources
to beg, buy, borrow, steal you one (in practice the lure of long duration
sorcery spells should be enough).
3) You can never have enough MP storage and POW spirits, but get enough so
that you can cast your spells at maximum power.
Example:
The sorceror casts the spells at INT 6 Duration 13 (8 weeks).
Assume he takes 2 days to cast each spell and recharge his MP,
then he can keep 28 spells running, so I must refute your
claims Jeff. (N.B. Note Free INT = 18 for manipulation plus
the INT 1 spell stored in the Intellect spirit).
I agree with the comments that this is not a brand-new starting
character but he is low level (perhaps I should have made that more clear).
For a virtually starting out character try the following:
INT 18, POW 16
4 Spells:
Free INT 14 (+1 for the spell being used)
The above guy with no magic items can cast spells of INT 4 DUR 11 (2 weeks).
He can cast 1 spell per day thus maintaining 14 such spells.
It is pretty bad for the balance of play when beginning characters have
Damage Boosting 4 and Enhance STR 4 running all the time!
Note also that there could easily be a number of smaller INT spells with
longer durations running as well during the scenario as the sorceror can
cast INT 2 spells with a duration of 8 weeks etc. This could be used for
damage boosting on arrows and secondary weapons.
I hope that everyone now can see that low-level (even starting)
sorcerors can completely upset the balance of play, even if they are
exceptionally boring to play (worse even than a Chalana Arroy cultist).
Hopefully this is the *END* of this subject, and can we go onto more
interesting mythological matters now.
-----
Lewis
-----
---------------------
From: MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Subject: Shooting the Moon
Message-ID: <01H2Q2RDRZUAA9LH75@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
Date: 9 Sep 93 09:49:45 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1576
G'day everyone,
Back from a school camp to find the RQ Digest alive and healthy again, with
all sorts of interesting esoterica.
I've only been able to work on Tales #11 at the odd time here and there
recently - as you'll all probably know, I've got a real life roleplaying
adventure going on at the moment with the looney-right state government
trying to close hundreds of schools including my own!
Just a couple o' things:
John Medway asks
>>On what days is the moon what phase?
The Red Moon and its phases:
The real explanation of the Red Moon's phases is because Glorantha is *not*
the "squarish bulging lozenge" of legend, but in fact CIRCULAR, or possibly eve
a sphere. I am swayed by the arguments of grey sage Columbus Mercator, who
wrote in the Nochet Collectanea (see ToTRM #4):
(XXIX.12-49.a) Why the earth is round, by Columbus Mercator, Chief Priest.
...proof is obtained from the evidence of our senses: the world must have
the shape its own shadow shows; for its perfectly circular outline
produces eclipses (phases) of the Red Moon. So the world is not flat,
as the traditionalists in their ignorance would tell us; nor in the shape
of a drum as I have heard the trolls say it is; nor in any way hollow,
which is a theory popular popular among the Lunar Sages of Irrippi Ontor.
Nor again is it cylindrical, which is what certain Esrolian sages currently
say. No! it is of perfect roundness, as I have just proven.
[Note I have scrupulously used terms like "round" and "circular" instead
of disk, otherwise everyone would be wondering if there's a big
turtle somewhere underneath]
>>"How many Humakti does it take to screw in a light bulb?" etc etc...
I like 'em (especially the broo one!)
I may use some of these to plug gaps in Tales #11. Although
Lewis Jardine posted them, he didn't make them up. If you did, or know
who did, let me know so I can credit them!
Joerg Baumgartner writes:
>So if we want to get a larger RuneQuest audience, what we need are
>"action" scenarios which can be included at different places. They
>still can be embedded in Glorantha and have a decent background
>description, but don't make it necessary to travel long distances to
>reach places like Snake Pipe Hollow just to play one scenario.
I agree absolutely here. A product such as Dorastor is absolutely daunting
to a person new to RQ or Glorantha: the detail that we ardent Glorantha
freaks drool over is just far too overwhelming for a newcomer. For RQ to kick
on, what we need is a line of short "pay 'n play" adventures, just like
DND did: the card cover with the map, the 12 page booklet inside. Buy it,
read it through and play it, and hopefully like it so much you want to buy
another...
As Joerg says, these products can be embedded in Glorantha, but they've
also go
*light on Gloranthan detail - very specific to the task at hand
*inexpensive (so gamers won't be too reluctant to hand over their
hard-earned zlotys)
*action rather than background oriented.
*have sensational cover and interior artwork
I don't agree with Joerg that these scenarios must be made so they can be
set in different locations: this sounds too much like generic "Gateway"
to me. Gloranthan locations should be exploited, because the attraction
is Glorantha. Ideas can be given for translocating the action elsewhere -
Shadows on the Borderlands notes that "Gaumata's Vision" could be set in
any hick backwater in many places.
Cheers,
MOB
---------------------
From: henkl@glorantha (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland)
Subject: re: Cult of Gyzar
Message-ID: <9309081422.AA11407@glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM>
Date: 8 Sep 93 18:22:26 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1577
> Subject: Re: Article too large: rq-id: 1550
> From: "Shannon D. Appel"
>
> >I've uploaded this to soda as "x-rq-id.1550".
>
> There's a copy of this message (the cult of Gyzar) under the directory
> /pub/runequest/cults/gyzar. I plan to eventually archive all of the
> cults that have appeared on the RQ Digest/Daily in that directory (to
> make it easier to access them).
>
> Shannon
Thanks!
---------------------
From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK
Subject: Praxian Tribes
Message-ID: <9309081447.AA27880@Sun.COM>
Date: 8 Sep 93 14:55:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1578
REF: X-RQ-ID: 1565 (GREG FRIED)
PRAXIAN TRIBES:
Most Praxian tribes ride, herd and eat their totomic animal.
However, cattle rustling from other tribes is a common activity.
True Praxians are part of the Covenant of Waha, and have a
genuine fraternal affection for their animal brothers.
Morokanth, obviously are a bit of an exception as they are heavier than herdmen.
Pol Joni, are not really a part of the Covenant of Waha.
1) They rider horses (shock horror).
2) They herd cattle (a different animal).
3) They often worship non-Praxian deities such as Orlanth.
Rhino riders, both herd and ride rhinos, but are not quite main-stream Praxian.
1) They only eat rhino on special occassions because rhinos are
slow breeding, very valuable and very, very tough to chew.
2) They also steal, herd and eat other animals.
3) They are more likely to worship non-Praxian deities such as Orlanth.
(Ref: Moshi Thunderfoot in Borderlands).
4) They tolerate some not-quite Praxian activities.
Unicorn riders are not really part of the Covernant of Waha.
1) The are all virgin females thus not propergation of the tribe.
2) They don't eat unicorns which are intelligent.
3) Most of them appear to be Yelornans (not a Praxian diety).
4) Unicorns are all male and immortal (Ref: RQ Companion) and only
mate with virgin female horses, thus are a really wierd species.
Special Notes on Rhino Riders and what they use rhinos for:
1) Rhino bones for tent poles, tools and weapons.
2) Rhino dung for fires.
3) Rhino horn for medicines.
4) Rhino lard (smelly but it helps protect you.
5) Cuirboulli produced from Rhino Leather has 9 AP.
6) Occassionally the spirit of an old, brave, battle weary rhino is bound
into its own skin which is made into rhino cuirboulli. This allows the
rhino to continue to faithfully protect a warrior even after it is too old
to ride to battle. Any attacking spells or spirits must overcome the
Rhinos MPs before they can engage the wearer.
The process by which this is accomplished is a secret known to very few
rhino shamen and can only be carried out with the consent of the animal.
The cuirboulli produced is exactly sized and all the bits are linked together
by skin so that the armour produced is an integral suit. The binding process
used is not very tight and the wearer must use 1 M.P. per day to attract the
spirit of the rhino to the armour. If this is forgotten the spirit begins
to wander and the effective POW with which it protects the wearer drops by
one point. This may also happen if the spirit disapproves of the wearer or
his actions. If Rhino Lard is worn under the armour this temporarily
attracts the spirit to the wearer so that the spirit protects the wearer
with one more point of POW than normal.
Enjoy my heresies
-----
Lewis
-----
---------------------
From: T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk (Thom Baguley)
Subject: RE: RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 08 Sep 1993, part 1
Message-ID: <9309081456.AA29138@Sun.COM>
Date: 8 Sep 93 16:57:15 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1579
>From: ddunham@radiomail.net (David Dunham , via RadioMail)
>Vinga is an avenger? Not in [KoS.212], where "Inganna dyes her hair red and
>goes on Venderi adventure." And [253] says "Vinga the Adventuress."
That was how I interpreted KoS. The kind of women who joined the Starbrow
rebellion ...
>Dying your hair is probably the external symbol that you're becoming an
>oddball
Sounds reasonable ... after all tatoos are fairly common ...
>you've given up many of your responsibilities (and no doubt rights
>-- I wouldn't be surprised if a Vingan can't marry) as a woman in Orlanthi
>society in exchange for freedom
I doubt that. It doesn't fit with (my view of) Orlanthi culture. On the other
hand I doubt many Vingans would want to marry (yet) or would be thought of as
suitable marriage material (except by other oddballs).
Thom
---------------------
From: DScott@snail.demon.co.uk (David Scott)
Subject: Arkat's Unbreakable Sword
Message-ID: <9309081614.aa03246@post.demon.co.uk>
Date: 8 Sep 93 15:13:51 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1580
A Grey Sage Report.
Having read Dorastor cover to cover I started (as you do!) flicking back
through other RQ products for snippets of information concerning the
Unbreakable Sword which Arkat was said to have wielded against Gbaji in the
final battle atop the Tower of Wonders.
It says in Elder Secrets (Book1 p41) that the Unbreakable Sword - possibly the
one true sword of mythology (death?) was an Adamant Item. And that most adamant
is part of the Dwarf Machine and hence unattainable.
Adamant can only be worked by Mostali . To quote from Different worlds 24 -
Mostal-Dwarfs p15 by Greg Stafford; Mostal and his crew worked hard, and
refined - the living Truestone to become immutable Adamant, the mythical metal.
They took the essence of Acos, living Law, and made it the primary tool which
held the world together. Mostal seized the immortal nail, and pounded it
through the layers of the world, unifying them into a single entity. There is
a shortened version of this in White Wolf 15 - Mostal.
Where he got the Sword from seems to be a bit of a mystery;
To quote from Dorastor p9; Sometimes Arkat was halted. Then he would stop to
HeroQuest, then return with something new and devastating wonder. On one of
these quests he won Humakts Unbreakable Sword.
It would seem that at some point in his life he had to HeroQuest and get a
Death Sword made of Adamant. Surely being made of adamant and therefore part of
the world machine, the Mostali would have it!
The most obvious time that he would have done this was when he became a
Humakti. Okay I know that some of the myths say he had it before he joined the
cult of Humakt (Glorantha, book1 p19), but it was only upon joining this cult
that he got HeroQuest insights, so getting it before on a non-Humakti HeroQuest
seems unlikely (unless Gerlaint Flameswords sword is a manifestation of the
death sword and he helped him quest for it).
The link to all of this can be found in the Dwarf heresy of Invidualism in
Different Worlds 24 p17, to quote; It [Individualism] was born sometime during
the Second Age, probably about the year 700, by a dwarf later called Chark the
liberator. Chark had been active before the Dawn. and he had always done his
part. The shock of Openhandism. and its effects, disturbed him so he sought
solace in religion. His piety was so firm that, they say, his bones turned into
iron. He probed deeper and deeper into the secrets of Mostal, and he also met
young Arkat one day while seeking his god, Mostal, on the Heroplane. The
combination of Arkat's knowledge, plus Chark's own seeking brought him to the
secret of his heresy. Slightly different versions of this can be found in
White Wolf 15 - Mostal & Elder Secrets Book2 p14.
Perhaps this is who he got the sword from; Chark was around from before the
Dawn and so could be a Mostali - the two of them met in Hell (does this imply
that some Humakti quests have Dwarf links or do Humakti have to go to Mostals
forge for a real death sword? There must be easier quests for non-adamant
weapons) perhaps Arkat traded knowledge for the sword, did Arkat illuminate
Chark?
So Arkat helped create a major dwarf heresy - who would have thought that?
Any Comments?
David Scott
Sandwiches on the edge of time
DScott@Snail.demon.co.uk 158.152.16.30
---------------------
From: DScott@snail.demon.co.uk (David Scott)
Subject: Convulsion 94!!
Message-ID: <9309081619.aa03603@post.demon.co.uk>
Date: 8 Sep 93 15:19:51 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1581
CONVULSION OF THE WRITING REVENANTS
The Unrepeatable Experience Returns
College Hall, Leicester, England, 22nd - 24th July 1994
Convulsion is back! They said it would never happen, but once again, you too
can convulse with excitement, convulse with terror, or convulse to the power of
myth.
Our Guests of Honour are Greg Stafford, the President of Chaosium Inc., Sandy
Petersen and Ken Rolston, who between them are responsible for such
groundbreaking games as RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu and ... Here are just some
of the things which we have planned for Convulsion in 94 :
Become part of Gloranthan history in our giant free-form game - HOW THE WEST
WAS ONE.
Play for honour, glory and ludicrous prizes in our Pendragon and RuneQuest
tourneys.
Or die horribly in our Australian rules Call of Cthulhu tournament.
Pig out to your hearts content (if not your stomachs) at the Eat at Geos
party.
We have also made sure there will be plenty of space for you to play your own
games, or just to convulse quietly in the corner. Of course, we will also have
Exciting Talks, Interesting Seminars, Informative Panels, an Auction of Rare
and Exotic games and much more - for those of you that dont want to convulse
all of the time !
So join now - theres never been a Convulsion like it ! (At least, not since
the last one...).
Residential membership is 18 UK Pounds plus a room deposit of 10 UK Pounds
(rooms will be no more that 20 UK Pounds per night including breakfast).
Non-residential membership is 25 UK Pounds. There will also be a nominal charge
for the free-form game HOW THE WEST WAS ONE (to cover printing costs etc.).
In order to sponsor the trip for Greg, Sandy & Ken, we have created the Spare
Grain Fund, for which we will gratefully accept any donations (money or games
for auction).
You must be aged 18 or over at the time of the convention. Please book as soon
as possible to guarantee your place. To do so, simply send a cheque or postal
order made payable to CONVULSION to DAVID HALL, CONVULSION, 21 STEPHENSON
COURT, OSBORNE STREET, SLOUGH, BERKS. SL1 1TN. UNITED KINGDOM.
For further details, email;
Membership and payments- David Hall - 100116.2616@compuserve.com
Programme and events - David Scott - DScott@Snail.demon.co.uk
See you in Leicester!
---------------------
From: T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk (Thom Baguley)
Subject: Delayed Commentary
Message-ID: <9309081533.AA04526@Sun.COM>
Date: 8 Sep 93 17:33:54 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1582
I've just caught up with three to four weeks of the digest. Rather than reply
to all the (very) interesting discussions I thought I'd post some remarks that
the discussions have sparked off (soory I can't remember exact details ...)
RQ Lite
I don't really care what form the next rules take, as long as they are an
improvement on RQ3 (and maybe even RQ2). My feeling is that most people would
be satisfied with a simple core rule system with detailed optional rules (hit
location, fatigue, detailed spirit combat, strike ranks (?), miniature figures
(??), weapon breakage, special hits, tactics and so on). I like most of the new
RQ4 rules, but I might not want to use all of them all the time. If RQ lite
does appear it shouldn't differ greatly from the existing or new rules. As far
as percentile skills are concerned we should definitely keep them. Percentiles
are probably the most natural part of the RQ rules (even new players find them
easy).
Ancestor Cults
Someone compared Yelm with ancestor cults. Someone else pointed out that Yelm
was an ancestor cult. For a truly non-ancestor cult try Humakt (he does after
all represent the severance of family ties ...)
Sorcery
In my games sorcery has been rather weak (but I have restricted access
considerably) even though I used the RQ3 rules pretty much intact. The one PC
sorcery user attempted to cast three spells (two palsies which failed and one
treat wounds which suceeded but left him so disappointed that tried to learn
some spirit magic healing). As has been pointed out the imbalance stems from
the almost uselessness of sorcery at low levels to the dangers of buying damage
boosting 12 from a high level sorceror.
Red Moon
I had to explain this to a friend whilst playing Dragon Pass. Only then did I
realize how confused i was. I think the red moon must be full within the
glowline and go through its phases outside (and hence be visible). However,
this leaves the problem of all those lunars wondering what the Urox those
priests are on about when talk about the phases of the red moon ... My personal
solution would be that within the glowline there is a faint red/pink glow
perhaps visible only at the glowline and at twilight. In addition the moon goes
through some kind of change with the phases (perhaps a red ring/halo effect
around the current phase). Maybe we should ask Greg ...?
... and finally
Speaking of Dragon Pass, does anyone play it regularly? I finally got around to
playing the FULL GAME (note, not the Marathon Game). It took from 3pm to 1am to
play out two turns (the game lasts fourteen!) where we called it a draw.
Playing with random eventts and all the major and minor independents really
adds to the game. Despite being almost decimated in turn one (after a major
tactical cock-up) I recovered at the end of turn two after allying Cragspider
(and hance the Black Dragon).
Thom
---------------------
From: yfcw29@castle.edinburgh.ac.uk
Subject: Gloranthan spirit plane
Message-ID: <9309081634.aa05403@uk.ac.ed.castle>
Date: 8 Sep 93 15:34:47 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1583
To what extent do the shamanism rules in RQ3, or even RQ4 for that matter, simulate the gloranthan shaman's experience of the spirit plane? My favourite character is a baboon shaman, so this has realy made me think about this. There are a few clues in some of the published material, mention is made of different spirit 'families' such as plant spirits being friendly to elf shamans, wolf spirits being friendly to telmori shamans, etc. Do these different kinds of spirit comingle randomly, or are there special 'plant spirit place' on the spirit plane.
Ars Magica has an excellent shaman sourcebook, this details a fascinating view of the spirit world. An Ars Magica wolf tribe shaman arrives in the 'wolf place' on the spirit plane, here game animals are easy to find, friendly wolf spirits abound and the world is presented entirely from a wolfish point of view. Sight is keener, smells are richer, etc. The vulture place, by contrast, is a barren plane scattered with carcases. Sight is very important in the vulture place, but smells are weak and indistinct. This presents a far more interesting landsacpe than the dreamy grey blur that the gloranthan spirit world is portrayed as. In this interpretation each mundane world view has it's own spiritual echo, the shaman's 'home turf' where certain friendly spirits are easy to contact. Of course access to this home turf is easier from some places than others. A wolf tribe shaman would find it very difficult to find the wolf place if he was discorporating from a ship in the middle of the ocean!
I get the impression that there is more to the gloranthan spirit plane than the currently published rules allow. Has anyone else out there run a spirit oriented campaign? I would be very interested to hear any alternate views on this. I think the hero plane recieves a lot of attention, when the spirit plane is much nearer to hand and so presumably has a greater day to day influence on people's lives.
Simon
---------------------
From: okamoto@hpcc90.corp.hp.com (Jeff Okamoto)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 08 Sep 1993, part 2
Message-ID: <9309081609.AA17716@hpcc90.corp.hp.com>
Date: 8 Sep 93 16:09:24 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1584
> From: mace@lum.asd.sgi.com (Rob Mace)
> X-RQ-ID: 1567
>
> The current HeroQuest campaign(Steve Maurer's) I play in is somewhat focused
> around the pieces of Gbaji. Here is a basic and very simplified outline:
> Here are some of the things we have discovered so far.
Interesting, but hardly authoritative. Ask Greg Stafford about Steve Maurer
some time.
Jeff