From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 16 Sep 1993, part 3
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
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Send enquiries and Subscription Requests to the editor:
RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld)
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From: clay@cool.vortech.com (Clay Luther)
Subject: Re: Philosopher Kings
Message-ID: <199309152142.AA05870@cool.vortech.com>
Date: 15 Sep 93 11:42:51 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1705
> This suggests that the road to power is to join a cult like Chalana Arroy
> or Lhankor Mhy. True, you won't be a leader, but you'll have access to (and
> participation in) the leadership that chances are you'd never get if you
> worshipped Orlanth.
Oh, I have to heartily agree. I know of a Redlander expatriot Arroyan,
now living in and around Prax, who is known to have often dined with and
advised a Who's-Who of Praxian notables: the Honorable Sor-Eel, Count Ironpike,
Duke Raus, Sa'ar of Zola Fel and Wahaza-at-Midnight of Sable Tribe. Her
companions (she is said to have a Uroxi lover, of all things!), while
reasonably famous by their own right along the Zola Fel, seem to lack the
ability, tact or political elbow to approach persons in authority.
I don't know any cultists of Lhankor Mhy -- I thought they were all dead or
worshipping Irippi Ontor, anyway. But, yes, I think the same would hold true
for one.
Anyway, in my limited experience based on the Arroyans I've met, I've found
them, almost to a one, to be inextricably drawn into politics, by whim or
fancy--it doesn't matter. Of course, I've heard about these wild healer
idiots, but I doubt such unreliable persons would be of any use to our leaders.
--
Clay Luther clay@cool.vortech.com
Software Engineer Kodak Health Imaging Systems
Yelo's gift was a necklace of clam shells from the Ouel Stream strung on gut
string with a delicate knot of reeds which performed the role of pendant.
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From: kenrolston@aol.com
Subject: RuneCzar status
Message-ID: <9309151806.tn06032@aol.com>
Date: 15 Sep 93 22:06:36 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1706
GF:
>In the latest issue of RQ Adventures fanzine, John Castellucci writes:
>"Things look very shaky at Avalon Hill these days. Ken Rolston is no longer
>Rune Czar. It all came down to $$$, which Monarch Games did not want to
>invest in the RQ product line. The future is uncertain."
Avalon Hill and I are still negotiating the terms of my continuing service as
RuneCzar. The future is uncertain, but not bleak. AH still intends to keep
releasing RQ supplements as originally planned, though the schedule is
delayed until negotiations are resolved.
Ken Rolston
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From: gadbois@cs.utexas.edu (David Gadbois)
Subject: Re: Delecti: Vampire, Ghoul, or Amway Deterrent
Message-ID: <9309160139.AA26755@peaches.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 15 Sep 93 15:39:33 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1707
Ken McKinney and I did some work on Delecti's history a while back,
and much of the info appears in an issue of the RQ Digest from a
couple of years ago.
Delecti started out as a high official in the Empire of the Wyrms
Friends and led the experiments that created the pain centaurs and
other half-beast. I suspect that Delecti gained most of his abilities
in a HeroQuest involving the event where Vivamort gave up most of his
powers to the Devil -- Delecti managed to take a path where he
survived his wounds without making concessions. So, he is a cult hero
of Vivamort but is not a vampire himself. The quest accounts for the
ability to transfer his soul into a corpse and to control undead
critters. The ability to stitch together pieces of different bodies
is a natural (!) extension of his sorcerous experiments.
It remains to be explained exactly what he did that led to the
creation of the Upland Marsh. We know that it was physically created
when the Earth recoiled from some heinous crime, but I do not know
just what crime it was.
I also do not know how Delecti got the ability that allowed him to
survive the Dragonkill War. According to Stafford, the whole swamp
"does not show up on the dragon's screens." Somehow, Delecti and crew
are beyond the perceptions of the dragons.
--David Gadbois
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From: glidedw@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Donald Wilton)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 15 Sep 1993, part 1
Message-ID:
Date: 15 Sep 93 11:29:54 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1708
Greg:
I'd agree with your assesment of how to interact with pc requisites, but I
never have played power gaming cults before. I have always played
sorcerers interested in knowledge, or if in a lighthearted mood, Lankar
mhy or chalana Aroy. The only serious power gaming happened by accident. I
had a Healer, who got lucky and landed with a temporary AD&D style pile of
loot. the others went off and made truly insane deals with the Issaries
who promised the moon, me I bought bound spirits of power, Int, and bound
reusable Divine spells via tatoo from associated cults. they had loads of
dough, and my starting pc had 27 points of reusable Divine spells in
enchantments dedicated to Healer use (have to be a healer for them to
work, less likely that they'll get cut off by a Broo), 64 points of MP per
day, and 31 points of bound Int spirits. Since the GM had expected me,
fresh from D&D, to power game in money, it unbalanced the game and the
LUnar had to blow off a lot of POW, to get me Illuminated.
Malkioni White Moon (pacifist version, right?) Healers of Arkat, who
achieve this because the gm made a slightly out of phaswe mistake, are a
terror to behold. I kept doing things like resurrecting the vampires at
range, and the whole game would go out of whack. The Orlanths would clean
up the riff raff, and pow, it'd be over. I ended up getting turned into a
pc, when I used a trickster group laghter to Illuminate the Bad Man. He
gave a fetch, just to let me know that I was approaching GL status, and I
better watch out. This is when I started trying to find out about GL's.
This character is based on another, that was almost as bad. The road to
power is from Healers and Sages, because you have to have an MP rich
Healer, to survive. If the Healer can get Heal 6 (DI), and has gthe
strength to continue questing, then buying him her a power spirit, is the
way to survive. With people buying you spirits, it makes sense that when
you inevitably take time off, that you attempt to become a shamaness or
sorcerer. This seems logical. Malkionism is normal for Lankhor Mhy
or Chalana Aroy, since it naturally enhances the power in council that the
others need. If others give you money and power, then you use it.
All of this to show, that while I may want to find ways to deal with cults
in a systematic way, I'm not adverse to the needs of considering cultural
ideologies. I simply recognize that most of the players I've dealth with
have been power gamers, who fall into certain categories.