From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Sat, 18 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: watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk (Colin Watson) Subject: One bound spirit + fries; to go... Message-ID: <9309171248.AA06362@condor> Date: 17 Sep 93 12:48:50 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1728 I noticed that several posts recently have mentioned PCs *buying* enchanted items (mostly bound spirits). I just wonder how much this goes on in other peoples' RQ(III) campaigns: Donald Wilton talked about how his healer was transformed into a PowerPC by using a huge amount of cash to buy enchantments etc. In earlier posts (during the resurgence of the Sorcery debate) people talked about Sorcerors with rich parents being able to buy bound intellect spirits and such. This all sounds a bit unlikely to me. Besides the fact that it's dodgy for game balance and tends to lead to powergaming, it simply doesn't make much socio-economic sense. The people most capable of manufacturing such items (Priests, Shamans, Sorcerors) are the ones least likely to want to sell them for cash. Ok, fair enough, they might *trade* magic items like-for-like: "I can bind intellect spirits, you can bind POW spirits. Lets do a swap." but I don't think these chaps would be so short of cash that they'd *sell* items: - Priests are supported by their cult. They don't need much cash. The cult has more than enough from initiates' tithes. Ok, priests *might* make cult items to be *loaned* to initiates or given to Runelords for services rendered. Most likely they'd keep any items they made to improve themselves and their temple. - Shamans similarly have little need of cash. They're supported by their clan. If they need cash they can make more than enough by teaching spells to outsiders or charging for the occasional exorcism. - Sorcerors can make bucket-loads of cash simply by casting long-duration spells for people. They certainly don't need to sell enchantments. Especially bound INT & POW spirits. So, the way I see it, if some cocky initiate/student approaches his superior with the attitude "Here's a pile of gold; hand over a bound spirit Ya Bas!" I think he'd be told where to get off. I just can't see people waving goodbye to valuable points of permanent POW in exchange for a pile of coins. My PCs wouldn't. I don't expect NPCs to. The only time I've seen enchanted items for sale was when said items were "acquired" by adventurers who couldn't use them (because of conditions). Even in this case, the adventurers would rather trade them for items which they *could* use. So the point I'm getting around to is this: If you GM; do you let your players buy enchantments? If you play a PC; does he/she get to buy enchantments? Do you think it's reasonable to allow such? Answers on a postcard... [Maybe the reason that sorcery works well in our campaign is because the GM makes the sorcerors *work hard* for their awesome powers...] CW. --------------------- From: STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Steve Gilham Entropy requires no maintenance) Subject: Dorastor & suicidal tendancies Message-ID: <01H31M6ASLEQ001HWC@UG.EDS.COM> Date: 16 Sep 93 23:02:40 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1729 I just saw the Dorastor pack in the new stuff arrived at the local games shop here in Cambridge. Very pretty it looks too. Apart from the 20-quid price tag. I tend to buy gaming stuff fairly omnivorously, even if I'm not likely actually to use it "in anger", finding it in many case more cost effective in time spent reading per unit expenditure than most books, and I've enough spending money, but that sort of price makes it non-cost effective. I might just be prepared to spring that sort of money for a Gloranthan sourcebook (no scenarios, few, if any RQ2 retreads) were it as thick a volume as, say Mage:the Ascension (another recent arrival at an asking price of 18 pounds for 256pp). Sun County bombed being priced less than this. Someone at AH has totally screwed up the marketing, and especially the market positioning. For the same price one can buy 3 AD&D card-wallet sourcebooks(6-50), or two of their softbound sourcebooks(9-99), or 4 short modules(4-50) - and have change left over. Even fairly substantial supplement sourcebooks like the Werewolf Players' Guide (a trifle thicker than Dorastor; produced by a comparatively small publisher, rather than the T$R megacorporation), retails at 14 pounds. Or is the pricing a deliberate ploy to kill the game off? So where do we go from here? I might personally use AD&D2 as a Glorantha system as that makes PCs a bit less brittle (as someone commented recently, Glorantha has an ecology fit for heroes - in that case I'd also like it to have a mechanic that allows it). But that, of course, is darkest heresy on this list. Similarly, scrub out Earthdawn (Shadowrun meets AD&D with a 25 quid pricetag). But, hey, what about Ars Magica? That's politically correct enough, surely, although it does cover the relatively high-tech (compared with Sartar & Prax) 12th and 13th centuries, has cheaper supplements, reputedly has the brittle PCs that many folk seem to thing a good thing, and sorcerers no more powerful than those of RQ3. The Shaman supplement looks like it has many of the things recently discussed here. All that'd be neeed would be to bolt on the cult/rune-magic mechanics --------------------- From: steve@psycho.demon.co.uk (Steve Thomas) Subject: violence is always an option Message-ID: <13@psycho.demon.co.uk> Date: 17 Sep 93 14:10:54 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1730 Clay writes: >I have conferred with my friend, Oster Iminus of Irippi Ontor, and he >informs me that the correct Imperial spelling is l-u-t-h-e-r. Hmm..Ornar Greyman, the most wrinkled man in the whole of Greydog Village, seems to agree with this, so I shall be attending the next "Signes, Sigyls and other Divers Scribbles" seminar up at the Swordvale temple. However, on other matters, your pet scribe (who is merely parroting the words of the Scarlet Whore herself) is gravely mistaken. Read the words of Loren Miller on this subject and despair. >In pre-time, before the coming of chaos, there were no questions, by the will >of the Great Heavenly Father, Yelm. Ha! once again the totalitarian mentality of the Lunar bureaucrat reveals itself. _____________________________________________ Loren Miller says a lot of really good stuff about avatars With which I agree wholeheartedly. I was very pleased to read Greg's answer to whether the 'Uleria' worshipped in the two different parts of the world were the same, since it also answers the question about whether the gods are simply figments of the collective imaginations of mortals, or are pre-eminent in their own right - the answer is both. Lovely. Steve. "Nothing smells as good as the body of a dead enemy." - (attrib. Indrodar Greydog) "Nothing smells as good as the body of a dead enemy." - (attrib. Indrodar Greydog) --------------------- From: watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk (Colin Watson) Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 17 Sep 1993, part 2 Message-ID: <9309171348.AA06623@condor> Date: 17 Sep 93 13:48:39 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1731 BTW, I think "Mannimark & the Kingdom of Lead" is shaping up great, Clay. It really brightened my day. Keep up the good work! CW. --------------------- From: tzunder@cix.compulink.co.uk (Tom Zunder) Subject: Dorastor Message-ID:Date: 17 Sep 93 15:17:45 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1732 Dorastor Land of Doom Well, what a nice surprise! I was expecting slime and chaos, but I found Orlanthi, an excellent and interesting history of the First and Second Councils, of Dorastor, Nysalor and Arkat. I saw how Ralios was colonised and how the whole Arkat/Gbaji/Nysalor thing came from the conflict of Western and Central cultures. I found a new campaign area, and a campaign just right for new or transferring characters. I found out a little more about the South of the Empire and the nature of Lunar power. For our current Sartar game I got a good write up of the Telmori and some good links which will fill in the Dragon Pass-Dorastor gap. I need a little bit more on Sylila and Aggar, not to mention Tarsh, but I'm motoring now. So, what a good publication, which transcended what I had hoped for, and I still got slime and chaos. Got to say I look forward to Gods of Dorastor, hope AH hang in there! (Actually Gods of Doom and Terror sounds better to me, but maybe Nysalor doesn't fit into that category..) Well I'm still goin to run Pavis and Shadows on the B next, but I've got to say that all those handouts and maps are going to turn up with Hurbi at the earliest opportunity! Tom! --------------------- From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried) Subject: Boris? Message-ID: Date: 17 Sep 93 18:04:30 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1733 THis is Greg with a message for Boris: Boris, you out there? For some reason my mail to you is getting returned. Please be in touch! I'll be awy this weekend though. -- Greg --------------------- From: goroh@fee.unicamp.br (Andre de Oliveira Fernandes) Subject: RQ IV !!! Message-ID: <9309171836.AA04227@fee.unicamp.br> Date: 17 Sep 93 18:37:05 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1734 Hi guys! Here writes a brazilian RQ fanatic, who needs to import any kind of RQ stuff. As the years passed, I gathered a lot of the packs (Troll Gods, Gods of Glorantha, Vikings, Elder Races + Secrets, Griffin Island, and some others I can't remenber). RPGs are suddenly becoming a national fever : everybody is playing it (always imported RPGs), and Gurps is the only translation we've got! But that's not what I'm talking about. I've been hearing a lot about a fourth edition of RQ, and I'm very interested about it. Where and How can I get any info about it ? Is there a FTP site with some material ? And here goes another question: Where (in which box, perhaps) can be found information about Jrustela (the sunk continent). A LOT of info, I mean. Are there any remaining God Learners ? How goes the human contacs with the native elder races after all those centuries of isolation ? Thanks for your attention, and excuse me for any mistakes (I'm much better with portuguese language, I guarantee!). Goroh goroh@fee.unicamp.br (He who hates AD&D) --------------------- From: scn/G=Neil/I=NA/S=Harold/O=Siemens_plc/OU=Congleton@mhs.attmail.com Subject: Are all Telmori lycanthropes? Message-ID: <9309172110.AA14804@Sun.COM> Date: 17 Sep 93 19:16:12 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1735 I hope I'm not asking a previously answered question, but is Dorastor now out in the US only? I have seen a few references to it through this means but haven't as yet heard of it being available in the UK. If it is available in the UK, where can I get it? My main comment is that there is a general acceptance that the Telmori are all lycanthropes, and all must change into wolf form at least once a week (on a full-moon). This means that the RuneMagic offered by Telmor is not really that powerful, as many of the gained features are "free" anyway. These spells cannot be cast on non-Telmori, so this makes me ask the above question? Has anyone actually involved the Telmori in any campaign? I expect the answer is probably within Dorastor but ...... Also, if anyone has been in contact with the Sartar Telmori I'd like to hear about it if possible: I've got KoS, Haunted Ruins and all the basic RQIII stuff but that's about it. My email address on Internet is neil.harold@siecon.co.uk or X400: C=GB, A=ATTMAIL, P=SCN, OU1=Congleton, S=Harold, G=Neil --------------------- From: DScott@snail.demon.co.uk (David Scott) Subject: Canals on the Moon!! Message-ID: <9309172357.aa04532@post.demon.co.uk> Date: 17 Sep 93 22:58:10 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1736 Fellow Digesters John Medway wrote; >regarding the moon's "craters" being spiderweb-like lines: > >so these are like the "canals" believed to have been on mars? >are these folds in her cloak as she gathered it around her? wrinkles of >age as her empire grew and settled? lines of worry? Of course there are spiderweb-like lines on the surface of the moon - they ARE spider webs from Arachne Solara holding her together and in place in the middle sky (cf. the webs that pulled Yelm back on course after Sun Stop - normally cannot be seen on the brighter suface of the sun). Remember when the Goddess was born - the spider gave her protection. (Zero Wane in Heroes). Who was her mother? David Sandwiches on the edge of time DScott@Snail.demon.co.uk 158.152.16.30 --------------------- From: mmlab!cookec%max@uunet.UU.NET (Kiliki) Subject: The seduction - night #2 Message-ID: <9309180029.AA05993@relay1.UU.NET> Date: 18 Sep 93 00:27:13 GMT X-RQ-ID: 1737 Jim: You, Greg Fried and most of all, David Cheng convinced me to move beyond just lurking before I was certain I was ready to GM. Speaking of which, the seduction - night 2... Initially, there was considerable concern over the excessive nature of RQ damage. The severed limbs, quick death, etc. While making the game more realistic, it detracts from those used to "I take 40hits from the fireball and kill the sucker" that's almost an exact quote from an earlier AD*D game I observed. A bit more orate/fast-talk on my part and off we went - night 2. The answer to low level damage - make SURE they have at least one person with Heal-6. I did NOT start them off at 15years old and no skills. The party consists of 2 nomads(Sable tribe, antilope clan), 3 barbarians of the Sartar borderlands, one civilized native of Moonbroth(the only sorceror, a Hrestoli-type fighter/explorer) and 2 fugitive ex-gladiators (one a red minotar, the other a Humakt wannabe, both with bounties). The minotar's GREAT comic relief. For example, a set of Wards was used to guard camp, the minotar being cockey "tried" to urinate over the wards. guess what got zapped... -)} <-beard Jim's thoughts on mythic identification via cults as a start is on the money. I have a human initiate of Aldrya(ranger wannabe) and the Humakt ex-gladiator. The warrior style sorceror developed by the end of last night's game. I guess some good ideas find themselves. Can a human member of Aldrya's cult use the elf bow? Why or why not? My current observations, they have done more damage to themselves then I have. BUT next week (#3) will be more challenging(I hope! the book says the trip back is uneventful - wanna bet??). I'm trying to develop a "feel" for RQ's game balance. It was for this reason I chose a canned scenario to start. That almost caught up with me. One of the players had the deluxe box(just purchased I might add) and was reading the write up. Given the easy availability of ANYONE reading any write up, how do you deal with too much player inside info? I'm used to doing my own but until I get a "feel" for RQ it seems better to use "canned" adventures. Thoughts? I have been succesful enough in 2 nights of seduction that the Labyrinth has sold one deluxe and 2 standard box sets to date. The more the players see, the more they want. The hardest part was conviceing them to try it. I think this is going to work! We'll see in another couple weeks... I have some questions, if I could. Why is armor so expensive yet spells so cheap? At 30 + 15 per spell point Heal-6 is only 120 but good armor is at least 10 times that. Ok, outside your cult it's 100+50/pt=400 or am I missing something? (Costs from Apple Lane I think) How high can they teach? 4?6?12? Do they have to have the spell that high to teach it as such? Is spirit magic taught by the cults at a percentage or is that only for shammans? How many strike ranks does BladeSharp-2 take to cast from a spell matrix, 1SR or 2? Do shammanistic types need a true Shamman(or spell spirit) to learn spirit magic or can they learn it at a temple? If a sorceror's Treat Wounds spell hastens normal healing - why doesn't it speed up the purging of poison from the character's system(i.e. cure poison)? or help disease run it's course faster(cure disease)? or can intensity be manipulated to do so? And for the stupid question of the day, why is chaos so wrong and what makes it so different(better? worse?) from pure evil? -- | Chris Cooke - cookec@mmlab.UUCP cookec@mml.mmc.com |