From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 21 Oct 1993, part 1
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: timp@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Tim Posney)
Subject: how to use the tar file that occurred in the digest today
Message-ID: <199310200809.AA21386@extra.ucc.su.OZ.AU>
Date: 21 Oct 93 04:09:49 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2055
How to use the uuencode document. The files is a COMPRESSED tar archive
which has been uuencoded.
To get it do the followig
uudecode
(I would change the file name in the begin line to something a little
easier, like tarfile.Z)
uncompress tarfile.Z (or name after the begin line)
tar xvf tarfile
If you have a new wizbang tar it can do the uncompression on the fly,
so you can use that option (-z I think).
regards tim
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From: eosgg@raesp-farn.mod.uk (Geoff Gunner)
Subject: Humakti
Message-ID: <9310201035.AA04022@raesp-farn.mod.uk>
Date: 20 Oct 93 10:35:01 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2056
re: Sandy Petersen & Humakt
This thing about severing blood ties is *highly* important. For your average
barbarian there is nothing more important than blood. Your sons are your
old age investment; they'll feed and protect you. The bigger your family,
the more ties you can call upon, then the more clout you'll have with your
neighbours. No-one wants to upset Nanny Ogg,'cos her relatives amount to a
small legion, and they'll be trampling over your petunias if you do her any
harm.
Now look at Humakt. One of most significant god-time acts was severing ties
with his kin. That's going to be reflected in cult vows; the humakti is
expected to renounce all previous ties, whether blood, honour, whatever.
That gets an immediate thumbs-down from most folks - would *you* throw away
your pension and medicare ? So 4-6% humakti ? Never.
Look at the implications of that, anyway. I've always considered the humakti
to be quite dedicated (partly because of the above). So are you going to find
many humakti farmers ? Fishermen ? Midwives, even ? Doubt it.
So that's 5% of your population straight off who aren't producers. That's a
heavy blow. Consider what fraction of a population comprise specialist
fighters. 1% ? For the fighting farmer, Orlanth is a great choice because of
ties with Barntar, Ernalda etc. Humakt's got none of that.
Nope, humakti are going to be those who decide to make fighting their *sole*
way of life. 1% *if* you're lucky.
(and so what if Humakt *is* an Orlanthi deity ? So's Minlister, but he's hardly
got a token following. Or Eurmal ! Deity of major importance, but is he
going to get vast amounts of worshippers ? No. Doesn't matter if he's not
an enemy, the question is: How many people are reasonably going to follow him?)
IMHO there are lots more uroxi than humakti in Sartar. As blood ties start
to become less important (ie. towns) you'll find the percentages become equal,
until in cities there are hardly any uroxi at all. And Sartar is probably at
the stage where over 90% of it's population is rural. (should be higher, ie 95%
but the dangerous countryside will force people to live in large commmunities).
And that will mean the behaviour of the groups will differ, uroxi being 'rural'
and humakti being 'civilised'. I can just see the Sword of Alda-chur after a
hard day's drilling, putting his feet up and settling down with a good Mills
and Boon romance ...
Geoff
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From: mstrong@cix.compulink.co.uk (Mike Strong)
Subject: Chalana Arroy
Message-ID:
Date: 20 Oct 93 11:55:41 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2057
In-Reply-To: <9310200615.AA18782@glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM>
Graeme Lindsell comments:
>If there are PC CA's in the party
CA cultists are rather unlikely to go adventuring. The few that might
are unlikely to want to allow the party to damage or kill anything, and
will always argue for alternative courses of action in situations where
such activities might occur. And remember that if there *is* a fight
then the *true* CA is as likely to heal (and resurrect, if you insist on
allowing a PC to have this spell) the opponents as they are the party.
>what about the important Rune Lord?
Important to who? Chalana Arroy cultists will certainly form their own
opinions as to whom is deserving of resurrection, which may not fit in
with local politics, class structure, or the views of self-indulgent
adventurers.
Mike
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From: T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk (Thom Baguley)
Subject: Humakti DI
Message-ID: <9310201351.AA05672@Sun.COM>
Date: 20 Oct 93 15:29:02 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2058
>Graeme Lindsell here:
>David Cheng's Humakti Death Song:
> This is a nice write-up, but I think the Swords would get
>the same effect using a DI: slightly more POW, but hey,
>who needs it anymore. I think a separate Sword or Battle
>Trance spell is needed.
I was about to post a similar message. Something like Death Song would be a
possible DI result ...
Thom
---------------------
From: T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk (Thom Baguley)
Subject: Humakti and Orlanthi
Message-ID: <9310201352.AB05672@Sun.COM>
Date: 20 Oct 93 15:52:14 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2059
> I had always envisioned the Humakti in this role, and was rather
>surprised when KoS almost never mentioned Humakt at all. I noticed
>that in Dorastor there are no Humakti at Hazard Fort either, though
>there are plenty inside Dorastor itself :-) Is this a recent change t
>o Glorantha, downplaying Humakt in Theyalan society?
>
> Graeme Lindsell a.k.a gal502@huxley.anu.edu.au
Humakti featured quite a lot in certain parts of KoS (e.g. the house of Death).
Maybe in the run up to the hero wars (or during any war) more people than usual
turned to Humakt. With Lunar persecution of Orlanthi Humakt would also be a
more popular religion for Sartarites (especially considering Humakti - Yanafal
Tarnils 'rivalry'). It puzzled me too that Humakti were almost absent from the
Risklands. Though they are unlikely to make good farmers, I would expect more
Humakti than Uroxi (except in Prax). Of course it might make a good basis for a
scenario/campaign to establish a Humakti shrine there ...
Thom
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From: mabeyke@batman.b11.ingr.com (boris)
Subject: Re: Sandy's 10/19 message
Message-ID: <199310201515.AA08459@batman.b11.ingr.com>
Date: 20 Oct 93 15:15:40 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2060
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Graeme A Lindsell asks:
>
> Can anyone tell me what to do with Sandy Petersen's
> .tar.111.Sandy_Petersen.attach file sent in the last
> Daily? I uudecoded it fine but my attempts to use
> tar -xf to get to it result in a message
>
> "tar: tape blocksize error"
>
> Anyone know what I have to do? Tar's man file is a
> bit unhelpful.
>
One of my players who I forward the daily to is evidently a closet
cryptologist, and descrambled the message. Mr. Petersen summed it
up today, but for those who are interested in the original message,
it can be extracted on unix machines by the following process:
1) Using your favorite text editer, remove everything before the "begin"
line, and everything after the "end" line.
2) Type "uudecode filename1", where filename1 is whatever you named
the edited file produced in (1). This (as Graeme found) generates
the file .tar.111.Sandy
3) decompress this file by typing
"compress -d < .tar.111.Sandy > filename2" (or some variation), where
filename2 is whatever you want to call this output file.
4) type "tar -xf filename2". This generates a file "index.rtf".
According to Robert, this is a Windows file, and can be manipulated
under Windows. I don't know much about Windows; however, I was able
to go into it with a text editor to remove the control characters
and produce a readable ascii text file.
This message provided as a public service to any other anal retentives
out there (besides myself and Robert, I mean).
Boris out.
---------------------
From: eco0kkn@cabell.vcu.edu (Kirsten K. Niemann)
Subject: Clay's version of G's Vision
Message-ID: <9310201536.AA10980@cabell.vcu.edu>
Date: 20 Oct 93 15:36:06 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2061
Mike Dawson here, not Kirsten.
Many thanks Clay, for the excellent writeup of your campaign in Black
Rock.
As Nick commented, it was very different from his, and very different
from my playtest too. Also very different from Oliver Jovanovic's
game.
I am really heartened by the enjoyment people have gotten out of this
scenario. Though I was proud of it from the start, the reaction I
have gotten is making me think it is probably the best thing I have
written. Pretty ironic, considering I originally thought up the idea
as a way to introduce new players to the Sun County material without
fear of limbs flying.
When I first mentioned the piece to Ken, it was as a possible
article/scenario for some magazine or another, and was to have been
around 5-7,000 words. Clearly, it grew in the telling.
I sure hope I can duplicate the success with future works.
On the Map for Black Rock-------------------------------
Someone asked why the maps for Sun County,Gaumata's Vision, and
something else don't match.
The Black Rock Map is on a scale where virtually every feature is too
small to appear on the Sun County map. The only thing that does
appear is Queenscliff. I don't have any of the maps with me here at
work, so I can't go into any more detail now.
But for the inobservant, notice how major features of the Black Rock
& Environs map all line up along a few straight lines....
-----
Thanks to everyone who mentioned how much they liked G's Vision.
I'd love to see other campaign writeups.
Mike >|<
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From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried)
Subject: riddles
Message-ID:
Date: 20 Oct 93 16:04:03 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2062
Greg Fried here.
Allan asks for riddles. I had this same problem in my canpaign, where an
initiate of a cult that loves riddles (tho not Nysalor/Gbaji) met the PC
group. I had a really hard time finding good soruces for riddles. One
fascinating source are the riddles of the _Exeter Book_. These are
Anglo-Saxon riddle-poems. THese work well as inspiration for Orlanthi
culture. Sources: Paull F Baum, Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book
(Duke, 1963); H. H. Abbott, trans. [Baum above is also the trans.], The
Riddles of the Exeter Book (Cambridge, 1968); Craig WIlliamson, The Old
English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill, 1977). Hope you have access
to a good library!
Here are some quick riddles. The source of these I will keep secret!
1) You must give it and keep it.
2) You feel it always, but never have seen it, and never will.
3) It's as light as a feather, but you can't hold it for 10 minutes.
4) Has a mouth, but does not speak; has a bed, but does not sleep.
5) Runs smoother than any rhyme, loves to fall but cannot climb.
6) You break it if you so much as name it.
7) It passes before the sun, but makes no shadow.
8) You feed it, it lives; you give it something to drink, it dies.
Answers:
1 - Your word
2 - Your heart
3 - Your breath
4 - A river
5 - Water
6 - Silence
7 - Wind
8 - Fire
I have a number of more complicated riddles that I composed, but I need to
recover them from the the members of my campaign to whom I sent them by
email! (I conduct my campaign by email when the group is not together --
ewe are speread out across the Mid-West, and meet every several months!)
GF out.
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From: watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk (Colin Watson)
Subject: Re: surrection
Message-ID: <9310201646.AA10488@condor>
Date: 20 Oct 93 16:46:54 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2063
_______________
Graeme Lindsell (Resurrection):
>the various Restore Health spells are one-use even for Chalana Arroy[...]
>Resurrect appears to be easier than restoring health!
It's a funny old game.
(-:
Y'know, maybe Resurrection should be more common than we think...
Mythic Gloranthan physiology seems a lot simpler than real-world physiology,
so maybe we shouldn't be surprised when Resurrection becomes commonplace.
In game-mechanic terms the procedure for resurrection is remarkably simple:
death results in the separation of body and spirit; Resurrection restores
life by reuniting the two. There aren't any big problems like reactivating
the brain etc. Just summon the (unwilling) spirit, beat it into submission,
pop it back in the body and, hey presto...
It's a bit like creating a Zombie (but easier!).
Maybe it's a bit too easy?
If that's all there is to it then I'm surprised that Sorcerers can't manage it.
They can create Vampires, after all, and that's a *much* tougher undertaking.
Resurrection apparently doesn't create anything, it doesn't destroy anything,
it just puts the two pieces (body & soul) back together again like a glorified Repair spell.
Or is there more to Life & Death than this?
;-)
I suspect so...
__
>"7x7x2 participants". I think this refers to the temple size
>needed to regain specialized cult magic. A minor temple starts
>around 100 initiates doesn't it?
Yeah, I thought about this possibility. The passage isn't very clear
(surprise, surprise). I'd have thought that "participants" would mean more
than just those initiates who had worshipped in the temple at the last Holy
Day (ie. the "size" of the temple) - to me it sounds more like they actually
have to *participate* in the spell-recovery process.
Hmmm, I'll re-read it, and think some more...
__
BTW if the Resurrection spell is fumbled, does this result in an encounter from
the Summons fumble table? If so, all Hell could break loose. This might
be a small deterrent against casting it regularly.
___
CW.
---------------------
From: justin_cann@netmail.washcoll.edu (Justin Cann)
Subject: unsubscribe
Message-ID: <9310201941.AA18052@martha.washcoll.edu>
Date: 19 Oct 93 20:52:25 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2064
Reply to: unsubscribe
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