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, Thu, 18 Nov 1993, part 1
Message-ID:
Precedence: junk
X-RQ-ID: Intro
This is the RuneQuest Daily Bulletin, a mailing list on
the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's
world of Glorantha. It is sent out once per day in digest
format.
More details on the RuneQuest Daily and Digest can be found
after the last message in this digest.
---------------------
From: scn/G=Neil/I=A/S=Harold/O=Siemens_plc/OU1=Congleton@mhs.attmail.com
Subject: Re: Telmori loyalty to Sartar
Message-ID: <9311171126.AA27040@Sun.COM>
Date: 17 Nov 93 11:23:39 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2353
>> [Joerg said] So Sandy can be Gregged, too: KoS, p.26: "... the
>> werewolf folk turned against Argrath
>[Nick counters] On the other hand, if the Telmori had been
convincingly
>shown that the so-called "Prince" Argrath was a usurper, and not
of the
>House of Sartar at all... (Unlike Temertain, unquestionably
legitimate)
>(What, me bitter?)
I would like to add that the Telmori chief will have changed
between the reigns of Temertain and Argrath, and as the pack
leader's word is the law, this may also be the reason why there
was a change in Telmori policy towards the throne of Sartar.
I can't remember the exact spelling, at this moment, of the
Telmori chief at the time of Temertain but it was something like
Kostajor WolfHelm. He was a hero of Sartar and therefore
pro-Sartar, having saved the lives of at least two Sartar royalty
in battles with the Lunars. He was still chief of the Telmori in
1608 after the Madober slaugter, but did he last until Argrath?
Probably not!
---------------------
From: STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Steve Gilham Entropy requires no maintenance)
Subject: Shields
Message-ID: <01H5ENORST8I006UWN@UG.EDS.COM>
Date: 16 Nov 93 20:03:53 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2354
I was reading through my archives the other day, and stumbled
across a long-ago suggestion for shields that
parry roll >= attack roll or parry is a better type (crit beats
special beats normal): deflection parry (if this is reasonable -
a small wicker shield will not deflect a gian'ts club) No damage
done to defender. Also applies tow eapon parry
parry roll < attack roll &c. - shield blocks rather than
deflects. Absorb damage comparable with the absorption of armour
of the same construction (or 2/4/6 points). Weapons absorb 1-3
points depending on size.
---------------------
From: s.phillips@gla.ac.uk
Subject: Vinga
Message-ID: <17_Nov_93_13:32:46_A110B1@UK.AC.GLA.VME>
Date: 17 Nov 93 13:32:46 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2355
Sam Phillips here
-----------------
Hello all. Guy Hoyle (aka Mulbroth) brought up a good point..
VINGA
-----
* As a GM with two female players one who has already chosen a warrior
to play, I could do with some info on her.
* Is she just a female, red haired incarnation of Orlanth Adventurous or
is she a distinct divine being in herself.
* Her cult of red-haired warriors. Where do they fit in among Stormbull,
Humakt and (perhaps) Babeesta Gor? I have this vision of them as Mounted
Warriors but I can't really explain why this is? It would certainly
help them to have there own niche. It also gives them links to the
more female side of war (animals) and at the same time would compensate
for their smaller frame.
* Why do they die their hair red? - The moon? Fire? Blood? Menstruation?
and what of Starbrow. Do all important Vinga wear a star on their
brow. Does Starbrow? Was she in fact a Vinga herself.
* Are Vinga's just a Sartarian phenomena. If they are cavalry then Prax
has more than enough of their own.
So many questions. I vote Vinga for a TotRM special. In fact I vote for
a "Lets help the female players" issue of TotRM. We could try to work
out how all the female adventurers and Heroes fit into Glorantha and
its cults. I'm sure we could come up with some goodies to make being
female more interesting than "well.. you're kind of a.. well odd..
no special.. yes! SPECIAL case.. and err.. well I know it says you
don't.. but it means.. not usually.. i think?".
Cheers!
Sam. x
Not Scotland but Sartar. Not Glaswegian but Colymar. Not odd but special.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
PS: Where do the Lunars find trees big enough to for the Crimson Bat to
hang from?
"..passengers' attention to the three emergency rope ladders situated
to nose and either wing. The cresent shaped seats will prevent
premature disembarking during landing inversion. Please do not
release safety belts until the bat is stationary and the the
warning glowspot is out. You are reminded that the Cult of the
Crimson Bat has a no smoking policy and anyone breaking this may
be eaten. Thank you.."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Fazzur
Message-ID:
Date: 17 Nov 93 14:48:20 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2356
John Medway in X-RQ-ID: 2321
>> The Lunar leader could be Fazzur Wideread, not featured in the Dragon Pass
>> ...
>> incident, but since we know that Fazzur was punished for a previous
>> failure, this might have been it.
>Nope. I just looked his bio up ( WF #12, pp. 16-17 ).
>"Fazzur was in command of the regiment which invaded in a feint through
>the Hendreiki lands in 1605. At the same time the main Lunar Army attacked
>Esrolia and was defeated by the Building Wall of the Pharaoh. Fazzur pushed
>aside the defenders and laid waste to the land but was recalled when the
>main army was defeated. He was heard to complain, afterwards, that he could
>have marched all the way to Karse is he had been allowed."
Thanks for the insight and reference.
>Maybe Fazzur should have been there! He might have pulled it off.
>I thought that his fall was connected with:
> 1) The siege of Whitewall dragging on too long, and
> 2) The Cradle "Incident"
The previous failure is mentioned in KoS p.145f, and was before 1613.
Maybe his loud complaining (which may have insulted some of the leaders
of the main attack).
Whitewall had fallen when Fazzur was relieved from the command, and the
Cradle incident cost Sor-eel's post, not Fazzur's.
"At Orlanth's High Holy Day, while the Lunar party [to celebrate the
extermination of Orlanth worship] was only 11 weeks old, trouble began.
King Broyan of the Volsaxi [...] appeared at the city of Bullflood with
a household of heroic companions. They told their tale [...].
Assassins, troops, and traitors who were sentto dispatch Broyan all
failed.
In the spring of 1622 the army of Heortland mustered to oppose the
Lunar forces of occupation. A coup in Esrolia also pulled the Lunar
sympathizers from power, and teh moon temple which had been begun was
broken into pieces. Furthermore the lands of Queen Hendira [a Lunar
sympathizer among the Esrolian queens) were plundered, and the temples
there were also destroyed.
[...] The emperor was especially disapointed by events in Kethaela,
which ruined one of his parties. The command sought a scapegoat, and
Fazzur was relieved from his command."
>We need someone else to get mopped up by the Esrolians.
So it was Euglyptus the Fat who was tricked by the Pharaoh's (exotic,
in DP terms) magic.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Scenarios
Message-ID:
Date: 17 Nov 93 14:49:13 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2357
Colin Watson in X-RQ-ID: 2328
>
>Joerg Baumgartner asked:
>>How far would you go to call a scenario context-free?
>The extreme case would be to exclude mention of anything Gloranthan. I don't
>think that this would be very popular, and I don't think it's really necessary.
>(Although it *is* possible: I enjoyed "Watchers of the Sacred Flame" which, to
>my knowledge, is a non-Gloranthan scenario). What I had in mind were
>context-free scenarios which are still set (somewhere) in Glorantha.
>ie. scenarios which work in a variety of locations with enough flexibility
>to allow a variety of player characters.
This tends to take away the flavour. If you want the generic scenario,
look at the (almost generic) RQ-Alternate Earth campaign setting,
published in Vikings, and reprinted (with slight adaptios) in Land of
Ninja: The good guys from the small family, some bad guys in the large
family, conflict about disputed land leads to violence, death of some
NPCs, bad blood, legal complications, sooner or later outlawry or a
service relation to a Lord, but travel scenarios can begin. The
Riskland campaign is similar, too. The other generic campaign was
spelled out in the RQ2 Borderlands campaign: a group of characters
joins service with some frontier lord and rises in rank through special
services rendered. The single scenarios are always very
location-specific, to bring across the flavour, but all may be
described by the task tale in RQ Cities.
>A lot of the time it's not necessary to mention cult affiliations for minor
>NPCs. A list of Spells in their stats will usually give a good indication of
>the type of god they worship, and any GM should be able to pick a cult
>which suits his needs: picking an allied cult if the NPC is meant to be
>friendly with the PCs; or an enemy cult if the NPC is opposed to the party.
>As I've said before, there's more to character motivation than simple cult
>stereotypes.
>This approach could even be adopted for major NPCs; sometimes explicit cult
>ties are an integral part of the story; but often they are not. Not all battles
>have to be fought along cult lines.
Well, some game constructs in Gloranthan Mythology allow us to exchange
Humakt for Yanafal Tarnils, Irripi Ontor for Lhankor Mhy, etc., but if
there would be a Yelmalio or Pole Star worshipper with Humakti magic,
or Dayzatar as Solar Lhankor Mhy (only), I feel abused. Or otherwise
there will be characters with magic not available in their culture
(City Harmony among Praxians?). If I have to redefine these, then I
prefer to do so from a fully fleshed out setting.
But I agree wholeheartedly that the oponents needn't be the cult's
enemies. Where is the scenario which tells the stroy of the rival
inside one's own cult who keeps intriguing against the PC with the
priest? Also a generic plot, but to flesh it out, lots of information
is needed.
I know that the same problem does not apply for the more generic spirit
magic and common sorcery. But whenever I have to sell Glorantha to
newcomers, I point at the deities and divine magic to show the
advantages of RQ/Glo as game setting.
>One general-purpose rule for making a scenario context-free is to make
>the bad-guys sorcerers. Unaligned sorcerers can turn up almost anywhere and
>can be involved in almost any plot.
Or priests of Chaos, or God Learners - the generic scenario I mentioned
before. I wonder when the first unaligned priests or Rune Lords will be
introduced, though.
>(I'm toying with a scenario idea based on "The Island of Dr Moreau": in some
>remote location a Sorcerer is carrying out magical experiments to give Ducks &
>Baboons more humanity.... or is he? "That is the Law; are we not Men?")
Delecti?
>Ogres & Lycanthropes make interesting bad-guys for mystery plots - where the
>PCs have to track down the murderer or whatever. Possession by spirits can
>be good for this kind of story too - the murderer is actually the innocent
>victim of an evil ghost.
>Setting an adventure on board ship is a good way of localising the action
>and cutting out external influences eg: a dodgy sorcerer is secretly
>transporting a Dominated vampire in the hold of the ship; the sorcerer falls
>ill/dies; the Dominate spell wears off; the vampire stirs from it's slumber...
>(Any monster could be substituted. Use a cockatrice for a short scenario;-)
>etc. etc. and so forth...
All I have seen are Cameos, each and any to be heavily edited by the
GM. I have to agree with Nick that a fully fleshed out scenario has to
work without more effort than reading it before, at least for a certain
situation. So I reformulate my question:
Do you want ready to run scenarios, or just cameos, which can easily be
fitted into any ongoing campaign? The latter we have seen in reasonable
amounts e.g. in Elder Secrets - not terribly original, but working.
>>E.g. Free INT magazine. I am still looking for material about Vikings
>>for issue 7. But Gloranthan stuff about Ygg's islands or the Manirian
>>Wolf Pirates would be welcome, too - I want to show that one can
>>combine Glorantha and non-Glorantha in one breath.
>Hmm, how do I get hold of this publication?
If you read German, email me privately with your surface mail address,
and someway or the other pay DM 4.80 plus package, I can arrange for a
copy of any Free INT on stock to be sent to you. If there's interest, I
can post a summary of the articles in Free INT so far.
Plug mode standby. ;-)
If anybody has some Vikings material lying around, submissions are
still welcome.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Wanes again
Message-ID:
Date: 17 Nov 93 14:50:41 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2358
Nick Brooke in X-RQ-ID: 2329
>The 54-year duration of a Wane is twice the length of the mundane
>recognised existence of the Red Goddess. The Seven Mothers' Ritual in the
>year 1220 ST seems to have "awakened" the consciousness of the Red Goddess
>within Teelo Norri, an orphan of Torang. In the year 1247 ST, she wrapped a
>large chunk of central Peloria around her "like a cloak or a cuirass" and
>ascended to hang, rotating, in the Middle Air as the Red Moon. That time is
>now known as the Zero Wane, and is regarded as a period of Lunar ascent to
>greatness.
>A pattern has since emerged, whereby each Wane can be assigned to a phase
>of the Moon, and can be seen to come in two parts: 27 years of relative
>decline followed by 27 years of resurgence. Thus the Third and Fourth Wanes
>were the Wanes of the Dying and Black Moons, during which Sheng Seleris and
>the nomad hordes of Pent overran the Pelorian Bowl. The Seventh Wane is
>called the Full Moon Wane. Generally, things are supposed to go worse for
>the Lunars in the middle of a Wane, and better at the beginning and end --
>though the catastrophic "Nights of Horror" at the end of the Fifth Wane,
>and the upcoming Brown Dragon at the start of the Eighth, look set to knock
>this theory for six.
This only makes me more sceptical about the real nature of htese
cycles. They are completely artificial, and don't seem to work out.
>My own theory is that the dating for events of Argrath's reign is
>hopelessly screwed. The "Eighth Wane" will be a 27-year period of decline,
>ending when the Red Moon is torn down in 1652 ST. Allows PCs to live
>through the Hero Wars, and take part in one of the greatest events of
>Gloranthan history...
My observation is that they are - not two texts which agree with each
other. 1624 seems to be the date of the return of Argrath, but I don't
know whether his presence is needed at all to begin the Hero Wars.
I think it was you who uttered the assumption that the Lunars want to
suppress the cycles of chaos incursions by imprinting their own cycles
on Time. From a physicist's point of view they want to superimpose
their eigen-frequency on the vibration frequency of the world. THis may
have several possible consequences:
A) They merely modulate the frequency. Then their method is unusable to
really change the other, underlying frequency.
B) The frequencies cancel each other out - this needs a ot of
fine-tuning, but will eventually result in the end of the world.
C) The cycles mismatch only by a trifle, so that the peaks will begin
to merge and cause ever higher amplitudes (greater catastrophes).
Either way, their method seems in appropriate. The Lunar Empire is a
means, not an end - but the only end I can make out is by the reaction
on the Empire's provocation.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
---------------------
From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen)
Subject: re: RQ Dailiy
Message-ID: <9311171706.AA02361@idcube.idsoftware.com>
Date: 17 Nov 93 05:06:12 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2359
RUNES IN GLORANTHA
Light is a sub-element of Sky, as is Heat. They are not considered to
be full runes in their own right, but were created because some of
the crippled Sky Gods (Yelmalio, Lodril) still clearly had an
elemental connection, yet did not have the full gamut of elemental
powers. In addition, some other gods have displayed facets of the Sky
Rune, without being true Sky Gods (Dendara, Nysalor).
The Sub-elements of Shadow and Cold are parts of darkness, of course.
Deities with only one of these are either crippled (as with the
Jungle troll god) or strongly emphasize one aspect at the expense of
the others (Argan Argar, Himile). Or they have simply displayed
facets of the Dark Rune, without being true Darkness gods (Gorgorma).
The Ice Rune is "non-official" (i.e., the God Learners did not
recognize it as a true Rune). Probably if more ice-oriented cults
were popular, it would become more acceptable.
Benign Earth and Malign Earth are not the same -- they represent the
two sides that the Earth can display, not subdivisions within Earth.
A given Earth goddess only has one of these two Runes, and is
considered to be fully Earth. Many people only use one Earth Rune for
any Earth Goddess, considering that to be sufficient to describe the
subject. This practice (of using only one Earth Rune) is most common
where the Earth gods are comparatively weak.
Sea = the Water Rune by another name, in the same way that the Storm
Rune is another name for the Air Rune (it's generally called Storm
where the storm gods are strong, Air where they are weak).
The reason there is no separate Wind and Storm portions to the Air
Rune is because there are few crippled storm gods. Also, there are
few "hybrid" deities that display an "aspect" of Air. Hence, they
have not been needed in Glorantha.
WHY UNDEAD WAS RENAMED HUNGER: it's cooler, and better-describes the
reason that the undead cults received this Rune.
Chris sez:
> my ... PCs have become obsessed with slaying the Crimson Bat.
Note that, according to DP, if the Bat is killed the Emperor has to
go through a lengthy (year-long?) ritual to recover it. So it's not
much of a victory. I suggest that your PCs instead devote their
efforts to wiping out the Bat's cult. If everyone that knew Bat
Management (or whatever the name of that damn skill is) were
destroyed, the Bat would be uncontrolled until someone managed to
research the skill back up to a reasonable level. Which would take a
long time. If you managed the feat while deep within the Empire, the
rampaging Bat would mostly eat Lunar citizens. Perhaps the Emperor
would be forced to kill the monster himself, which would make it even
harder for anyone to learn Bat Management.
I suggest that only a magic poison would work on the Bat. How about
Distilled Essence of Basilisk? I imagine a ton or two of basilisks
boiled down to a few quarts would give a poison potent enough to kill
even the Bat. Another possibility is some derivative of the poison
generated by Noble and Ruler Dragonewts when under the influence of a
particular Dragon Magic. If you could collect a bunch of this stuff
and refine it, it may be effective.
re: killing a powerful monster
In a Chaosium house game, a Chimera was encountered by a band of
extremely powerful adventurers. It was so tough that in the end it
had to be killed by FAILED sever spirits (each failure does 1d6
damage, after all).
Sandy said
>>Also the Impala folks are masters of riding away from you at full
>>speed, firing arrows as they flee
Dave Dunham replies
>The RQ rules aren't real big on restricting the Parthian Shot --
>can't anyone do this?
Well, I think it would at least take a separate Riding roll to steer
your horse when you're not looking where you're going. But what I
meant by saying "masters of riding away" was the wrong word choice.
What I really meant was that the Impala Riders are excellent at using
mounted archery tactics, and that the other Praxians hate them
especially for running away in a fight and thus keeping out of a
knock-down fight (in which the other Praxians would win, of course).
The Impala Riders have standard tactics all picked out before any
battle, such as having the five guys pre-assigned to all aim
simultaneously at whatever pursuer is the nearest while everyone else
just shoots at targets of opportunity. Or using Firearrow to aim at
the mounts of faster enemies (this generally knocks the unarmored
steeds right over and gives you a fine chance to get away). Or when
faced with a toughly-armored Rune dude to have everyone Multimissile
their bows at once and fire at that guy, banking an a critical hit or
two to take him out. That sort of thing. I know these tactics can be
used without riding away at full speed on your impala, but the Impala
people are the only Praxians who frequently fight while running away.
>Incidentally, I am sure that the Lunars introduced the number "zero"
>to Glorantha
I, on the other hand, suspect it may have been the God-Learners, with
their sea-spanning mercantile emperor. Despite all the bad press the
God Learners get (deservedly), many of their accomplishments remain.
For instance, the architecture of the Holy Country, the widespread
acceptance of Tradetalk, the organized Rune system of describing
gods, the equivalence of Land Goddesses from different areas, and the
awakening of Dorastor.
Guy Hoyle asks:
>Is it possible to obtain Spirit Magic from other types of spirits
>than Spell Spirits? I'm thinking that a shaman might be able to take
>spirit magic away from discorporate characters, ghosts, or other
>similar spirits who know some spells.
Only under exceptional circumstances. If you win a Heroquest contest,
for instance, you can take a spell from the loser. If you cast the
Gift Spell spell you can give a spell to one of your ancestors, and
there are probably other ways to do it, but normally a shaman can't
just take a spell from you because he beat you in spirit combat. If
he could do that, so could other spirits, and it would be a drag.