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, Wed, 24 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: STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Steve Gilham Entropy requires no maintenance) Subject: Seeing the Block Message-ID: <01H5N0EBI89E006T73@UG.EDS.COM> Date: 22 Nov 93 19:33:38 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2402 >I'm pleased to learn that the Block is 2 km tall and 500m on a >side. Can any of the math wizards tell us how far away it could >be seen on Earth? Distance to horizon ~ root(radius of earth * height * 2) so for a 2m man, ~ 5km for a 2km Block ~ 160km total ~100 miles. --------------------- From: T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk (Thom Baguley) Subject: The Block Message-ID: <9311231231.AA25941@Sun.COM> Date: 23 Nov 93 11:07:19 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2403 >From: sullivam@mlc.lib.mi.us (Mark Sullivan -- Michigan Library Consortium) >> The Block >> This giant rectilinear block of rock, 500m on a side and 2km tall... >Thanks, Mark! Mt Rainier is about 4.4 km tall, and I could barely see that >from Othello. So the Block is probably not visible from anywhere it'd be >obscured by mountains (i.e. most of Sartar). I looked at Elder Secrets over the weekend ... according that source the block is approximately cube shaped and almost 2km long on each side. At least the height is constant .... ;-) Thom --------------------- From: STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Steve Gilham Entropy requires no maintenance) Subject: Re: Balance of the Sexes Message-ID: <01H5N04FVHC2007JUX@UG.EDS.COM> Date: 22 Nov 93 19:25:41 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2404 Sandy says >I feel that Glorantha is probably the most accepting of females >of any roleplaying world made. Look at the various pantheons >and arrays in GoG. I say : just look at the actual balance of males & females of importance in the Glorantha book. This tells a *very* different story. For example, the important women of the Lunar Empire happen all to be of the Imperial line w/the blood of the Red Moon in their veins. Solar dominated Pent is actually the most balanced so far as important females as a proportion of the important folk! I say : just look at the balance on male over female (even discounting the gender-free) gods in "Gods of Glorantha" I say : just look at the post-hoc rationalisation about the "King of the Trolls" in Sazdorf. --------------------- From: CHARTLEY%ESOC.BITNET@vm.gmd.de (C. Hartley Data Processing Division) Subject: Bat killing again Message-ID: <9311231256.AA27002@Sun.COM> Date: 23 Nov 93 12:56:28 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2405 I was pleasantly surprised to see that other groups want to get the Crimson Bat I also liked the idea of going for the Cult and thereby putting it out of control. However, I can't help thinking that the Storm Khan PC in my group would not accept that. It seems to actually make the Chaos worse rather than better. Unless, of course, it was clear that the Emperor would not then step in to ensure the destruction of the Bat. I guess this is the crux really. The PCs are of rebel spirit but have no fixed ties with rebel groups and are therefore more interested in the Bat from a Chaos killing/glory point of view than part of a concerted rebellion. Maybe I should be at least giving them the opportunity to get involved in such things. Do other people relate anti-Lunar and Cultic activities? What I mean is, do you good people have Cultic policies against the Empire that could actually become orders to Cult members ? Maybe this is well documented somewhere but I'ld like to hear views and rationalisations. I think it would not be too harsh to order Orlanth/Storm Bull Rune Levels to aid opposition groups. These orders would come from High Priest level, or some kind of council as appropriate. Does anyone do this sort of thing? What Cults are considered suitable to behave in this way? Thanks, Chris. End of Message --------------------- From: allan@tcrystal.gla.ac.uk (Allan Henderson) Subject: What is Credo ? Message-ID: <8796.9311231307@sushi.tcrystal.tcrystal.glasgow.ac.uk> Date: 23 Nov 93 13:07:29 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2406 All, Please fogive my ignorance but what is Credo ? So far I have worked out that it is a game from Chaosium, and that Chris Gidlow has a copy, but I have seen nothing that says what it is. So a review and release dates in the UK would be appreciated. --------------------- From: allan@tcrystal.gla.ac.uk (Allan Henderson) Subject: Climbing Wintertop Mountain Message-ID: <8907.9311231321@sushi.tcrystal.tcrystal.glasgow.ac.uk> Date: 23 Nov 93 13:21:13 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2407 Good People, >(Mark Sullivan -- Michigan Library Consortium) >If it is two kilometers tall it doesn't compare with Wintertop's 12 >(please say it's a typo) kilometers [from p61 of Genertela Book, GoG]. I >mean just how high *is* the atmosphere? That there middle air must go up >pretty damn high or those Shakers are breathing with oxygen tanks. I know that 12Km sounds a lot but Mt. Everest is 8.9Km high and humun beings can climb that without Oxygen in tanks. If life is designed to go up that high (or spends a lot of time acclimatising) then life on earth can live up to 21,000 feet. Nothing else lives at this altitude so there is no need for people to go to this height. In reality the problem of oxygen is normally superceded by the problems of extreme cold, and very high winds. Which bring me to how to make an adventure of players climbing Wintertop. This is a fantasy world so let the player climb to the top without worrying about oxygen, which they can do very little about. You can quite freely worry them with any of the following above the snow line: 1) Bedevil them with frost bite. Any extermities encased in metal, or unprotected will take damage for example 0.5 points per hour, until they get warmed up. I estimate that 5 points of damage is worth a finger or toe. 2) Hurricane force winds. If they attempt to do anything during a storm then excessive application of the knockback rules should see them dig in again. 3) Impenetrable mists or white outs. The air need not be calm for a pea soup fog to decend on a mountain. If vision is impared then "we go up" is not smart. It is very easy to get lost, and just as easy to find yourself trapped on a spurr from the main mountain. 4) Got them pinned down for a few days, good. Now spring the "your water is frozen and you're running low on food". Above the tree line there is little or no fuel for fires, so a long cold night is in store. Eating snow for water is not good for you, but it is better than dying of thirst. 5) Throw in the odd monster at inconvenient times. Sylphs are fun on ridges, and mountain trolls digging into your snow hole are a real scream at night. Some DM tips for running this : 1) Check the eqipment lists carefully. Arguements like "But of course I would have brought fur lined waterproof boots" cut no ice with me. In the real world people die every week on mountains because they thought they wouldn't need any fancy equipment. 2) Make sure that you know who is tied to who at all times. This can make for interesting role playing. 3) Just when all hope/food/fuel is gone have the players find a snare with a mountain hare in it, or an adventure frozen for decades with a pack of firewood and an ignite matrix. Most of all give them hope, have the clouds part briefly showing them the summit, or a dream of the safe end to the journey. Movement rates are 3 miles or 2000 feet (650m) of ascent per hour, with no more than 8 hours per day spent moving. Why would people climb Wintertop ?. I think that religious reasons are best elivation to Runelord, atonement etc. There may be something at the top of Winter top, a temple, a means to enter the hero plane, who knows ?. >STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Steve Gilham) >impressive than the little hills dotting the British Isles. Steve you can come climbing with me some day in the Scottish mountains. As they say "size isn't everything") Bye Y'all Allan Henderson --------------------- From: ECZ5RAR@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU (Anthony Ragan) Subject: Syndic's Ban Message-ID: <9311231613.AA19570@Sun.COM> Date: 23 Nov 93 16:13:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2408 Hi all, I've seen many references to the Syndics' Ban. But I can't find any explanation as to who these Syndics themselves were. So.....who were the Syndics and why did they lay this ban down on western Genertela? --Anthony Rune Chia Pet of Ernalda ecz5rar@mvs.oac.ucla.edu -OR- IrishSpy@aol.com --------------------- From: staats@MIT.EDU (Richard C. Staats) Subject: Divine Interventions (DI's), One GM's Spin on Things Message-ID: <9311231642.AA09229@MIT.EDU> Date: 23 Nov 93 10:39:47 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2409 Greetings! I have always treated the DI's as varying in both capability and form from cult to cult. So, although one cult may allow a d10 roll for a runelord, it does not follow that another cult would in my campaign. Some specific examples of DI's might help. It would be perfectly reasonable for an Orlanth initiate to make a DI to teleport his band out of some danger (or into it). Likewise, a Storm Bull initiate might be get a DI to grant him/her some particular immunity to a chaos creature for a limited period of time. On the other hand, a Death Lord would almost certainly not get a DI to resurrect someone, just as a Chalana Arroy cultist would not get a DI to sever a character's spirit. As to the question of how do you prevent 10% of a dying force from DI'ing itself back to life...there are a couple of ways. I would not allow most cults to have their members be DI'd back to life (*never* with Humakti). Also, most ancient battles did not end with the forces being obliterated; that is a recent "innovation". Most battles ended when one group fell into absolute disorder and was either captured, routed off the field of battle, or just surrendered. In the extraordinary circumstances one finds in Glorantha where heroes are fighting Chaos for the very survival of the world, there are most likely more fatalities as folks would probably fight to the death against some vile Chaos spawn (*phew* *phew*) rather than surrender and be eaten. In these cases, the gods and goddesses are no doubt kind and grant DI's to heroes to allow them to keep fighting, but in a typical battle between tribe "A" and tribe "B" out on the Prax, it is unlikely that there are many life saving DI's. Hope you find this helpful! In service, Rich --------------------- From: euregemon@aol.com Subject: 8k Message-ID: <9311231325.tn222897@aol.com> Date: 23 Nov 93 18:25:15 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2410 Each installment of RQ daily which I receive is cutoff abruptly at about 8k. Am I missing more thanjust a few words or lines? --------------------- From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly) Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Mon, 22 Nov 1993, part 1 Message-ID: <9311231847.AA19089@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu> Date: 23 Nov 93 18:47:41 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2411 Paul here. >This quote implies that the Lunar Army uses 64 man units. >Is there any particular reason to create a different model >for the Lunar Army? We've been using forty-nine man units in our campaign for more than ten years... my comments on army organization are based on what we did, long before SUn County came out. Seven seems a more logical base for the Lunar organization than eight. Dwarf units in our campaign are organized around an eight-dwarf squad. Ten is heretical... - Paul Reilly --------------------- From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly) Subject: Lunar Armies Message-ID: <9311231852.AA19133@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu> Date: 23 Nov 93 18:52:34 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2412 Paul continuing... > Seems like the regiment (chiliarchia) is the right size for > a Dragon Pass game Lunar regiment. If the Sun County Templar > organization is typical of traditional Yelmic military i.e. > Dara Happan organization, perhaps the Lunar Army (with its Dara > Happan influence) has this same organization. The military mind > is typically very traditional and its hard to see a change in > the army structure just to get a seven in the TOE. If the army > structure is working (i.e. Dara Happan style hopolites) why > mess with it? If you look back in my original comments you'll see that I believe that the Dara Happan units are still organized in the traditional way (of course in our campaign this was decimal, like the Mongols, rather than octal.) However the new regiments organized by the various Daughters, i.e., Yara Aranis, Hwarin Dalthippa, etc. are on the new organization (7's). As you say if something is working why change it but I would say that in the period during which Sheng Seleris was sacking the Moon the army structure would perhaps not be best described as "working" very well. - Paul R. --------------------- From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen) Subject: re: RQ Daily Message-ID: <9311232018.AA13935@idcube.idsoftware.com> Date: 23 Nov 93 08:18:25 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2413 Sandy Petersen here Joerg Baumgartner asks: >In the description of the Silver Shadow Sultanate/Satrapy it is >mentioned that the region basks in the silver shine. Does this mean >that tne Red Moon is translucent, and focusses the stars' light onto >the crater, after filtering out the red glow it sends out? >And how high is the Crater, how high above it is the moon? The Silver Shadow sultanate is where the moon blocks out the sun's light. Presumably, since the sun circles Glorantha while the moon stays still, this is primarily a magic effect. Either that, or the eclipse only happens at noon. The Crater's surface is, in fact, on the moon itself. There's a magic connection between the two. >this is not different from how they trade the oasis folk, only the >oasises (sp?) are bigger, and wealthier. The plural of "oasis" is "oases" (pronounced oh-way-seize). >The statement that the Hungry Plateau sables moved there in the Dawn >Age makes them mercenaries of the Theyalan First Council, >participating in the Battle of Argentium Thri'ile (Dorastor p. 7: >"Instrumental in the battle were the Praxian animal riders, whose >leaders received grants of land in Peloria and began several >dynasties of Pelorian animal-riders."), and maybe a second wave in >the wake of Arkat's human allies who scoured Peloria while the hero >and his troll allies scorched Aggar, Talastar and Dorastor (Vorwaha >Bisonlord, Dorastor p.13). This would make most "native" Pelorian >nobility Praxian in descent, I'd suppose - Duke Raus has just gone >back to the roots. Any takers? "Several dynasties" of animal-riders does not make most Pelorian nobility Praxian in background, though several are, as already pointed out. Only the Hungry Plateau sable riders have managed to keep any of their ancestral ways. I don't think that the armies accompanying Arkat founded any dynasties. They were just invaders and raiders, not conquerors. On the other hand, in the EWF's wars against the Dara Happan Tripolis, they may well have used Praxian mercenaries. re: Tada Tada's Golden Age people were pretty much all wiped out during the Darkness. Their allies in the war on Chaos have now inherited their ancient land -- the beast riders. The oasis people might possibly represent the last traces of Tada's folk. Perhaps the reason they're so spiritless and inferior is because of the destruction of their god, who gave them their strength. Nick Brooke asks: >What animals do Argrath's Praxian secret societies (Bullocks, Twin >Spears and Sword Brothers) ride? They are cross-tribal societies. Of course, the various tribal contingents would stick together. --------------------- From: 100270.337@CompuServe.COM (Nick Brooke) Subject: Enemies Without Friends Message-ID: <931123201654_100270.337_BHB66-1@CompuServe.COM> Date: 23 Nov 93 20:16:54 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2414 ____________ Joerg asked: > Where else than in the Dragon Pass Ruins, the Rubble and the City of > 10,000 Magicians in Aggar are we likely to find EWF artifacts? The EWF at its height spread along the whole body of their Great Genertelan Dragon: its wings were the Rockwoods (East and West), its spine the Oslir (they took over the Dara Happan Empire for a time), its head in Dragon Pass (with a fire-breathing mouth at the Vent, and its Eye at ... you got it!). In other words, they didn't have the bits of Peloria that were neither highlands nor river valleys, but scooped up most of the rest. So I'd imagine you could find EWF artifacts throughout that range: from the Elder Wilds across to Brolia, with some ancient sites in the midst of the great cities of Dara Happa (but not Alkoth) -- though I imagine these would have been very thoroughly trashed and looted by now. The True Golden Horde didn't leave much standing... > If any adventurer party wants to play a part in the upcoming Hero Wars, > quest for these artifacts, and deliver them into the focus of fighting, > Sartar. Might be stiff competition from that Garrath Sharpsword in Pavis... I think he's got pretty much the same idea. > Does that draconic school in Nochet (Glorantha Book p.19) still exist > (at least in ruins)? Where is that Drolgard cult situated? Where can > one contact Orlaront Dragonfriend? Maybe, nowhere, and dunno. I'm sure the school isn't still functioning, but you can find all kinds of odd things in Nochet if you look (a bit like Lankhmar or Ankh-Morpork in that respect). The Cult of Drolgard surely had its forked tongue gouged out at the time of the Draconic betrayal of the EWF, when people forgot how to talk to dragons. Orlaront would be on the Hero Plane somewhere, perhaps in a dragonrest (or maybe even as a Dragon, by now?). We're pretty sure Argrath made friends with him. > And what kind of Malkioni were those from Nochet? How many were there? > How important was their bishop in city politics? How important is he > now? Is it Nochet where the highest religious authority of the Trader > Princes of Maniria lies, or is it Ralios? My theory: they're a peculiar old-style sect of pacifist white-robed types who live in the catacombs beneath the city and still defend some ancient secrets entrusted to them by Arkat the Conquerer at the end of the First Age. Their bishop *was* important a while ago, maybe, but is now pretty well removed from the official centres of power. I use them like the early Christians in Rome ('round about Nero's time): good for rioting against or persecuting, and with oodles of secret converts and recognition-signs. The Issarian sect of the Trader Princes would probably be centred around their mercantile hub at Venice -- sorry, that's Handra -- but would be pretty decentralised in any case. Not related to the Nochet sect (except insofar as they're all Malkioni together, for what that's worth), though they'd certainly have trade missions with accompanying church officials. ==== Nick ==== --------------------- From: carlf@panix.com (Carl Fink) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 23 Nov 1993, part 2 Message-ID: <199311240202.AA29899@panix.com> Date: 23 Nov 93 16:02:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 2415 eosgg@raesp-farn.mod.uk (Geoff Gunner) writes: R>Wyrms - I'd have put them at a stage PAST dragonewts; perhaps those dragonewt >who have left the Wheel but still have some earthly ties to work off ? >Sort of a 'practice dragon' stage. Published material says that they're screwed up dragonewts, who tried to "cheat" the progression from Scout to Inhuman King, and are now stuck, unable to progress or change their status at all. 100270.337@CompuServe.COM (Nick Brooke) writes: R>I don't know anything about Toon. But Boggles are a Disorderly race, not >"just" spirits (though, given their basic nature, they probably *can* be >spirits -- or anything else -- from time to time). There's a Castle of >Boggles on top of the Plateau of Statues, but I can't honestly recommend >the decor or cuisine. There's a myth of the Boggles in WF#5 (Celestial >Court myths), which ought to be in Wyrms Footprints when that happens, and >some stuff about them in the Prosopaedia (under Ratslaff, I think). They >mostly work for Uleria, these days, but obviously wouldn't be committed to >that... I don't agree -- I quite enjoyed my dinner with the Boggles of the Plateau. Of course, this was only a week or so after My Dinner With Ralzakark, so perhaps the contrast made the boggles seem homely. --Carl