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, 02 Dec 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: MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Subject: Winning the Lottery
Message-ID: <01H5ZF9PGWGU9BVJIR@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
Date: 2 Dec 93 11:01:25 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2505
Thom Baguley muses:
>By the way, the lottery sword article in TotRM seemed to imply that the
>magic died when the geas was broken or the Humakti died ...
That article was one of mine, and yes, that is the impression I was trying
to give. A sword retains all its gifts for as long as the Humakti remains
true to his faith, or dies, in which case he goes to the Underworld to join
Humakt's Legions of Hell. The spirit of the dead warrior takes a spirit
equivalent of his sword with him, which has the gifts and geases. The sword
he leaves behind on the material world loses these powers, demonstrating
the severance from life and the finality of death (it should be stuck in his
grave anyway).
There might be ritual ways for a Humakti to leave his sword imbued with
its gifts after he dies, but by doing so, the weapon he takes with him to
Hell would be diminished, and his chance of glory in the next War of Gods
would be lessened. Ergo, there wouldn't be too many Humakti interested in
doing this.
********
My house move has been made! New Address for ToTRM Down Under is 48 Barcelona
Street, Box Hill Victoria, 3128 Australia. Telephone: +61-3-899-8539
Looking forward to RQ Con in a month or so,
Hope to see many of you there!
Cheers
MOB
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From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen)
Subject: re: RQ Daily
Message-ID: <9312011456.AA07830@idcube.idsoftware.com>
Date: 1 Dec 93 02:56:21 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2506
Carl-Johan Lundell sez:
> The last one got a spell absorbtion feature. The BIG problem is
>that he is a Storm Bull initiate. What happen when he gets tainted?
Wow, you're brutal on your players! 3 out of 4 got Chaos features? In
my campaign, if a Storm Bull had received a chaos feature, I would
have left the decision up to him. Some players would probably have
attempted suicide, but others would have left the cult and gloried in
their chaoticness. Still others would probably have tried to join the
Seven Mothers to gain an understanding of their newly-chaotic nature.
Thom Baguley sez:
> the lottery sword article in TotRM seemed to imply that the magic
>died when the geas was broken or the Humakti died.
In my own campaign, we played that the magic remained until the
Humakti's death, but that breaking the geas didn't remove the gift.
However, since Swordbreaker breaks the user's best weapon, which is
likely to be that same sword, it was generally a moot point.
You're quite right about the "Accept no heal spells" being a popular
geas among illuminated Humakti. Ralzakark's Sword broos all have that
geas.
I said (paraphrasing):
>>If an unconscious Humakti who can't accept healing has it cast upon
>>him, he'll have broken his geas.
You said:
>I disagree. The key seems to be accepting the healing. If the
>Humakti accepts the healing either by seeking it or not resisting it
>(where possible) then the geas is broken.
I think it's up to the GM in question. However, traditional Celtic
tales about geas-breaking would appear to be on my side -- the geas
is like a natural law -- if you break it, the curse follows, whether
or not you intended to do so.
I also submit that Humakt's nature as a Truth god indicates that he
is primarily interested in the result, not in the intent. I have
always played Orlanth and similar honor-oriented deities as concerned
with your intent. If you meant to do well, and failed, you can still
be honorable. However, truth-oriented gods like Yelmalio I have run
as being concerned only with the actual facts of the matter -- if you
lie, even with the best of intentions, you are still a liar and bad.
Sorry I can't write more today, but you'll probably see precious
little of me over the next ten days (until DOOM! is finished)
See ya,
Sandy
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From: GRAEME@SPVA.PHYSICS.IMPERIAL.AC.UK (Graeme Willoughby)
Subject: GM Hall of Shame - which one are you?
Message-ID: <9312011733.AA22278@Sun.COM>
Date: 1 Dec 93 16:36:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2507
Hi all,
I recently received this Hall of Shame from a friend. It looks like it's been
around sometime, but I hope its original here,
enjoy
Graeme
* ------------------------------------------------------------------------*
|!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!RACK & RUNE SURPRISE BONUS PAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!|
| |
| THE GAMEMASTER'S HALL OF SHAME: MONTY HAUL'S TOP TEN COUSINS |
| |
|10) Minnie Haul (Also known as That Cheap Bastard) |
| Quote: "Okay. After twenty-seven sessions you have finally |
| slain the Three Giant Dragons of Chaos. In the treasure vault you |
| find--12 copper pieces and a rusty fork. Who gets the fork?" |
| Good Points: You'll never be over-encumbered. |
| Bad Points: Majority of characters killed by starvation, plus |
| risk of lockjaw from rusty fork. |
| |
| 9) Mr. Softee (Also known as Pathetic Guy & The Amazing Mushman) |
| Quote: "You're down 3 hit points? Uh...suddenly the troll falls|
| over and spontaneously combusts! Magically, the smoke heals you." |
| Good Points: Characters never die. Ever. No matter what. |
| Bad Points: Who cares? |
| |
| 8) Anger Man (Also known as The Master & It Wasn't Me) |
| Quote: "What? You don't like the King? Your limbs fall off." |
| Good Points: Order and discipline. |
| Bad Points: Discipline und Order. |
| |
| 7) Das KillMeister (Also known as Dr. Death & Why Do I Keep Playing?) |
| Quote: "Better roll up six characters each. That should last |
| the first session. Maybe. [chortle]." |
| Good Points: The thrill of danger, |
| Bad Points: The boredom of constant defeat. |
| |
| 6) The Sexist Pig (Also known as The Sleazeball & L'il Friskies) |
| Quote: "They rape you and you love it, like all women. Ha ha |
| ha! Now you're pregnant!" |
| Good Points: Not boring. |
| Bad Points: Extremely irritating. Will emotionally scar any |
| player under the age of sixteen. Knows no shame. |
| |
| 5) Das PunMeister (Also known as Stop & Please, I Beg of You, Kill Him)|
| Quote: "A killer Treant? Woodn't you know. I'd leaf him alone.|
| Bet his bark is worse than his bite!" |
| Good Points: A wacky, funny, laugh-a-minute guy. |
| Bad Points: Will not stop. |
| |
| 4) Monotone Man (Also known as ZZZZzzzzzzzz....) |
| Quote: "Hi. I'm the King." " Hi. I'm the peasant." " Hi. I'm |
| the wizard." " Hi. I'm the knight." " Hi. I'm the Dragon." |
| Good Points: Will never cancel due to laryngitis. |
| Bad Points: Save vs. Paralyzation or Die. |
| |
| 3) The Drunk (Also known as What's That Smell? & Not Again!) |
| Quote: "H'lo. BLEUUEUERGGHH!!! G'bye..." |
| Good Points: Vivid descriptions of strange, bizarre creatures. |
| Bad Points: Rarely coherent. Will probably die soon. |
| |
| 2) The Insane Plotter (Also known as Machiavelli & Mr. Myxylplyxx) |
| Quote: "But the twelfth arbitrary conundrum signifies nascent |
| ursinoids rising. Any idiot can see that!" |
| Good Points: Dazzling, intricate plots, sub-plots, and sub-sub-|
| plots. |
| Bad Points: Makes you feel really stupid. |
| |
| 1) The Die-Hard (Also known as Old Faithful and Gary Gygax, Jr.) |
| Quote: "There is nothing wrong with AD&D(TM). Nothing. Nothing!"|
| Good Points: Intense commitment to fantasy gaming, plus owns |
| everything ever published by TSR(TM). |
| Bad Points: Cranky. May strike dissenters about the head and |
| shoulders with The Compleat Unearthed Adventurers Wilderness Arcana |
| Survival Handbook Guide (2nd ed.)(TM). |
| |
| * * * |
| QUIZ |
| Question #1: Which of the above have YOU been? |
| Question #2: Which of the above have I been? |
| Question #3: So what? |
| |
| Send quiz answers to your parents. All entries will receive a |
|"Why do you play those silly games?" lecture, free of charge. |
*-------------------------------------------------------------------------*
=====================================================================
(c) Copyright 1991, 1992 Peter Maranci. This version is freely
redistributable as long as this copyright message is included.
Commercial rights for derivative works are retained by the author.
=====================================================================
---------------------
From: watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk (Colin Watson)
Subject: Divination; climbing magic
Message-ID: <9312011837.AA19414@condor>
Date: 1 Dec 93 18:37:45 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2508
_______________
Steven E Barnes (replied to Graeme Lindsell):
>GL>I agree with what Colin Watson said: that
>GL>the gods outside of time can't really tell when their information
>GL>is coming from.
>
>This sounds rather problematic to me. If I use divination to ask
>a god where one of his worshippers is, it is standard practice to
>recieve an intelligable answer. Clearly, the god is able to sort
>this kind of temporal information.
This is an interesting point. If we accept that the Gods have no concept of
mortal Time (which seems fundemental to the nature of Gloranthan Dieties) then
divinations like the one above cannot be answered simply. If I ask Orlanth
"Where is Olaf Redspear now?" he cannot give a useful answer because he has no
concept of "now". Depending on how smart/helpful/polite you think a god
can be he might do one of the following:
A/ Core Dump and tell you all the places Olaf ever was and ever will be.
(This is far too much info to be digested by any mortal; hence useless)
B/ Tell you one place at random where Olaf has been or will be.
(Not likely to be the place he is *now*).
C/ Say nothing because the question is too general in the God's view.
(As far as Gods are concerned "is", "was" and "will be" all mean the
same thing. The tense is meaningless.)
D/ Tell you what was wrong with the question and give helpful hints about
how to formulate a more sensible (in the God's view) request.
I think Divination as described in the rules is a gross abstraction of the
complex process of communing with one's god. For ease of gameplay it's useful
to formulate simple questions like "Where is Olaf Redspear now?", but (IMHO) in
actuality that's not the type of request a wiley priest would make of his diety.
A priest would add a lot of contextual information to help the god narrow the
search of his extensive knowledge. A current description of Olaf helps a lot,
as would a best-guess of who he is likely to be with, or better still a guess
at where he might be. The god can then match this information against what
he knows about Olaf's history and hopefully pin down a definite location. The
less the priest himself knows about Olaf "recently" then the less productive
his divination about Olaf will be. Divinations are not guaranteed.
And, of course, if Olaf recurrantly gets himself into similar situations
(eg. if he is habitually kidnapped for ransom by trolls) then this makes
Divination all the more tricky: the priest has to be certain that he and
his god are referring to the same incident. The priest might unwittingly
get a vision of a future kidnapping...
I suppose speculative cults might make guesses about the future and check
them out by Divination but this would be very hit-or-miss indeed.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that the Gods only know what their
worshippers tell them (through prayer) or about things affecting their
domain (including the use spells derived from their domain). If Olaf
didn't pray regularly to Orlanth then Orlanth won't know much about him.
However, Orlanth would know about every time Olaf had cast a Fly spell or
been struck by lightning.
____________
Thom Baguley (on climbing)
>A lot of people mentioned the poor climbing technology of Glorantha ... I'm not
>convinced it is as crucial as you think when you bear in mind the magical
>technology of Glorantha:
>Flight
>Teleport
[etc...]
You're right, of course (but flying is not really mountaineering in my book:).
The problem with many of the spells you mentioned is the limited duration.
Once in a while a spell or two might be useful, but they run out after a short
while (unless you gross-out with Extension) and you have to rely on traditional
methods once more.
(Sorcerers are in the best position to give long duration spells, but I'd
hope they would have more sense than to go galavanting up mountains.)
I can imagine Armoring & Strengthening enchantements would be sought after
for rope & pitons. This could make equipment closer to modern standards.
[Expensive on POW though.]
___
CW.
---------------------
From: eosgg@raesp-farn.mod.uk (Geoff Gunner)
Subject: Spells and directionalism.
Message-ID: <9312011939.AA04529@raesp-farn.mod.uk>
Date: 1 Dec 93 19:39:16 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2509
Sandy says that: if someone had a spell cast on them from behind, then they'd
know which direction the spell came from.
Why ? If you're hit by a thrown rock from behind, you could at best identify
which quater it came from. If it missed and you saw it travelling past, then
maybe you'd have a better idea. But unless your spatial sense was very good,
when you wheeled round to look you'd add a lot of error to your initial
estimate (we're not good at identifying rotational movement).
And that assumes that the spell is a 'zap' type. And that implies, like missile
fire, that a missed spell has a chance of hitting someone behind / a friend /
etc. So you'd have to roll to see if you cast the spell, if (and who) you hit,
and if you overcame their MP's.
Too much trouble, IMHO. Just treat your spells as 'bucket-of-water-over-the-
head' effects - so no chance of determining where a failed spell came from.
More (interesting) points related - When do you know if a spell's been aimed
at you ? If you have countermagic up, which blocks the spell, do you know ?
Or if you have reflection ? Any justification for players knowing that a MP vs
MP roll has actually been made ? (Although I'd never _not_ tell them).
re: Carl Fink and 'gorp have no INT' - yes, but even an amoeba knows enough to
go away from uncomfortable stimuli. In a way, this could be the answer to
Graeme's question on how to knobble it - light a LONG line of fires across it's
path, and it won't go across them (You need INT to overcome instinct, so a
gorp must be one of the easiest creatures to shepherd about). Okay, so it's not
dead but at least you've got rid of the bugger.
... time passes .. Greg Fried's idea is delicious. Hate to think of the mess
at the base of the slope, though.
re: Colin Watson's model of God-time as perpendicular planes - Not So !
If your model was true, then you could only enter god-time at one point.
But you can enter it on any point. So the model only holds if there is 'time'
in god-time. Which there ain't. So god-time is more like the page that you've
drawn your vector of time on. No matter how long the vector, still only one
page. Anyway, you can't compare the two as they aren't of similar qualities.
Time travel - bah humbug.
And this business about 'time _TRAVEL_' - travel implies movement though a
medium. If you want to travel spatially, you have to move through the spatial
dimensions (even if you jump). So why shouldn't the same be true for time
travel ? So imagine the consequences - travel forward and you'd be like a
statue for the next n years to all curious bystander. Back would be a bit of
a problem as you could't enter the spatial area where you started your journey
from, because you would occupy it up to the moment when your journey started.
Bah mint humbug. So it's looking at things too technically. Well, why not.
Where do you draw the line ? Saying 'it's magic so there's no explanation'
is godawful for a player. If there's no explanation you can't predict, so you
can't plan, so you'll do as well by rolling dice to determine your characters
actions. If the mechanics are kept as close to earth-normal as possible, then
the players can use their real world experience in understanding Glorantha.
If it's magic, it's not understandable. Which is reverse-engineering the
problem - magic was assumed to be because there were things not understandable
(which ties in with Clarke's rule of advanced technology).
Bah mint humbug in a sticky paper bag.
On spell names - anyone play Tunnels and Trolls ? Now there they KNEW how to
name spells - 'poor baby' a typical example. Ahh, how the harsh knife of
sophistication flays away our early pleasures.
Illumination - surely like the Zen realisation of the true nature of the world ?
re: Carl-Johan Lundell's Storm Bull with a chaos feature - looks like you've
got some prime role-playing material there. Thing of the agonies of indecision,
'I SHOULD kill myself, but I'm tainted by chaos so The Bull won't let me into
paradise, what should I do, I'm an outcast, unclean ...'. Questing to get rid
of the taint IMHO is his most likely course of action. I don't think his cult
bonds would be broken, but can you imagine the response at the next holy
day ceremony when he walks in, reeking of chaos ? And I'd also doubt if SB
would respond to Divine Intervention. And why should your storm bull character
suddenly turn to chaos, when he's been fighting it all his life ? Unless he's
gone completely fruit-loop, in which case he's now a NPC. Fun, anyway you play
it. Keep him alive, hiding his guilt secret from the next bunch of characters.
Enough humbug. Ta Ta For Now; Geoff.
'A stitch in time stops the players heroquesting'.
---------------------
From: carlsonp@wdni.com (Carlson, Pam)
Subject: More Sacrifice
Message-ID: <2CFD23C7@itlab.wtc.weyer.com>
Date: 1 Dec 93 22:55:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 2510
Ooh! Excuse me for committing the E-word (Eurocentrism) in originally
looking for human sacrifice examples only in the New World; let's not
forget that we ancient Scandinavians sent quite a few unfortunates to Odin.
I've also heard tales of Celts, wicker and fire. It might be interesting
to look for the reasoning behind those beliefs to see if they are at all
applicable to Glorantha.
Pam
---------------------