Bell Digest v940204p1

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, Fri, 04 Feb 1994, part 1
Content-Return: Prohibited
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: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Rokari
Message-ID: 
Date: 3 Feb 94 09:24:39 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3000

Joerg huntng for spiritual and historical truths.

I've stumbled over an inconsistency (?) which makes that Rokarism is a lot 
older than the Third Age (Bailifes was crowned 1412, and he spread the 
creed all across Seshnela, as in Genertela Bok p.78).
An older reference comes from Genertela Players Book, where (p.20) "In 
1198, Sir Henrag Vandervasse became Supreme Advisor to the Ecclesiarch of 
the Rokari Church."

GoG 47
"The Rokari (realists)
[...]
The Rokari sect dominates the southwestern part of Genertela, and is also 
found in northwestern Pamaltela."
^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^

How so, if not transported there before the Closing?

Either the Linealist Hrestoli of God Learner Seshnela were not too 
dissimilar from modern Rokarism, or there was a prophet Rokar sometimes 
beforethe Closing, whose majority of adherents was "politely resettled" to 
Umathela.

Breakout 42 (?), Umathela (by Greg Stafford)
"The first humans entered this region from Genertela during the Second 
Age. The first settlers in 580 came in Waertagi ships in a colonial 
enterprise financed by King Nepur the Old of Seshnela. In the early 
seventh century more immigrants came from the nascent Middle Sea Empire."
And at the end of the article it is stated that Umathelan Malkioni belong 
to the Rokari sect of Malkionism.

I seem to recall that this settlement was in part to avoid civil war in 
Seshnela, but I cannot find the reference right now.

Does anyone have info on the Rokari sect other than those in Genertela 
Book, Genertela Players Book and Gods of Glorantha?

-- 
--  Joerg Baumgartner   joe@sartar.toppoint.de

---------------------

From: devinc@aol.com
Subject: Re: Temple Defenses
Message-ID: <9402030525.tn114109@aol.com>
Date: 3 Feb 94 10:25:43 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3001

Regarding the general praise over the more than adequate defenses presented
for the Sun Dome Temple, huzzah to its designers. Compare this work with the
pitiful design of the Yelorna Temple in Pavis.

How a temple as poorly defended as the Yelorna Temple could survive in the
Rubble is beyond me. When I was running the Rubble, a disguised Lunar agent
sent the PCs to raid the Temple in order to steal the sacred axe.

My PCs found the temple, as written, so poorly guarded that they became
almost paranoid waiting for
 the "axe to drop" (so to speak).

That having been said, I assume that the Sun Dome is a rather special case,
being on the edge of a hostile wilderness (or two), as I do not forsee every
temp˙le having massive Truestones and spirits as mean as the guardians therein.
But maybe I'm wrong. Has anyone designed, for example, something on the order
of the Orlanthi Temple at, say, Runegate, or an Ernalda Temple at same?

Devin Cutler
devinc@aol.com

---------------------

From: HVH@LETT.KUN.NL
Subject: another enthusiastic RQConner makes himself heard
Message-ID: <67DDA2AC143F212863@LETT.KUN.NL>
Date: 3 Feb 94 14:38:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3002

Hans van Halteren (hvh@lett.kun.nl) here.

I too have returned from RQCon, am almost over my frostbite and jetlag and
am almost through my RQDaily backlog. Where I notice that Michael O'Brien, 
my esteemed Grey Sage colleague who specializes in sports events writes:
> Finally, it has come to my knowledge that a highly skilled Lhankor Mhy
> sage was present at RQ Con and managed, by dint of successive Reconstruction,
> Knowledge and Clairvoyance spells, to record such events as the SuperTroll
> on a strange matrix marked with the VHS runes.  No doubt he'll soon be in
> touch (once he's prayed to regain all those spells).

Well, that sage is me and I'm sure you'll all be happy to hear that a hired
Fly spell enabled me to return from Valind's lands and share the sacred 
knowledge with my tribesmen. I managed to Reconstruct the following events ,
in order of occurrence:
  the Live Role-Playing seminar (do your own HotB)
  Stafford on HeroQuesting (wouldn't you too like to know 
     Arkat's big^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hone of Arkat's lesser secrets)
  Nick Brooke's Cultural Exchange (unfortunately incomplete)
  impressions of the preparations for and the aftermath of Home of the Bold (no
     not the whole eight hours, who do you think I am)
  Trollball, the rules and the game (where were all of you)
  the Gloranthan Lore Auction (David Cheng now owns a Ferrari)
  impressions of the Dart Competition (should have tied some string to those 
     darts)
  Stafford Reads (much too incomplete by far, when do we see the book)
I am afraid the Reconstruction of Home of the Bold is disappointingly short.
The reason is that I had no time to gather Knowledge because I was asked to
represent the king of the Lismelder.

Now I hear you asking, where do we pray to obtain such knowledge? There are
two answers to this question. The first is to contact this sage and arrange
for prayer at the local temple (Oosterbeek, The Netherlands). The second is
that the Knowledge matrix could be distributed throughout your lands by way 
of one of your local sages (the one at Valind's Glacier, David Cheng, comes 
to mind but has not yet been contacted. A special problem with the second 
answer is that the knowledge is coded for Grey Sages only (PAL color) whereas 
the tribes across the ocean need it coded for sages following that young 
upstart Irripi Ontor (NTSC color).


Dropping out of character now for clarity's sake: copies for the USA will only
be possible if one of you can access a video installation which can copy
PAL system VHS tapes to NTSC system VHS tapes. If anyone has this capability,
please let me know. And also let me know how much this would cost. Furthermore,
all who want copies of the tape, let me know which parts you want. The complete
stuff is about 4.5 hours. If only a few people are interested I can probably
handle it. If many want a copy I'd rather use local distributors. 

And while I'm posting anyway, something completely different. In the Daily
backlog I saw somebody mention Niceguy/Badguy and I noticed a word similarity
I hadn't noticed before:
  [Nysalor]    <=>  [nice][lor]   <=possibly=>  nice lord
  [Gbaji]      <=>  [g][bad][ji]  <=possibly=>  bad guy
Did anybody else notice this? Is it maybe general knowledge? Was it intentional
on Greg's part? And what words can we spot in Arkat (the only thing that 
jumps into my mind right now is [our][cat] but that surely cannot be correct)?


May Arachne Solara uphold the net and may Lankhor Mhy fill it with knowledge.
Hans van Halteren (hvh@lett.kun.nl)


---------------------

From: MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Subject: RQ Con Down Under - Pamaltela Con, maybe?
Message-ID: <01H8GTVHNXDC90NQ61@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
Date: 4 Feb 94 10:50:56 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3003

RQ CON 3 - DOWN UNDER???

As hinted at the other day, a number of seasoned Aussie Glorantha fans are 
keen to stage a RuneQuest Convention Down Here, following the great success 
of RQ Con in Baltimore.  This is just a dipping of the toes into the water, 
so to speak, to see if there is enough interest out there to run with the 
idea.  If we can get 50 or more interested bodies saying "yes I'll be 
there!" in the next month or so, we'll seriously start planning!  
We're obviously looking to as many antipodean attendees as possible, 
but overseas visitors will be made especially welcome!

Cheers

MOB - mobtotrm@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
John Hughes - john.hughes@anu.edu.au
R. Andrew Bean - abean@geel.dwt.csiro.au


Here's a run-down of the plan so far: 


LOCATION
RQ Con Down Under will be held in Melbourne, the locus of RQ in Oz.  
The venue is yet to be decided.

For possible international attenders: Melbourne, Victoria, is well-serviced 
by major international carriers, and you can catch flights from here 
to virtually anywhere in Australia.


DATE
The Con would most likely run from Friday night to Sunday night.  It is far 
too early to pick a precise date, however it will fall within the 
following times.

	*Mid April
	*Early July (the preferred date)
	*Late September, early October

 As you might guess, these coincide with the (Victorian) school holidays, and 
as I am a teacher (and will be in 1995 if the looney-right renascent 
Thatcherite buccaneers who run this state keep my school open), for 
practical reasons the Con must take place during these times.


EVENTS
Home of the Bold
Our featured event will be David Hall and Kevin Jacklin's Home of the Bold, 
the 60 player 8 hour LARP that was a roaring success at RQ Con '94 (USA) 
and Convulsion '92 (UK).  Will Boldhome erupt into the flames of rebellion 
yet again, or will the Lunars finally manage to do something right and 
crush the revolt?

Live action roleplaying began in Australia; it's only fair that the 
greatest Gloranthan LARP/freeform of all time end up there!

Other LARP/freeform events
John Hughes is also offering a communal heroquest set around Aldachur 
during the Hero Wars; others may be on offer too! 

Tournaments
The best slice 'n dice from RQ Cons 1 & 2, and special home-grown 
tournaments from the Wyrms Footprint  and the RuneQuest Rabble.

Seminars
As with RQ Con 1, we'd offer a wide range of seminars - HeroQuests, rules, 
RQ Renaissance, Pendragon Pass, and of course the infamous Lore Auction, 
where Greg will answer any question for a dollar!

Along with another Nick Brooke cultural exchange, also watch out for 
John Hughes' "Living With Myth" seminar, where he promises to rave 
about Jo Campbell, mythology, Glorantha and experimental gaming styles 
from his own uniquely warped perspective (+15 on Illumination rolls).

Special Events
*Eat at Geos - bring along entries for the following Gloaranthan food 
categories - Standard, exotic and troll.
*Orlanthi Storytelling Contest - a big hit at RQ Con 1!  Tell your own
Gloranthan mythic tale in the grand oral tradition of the Orlanthi.
*Stafford Reads
*Live Action Trollball - a demonstration sport for the 2000 Sydney Olympics
*Auction - more rare stuff (including the stuff I *didn't* take to RQ Con 
and John's various RQ rarities, up to and including his treasured copy of 
'Duck Tower').
*An enactment of a Gloranthan religious ceremony, with Stafford (who 
else?) presiding.


GUESTS OF HONOUR
It's obviously going to be prohibitively expensive to bring down as 
glittering a list of RQ Luminaries that attended RQ Con 1, however 
we will do our best to subsidise or part-subsidise an interesting 
line-up for the panels, discussions, tournaments, etc.

*Our main GoH is of course Greg Stafford, and if RQ Con Down Under happens, 
he WILL be here (he said he would rearrange his year around it).

*David Hall, publisher of Tales of the Reaching
 Moon, and LARP guru 
Kevin Jacklin are invited along to organise our featured event, Home 
of the Bold.  I know David is very keen to visit Down Under again, to 
sample more home-grown delights such as Witchitty-grub soup!

*Mark Morrison & Penelope Love. Mark is Chaosium's Stormbringer/Elric 
editor; Penny is author of Castle of Eyes, Chaosium's first foray into 
fantasy fiction.  They have an extensive list of RPG credits to their 
name, including Call of Cthulhu's Terror Australis and the forthcoming 
RQ supplement Soldiers of the Red Moon.

*Nick Brooke, scourge of the RQ Daily and inveterate Gloranthan scholar-at-
large will be making the trip Down Under to host one of his infamous 
"cultural exchanges".  Come and meet the puppet-master!

We would also extend special invitations to all the Guests of Honour 
from the US RQ Cons, and if we can't afford to pay for airfares, at 
least we can offer to put them up for the duration!


OTHER CHAOSIUM GAMES?
Yes, we're very interested in featuring other fine games from the 
Chaosium stable too: Pendragon, Elric (Stormbringer), Call of Cthulhu, 
Credo, etc.


If you're interested, please fill in the following 7 point questionnaire 
and e-mail back to me, soon!  If you've got friends who are interested 
in attending too, get them to send back responses too!

SEVEN POINT QUESTIONNAIRE

1. What is your preferred date (out of those mentioned above)?  If any, 
say ANY

2. Would you stay at a Con venue, or would you make your own 
arrangements?

3. Are you interested in playing HOME OF THE BOLD?

4. Would you like to see other Chaosium games (eg. Pendragon, Elric, 
Call of Cthulhu) feature at the Con?  Would this be a critical factor 
in your decision to attend?

5. Are there any special events you'd like to see at RQ Con Down 
Under?

6. Are there any seminars you'd especially like to see at RQ Con 
Down Under?

7. Do you have any other suggestions for the con? 


E-mail your response to: Michael O'Brien - mobtotrm@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au

Snail your response to: MOB, 48 Barcelona Street Box Hill, Victoria 3128.

Cheers

MOB

---------------------

From: devinc@aol.com
Subject: Re: Sandys answers to my RQ3 questions
Message-ID: <9402030139.tn90991@aol.com>
Date: 3 Feb 94 06:39:44 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3004

Thank you for the answer, but I still have a few questions regarding some of
the answers:

x>a) Magic Spirits, Spell Spirits, Power Spirits,and Intellect Spirits  
x>cannot engage in spirit comb
at. Therefore, how does an enterprising  
x>young spellcaster capture and bind such spirits? 


xSaid spirits cannot ATTACK in spirit combat. They can BE xattacked by  
xa discorporate spirit, which is how shamans nab 'em. 

This I knew. That explains how shamans get Spirit Magic. But how do Priests
teach spirit magic to an initiate? The priest cannot discorporate. The
Initiate cannot discorporate, and the cult spell spirit cannot initiate
attack. Now what happens? Does the Spell Teaching divine 
magic somehow allow the initiate to discorporate?

x>RQ3 Creatures book says that Vampires c
annot use Spirit xMagic or  
x>Divine Magic, yet the Vampire in the Sun County scenario has x
Divine  
x>Magic, and it is implied that he could cast Spirit Magic had xhe not  
x>f
orgotten all of his spells. Which is correct? 


xRQ3 Vampires have no POW. Hence, they cannot cast 
Spirit xMagic or  
xsacrifice for new Divine Magic. However, they keep all the xDivine  
x
Magic they had from their previous existence, and can cast it xall 
xthey  please. 

May 
vampires steal rune magic from victims?

x> The rules imply this, but it seems to make impaling x
weapons very  
x>dangerous Why would anyone want ot use anything else? 


xBecause most othe
r weapons do more damage most of the xtime. If you're  
xnot relying on a "lucky hit" to kill
 your opponent, non-impaling  
xweapons are just dandy. 

What other weapons? An arrow does as much or more than a thrown axe. A spear
does either damage comparable to a shortsword or broadsword. I sup
pose there is bastard sword and greatsword.

xOnce the spirit's MPS drop below the level of the S
pirit Block, xyou  
xcan't interact with it any more, and it goes away. 

This is RQ2, but I do not see this anywhere in RQ3. The fact that a spirit
cannot interact with someone with RQ3 Spirit Blo
ck up doesn't make sense considering that unlike RQ2, where Spirit Block sort
of reached out and 
nullified a part of the spirit's POW, in RQ3 it is merely "Spiritual Armour",
and therefore it would not stop a spirit from attacking anymore than physical
armour would stop someone from taking a swing at you.

Even so, the Priestess will easily beat the spirit down to 10 MP and then
drop the spell (can Rune spells be dropped ) or dispel it, now attacking the
MP 10 spirit with her 15-18 MP. So again, when does a Chalanna Arroy
Priestess ever lose? Perhaps the spirit of the deceased, in its lust to join
ilts god, could cast Spirit Block or Spirit Screen against the Priestess?

xWe usually played 
that the  
xancestor was only around for a very short time -- the player  
xgenerally only summo
ned ancestors for one of four reasons: 1) xto Gift  
xSpell or POW; 2) to ask questions; 3) to b
ind an ancestor to xhis or  
xher fetch or a magic item; or 4) experimentally, to get a x
random  
xancestor and see if he or she is any good. There was never xany real  
xneed for t
he ancestor to hang around once the summoning was  
xcompleted. 

In my campaign, another reason was 5) to attack foes of the descendant in
Spirit Combat and provide spells for combat. In this case, ho
w long the spirit stays around is important. However, I think your ruling of
"as long as it wishes"
 makes sense. I have always played that the spirit will stay around for not
more than 1 week or t
he length of one mission/purpose, whichever is less.

x>there are no rules for severing heads in RQ
xYou must be joking.

No joke. However, I was not referring to rules regarding severing the head of
an already slain opponent. I am speaking of the severing of a head in combat
(with a single blow). This was covered in RQ2 (head hit points plus 6 damage
points = severing). I ask because that would seem to be the only way to slay
a Runelord with over 10 POW and a DI in RQ3. Presumably, non-Healing gods
could not resurrect a person whose head has been severed.

Devin Cutler
devinc@aol.com

---------------------

From: henkl@yelm (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland)
Subject: Re: Rokari
Message-ID: <9402031523.AA10613@yelm.Holland.Sun.COM>
Date: 3 Feb 94 17:23:38 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3005

After one year of Daily Digests I'm pleased to
announce message #3000:

>Joerg huntng for spiritual and historical truths.

The Daily has currently 382 subscribers, the Digest has 30.

-- 
Henk	|	Henk.Langeveld@Sun.COM - Disclaimer: I don't speak for Sun.
oK[]	|	My first law of computing: "NEVER make assumptions"

---------------------

From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen)
Subject: re: RQ Daily
Message-ID: <9402031548.AA13520@idcube.idsoftware.com>
Date: 3 Feb 94 03:48:22 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3006

re: Veldang & Vadeli (can the names be a coincidence?)
Carl Fink thinks I told him the Veldang were the blue Vadeli. I don't  
recall doing this. I wouldn't be surprised if a Vadeli went on a  
Heroquest to prove that the Veldang WERE the blue Vadeli, and then  
adopted them into the Vadeli ranks. Of course, this would give the  
Vadeli way too many leaders, proportionally. 


The Vadeli way is as follows: Brown = Farmers; Red = Warriors; Blue =  
Nobles. They have no Wizard caste. Instead, all the Vadeli learn  
sorcery. The Brithini rather resent this. It seems unfair that the  
Vadeli get to be immortal, too, yet suffer somewhat less  
restrictions. This may be one reason that the Brithini accuse the  
Vadeli of such vile acts -- the Brithini assume that the Vadeli MUST  
be doing something evil to retain their immortality in the face of  
their heretical behavior. 


Carl Fink says:
>Apparently I remember incorrectly.  Sorry about that.  So why DO  
>those people on Teleos have all those skin colors?
The colors may have appeared during the Closing. I don't recall any  
evidence that the Pirate Island (as Teleos was called during the  
earlier, sea-faring ages) had multi-colored skin, buy maybe it did,  
and it just didn't draw comment. Or perhaps the differences weren't  
as notable. 


One True Worldism: 

Though I often pompously pronounciate "facts" about Glorantha and try  
to shoot down others' theories (like in the recent Joerg/Petersen  
debate about the Praxian-Hsunchen connection, which at least I  
thought was great fun, despite my losing point after point), I hope  
I'm never too overbearing and One Worldist. I probably am, though.  
*sigh* Feel free to correct me sternly when I shows signs of  
Gygaxism, anyone. 



---------------------

From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk
Subject: Phases of the Red Moon.
Message-ID: <9402031706.AA19196@keppel.dcs.gla.ac.uk>
Date: 3 Feb 94 17:06:46 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3007

Well, we all know how Theyalan days correspond to phases of the Red Moon,
right?  (Except that I can never find the damn table when I need it...)
However this is stated to only apply for the Dragon Pass area, and to be
different elsewhere.  But how, exactly?  Do we rule the Genertela map
into 51.something degree segments, and calculate the phase that way?
(This makes geometrical sense, but maybe the Moon makes no more geometrical
sense than Cthuloid horrors, Reimann spaces, or Mickey Mouse's ears.)
And if so, where do the `dividing lines' go?

My other worry is this: since within the glowline the moon is always full,
how are days named?  Are they named according to which phase _would_ be
visible, which thus varies from Pasha-thing to Pasha-thing?  Or is there
a Glowline-wide convention?  Or is this naming not in widespread use, the
Theyalan names being used instead?

Alex F.

---------------------

From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK
Subject: PROBABILITY
Message-ID: <9402031821.AA23430@Sun.COM>
Date: 3 Feb 94 15:58:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3008


Hi all
	It appears that some readers need a simple lesson in cummulative 
probability (ref. Devin Culter and Mike? (maybe) in 2976).  The knowledge 
is also useful when checking the effects of new rules.  

The probability of something happening is 1 minus the prob of it not happening.

OK.  Thus the probability of being illuminated after 33 years (under the old 
RQ2 system) is 1 - the prob. of *surviving* all 33 rolls.  

Thus:		P(illumination) = 1 - (0.97^n)
Where n is the number of years.
ie. after 10 years P(I) = 27%
	  20 years P(I) = 45%
	  30 years P(I) = 60%
	  40 years P(I) = 70%

Mike? why do you need tables for this one?  

Note that this applies to lots of situations.  
A party of Orlanthi initiates are trapped and DI to teleport out!  

Chance of success = 1 - (P(A failing) * P(B failing) * P(B failing) ...)

If we assume 6 characters each with 10 POW this gives a 47% chance of escape!

OK so now 90% of you are bored (cause you already knew) and the other 10% 
are bored (cause you didn't want to know) and Devin Cutler now knows, but 
doesn't need to know because illumination rules have changed.  

Here endeth the lesson (sorry)
				Lewis