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