Bell Digest v940803p2

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, 03 Aug 1994, part 2
Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM
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From: 100102.3001@compuserve.com (Peter J. Whitelaw)
Subject: Discovering Glorantha
Message-ID: <940802213124_100102.3001_BHJ88-1@CompuServe.COM>
Date: 2 Aug 94 21:31:24 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5417

Sandy says,

>>b. I can also imagine having players that are relatively  
>>less-informed about Glorantha. I'm not sure that I could motivate  
>>the gamers I know to play RQ-Glorantha in this kind of setting. Sure  
>>it makes for great role-playing if the characters are inexperienced  
>>like the players, but without immersing the player in the game  
>>world, why will they take the time to play?
>	Because Glorantha's fun, whether or not you know anything  
>about it. You need more Faith in Glorantha, my child. In my current  
>campaign, only one player is what I'd consider an "expert" on  
>Glorantha, with one other "semi-expert". The other players are all  
>completely new to Glorantha. They don't know the Lunar Empire from  
>the Holy Rokari Church. Yet they've had tremendous fun -- and it's  
>TREMENDOUS fun to gamemaster for such innocents. 

Absolutely right!  In our group we don't discover Glorantha so much by reading
about it as by playing it.

I covered this in my own response to Barron's posting.  I am not sure that
having a group of players who are all Gloranthophiles is a 'Good Thing' at all.
Not that I have experienced such a situation but I can imagine sessions
degenerating into theorising and debate rather than playing.

If I want debate I come to the Daily - that is what is so great about it.  I can
pilfer other peoples ideas and solicit opinions which I can then use to enrich
my own campaign.

Or, as Brent says,

>It can make it difficult to ad-lib details that one doesn't remember if
>one-true-worldism infects ones players as well as oneself. And
>"interesting" scenarios can be hard if they're not Gloranthan "enough" I
>don't actually have this problem anymore, but when I played lots more RQ
>than I do now (a few years ago) it was like this. A mixed blessing, I'd
>say. 

But I digress.  To reiterate something I said before - having Gloranthan
novitiates is great because, IMHO, it makes the whole process of discovery and
revelation so much more real than having the players pretend that they just
don't know.

And, yes, I agree that 'What My Father Told Me' and 'What the Priest said' are
extremely useful because they give the players a _subjective_ view of the world
that they are in.  I want my parties to kick off with all sorts of cultural
prejudices that, by their experiences, they will either shed or reinforce.

So, as Sandy enquires,

>	I'm sure that anyone else who's run Glorantha for novices  
>will back up my impressions. Right?

Right.

Sandy answers my query about his campaign,

>	Nominally every two weeks. There were periods when we met  
>every week, and obviously there were vacations and other  
>interruptions, but it was generally every two weeks (the in-between  
>weeks were spent playing Call of Cthulhu). We'd play from 5 to 11 pm. 
>
>	Also, the campaign actually lasted about six years.

Wow,  that means I potentially have a 12 year campaign!  Who knows, the HQ rules
may have been published by then .

******

All the best,

Peter



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From: Argrath@aol.com
Subject: Flaming birds; beer soup
Message-ID: <9408022158.tn536257@aol.com>
Date: 3 Aug 94 01:58:57 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5418

John Strauss:
    Oops, gotta flame you about hummingbirds.  They do not live
only on nectar.  They get most of their protein from insects, so
the "harming no one" bit goes right out.  Also, they're
belligerent little blighters.  The one thing a hummer can't stand
is to have another hummer at HIS feeder/flower/whatever.  They
dive bomb and body-slam each other.  Hardly C.A. activity.  I
can't imagine that people who observed hummers, as most anyone in a pre-air
conditioning society would, would think they're "nice"
birds.
     Well, folks, you've seen it all now: even a hummingbird
flaming ;-)

     Liked the evil twin Skippy, though.

Joe Lannom:
     Jello, indeed.  That's how the G.L.'s cut off the paths to
Arkat's stead on the heroplane: they bulldozed the jello mold.
     So what's the Winnie the Pooh bit?

Michelle:
     Thanks for your Yelornans.  What do they think of each
other?  I may be able to answer that myself:
     "Stuck-up priss."
     "Man wannabe."

Somebody asked about Soda.Berkeley.  They're moving between
buildings and will be down for a day or two more.

George Winter:
     Did you see Harald's comments on "why Imtherian tricksters
don't get lynched" a few weeks back?  In short, there are several
reasons, chief among them (at least in my mind) is that they're
kin.  "I remember Sam, he was the village idiot, and though it
seemed a pity it was so.  He loved to burn down houses just to
watch them glow, but nothing could be done because he was the
mayor's son."  (Name that composer.)

I saw a comment on alt.rec.games.live-roleplaying or some such
newsgroup to the effect that no one plays RQ because their
characters' limbs got lopped off in the game.  I'd say that was a
lame excuse, but someone might say I was politically incorrect.

More stuff from Michael Jackson's beer book, since it touched at
least five readers of this list:

Captain Cook made beer in New Zealand in 1769 from spruce tips.

Seefahrt Malz: unfermented, heavily-hopped black beer for sea
journeys.

One recipe for beer soup: black beer, rye bread, lemon peel,
sugar.

Another recipe for beer soup (it's not just for breakfast
anymore):
2 oz. butter (56 grams for you metric folks)
1/4 cup sifted flour (er, 1/16 liter?)
4 1/2 cups pilsner lager (1 1/8 liter?)
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (what's a metric pinch?)
2 pinches of sugar
salt 
freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup creme fraiche (er, some fraction of a liter; can never
have too much creme fraiche)
4 slices French bread, toasted (baguette?  recipe doesn't say)
snipped chives, to garnish (sounds a little frou-frou, if you ask
me)

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot over gentle heat.  Stir
in the flour, beating vigorously with a wooden spoon.  (In other
words, make a roux.  MJ doesn't say whether it should be a light
roux or a dark roux.)
Pour in the beer, holding the bottle at an angle to prevent it
from frothing, and stirring constantly to avoid lumps.  Add the
nutmeg, sugar, salt, and pepper.  Simmer gently for 20 minutes,
stirring occasionally.
Just before serving, whisk in the creme fraiche.  Put a slice of
toasted French bread into each bowl and pour the soup over the
bread.  Sprinkle with snipped chives.

Variation 1: use rye beer, cinnamon instead of nutmeg, and 1-2
tablespoons of sugar. 
Variation 2: saute onions and garlic in butter, then add the beer
and spices; serve without cream, but with grated cheese
(parmesan? aged gouda?).
Variation 3: saute onion, carrot and celery, sprinkle with flour,
simmer with light cream and beer.  Lots of grated cheese
(cheddar?).  Mix a little hot soup with a beaten egg, then add
the mixture back to the pot.

Gloranthans wouldn't have stick celery, which was uncommon until
the 20th c. in our world and is still uncommon (I hear) in
Europe; maybe celery root or seed.  Cinnamon and nutmeg only in
port cities (no Crusades to give the upper classes a taste for
spices).  

Now there's something exotic and down-home at the same time. 
Just like Glorantha.

Re: copyright and fair use doctrine
     The answer to whether photocopying published materials is
"fair use" is: probably not.  Some Chaosium materials
specifically say "permission to photocopy for personal use." 
Otherwise, do so at your own risk.  Or at least wear an eye patch
and go "Arr, matey.  Kiss the black spot."
     The recipe above doesn't count a) because the person I stole it from
stole it from somewhere else and b) because I changed it slightly, and that
is a common thing with recipes.  (Cookbooks often draw criticism, but rarely
if ever litigation, for plagiarism.)

--Martin


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From: rmcilhar@khserver.loyola.edu (Robert McIlhargie)
Subject: Sources for RuneQuest material.
Message-ID: <9408030617.AA18856@khserver.loyola.edu>
Date: 2 Aug 94 22:17:46 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5419


Hi everyone!

	I was just looking over the nineth issue of the RQ-digest and I saw 
several references made to a source called "Wyrms Footnotes". I was wondering
if this was another fanzine or if it was a newsletter published by AH. Can 
anyone give me info on where I can get back issues and a subscription to this 
newsletter/fanzine?  


Thanks in advance.

Rob.


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From: ddunham@radiomail.net (David Dunham)
Subject: Extra Full Moon Year
Message-ID: <199408030630.AA28328@radiomail.net>
Date: 3 Aug 94 06:30:01 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5420

Joerg said
>What do you think the Lunars celebrate with the Extra Full Moon Year? 
>Nothing but the fact that they have cut Orlanth from all major cultic 
>connections to his worshippers, thereby diminishing his power both in 
>the world and in the Godplane.

This is not true, but the Lunars saying it is may make it so, and the
celebration helps.

It should be apparent to the outside observer that Orlanth is alive and
well in Ralios and the rest of the Barbarian Belt.

But in occupied Dragon Pass, the Lunars are engaged in a huge propaganda
campaign to convince the natives that Orlanth is defeated, and to join the
Seven Mothers.

>if the Ralian and Fronelan Orlanth isn't quite the 
>same as the Pelorian and Manirian (for one thing, they pronounce the 
>name Worlath, and some write it differently as well).

Orlanth is big enough to be worshipped many different ways, without
diminishing his status in the least. "Worlath" is in any case a Safelstran
pronunciation.


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From: DBlizzard@aol.com
Subject: Questions from old reading
Message-ID: <9408030301.tn551066@aol.com>
Date: 3 Aug 94 07:01:25 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5421

   After recently rereading RQII and Cults of Prax I encountered a 
couple of passages they left me with questions.
   First, after reading RQII, the following quote is under Monetary
Base, referring to silver coins.  "In Sartar it is called a Sovereign,
and in the city of Corflu, run by various guilds, it is called a 
Guilder."  I don't recall mention of these guilds in River of Cradles.
Is there any other source for these guilds (perhaps Nomad Gods, of which I
only have the map), or is this an oversight or change?  
   Second, in Cults of Prax, under Nomad Weapons and Magic:  "Some of the
other mounted clans are the Bolo-Lizard people and the Ostritch Riders, a
reptilian group."  Both sound fascinating.  Does
anyone know how big Bolo-LIzard riders are (I suspect they are
also pygmies like the impala riders.  BTW, what SIZ are pygmies
I have always wondered what people use)?  Also what sort of reptiles are
Ostritch riders (newtlings/crested outlaw dragonnewts something else
perhaps)?  I have a write-up of the ostritch riders from Heroes but it has
pymies riding them.  I'm sure the answers to these were probably in Nomad
Gods but again that source is lost to me.
   I'm aware all of these things may have been transmogified by the powers
that be, even so I am curious about the original concepts behind them
(especially the reptilian Ostrich riders).

                                                             David A.
Blizzard



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