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, 12 Aug 1994, part 1 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM 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: klaus@diku.dk Subject: Levy Message-ID: <199408110725.AA18475@rimfaxe.diku.dk> Date: 11 Aug 94 11:25:13 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5616 igorlick@bnr.ca (ian i. gorlick) writes: >Back to Michael Morrison's message. Trained farmers are commonest where there >is a free levy. I think that most of the experience was got during the period >of call-up, though. If you lived, you knew how to fight. I don't think so. The Danish mediaeval levy, which is the only one I am familiar with, was not called out this often. The period of most levy activity was the when Valdemar the Great won his epithet by suppressing the Wendic pirates. He called up a quarter levy every year for a decade. This could have been kept up indefinitely without anyone having to go twice. Any havnebonde that is, the officers probably went many times. --------------------- From: henkl@aft-ms (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland) Subject: Re: Variant Rune Magic Message-ID: <9408110843.AA00311@yelm.Holland.Sun.COM> Date: 11 Aug 94 09:43:18 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5617 Jens Haeusser supports both the shared pool of RunePoints, although phrased differently, and the idea of an initiates first POW sacrifice actually being a sacrifice for the divine spell Worship()... >I also use this in determining when a character can learn a particular >spell. In general, the character also has to succeed in a related skill >before they can sacrifice for the spell (ie Haaven had to prove himself >worthy by demonstrating a successful sword attack before learning >Truesword.) Yes, more role-playing opportunity... Hey Sandy, do you think this is more fun to play? -- Henk | Henk.Langeveld@Sun.COM - Disclaimer: I don't speak for Sun. oK[] | Single Point of Change, Multiple Points of Reference --------------------- From: DevinC@aol.com Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 11 Aug 1994, part 1 Message-ID: <9408110448.tn943805@aol.com> Date: 11 Aug 94 08:48:47 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5618 Devin Cutler here: Klaus writes: "How a spell matrix will help you kill the bat """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Enchant 280 points of Bless Thunderstone into a matrix. With a major temple of Orlanth to work with, this could take anywhere from 20 to 100 years, but is well worth it. The matrix takes a full year to recharge, but you can only cast the spell once a year anyway. (I assume that you can not usually stack spells from several matrixes, and that only one person at a time can work on recharging a matrix.) You can now produce one thunderstone per year, at the cost of one POW. This stone will do 280d6 of damage once, reduced by armor but without having to overcome the MP of the target. I, having read Elder Secrets, know that one of these will kill the bat. The priest have not read ES, but will probably think it obvious that 2 will do the job. Let's make 4 just in case. Any leftovers will be useful against any new monster the empire enlists." Of course, through spies and sympathizers, the Lunars find out an enlist their blue moon assassins to thwart the project. Nils writes regarding Baroshi: "Nice idea with the male earth warrior cult. I'm not quite sure the runes are appropriate. Earth is, of course, probably as Dust. But Law is a western rune, hardly known in Snake Pipe Hollow. Mastery seems a bit strong for a new godling. However I don't really have a good suggestion of what to have instead." I agree now with Law, but Mastery still seems appropriate if you buy the fact that the godling was born solely to master Chaos, and that he DID master Termain Osboropo. "Why Enchant Amber? The spell is OK, but is amber that strongly associated to earth?" Baroshi, in SPH, has a piece of crackling, glowing amber that HE uses as a weapon, and it drains Con and Strength...so this item is really official/Greg. Regards, Devin Cutler devinc@aol.com --------------------- From: ns10005@hermes.cam.ac.uk (N. Smith) Subject: Bless Crops Message-ID:Date: 11 Aug 94 11:18:21 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5619 Ernalda's Bless Crops Spell description includes (roughly) the phrase "as much land as a man can plow in a day". This implies that the spell is cast on the plowshare and thus the matix-laden wagon travelling around the countryside all day is a bad idea. Also, spells would probably only be cast in the first hour of the working day, and only on days when the weather and soil conditions are goodfor ploughing, to maximise effect. These limitations, plus the number of spells available, would mean castings are performed on the basis of political/personal/cult worth, the order of priorities varying with different priests. Also, the spell does not seem to encourage good Ernaldan behaviour. Plant crop, do nothing and you are still guaranteed at minimum an average harvest. May I humbly suggest this be changed to "doubles the yield which would otherwise have occurred". This gives those who care for their crops more potential benefit since a yield of 2*5 units is much better than one of 2*3 units. This puts another layer into the casting priorities - pious initiates who care for the soil, the body of the Goddess, get better yields and thus will be higher on the list. Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that a 10% tithe of 2*5 units is greater than 10% of 2*3 units.... Footnote:- 1 acre = 4840 square yards:- "the amount of land which a man with two oxen could plow in a day. 40 rods long and 4 rods wide where the rod, a pole used to drive the oxen, was 5.5 yards long". The AA Book of the Countyside (that famous reference work!) (However, KoS states that an Orlanthi Carl must have an ox team of 8 oxen, which will plow 80 acres in two seasons. Perhaps the oxen get a lot of holidays?) --------------------- From: jonsg@hyphen.com (Jon Green) Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 11 Aug 1994, part 2 Message-ID: <19551.9408111045@diss.hyphen.com> Date: 11 Aug 94 10:45:34 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5620 Jens Haeusser (X-RQ-ID: 5610): > I've been playtesting a version of Rune Magic that seems to work fairly > well. In it, an Acolyte/Priest sacrifices POW to gain knowledge of a > specific spell, but they can cast divine magic from a pool of both their > total POW sacrificed and the divine spells they know. Note that stackable > spells can only be cast up to the level that they are sacrificed for. > > For example Fladwyn, Sword of Humakt, in becoming a Sword has sacrificed > POW to gain knowledge of Truesword, Shield 3, Detect Truth, Sever Spirit > (3), Heal Wound and Soul Sight. He thus has a pool of 10 points of divine > magic and 6 different spells. Without regaining any divine magic through > prayer, he could cast any of those 6 spells in any combination of up to 10 > POW. [Section omitted] > > This system allows a little more flexibility in how a character casts their > divine magic. As well, it encourages players to take as many different Rune > Spells as they can, because they aren't as limited in the number of times > they can cast a single spell (no more taking 7 Heal Wounds... =) > Maybe I misunderstood things, but I always viewed Divine Magic as a pact between the person (read, "Funnel") and the God, whereby the person donates some of their life-force to the God and, in reward, gets to draw on a little of the God's knowledge and power at a later date. Thus the Priest (say) does not have "knowledge" of a Divine spell, nor is it "theirs" - what they *do* have is a solemn agreement to be able to call in that favour at a later date. Yes, the mechanism whereby a Divine spell is sacrificed for specifically *is* limiting. It's meant to be. You're drawing on the most powerful source of mundane change available in Glorantha - the Gods. By picking and choosing which Divine spell you want to cast from a list, and drawing from some "pool" of POW in order to power it, you become a *far* more dangerous thing for both the mundane and the Divine. The Gods and the Priests limit the abilities of people to sacrifice for certain Divine spells to limit just that risk. Can you imagine the destruction that could be caused by a crazed, part-senile Humakti priest with a pool of 42 POW to call on, and unlimited access therefore to 14xSever Spirit? Maybe the ability to call on a God for an arbitrary Divine spell, given sufficient sacrificed POW, could be the subject of a pretty high-level, high-risk HeroQuest - but that seems almost a God Learner kind of act: to manipulate the Gods, rather than call upon their favour? Jon jonsg@diss.hyphen.com --------------------- From: igorlick@bnr.ca (ian i. gorlick) Subject: talars in power Message-ID: <_5387_Thu_Aug_11_08:02:14_1994_@bnr.ca> Date: 11 Aug 94 04:01:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5622 Bryan J. Maloney in RQ-ID: 5579 I do not underestimate the power of legitimacy. I happen to be a monarchist myself. ( Canada is a monarchy, for the information of those who have forgotten.) My loyalty to the queen is based upon a life-long tradition of acceptance of that office. However it is not an overwhelming loyalty. Were the monarch to behave in the disreputable fashion of a number of recent Canadian politicians, then that tradition would not sustain my loyalty. I would be inclined to favour the coronation of a new monarch rather than the attempt to restructure Canada into a republic, but the mere fact that the monarch has legitimate title does not mean that she/he must be tolerated. If you believe that the talars always provide good, competent, efficient, and successful government to all their people, then you can believe that their legitimacy will be respected and never challenged. I don't believe that anyone can be that consistently successful. When their government conflicts with the desires of the governed, then there will arise the desire to oust or control the talars. If a reasonable fraction of the governed favour this, and enough of the rest are ambivalent, then the talars will fall. The legitimacy of their office does provide a lot of inertia against political change. But when the forces of change become strong enough, then things will move. Especially when there are such a large number of states, I would expect some of them to have experienced an overthrow. As I mentioned in my last post, I have come to the conclusion that the talars have been overthrown at various times in various states. The existing histories have probably just skipped over most of these events, as the new talars would feel that such discussion tended to bring their legitimacy into question. --------------------- From: igorlick@bnr.ca (ian i. gorlick) Subject: Women's Int, Arkat's Father, & Disease Message-ID: <_5439_Thu_Aug_11_08:02:41_1994_@bnr.ca> Date: 11 Aug 94 04:02:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5623 (Alison Place here, not Ian Gorlick) Re: Women's INT, Arkat's father, disease My, what a lovely response to my crack about women's intelligence. Mr. Petersen, you are a gentleman. I have noticed this dearth of women in gaming for years, but then, who hasn't? Now that I'm married to a GM, I am also noticing the distinct category of GM's wife, as in, "She just plays because the GM's her husband. You know, not a real gamer." Out of mild curiosity, is there any idea how many women do subscribe or write to the daily? I've seen Michelle Ringo, and Janet Anderson, and I think that that's all. Are females really so tremendously scarce as that in Runequest? Arkat's father Klaus writes (X-RQ-ID 5565) that the Brithini say that Arkat's father was just some ordinary barbarian. That may well be so, but I do remember distinctly from RQ-Con that Greg's reading from his old material said that Arkat the Wonder Child was one of a Brithini super-soldier's children and carefully raised with the rest of them. At least, that's what his old friend and fellow child (they were then in their forties) related about their early time together. I've unfortunately forgotten the narrator's name, but I do believe that I remember that Greg said that the narrator was still alive in the Third Age. I'm sure that someone else can fill in the details. Disease spirits This may be one of those topics that was done to death years ago, and if so, could someone please forward the essence of the discussion. I have wondered for years about the genesis and spread of diseases. Is Mallia the source for all diseases? Are all diseases caused by spirits? Is there any way to create either a spirit of disease or of healing? I know the RQ3 rules for the things, and as a biologist always found them dissatisfying, since contagion is allowed, but not explained. Has anyone come up with anything? Alison Place --------------------- From: henkl@aft-ms (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland) Subject: Re: The Blue wizard gets gregged! Message-ID: <9408111435.AA02181@yelm.Holland.Sun.COM> Date: 11 Aug 94 15:35:09 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5625 >The Sun debate. >Joe speaks >>It is my hobby to argue against the universality etc of Yelm as the True Sun >>God. >A devils advocate huh? Hi guys, can you take this argument off-line for a couple of days and post the results? -- Henk | Henk.Langeveld@Sun.COM - Disclaimer: I don't speak for Sun. oK[] | Single Point of Change, Multiple Points of Reference --------------------- From: Mike.Dickison@vuw.ac.nz Subject: Deer (Henk, please forward) Message-ID: <199408110602.AA12087@rata.vuw.ac.nz> Date: 12 Aug 94 06:02:33 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5626 One of my players has a Damali PC from Pralorela, and I've been doing some thinking about the various deer hsunchen. These are the three types, from the Players Book. Damali Deer Kralorela, Pralorela Pralori Elk Fronela, ?Pralorela Uncolings Reindeer Fronela I'll get to the questionmark soon. So what are these animals actually? (I'm using the Latin names here only for convenient reference. The Gloranthan equivalents may differ from their Terran namesakes, but we've been given no reason to think that). Latin USA Europe Description Dama dama (none) Fallow Deer Brown with white spots Alces alces Moose Elk Big heads, broad antlers Cervus sp Elk Wapiti Large red forest deer Rangifer sp Caribou Reindeer Big domestic tundra deer OK. It seems obvious that Damali have the Fallow Deer as a totem (the name is a giveaway), though it might well be the Axis Deer (a related species) in Kralorela. The Uncolings are likewise easily placed, though whether their totem is the domesticated Lapp reindeer or the wilder caribou is up for debate. The problem is with the Pralori. I assumed that US conventions held, and their totem was the American elk, a giant race of the European red deer (stats in the Creatures Book, ditto for Fallow Deer). But Martin Crim's excellent writeup of the Hykim cult states that the Pralor totem "resembles the Old World elk, not the New World wapiti", ie; the Pralori elk is a moose. Now I personally have some problems with that. 1) Pralorela is not the right country for a moose. Fallow deer come from Mediterranean, and reindeer from the frozen north, so they are rightly placed on Glorantha, but moose should be found in an ecological Canadanalogue. Rathorela? Ice Bay? Thrice Blessed? 2) As Martin points out a few lines later in his writeup, Pralori and Damali are often confused. It's hard to confuse a moose with a deer. 3) Moose are funny-looking. 4) I like the idea of a nested set of deer species, and want to emphasize the kinship of the deer peoples in my campaign (see below). I'm sure Sandy can illuminate us here. Here's what I do in my campaign, for what it's worth. Pralorela used to be inhabited by elk (wapiti) people in the Cold Days, but now only Damali live there. Pralori live further north, in Erontree, and Uncolings further north again, around Winterwood and the tundra. All three trace their ancestry back to the Great Deer folk, a now-vanished beast people whose totem was the Megaloceros, a.k.a the Irish Elk/European Giant Deer (vernacular names again...) Most of you would have seen Megaloceros antlers in museums - they have a 12 foot span or so. It looks like a red deer on steroids, six feet high at the shoulder. The deer people have had their forests cut down and their lifestyles torn apart by civilised folk with metal and money. I have the Damali in particular resembling the 19th century Maori, as a major trade route flows right through their lands. Young people defect to the towns, clans compete for trading rights, settlers wanting land and timber play one clan against the other, and so on. As a reaction against the inroads of civilisation, the shamans of the three deer peoples have embarked on a lengthy ritual to revive the Great Deer Spirit and revitalise their followers. I have no idea what will happen. Great Deer might still exist in Pamaltela. They might prove to be the Great Trolls of the Hsunchen. The whole thing might spark fanatic Ghost Dance or Hau Hau cults amongst the otherwise peaceful hsunchen. The Great Deer might return, but historically were open country animals and might prefer to live on the cultivated plains. The ritual might have to be performed in an ancient holy pace, now a city in Ralios. Whatever, there's enough travelling and ritual to fill up the rest of the campaign if I let it. Comments, anyone? BTW, the Damali player has just been told by a wandering prophet that the world will end next Dark Season. That's the date I've scheduled Kaxterplose to be sacked by Harrek. Anyone interested in my version of Kaxterplose? Given that Slontos is due to be Gregged, it's almost certainly without any official basis, but I like it. Mike Dickison adzebill@matai.vuw.ac.nz --------------------- From: dave_cordes@cl_63smtp_gw.chinalake.navy.mil (Dave Cordes) Subject: Do I have to Pray for it? Message-ID: <9408111538.AA26444@Sun.COM> Date: 11 Aug 94 00:37:10 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5627 CL QM-SMTP gw Do I have to Pray for it? >>Colin Watson says: >>Hm, I kinda assumed that the "1 point per day" rule didn't actually >>necessitate praying 24hrs per day. I assumed the priest did other useful >>stuff around the temple during that time; and that the restriction on >>recovery was just the limit of how much Divine magic it was physically >>possible to garner in one day. That seems to be the intent in the RQIII book 2 - Magic Book. Page 28 "Reusable spells may be remembered by spending one day per point of spell in an appropriate temple." It does not say that you have to be praying. You could theoretically be scrubbing floors, changing candles, chasing initiates of the opposite (same??) sex, etc. However a more conservative RW structured church upbringing says that if you want something from God you should pray for it. Along those lines our group been discussing Sandy's proposed Divine Spell Renewal rules. So far we are doing alot of head butting over it (No, we're not a group of Broos). We have a few nits, that we are working out among ourselves, that are mostly based on opinions of how much a PC should be allowed to get away with. However the one main concern that bothers us (well really me) is that our game style tends to involve long adventures or quests. Sometimes dragging us through a wide variety of places and situations. Yes, we are the dreaded "Adventurers". And no we have never found an Adventerures Hall or Guild in any town. We have never been warmly accepted or greated with a ticker tape parade. The general population tends to basically ignore us (accept for taking our money). We do not barge into town looking for trouble or a fight. We are usually looking for information. Which we always have to pay for, one way or another. We are basically good guys who want to do whats right. Our reasons for continuing on the quests vary from character to character. They range from being on a Misson from God. To 'They are my friends, of course I'll help'. To 'I was bored, the town sucked and so far hanging around with these guys has been interesting and semi-profitable (at least enough to buy ale at the roadhouses)(sometimes)'. Whew, boy did I get off the track. Back to my problem with Sandy's Divine spell renewal. Under these game conditions and with Sandy's rules, why would any Runelord ever agree to go on a quest into a land where they don't know if there are any temples of their faith. If the adventure is going to take more than a few weeks they run the risk of missing a holy day. And missing a holy day means no spells. And based on what I've been reading in the dailys, most of you seem to believe that it also puts you on the fast track to excommunication. The way we have been playing has been that an initiate was not condemned for missing a holy day service if they attempted to get to a temple, and failing that, took that day off while traveling, and spent it in prayer. A Runelord could, if he found himself too far away from a temple, cast his worship spell and hold his own service on the spot (I like this concept because it encourages the Runelord to try and recruit his friends). A wandering initiate who is caught away from home and uses his divine spells was no worse off then if he was at home. Because we so far have not played that they were in any way renewable for initiates. However I do like that idea. I like Sandy's suggestions, except that a Runelord/Priest should also be able to get his spells back through prayer at times other than Holy days. If you make Worship an automatic renewable spell then a Traveling Priest/Runelord could find a secure place cast his worship spell and spend however long he needed to get his spells back (or at least a few of them). This would allow the church to send the runelords out on Missions from God without severly reducing their chance to succeed. --------------------- From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried) Subject: RunePower Message-ID: Date: 11 Aug 94 16:07:32 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5628 Greg Fried here (I'm back!). One way to revise David Cheng's RunePower system so that Chalana Arroy cannot cast Resurrections as fast as they can pray is the following: just like there are reusable and one-use spells, why can't there be "poolable" and "non-poolable" spells? The non-poolable spells would have to be sacrificed for as per RQ2-3 rules. The rationale for this would be that some spells are so important/powerful that the god required more control over how they are used. Sever Spirit would be another candidate for the non-poolable status. BTW, I know I missed the chat about Convulsion, but I want to say it was great to meet all the Brits on their home territory (and not a few Yanks, Italians, and Finns, too!)! Hats off to the organizers!