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, 30 Sep 1994, part 1
Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM
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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.
X-RQ-ID: index
6405: MOBTOTRM = MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
- Venice & Genoa, Light Sons in Drag
6406: JARDINE = JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK
- Lewis on Tythes
6407: joe = (Joerg Baumgartner)
- Several things
6408: dave_cordes = (Dave Cordes)
- Bad Luck Yelornans
6409: Argrath = Argrath@aol.com
- Risklands
6410: Michelle_Ringo = (Michelle Ringo)
- Risklands - Tithing - Farming Profits
6411: ddunham = (David Dunham)
- Riskland; Land Goddesses; Red Moon visibility
6412: jacobus = (Bryan J. Maloney)
- Dark Arkati magic
6413: joe = (Joerg Baumgartner)
- Magic Crystals <> Matrices
6414: carlsonp = (Carlson, Pam)
- Riskland details
6415: sandyp = (Sandy Petersen)
- Pamaltela and other matters
6416: WALLMAN = WALLMAN@VAX2.Winona.MSUS.EDU
- RQ by email?
6417: KEMREN = KEMREN@aol.com
- Placement of Eldarad, Darkness
6418: 100270.337 = (Nick Brooke)
- I Fought We Won
---------------------
From: MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Subject: Venice & Genoa, Light Sons in Drag
Message-ID: <01HHP0AG7JSE9N7L1K@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
Date: 30 Sep 94 04:35:37 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6405
G'day,
______________
Venice & Genoa
Martin Crim:
>>>>>
Re: Porthomeka
Thanks for the kind words, MOB, and I heartily concur with
your take on the trader princes. Do I get any points for saying
to myself "Genoa and Venice" before I read your comparison?
>>>>>
Full points there! The Capratis and du Tumerine enclaves are meant to
be something like what the Venetians and Genoese had in Constantinople,
<1453.
There are similar enclaves in Sog City too (see "The Lonely Lozenge
Guide" in the SOG UNIVERSITY GUIDE), but there they also have to
compete with the Vadeli!
______________
Women Templars
There has been some discussion lately on whether the Sun Domers would let
a female Yelornan join the Templars. The example of the female Light
Lady Vega Goldbreath is often cited. Despite creating her long ago,
David Hall and Nick Brooke have been trying to convince me of late that
Vega is in fact, really a *Light Son* (seen "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert",
anyone?).
Of course, that cannot be true because Light Sons are forbidden to disguise
themselves as women...
(see Yelmalio cult write-up in CoP or SC)
...but then, why have such a weird rule if there wasn't such a problem in
the first place???
Food for thought...
Cheers
MOB
---------------------
From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK
Subject: Lewis on Tythes
Message-ID: <9409290901.AA07242@Sun.COM>
Date: 29 Sep 94 08:58:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6406
WRT - Risklands
I have always taken the 10/50/90% of income donated to cult
to mean exactly that. Income is the amount of new money you get. Thus the
cult tythe is NOT a transaction charge, but a tax on increase in wealth.
So for the specific example of an Issaries merchant who invested
10,000L and made 2,000L profit; he would tythe to his cult based on the
2,000L profit. The high priest happily accepts the 200L and the little
bit extra (200L) and starts contemplating the new robe he wants to buy...
Also this leaves the merchant with enough money to invest in a slightly
bigger caravan and generate even more money for the temple!
So Issaries are not stupid and do not want to eat the goose that
lays the golden eggs...
Cheers
Lewis
---------------------
From: dave_cordes@cl_63smtp_gw.chinalake.navy.mil (Dave Cordes)
Subject: Bad Luck Yelornans
Message-ID: <9409291613.AA27743@Sun.COM>
Date: 29 Sep 94 00:24:56 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6408
CL QM-SMTP gw Bad Luck Yelornans
>Michelle Ringo X-RQ-ID: 6397:
>On the issue of GM wife favoritism. I think that Chris has felt a need to
>prove you that he has no favoritism [Thanks].
You're Welcome.
> .....
>thwacked my just recently healed and revived Kelsey on the head and KILLED
>her!!!!
> .....
>Chris has now killed both of the Yelornans 3 times total and of the six
>Yelmalians only 1 has been killed. Both Yelornans now have powers at or
>below 10 and One is out an 11 point power crystal which until recently was
>worth 1,000 stars.
I think that Chris is obviously showing favoritism here. He has given the
two Yelorans three opportunities to experience the divine act of
ressurection. Yet the poor Yelmalians have only had one such mystical
experience between the six of them. Doesn't sound fair to me.
Have you had Chris analysed? He may have been scared by a Yelornan as a
child and his subconcience is getting revenge now.
Actually I don't want to sound too unsympathetic or cynical. But sometimes
this sh-- happens. In our current campaigns we have a player who is on his
third character. Another player is also on his third character (and he
joined us half way through our current adventure). There are three of us
with our original characters and one NPC that is still an original member. I
haven't noticed any favoritism on our GMs part. I just seems that certain
characters seem to attract trouble.
I think you should be happy that you at least have the option of
ressurections or DI. We have not yet found a healer capable of ressurecting.
Additionally the divines in the party are only initiate status so DI is
difficult. So for us, death has been pretty permanent. In all fairness, two
of the lost characters were Humakti, so we wouldn't have ressurected them
even if it would have been available.
This situation that we find ourselves in (permanent deaths) has led us to try
some different options. What I want to know is if it is possible for a
shaman to ressurect a dead character.
I would picture the steps to achieving this to be:
1. Heal the body to a positive 3 hit points or more.
2. Enter the spirit plain and find the spirit. This is where the greatest
chance of failure occurs. If the deceased was a divine worshipper the
spirit has gone to join it's god. If a non divine it may have wandered
off during the few hours it took the shaman to get there.
4. Beat the spirit in spirit combat.
5. Learn the deceased spirit's true name, or store it in your fetch If you
have room.
6. Return to the material plane.
7. Using summon ghost spell and the spirits name - summon the spirit to you.
8. Defeat it again in spirit combat.
9. Force the spirit back into the body, thus bringing the person back to
life.
10. Make the person pay through the nose for all the trouble you went
through.
Success in all this would rely on being able to: find the spirit, defeat it,
know summon ghost spell, defeat it again. Failure at any one of these would
doom the whole enterprise. For those GMs of you who like ressurections to be
really hard to get. Just make sure the spirit has wandered away.
This process doesn't seem to differ from the ressurection process described
in the Magic Book, page 36:
" Resurrect:
...
This spell summons the deceased spirit to approach it's former body. The
caster of the spell can then start spirit combat with the deceased. If the
initiate or priest succeeds in causing the deceased to lose magic points,
then he can force the spirit back into the body and return to full life. If
the caster fails the soul is lost to death.
...."
My shaman character tried this when one of his friends was killed. But after
finding his spirit, beating it in spirit combat and learning it's true name
He had no way to get it from the spirit plain to the material plain. He didn't
know summon ghost nor was his fetch big enough to hold the spirit. So I had
to just wish him well and say good-bye.
After this failed attempt we started discussing if my attempts would have
been successful, if I could have gotten his ghost back to the material plain.
Finally someone found this quote from the Magic Book page 28: "Only Divine
Magic can bring back an adventurer from the dead, a capability which greatly
encourages such characters to learn or convert to that approach to magic".
Why???? What is the difference between what I detailed here and the
resurrection spell?
---------------------
From: Argrath@aol.com
Subject: Risklands
Message-ID: <9409291312.tn25143@aol.com>
Date: 29 Sep 94 17:12:36 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6409
Richard Ohlson asks some sensible questions about Risklands, viz:
>I resent the fact that they do not EVER
>mention what the common language of Riskland is. (Is it Bilini
>like Renekot's dad's tribe, is it Stormspeak since almost
>everybody is an Orlanthi, or did they invent a language called
>Dorastan?)
Immigrants usually bring their language with them, especially if
they come as a group large enough to be a separate economic unit.
(Ever been to Miami?) So I'd rule they speak Bilini.
Stormspeech is a ritual language, the way Hebrew was before the
founding of Israel. There may be some beings around who speak
Dorastan (hint: see Codex #1), which is more or less mutually
intelligible with Bilini--like Swedish and Norwegian are reputed
to be (I bet I hear from some Swedes or Norwegians on that one).
>How much time do people let go by without any encounters? How
>do you roleplay farm life? Or do you just say, "And the rest
>of the season goes without event." I don't like doing that,
>but farm life sounds boring to me!
It all depends on your style of play, including how often you
game and whether you're willing to do a lot of solo stuff. I
doubt that farm life in Riskland is boring, however. Not only
are there lots of adventurous-type things to do, but there's also
a lot of decision-making. "Do I take in those rotten Soderfal
steaders, give 'em some grain and make 'em leave, or just drive
them off and hope they don't burn my crops?" "Do I spend the 120
L. bounty on a draft animal or more armor?" "Should I marry
Bergtha, who is beautiful and rich, or Valgarda, whose old mother
would come live on my stead?" (At least as much as in historical
Earth societies, having an old person around is important because
they are wise; in Glorantha, they also have amazing skills and
lots of spells. Thus, the above question is not a no-brainer.)
You can certainly abstract the boring stuff. None of that
"Oops, you failed your Farming roll, so the furrow's crooked."
Other things can be kept in the background by using them to set
the scene ("You're threshing grain when ...") or just reminding
the players about them ("The tinker comes by this way once a
season").
I can't help you on the Weekly Stead Production thing. It
reminds me of Pendragon's economics rules, only less realistic.
For one thing, the number of people in the stead doesn't seem to
matter.
Alynxes coming at ya by private email. Let me know if you don't
get 'em. You have Gloranthan Bestiary, right?
--Martin
---------------------
From: Michelle_Ringo@ed.gov (Michelle Ringo)
Subject: Risklands - Tithing - Farming Profits
Message-ID: <9408297808.AA780875037@ed.gov>
Date: 29 Sep 94 19:34:45 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6410
TITHING IN RISKLANDS
With Regards to the 10% tithe. Normally, when you have
inventory in which you invested 10,000 then both income and
profit are both estimated based on return minus cost of
inventory. Therefore, the 10% is on 2,000 in the example
provided. A tithe of 200. This based on a tax on income or
profits, because the income is the amount over initial
investment. Therefore, the farmer in your example did not
make 10,000+, but 2,000 - the 200 tithe = 1,800.
---------------------
From: ddunham@radiomail.net (David Dunham)
Subject: Riskland; Land Goddesses; Red Moon visibility
Message-ID: <199409291915.AA03934@radiomail.net>
Date: 29 Sep 94 19:15:56 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6411
RISKLAND
Richard Ohlson had some questions about Riskland.
I assume that the most common language in Riskland is New Pelorian, since
most of the immigrants come from somewhere in the Lunar Empire (even if
they don't consider themselves citizens). Most people speak one of the
Theyalan tongues, like Bilini. I think it would be difficult to carry on a
conversation in Stormspeech -- it's not really a human language, and it's
probably specialized for religious use. It's probably like Latin in some
regards -- perhaps universal across all Orlanthi, but difficult to discuss
anything that was invented since Godtime.
>How much time do people let go by without any encounters? How
>do you roleplay farm life? Or do you just say, "And the rest
>of the season goes without event." I don't like doing that,
>but farm life sounds boring to me!
I'm not the GM of our Riskland campaign, but that's exactly how I run my
PenDragon Pass game -- you want lots of time to pass so you can portray
long-term events, like raising a kid. And most of daily life is boring --
just like a novel, the game ought to focus on the interesting bits (with
other bits thrown in only to establish character or setting).
BTW, "alynx" is Greg's new name for shadowcat.
LAND GODDESSES
I've been doing some thinking (aided by Jonas and Joerg) about what Gods of
Glorantha calls Grain Goddesses. It also calls them "Queens of the Land" or
Land Goddesses. I believe all these goddesses also have a sovereignty
aspect. This isn't mentioned in GoG, but neither is Orlanth Rex, which is
in many ways similar (a subcult devoted to rulership).
The land goddesses were there all along, even if not seriously worshipped.
For example, in Ralios, the Hsunchen probably worshipped her as one of many
local spirits (she happened to be in all the localities). When the Orlanthi
dominated, her worship became more important.
How did land goddesses get a grain aspect? Many grains grow in their land.
One may or may not be the favorite. A fairly standard heroquest is to raise
the agricultural productivity of a grain, which has the side effect of
associating it with the land goddess.
More important is the sovereignty aspect. The goddess represents the land
itself. To maximize the fertility of his land, a king has to marry the land
goddess (this might happen even with Hsunchen). This marriage also
legitimizes his rule. An example of a sovereignty goddess with no grain
aspect is Kero Fin -- marry her and you are the legitimate ruler of her
land (you actually marry one of her incarnations, see KoS.127 where
Moirades marries the Feathered Queen of the Kerofin Temple and becomes King
of Dragon Pass).
Note that it's possible to be a Grain Goddess without being a Land Goddess
-- Hon-Eel and Rice Mother being two examples.
VISIBILITY OF THE MOON
The editor of Heroes of the King objected to a passage in my story where
from Pavis, people see a cloud blow over the moon. I did a little research,
and still believe that you can see the Red Moon from Pavis. KoS.141
mentions the moonlight over Runegate, which has always been outside the
Glowline. KoS.153 mentions the "distant black moon, hanging in the sky."
It's black because it's Clayday, and it's hanging in the sky outside the
Glowline. I believe this later work supersedes Biturian Varosh's
long-out-of-print description in Cults of Prax.
---------------------
From: jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney)
Subject: Dark Arkati magic
Message-ID: <9409291930.AA20273@sonata.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 29 Sep 94 09:30:27 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6412
I've got a new PC who is a Dark Arkati (she's also a Xiola Umbar). Anyway,
the way she understands her Arkat magic is that it is special secrets that
Arkat stole from devil worshippers to make Trolls strong and help them
fight chaos. These are holy secrets and work because Arkat sits above in
his home in the sky and listens to all his worshippers. When a worshipper
says the right secret prayers, Arkat gives him a gift (the spell works).
However, since Arkat is now hard to get hold of, you have to get the prayer
JUST right so it can make it straight to the Dark One.
Other beings who do not know Arkat claim to know similar magic. They are
devil worshippers, of course. They still have some of the power that Arkat
was not able to steal and eat before he had to go fight Gbaji.
Even Arkat had to take time to eat.
(That last is an Uz proverb.)
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Magic Crystals <> Matrices
Message-ID:
Date: 29 Sep 94 21:04:46 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6413
Michelle Ringo in X-RQ-ID: 6397
> The Yelorna Saga Continues:
> Thanks for everyones clarifications about the Errata,
> presumably the Gloranthan economy my Yelornans have been
> living in has a huge rate of inflation for crystals, but I
> hear the bottom may be dropping out of the crystal market at
> least in Sun County and Pavis County.
Not really. Crystals cannot be made by men (except if they enter
the godplane, hit a deity real hard and collect the crystallized
blood of the deity - not your mail order service). Thus, they
have quite a lot of ideological value - either you carry along a
piece of a friendly god, or the trophy from an overcome enemy.
Either has some importance, and makes even a dead crystal valuable
beyond its magical benefit.
If the old RQ2 use as spirit trap is retained, they become even more
valuable.
> Both Yelornans now have powers at or below 10 and One is out
> an 11 point power crystal which until recently was worth
> 11,000 stars.
POW >= 8 after a DI is not what I'd call bad...
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
---------------------
From: carlsonp@wdni.com (Carlson, Pam)
Subject: Riskland details
Message-ID: <2E8B2F70@emssmtp.msm.weyer.com>
Date: 29 Sep 94 21:20:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6414
Richard Ohlson askes about the Risklands.
First off, I resent the fact that they do not EVER
mention what the common language of Riskland is. (Is it Bilini
like Renekot's dad's tribe, is it Stormspeak since almost
everybody is an Orlanthi, or did they invent a language called
Dorastan?)
I do believe it says that the people in the area mostly use (sit down Rich
- brace yourself) New Pelorian! In my game, the Orlanthi all speak Aggari,
or Talastari, or Sartarite, which are closely related. But everyone knows
New Pelorian, and the party uses it because two of them don't know anything
else. I use New Pelorian as a sort of "official" language of the area - you
hear it in Hazard Fort and Relain, but among themselves the Orlanthi speak
their local Theyalan dialects - Talastari, I guess.
How much time do people let go by without any encounters?
Depends on the season. Here's how my players have trained ME:
Sea Season - no encounters. We're planting. Don't bother us. Orlanth
himself couldn't get us to leave.
Fire Season - good enounter season. Crops are just growing, and the
hundreds of NPC's we've collected can pull weeds and chase sheep. All kinds
of interesting foreigners show up in Hazard Fort, looking for guides.
Earth Season - nope. Harvest time. Have to go to Oxhead for Ernalda HHD.
Well, MAYBE we can be persuaded to do something if we're already in
Oxhead....
Dark Season - this is a good time to do things like, oh, climb Thunder
Mountain. Snow? Who cares? We'll prepare...(and they did!).
Sacred Time - no encounters. ( I haven't gotten into the mythology enough to
do this season justice. Much guilt.)
Storm Season - Elmal and Orlanth HHD's. We have to train and study up on
Orlanth, then go to Oxhead. See Earth Season.
How
do you roleplay farm life? Or do you just say, "And the rest
of the season goes without event." I don't like doing that,
but farm life sounds boring to me!
Au contraire! You can get the PC's excited about improvements: water
wheels, grain storage pits or root cellars, walls, a sod roof (saved their
bacon last night), and just maybe, A SEPERATE BUILDING FOR THE ANIMALS!
And things can come a-visiting - drunken Storm Bulls (is that redundant?),
cave trolls, baby-snatching hellwood elves, nice, clean broos wanting to
trade (thank you, Barron), Telmori, or worse - Lunars.
Do other people use the Weekly Stead Production thingy?
I used it their first year. They came out moderately well off.
How do other people convert it to money/stuff? How does buying new tools
help?
I gave them about a 100L profit from piglets, extra seed-corn, and hides
they sold in Hazard Fort. There's not a lot of demand for farm products in
the Risklands. The party traveled to Thubana to get a better price for
their wild animal furs. (And see a play put on by a travelling actor troupe
- the Story of Orlanth and Thed!)
As for tools - what bugged me is that the Lunar advertisement for the
Risklands promised everybody an ox and a plow, but there was no mention in
the book about when the players received them. I decided it was a cheap
enticement trick, and there were no free plows and oxen. Renekot was pretty
ticked at the Lunars for that one. Fortunately, the PC Ernalda acolyte
brought her own.
How does the Bless Crop spell affect it?
Um, well, er.... Frankly, I fudge it. Your ideas on tools and spells
adding to plant lore rolls are good ones.
How much do they have to tithe? 10% of the profit or 10% of the income?
Profit, natch'. Otherwise everybody would constantly be in debt.
One last thing-the Kalf's Hunting Alynx's. Can anybody tell me
anything about them? I can't find anything about Alynx's or
hunting cats anywere.
I'll send you the info I saved months ago on alynxes. Mostly, I remember
they don't herd sheep very well.
I made my plane reservations for RQ Con II today. Yippeee!
Pam
---------------------
From: WALLMAN@VAX2.Winona.MSUS.EDU
Subject: RQ by email?
Message-ID: <01HHP53PVQEG004HE7@VAX2.Winona.MSUS.EDU>
Date: 29 Sep 94 16:01:10 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6416
Has anyone out there ever ran RQ by email?
I am thinking of running something on the myths and heroquests
of a small Hsunchen clan. If there are people who want to play that is.
The problem is that I am not exactly sure on the mechanics.
If anyone has tried running RQ by email, please let me know
what you did and how it worked.
And if this sounds like something anyone wants to PLAY, you could
drop me a line, but I think I will stew on it for another month or so.
I just heard Sandy on NPR. What? No mention of RQ?
Congrats on the good Doom publicity.
Ed
Wallman@vax2.winona.msus.edu