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Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 13 Oct 1994, part 2
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---------------------
From: igorlick@bnr.ca (ian i. gorlick)
Subject: Head taking
Message-ID: <_7338_Tue_Oct_11_12:17:30_1994_@bnr.ca>
Date: 11 Oct 94 08:07:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6573
Paul Snow in RQ-ID: 6515
" Does collecting the heads of fallen enemies, in a Celtic-Orlanthi
way, prevent resurrection? Anyone got any Gloranthan justifications on why
Orlanthi should or shouldn't do this?"
I think there are a number of reasons why Orlanthi should do this.
It does prevent resurrection. What's the point in killing someone if they just
come back and you have to do it again? If you are engaged in a war or feud then
you want your enemies to stay dead.
It forestalls charges of murder or unlawful killing. If you take your victim's
head home and display it openly on the walls then you are clearly claiming
responsibility for the deed. If you take back no trophy then people may think
you are ashamed of the deed, and therefore they may suspect it was not a fair
act of war or feud.
It gains you status. Your enemies now have to acknowledge your ability to kill
them and they have to send a herald to treat with you for the return of the
heads. (They would probably like to have the heads back for the funeral services
of their fallen.) You have the opportunity to demonstrate your power or
magnaminity by refusing or agreeing to return the heads.
On a magical front, I believe that someone's head can be used to prevent the
dead person's spirit from seeking vengeance. Presumably you extract guarantees
against this before returning anyone's head to their kin.
Finally, as a gamemaster, I want lots of people taking the heads off corpses.
That way my players can't be sure when the Thanatari show up.
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Shamans and divine magic
Message-ID:
Date: 12 Oct 94 12:50:51 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6574
All this hickup about the shamans' access to divine magic makes me
remember some points of my off-line discussion (the one we resolved on
the field of honor in Leicester) we actually agreed upon (!!!).
Apparently a lot of people tend to think of getting a divine spell like
this:
Joe Initiate goes to the temple, with his gift of 20 guilders in a
pouch, and seeks out Bob Priest, "Hey, Bob, I thought about it, I'd
really love to get this point of Heal Wound you had on your last ad."
Bob, browsing through his books, "Heal Wound, just a minute, here we
have it, catalogue number 15.3. Yeah, no problem, that's shrine 3.c,
down there. Would you please follow me?"
Joe and Bob shuffle off to the appropriate shrine, in a niche on the
temple wall. Bob activates the shrine, and the runic letters above the
slots go alight: "Insert coins here (sorry, no change)" "Insert POW
here (sorry, no change)" and "Touch the Screen!".
Joe inserts and touches, Bob pulls the lever, and Joe Initiate goes
home, a point of divine magic richer and a couple of guilders and a
point of POW poorer.
Ok, exaggarated, but by how much?
However the objections that shamans gain access to divine spells seems
to stem from this attitude.
Alex and I agreed that getting a divine spell, be it common or special
to the religion, requires a ceremony, if not a little Hero- or
RuneQuest, which involves the action the spell is supposed to perform.
In the case of the (common divine) spell Heal Wound the priest might
enact a ceremony, ritually wound the recipient, and the recipient would
have to heal (or at least care for) this wound while in ceremonial
contact to his deity. Special cult spells usually have a myth
connected, like e.g. Orlanth's Lightning seems related to Orlanth's
Javelin (outside of Prax, where Lightning Boy isn't that well known).
Spells resulting from a successful theft or conquering in the deity's
myth, like Orlanth's Darkwalk, should be harder to get beause the theft
or fight would have to be part of the ceremony.
There will be a difference between a first-time aquisition of a spell
and successive sacrifice for more points of that same spell - later
Darkwalk quests simply will require to slip off the sandals of a black
seated female statue, or so.
I don't demand that all spells are rewritten at once for such
ceremonies, although such certainly would help. The fact that there is
a mini-quest, and that there is more to getting the spell than just
inserting into the correct slot.
Now, if the divine aquisition of a spell already is connected to such a
miniquest, why shouldn't a shaman undergo the same quests? The main
difference is that where the cult member recipient has the priest as
his emergency backup and opener of the path, the shaman has only
himself and his fetch to work with.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
---------------------
From: hasni@hogbbs.scol.pa.us (Richard Ohlson)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 11 Oct 1994, part 2
Message-ID:
Date: 11 Oct 94 12:04:09 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6575
Subject : Challana Arroy
A friend mentioned a CA subcult representing her son. In this subcult men
are allowed to become High Healers. (The only way for men to become priests)
What do people know about him?
Challana Arroys are sworn not hurt anything that is not chaotic. I have
allways wondered how they are supposed to tell. Why isn't there a spell
to detect Chaos? Or would it be easier to let Urox teach Challana Arroy
cultists the sense chaos skill. Actually, now that I think about it, why
do the Uroxi keep such a useful skill secret? Shouldn't they be teaching
eveybody how to sense chaos, so that they are not the only ones that can
go looking for something disgusting to kill? Or am I confused- can there
be a spirit magic "Detect Chaos"? (Like Detect Gold or Detect wool?) And
a divine "Sense Chaos"? Likewise I suppose there could be sense and detect
Law too. I suppose that a Storm Bull with like a 110% sense chaos could
go Heroquest and create one of the spells.
Subject : Woad
I was reading the new write up of Babeester Gor and really liked it. I
noticed that alot of the geases that the priestess can get involve nudity.
With a warrior cult like BG, that can be particularly dangerous. No
armour for a season can make one particularly vulnerable. But I got to
thinking, if the BG cultists made a deal with the Orlanth temple and talked
them into trading some buckets of Woad, things wouldn't be so bad. I
never saw Woad as a really useful item to the Orlanthi, but the Babeester
Gor could REALLY use that stuff. One other thing, since Woad can only be
made on Orlanth's HHD, is it possible to assume that part of that ceremony
takes place on the Godplane? If so, could woad be used on a Heroquest?
(And since there is no time, never fade away?) I'd think that a really
nasty Windlord who has lived on the heroplane for (relative to what?) a
long time might run around naked with about 20pts of Woad and Shield 10.
(not to mention Prot 8 or some other disgusing combination...)
Subject : Truestone
If Truestone is the physical embodiment of Law, is there a physical
embodiment of Chaos? How about Neutrality? (The philosphers stone of
illumination...hmmm...)
Richard Ohlson hasni@hogbbs.scol.pa.us
---------------------
From: T.J.Minas@soton.ac.uk (T.J.Minas)
Subject: RE: Cult initiation/parent haters!
Message-ID: <199410121817.TAA18418@willow.soton.ac.uk>
Date: 12 Oct 94 20:17:04 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6576
Hello again,
A quick reply to Nick's comment on my last para
about Shamanic resurrection. Most Gloranthan shamans do, I believe,
worship Gods. Some do it as formal initiates of certain deities,
others as a Spirit cult mechanism. The God ain't worried! (S)He
gets the worship, that's what (s)he wants. And I think that most
shamans, therefore, if asked to resurrect someone, would probably
try the divine route first, as it is easier for them. Not all,
and not every time, etc. It's just a lot less hassle generally!
Now, onto my real thought. I have just started up a campaign,
set in early 1616, Pavis. Whilst generating the characters, I
allowed them a luck roll each year to try and find someone to take
them on as an apprentice (whatever), eg, most of them had farming
parents, and didn't want to be farmers, so went off to join a
warband etc. This was fine for the Barbarian Belt Orlanthi, but
for the nomads, it is very unlikely that your parents will have
worshipped anyone except Waha, Eiritha, and Foundchild. Hence,
joining (say) Storm Bull, Orlanth or Humakt is not that easy, and
will probably take you several years. What did you do in the
meantime? Those 3-4 years (or more) whilst you were trying your
annual acceptance tests to get into (say) Orlanth, what did you
do as far as worship went? Remain a lay member of Waha/Eiritha?
Because (especially if you were female) you are shafted if you
initiate yourself into the tribal cult and later wish to leave
to join Orlanth! Is there a socially acceptable route for those
(admittedly few) wanna be Orlanthi/Humakti/whatever in the tribe
to progress to initiate status without quite so much hassle? Eg
a grouping of the Orlanthi in a tribe who hang out together and
encourage newbies?
That's enough for now.
Tim
---------------------
From: igorlick@bnr.ca (ian i. gorlick)
Subject: Bits needed for resurrection
Message-ID: <_11428_Wed_Oct_12_12:00:27_1994_@bnr.ca>
Date: 12 Oct 94 07:59:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6577
Sandy Petersen in RQ-ID 6552:
".. most roleplayers come from a
modern society which has decided that man's "life" centers in the
brain, most roleplayers assume that the same must be true of their
characters as well. I've tried to claim before that the liver is
where the soul is centered. The heart is another claimant. "
I'm inclined to agree that the brain is not the exclusive seat of
the life or soul of an individual. My personal feeling is that you
require a viable body that can live once it is healed, i.e. you need
the head, chest, and abdomen all together. Once this is healed it can
sustain life and then you can worry about regrowing the limbs.
So cutting out and riding away with someone's heart or liver or lungs
would be equally as effective as decapitation for preventing
resurrection.
You will note that the spell descriptions for Regrow Limb, etc. all
indicate that it takes time to regenerate the destroyed location. The
person must remain alive for that period of time. If you resurrect
someone without their heart or brain or whatever then they will die
again long before the part can regrow. I don't believe that the reqrowth
magics will work on a corpse, they require life to be present.
---------------------
From: bmason@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Bruce Mason)
Subject: Oh no sorcery: part 2
Message-ID:
Date: 11 Oct 94 06:32:23 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6559
This is the second part of a three-part of how I've derived a sorcery
system that is, I hope, more Gloranathan than the RQ3 model. In this
part I'll illustrate the nuts and bolts of the system. On the whole this
modifies RQ3 rather than starting afresh, so things that are unsaid
either appear on RQ3 or possibly RAG.
How to cast sorcery
-------------------
Sorcery spells are cast by pitting the caster's skill%
vs the number of MPs in the spell in an opposed roll contest. Eg Tim the
mage is 55% in Damage Boost and wishes to cast damage boost 4 on a
companion's sword. To do so he must roll under 55 *and* beat the spell
which must roll with a chance of 20% (4*5). If the sorceror wins she
casts the spell successfully, if the spell wins the sorceror has failed
to cast it. Generally the player rolls for her PC and the GM for the
spell, and vice-versa for NPCs. Consequently, as in RAG, the sorceror's
limits are defined purely by her knowledge of her arts.
Results of casting.
Sorceror wins with a critical: spell only costs 1MP to cast. (Any MPs
spent in ceremony or spell boosting are still spent).
Sorceror wins normally or by default: spell costs whatever MPs were put
into it.
Sorceror loses but makes spell roll (partial success). Spell
fails, sorceror loses 1MP plus any MPS spent on ceremony or spell boosting.
Sorceror loses: spell fails and sorceror loses whatever MPs were spent on
the spell.
Sorceror fumbles: as loses plus roll on the fumble table.
Both lose: spell not cast, no MPS spent at all. Vaguely embarrassing.[1]
That's it.
The Art of Sorcery
------------------
The sorcery manipulation skills (ie duration, intensity, multispell and
range) no longer exist. Knowledge of a spell allows all sorcery users to
manipulate its range, intensity and duration in the following way.
INTENSITY: each MP gives 1 point of intensity.
RANGE: base range is 10meters. Each MP given for range gives +50m of
range, this does *not* add to the base range. Eg 3MPs of range gives a
range of up to 150m, not 160m.
DURATION: a base temporal spell lasts 10 mins. Each MP of duration gives
30mins, this does *not* add to the base duration. Eg 3MPs of duration
gives a duration of 1&1/2 hours, not 1hr 40 mins.[2]
CEREMONY: this has been modified to allow a caster to spend a mixture of
time and additional MPs to make a spell easier to cast. Rather than use
the fibonacci table from RQ3 the ceremony add uses the 1-5 table below.
Skill MRs/hours MPs spent Vessel Expanded
addition of ceremony Range Intensity
+5% 1 1 1km 1
+10% 2 2 2 2
+15% 3 3 3 3
+20% 4 4 4 4
+25% 5 5 5 5
+30% 10 6 10 10
+35% 20 7 20 20
+40% 30 8 30 30
+45% 40 9 40 40
+50% 50 10 50 50
+55% 100 11 100 100
+60% 200 12 200 200
+65% 300 13 300 300
+70% 400 14 400 400
+75% 500 15 500 500
etc etc etc etc etc[3]
Example: In Tim's case above he wants to be sure of casting his spell
(100%) which means he need another 45%. He could spend 40mr over it but
doesn't have that much time, or he could spend another 9MPS to give him
the +45% but doesn't have that many spare MPs. He elects instead (being
the good little mini-maxer that he is) to spend 5mrs (+25%) and 4 MPs
(+20%) to give him +45% total.
That is all a sorcery user ever needs to know about casting sorcery. It
is slightly more complex than RQ3 in some ways but is also a little more
flexible.
THE MYSTERIES OF SORCERY
------------------------
The great difference between a wizard and her flock is that she has
emptied her vessel after years of preparation. In mundane game terms a
vessel is an attribute that can change over time that measures a wizard's
spiritual potency, ie. it limits how much she can manipulate her magic.
At the end of her initiatory ritual a wizard sacrifices a point of POW
and gains a vessel with a capacity of 1d3. A vessel's capacity is
usually referred to as a wizard's Presence. Basically Presence is to
vessel as MPs are to POW. Your presence is equal to how much of your
vessel you have available to use at one time.[4]
A vessel can increase through POW sacrifice --- 1 POW gains you +1 to
your vessel --- or through taking holy vows --- each vow may give you
+1-3 vessel depending on its severity. Similarly breaking vows and/or
acting in an unacceptable manner can temporarily or permanently reduce
your vessel. I'll go a bit more into this next time.
Vessel abilities.
-----------------
1) Maintain spells. This is the most common use for the vessel and is
referred to as casting a spell into your vessel.
Simply a spell can be maintained indefinitely by using presence equal
to the MP cost of the spell. Eg., Tim decides to keep spirit resist 3 on
permanently. He has a presence of 14 normally, this is reduced to 11
whilst he maintains the spell. Tim can drop the spell any time he wishes
if he wants some more presence but he will have to recast the spell if he
wants to get it back into his vessel. Finally if a sorceror wishes to
maintain a spell and then move away from it (eg., casting on an
associate) then the spell expires as soon as the sorceror moves out of
range. Eg if Tim maintains a Damage Boost 4 on his staff of rank and
someone runs off with it the spell expires as soon as the thief gets more
than 10m away.
2) Extended spell range. One reason why sorcerors are so dreaded is
their ability to cast magic over huge distances, they do this through
using their vessel. Simply each 1pt of presence gives 1km of range using
the 1-5 table. This presence is used up until the spell expires. Eg Tim
in his mountain retreat has spotted a mean looking bunch of Uroxi at the
end of the valley and decides to give them a fright. He knows that a
landmark at the valley entrance is 6MPS away (it's actually just over
8km) and he uses all 14pts of his presence to cast a Palsy 8 and maintain
it in his vessel. The first time he gets the chieftain's left arm so he
drops it out of his vessel and tries again, next time getting him in the
head --- enough to worry even the most stubborn Urox.
3) Spell combination. This works a bit like the old multispell in that
it allows a sorceror to combine 2 or more spells into 1 single spell.
The cost of the combined spell is equal to the cost of the largest spell
plus the number of spells to be combined together. This requires the
requisite amount of presence to cast but does *not* use it up. In essence
the sorceror uses her vessel to combine the spells and then casts the
resulting spell normally. Eg Tim decides to cast damage boost 5, damage
resist 5 and bless staff 5 on his staff. This costs 5 MPs +3 for the
number of spells for a grand total of 8MPs. Therefore it will require at
least 8 presence available for the casting. Note that unless Tim decides
to leave this spell in his vessel it will expire in 10mins. If he does
put it in his vessel it will use 8 pts of Presence.
4) Multitargeting. This simply allows a sorceror to use his vessel to
cast the same spell at two or more targets. As with combining the cost
of the spell is equal to the MPs in its casting plus 1 for each target.
Eg. if Tim wanted to palsy more than 1 person in the example above he
could use this ability. As with combination the sorceror must have
enough presence available to cast the spell. So in Tim's case he would
have to wait either until the Uroxi got closer or drop the intensity of
his palsy as he only has 14 presence available to use.
5) Arcane links. These are a form of magical perception that allow
sorcerors to cast spells. Generally you use 1 pt of presence in a
ceremony ritual to form an arcane link with one person, place or thing.
GMs should feel free to be as picky as they want. Most sorcerors use
this to keep tabs on a trusted companion or safe bolt hole. Some rituals
include (as it were) a free arcane link (eg. homing circle). An arcane
link does not give information as to distance or direction and can be
magically disrupted --- for example Magasta's pool disrupts links, as did
the Syndic's ban.
6) Expanded intensity. This is a judgement call to be made on an
individual basis as it goes against some Gloranthan principles, namely
that large-scale magical creation/alteration is the preserve of the
Gods. Basically the idea is that a sorceror can expand the effect of the
spell using the 1-5 table. Again the spell is limited by the sorceror's
presence and uses it up until the spell expires. Eg., a sorceror could
cast a spell with an effective intensity of 20 with just 7MPs.[5]
Notes
-----
As can be seen the sorceror's vessel is her lifeblood. Increasing
her vessel will obviously be a high priority and the final part of this
article will demonstrate some ways and means of so doing. As for spell
lists --- I generally use the RQ3 list with some modifications and have
added in some of the spells from RAG.[6] I think the battery of effects
above make the sorceror about as powerful as under RQ3. I haven't
spelled out every facet cause readers of this list should be pretty
switched on.
====================
Footnotes
---------
[1] This probably seems a lot to take in at once, however I've been
using opposed rolls for so long now that for all of us the system is
second nature. If you don't want to use opposed rolls you could probably
use the resistance table: pit spell%/5 vs MPs.
[2] The reason behind not adding the base manipulation is purely for
simplicity. The idea is that the spell is cast and then forgotten about
for the duration --- in theory. The casting cost for range and duration
is linear but quite generous compared to other forms of magic in
Glorantha.
[3] I use this table for all non-linear relationships as it is
relatively easy to use and doesn't accelerate too fast. I just use my
fingers to count up how it goes.
[4] My understanding of how Sandy uses vessel is different to this. I
think it starts at Free INT + Magic Bonus and can be increased through
vows in a similar way to the above. This is probably due to different
campaign styles, his seem to be fairly condensed in time but range al
over the place whereas mine have been taking place over 30 years or so of
game time often with one particular focus in space.
[5] I used this for a while as a way to allow big illusions and control
of large amounts of substances. Eg an expanded intensity 20 (effect 5000
ie opacity 20 with 4980m3 of volume) could cover a volume of 25m*20m*10m
or so which makes perhaps a small tower illusion. The players liked it
and it could make magic quite dramatic sometimes but it seems to go
against the very small-scale magic available in the rest of Glorantha.
Generally if you want to make an illusionary tower you need a whole
community at work on making enchantments or a good lifetime's work for a
solitary magus. So I'm dubious. I guess it all depends on your personal
Glorantha.
[6] If you use RAG spells with this you have to roughly halve their
effect as they generally are twice as powerful per intensity as the RQ3
equivalents.
---Bruce.