Re: grievous wounds; feats; default bid

From: David Dunham <dunham_at_...>
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 18:03:54 -0700


Mikko wrote

> Indeed I'd like to see it so that any suffiscienty large AP loss
> (parhaps 14) would automatically inflict a wound... well, not in a
> debate or such, but in serious combat.

"Sufficiently large" is actually 16, see p.151.

> I do think we at least need to give some descriptions or
> guidelines for the feats. If for nothing else then for the people who
> love Glorantha, but use a different game engine to play with.

That's sure a losing proposition! For my money (and Issaries, Inc. does have some of it), they should be supporting their own games, not long out of print systems.

> "Sunset Leap enables one to emulate Mastakoses great leap eastward.

I do wonder why people have this interpretation -- I would think if anything it leaps in the direction of the sunset, i.e. west.

Jonas wrote

> Once I'd gotten over my fixation with exact description, I found that it
> was actually fun to interpret feats on the fly.

Indeed, it does take some getting used to.

> Still, there are a handful of feats with really obscure names. Everyone
> on the list has jumped at explaining Sunset Leap. ;-) The consensus seems
> to be that it's teleportation.

I must be in the minority, thinking it's merely a jump. (Though I do think its name isn't great.)

> ones I still have no idea at all about are Snarl Darkness

One of Babeester Gor's Terror feats. Assuming it's written correctly, it's not effective *against* darkness, but would be a low snarl that makes you so terrified your vision starts closing in.

> and Leaping Shield.

An Orlanth Combat feat. I'd certainly allow this to be used as a defensive ability, and it's possibly one of the few that you can defend other people with ("The dark troll hurls a boulder at the healer." "I toss my Leaping Shield in the way to protect her.")

> There are also a number of
> feats that seem puny or redundant. Look under Vanganth for examples -
> lots of specialized feats that I would have thought were already included
> under Aerial Maneuvering.

I *think* the intent here is to show how difficult it is to fly.

BTW, I can't remember if I've described the logic behind the default 3 point bid. This was my house rule, and the intent was to speed up the game when someone rolled the dice without having stated a bid. Rather than reroll, I just assumed they made a rather dumb bid (I can't remember a single time we've ever bid 3 on purpose).

I think overcautious players who keep bidding 3 are probably forgetting that this is a "simulation" of adventure movies -- yes, they can get killed, but probably not in the ignominious ways you can in RuneQuest (which as I recall has insanely speedy bleeding rules).

David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_...>
Glorantha/HW/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein

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