From: owner-runequest-rules@ (RuneQuest Rules Digest) To: runequest-rules-digest@lists.MPGN.COM Subject: RuneQuest Rules Digest V1 #62 Reply-To: runequest-rules@mpgn.com Sender: owner-runequest-rules@ Errors-To: owner-runequest-rules@ Precedence: bulk RuneQuest Rules Digest Monday, April 13 1998 Volume 01 : Number 062 RuneQuest is a trademark of Avalon Hill Games. All Rights Reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS Re: [RQ-RULES] Anyone doin' enchantments in their game?? Re: [RQ-RULES] Anyone doin' enchantments in their game?? Re: [RQ-RULES] Anyone doin' enchantments in their game?? [RQ-RULES] Does anyone know? Re: [RQ-RULES] Enchantments in the game. [RQ-RULES] "Relic" Enchantments Re: [RQ-RULES] House Sorcery Rules Re: [RQ-RULES] House Sorcery Rules [RQ-RULES] Anyone doin' enchantments in their game RULES OF THE ROAD 1. Do not include large sections of a message in your reply. Especially not to add "Yeah, I agree" or "No, I disagree." Or be excoriated. If someone writes something good and you want to say "good show" please do. But don't include the whole message you praise. 2. Use an appropriate Subject line. 3. Learn the art of paraphrasing: Don't just quote and comment on a point-by-point basis. 4. No anonymous posting, please. Don't say something unless you're ready to stand by it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 09:21:38 -0700 (PDT) From: allen wallace Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] Anyone doin' enchantments in their game?? Thomas Cooper > OK, guys; is ANYONE running a RQ game(any version) where their nonchaotic, nonbroo RLPs , player characters ACTUALLY take time out to learn up their ceremony/enchant ritual skills and actually MAKE some magical items. I don't run Glorantha, but I have been running Runequest. The more serious magic types in my game have made some careful use of enchantments. The previous group favored healing matrices and strengthening enchantments. Clever use of condition and link enchantments let the sorcerer put together a couple of personal defense items. Frankly though, armoring enchantment was number two, and strengthening enchantment was number one. The emphasis of magic was to help the party survive the battles where there carefully laid plans failed. On sorcery, if you have a player who has a flair for organization, one of my gaming flaws, nudge them into sorcery, otherwise I doubt if your players will be all that interested. Contrary to several opinions, in my experience the duration skill doesn't bog down the game. The sorcerer player puts together a Gloranthan oriented Daytimer/Calander and helps keep track of time. If your players aren't willing to put even that level of effort in, don't let them play a sorcerer. If you use Sandy Sorcery this doesn'apply. By the way, I'd go one on one with the sorcerer before the game, and only explain sorcery to the ones who are planning on playing one, no one else really needs the knowledge, and the mystified "how did you do that?" comments are a kill. Allen *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 11:45:37 -0700 (PDT) From: Brad Furst Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] Anyone doin' enchantments in their game?? At 08:54 AM 4/11/98 -0500, you wrote: > > OK, guys; is ANYONE running a RQ game(any version) where their >player characters ACTUALLY take time out to learn up >their ceremony/enchant ritual skills and actually MAKE some magical items. Yes. In my campaign, Enchantment spells are relatively available (others, like Multi-Missile, are relatively rare). As you recognize, the ritual skills provide plenty of their own restrictions (better than any of my own contrived unavailability). The requirement to sacrifice permanent POWer is another natural restriction. Nevertheless, a minority of my players' characters actually do their own enchantments occasionally. About 10% of the characters do so frequently (half a dozen times in a career to Rune Lord status. Nearly all of these enchantments are Strengthening or Armoring enchanments. *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 16:34:41 -0500 From: "Michael A. Pastorello" Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] Anyone doin' enchantments in their game?? In my game my chars do not do enchantments. As they are new to the system and are young characters, thewy do not have much experience. What I did is I let them get their hands on some minor magic enchantments etc, which were wiped away by the evil sorceror with a high skill in the Dispel Magic spell...weg. They then realised the use of these items. However, the better the spell is that harder it is in my game to makew and make correctly. They then learned the hard way that in a magical world, the raising of magic skills is essential. Especially after accidently summoning one of cacodemons minions.... only 3 out of 5 chars survived that one. If i were you I would give them the chance to learn in the game and let them make their decisions. Put limits on what they can enchant by what their skill level is. Lastly ask them and how do they know in character that this can be done...if they cannot explain where the knowledge came from...or make a skill role to see if they would be able to come up with it, then nope guess they shouldn't be able to do it. Just my opinion. Mike *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 17:46:47 -0400 From: Tal Meta Subject: [RQ-RULES] Does anyone know? Does anyone know who might be? His mailbox seems to be overflowing... *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 11:35:40 EDT From: JULIAKIR Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] Enchantments in the game. In a message dated 98-04-11 10:07:29 EDT, you write: << OK, guys; is ANYONE running a RQ game(any version) where their nonchaotic, nonbroo RLPs , - --------->>>>Broo are people too!!!<<<<------------ Chaotics or not makes no difference to enchantment making. player characters ACTUALLY take time out to learn up their ceremony/enchant ritual skills and actually MAKE some magical items. Or do you have your NPCs do this and the PCs pay(through the nose for their services?). I'm just trying to decide how much time/energy I should spend on explaining this aspect of the game to my newbie(to RQ that is) players. Most of my players would consider making enchantments of one form or another. They are too useful to ignore. The problem with enchantments is they require a sacrifice of a lot of power (more than 2) to do some of the more 'fun' and unusual things, and at a risk of just lossing the power with no benifit. It is usually spirit magicians who devote their energy to making enchantments since priests and sorcerers have other more pressing uses for their power. Although, I played with a Yelm worshipper, who being in Yelm the Youth and thus unable to sacrifice for divine magic and having to wait a long time to join, specilized in making enchantments. This character used enchantment instead of divine magic. One of the more useful item he made was matrix which incorparated 3 Disrupt matrixes linked together (5pt enchantment). This allowed him to cast three disrupt spells at a single target with one roll for 3 mps. Note that this does not have to be done all at once and can possiably incorparate, or be based upon, enchantments made by others. Strengthening, armoring, metal enchanting,and spirit binding enchantments are the ones most likely to be used by charachters in the games a have seen and reffed. I say let the characters muddle through without to many explanations and expand their knowledge as they start to ask questioons. "Hey how come that guy can cast 30 or 40 points of spirit or sorcery magic and no crystals?" and so on. > I' SO tempted to just run them WITHOUT the sorcery rules and tell them that sorcery is some mystical magic from the Utter East which they MAY encounter in the future, and just focus on the spirit magic and possibly ritual side of magic. How have yo'all run this. >> As you noticed enchantments are part of all magic systems, and not just sorcery. Running a campaing without sorcery is not very difficult. Just remember it was just recently introduced with RQ3. All of RQ2 was played without it. Leon Kirshtein *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 12:14:00 -0400 From: Tal Meta Subject: [RQ-RULES] "Relic" Enchantments At a recent con, I had the opportunity to play in an In Nomine game, and my Malachite of the Sword had a very useful "enchantment" on his character sheet. (Note: I can't see the rules for this in the IN rulebook, but it might exist in a supplement I don't own.) So here's my RQ-ized version of that enchantment, for your amusement... Relic Enchantment Rare By means of this enchantment, an item can become linked to it's possessor in such a way that it is ALWAYS available to him, even if lost, stolen, or misplaced. For a minimum of 2 POW per ENC of the item, that item becomes linked to that character. By a simple act of will, the character who owns the relic can simply "find" the item near his person anytime he chooses to look for it, and expends 1 MP. Note: the item will never appear "in hand"... it will always be someplace nearby and within reach, though. [Example: Fred Parker has left his broadsword at home when going to market. Seeing a member of a rival sect crossing the street to accost him, Fred ducks behind a baker's stall for a moment, expends a magic point, and "finds" his sword leaning against the back of the stall. Fred smiles to himself as he emerges from his momentary sanctuary to meet his opponent....] Previously enchanted items require an additional POW cost equal to the POW originally used to enchant them. Thus, to turn a broadsward (ENC 2) with a TrueSword matrix (2 POW) on it into a Relic costs 2(x2)+2, or 6 points. If user conditions do not exist on the item, a new owner can attune it to himself by expending POW and matching that against the POW used to make the item into a Relic ONLY (not the points added to account for existing enchantments, etc.). For this to work, the previous owner must be dead, and have passed beyond this realm (i.e. a ghost who had a Relic enchantment could use it when it possesses someone, etc.). Thoughts? Comments? *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 08:06:54 -0500 From: stancliff@commnections.com Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] House Sorcery Rules RU>I've been tinkering on and off with a new Sorcerous Art, but I'm at a RU>loss as to what to name it. Current thoughts range from Strike to Oomph. RU>Basically, what this art would do is increase randomly rolled damage by RU>a certain amount, up to the maximum damage permitted by the spell's RU>Intensity. The purpose of Intensity is to increase damage, why waste manipulation on a skill that increases the minimum damage but doesn't increase the maximum... just increase the damage intensity. I don't accept the idea that a new skill is needed, the Arts are already overlapping each others effects, we don't need more. I can't help but feel that there are people who want a different magic system for every school of sorcery, not just types of magic. If we keep defining more systems and differences, we might as well run DragonQuest or Palladium RPG, or maybe even Champions, it's more flexible than just about anything else. Champions is also infinitely extensible for those Referees who want demi-god players. A little too much sarcasm, back to the discussion. It isn't necessary or desirable for sorcery to do everything that Spirit and Divine magic can do. That is why RQ3 never gave sorcery a Protection or armor boosting spell. Such a spell used in combination with manipulation will unbalance the game in direct proportion to it's accessibility. On the other hand I do think it was a bad mistake to apply Damage Resist before armor instead of after, this weakens it too much and unbalances in the other direction. I just might make this a house rule. While I have no desire to give up Duration for Presence, I have fewer complaints with the rest of Sandy's rules than I used to. There are some good ideas there for expanding RQ3 and fixing some real problems with evening out the progression of abilities from student to magus. Bob Stancliff (Stancliff@commnections.com) (http://commnections.com/upgrades) *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 06:48:35 PDT From: "Leon Kirshtein" Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] House Sorcery Rules > While I have no desire to give up Duration for Presence, I have fewer >complaints with the rest of Sandy's rules than I used to. There are >some good ideas there for expanding RQ3 and fixing some real problems >with evening out the progression of abilities from student to magus. >Bob Stancliff Here, here Leon Kirshtein ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 09:46:22 -0500 From: stancliff@commnections.com Subject: [RQ-RULES] Anyone doin' enchantments in their game RU>OK, guys; is ANYONE running a RQ game(any version) where their nonchaotic, RU>nonbroo RLPs , player characters ACTUALLY take time out to learn up RU>their ceremony/enchant ritual skills and actually MAKE some magical items. Unless the character comes from a Spirit Magic background, it is highly difficult to get the needed Spirit spells to do it yourself. It takes several seasons of game time and some valuable gifts to convince a shaman to train an outsider. Since my players didn't know the game, I used an NPC character to do this and show how such problems can be overcome. Another player caught on quickly and they spent a lot of time practicing Ceremony, Enchant, and Summon by research with only a little paid training. By the time they got their skills into the mid-30's, they had the needed spells to create ghost binds, and to summon and control ghosts into them. Other players have followed their lead and now I have at least five characters able to make magic items. The actual limit on this is available POW. Any character who gets good enough to make acolyte, has to put all of his POW into Divine magic, and can't afford to do Enchants, even though he knows how. This gives a large advantage to characters with a higher POW species maxima, like elves. I have also given this as a gift to humans when exceptional events have justified it. My party is a mercenary hero group with about 20 members run as PC's and NPC's by 5 or 6 players. We rotate between characters for different stories and train between. The eight best characters have 3 to 5 ghost or magic spirit binds, about 20% made by themselves. They each have 30 to 100 points of Pow spirits and stored magic beyond the ghosts own Pow's. They have 1 to 3 Strengthening enchants each to increase survivability in combat, and all of them have Divine crystals from Dyskund cavern. With this many ghosts casting spells, they have Bladesharp and Protection from 5 to 8. Their Strength, Coordination, and Vigor run from 3 to 5, and most of them have Shimmer 4 and Endurance 2, therefore they never get fatigued in normal combat and are very hard to damage with normal opponents. The total MP's available for spells and boosting can run from 80 to 200 for the best characters. By the Glorantha descriptions, these people are all Witches and Warlocks; demi-shamans and spirit masters. One character is actually the young shaman female from Shadows on the Borderlands, adopted into the mercenary family after she and her village were sentenced to slavery for consorting with Chaos. The player that caught on early to magic training was an Agimori who got cast out and eventually became a Eurmal acolyte. He is a Ferocious warrior with an allied spirit and has expended about 16 POW on enchants for himself and teammates. The shaman has gotten advanced training and joined Daka Fal, I am waiting to see what long-term affects it will have as more players summon ancestors instead of random ghosts. A character has just made Orlanth acolyte, and another is completing the Path of Immanent Mastery with the aid, for some obscure reason, of Dragon newts. The party is mainly advanced initiates who can fight toe to toe with rune levels because of all of their spirit magic. RU>Or do you have your NPCs do this and the PCs pay(through the nose for RU>their services?). I'm just trying to decide how much time/energy I should RU>spend on explaining this aspect of the game to my newbie(to RQ that is) RU>players. No newbie is capable of making magic items, they can only decide that they want to train to do so. Most magic in Glorantha is inherited, passed down, or captured. I initially allowed the players to buy enchants and binds, but eventually I told them that the market had dried up. The people who have magic are not willing to sell it because they need it, and only so many people are willing to trade away their POW for money. The market is self limiting. I usually start negotiations at 1500L per POW used to make an enchantment and I value 1L at $5 US. RU>I' SO tempted to just run them WITHOUT the sorcery rules and tell them RU>that sorcery is some mystical magic from the Utter East which they MAY RU>encounter in the future, and just focus on the spirit magic and possibly RU>ritual side of magic. How have yo'all run this. I run a River of Cradles campaign, so there was NO visible sorcery until I introduced a Student character who had run away from home to escape an arranged marriage. This was after I had run the campaign for two years already. The character is from a region in transition from Divine to Sorcery. She belongs to a knowledge cult that accepts the existence of Sorcery, and the party rationalizes her magic as unusual Divine knowledge. They know that Pavis used Sorcery when the city was built, and occasionally they capture a sorcerous magic item. The party is split about in half between those who allow these spells on themselves and those who hold to the old ways. It is much better to start characters without sorcery and let them learn the game first, then introduce sorcery users later after people have read all the rules a couple of times. *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ End of RuneQuest Rules Digest V1 #62 ************************************ *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. RuneQuest is a Trademark of Avalon Hill Games. 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