Unless their Chaos features take them in a different direction, IMG Scorpion-men have two arms, two pincers, six legs and a tail with a stinger.
Common advanced magics for Scorpion-men would enhance their natural features so that they could have stronger venom, additional legs, better chitin or turn one or more of their human arms into either a pincered claw or a spear-like 'jabber', doing damage like a spear. A long time ago these were runespells (Feats in HQ parlance), but nowadays these benefits might be bestowed by unusually powerful non-standard common magic and/or a spirit-based charm instead as Bagog is an animist tradition rather than a theistic cult.
IIRC RQ rules have tended to suggest a POW x 3% chance of a Chaos feature, but IMG I would go for at least 50%, and more (maybe 100% even), in a band of stronger scorpionmen facing more experienced adventurers. Thugh some of the features could be Reverse Chaos features, or one of each.
In the absence of the Ritual of Rebirth, does what hatches reflect the mother's last meal or the hatchling's parents?
To me, the Ritual of Rebirth is also about bringing the superior INT and POW (or more impressionistic equivalent qualities in Heroquest) of the devoured being into the Scorpion-man's bloodline. Old RQ gave 'natural' Scorpionmen (those hatched other than through the Ritual of Rebirth) INT and POW of only 2d6 each -- which is (i) well below human average; and (ii) too little POW to allow the Scorpionman to progress to Rune level.
MGWV. I varied this to a POW of 2d6+3 so (i) they could just about get to Rune level without Chaotic assistance; and (ii) they were less easy to sideline with magic. A mediocre Scorpionman should arouse a mixture of contempt and fear in a novice adventurer -- and more fear than a comprably mediocre Broo
I like the idea that the size of a Scorpionman should reflect the size of the creature from which it was born/reborn. In RQ mechanics terms I might go for old SIZ + 6. SIZ wuld probably have a bit of a knock-on effect on STR as well, but not a precise correlation.
I would also have second-generation Scorpionmen have SIZ, INT and POW halfway between their Reborn mother and "default" Scorpionman, but the children of second- (or more) generation Scorpionmen would be "deafult" Scorpionmen
Finally what sort of sentient creature might a Scorpionman devour that had no connection with the Man Rune at all? Beastmen still have a bit of the Man rune about them, including the non-humanoid Centaur. Dragonewts don't, but as Dragonewts are still humanoid mutatis mutandis a Scorpion-Dragonewt would have the same hybrid qualities as a Scorpion-Troll or Scorpion-Elf. The reincarnating Draconic soul would surely be lost in the rebirth process
Do we mean the Scorpion-Gryphon? What else?
Richard Hayes
From: Andrew Larsen <aelarsen_at_gu1HE4wvy9Y6ayVqMb0OCxtZbEk-cA9MiLvEwvgunF5SBga8B_a2sHX8Pb-vrw8-dzeM_-WNf0xr.yahoo.invalid>
To: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, 23 March 2012, 13:50
Subject: Re: Scorpionmen
On Mar 22, 2012, at 7:11 PM, varma_many_truths wrote:
> Can anyone help with the following questions?
> Can any race be devoured and turned into a scorpionman ?
> Or is it just creatures with the man rune ?
> Without the ritual of devouring, would offspring of a troll scorpion man be trollish or would it revert back to human-ish?
>
Most of the interesting things a Scorpion queen could eat are connected to the Man rune. What were you thinking of? But if you want to use something non-Man rune connected, I'd go for it. Chaos is weird and inconsistent, and if you have an idea for something interesting, don't let the Man rune stand in your way.
If I remember correctly, the Ritual of Devouring just allows the reborn Scorpionman to reincarnate the specific person being devoured. So my guess is that if Queen Zaggax eats Blurg the Dark Troll without using the Ritual, what hatches out of the egg is a dark troll scorpionman that isn't Blurg. It seems more interesting and more in the spirit of chaos to me to have the Scorpionmen be an odd hybrid race, a bit like the broo, than to have them all be one sort of thing.
Andrew E. Larsen
> If a small creature is devoured does it give rise to a small scorpionman, and vice versa ?
> What is the incidence of chaos features in scorpionmen ?
> 6 legs or 8 ?
> Thanking you
> Andrew
>
>
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