Subject: RQ Digest Discussions 6 I had a little mail problem, so those of you who are early in the alphabet may have gotten a mysterious message about "out of disk space"... -------------------- Date: Sun, 10 Feb 91 17:57:34 -0500 From: johnhc@autodesk.com (John Castellucci) [...] Here is a list of Supplements that Chaosium was working on but never published. It really is sad and amusing to read the blurbs in the old Wyrms Footnotes for forthcoming products. Lately, there have been some hints on rec.games.frp about new supplements. The only project that I know for sure is in the works is the Sartar pack being coordinated by Jon Quaife and David Hall in the U.K. It will encompass much of what was advertized for "Under the Red Moon" and "The Sartar Campaign." I have also heard rumors that the Australians are working on a Pent pack and something concerning Sun County. Has anyone got any more information about what is being planned? --David Gadbois -------------------- From: Jamie O'Shaughnessy Subject: What I'm working on Just for the record, I am currently working on detail about EX (in Prax), Grandfather Baboon Cult (in fact all Baboons do not worship Daka Fal, the worship Grandfather Baboon which is a very similar cult!) and a place called Scorpian Castle (in the Chaos Woods) in Sartar. Scorpian Castle is a small castle placed on a hilltop run by, of course, Scorpian Men. However, undernearth it is a Major Thanatar temple. This is probably the toughest campaign/senario I have ever seen (perhaps written). I played it (did not survive and we didn't finish it) and I am not finishing it off. It's RQ2 but I will get around to doing a RQ3 version. -------------------- From: Jamie O'Shaughnessy Subject: RE : DISCUSSION #5 Re : Unfinished Chaosium Gloranthan Products I have heard that (I think I said it before) Dorastor will be finish- ed for RQ3. The same goes for the Sartar Campaigns (I think it will be called Sartar Pack - but don't hold me on that). HeroQuest - everyone knows about. UNDER THE RED MOON I have heard of, I wonder if it will ever come out, the same gos for Mortal Lords. I wonder if Chaosium are interested in these packs being finished off and if they would contract the work out?? Any reactions to that? Re : Now some of my questions >1. Silly question: If I have Countermagic cast on myself, can someone >else cast a Heal Spell on me without having to go through the >Countermagic ? - I'd rule that if you "opened" yourself (i.e. wanted to be healed by someone else) to incoming magic, then the CounterMagic would be dropped. Re : PRAX/SARTAR Places of Interest (from RQ2 maps) How about we start off with this list and if anyone has written about these places then they could mail it to the digest. People can then use these in their campaigns as unofficial places. If they officially come out - then we scrap them (unless the officials are crap). Lets get Glorantha documented!!!! Get working! Here's some corrections and addition I'd like to make to the list. ADARI - appeared in Tales... #3 CORFLU - published in Pavis/Borderlands? EX - I'm doing as part of a campaign HORN GATE - I'm doing a Holiday Gloranthan on here Also mentioned in Borderlands SUN DOME TEMPLE OASIS (Prax) - In PAVIS? also more info in Tales.. #2 or #3, can't quite remember. VULTURE'S COUNTRY - some info in Borderlands If anyone is/has done any of the [others] then write in. If people think this is a good idea then I'm willing to co-ordinate the ideas. People could mail me what they're doing and I'll organise people to write about undocumented things that people are not writing about. If you think this is a good idea, mail me. [I pared Jamie's list to include only the differences from John's.] -------------------- From: autodesk!John_Castellucci%3HARBOR@fernwood.mpk.ca.us Subject: RQ discussion 5 To: rschirme@digi.lonestar.org (Reynold Schirmer) 1. Silly question: If I have Countermagic cast on myself, can someone else cast a Heal Spell on me without having to go through the Countermagic ? -Yup, Counter magic works against all magic, friendly or hostile. -This is straight out of Wyrm's Footnotes #12. I have WF 11-14, and would be interested in trading Xeroxes with anyone who has previous issues. -------------------- From: paul@venus.phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly) Subject: Re: RQ discussion 5 Renoyld Schirmer has come up with some interesting answers (to RQD1) and questions. I will try to address some of them with my own opinions: >>When a critical attack is rolled, does magic armor-type spells still count? >{Reply discussing acid, heat, cold, and Damage Resistance} >The house rules that govern this at our game is that Dammage Resistance >will still function as normal for a critical hit (i.e. roll vs. >resistance to get through) but the Dammage Resistance spell will then be >disabled (needing to be re-cast.) Dammage resistance does not protect I like this house rule, especially the "it may save you from one critical hit but then it's gone" rule. In our campaign we consider what Runes each spell is based on when trying to figure out how it works in various situations and what "special effects" are produced; for the standard Damage Resistance spell we assume that the Runes are Luck (describing the action of the spell), Magic(allowing the spell to be cast), and Life (describing what it is to protect.) Thus the spell alters probabilities to make a 3-pt. arrow hit, for example, "just miss" the target. Things like cold damage from the environment that don't depend on this kind of tricky probability (e.g. if you're out in the Fronelan winter with no coat you just freeze gradually) are unaffected by the spell. (If people are interested in this Runic Sorcery system I will try to get something out to the Digest on it.) Something like acid would depend on the circumstance; just being dipped in it would hurt you, but for a crock of acid thrown at you I would roll for thrown object damage and see if it missed entirely; if it did hit you it might have less chance of breaking on you. >Shouldn't a head shot, even if it didn't penetrate armor, still have a >chance to at least stun the target? (i.e. damage vs head hit points in >resistance roll, if successful the stunned one round; special=stunned >2 rounds; critical=unconscious) Interestingly, I have had a running 230-lb. man in full armor slam a 14-lb. steel shield into my helmeted face, giving me a concussion. I did not become unconscious but was severely "stunned", getting worse over several hours. The stunning should probably subtract percentiles from all skill rolls (especially mental skills!). In fact, Head Hits should probably subtract percentiles from all skill rolls anyway! Rather than having me write down a system for this, why don't several people come up with a sort of n hits = -y% modifier or some such and see if there is some agreement? >Instead of rolling spirit combat each time someone wants to learn a I have found that the spirit combat works well if the spirit for an n-point spell has a POW of n*(n-1)/2 (i.e. 1,3,6,10,15,21...) INSTEAD of nd3 points. This limits most people to 4-point spells with the high-POW individuals able to get spirits up to maybe 21 points, i.e., 6-point spells. Cult Spellteaching has the advantage that the spell spirit can be Commanded not to possess the student. I had a strange idea for a variant: when you "learn" a Spell you don't actually learn it; instead, you Master the spell spirit, which becomes your slave. When you want the spell done, you feed it MPs, and it runs off and actually performs the spell much like a mortal performs a physical task, e.g. a Bladesharp spirit jumps into the target sword and helps swing it about, a Healing spirit jumps into a wound and sews it together, etc. This would change the flavor of magic a lot, but it would seem suitable for a primitive/shamanic/ Hsunchen campaign, judging from the research I have been able to do on shamanic practices. more on this another time... > 1. Silly question: If I have Countermagic cast on myself, can someone >else cast a Heal Spell on me without having to go through the >Countermagic ? I don't think so, although one could argue either way. The Countermagic is a passive spell and just provides a barrier to incoming magic; it isn't under your direct control and itself isn't "smart" enough to distinguish "friendly" magic; e.g., is that Fanaticism from a friend or foe? Analogous question: If you're wearing chainmail and someone Impales you through it, can your friend First Aid you through the armor? After all, the armor "wants" to help you, right? Also, the fantasy literature is full of unintended irksome side effects to "helpful" magic. I think it's more fun to have your friends trying to figure out how to heal you through your Shield spell before you bleed to death... Re Glen Bailey's comments: >How about this rule for combat fumbles (it just came off the top of my head, >but its simple and keeps weapons masters from killing self): Subtract the >Cchance to special from the fumble results roll. (Example: sword skill=60, I like the basic thrust of this rule, but I may hold off on implementing it just because fumbles are interesting. I actually think from SCA fighting experience (13 years of it) that very very few fumbles are "hit self for extra damage"; actually, self-hits tend to be very light due to the awkward angle; I know only one person out of hundreds who ever managed to give himself a concussion while practicing against the pell (me, of course!). Much much more common are fumbles like "overcommit on your attack, off balance and wide open, enemy gets free double damge attack because he can swing his sword like a baseball bat instead of trying to get around your shield.) Often I translate the result on the fumble table into something more like what I have seen or experienced; this also means that people out practing rarely decapitate themselves... >Spell fumbles? The extensive fumble charts are too much. Unless the GM can Usually I say something like "The spell is going out of your control. Roll your basic chance with the spell to abort it before it goes off randomly. If they succeed the spell is aborted but the points are spent; if they fail the spell takes effect on a random target, usually something inconsequential ("Geo's left foot glows pink. So does the sorceror's face...) Starting another thread: How about a "tricky attack" rule? You make a complex attack, add three strike ranks, and subtract 2*N% from your attack and N% from the opponent's Parry/Dodge? We are just trying this out as an optional rule and it seems to put a little more strategy into fights. -------------------- From: CRIMMARTI@urvax.urich.edu Subject: Re: RQ discussion 5 Re: Reynold Schirmer's "silly question": yes, countermagic blocks heal spells cast on one. A reasonable exception to this is that anyone in permanent mindlink with you need not get past the countermagic. Life's a bitch. I don't care for Damage Resistance being blown by critical hits. That may be because I just started playing an Adept. Or it may be because AD&D left a permanent bad taste in my mouth for "game balance" rules. I don't see it as a big problem that Damage Resistance would block criticals while Protection and Shield don't, for two reasons: Damage Resistance is inferior to an equal number of points of Prot. or Shield, and the extra damage a critical gives you will likely punch through Damage Resistance. A side note: I don't consider a sorcery spell useful unless it is pretty effective at a duration of one week or more. A one-week duration D.R. would be intensity 9 for someone with an 18 INT; without armor, that person will be toast very quickly. 30-35% of normal hits with arrows will affect him. Really dangerous hits will almost certainly succeed. Well, I'll quit now, but in parting let me add that Gloranthan wizards regularly beat divine magic users, so don't worry about game balance. Martin Crim crimmarti@urvax.urich.edu -------------------- From: gbailey@umbio.med.miami.edu (Glen Bailey) Subject: RQ digest: skin colors (for miniatures) What is the skin color of trolls? I can't seem to find it in the readings (of RQ3 stuff). What is the color of walktapi? Currently I'm painting the human part flesh and the octopus part a light brown, then wash the whole thing with black. Being a chaos creature I could see it being any color, but I only have one and want it to be more generic. (such a strange creature, is there a story behind it or did it come from a bad dream?) What about dragonsnails "skin" colors? I like my Jack O'bear with its orange pumpkin head and blackish brown fur. (and where did the idea for this creature come from?) One problem I have is that I do not have anything of the old Wyrm's footnotes or other 'zines of Glorantha. If anyone is willing to mail me photocopies of the old stuff I'd be most appreciative (read: I'd send some $$$). --- Glen -------------------- The RuneQuest(tm) mailing list is a courtesy of Andrew Bell. All opinions and material above are the responsibility of the originator, and copyrights are held by them. Unless specified in the specific article, all RQ Digest material is freely redistributable on a not-for-profit basis as long as author credit is included. RuneQuest is a trademark of Chaosium, Inc.