Subject: RQ Discussions, Number 23 First Distribution: August 13, 1991 If you didn't get the index to volume 6 (and want it), let me know. ====================================================================== RUNEQUEST DIGEST ARTICLES IN TALES OF THE REACHING MOON By MOB My name is Michael O'Brien, and I'm Associate Editor of TALES OF THE REACHING MOON, the RuneQuest Magazine. For those of you who haven't seen it, TALES OF THE REACHING MOON is a quarterly A4 magazine dedicated to the roleplaying game RuneQuest and the world of Glorantha. It is sold in over 16 countries, and is presently up to its sixth issue. MOON regularly features official CHAOSIUM material, scenarios and is characterised by its impressive production standards and professional art (in stark contrast to the standard AH has sunk to of late). People interested in subscribing to MOON should contact the following addresses. Subscriptions are for a minimum of three issues, and there are still a small number of back issues available. Subscribers also receive the irregular MOON newsletter "Squawkings from Quackford". UK: #1.50 per issue, including postage. Available from David Hall. Please make cheques or postal orders to "David Hall". NO CASH. Address: 21 Stephenson Court, Osbourne Street, Slough, Berks. SL1 1TN. GERMANY: Contact Dr. Lutz Reimers-Rawcliffe for details. Address: Theodor-Heuss-Ring 1, D-5000 Koln 1. NORWAY: Contact Lars-Roger Moe for details. Adress: Gjerdhaugen 2, 8050 Tverlandet. SWEDEN: Contact Jussi Hyvnen for details. Adress: Henriksdalsringen 65, S-131 32, Nacka. AUSTRALIA: $4.50 per issue, including postage. Available from Michael O'Brien. Please make cheques payable to "Michael O'Brien". Address: 2/33 Carween Ave. Mitcham 3132, Victoria. USA & CANADA: $2.50 per issue, including postage. Available from David Gadbois. Please make cheques available to "David Gadbois". Address: 2600 Rio Grande, Austin, TX 78705. REST OF THE WORLD (though we hope to have a man in Malawi and Finland soon!): #2.50 per issue, including postage, available from David Hall. Please make money orders and Girobank Postal Orders payable to "David Hall". Write for details about direct bank transfers. Address: see above. Contributions to MOON are welcome from all RQ DIGEST readers. We are especially interested in RQ scenarios and top-notch artwork. Although I regrettably do not have access to RQ DIGEST myself, I was fortunate enough to come across print-out of the all the available issues recently. Reading through it all has given me many hours of enjoyment. The sheer volume of material was overwhelming! I have compiled a list of some of the articles from the RQ DIGEST that we may be interested in featuring in forthcoming issues of TALES OF THE REACHING MOON. We are always on the lookout for first-rate material! If the authors of the listed works would like to see some of their work feature in the pages of MOON, could they please contact me at my mail address, given above. Authors receive the generous renumeration of a free copy of the issue their article appeared. We may wish to edit these articles, but always do so in conjunction with the author. Please get in touch! By the way, my all-time favourite article in RQ DIGEST so far was "Brithini Philosophy" in Vol.05 No.10. Brilliant! Vol/No. ARTICLE AUTHOR 04-11 Sorcery Rules (Addendum 05/01, 05/02) Andrew Bell 05-06 Humakti Status and Custom Martin Crim 05-06 Spirit Cults of Praxian Tribes Martin Crim 05-06 The Written Rune Bryan Maloney 05-08 A Personal View of Centaur culture Mike Dawson 05-09 Standard Malkioni Blessings Paul Reilly 05-10 Brithini Philosophy Paul Reilly 05-10 Hrestoli Societies Paul Reilly 05-11 Hrestoli Spells Paul Reilly 05-12 City of Perfe Paul Reilly 05-12 Garhound Founding Legends Martin Crim 05-12 Delecti & The Upland Marsh (06-03 Stafford's reply) David Gadbois 06-01 Circus is Coming! Paul Reilly 06-02 Three Orlanthi Hero Cults & Two Spirit Cults Paul Reilly 06-03 Old Wind John Castellucci 06-04 Some chaotic thoughts on the Block John Castellucci 06-04 Boggles Martin Crim 06-04 Review of Daughters of Darkness Roderick Robertson 06-04 Variant Armour system Paul Heinz 06-04 Variant ENC system Paul Heinz ====================================================================== Subject: RuneQuester Demographics From: MOB More people play RQ per capita in Sweden than any other country except Malta. I'm sure you are all enlightened by this fact. More details and an analysis of these earth-shattering stats will be found in the next issue of TALES OF THE REACHING MOON. This issue will also feature the cult of Maran Gor by Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen, The Broken Earth, The Chronicles of Khafre-Menes, Griselda, Notes from Nochet and more! For information about this magnificent mag contact your local TALES megacorp rep. (Addresses in my article, "RuneQuest Digest Articles in TALES OF THE REACHING MOON") ====================================================================== Subject: THE NEW STAFFORD COMPENDIUM From: MOB A sales pitch (which originally appeared in issue #5 of TALES OF THE REACHING MOON) from MOB. The New Stafford Compendium was compiled by the TALES OF THE REACHING MOON staff for the Conjunction convention in July 1990. It is a compendium listing *everything* Greg Stafford has ever written. There are still a few copies available. Here's what the critics said: "A vital reference for those interested in the mating habits of the Praxian lesser flanged mudwort." - Llonquist Goodwrite, Sage of Lhankor Mhy. "I thought the Maidstone Archers were a stonemason's cult specializing in the creation of doorways until I read the New Stafford Compendium." - Ranulph the Render, Hand of Than. This remarkable work is ONLY available from your local TALES megacorp rep, at the knockdown price of #1.50 + 20p postage (UK). Other currency prices on application. Addresses for TALES OF THE REACHING MOON appeared in *Andrew! please insert vol. no. here* ====================================================================== Subject: "I'm so tough I..." Compiled by Michael "Never Eat Vegetables, Except Elves" O'Brien. These boasts appeared in Issue #4 of Tales of the Reaching Moon, the RuneQuest magazine, adorned with suitably tasteless illustrations by the talented Mark Baldwin. (Unfortunately, we can't depict the illos here (you'll just have to go buy the magazine!) The "I'm so tough I...." entries were so well-received we would like to make them a regular feature of the zine. So, I am inviting all you RuneQuest Digest readers out there to send me your own boasts. The best will feature in forthcoming issues of MOON, replete with a Mark Baldwin pic. "I'm so tough I...." entries can reach me through Tim Leask via Internet tsl@cs.mu.oz.au . Those published thus far: I'm so tough I... ...cast Food Song at Zorak Zorani. -Dreamweed Shrubber, elf-tough, Pavis Garden ...volunteer as the ball in Trollball. -Cazaly, Jonstown Under (SIZ) 19's, Sartar ...cast the Corruption spell on myself in the middle of Storm Bull worship ceremonies. -Anther Tallow, Porchungo enthusiast, Dorastor ...gargle Styx water. -Coldblood, vampire-lord of the Elder Wilds ...bring my Major Head talisman into exams with me. -Sophos the Glib, Lhankor Mhy apprentice, Nochet ..mate with broos for kicks. -Vixen, Thed cultist, Snakepipe Hollow ...put my Thanatar blemish on the end of my nose. -Yarr Killfast, Thanatar initiate, Occupied Sartar [...wear an iron jockstrap. -Krag Dwarfmuncher, Kyger Litor initiate --ACB] ====================================================================== From: mad@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Ken McKinney) Subject: RQ digest submission Subject: Reply to comments on my sorcery system in Digest issue 22 Re: Andrew posting my letter to him: Andrew, you can repost any personal correspondence from me if you feel it's relevant. People on the digest should give me some leeway since my typing and grammar is a little more fast and loose when I think I'm only talking to one person! Re: Michael Kossowsky's comments -- he feels the system makes sorcerers with little or no previous experience useless. Well, that's true. If you allocate percentages to skills solely on the basis of age (as in the current RQ experience system) and your sorcerer is deemed to have no previous experience (ie. he is age 15 or so) then he won't have learned sorcery, which takes years of study, and won't be able to cast sorcery spells. He doesn't stack up to an Orlanthi in a similar situation because spirit magic doesn't have to be studied and you can use a sword (albeit badly) without having been trained in it. I don't feel that someone without training should be able to cast sorcery at all so I don't see this as a problem. If you want a viable sorcerer in a low-level campaign you could do several things. You could say that sorcerers from Malkioni cultures get some sorcery training before the age of 15 (they don't get cultural weapons bonuses, so maybe they deserve this). You could simply start your sorcerer out enough older than the other characters to make him equally skilled in relation to them. Wizards are stereotypically wiser and older than their warrior companions, so this isn't too strange. You could start your other characters at age 20 and start the sorcerer at 25, for example. One of the guys I play RQ with came up with the following idea to solve the low-powered sorcerer problem. Say that sorcerers get their familiars upon becoming apprentices, rather than when they become adepts. The idea would be that the familiar carries the sorcerer rather than the other way around when the sorcerer is young. Your master would make the familiar for you and forge a bond between you and it. The familiar would have a small amount of innate sorcery skill which you would have access to, determined by the skill and area of expertise of your master. The familiar would not be able to increase it's skills, but would be able to teach you what it knew. You would have a mental bond with your familiar which would allow you to use either its skill or yours to cast a spell. Eventually your studies would allow you to progress beyond the ability of your familiar, after which you would use your own skills rather than its for spellcasting. This would create some neat effects. Imagine the picture of the impatient young sorcerer having to learn magic from a toad with a croaky voice. GM's could stick players with amusing familiars (goats, lizards, etc.) if they so desired. And it would help out the beginning sorcerers without making better ones more powerful. The main drawback I see is that the mere possession of a familiar might make the beginning sorcerer too powerful, and that you would have to scrap the adept requirement of making a familiar. Come to think of it, you could keep this requirement but say the familiar has to be made for another apprentice. This would force sorcerers to take apprentices. I don't really favor going back to the RQ2 experience method of forcing players to get skill checks between training sessions. In my mind this excaberates the problem of skill check frenzy. Also, I like it when my sorcerers have to hit the books every once in a while rather than just adventure. I feel it makes the profession more "realistic". Re: Paul Reilly's comments about having sorcery go off at sacred time: I've thought about doing this as well. I can think of 2 ways to do it: 1 - All temporal magic is automatically dispelled at the onset of sacred time and when it is over. Spells with a duration of Forever or Until Caster's Death are not affected. 2 - Like 1, but in addition no magic can be cast with a duration of more than 10 minutes during sacred time. Note that the onset of Truth Week is also Godday and When Yelm Rises, so all spells with a duration of Until Truth Week or less go off at the onset of Truth Week. So we're just extending this concept if we say that spell's go off when sacred time hits. I don't see the need to let sorcerers get around this either on their person or with magic they cast on others. I think it's a good thing for sorcerers to be somewhat more vulnerable during Sacred Time, which is largely associated with Gods. So I think that all spells, unless made permanent (involving ungodly amounts of Law skill) should go off at sacred time. Re: Dakin Burdick's comments: Thanks for the compliments on my system. Your system sounds neat as well. I like the idea of building on prerequisites because it forces people to specialize to do the really big stuff, thus lending play balance. I wanted a system where my players could easily make up new spells as we went along, though, and a prerequisite system makes this much harder. Also, It's hard to think of prerequisites for some really awesome spells (what's the prerequisite for Tap?) so spells which aren't that interesting end up being made just for the purpose of being prerequisites. You might want to post some of your stuff to the Digest if it's compatible with RuneQuest, though. Re: The NightMare: Excellent demon. Is this your idea of what the horses Ethilrist brought back from hell would be like? Also, does anyone care to guesstimate how many people are in the Black Horse Troop and what their average skill levels are? Re: John Castellucci's RQ player roster: I'd like to be in it. Here's some personal Data: Name: Ken McKinney Age: 25 Internet: currently mad@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu Phone: (512) 476-8956 Snailmail: 707 W. 21st Street, Austin TX 78705 I currently play and GM RuneQuest but would be interested in playing Ars Magica or Torg also. I've been playing RuneQuest since around 1980. I'm primarily interested in Gloranthan RuneQuest material though I have run and played in non-gloranthan games. Anyone in the Austin area who plays RuneQuest is welcome to contact me and play in my game. So far there are 6 players and I'll probably cut it off at 10 or so (not everyone shows up each week). ====================================================================== From: Alan Bland Subject: Want RQ players in Boulder Colorado After a four-year hiatus, I'm starting up a RQ3 campaign again. I need one or two more players in the Boulder, CO area. We'll be playing once or twice a month in Boulder starting in September. Only one of the existing players has played RQ before, so it's essentially a beginners group with more beginners welcome. The campaign will start out in Sartar, with a mix of original adventures and old Chaosium scenarios converted to RQ3. As such it will be Glorantha-based with my own interpretations that may vary wildly from your idea of Glorantha. Contact me if you're interested! Alan Bland, mab@druwy.att.com day: (303)538-3510 eve: (303)786-9679 ====================================================================== From: David Gadbois Subject: French RQ sources I have heard that the French editions of RQ material are nicely produced with good illustrations. Does anyone know of a distributor in France that can handle correspondence in English and would be willing to ship to the States? --David Gadbois