Subject: RQ Discussions 25 First Distribution: November 12, 1991 ====================================================================== From: Tim Leask Subject: RQ Digest: Discussion about Shamans and things Spiritual Hi Guys, I just thought I'd try and stimulate some discussion on Shamans and spirits. In my current campaign two PC's have just become Shamans and it's only now that I realise that not much useful info is given about the Spirit Plane, the Spirit Plane/Mundane Plane interface, Shamans and their fetchs etc. etc. So I've turned to sources other than the RQ3 rules, namely RQ2, a rune-rites article on spirits and spirit binding from an issue of Wyrms Footnotes and the Spirit Cults description from Borderlands. The rest I've made up. I've introduced two new skills Spirit Sense and Spirit Movement. Spirit Sense begins at 5% plus perception bonus and there is no limit on this skill for Shamans. Spirit Sense is a scan analogue for dis-embodied spirits, the higher the skill the better one is at identifying spirits, noticing spirits approaching, judging distances, determining POW acurately. Spirit Movement determines how well one moves when discorporate. The better the skill the faster one is able to move and manoeuvre, but speed is also a fuction of POW. I'm still not sure on how fast I should allow spirits to move. Currently I'm in favour of two modes of spirit movement: invisible spirit (i.e. totally on Spirit Plane) 10xPOW metres per second(SR) visible spirit (i.e. on both mundane and Spirit Plane) POW metres per second(SR) I'm open to suggestions/criticisms. The next problem I'm trying to deal with is Spirit Combat between dis-embodied spirits. I've come up with the following rule. Once spirit combat is initiated a spirit can only break-off in one of two ways: If the spirit forgoes its attack and it's opponent fails in it's attack then the spirit may flee ( of course the opposing spirit can still elect to pursue it's foe) OR if a spirit destroys more MP's than its opponent in a round of combat it may likewise flee. A discorporate Shaman may not return to his body while engaged in spirit combat. Pursuing a dis-embodied spirit involves using both the skill of Spirit Sense and Spirit Movement. When a dis-corporate Shaman returns to his body I currently consider it almost instantaneous movement, however a spiritual "vapour" trail will persist long enough for a nearby spirit to follow it the Shaman's body. My ideas on this whole process are still somewhat nebulous. What do you guys think ? Have you encountered these problems before ? If a shaman is reduced to 0 MP in spirit combat while discorporate then he is captured by the attacking spirit (this is my interpretation) but I have yet to determine what would them happen to the PC. I'm sort of inclined to let the fetch animate the Shamans body at this point so the PC has a chance to do something about his plight, but I could just be opening a whole new can of worms. The nature of the fetch isn't fully explained in RQ3 - is it a dis-embodied spirit ? If it isn't then where is it ? I'm currently of the opinion that the fetch resides in the body of the Shaman and that the Shaman's spirit sits on top of the fetch as it were. If the Shaman - Fetch connection was temporarily broken then there would no longer be anything holding the fetch back as it were. This is why I'm considering letting the fetch animate a Shaman's body under certain circumstances. Comments ? Anyway, enough rambling for now. Cheers, Tim ====================================================================== From: paul@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly) Subject: Variant Rules I have some proposals for variant rules that I'd like people to discuss. I will only introduce a few and will see what people think; first I'll give a "theoretical background and then the rule change. Consider each rule separately or in combination 1. Power Gain In standard RQ, while various people start with varying POW, the crucial "probability of POW gain" is the same for everyone, so those with high POW just have a bit of a "head start". In most of the fantasy literature and also in the mythic sources (both Earth and Glorantha) their is apparently quite a bit of variation in people's magical ability, which stays with them all their lives. Thus the youngster who shows great potential and eventually becomes a great mage/hero/etc. has become a stock character of the genre. A rule change to reflect this: Change the Pow gain roll from (Species Max - Current POW) * 5% to (Starting POW - Current POW + 10) * 5% Thus a character born with an 11 POW will have the same POW gain roll as in the standard rules, while one born with a 15 POW will have the same chance of improvement as a RQ II Priest. In RQ II, the personal gain roll of a character would not change when he attained Priest status; instead Priests would tend to be recruited from those with naturally high POW (say 13 or greater.) This would tend to separate characters into "Priest Track" and "Lord Track" quite a bit sooner, which might tend to cut off a bit of the "Jack-of-all-Trades" syndrome. It means that some people will be naturally good magicians and others just won't. Obviously shamans and sorcerors would seek out apprentices of naturally high POW under this system. This change makes the starting POW stat into something really special, as important as INT, say, rather than the relatively unimportant stat it is now for characters who will be in play for a while. If one wants a group of Heroic PCs, one might give some insurance that the POW stat under this system won't be too low, under the rationale that low-POW people are generally too weak-willed to become Adventurers. 2. Magic Point rate recovery This is something that I've thought about alot lately and come to no firm conclusion. I am interested in a bunch of variants, but I'll just give one now and get some comments on it, hopefully. The "problems" I have with the current system are: People feel that (spirit & sorcerous) magic is cheap. Since I usually run "life experience" campaigns rather than "dungeon runs" the action usually takes place on a day-to-day, week-to-week, or year-to-year basis. This means that for every fight people cast their magic freely, rather than having to make a tactical decision along the lines of "use mana now or save it for later?" Also generally there are sufficient MP's left to Heal all damage, and since they are back the next day we rarely see anyone wounded at the beginning of a fight. Thus to fit in with the time scales I like to work with, I'd like to see a slower recovery rate of some sort. People with long duration spells (sorcerors) feel they should use all their MPs before going to bed or they are wasting them. The simplest variant: Make Magic Points recover at the rate of one/day. This has a slight evening-out effect on character's Power, and it means that the mightier magicians take longer to recharge fully and thus may be chary of using their full powers unless it is The Big Crisis of the Scenario. Well, more later on this subject, paul reilly ====================================================================== TALES OF THE REACHING MOON: ISSUE #6 OUT NOW! The latest issue of Tales of the Reaching Moon, the RuneQuest(tm) Magazine has hit the streets, and is available from the MOON Megacorp rep nearest you! Contents of this magnificent mag are as follows: EDICT [Ed.] The latest hot gossip. HOLIDAY GLORANTHA: "Three Ribbons and Five Chambers" [Mark Galeotti] Meet Sir Palantinides - scholar, visionary or just plain looney? SARTAR TRIBES MAP [Walter Moore] Based on an original by Greg Stafford. SEVEN FAVOURITE FOODS [Tom Duttar] Pig out with our Gloranthan Food Guide. ONE VISION [Brian Duguid] How to give your game that "primitive feel". Naked Savages, primitive rites, music and drugs. Love it. THE CULT OF MARAN GOR [Greg Stafford & Sandy Petersen] The official long RQ3 cult write-up, previously unpublished. BATTLE SKILL [Greg Stafford] A reprise from the long-lost issue #28 of Different Worlds magazine (1983). THE BROKEN EARTH [Steve Gilham] Earth rune cults in third age Genertela. FRENCH RUNEQUEST [MOB] Read it and weep. FOLK MAGIC [Sandy Petersen] See what people *really* use magic for in Glorantha. PENDRAGON IN GLORANTHA Love Glorantha, hate RQ3? This TALES pull-out section shows you how to use the Pendragon rules system in Dragon Pass. PENDRAGON PASS [David Dunham] "Pendragon in Glorantha" Culture and Background information. RUNEDRAGON [Walter Moore] "Pendragon in Glorantha" Combat and Weapons system. PENDRAGON PASS CHARACTER SHEET [Ed.] Feel free to copy and use. INSPIRATION? [MOB] Where does Greg Stafford get his ideas? An unusual answer. CORWEN'S SAGA [Steve Thomas] The Lunars come to Greydog Village in a story from the Tales house campaign. THE CHRONICLES OF KHAFRE-MENES [Robert B. Innes] The author of Daughters of Darkness talks about the creation of the latest AH supplement. 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USA & CANADA: There are six issues currently available for $2.50 each postage paid. When issue seven comes out (around the beginning of 1992), the price for current and back issues will go up to $3.00 each. Checks should be made out to me and sent to P.O. Box 49475, Austin, TX 78765. I will keep any amount over the cost of issues ordered on account for a subscription. I will gratefully accept obscure, unpublished Gloranthan material instead of cash. REST OF THE WORLD (though we hope to have our man in Malawi 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. # = pounds sterling ====================================================================== >From paul@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly) Subject: Re: RQ discussion 23 Michael O'Brien asks if he can publich some RQ Digest articles, including some of mine. The answer in my case is of course YES; I don't have an e-mail address for Michael, so if you are out there please write me directly at paul@bondi.phyast.pitt.edu Otherwise I will get in touch via physical mail. I have been busy with some other things lately, so I haven't written too much RQ in the past few months. Some ideas for discussion: How many people out there have played PENDRAGON? This game is clearly RQ-descended, retaining such concepts as experience checks and training, but it also adds a few. The ppersonality system is much like that in an old RQ article, possibly in Wyrm's Footnotes but possibly elsewhere. I think that Heroquesting might be possible to run using Pendragon-style mechanics. Another idea that I had for variant RQ is loosely based on folklore and "common sense". This is to have "spirit magic" learned as in RQ II with most spells Unfocussed on Self and Focussed on Others, with Focussing as a separate skill. Spells like Bladesharp would be Unfocussed on Weapon in Hand. In this variant the average tribe member starts out with abilities like becoming Fanatical without necessarily thinking of these as spells; a person with the right personality would be able to become Fanatical just by concentrating (and spending willpower = magic points) without going through spell learning. I myself can become Befuddled, for example. This system could fit in well with a personality system as described above. Thus a Brave individual could easily learn Fanaticism (and eventually how to affect others with it), but, having rarely felt Fear himself, would have great difficulty in using Demoralize. More later, Paul Reilly ====================================================================== From: "Robert J. McArthur" Subject: RQ Digest - query for RQ and Dragon Pass fans I have been playing Dragon Pass now for some 8 years. In that time we, the other people I play with, have come up with some rules revisions, changes and clarifications. I am willing to post them (those that we can remember!) if there is interest (?) but would also like to put a query to other players. In the rules, it says that the attacker decides which defending units are eliminated. Almost a categorical statement. The problem is, that elsewhere there are definite indications that this is *not* the case. For example, what is the use of ordering the stack and only killing from the top down? How do you reconcile these two statements? Sure, you have the choice of taking from the top of the stack or the top of the stack? hmmmm. We have always played it such that the defender orders the stack how they wish it and the attacker must take things from the top down. ie. no choice for the attacker. How do other people play this? Spirit magic is easier as there is only a slight(!) ambiguity in the rules about it, so we have ruled that the attacker *does* have the choice in that situation. One effect of this is that it seems to state in the rules that a superhero can protect upto 3 units from spirit magic, but that the rest are vulnerable. Elsewhere it seems to indicate that by ordering the stack such that the superhero is on top, then no spirit magic can get "past" the superdoop to any of the other units, no matter how many there are.... hmmm. Again, we have just started playing the former method after using the latter. I am very willing to share the rules mods and also some interesting things that have happened in the way of tactics over the years. The best thing about the game, IMHO, is that despite the extreme difference in the two sides and the very great complexity in the various independents and special forces, the sides are actually very evenly matched (playing the full game or the marathon. Some of the other are, purposely, less evenly matched (Jareel vs ducks, ducks and, more ducks)). Are there any players of Nomad Gods who would like to comment? I haven't yet heard of someone actually admitting they have a copy (I would have absolutely *bugged* them for a copy of the rules otherwise). Given a lot of our campaign play is in Prax, I would very much like to read the rules to find out some of the more interesting tidbits that are refered to in CoP. ciao Robert ======================================================================