From: owner-rq-rules-digest To: rq-rules-digest@hops.wharton.upenn.edu Subject: RQ Rules Digest: V1 #245 Reply-To: rq-rules Errors-To: owner-rq-rules-digest Precedence: bulk Content-Return: Prohibited Return-Path: owner-rq-rules-digest RQ Rules Digest: Monday, 5 June 1995 Volume 01 : Number 245 TABLE OF CONTENTS Loren Miller shooting blanks mr happy RQ Rules Digest: V1 #239 mr happy Shamans and the HeroPlane. Gregory C. Walsh 7th son Bryan Maloney 7th son Bruce Lionel Mason 7th son SPerrin@aol.com Sources of Magic 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. When paraphrasing you demonstrate exactly how well you understand the point someone was trying to make. 4. There is no number 4. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Loren Miller" Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 12:02:32 EST Subject: Re: shooting blanks Someone filled up the /tmp disk yesterday, so email is likely to have been interrupted on its way to the rq-rules mailing list and digest. That's why the list was shooting blanks earlier. - -- +++++++++++++++++++++++23 Loren Miller LOREN@marketing.wharton.upenn.edu Life at the water's edge is the real life for men and women ------------------------------ From: mr happy Date: Fri, 2 Jun 1995 16:40:37 +0100 (BST) Subject: Re: RQ Rules Digest: V1 #239 > What about ecstatics in the far East? Don't cop out and say that they > all practice "Kralori Mysticism". That's like claiming there are no > shamans in Sartar because Sartarites practice "Theism". Remember, the key > is NOT what you call your holy men, it's whether you approach the Mystery > through doctrine or through ecstacy. > > And, since RuneQuest is NO LONGER JUST GLORANTHA, what about ecstatic > Christians? What about Tarantists? Does mysticism predicate an animistic view of the universe? The Old Testament prophets were guided by an incorporeal God, medieval mystics like St Thomas a Kempis were ascetics who rejected the material world in order to become more like Christ. Someone does n't have to want to be a shaman to be one, spirits could conceivably latch on to someone and pester them until they start doing what they are supposed to (like the prophet Jeremiah in OT.) It happens in Real World traditional societies also. > An ecstatic in the West (aside from being illegal) In the Middle Ages an ecstatic could have been a Witch/Cunning Man; in which case their activities were strictly illegal (but unlikely to have any reprecussions) or a "prophet"of the Lord; in which case their actions became illegal as soon as they started mentioned the unjust distribution of wealth. - ----- Andrew Behan e-mail: ajbehan@alf2>tcd.ie ------------------------------ From: mr happy Date: Fri, 2 Jun 1995 16:07:01 +0100 (BST) Subject: Shamans and the HeroPlane. "Jubilation T. Cornpone" > > > As for spirit-talkers making good heroquesters; the essence of a > > heroquest is -ritually- following the footsteps of your god. > > Then Arkat never heroquested, by your specious argument. Arkat followed in the footsteps of Humakt, Zorak Zoran etc up to a point and then abused his secret cult knowledge by leaving the god's path. He used a ritual alright: he just abused it. > > Spirit-talkers interactions with the otherworld are spontaneous by > > defintion. They would n't stand a chance. > > > You mean, like Arkat wouldn't stand a chance? Maybe I said the wrong thing. A myth could tell how your god found the +10 sword of coolness hidden in a rubbish heap. When you go onto the heroplane you'll immediately go for the rubbish heap and take the sword. Someone who goes to the herplane without any preconcieved ideas looking for spirits to befriend isn't going to give that trash mound a second look. OK, some spirit-talkers are trained so maybe they know -some- stuff but IMO there is a big difference. > > gems, amulets and the like. The mostali (as it says in GB) get little > > monsters (nilmergs?) to worship "generators" which pass the MP along > > SO WHAT? Prove that Gloranthan solutions MUST be adapted to all > non-Gloranthan worlds. Hmm, all that stuff about gems and amulets came straight out of Richard Kieckhefers book "Magic in the Middle Ages", if anything it's a medieval solution. The comment about mostali and the G*******n context merely reflect the fact that only run G*******n RQ adventures. ;-) - ------- Andrew Behan e-mail:ajbehan@alf2.tcd.ie ------------------------------ From: "Gregory C. Walsh" Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 13:03:25 -0400 Subject: 7th son Funny thing you mentioned about 7th son. I am the 7th son of a 1st generation american (from New Foundland, strangely enough), and I have never been able to cure warts or stop bleeding, at least not without a little acid and time. Would be handy, though. Of course, my heritic is Irish newfoundland, not French. Greg Walsh ------------------------------ From: bjm10@cornell.edu (Bryan Maloney) Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 14:50:04 -0400 Subject: Re: 7th son > >Funny thing you mentioned about 7th son. I am the 7th son >of a 1st generation american (from New Foundland, strangely enough), >and I have never been able to cure warts or stop bleeding, >at least not without a little acid and time. Would be handy, >though. Of course, my heritic is Irish newfoundland, not French. > But are you the seventh son of a seventh son? Also, "Seventh Son" does not mean "seventh child", but "seventh MALE child". Thus, your father has to have had at least seven sons, not seven children, for you to qualify as a sevent son. If you qualify as a seventh son, then your seventh son would have these powers. Remember, seventh SON, not seventh child who also happens to be male. You would have to have six other male children first. There are many acts of virtue, but three are the greatest: To engender love where there is hate. To bring understanding where there is ignorance. To really slam some clueless git in grand style. ------------------------------ From: Bruce Lionel Mason Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 19:30:56 -0230 Subject: Re: 7th son On Mon, 5 Jun 1995, Bryan Maloney wrote: > > > >Funny thing you mentioned about 7th son. I am the 7th son > >of a 1st generation american (from New Foundland, strangely enough), > >and I have never been able to cure warts or stop bleeding, > But are you the seventh son of a seventh son? Also, "Seventh Son" > does not mean "seventh child", but "seventh MALE child"... > If you qualify as a seventh son, then your seventh son would have > these powers. Sounds like a good excuse to have some fun to me. Putting the F back into folklore as we like to say in these parts. On a rules note I was trying to show that "real world" magical traditions are by no means black and white and that it would be fruitless to try to emulate them in a commercial rules system. I happen to think that the RQ3 trichotomy hits a nice balance between evoking a feeling of the intergration of magic and culture with a simple, playable model. PS. I take it everyone read my ideas about "source" magic and agreed totally and therefore felt they didn't need to comment ;-) - ---Bruce ------------------------------ From: SPerrin@aol.com Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 18:53:14 -0400 Subject: Re: Sources of Magic Bruce Mason opins... >>PS. I take it everyone read my ideas about "source" magic and agreed totally and therefore felt they didn't need to comment ;-)<< Well, no, actually Bruce, I'm so up to my hipbones in the alligators of moving and a new job that I have looked at them, found them mostly OK, and set them aside for further consideration when I have some leisure brain time. Ask me again in late July. And, as everyone might figure, this goes for all the shamanism stuff, too. Some very good stuff being promulgated, no time to comment. Steve Perrin ------------------------------ End of RQ Rules Digest: V1 #245 ******************************* This is the bottom of the RuneQuest Rules Digest. RuneQuest is a trademark of Avalon Hill, and Glorantha is a trademark of Chaosium. With the exception of previously copyrighted material, unless specified otherwise all text in this digest is copyright by the author or authors, with rights granted to copy for personal use, to excerpt in reviews and replies, and to archive unchanged for electronic retrieval. Send electronic mail to Majordomo@hops.wharton.upenn.edu with "help" in the body of the message for subscription information on this and other mailing lists. WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html