From: owner-rq-rules-digest To: rq-rules-digest@hops.wharton.upenn.edu Subject: RQ Rules Digest: V2 #154 Reply-To: rq-rules Errors-To: owner-rq-rules-digest Precedence: bulk Content-Return: Prohibited Return-Path: owner-rq-rules-digest RQ Rules Digest: Thursday, 11 January 1996 Volume 02 : Number 154 TABLE OF CONTENTS HIP95AJ HIP95AJ@sheffield.ac (no subject) Bo Rosén Sandy's Sorcery. Sandy Petersen free ghosts and weak sorcery Sandy Petersen sorcery query 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: HIP95AJ Date: Wed, 10 Jan 96 20:58:18 -0100 Subject: (no subject) Hi, I am an old player of Runequest who gave it all up to concentrate on 'other things'. Recently, because of a chance encounter with my old RQII materials. my interest has been revived. I know that you probably receive a million types of this request a day, but do you happen to know of any RQ PBEM campaigns in need of a reliable and enthusiastic player? I have a good couple of years of experience of playing and GMing in campaigns set around Prax, and so would love to get involved again. Can you help? Thanks for your time, Adrian. ------------------------------ From: brosen@lodge.df.lth.se (Bo Rosén) Date: Thu, 11 Jan 1996 14:09:20 GMT Subject: Sandy's Sorcery. Sandy, I like your sorcery rules a lot, 'though I have yet to try them. A few questions for you. 1, in Learning Spells you say "A sorcery spell takes up 1 point of INT. This INT can either be from the sorcerer's own brain, a spell matrix, a bound spirit, or a familiar, but it must be stored somewhere. A sorcerer is allowed to research and train in spells which he does not have memorized. In order to gain the "continuous maintenance" skill bonus (see below, under Increasing Spell Skill) he must have cast the spell himself, but need not have it memorized." Does this mean the sorcerer can train spells stored in other places than his own mind i.e familiar, matrices etc and/or does it mean he can learn spells but not have them memorized, similar to if I remember correctly, battle magic in RQ2? 2, Mostali, can they really be bothered with Vows? I thought they were already perfectly manufactured for their tasks, so they wouldn't need any vows to make them better members of society etc. Or do they have yet another magic system? This just struck me now, I have lent Elder Secrets to a friend so I can't check up on my Mostali Lore. Thanks, Bo ------------------------------ From: Sandy Petersen Date: Thu, 11 Jan 96 16:51:47 -0600 Subject: Re: free ghosts and weak sorcery FREEING A GHOST IMO, the best way to free a ghost is to fulfill the condition of its haunting. Getting rid of a ghost by casting a spell is rather dull and lacking of scenario possibilities. Few good ghost stories end with the local priest expelling the spook unceremoniously, and neither should a scenario in which ghosts play a role. WEAK SORCERY War Dog >I must be alone in _liking_ the current super-powered Sorcery >system! in my game world, sorcery, left behind by a fallen elder >race is _supposed_ to be unfairly better than the other systems >Having said that, I like the SandySorcery, but it really wouldn't >fit Gensalorn. Hmm. the intention of my system was not to weaken sorcery, but to make it easier and more fun. I felt that it strengthened sorcery vis-a-vis the old game in ways. 1) In the old game, to be able to cast spells with a reasonable chance of success, a wizards needed a bunch of skills all high in %, none of which could be increased by experience (Intensity, Duration, etc.). No more. 2) spells go up faster in skill % than regular skills. 3) the spells are superior, (only IMO, but I think it's clear that the new Evokes and Boosts and Resists are more interesting and flexible than before. 4) specialties make it easy for an NPC sorcerer to be really good at a few things around which a scenario can be tailored. 5) Free INT is no longer the be-all and end-all of sorcery. Obviously this is all subject to personal whim, but if I personally wanted to boost sorcerers vis-a-vis other magicians, I'd do it by increasing the Presence due upon taking a Vow, or let a sorcerer manipulate a spell by 1 level per 5 percentiles instead of 10. That would be a potent across-the-board increase. Sandy P. ------------------------------ From: Sandy Petersen Date: Thu, 11 Jan 96 16:57:16 -0600 Subject: Re: sorcery query >I have a question for Sandy. >Now that duration has been dropped from the sorcery system, how do >we evaluate the cost in MP of maintaining a spell in permanence >around the sorcerer? My system states that the cost in MP of maintaining a Permanent spell is 1 MP per level of Permanence in the spell (which must be equal to the highest other Art used). This is paid weekly, which is no great drain on a sorcerer, and the intent is basically so that even Permanent spells tend to die out after a sorcerer dies unless he has taken action to maintain them (such as linking a POW source to the permanent spell). Fred Moulin > Hrestol's Blessing (3 POW): When invoked, the supplicant's POW > doubles, and remains thus for a full day. At the end of the day, POW > drops back to normal, but MPs may remain higher than the user's > POW. Joerg >Can the additional power be used up for enchantments, or other >permanent POW loss activities? Or will the POW-user lose half >enhanced POW, half normal personal POW? Could a Henotheist use this >additional POW for divine magic? I play that at the end of the blessing, your POW drops by the amount of POW it was initially increased by. Thus, your POW starts at 12, you invoke Hrestol, dropping to 11, then it doubles to 22. If you then spend 10 POW in enchantments, at day's end, you'll still lose 11 more POW from the end of Hrestol's blessing (since that was what you gained). Then you'll have 1 POW left. If you wanted, you could expend more than 10 POW -- up to 21, I guess, but then of course at the day's end your soul would be destroyed. Ditto for henotheist stuff. Sandy P. ------------------------------ End of RQ Rules Digest: V2 #154 ******************************* This is the bottom of the RuneQuest Rules Digest. 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