From: owner-rq-rules-digest To: rq-rules-digest@hops.wharton.upenn.edu Subject: RQ Rules Digest: V3 #95 Reply-To: rq-rules Errors-To: owner-rq-rules-digest Precedence: bulk Content-Return: Prohibited Return-Path: owner-rq-rules-digest RQ Rules Digest: Wednesday, 23 October 1996 Volume 03 : Number 095 TABLE OF CONTENTS David davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au Fanaticism David davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au Divine intervention / resurrection Alain RAMEAU [none] David Cheng Impulses for Strike Ranks Jane Williams DI & resurrection Hasni Mubarak DI & resurrection 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: David Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 12:23:41 +0800 Subject: Re: Fanaticism >There are also courses > (3) just mark off the MP(s) and get the effect (qua resistance roll) > (4) visible/audible effects (e.g. "a flash and a bang"). > >Unfortunately the rules only do course (3) in themselves - which is either > (a) a shame, since the other versions are more fun >or (b) good, since we can make up our own additions without contradiction! > While there is a strong case for the numerous Gloranthan players that the rules should specify (or at least strongly suggest) what magic looks like to various Gloranthans, I go with option b) for the rules in general. I have, for example, run a Viking game, where a spirit magic 'focus' consists of inscribed runes, and the actions in many cases consist of invoking the runes by speaking what is written, with no flashes or bangs in sight. In genre for that game. Cheers David ------------------------------ From: David Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 12:31:21 +0800 Subject: Re: Divine intervention / resurrection >Therefore I would be interested if someone has rules/ideas how to treat this - >my rules currently are that if abdom, chest or head are too damaged that >there's no chance for healing it again (for instance being at six times >in the negative of this locations hitpoints, head cut off, inner organs >completely destroyed...) and therefore no chance for resurrection. Well, if you can inflict a wound that cannot be healed by Heal Body, then they cannot be resurrected by the Resurrection spell. Beheading is pretty effective, especially if you take the head with you, a relatively common custom among the Orlanthi at least. Cutting out major organs would probably do it too. Or you can do something to their spirit - destroy it if you are an evil chaotic guy, maybe catch it if you are a shaman. >Another related question concerns curing blindness/Deafness and so on - >since there's no own spell for it, can it be cured with either the healing- >spell or the regrow-spell? There is a specific spell for curing Blindness, I think its available to the Erissa cult, or maybe the Sisters of Mercy subcult of the C.A.s. In any case it is in the associated cult section of the full C.A. cult writeup in River of Cradles. Accordingly, I play that Regrow Limb cannot cure blindness. You need to get the spell, or find some other magic. Its quite likely that there are a few other spells floating around that have not been written up. I have to admit that I have never thought about deafness. I do play that Regenerate (the sorcery spell) does cure blindness and deafness and many other injuries, if applied correctly. David ------------------------------ From: Alain_RAMEAU@total.fr (Alain RAMEAU) Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 08:10:30 +0200 Subject: [none] Robert Baumgartner wrote: >I have some questions and would like to hear some opinions about >divine intervention and resurrection: 1/ Divine Intervention: In my campaign I play that a Divine Intervention can be done at any time, ans as often as wanted. I do not know if it is contrary to official rules, but i never had any abuse on this. I think the reason is really a practical one: first, the risk is big (even on 1D10), the loss of POW may be important. And with 1d100, there always one chance out of 100 to die without resurrection. So my players do not use this every day. Secondly, DI is used in extreme cases, such as near end of combat, where the player know it is his last chance, so either it works quickly (one or two rounds, so one or two tries) or the game is over for the player. 2/ Resurrection. I have no real idea on your question because I had not many occasion to have resurrection : my player are pretty lucky may be (or may be am I too good ? I prefer give an ultimate living chance to my player before he die rather than using resurrection at will), and anyway, one of them being Humakti, I do not think he would react positively to see a resurected character.he spell or other resurrection possibility have not been used. Alain. ------------------------------ From: David Cheng Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 12:56:10 -0500 Subject: Impulses for Strike Ranks Steve Leib brainstorms an Impulse system to replace Strike Ranks in V3#91. While such an idea may have lots of merit, I think it goes against the grain of RPG development. The trend, as I see it, is _away_ from "RPG as an engine to simulate man-to-man combat" toward "RPG as a system to facilitate roleplaying and storytelling." Look which games have survived over time, and which have died quick deaths. Maybe even more importantly, look at new RPG releases in the past 3-5 years; how many have combat systems where this level of action-detail is required? Now, I get the sense that most of the storytellers have migrated over to the Glorantha Digest, and the dyed-in-the-wool rules folk are all that's left here, so maybe I'll get pounced on. My intent is not to inflame, but to observe that most RPGs these days are giving combat less attention, not more. From what little I've seen and heard about the coming RQ4 ("real soon now"), Jovanovic & McGloin too are moving toward giving combat fewer bells and whistles, not more, as might have been interpreted from RQ:AiG. *DC David Cheng cheng@io.com <= best, or => dcheng@amnh.org Ask me about Tekumel-Con +1 (212) 472-7752 [before midnight, EST] ------------------------------ From: "Jane Williams" Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 19:34:14 +0000 Subject: DI & resurrection So this one raises its head again: good idea, I was going to raise it myself. I rule that DIs are only possible under the influence of a large dose of adrenaline: as you watch your life flash before your eyes, that sort of thing. Similar emotional stress due to a threat to a friend would also count, certainly if you'd rather die than let whatever's happening to them go ahead. The precise request has one form: "help!!!" What can be done with a DI: I look at the spells the deity has got, and allow infinite uses of any of them (at infinite range, duration, intensity etc.). Looking at what runes they've got helps, too. If they have rules that something isn't allowed, they won't do it even if they could. So any deity with all common divine spells can heal anything, in particular. But (Gloranthan example) Humakt can't and won't heal, and certainly won't resurrect. One possible addition to this: since resurrection is effectively telling the soul to get back in the body, I might rule that any deity can resurrect any of their initiates. Only works if the body is in a fit state, of course. I don't allow all deities to teleport parties out of trouble unless they've got some suitable power: anyone with the Movement Rune, for instance. Elementals can provide a similar effect for most others. Just don't call on a sea deity when you're in a desert. - ----------------------------------------------------------- Jane Williams: jane@williams.nildram.co.uk Web site at: homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/janehome.htm ------------------------------ From: Hasni Mubarak Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 18:02:58 -0400 Subject: Re: DI & resurrection Jane Williams wrote: > > > So any deity with all common divine spells can heal anything, in > particular. But (Gloranthan example) Humakt can't and won't heal, > and certainly won't resurrect. > Just as a note, Humakt gets Heal and Heal Wound. Anyhow, the one main restriction I won't allow is "heal US", because this gets really dull and awful when you have one or two runelevels on each side, and evertime somebody gets geeked, everybody screams out "heal us!" Anyhow, fights should only be fought once, not over and over and over again. DI's purty much seem to be reserved for, "Oh, that'll kill me...uh...heal me?" (Right when the pass out) Then, when they start wandering onto the spirit plane they get a second chance for, "Resurect me?" Mind you Humakti don't take that second one, they usually do something noble like, "Make me a nasty sword that my buddy of there can use and cackle about late into the night." Rich ------------------------------ End of RQ Rules Digest: V3 #95 ****************************** 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. 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