From: David Dunham , via RadioMail (ddunham@radiomail.net)
Date: Tue 09 Nov 1993 - 22:18:22 EET
I recently received issue 2 of RQ Adventures Fanzine. This $5 booklet is 36
pages of desktop publishing. The majority is by John Castellucci, with some
Duck information by S.P. Martin.
This issue contains two scenarios, Gloranthan dice games, duck mythology, the Cult of Quackodemon, a Big Rubble chart, and encounter tables for Duckland.
The first scenario, "Dreams Dragons Bring," is set in Dragon Pass, and deals with dragon treasure. "There are no specific cult or nationality requirements," which I consider a big plus. The scenario seems reasonable (if linear), and does a good job making Glorantha come alive, with legends, rituals,unusual plants, and even some Gloranthan swearing. There's a good map of the Dragon's Eye environs, which unfortunately doesn't agree with the unpublished detail map I saw at Chaosium. However, there's also nice detail on the squalid town of Tink.
Both the mythology and the cult are paraphrases (of Troll Pak and Elder Secrets). Some people will find them funny; I might if they were much shorter.
The second scenario, "On the Trail of Quackodemon," is set in Duck Valley. Assuming the adventurers are already there and aren't hostile to ducks, it should be suitable for most parties. As a mystery, there probably aren't enough clues, but since the villain eventually reveals himself, this isn't a fatal flaw. Again, a good job of making Glorantha come alive.
The chart, Treasure Trove Hurbi, has a good rationale for existing (frequently missing in treasure maps).
RQA says it's unofficial, and I'd have to agree. But that doesn't mean it isn't good. While I won't use it as Gloranthan reference material (as I do Tales of the Reaching Moon), I will use it both for details and inspiration, even if I don't have a chance to run the scenarios.
Contact RQA at grendel@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu.
My players have finally decided to go by the Block on the way to the Old Wind Temple. (RQA3 is supposed to have Block info...) One question that's already come up: how far can you see the Block? Given that Glorantha is flat (and ignoring the scholastic nonsense from Digests of a few months ago), we suspect it's visible at least from as far off as Sartar.
>From: graeme.lindsell@anu.edu.au (Graeme A Lindsell)
>My GM allows a simple DI in this case:
>"[Insert Deity of Your Choice] Save Me!"
I allow this too. It surprised my players when I rolled and succeeded with two Praxians last night -- they had no idea why they'd disappeared.
> When we played SotBL one of the broos had skin tatoos (MP storage) on
>his chest, and when he died our party Yelmalio decided to get them.
Taking broo skin? What a dumb idea -- everybody knows broos carry disease. (And even if they didn't, they smear themselves with dung and filth.) I always enjoy my player's reaction to finding nice magic items on the broos they killed -- all totally unusable (one of the supplements does explain how Chalana Arroy priestesses can cleanse items, but it's slow, costly, and hard to do with organic materials).
>From: sullivam@mlc.lib.mi.us (Mark Sullivan -- Michigan Library Consortium)
>The Esrolians always seemed more Minoan to me.
I like this model better than Egyptians myself. "Pharaoh" is a red herring. He's a foreign overlord, but shouldn't influence the 6 king(queen)doms of the Holy Country over much.
>From: STEVEG@ARC.UG.EDS.COM (Steve Gilham Entropy requires no maintenance)
>>If you tattoo a
>>matrix in your skin, is it usable by anyone else?
>I'd say this is *exactly* what the restricted use modifier on
>enchantments deals with.
I figure nobody's going to want to spend the extra POW to prevent ghoulish PCs from cutting them up after they're dead.
And this is ambiguous with "the thing inscribed with... the runes must be destroyed by eliminating all of its hit points" -- a dead person has no HP.
I think my ruling will be that if you're alive, the restricted use modifier is effective. After you're dead, the tattoo can't be used (without being restored).
>From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
>The Gloranthan Bestiary implies that the skinning of a tattooed matrix
>IS possible. That's why the Magisauri have the user restriction that
>onyly they themselves may use the enchantments added to the matrices on
>their hides.
Ouch! But this isn't inconsistent with my proposed ruling. Without the condition, you could spend POW to restore the skin's enchantment, and get 10-20 enchantments without having to learn them.
>From: 100270.337@CompuServe.COM (Nick Brooke)
>After all, you can meet the (presumed) ancestors
>of the Harshax dynasty today in Sartar. Hats off to Dan Barker for finding
>a reference even to the tribe they sprang from!
I missed this. Which tribe (and where's the reference)?
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