From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@compuserve.com)
Date: Sat 03 Sep 1994 - 11:23:47 EEST
Sorry my responses are so slow these days: pressure of work, clan moots,
plus cooling-off time after reading Peter Metcalfe's recent spleen.
(And then my posting seems to have bounced for being too big. Look where reticence gets you! The erratum got through; this is the second edition reposting of the article it should have followed)
> Other issues: I'm wondering what gods newtlings typically worship.
The newts we met in Apple Lane worshipped the Great Newt. We Greydogs are all de facto initiates in his cult (except the Humakti, but they aren't Greydogs any more), and meet round the "Spawning Pool" to do the bug-eyed ritual thing once a year. No, we can't say any more unless you join us.
> Could someone please summarise the history of the Dragon Pass/Nomad Gods
> trilogy of games? ... I'm a little unclear as to what revisions/errata/
> variants/link rules there may be out there.
Well, there was a unifying errata in an early Wyrms Footnotes which brought
"White Bear & Red Moon" into line with "Nomad Gods". Think that was in the old days of AE/AR/NE/DR/DE combat tables, rather than the modern (neater) sixths'n'quarters'n'thirds chart (i.e. back in the Dark Ages).
Early issues of Wyrms Footnotes were packed with errata and variants and expansions for "White Bear & Red Moon", but those were presumably weighed in the balance when the game was redone as "Dragon Pass".
The third game in the series, "Masters of Luck and Death" (also known by its later title, "Lords of Fate") wasn't ever satisfactorily designed, and has never been completed or released. It would have been a more mythical, ritualised game of questing to become Pharoah of the Holy Country, perhaps by taking part in mythological events to gain special powers and allies in the Sixths of that magical land.
Part of the original master-plan was for a game called "Shadows Dance" to link all the other three games together.
One issue of Avalon Hill's sickly "Heroes" magazine had a Q&A section on "Dragon Pass", but this contained no variant or expansion material.
It's pretty easy to run Nomad Gods under modern Dragon Pass rules: my first
ever game was played at Convulsion with this one quick fix, and no haggling
points arose.
Stephen Martin, Glorantha guru extraordinaire, has recently revised Nomad Gods to make it compatible with Dragon Pass (modern versions) and with a more informed understanding of Prax. The Great Gods are particularly good. The French games company Oriflam will be bringing out their edition shortly
be beautiful. But in French, alas! There was talk of a possible English edition using French-made components but I'm unsure if anything came of it.
I'd recommend writing to Stephen and asking him for more info. He can be emailed on:
Stephen is also keen to design a "Masters of Luck and Death". A guy named Charles Morehouse has done his own version of this game; David Cheng could put you in touch, though it isn't meant to be compatible with the DP games (completely different mechanics etc.). On this list, I'd imagine you're already aware of Joerg Baumgartner, our resident wargamer (we HAMMERED him at Dragon Pass!), who's working on the same part of the world (though from a military rather than a HeroQuesting perspective, it appears).
As for "Shadows Dance": if anyone out there knows where the Chaosium file on this game disappeared to, why not drop them a line...
> Have a look at the six wounding errors of Antirius and see if you can
> identify the people involved. Why did Plentonius leave that in?
As Plentonius was compiling and not inventing *most* of the material in the
Glorious ReAscent, I'd assume it was a widely-disseminated myth. Probably from Yuthuppa rather than Raibanth, but that's just my opinion based on the
functional division, where this seems a "priestly" rather than "imperial" story. So it would have devalued the GR if he'd left it out ("Where's my favourite story about Antirius, eh? This book's not very good!").
> Not having Nomad Gods (proving I'm not a god learner know-it-all), I
> can't really say whether Mistress Calm is actually Brastalos or Molanni.
I've never mistaken you for a know-it-all, Peter.
Mistress Calm is *actually* Mistress Calm. But, in your terms, she has more
similarities to Molanni than to Brastalos:
: MISTRESS CALM: This is the Mistress of the Calm Sky who appears cloaked : in wispy but shadowing clouds decorating her benign appearance. Her : influence calms even the dry chaparral, making life possible where she : rests. Thus she can support three units.
Counter stats: CF @, MgF _3_, MF 3, RF *
Now, is Mistress Clam "actually" Molukka? ;-)
> Dendara is a planet according to the copper tablets, but does not appear
> in the sky today.
I'm trying to persuade Greg that when Yelm was always in the sky, it was appropriate for his wife Dendara to appear gloriously radiant at his side. When Yelm went to Hell, it was only fitting that she follow her lord and master. Now, she follows exactly the same path, at the same time, as Yelm; thus she is never visible. The terrible alternative would make it possible for Dendara, the model of wifely fidelity, to go out at night without her husband: surely an unthinkable occurrence!
> Isn't the moon always full within the Glowline? :-)
Lunar power is always at its greatest within the Glowline, whatever the phase of the moon may be. I'm tempted by all of the following:
i) The dark face of the Red Moon is visibly black within the Glowline; thus, whereas outside the Glowline the moon is not visible for two days of every week (as in our world at dark of moon), within the Empire's bounds it
is possible to see a jet-black orb by daytime.
ii) A red halo or moon-ring rather like a corona appears around the moon, getting brighter as the moon wanes and fading again as it waxes. So even at
night, you can see what phase of the moon it is.
iii) Through "reflection" from the Glowline (or some such mechanism), the night sky throughout Peloria is tinged with a faint pinkish glow. Rather like the way city lights screw up stargazing in this world. This is another
Lunar rosy glow, and one which makes everything look slightly /different/ outside the Empire.
I haven't dabbled in mythic justifications for these visible effects. Also,
if campaigns want to keep an always-full, horizon-at-the-Glowline Red Moon,
it's no skin off my nose.
> I run that villages that have enough Bless Earth around don't starve and
> die. How many is "enough"? That all depends ... Bless Earth is an expli-
> cation of background magic. It doesn't need to make numeric sense unless
> one is of the anal retentive persuasion.
Hear, hear! Until we have some solid farming rules for RQ, why frot around with the magical details?
Calls for details on how Morokanth survive. I'm sure Sandy's yer man, if he
can stand the repetition.
> This is what Nick is (I think, principally) objecting to as "God Learner-
> ism", though to some extent, all Gloranthans do this. ("Ah, your sun god
> must be our Emperor. Sorry, I have to kill you now.")
No objections to that. I think the difference is in the clinical, manipul- ative or acultural approach of the bona fide God Learner. If you approach someone else's story from within your own, that's fine by me.
> I'm not sure whether to praise Nick for his selective leaks, or vilify
> him as a Big Tease. (Clue in the subject line, though.)
Understandably, Greg would be pissed off if I leaked the text of his latest
work to the Daily. Like other owners of "The Red Goddess", I've been urged to exercise restraint and respect in disseminating data. There's a pretty nifty curse on it, too (though it's not as heavy as the one on "Argrath's Saga"), so I'm in no hurry to Reveal All.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:36:45 EEST