From: Sandy Petersen (sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com)
Date: Thu 08 Sep 1994 - 09:25:53 EEST
Mike Dickenson makes a fine summary of the Pralori debate. While I'm
proud to end it, too, I have a final statement that may be useful to
players of these hsunchen.
>I was under the impression that moose _do_ use their antlers to
>fight each other in mating season.
Moose do a little fighting, but the female has the final say, and it's the display of strength in the combat, not so much who won, that determines the "winner". When wapiti fight, it is an actual fight, and the winner conquers the female regardless of her wishes.
Hence, the Pralori are doubtless more male-dominated/female subjugated than the Aleci. The Aleci, while larger and stronger, are generally more mild-mannered (doesn't mean they aren't bad news in a rage), and probably get along better with Orlanthi or other non-Hsunchen folks.
Jerome
> Is it possible for a spirit to possess a Dream Dragon?
Hmm. I think lots of interesting things should happen to the spirit doing so. Maybe the shaman would start manifesting draconic powers/disabilities. Maybe the dragon would have a nightmare.
>make your players roll for INT and POW. They will begin life has
>spirits.Do not tell them!
What a great idea! You also get the added side benefit that their "host" bodies will undoubtedly have built up a backlog of enemies, friends, plots, etc., none of which the spirit will have any inkling of.
In Billy Wilder's fine movie FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO, a British soldier in North Africa is isolated by Rommel's lightning advance. He sneaks into the town which is about to be overrun, and to avoid being made prisoner, he takes on the persona of a waiter who was killed in a recent air raid (with the connivance of the hotel's staff, who are anti-German). When Rommel shows up, he takes over the hotel for his headquarters, and the first night orders the "waiter" to come down to him. The "waiter", actually the soldier, of course, is pretty damn nervous, fearing that Rommel has seen through his disguise. But when he shows up, Rommel and his staff look at him and say, "All right, what have you learned?" Turns out the waiter that Our Hero impersonated was an important spy for the Nazis! I won't go into the rest of the movie, but what a situation! Easily adaptable for a Gloranthan situation.
Mike Dickenson: dwarfism & gigantism & isolation
>We've just uncovered fossils in New Zealand of a dwarf carnosaur
There is also a dwarf ankylosaur which some folks think may have been island-based. Nanotyrannus is a miniature tyrannosaur (which is to say, plenty big enough to tear your average lion to ribbons), but there's no telling if it was based on an island.
I would expect to find highly peculiar island-isolated creatures in Jrustela (where some might have been wiped out by human imports), Teleos, and the East Isles.
JRUSTELA: this is the home of the Timinits, which are plenty weird. No doubt there's other strange derivative creatures here. The presence of the Timinits probably means there's few vertebrates. In my campaign, when we visited Jrustela, there were Sidehill Gougers on the mountains. Since Jrustela today is largely mountains, it's clearly to me that specially-modified mountain beasts must be common. Sidehill Gougers are obvious. Another real possibility is the Polar Dragon (from Flash Gordon), which is furred and attacked by skimming down the mountainside using its beaver-like tail as a sled.
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