From: Clayton, Lynne (Lynne.Clayton@bhein.rel.co.uk)
Date: Wed 14 Sep 1994 - 16:23:11 EEST
From: Paul Honigmann, Oxford, UK
I don't have direct access to the Net, so I tend to put together large documents of accumulated like this over a period of a month or so, then ask a friend to put it onto the Digest. This starts way back at Convulsion!
Also, I've been having trouble getting large files onto the Daily - this is the 3rd time I've sent these comments. This time, I've split the file into several chunks of <8kB.
CONVULSION
==========
Once again the organisers put together an excellent convention. I'll
leave discussion of the convention itself at that, no doubt others will
dissect it at length, but I wish to convey a couple of impressions I
gathered.
Firstly, RQ players seem much less rules-oriented this year. Whether everyone is exhausted by the RQ4 trauma, or have simply become resigned to constant changes (so why bother) I'm not sure, but it seemed much less of a train-spotters' event. People had questions for the Chaosium staff about rules, sure, but far more about Glorantha and mythology. This seemed much healthier to me, as if the RQ Community had reached a sort of inner balance - 'The Game's The Thing, not The Rules'.
Secondly, items like Greg's original notes on obscure Gloranthiana at the auction went for much less than last year. This could be because people are no longer prepared to pay for something which may have been gospel in 1974 but is three revisions out of date now.
You'll have already gathered that all the Changes generated a peculiar atmosphere among the players there. Perhaps the words Resigned and Exhausted I used above should be 'a sense of wry humour'. One theory is that Greg is deliberately changing things because if everything is set in stone, Glorantha will go stale: he has often admitted it was inspired by his experiences in life, and he is always reinterpreting its history as he gets older and his perspective shifts. He is trying to subtly teach his 'disciples' more about Life and Themselves by shifting things whenever they get too complacent!
Perspective changes and his conviction that there is more to life than what's in front of your eyes was a large part of Greg's main address. He even mentioned that RPG's could be the means that some people use to interact with what they are normally blind to. 'I don't think I'll ever bring out HQ,' he said, 'because it is up to *you* to develop a system that's what *you* need. Once you've travelled that path, you'll have learnt a lot about yourself and your relationship with the Invisible World.' There was very little dissent about this - by now, most of us 30+ year olds have tried Heroquesting and understand it's more about interacting with myths and your people (cult / tribe / country) than powergaming.
It's strange writing about mystical / meaningful things like this on an open Net of sceptics. Normally we discuss things on the Daily which are accepted as tongue-in-cheek, 'what if...' off-the-wall ideas and we expect to give and receive loads of abuse in the spirit of fun. Perhaps there will be some mud-flinging at the above. But consider this: Greg was trying to tell us *something*, and it was pretty moving to those who heard it, so think about it first.
GLORANTHAN SNIPPETS
===================
And now more in the RQ Daily tradition, I'd like to touch on some
issues of a more ideological and controversial nature, to wit, Lunars.
I shamelessly pumped Sandy Peterson, Greg etc for further info on the Empire (thought I'd just drop in a few Names there) and Mike Dawson on the forthcoming Soldiers of the Red Moon. They wish it to be made plain that none of what follows is official, it's their current feelings on these matters and they may well change their minds before publication of material. But it should help those of us running Lunar campaigns & characters.
What is a Tax Demon?
SP: A tax demon is a horrible spiky flaming monster. The point about
these is they don't attack a mere peasant for not stumping up his dues. The
Emperor sends them to get the King / Governer etc of a *province* which has
fallen behind in sending him its taxes.
This is one of the Big 'Secrets' of the Empire, SP says. The Emperor doesn't care *what* goes on in a province, as long as he still gets his taxes and the Lunar pantheon is still worshipped. So you can get an incredibly oppressive regime right next to a liberal one, and the Emperor won't lift a finger to help the oppressed. However, neither will he help a tyrant whose people rise up & depose him: but if a new government is installed, they'd better be sure to keep those taxes coming...
Tax demons are backed up by a (cult?) called the Furies. This is a female warrior organisation in the Heartlands.
What are we likely to see in the forthcoming Soldiers of the Red Moon?
MD: SotRM is intended to allow players to play soldiers / mercenaries in
any of a number of Lunar cults, in the Southern reaches of the Empire. The
Lunar fighting cults are generally considered to be Yanafil Tarnils, 7
Mothers, Hwarin Dalthippa, Hon-Eel, Yara Aranis, perhaps the Furies...
Note this list does NOT include Danfive Xaron, which is not considered primarily a *fighting* cult (though he agreed with my description of them as a Foreign Legion type force).
SP: Don't forget that a lot of Lunar soldiers are not full-time and are in Dee'Zola or Lodril. Those are also decent fighting cults if pressed.
What can you tell us about Yanafil Tarnils?
MD / SP: The initiates can take a gift / geas if they wish. These are
not as gross / debilitating as Humakt's, for example, Lunars aren't prejudiced
so there's no 'double damage vs. trolls' gift. The rune magic includes one-use
Sever Spirit, and reusable Morale, True Scimitar etc. YT Lords can resurrect
themselves, too, using a presacrificed one-use rune spell of 6 or 10 points
(why not use DI?) and, as many are Illumined, often have access to the Red
Goddess' magic and / or sorcery.
...Dee'Zola?
SP: Mainly a healing goddess, the Earth aspects are left to Hon-Eel
(the grain goddess who introduced Maize). Rune spells include Prehealing,
where you cast the Magic Points required *before* you get wounded (I assume
this lasts for longer than 15 minutes or it's pretty useless - PH) and a
Resist (Disease) one where you sacrifice points of POW which are permanently
added to your CON for purposes of resisting one specific disease.
Irippi Ontor?
SP: Whereas Humaktis have a really intense dislike of Yanafil Tarnils
because YT is so obviously a copy of Humakt, IO gets on OK with Lankhor Mhy
because their approaches are quite different. I can't recall further details.
...Teelo Norri?
SP: TN is not really a cult, it's more a charity like the Salvation Army.
The 'priestesses' of TN actually get their magic from other Lunar cults.
...She Who Waits?
SP: No-one really knows anything about her. In ceremonies, her part is
taken by someone wearing a mask.
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