From: Argrath@aol.com
Date: Wed 21 Sep 1994 - 01:35:27 EEST
This is the second time I've sent this, the first being the 18th. If by some
quirk of the ether, they both arrive, please ignore the other one. I've made
some changes to this one.
The Blue Wizard says:
>I, the Blue Wizard, have investigated the speech of the Aldryami
>and have concluded it is much more than sounds alone.
I agree with this.
>It has been well known that Aldryami have some wierd touchsense
I disagree that it is well-known. Some specialists in Aldryami culture, who are spookily far from normal human ways of thought, might know about it, but they wouldn't even try to explain it to outsiders.
>However, I feel that the elves also have some capacity to sense
>the emotion in the speech.
Only when they are touching the person talking, and that is the reason why they like to touch while talking. They can also pick up some emotion when touching something (like a tree) that the speaker is touching, or even through the network of trees, but the message becomes progressively weaker.
>The warriors of Fonrit discovered this truth in the Eight Season
>Wars and so I am told make use of Aldryami in their war crys as
>a means to damage the mind of their opponents.
Don't believe everything you're told ;-.
>As for the deciphering of the Aldryami tongue, I can only
>conclude that as well as accents, the elves of different woods
>have a preference for using particular woods.
I didn't know they _played_ golf.
>If people are willing, I will describe the writing of the
>Aldryami in a future post.
In a discussion between various folks (Ken Rolston, Mike Dawson, Peter Michaels and maybe some other AOL-ers), we came up with special trees or other plants which, in the way they are grown, contain information. Of course, to access this information requires use of the Aldryami touch sense. Small plants could be the equivalent of pamphlets or broadsides, while entire trees might be needed to express the information contained (by humans) in books. Glorantha being a Lamarckian kind of place, the seeds of these plants contain some of the information contained in the parent plant. Thus, it is possible to disseminate information through carrying seeds.
Joerg asks:
>(BTW: Are there Morokanth Storm Bulls?
Fer sure. 4%, according to CoP.
>What gear do they use, and do they mix with other Storm Bulls?
I'm not sure they'd have any special gear, though the ones with thumbs would use swords and the others might carry swords for the symbolism. They probably wouldn't mix with other SBs, because the cultural prejudice runs higher than the religious sympathy; for that matter, there's probably a good bit of distrust between human SBs of different tribes.
>You have the Newtlings below, but not the Baboons. In NG they
>have one clans counter and one shaman. Assuming approximately
>20% fighters, their number could be in the 4000 range.
Baboons are in the G:CHW tables (Book 3, page 24). There are 10,000 of them.
>> Adari 200 [+100 others]
>According to Tales 3, the populace of Adari is 300 to 600 humans
>_inside the palisade_.
>No mention of oasis folk or farming is made, ...
In any case, the center of the Golden Age civilization of the oasis folk was to the east, in Genert's Garden, not to the south. Even if there weren't any oasis folk in Adari at the dawn, nomads would have driven them there forcibly to provide their services (tanning, wood-working, farming). Nomads sacking the city and trolls settling nearby wouldn't deter oasis folk: they're survivors.
Re: Warhamster
As a reformed wargamer, I have to comment on these rules (which appeared in
Tales #12). In general, I liked them, even though I don't usually use
miniatures and these rules are clearly mini-based. But I have a problem with
these rules: Cf (Combat factor) is based on combat skills and maximum damage,
with no factor for tactics, while Df (defense factor) is based on chest armor
and hit points, with up to a 1 or 2 point add for heavy armor elsewhere (the
example gives a +1 for a hoplite shield).
If this were realistic, then Vercingetorix's Gauls would have defeated Julius Caesar's legions and Caradoc's British alliance would have defeated Claudius' legions. The Celts in both those cases were superior warriors to the Roman legionaries. They fought, raided, and practiced with weapons more than the Romans did. They used bigger weapons than the Roman gladius. The Celts' armor was usually inferior, but that's not enough to explain why the number of times that Celts beat Romans in the field is rather smaller than the number of Roman victories. Boudicca beat one legion and got wiped out by another (1-1). Caradoc's record was (0-1) in major battles, though he used guerrilla warfare very effectively. The Gauls scared Caesar's legions a few times, but never destroyed any.
In fact, it was rare for the "barbarians" to beat up on Romans. It was a great psychological shock to the Romans when 3 legions got ambushed travelling through heavy forest in Germany and were wiped out. From Republican times through the early centuries of the Empire, legions rarely lost, and never lost to equal numbers of Celts or Germans except the afore-mentioned ambush in the woods.
The Romans obviously won because their tactics gave them an advantage over the heroic mobs they faced. The same tactical realities apply, IMHO, to Gloranthans. The Sun Domers of Prax survived the solitude of testing not because their co- religionists in the tribes declined to attack them (don't Waha cultists raid other Waha cultists?), but because they beat the nomads every time through their hoplite tactics, use of terrain features, and excellent earth works.
The upshot is that Cf should be based on either the factors listed OR a tactical fudge factor, whichever is higher. Obviously, the same tactics that work well in open battle don't work well in guerrilla warfare, so the fudge factor depends on the size of the engagement, as well.
On a related note, I note that the rules provide a modifier to Cf for being uphill or downhill, but not for any other terrain features. I would add:
Condition Modifier ----------------------------------- -------- Enemy is behind short wall or in trench -1 Attacker has to climb ladders to attack -3 Cavalry attacking emplaced infantry -3* Enemy is across a shallow stream -1 Enemy is across a deep stream -2 Enemy is guarding a ford or bridge -3
(others as the situation warrants)
Any wall a defender can get completely behind subtracts 3 from Missile Rating.
Note also that some troops (like Roman legions) carried one-use missile weapons. The Romans' javelins were highly useful in breaking up charges, especially by cavalry or chariots.
Any chance of a Warhamster demonstration at RQ Con 2?
--Martin
X-RQ-ID: Extro
[The rules of the game]
Send submissions and followup to "RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM", they will automatically be included in a next issue.
Please include a Subject: line. Articles without it will be ignored, returned, or delayed.
Selected articles may also appear in a regular Digest. If you want to submit articles to the Digest only, contact the editor at RuneQuest-Digest-Editor@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM.
Send enquiries and Subscription Requests to the editor:
RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld)
sub list address@your.domain Your Full Name
unsub list address@your.domain
From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 22 Sep 1994, part 1
Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM
Content-Return: Prohibited
Precedence: junk
X-RQ-ID: Intro
This is the RuneQuest Daily Bulletin, a mailing list on the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. It is sent out once per day in digest format.
More details on the RuneQuest Daily and Digest can be found after the last message in this digest.
X-RQ-ID: index
6306: =
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:37:00 EEST