[Rq-rules] *** JUNK MAIL ***Re: Morality

[Simon Phipp]

To echo previous points, if you use Cult standards, Personality Traits from Griffin Mountain and Passions for cults then you have a pretty solid set of guidelines on how your PC is likely to act in any given situation. You probably don't need more than that, especially as you don't want your PC to be controlled by these stats, merely guided.
   
  Also, to open up a can of worms, morality is defined by the culture and setting, so a Zorak Zorani would have a different personal moral code to a Chalana Arroy healer to a Brithini sorcerer, the same is true for non-Glorantha settings.
   
  Peter Maranci:

> "Glorantha, the home of RQ"?
> 
> Glorantha is the home of HQ. I don't think I'm the only one who uses RQ for
> non-Gloranthan settings, right? Didn't we already have this conversation?
   
  Classically, if you count the number of Gloranthan RQ supplements and non-Gloranthan RQ supplements, you will find an overwhelming bias towards Gloranthan ones.
   
  RQM has more generic supplements, but is bringing out a lot of Gloranthan supplements fairly soon. 

> Oddly enough this topic has been on my mind because the RuneQuest article in
> Wikipedia has been re-written in a way that (IMHO) implies that RQ is solely
> a Gloranthan game - which is, of course, not true. I'm considering
> re-writing the article myself to clarify that point, among other things.

  Solely a Gloranthan game? Clearly not true. Mainly a Gloranthan game? Certainly true. Mainly a non-Gloranthan game? Certainly not true.
  
> Any suggestions on improving that article would be appreciated, by the way.
> Here's the link:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuneQuest

  Well, RQ2 had Questworld, which was non-Gloranthan, Gateway Bestiary and Snow King's Bride. Judges Guild produced several RQ supplements that were partially Gloranthan (Duck Tower, Duck Pond) or non-Gloranthan (Hell Pits of Night Fang, City of Lei Tabor, Broken Tree Inn). RQ3 also had Monster Coliseum and Griffin Island, making Monster Colisem, Griffin Island, Vikings and Land of Ninja as their early non-Gloranthan offerings. Daughters of Darkness and Lost City of Eldarad are widely accepted as being inferior, mainly because of the ultra-generic setting.
   
  The game is controlled by a Games Master (GM) rather than a Dungeon Master (DM) or Narrator.
   
  The main focus of past supplements has actually been Prax rather than Dragon Pass. In fact, for RQ only Apple Lane and Snakepipe Hollow have been based in Dragon Pass. Pavis/Prax has had Cults of Prax, Pavis, Big Rubble, Borderlands, Sun County, River of Cradles, Shadows on the Borderlands and Strangers in Prax. 
   
  In classic RQ, special hits are 20% chance, critical hits are 5% chance. In MRQ, critical hits are 10% chance.
   
  Broos are certainly not orc-like in any way, shape or form. Trolls are fairly orc-like, but not broos.
   
  The use of specialist skills should be emphasised as a core part of the RQ rules system. Anything you want to do has a skill associated with it and each skill increases mostly independantly of other skills. This allows PCs to be tailored and specialised in a way that AD&D, for instance, does not.
   
  The absence of Character Classes and Alignment should also be emphasised in the RQ vs D&D section.
   
  It might be worth mentioning the major fanzines as well - Wyrms Footnotes, Different Worlds (possibly), White Dwarf (possibly), Heroes (possibly), Tales of the Reaching Moon, RQ Adventures, Codex and Tradetalk - they all helped RQ throuigh the bad times.
   
   
  So, all in all, it isn't a bad article, but could be improved. Taking out all references to Glorantha would NOT improve it, though :-)
   
  See Ya
   
  Simon
   
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