Campaign Law and Other gaming, Miscellany.

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I was originally asked to write one chapter (World Building) of the upcoming new edition of Campaign Law for Rolemaster Classic, I am now significantly contributing to two other chapters (Peoples and Campaigns). Appropriately, the Rolemaster Companion I wrote some sixteen years ago, with a cover price of $14, now sells for $100 USD. I recently finished playing a Rolemaster PBeM run by Luther Martin set in Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age (I played a Dafarian mentalist named Xanana). Now he wants to start a PBeM set in Middle-Earth after the Hobbit, but before the Lord of the Rings. I shall have to revive my lovesick Halfling, Paul McGann. Iron Crown also had a 'remembrance contest' in honour of Gary Gygax. I submitted "A Tale of Two (Rolemaster) Paladins", which I am sure grailchaser could correct me on some of the finer details.

This is quite a big week for me in hanging out with friends in the shared imaginary space of roleplaying games. Thursday evening (D&D 3.5, Fantasy Australia), Friday evening (Swordbearer Castofan), Saturday day (AD&D1e, Norman Britain) and Sunday day (L5R, Ainu Nezumi) is all going to be taken up with ham improvised acting and dice rolling. This is on top of recent events such as an increasingly notorious Easter Sunday GURPS Bunnies & Burrows game (complete with players in rabbit ears). Although without amusing images, I must say the last two retro-AD&D Norman Britian games has been enormous fun (visiting hell, stopping Arachne's revenge against the Gods). In the HeroQuest Glorantha game I narrate, the players have been doing some crazy things, such as winning wars, playing cupid and planning seductions; improvised storytelling at its best - all's fair in love and war.

The past weeks haven't all been fun and games however.. I've spent a fair bit of time working through the implementation of subdomains on DNS and Apache with a PHP/MySQL site; not for the first time Debian Administration has come to my aid. National PornographicGeographic informs us that apparently sex was invented in Australia. Finally, ctudball alerts us to the disaster that is the refusual to separate church and state in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. I take the opportunity to, once again, break Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act; and I incite others to do.

Comments

[taavi.livejournal.com]

Still doing anything with Ten Thousand Islands? I'd be happy to consult!

I have a question about RuneQuest (old skool). One gets battle/spirit magic from confronting and overcoming spirits. In order to do this safely, it's best to have the spirits summoned by a friendly shaman so that they are low power, otherwise one runs serious risks of ending up possessed. Now, reading the Pavis & Big Rubble sets and various other manuals, pretty much everyone (or at least every antagonist / mention-worthy NPC) has at least one battle/spirit spell and most people have several. But there's no mention of the shamans. Lots of rune priests/lords, trainers, rulers, etc are written up, but where are the shamans? there should be one on every street corner! Or am I missing something?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Still doing anything with Ten Thousand Islands? I'd be happy to consult!

Oh, I'd love to take you up on that! My current timetable is for publication of that campaign pack early next year.

but where are the shamans? there should be one on every street corner! Or am I missing something?

Shamans are supposed to be relatively rare, indeed entirely absent, in urban environments. Such places are totally under the control of divine priests. Thus they are not likely to be found in Pavis or Big Rubble, but rather among the nomadic tribes of Prax e.g.,

http://manzato.club.fr/pagepersocm/runequest/rq22.html

[taavi.livejournal.com]

then where does the average lunar soldier, Pavisian in the street, etc get his battle/spirit magic spells?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Different divine cults have a selection of spirit magic spells available to initiates.

[taavi.livejournal.com]

OIC. I thought those were all Divine spells. Do they still have to win a spirit combat to get them? Do the priests summon cult spirits or something for that purpose?
I've emailed you the minotaur stuff rather than putting it on LJ where players might read it.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Do they still have to win a spirit combat to get them? Do the priests summon cult spirits or something for that purpose?

Yes and yes. Although most GMs rarely roll spirit combat for such spells. I mean if you rock up with a POW of 14 and you're combatting a POW 3 Heal spell, it doesn't stand a (heh) ghost of a chance.

I've emailed you the minotaur stuff rather than putting it on LJ where players might read it.

OK, I'll have a looksie ce soir.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

ISTR once going through the spirit combat, and a PC being (briefly) possessed by a Bladesharp 6 spirit as a result :) The officiating priest had stern words with it and it slunk away, but it was fun while it lasted.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

That's pretty funny. IIRC spell spirits don't have much in the way of INT either...