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## Bizarre Glorantha Trolling

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Mistborn
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### Bizarre Glorantha Trolling

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Post by Mistborn » Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:30 pm

> FrankTrollman wrote:

Could someone please explain what the fuck this is.
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin » Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:32 pm

Glorantha is a fantasy world with a race of Donald-style Ducks.
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hogarth
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Post by hogarth » Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:35 pm

It's a "classic" beginner module for RuneQuest.
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fbmf
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Post by fbmf » Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:39 pm

The wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorantha
Game On,
fbmf
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Username17
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Post by Username17 » Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:48 pm

Glorantha is a fantasy world that was created to do gaming in during the early seventies. It is thus roughly contemporaneous with D&D. But it didn't specifically get a role playing game made for it until a few years after D&D was a thing. It has a consistent set of metaphysics and legends, a world with stuff in it and a rich history and all that is praiseworthy.
Unfortunately, it's really fucking terrible. Glorantha has Donald Duck-style Ducks. Why? I don't fucking know, I think someone thought this was fucking hilarious, but it completely shits on the "serious business" mood that the rest of the world is going for. Also they try to have things be "mythically real" rather than actually real. Which means that physics and shit is supposed to function via symbolic understanding, which basically means that the game world is a literally unending rabbit hole of stupid shit.
Also, the game is tied to the RuneQuest game system, which is basically the system of Call of Cthulhu. Now imagine that you were playing Call of Cthulhu, except that your characters dying constantly from stupid crap wasn't the point and was objectively a flaw in the system.
-Username17
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Wed Mar 27, 2013 9:45 pm

So far as I know, ducks are more the Howard variety than Donald. Don't know how much of a difference that makes.
Get this, the guy who runs the Runequest game I play in, and recently started a new, non-Glorantha world and had us write up nations for our characters, thinks that Ponies would be too much of a joke race. Yes, really. Ducks=perfectly fine. Candy Coloured Magical Ponies=Joke race.
Edit: I do have to say that death toll isn't that bad. Usually. Mythically Real is fucking bullshit, but things generally work ok, as far as what one would expect from physical reality. Except that bases don't exist. Fuck Glorantha. (no one died, I just hate that one time)
Last edited by Prak on Wed Mar 27, 2013 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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kzt
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Post by kzt » Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:10 pm

> FrankTrollman wrote: Unfortunately, it's really fucking terrible. Glorantha has Donald Duck-style Ducks. Why? I don't fucking know, I think someone thought this was fucking hilarious, but it completely shits on the "serious business" mood that the rest of the world is going for. Also they try to have things be "mythically real" rather than actually real. Which means that physics and shit is supposed to function via symbolic understanding, which basically means that the game world is a literally unending rabbit hole of stupid shit.

You can simply ignore minor stupid crap like ducks in most cases, or trivially edit it out. And yeah, there are a couple of other "funny hah hah" things scattered around. All the ones I can think of are pretty minor and have no real significance.
You can also ignore most of the metaphysics causes, since the world pretty much behaves on the macro level like earth. Other then actually being a flat disk with topology vs a sphere, I can't think of anything that really matters a whole lot to the average player. At crazy power levels the metaphysics becomes important, but you don't have to go there.
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hyzmarca
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Post by hyzmarca » Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:29 pm

I respectfully submit that Donald Duck is a badass wizard.
Evidence:
He is, however, substantially less badass a wizard than Daffy Duck is.
Daffy even has a harem of bound succubi in his secret tower in his private demiplane.
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Archmage
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Post by Archmage » Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:45 pm

WHAT?
What is that image from? What the fucking duck harem fuck?
Last edited by Archmage on Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

> P.C. Hodgell wrote:That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.

> shadzar wrote:i think the apostrophe is an outdated idea such as is hyphenation.

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Username17
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Post by Username17 » Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:48 pm

Daffy Duck is The Wizard.
-Username17
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:58 pm

It's the new looney toons cartoon. It's actually pretty good. Daffy even has business cards that say "professional warlock."
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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Aryxbez
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Post by Aryxbez » Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:58 pm

I had never heard of this before, I think playing Ducks could be actually kind of cool, and given some arguably "silly" stuff in fantasy, unsure why Ducks are unfit to he bill.
There are easily some cool ducks out there, for example, and if it's all political esque game, can have some kind of duck, color of feathers and like, symbols of station
Also, I had seen that video on TV before, it's still just as awesome, and another example that Ducks can totally be taken seriously.
What I find wrong w/ 4th edition: "I want to stab dragons the size of a small keep with skin like supple adamantine and command over time and space to death with my longsword in head to head combat, but I want to be totally within realistic capabilities of a real human being!" --Caedrus mocking 4rries
"the thing about being Mister Cavern [DM], you don't blame players for how they play. That's like blaming the weather. Weather just is. You adapt to it. -Ancient History
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Stahlseele
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Post by Stahlseele » Wed Mar 27, 2013 11:06 pm

*nods*
the Daffy Duck - The Wizard is pretty divine.
Welcome, to IronHell.

> Shrapnel wrote:

> > TFwiki wrote:Soon is the name of the region in the time-domain (familiar to all marketing departments, and to the moderators and staff of Fun Publications) which sees release of all BotCon news, club exclusives, and other fan desirables. Soon is when then will become now.
> > Peculiar properties of spacetime ensure that the perception of the magnitude of Soon is fluid and dependent, not on an individual's time-reference, but on spatial and cultural location. A marketer generally perceives Soon as a finite, known, yet unspeakable time-interval; to a fan, the interval appears greater, and may in fact approach the infinite, becoming Never. Once the interval has passed, however, a certain time-lensing effect seems to occur, and the time-interval becomes vanishingly small. We therefore see the strange result that the same fragment of spacetime may be observed, in quick succession, as Soon, Never, and All Too Quickly.

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Korgan0
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Post by Korgan0 » Wed Mar 27, 2013 11:10 pm

Most of what I know about Glorantha comes from The King Of Dragon Pass, which is a pretty kickass game.
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Rawbeard
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Post by Rawbeard » Wed Mar 27, 2013 11:11 pm

Jezuz fuck, a great visual representation of why wizards win the game.
To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
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silva
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Post by silva » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:57 am

> Korgan0 wrote:Most of what I know about Glorantha comes from The King Of Dragon Pass, which is a pretty kickass game.

This.
King of Dragon Pass is the best intro for the setting so far, and perfectly demonstrate its differential to other fantasy rpg settings out there, in the way its culture and religion drives the gameplay and forces the player to think like a bronze age man would. All the while being a kickass strategy-sandbox-emergent narrative game.
Last edited by silva on Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:00 am, edited 3 times in total.
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silva
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Post by silva » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:57 am

The thing about Glorantha is that its a setting created by a mythologist as a vehicle for his experiments the same way Middle Earth is a vehicle for a linguist´s experiments. Thus its cultural and mythological aspects are rich and "organic" in a way few other settings do. Its the only setting I know where religion is actually coherent with what is seen in the peoples and cultures of the ancient world/iron/bronze age. (albeit with its own twists, like the Campbellian "heroquests")
As an example, "magic" in the setting is the little charms and supersticious habits old peoples had (and have even today), like holding a rabbit foot for luck, or punching the wood 3 times to avoid bad eye, etc. In the game, these things actually have tangible effects. (in high level magic though, you still have more "traditional" spell effects, like flying or commanding animals, etc)
About the Durulz (the ducks) I agree theyre a silly race. But it doesnt degrade the setting the least for me (the same way Gifs or Halflings also dont degrade D&D settings, even if theyre silly races as well, in my opinion).
And that cover just make it worst. The art below is the current "official" one for them, and while they continue a silly race (IMO), at least they dont look like Duck Howard..
Last edited by silva on Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:34 am, edited 2 times in total.
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OgreBattle
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Post by OgreBattle » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:01 am

> FrankTrollman wrote: Unfortunately, it's really fucking terrible. Glorantha has Donald Duck-style Ducks. Why? I don't fucking know, I think someone thought this was fucking hilarious, but it completely shits on the "serious business" mood that the rest of the world is going for.

It's because swedes are intensely fascinated by Donald Duck, Duck Tales, and Scrooge McDuck.
I would rather have ducks than gnomes
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Count Arioch the 28th
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Post by Count Arioch the 28th » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:07 am

Are there ducktits in Glorantha? I will reserve my judgement on the sentient duck race until the ducktit status has been either refuted or confirmed.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:09 am

Look, honestly, anthropomorphic ducks is really no worse than lizardfolk, gnolls, minotaurs, centaurs or any of a number of classic D&D creatures. They're a bit ridiculous, but if it weren't for the myth of one man eating specimen, minotaurs would be pretty ridiculous too.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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Koumei
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Post by Koumei » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:22 am

> OgreBattle wrote:It's because swedes are intensely fascinated by Donald Duck, Duck Tales, and Scrooge McDuck.

Seriously, Donald Duck (Kalle Anka) gets more votes in every Swedish election than like half the parties. Consistently. Every single time. Voting isn't even compulsory there, so it's not like here where you rock up to avoid the small fine and just draw a penis on the ballot paper, they decide they really want to go and vote for Donald Duck. Jesus gets a tiny handful of votes, about as many as Robin Hood. Next is Hitler, more popular than either. Batman gets more than all of those combined, but seriously, Donald Duck is the big one. If a party could actually get Donald Duck on board (which would be difficult to say the least), they would win the elections for ever.

> Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.

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Prak
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Post by Prak » Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:02 am

> Koumei wrote:

> > OgreBattle wrote:It's because swedes are intensely fascinated by Donald Duck, Duck Tales, and Scrooge McDuck.

> Seriously, Donald Duck (Kalle Anka) gets more votes in every Swedish election than like half the parties. Consistently. Every single time. Voting isn't even compulsory there, so it's not like here where you rock up to avoid the small fine and just draw a penis on the ballot paper, they decide they really want to go and vote for Donald Duck. Jesus gets a tiny handful of votes, about as many as Robin Hood. Next is Hitler, more popular than either. Batman gets more than all of those combined, but seriously, Donald Duck is the big one. If a party could actually get Donald Duck on board (which would be difficult to say the least), they would win the elections for ever.

They could just get their candidate to change their name to Kalle Anka.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

Top

OgreBattle
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Post by OgreBattle » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:25 am

Oh man... I prefer the old cover, the one without shirtless ducks with defined pectorals and six-packs hahah
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silva
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Post by silva » Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:15 am

Incredible how Pipes make everything better. I would play with this guy.
I doubt a pipe would do any good for this fella, though.
Last edited by silva on Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:17 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Count Arioch the 28th
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Post by Count Arioch the 28th » Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:23 am

Are you kidding? A pipe would complete a Giff. Giffs are fucking awesome.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
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