Stew Stansfield

Ha! We've had great fun with Classic! I still very much enjoy Retail, but find I go through patches – particularly after playing for a dozen years plus. The time and memories invested in my main characters tend to draw me back, though (and not just in terms of sunk cost). (The bumblebee mount might help, too...) Even the kindest critic will say BfA has 'issues', but I've still quite enjoyed it, overall (if not to the level of Legion, Mists, Wrath and TBC). Still not made the journey to Wailing Caverns yet, sadly, and I fear we're a bit overlevelled now. Had good Goonies fun in the Deadmines, though! I am looking forward to doing massive Blackrock Depths runs when the time comes. That for me is the ultimate dungeoneering experience...

Hi, Phil, Sadly we only have gnomes (and accompanying lesser beings...) on Hydraxian Waterlords at the moment (<Gnome Sweet Gnome>). We do want to do some Hordies, but with the time commitments of Classic it might have to wait until we've levelled a bit, I fear. Hope to see you on our travels, anyway – or will shout when we get around to levelling our Horde characters! – Stew (also on Argent Dawn).

Hi, all! Well, this thread's been up for three years and it's been a good run! There've been some really fun posts and I'm grateful for the interactions. But I'll probably draw my contributions to a close in the form of this thread. Please continue if you'd like (don't mind me)! One thing I would say, though: Glorantha's ducks are, for the most part, little more than a superficial shibboleth; a fairly shallow badge of tribal belonging; the sign that doesn't really signify anything. But occasionally, if we let them, they become more interesting. Try and focus on telling those rarer stories if you can. They pay off in the end. 😀

Trif, it's quite clear that you aren't twigging how this is escalating - or why it escalated. You played a significant part in this when you dropped a bollock and referred to 'SJWs' and 'red-pillers' in your initial moderation, which just helped set things off. Now it's your site, sure. But it's not just your site site since it became Chaosium's promoted forum. If it's to remain that, I don't see how this trend is sustainable. If the only overt moderation after this nonsense is for you to give a week ban to someone who is complaining about potential issues of prejudice—however misplaced you feel that complaint might be—this is only going to get worse. Even on a cynical level the optics are fucking awful, to put it mildly - irrespective of how any of us might feel on the ethical issues actually being discussed.

In a couple of weeks, World of Warcraft Classic is going to be released. I didn't actually start playing in vanilla WoW myself (having started a few months after the release of The Burning Crusade expansion), but am looking forward to going back to the old paradigm and getting some serious adventurin' (and drinkin' and bandagin') done. Myself and a few mates will be rolling on the Hydraxian Waterlords realm (the EU PvE role-playing server); anyone that wants to join us is more than welcome. I'm not sure how many people on these boards are into MMOs or video (computer! COMPUTER!) games in general, but the WoW Classic release is a fairly big event for some of us fogeys, so I thought I'd see if there were any other interested parties. Gnomelovers are especially welcome.

It's usually mentioned as woad, yes. But as an alternative i I have a sneaking preference for... blue carrots. Blue carrots are mentioned in Martin, Simon and Duncan's write-up of the Anas Clan in Tales 19 and I've rather taken them to heart. Now, vegetable dyes are often nowhere near as colourfast as we think they are, but I just handwave that away (or assume an appropriate mordant). I like to think ducks just throw their clothes into the soup.

"This is a race cursed by the gods during the Great Darkness for not joining them versus the forces of Chaos. It is unknown whether they were originally human and became feathered and web-footed, or originally ducks cursed with flightlessness and intelligence." – RuneQuest (2nd ed., 1979), p. 79. "Legend claims that these odd creatures were cursed during the premortal times. It is unclear whether they were humans cursed with feathers and webbed feet or ordinary ducks cursed with intelligence and flightlessness." – RuneQuest (3rd ed., 1984), Creatures Book, p. 15. "The origin of the ducks is a mystery to outsiders. Legend claims they were cursed by the gods in the Great Darkness for not joining them versus the forces of Chaos, although it is unclear if they were humans cursed with feathers and webbed feet or ordinary ducks cursed with intelligence and flightlessness." – Sartar Companion (2010), p. 110. "It is unknown whether they were originally human and became feathered and web-footed, or originally ducks cursed with flightlessness and intelligence." – RuneQuest Glorantha Bestiary (2018), p. 31. I realise that what I'll term 'the Borderlands paradigm' is strong (not least as it's the longest description of ducks published, and has been reprinted practically word for word in River of Cradles, and also the RuneQuest Glorantha Bestiary), but it's worth remembering that Borderlands (1982) does note (Referee's Handbook, p. 25): "Their origins are obscure, though some tales tell of them as an avian folk who forswore their allegiance to Yelm to follow Orlantha, and were denied the sky as punishment." (Emphasis mine.) I know, this is a fairly long-winded way of defending the potential for something I don't actually believe (!), but I like that the sources are intentionally ambiguous and like to reiterate that they're not as proscriptive as is often assumed. Indidentally, this is also the case for keets, for whom the idea that they gave up their powers of flight is pretty standard. (Particularly because it reinforces—and self-reinforces—the perception gained from Borderlands for ducks, given the contrast: one kind cursed involuntarily to flightlessness for their own cowardice and selfishness; the other voluntarily and selflessly sacrificing it to save the world.) But, were I to be provocative, I'd suggest that the most neutral reading of Revealed Mythologies would suggest that modern keets are likely descended from ancestors that never could fly. But there's a lot going on, there - not least 'Greg things' vs 'Sandy things'.

I did shamelessly copy William's style for the dragonewt cities, which are just perfection, in my book! (And probably a few other things besides...)

If it's good enough for a (dragon-)snail! (What are snails, anyway... slugs that went on a heroquest to gain armour?) But, more seriously, I suspect it's a bit of both. When I first started doing this in earnest, I started drawing ducks in phrygian-style helmets. Over time I started elongating the 'proboscis' and then started to curl it around into a whorl, much like a snailshell (and Air rune, of course). Then I thought: why not use an actual shell from a large snail? It sort of took off from there and became a bit of a shtick. Having written all this, I've just realised you may just mean the first image, with the sea shells? D'oh! Sorry! Yep, that's ceremonial. Though I suspect a Rune Priest of a Water entity using the armour favoured and enjoyed by that rune's denizens will enjoy a little more protection than wearing a helmet covered in shells would in our world.

Personally, I've always thought the best smoking leaf comes from elves. Most upmarket cigars are made from Runners, though the very best are likely made—or at least claimed to be made—from dryad- or nymph-leaf. Ducks hire brave adventurers to venture into the elfwoods to find and capture the choicest leaves for their tubes of truth-seeking. The aldryami are obviously not particularly pleased with this and any expedition faces being hunted and composted by exceedingly angry elf warriors. But that's OK – they make great cigar boxes.

I've been quite lazy lately, sadly, but thought I'd update things with a mix of finished pieces, works in progress, concept and development sketches... Duck Rune Priestess of Engizi Clad in ritual armour composed of freshwater shells from the Creek-Stream River and saltwater shells collected on pilgrimages to Mirrorsea. ***** Duck Rune Lord of Humakt Wearing the typical panoply of a horned helmet, ring-mail jack and studded leather, and carrying a bronze greatsword. ***** Spearducks! An (unfinished) update (centre), of an old sketch from a dozen years ago (left); and a Vingan Nestguard (right). ***** Sootfeather, pyromaniacal spirit-cultist of Oakfead With his pet rubble runner. ***** A map of Dragon Pass As owned by everybody's favourite bandit.

Duck-Skull Spaulders Description A set of bone shoulder-armour, fashioned from two duck skulls and secured by leather straps. Cults Hostile* – Humakt. *Ducks have a curiously potent relationship with the Death rune, and humiliating the Death God’s chosen servants can anger his worshippers. Roll a D6: on 1–5 there is no reaction from worshippers and they may even find it funny; on a 6 they are outraged. Knowledge Automatic. History Ducks are cursed and maligned creatures who are frequently blamed for Glorantha’s ills. Some make it a point of principle to display their hatred in physical form, making cloaks of ducks’ feathers or accoutrements of their bones. In the Hero Wars, many Runemasters consider it de rigueur to wear a set of duck-skull spaulders and flaunt their power. Procedure Don’t make me spell it out, you bastards. Powers Duck-skull spaulders grant 1 point of protection on the arms (ENC 1) for man-sized or smaller creatures, and can be worn in addition to non-plate arm armour. They bestow +2 CHA when interacting with cultures or beings that hate ducks, but -1 DEX (as the wearer is prone to getting stuck in doorways). Whenever a being wearing duck-skull spaulders encounters a duck, contest that being's combined SIZ + CHA versus the duck's POW on the Resistance Table. If the spaulder-wearer is successful, the duck acts as if afflicted by the Demoralise spell (and will usually flee). If the wearer fails, the duck acts as if under the Fanaticism spell (and will usually attack). Roll individually for any and all ducks present. Ducks add +1 to their POW for each additional duck present. Value Typically 50 L, but will drop in price when there’s a Duck Hunt on.

One of the interesting things about the familial history is the degree to which parellelisms of longer historical, legendary and/or mythic relationships play out in your recent kin's history. The basic Sartarite history works out quite well for ducks. And while the events of 1613 and after lack specific nuances relative to the Duck Hunts, you can model the basics fairly well within the standard choices (outlawed, buggered off to Pavis to become petty bandits, etc.). The main absence is to do with their relationships to Delecti and the Upland Marsh. The best place to add that might be 1602, when Delecti helped out the Lunar conquest of Sartar with an army of his undead. Many ducks were turned into zombies in that war and it's an excellent place to add some passions and the like.

One element surrounding this is that Engizi's fatal wound considerably weakens The River, and it's only with the aid of his kin in The Creek and The Stream that he is borne onwards to the Sea. But The Stream only joins its kin after they sluggishly exit the Upland Marsh. A proper assault on Delecti may require them to join their forces earlier, which would involve convincing The Stream to try and change its course (with fairly profound consequences). I'm not sure the ducks would be impressed with this, and their curiously symbiotic relationship with the Necromancer might kick in...

Not in the slightest. Systematically disestablish violence as the principal mode of conflict resolution throughout the 40+ year history of modern roleplaying games, and what are you left with?

You're entirely correct! A variety of physiological differences arising from (predominantly postpubescent) sexual dimorphism fundamentally benefit adult human males in situations involving physical force and activity, notably including violent confrontation. It's one of the principal reasons why patriarchy exists. Why do we not model this? Because we play games to have fun. And as a considerable number of those games involve us solving problems by way of hitting them in the face with an axe, accurately modelling physiological differences would mean that we make games a lot less fun and rewarding for half the human species. So we have two options: (i) keep physical violence in place, but artificially remove its consequences and context, such as removing sex-based characteristic modifiers; or (ii) to stop making and enjoying games where we solve all our problems by hitting them in the face with an axe, which has after all proven a pretty shitty activity to a lot of people over the ages. As we tend to valorise, idealise and infantilise violence to a considerable degree, and our understanding of the nature and consequences of conflict is fairly shallow, we plumb for (i). Unsurprisingly, really, as choosing (ii) would eradicate the hobby as we know it. In the real world, of course, we can't do this. On a non-evolutionary timescale, the biological issues as presented are here to stay. But we can change our behaviour—as individuals and socieities—to stop embracing systems of behaviour that prey upon such issues to produce inequality. Quite why our preferred forms of entertainment (including roleplaying games) persist in doing the exact opposite—embracing an irrevocably flawed and biased system but pretending it has no consequence—is, quite frankly, beyond me. I'm not sure it's exactly the answer you're looking for, but speaking as a military historian, I think it rather gets to the crux of the matter.

Anaxial's Roster mentions minotaurs being 'of both sexes'. But I don't mind people reading it how they'd like (and I rather hoped they would). I mentioned 'pondweed' as a catch-all for a variety of soggy plants; duckweed will certainly be in there!

And to continue... The greatest monsters near the Durulz are the quakebeasts. Ducks tend to be very wary of attacking things bigger than them—particularly if you can't ambush them; and no-one's quite worked out how to ambush a quakebeast yet...—so that might not be on the menu. Ducks do use a lot of quakebeast manure for their buildings, however, and collecting it can be a somewhat deadly exercise. There are plenty of giant eels and watersnakes in the Creek-Stream River however, and these can be scrummy; notably the dangerous thunder eels that the most notorious Duck Point boater gang names themselves after. Eating anything that's an embodied spirit is generally considered bad form, however - and not a little dangerous. Always good to check first! The Upland Marsh is home to all manner of 'marshtucker' ("You can eat these!" swears any duck ranger). Generally it's best not to eat anything bigger than what Delecti would bother turn into a zombie, however. Just in case. I imagine dragonsnails sometimes sneak into the durulz snailfarms, too! The ducks have generally had pretty fair relations with the Beast Folk to the south—minus the odd Dragon Pass race war event...—and tend to steer clear of foods strong in the Beast rune. Fermented minotaur milk is very popular, however! It is sold—warm, always—in Duck Point to cater to Half-Beasts and ducks alike. Sometimes it is mixed with blood to make Bloodmilk (minotaurs aren't known for linuisitic trickery...), a nice alcoholic milkshake. I'm actually writing an adventure centred around a duck banquet (and masquerade ball) at the moment. I imagine that for day-today life, the bewildering everything-at-once approach is quite common in duck nests, with a variety of main and side dishes piled around willy-nilly. But, for the purposes of the greatest banquets, I think service à la russe is the way to go. For the simple reason that most participants in duck banquets will be non-duck adventurers, and forcing them to sit through increasingly bizarre and queasy dishes, one after the other, is the way to go. (I am currently preparing a seventeen-course menu, but it's not quite finished yet, sadly.) No dabbling in the soup tureen! But beside that, I suspect ducks are light on what humans would consider 'table manners'. Many ducks have a strong relationship with the Air rune and are somewhat shameless individuals, so I suspect farting to show your appreciation of a dish—especially if you're lounging in the water and it makes bubbles—is considered good behaviour of any guest. Duck menus tend to be annotated in a weird manner. Some dishes and foodstuffs will be marked with the Air rune; others, the Earth rune. These foods are sacred to Orlanth and Ernalda and reference one of the central points of duck cuisine: ballast. Ducks spend a lot of their time swimming, so split food into earthy dishes that promote weight and stability, and the windy dishes that promote ‘gassy humours’ (and gassy humour). Especially windy or earthy dishes might be marked by double—or even triple—runes. The (in)famous boatduck’s lunch of pickled pondweed (3 x Air), spiced slug sausage (2 x Air) and beetroot chutney (Air) is a very windy dish indeed! The postprandial boatduck requires little effort to keep and their digestion can even provide a little extra propulsion. Alternatively, Duck stews and gumbos (2 x Earth–3 x Earth) can incorporate mud and silt, to help keep you regular, as well as providing weighty ballast. This is rather useful to ducks that enjoy diving or those that simply like to sink to the bottom of a comfy chair and enjoy a good snooze. Bon appétit!

Great post! I've always loved the development of food in fantasy worlds. For shame! I can't claim to know much about what the big beardies eat, but shall type this out anyhow while in the mood. I sense people might lose their appetite reading the following, however... (All In My Glorantha, obviously.) For ducks, the principal spice I use is elf-finger (digitus dendrinis). (The name is not figurative: it is actually an elf’s finger. No, elves aren’t impressed with this, either.) Elf-finger is a component in Fanny Grimbeak's Spicy Slug Sauce (patent pending). Fanny led a life of adventure as a Rune Lord of Humakt until she lost an arm to a gorp in Snakepipe Hollow. After that turn of events she decided that it was a good time to settle down. She sold off her loot and used the proceeds to buy a slug and snail farm just outside Duck Ferry. Here Fanny raises all manner of juicy molluscs: shelled and shell-less, big and small, fat and... well, fatter – and all very, very tasty. She sells the snails at local markets, but keeps the slugs to make her famed sauce. This peculiar condiment is made from pickled slug squeezings. It is a fiery affair that can be enjoyed with much durulz cuisine, and little clay jars of Spicy Slug Sauce can be found at most establishments along The Stream, and in shops as far away as Boldhome and even Nochet. Its ingredients, in addition to the aforementioned slug squeezings pickled in clearwine vinegar, include garlic, carrots, Stream-sausage root, grated elf-finger, various herbs (including meadowsweet) and a ‘special secret ingredient’ that Fanny refuses to divulge. Spicy Slug Sauce is made on Fanny’s farm. Come squeezing time, she hires Heortling stickpickers to squeeze slugs for a clack a day. Great cauldrons of slug squeezings are then pickled and mixed with the other ingredients. There have been numerous complaints made to the Duck Tribal Ring on account of the working conditions Fanny imposes on her seasonal workers – but these have all been dismissed, as Fanny is still a runemaster of the cult of Humakt and thus outside normal law. Ducks fish—notably the trout and salmon of The Stream, but also freshwater crayfish and anything else around—but especially hanker after worms, grubs and molluscs (freshwater or land). These they can forage for, or even farm. Slugs and snails can grow quite big in the Durulz Valley; and even bigger varieties can be traded for from the trolls in the Darklands. Though these can be quite dangerous and the tables can quite literally be turned if the main course gets lose! Ducks sometimes hire adventurers to go on Grub Hunts for them, to stock up for bigger feasts. Worms, grubs, slugs and snails—I shall just call them 'wrigglies' from now on, for ease—can be eaten in many ways. Fresh is always good, especially in the form of slug tartare or 'bubble and squeal', which involves quickly placing a line of salt on a slug and placing it in your beak... and keeping it closed for the duration! Wrigglies are also placed in all manner of soups and stews, wrapped in pond lillies and baked in casseroles – or even roasted on a spit if they're a big packbeetle grub. They can be sugared in honey, as candies; or even cured for use on extended waddlings as trail rations. Worm jerky is quite popular – worms soused in vinegar and dried to a consistency you like. One enterprising little fellow in Duck Point runs a stall selling Pot Wriggles: clay jars of dried worms with a sachet of spice, into which you can pour boiling water. Next to fish and wriggles there are roots. Ducks like to grow vegetables on dry patches of land—notably blue carrots, beetroot and cabbages—but also harvest the starchy roots and rhizomes of a variety of wetland reeds. Some of these are quite good for providing sugars (alongside the usual sources like honey). And then there are the leaves and shoots of a variety of plants, particularly aquatic plants like pondweed. Other popular foods include frogspawn (which is typically eaten as a sweetened pudding) and tadpoles – the centrepiece of polliwiggle pie, which is eaten on Sartar's holy day. Ducks love beer. Especially Greydog ale. They can't get enough of it! Admittedly they often float worms and tadpoles in it and drink it like a broth, but... They do drink clearwine, but prefer to let it sour to vinegar. Clearwine vinegar is their favourite method of sousing wrigglies and pickling vegetables (notably pondweed). I suspect ducks drink some sort of weird marsh-tea meets swamproot-beer meets, well... muddy water. But I've not quite formulated my ideas on this yet. I've also pondered pear and carrot cider... HOW VERY DARE YOU. (And with that I'll break to continue a bit later!)

As an aside, in my Glorantha Delecti can turn pervert swords and make them undead. Zombie swords (vampire swords, Marshfangs, Necromancer’s Nails) are a source of great terror for ducks and their neighbours. These swords are undead—they are affected by Turn Undead and can be located by Detect Undead—and infect other weapons with their curse. The oldest and most powerful zombie swords began as the blades of Humakti Rune Lords who had been defeated by Delecti the Necromancer. Zombie swords have lost their power of Death and cannot kill: a strike by a zombie sword cannot reduce a target’s total hp or location hp to zero. Any strike that would reduce a target’s hp below 1 instead steals 1d3 magic points and transfers them to the zombie sword. Like most undead, zombie swords have magic points but no pow. They may use magic points to empower spell matrices retained from their pre-undead existence and to infect other weapons. Any time a zombie sword parries or is parried by another sword, it has a chance to turn that weapon into a new zombie sword. If the other sword is unmagical, or enchanted with a magic point or spell matrix, contest the zombie sword’s magic points versus the other swords hp, magic points or points of spells—whichever is higher—on the Resistance Table. If the zombie sword wins, the other sword begins its unlife as a new zombie sword with 1 magic point, or however many magic points it had in its matrix. If the other sword contains a bound spirit, each parry immediately initiates a single round of spirit combat. The zombie sword has a spirit combat skill equal to its magic points x5 and does spirit combat damage as if it had a pow+cha total equal to twice its magic points. If the other sword is reduced to 0 magic points via spirit combat, it is reborn as a zombie sword with magic points equal to half the bound spirit’s pow. The bound spirit is either released or trapped powerlessly in the new zombie sword, at the GM’s discretion. A zombie sword reduced to 0 magic points shatters into fragments and dust.

I feel I have to mention... snooker. Snooker is one of—if not the—oldest published Gloranthan pastimes, dating back to Apple Lane (1978). There are those who would argue that snooker is an absurdity that has no place in Glorantha. They are, of course, entirely wrong. Quackjohn certainly thinks so, as I suspect he (Snooker 85%) spends a lot of his time hustling poor Gringle (Snooker 50%). And the image of ducks trying to reach up to lean over the table is immensely funny (albeit not to ducks, who take the game very seriously). Mind you, I suspect Gloranthan snooker can be quite different in certain aspects. Sure, you'll have your finest elfwood cue and magical chalk gained from sacrificing to Chalk Man. But the balls will reflect the celestial orbs of the sun, moons and other planets. The Red Moon will be heavily represented, but will have black and red hemispheres and various restrictions on which sides you can hit when. And there will be innumerable and tedious arguments over which deities the yellow ball(s) represent and how many points they're worth. At least two of the pockets will represent the Gates of Dawn and Dusk. There may be one in the middle for Magasta's Whirlpool and corner pockets representing Krarsht's maws. Balls, when potted into certain pockets go to the underside of the table, black-baized Hell, where a parallel game is played (and balls can come back to the main table). This is perhaps why the little ducks like snooker, because they can play the undertable better. The rules are utterly complex and people suspect ducks of making them up as they go along, depending on whether they're winning or not.

Thank you, Aonstream, that's very kind! I'm currently working on a fan-created project that is less a traditional 'ducks book' (i.e. it won't function like a typical splatbook with culturally inflected character options and background and the like) than an adventure pack set in Duck Point. I'm writing and illustrating everything myself, so I'm afraid it's a terribly slow process! So, nothing immediately on the radar, but will hopefully have something ready next year.

This is a wonderful idea and RuneQuest should bend like space-time around it to make it happen! No, I don't think you're reading the rules as written incorrectly at all. Illusion spell costs can be quite high. I've noticed this a bit (particularly when I was trying to convert one of Charlie's old duck PCs, who had the Image Creation spell from Ray's Three Feathered Rivals cult, to RQG). I'm not as clued-up on RQ as others, so they can advise better – but I'd happily allow the Ultimate Power of Shaggy as, say, a 3-point Rune spell that summons 2D6 non-material sheep that bleat and move... albeit perhaps not where the caster wants them to. For that you need an illusory sheep dog...

The ducks of Dragon Pass are generally accounted as one of the tribes of Sartar, with a single tribe. That tribe has a king c. 1613 (unnamed; Wyrms Footprints, p. 103) and later a queen, Skalfara Wild-Wheat, c. 1620 or so (Barbarian Adventures, p. 6.), much like the neighbouring Orlanthi human tribes. They have clans likewise. There's little detail of the clans, but the most detailed fan works (myself included) have used the names from King of Dragon Pass - e.g. Marsh Ducks (who are basically described in Tales of the Reaching Moon 19), Rune Ducks, Thunder Ducks, etc. Pre-Duck Hunts the tribe numbered of the order of 10,000 ducks. I've tended to assume ten clans or so, for ease (and seem to recall others doing likewise). I can't really speak for the Kethaelan ducks, sadly. There's no much info on them (and those who've attempted to find some in the past are deeply embarrassed by their investigations...). @jajagappa might be able to help more with a view to the duck community of Nochet.

Kindling! Together with the elf arm (which should hopefully be clearer once coloured...). (I rolled an awakened animal familiar on the heirloom table, and, after looking in the Bestiary for potential stats thought, "Why not?" Amusingly, he has less POW (6) than an average feral rubble runner. Useless little get.)