Are duck coward?

[Beorne]

Reading various sources I tought ducks were brave amd successfull respected warriors, then I found in RQ:G Bestiary:

"Most ducks have a special 
Passion of Cowardly 60%, which acts in a similar fashion 
to Honor but enforces craven behavior."

How this is possible? Are ducks cowards or fierce warriors?

Thanks

[AndreJarosch]

2 hours ago, Beorne said:

Reading various sources I tought ducks were brave amd successfull respected warriors, then I found in RQ:G Bestiary:

"Most ducks have a special 
Passion of Cowardly 60%, which acts in a similar fashion 
to Honor but enforces craven behavior."

How this is possible? Are ducks cowards or fierce warriors?

Thanks

In my Glorantha the common duck individual (worshippers of Orlanth, Ernalda) are "cowardly" in a way that they want to live their lives in peace and harmony; they just wan´t to do their things. 
Not so much different from other Orlanthi folk (that means about 85%; the Orlanthi All"). The other 15% are different, and my ducks of this category are extremists in their ways. And the Humakti in perticular. 

Edited June 1, 2021 by AndreJarosch

[Squaredeal Sten]

As written, "most' are cowards. 

There is a problem with their being fierce warriors:  They don't have the SIZ or ST to mix it up in melee on land.  Negative hit bonus and high strike rank.

However your non-typical Humakti duck might just slice and dice you.

So folks who assume that of ALL ducks and proceed to bully them are playing Russian Roulette.

 

 

 

 

[PhilHibbs]

Most of them, most of the time, are cowards. They're the kind of coward that will run and hide, but if you close in on them, and they're cornered, watch out. Cowards can sometimes escalate a situation beyond all rationality.

[Baron Wulfraed]

4 hours ago, Beorne said:

How this is possible? Are ducks cowards or fierce warriors?

Are Pierson's Puppeteers cowards? (Niven, Known Space universe) -- in at least one book it is pointed out that the tendency to "run" from a perceived threat is accompanied by using both heads to triangulate on said threat, which is thereby positioned for a severe kick by the puppeteer's central/hind leg.

That's not to say some ducks might be quivering outside a city's walls, slowly leaving yellow stains in their feathers...

A "coward" duck might have high stealth skills to avoid being noticed, and maybe a specialty in back-stabbing <G>

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Baron Wulfraed

[Darius West]

11 hours ago, Beorne said:

How this is possible? Are ducks cowards or fierce warriors?

Given a sizeable portion of the duck population have a negative damage bonus, the fierce warriors don't tend to last long.  Assume that a young and inexperienced duck might be fierce, and a very old duck might be fierce, but most ducks are realists, and that means cowardice.  In short, ducks are fierce when they outnumber you 6:1 from behind in the dark.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Darius West

[Bill the barbarian]

Who are ya calling a coward, c’mon, I’ll take ya on with one wing tied behind my back! C’mon, I dare ya! Put ‘em up!

[Eff]

Just look at Donald Duck. Unquestionably a successful and respected warrior, unquestionably a coward. Or Howard the Duck. A recognized master of the 36th Nest of Quack Fu, fighter of vampires and bell-themed supervillains, and definitely at 75% or maybe even 80% Cowardly. 

[Lloyd Dupont]

Hence I would say being a coward is the deprecating interpretation.
I would say it is just sensible behavior from those tiny people! 😅

[Nozbat]

2 minutes ago, Eff said:

Just look at Donald Duck. Unquestionably a successful and respected warrior, unquestionably a coward. Or Howard the Duck. A recognized master of the 36th Nest of Quack Fu, fighter of vampires and bell-themed supervillains, and definitely at 75% or maybe even 80% Cowardly. 

What about Daisy?... I'm pretty sure she had no cowardly aspects or passions... in fact she was usually frustrated by Donald's immaturity (read cowardliness??) and went on dates with Donald's rival Gladstone Gander (possibly the first inter species kiss on TV)

This was a woman who had a strong sense of herself and her own mind but sadly diminished by the structural sexism of the time by being reduced to a small part in movies, TV and comics

[brionl]

When you are small and weak, it's not cowardice, it's prudence.

 

[soltakss]

13 hours ago, Beorne said:

How this is possible?

The rules describe some Ducks, or most Ducks, not all Ducks.

13 hours ago, Beorne said:

Are ducks cowards or fierce warriors?

Some are cowards, some are fierce warriors.

In fact, most are cowards, hiding away in the Upland Marsh and living peaceful lives.

Those outlawed by the Lunars fled to other areas and live cowardly lives as bandits or thieves, being outlaws.

The brave ones usually join Humakt or, occasionally, Orlanth and Storm Bull.

 

[Rick Meints]

Please note that neither, Donald, nor Daisy, (or Gladstone Gander) are the models for the ducks in Glorantha.

[AndreJarosch]

19 minutes ago, Rick Meints said:

Please note that neither Donald, nor Daisy, (or Gladstone Gander) are the models for the ducks in Glorantha.

Howard for President! 😉

Edited June 2, 2021 by Rick Meints

[Denethor]

 

On 6/2/2021 at 1:38 AM, Eff said:

Just look at Donald Duck. Unquestionably a successful and respected warrior, unquestionably a coward. Or Howard the Duck. A recognized master of the 36th Nest of Quack Fu, fighter of vampires and bell-themed supervillains, and definitely at 75% or maybe even 80% Cowardly. 

To be honest, cowardice is not the way I would describe Donald or Scrooge based on what I saw of them in DuckTales or in the old Carl Barks stories. For that matter my Orlanthi characters would probably become worried if they ever heard a duck on the other side say the words, "Let's get dangerous!". ^_^

Edited June 3, 2021 by Nick Brooke
Deleted duplicate quote.

[Darius West]

Let's face facts.  The role ducks play in the Hero Wars is that they are formed into squads by Argrath, and then they are sent into the Upland Marsh due to their movement bonus over swamp as emissaries to Delecti, who then turns them into zombies as payola for joining the Sartarite cause.  To be fair, it takes some bravery to be marched to your undeath, and duck fatalism (and quite possibly a sense of species based depression) likely plays a role in this, but it is not a cowardly act in the slightest. 

 

[Ali the Helering]

4 hours ago, Denethor said:

 

To be honest, cowardice is not the way I would describe Donald or Scrooge based on what I saw of them in DuckTales or in the old Carl Barks stories. For that matter my Orlanthi characters would probably become worried if they ever heard a duck on the other side say the words, "Let's get dangerous!". ^_^

I'd be spending my time trying to understand what they had said... too many lisped esses....

[tnli]

20 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

Please note that neither, Donald, nor Daisy, (or Gladstone Gander) are the models for the ducks in Glorantha.

In our Glorantha, we call Duck Point Duckburg, and therein lives the world's richest duck...

[soltakss]

7 hours ago, Darius West said:

Let's face facts.  The role ducks play in the Hero Wars is that they are formed into squads by Argrath, and then they are sent into the Upland Marsh due to their movement bonus over swamp as emissaries to Delecti, who then turns them into zombies as payola for joining the Sartarite cause. 

True, but I have also used them with some Beast Valley and Crested Dragonewt units as mass archers, with limited success, mainly due to be abysmal dice rolling when playing Dragon Pass.

[Jape_Vicho]

On 6/2/2021 at 10:50 AM, soltakss said:

In fact, most are cowards, hiding away in the Upland Marsh

Isnt that kind of like saying some coward is hiding away in Yemen during it's current civil and external war in order to live peacefully?

[soltakss]

2 minutes ago, Jape_Vicho said:

Isnt that kind of like saying some coward is hiding away in Yemen during it's current civil and external war in order to live peacefully?

Not really.

The typical view of Ducks are that they are bold fighters of undead, warring with Delecti's Minions, but most aren't, they hide away in the Upland Marsh, avoiding anyone who would attack them for bounty and so on.

[Darius West]

3 hours ago, soltakss said:

True, but I have also used them with some Beast Valley and Crested Dragonewt units as mass archers, with limited success, mainly due to be abysmal dice rolling when playing Dragon Pass.

If you turn ducks into zombies you double their strength (from 1 to 2), plus ally Delecti.  Plus in some scenarios you can re-recruit them after they are taken off the board.  I am not saying massed archery isn't potentially valuable, but ducks are objectively better when turned into zombies, i.e. when converted into a different unit.

Edited June 3, 2021 by Darius West

[Shiningbrow]

Daffy is by no means a coward!!! 

After repeatedly losing limbs, being set on fire, having his head blown off, and bill turned around, he still gets back up and goes to take on the enemy!!!

[Bren]

He gets knocked down, but he gets up again....

[Rubble-Runner_Ed]

I am finding cowardice as a standard duck passion instead of honor difficult to accept. Ducks are generally Orlanthi, and should have a normal Sartarite regard for honor. As to the cowardice, here's a thought experiment: replace ducks with humans from other tribes. Replace the humans with small Orlanthi giants with a culture similar to Heortling culture. When I say "small" giants, I mean that the smallest adults are size 18, and the average size is 31 or 32. Now imagine how humans with normal levels of common sense would interact with the giants. Once you have that firmly in mind, how would humans who are cowards behave? I imagine they would never willingly come within rock throwing distance of a giant. Similarly, I don't believe a duck with a 60% Cowardice passion would willingly come within rock-throwing distance of a human. This would make them rather uninteresting as NPCs, and unplayable characters. "You hear a sound like someone counting out gold wheels. What are you going to do?" "I'll hide in cover in the rushes and swim silently in cover away from the noise!" "Me, too." "Seconded!" "I'll just hide in the rushes until something changes." etc.

On the subject of negative damage bonuses as an excuse for cowardice, clearly this is more common in ducks than in humans. But HOW common? For ducks that put the 2 points from their air rune into charisma, 3/8 (37.5%) have a negative damage For the remainder, who put it into strength, it's a little less than 27%. We can safely say that having a negative damage modifier is somewhat below average for a duck.