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Chaosium Digest Volume 21 Number 01
Chaosium Digest Volume 21, Number 1
Date: Sunday, August 17, 1997
Number: 1 of 4
Contents:
Trolls! (Orjan Westin) PENDRAGON
CF: The Chime of Tezchaptl (Shannon Appel) MYTHOS
Editor's Note:
The Mythos Digest has been terribly full of Mythos deck designs &
conceptions lately. This week's digest is jammed packed with them, all
the way from V21.2 to V21.4. I've also included a card file which
previously appeared on the Mythos Digest. If you'd like to regularly
receive the Mythos Digest, mail majordomo@chaosium.com with the
command "subscribe mythos" or "subscribe mythos-digest" in the body of
the message (not the subject).
I've also got a cool Pendragon article on trolls, which you'll find in
this volume. In general, however, articles on Chaosium's other games
have been light lately. If you've got anything for Elric!, Nephilim,
Pendragon, or Call of Cthulhu, please send them this way!
See you in two weeks.
Shannon
RECENT RELEASES:
_Singers of Strange Songs_, Chaosium's new Brian Lumley tribute, saw
an early release this weekend at NecronomiCon. It hasn't started
shipping to anywhere else yet, so I'm saving the full info till the
next Chaosium Digest, which is about when it should be finding its way
to stores.
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
The Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/historic_us_cities.html
This site is full of historical US maps, most of them from the 1920s,
or very nearby. Thanks to Pete Hurley for passing this info on.
--------------------
From: "Orjan Westin" <orjan.westin@enator.se>
Subject: Trolls!
System: Pendragon
The origin of the Trolls in Britain is unknown. Some say that they
have lived here since time immemorial, while others say they came with
the Saxons or the Irish. Some scholars even maintain that they are
entirely mythical creatures, sprung from the minds of gullible,
drunken peasants who have been frightened by a bear or a boar in the
woods, far from the learned centres of culture.
Most common people do believe in their existance, though, espescially
in Wales and East Anglia, where the sightings has been most
frequent. From what they tell, there appear to be not one, but two
different kinds of Trolls. The tales differ a lot between the east and
the west, and the two kinds of Trolls are referred to as Mountain
Trolls (in Wales) and Woodland Trolsl (in East Anglia).
The differences lie mostly in the areas of culture (or lack thereof),
philosophy and way of life. In appearance and general behaviour the
Mountain and Woodland Trolls are very much alike, although the former
tend to be bigger and more rash.
APPEARANCES
Trolls are big, with a typical height between 2.5 and 3.5 meters. They
are both tall and broad of shoulders, very strong, and have great
endurance. Quite surprisingly, they are not clumsy, despite their
size, and can show amazing agility. They are built like very powerful
humans, but have longer arms, which they sometimes employ in movement,
especially in rough terrain. Their bodies are covered in thick fur,
black or brown, and they do not wear clothes at all. On the head the
fur turns into a mane, resembling hair, which they leave unkempt. The
males also have beards. The color of their skin varies between
green-gray and brown. Their hide is very tough, and gets tougher as
they age. If anything, they find the climate too warm, but it seems
they are too stubborn to move farther north.
Their faces are most often very ugly, like a parody of a man. Their
ears are huge and pointed, their noses long and broad, and their
foreheads low. They have broad mouths with thick lips and big, yellow
teeth. Their eyes are small, and the eyebrows are very hairy.
They seldom clean themselves, cannot swim, and do not like getting
wet. Because of this, their appearance melts well into the
terrain. The Woodland Trolls are often covered with straws, leaves,
dirt, and moss; the Mountain Trolls with dust and dirt.
As they grow older, the colour of the fur starts to fade and turn
gray, and it is reputed that the king of the Woodland Trolls is almost
completely white. In this statement lies the most unsettling fact
about trolls: they do not die of age, nor do their powers wane as the
years go by! Apparently, they reach their full height at the age of
fifty, but their strength continues to grow, although their agility
lessens with the centuries. One old Troll was seen fetching dinner
from a Lord's pastures; he left with one full-grown bull under each
arm. Thus encumbered, he couldn't climb over the low wall surrounding
the field, and fell flat on his face. He shrugged, left one of the
bulls behind and left, climbing with the help of his one free arm,
without coming back for the other bull.
Fortunately, trolls mate for life and do not try to find another mate
if, as sometimes happens, their partner is killed or incapacitated.
Furthermore, their fertility is low - few couples have more than one
cub. The old ones are less agile than the young, but bigger and
stronger.
TURNING TO STONE
What lies behind the stories of Trolls turning into stone when exposed
to the sun is the fact that Trolls get drowsy when out in daytime;
they're normally a nighttime species. Added to this, there is the
peculiar fact that Trolls sometimes, for reasons unknown, can stay in
one place for a very long time. Some say this is because of their
stubbornness - if a Troll decides to wait for something, it will not
lose interest.
Other claim, that these hibernating trolls have searched for solitude
to contemplate some problem beyond our fathoming. This does seem, in
view of what we know of Trolls' intellectual gifts, quite improbable.
However, after enough time has passed, such a hibernating troll will
be undistinguishable from the surrounding terrain, overgrown with moss
and grass, surrounded by trees and bushes.
Stories tell of travellers seeking shelter from the wind behind a
rock--a rock which wakes when a fire is lit against its side. Thus
awakened, the Troll is often furious at having been disturbed and
attacks at once. After the disturbance is removed, however, the Troll
is likely to return to its former, dormant state.
Game Mechanics
A Troll awakened like this starts with a DEX and STR at 2, and doubles
these points every melee round until he is up to normal. This
generally takes five rounds. A simple table that shows STR, DEX,
Damage and fighting skills for the different Trolls is given at the
end of this article.
DIET
Troll will normally eat anything that isn't too hard to chew. Trees
and rocks are generally left alone, and when they catch a larger
animal or a person, their first action is to rip off the head and
throw it away. It is speculated that this is because they do not like
the taste of brains. A Troll is usually hungry all the time, but since
this is the normal state for a Troll, they have learned to ignore
it. A Troll pursuing another matter may pass a stack of hay or a herd
of sheep without being distracted.
COLD IRON
Common folk say that in order to prevent a house from a Troll, you
should put a horseshoe over the door, since Trolls cannot stand the
prescence of cold iron. Strangely enough, this does not seem to be
superstition. Reliable reports tell of Trolls, chasing people, turning
away once they reach the sanctuary beyond the horseshoe. On the other
hand, they do not react this way when threatened with a sword or an
axe.
FIGHTING A TROLL
First, an enraged Troll does not stop fighting until the threat is no
more. It won't become unconscious, but continues to fight with its
full power until dead. On the other hand, a Troll does not fight for
reasons other than self-defence or when hunting its prey.
Unfortunately, they consider humans prey, although they tend to avoid
stalking an armoured knight. This is not because of fear, a concept
they do not understand, but rather because the food comes in an
inconvenient package.
As with some animals, you can try to convince a Troll that you are
dead, in which case it will not need to defend itself. But if you do,
you can only hope that it doesn't decide it has the time for a quick
snack.
Normally, they fight with their bare hands or use a club. On their
fingers they have sharp claws which often carry infections. These
claws cannot penetrate metal armour, though.
** GAME MECHANICS **
Attacks: two fist/claw or one club
Damage: (STR+SIZ)/8
TYPICAL STATS AND SKILLS FOR TROLLS OF DIFFERENT AGES
Young Mature Old
===========================
SIZ 20 25 30
DEX 20 15 10
CON 15 20 25
Move 4 4 4
HP 35 45 55
Dam 5d6 6d6 7d6
Dist 16 13 10
Club 12 13 14
Armor 6 7 8
AWAKENING TABLES
Young Troll
Round 1 2 3 4 5
===========================================
DEX 2 4 8 16 20
STR 2 4 8 16 20
Move .5 1 2 3 4
Dam 3d6 3d6 4d6 4d6 5d6
Fist 2 6 10 14 16
Club 2 4 7 10 12
Mature Troll
Round 1 2 3 4 5
===========================================
DEX 2 4 8 15 15
STR 2 4 8 16 25
Move .5 1 2 3 4
Dam 3d6 4d6 4d6 5d6 6d6
Fist 2 6 9 11 13
Club 2 4 7 10 13
Old Troll
Round 1 2 3 4 5
===========================================
DEX 2 4 8 10 10
STR 2 4 8 16 30
Move .5 1 2 3 4
Dam 3d6 4d6 5d6 6d6 7d6
Fist 2 4 5 8 10
Club 2 4 7 10 14
--------------------
From: "Shannon Appel" <appel@erzo.org>
Subject: CF: The Chime of Tezchaptl
System: Mythos
** THE CARD FILES: THE CHIME OF TEZCHAPTL **
THE CARD
--------
Name: Chime of Tezchaptl
Set: Mythos Limited
Type: Artifact
Affects: Opponent's Spell
San: -2
Special Effect Box: Flip this card face-down to cancel an opponent's
Spell that was just cast.
THE SOURCE
----------
Like many Artifacts and Spells in Mythos Limited, the Chime originated
in the Call of Cthulhu rule book. There it is a spell which allows you
to enchant a small bell or chime made of any pure metal. The chime
then defends against spells that require songs or musical instruments
in their casting.
CLARIFICATIONS
--------------
Before anything else, it's useful to note that the Chime of Tezchaptl
is not an "instant". There are no "instants" in Mythos. The Chime is
used on your next turn after someone has cast a spell. It then
retroactively cancels the spell (which is explained below).
Also it's important to note that Chime is not quite a Yithian
specifically for Spells. (Skip the rest of this paragraph if Yithian
hasn't created any preconceptions about the Chime for you.) There are
four major differences: Chime doesn't bury anything; your opponent
don't get the Sanity cost for the Spell back; the Spell remained
flipped; and Chime has a slightly different effect for continuous
spells.
"Flip this card face-down" is straight forward enough. This is no
Sanity loss associated with the usage of Chime.
"Cancel" has a specific meaning. It is defined in the Spell section of
the rules (p. 30 in Dreamlands): "Some spells have an instant effect,
and others have an effect that continues over time. If a spell
featuring an instant effect is cancelled... then that instant effect
is undone. If a continuous-effect spell is cancelled, its efect ceases
at the moment of the cancellation."
(Note: Continuous effects are canceled in this slightly different
manner to avoid logistic nightmares, ie, "I Chime your Hands of
Colubra, which means that your Allies died back on Austin's turn...")
There are two caveats to this relatively straight forward rule:
First, the spell is not unflipped, and the sanity cost is not
regained. The effects of the spell are simply undone.
Second, Chime is not a perfect time machine. People might have taken
variant actions because of the Spell being cast. Certain actions might
have only been possible due to the casting of the Spell. Nothing is
retroactively undone except for the specific actions directly caused
by the casting of the Spell.
"Just Cast" is defined in the Dreamlands rules as "A Spell cast since
your last Turn in the current Round and that has not been affected by
any other card played."
Note that the Round starts with the first card play after redraw and
end only after combat. You can chime a Spell during the regular
sequence of turns provided that it was cast since your last Turn in
that sequence of turns; you can not chime a Spell cast during the
previous Round. You can chime a Spell during the cast Spells / use
Artifacts sequence in combat provided that it was cast since your lost
opportunity to cast spells or use Artifacts in that same sequence; you
may not at this point chime a Spell cast during the regular sequence
of turns.
The phrase "that has not been affected by any other card played" is
honestly a bit misleading. A better definition of "Just Cast" would be
"A Spell cast since your last Turn in the current Round, where cards
affected by that Spell have not been affected by any other cards
played." You can not chime a Spell that affected Allies (bringing them
into play, increasing their value, decreasing their value, etc) if
those Allies have since been lost (buried, discarded, turned into
Allies, turned into Artifacts) for example. Ditto, you could not chime
a Spell that affected someone's hand (for example, Chant of Thoth) if
their hand had since been affected (for example, by Amnesia).
Most uses of Chime should be very straight forward: a Spell is cast,
and then its cancelled, resulting in the reversal of the Spell
effects, but not the unflipping of the Spell of the return of the
Sanity cost. The above verbiage is only required in rare, complex
situations.
QUESTIONS
---------
Q: Can I Chime a Spell cast by an Ally, then buried?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I flip the Chime face-up as an action during the use Artifacts
/ cast Spells phase of combat?
A: No. Flipping an Artiface face-up does not qualify as using it.
Q: What happens if I played other cards when I cast the Spell, such as
a Location with the Fly Spell or a Monster with a Summon / Control
Spell?
A: Those cards are returned to your hand.
Q: So, if my Chant of Thoth gets chimed, I return the four new cards
to the top of the Mythos Deck, and pick my four cards back up from the
Discard Pile?
A: That's right. Any spell is eligible for chiming provided that it
meets the definition of "Just Cast".
Q: What about if I cast Chant of Thoth and had to reshuffle midway
through my draw... my discarded cards aren't there any more!
A: Then the spell can't be chimed, because "cards affected by the
spell have been affected" (namely, your discards).
STRATEGIES
----------
The Chime has been called a "no-brainer" because it is so easy to use,
requiring no Sanity loss, that it will *always* be used. I don't
entirely agree with this assessment; there are some distinctively
better ways to use Chime. I've listed below possible uses for the
Chime of Tezchaptl, from best to worst.
* Cancel Spells that Would Instantly Cause You to Lose the Game -
Duh. This is pretty much a Sanity issue, and any Spell that could
potentially cause you Sanity loss, from Ravening Madness to a
Summon/Control Spell, might fit into this category. Likewise, it
might include an opponent trying to drive someone else insane.
* Cancel Spells that Could Destroy Your Current Adventure - Basically,
this means that you should chime immediatelly if something you have
to have for your Adventure is about to be Discarded (or there's a
reasonable chance of it). The possible culprit Spells are: The Awful
Doom of Cerrit, Command of the Bloody Tongue, Green Mist of Doom,
and Wave of Oblivion.
* Cancel Spells Required for Adventures - Rarely an opponent may be
required to cast a spell in order to finish an Adventure. There is
one common case: the Resurrection Spell, which absolutely positively
must be used for Seeking Ever Lasting Life II, as per the Adventure
text. There are two somewhat frequent cases: the Fly spell, which is
often used in multi-region decks, and the Gate of Oneirology spell,
which is often used in multi-dimension decks. And, there are any
number of weirdo cases, where a Spell is required just because of
the bizarre way a person as put a deck together. For example an
opponent may need Call Power of Nyambe, to put Ally-Monsters into
the Story Deck, for Knee Deep in Doom.
* Cancel Spells Useful to Adventures - Sometimes Spells speed an
opponent along in his Adventure, even if they're not required. Fly
and Gate of Oneirology most frequently fit into this category, as
opponents typically tend to use backup methods as well (ie, ships
and the silver key, respectively). Summon/Control Spells do as well,
since they can be used to get a Monster required for an Adventure
out without waiting until the Threat is revealed. Keenness of Two
Alike can likewise speed Ally play. Chant of Thoth can speed
movement through the deck.
* Cancel Spells Used Offensively Against You - It can be really
tempting to cancel every single spell used against you. However,
except for the few cases already listed, you should do so only if
your opponents don't have any Spells that might fit any of the above
four categories (game winners, adventure destroyers, adventure
completers, adventure helpers), or at the least if he couldn't use
any of them for those means at present (ie, even if an opponent had
Wave of Oblivion, if all of your required Locations are buried in
your Story Deck, you don't have to worry about it). If he does, it's
better to take this attack in the teeth. But, if not, sure, go ahead
and cancel the Spell.
* Cancel Spells Used Usefully - Clearly all Spells are going to be
useful. In this context I mean a Spell that somehow improves your
opponent's status over yours. Soul Singing, Ironmind, Whirligig, and
Eibon's Wheel of Mist are all grand examples of useful Spells. They
give your opponent knowledge or Sanity, or give him access to more
of his cards, or protect him from sanity loss.
* Don't Cancel Spells Used Offensively Against Others - That Chime is
so silvery and pretty that you just want to use it, but... you
shouldn't if a Spell-caster is doing something bad to an opponent.
That ultimately benefits you. There's one exception, when an
opponent is trying to drive another opponent insane to win the game,
but we've already covered that way above in "Cancel Spells that
Would Instantly Cause You to Lose the Game".
COUNTER STRATEGIES
------------------
If you like using Spells, the Chime of Tezchaptl can be real
annoying. Here's a random bunch of ways to get around it.
You can do something to the chime:
* Steal the Chime - Thieves in the Attic, Mi-Go, and Minions of
Karakal will all work great. Nightmare might help the latter two.
Note in particular that if you Summon/Control a Mi-Go it
automatically survives to affect Allies and thus automatically
steals something (the same is not true for the Minions, which
require a Cosmic Battle).
* Yithian the Chime - After an opponent flips his Chime, Yithian
it. The flipping is an orientation change, thus the Chime gets
buried. You might even want to do this if your opponent is chiming
someone else's Spell, since it'll get rid of the Chime, and also get
the Yithian out of your hand.
* Flip the Chime - Enter the Ghost-Being of Ib. This is of limited
utility, because your opponent can flip the Chime back face-up, but
he may have better things to do.
You can do something to your deck design:
* Stock Multiple Spells - If your opponent only has one Chime, if you
have two copies of the same Spell, it's guaranteed that the second
one will be castable, provided that you cast them on subsequent
turns.
* Stock No Spells - If you have no Spells in your deck, your opponent
is just wasting slots in his deck with Chimes.
You can do something to your play style:
* Cast Spells after the First Pass - After someone has passed, cast
your Spell. If the chimer is not after you and before the passer,
your Spell will go off home free. He never has a chance to chime. If
he is sitting in that arc, he has an opportunity to chime, but may
be more busy getting a card out of his hand.
* Cast Spells after Shorting a Round - Shorten a round by pass/passing
first thing. Then, at the start of the next round try and cast your
Spell. If it gets chimed, pass/pass. Eventually the chimer will have
so many required cards in his hand that he'll realize it's
detrimental for him to chime instead of playing a card.
* Cast Spells Late in the Artifact / Spells Phase of Combat - Aka,
play chicken. Pass on your first few opportunities to cast Spells,
hoping that someone else will cast a Spell and get chimed. Then, you
can cast yours. The downside is that if an entire circuit of the
table goes by without anyone doing anything, you might lose your
chance to cast Spells at all.
* Cast Spells that Fake your Opponent Out - Make another Spell a
bigger target than the one you *really* want to cast. Use Wave of
Oblivion against the chimer, or Control one of his Monsters.
Alternatively, do something that looks useful, even if it isn't to
you (Fly or Create Time Warp, for example, even if it doesn't really
help your Adventure). After your opponent chimes that first Spell,
you can cast the real one.
--
