Should there be ducks in the new RuneQuest?

[Samuel Leming]

The fact that Mongoose will be publishing a new edition of RQ is declared here and discussed here on the RPG.net forums.

Thanks for the links!

While reading them I found this little tidbit...

There will be no pants in this version of RuneQuest

I suppose there's both good and bad in that...

The first incarnation of Pants de Leon, one of my favorite PCs, was a duck. I wonder if being restricted from playing him in the new RuneQuest counts as being ironic. Wait! I should be able to get around this since that version of the character never actual wore pants anyway. Well, except for that one time. Briefly.

Sam

 

[ColonelHardisson]

That was in the very first issue of HtD. The damsel was Beverly.

Yup. I was gonna note that she was Beverly, but I didn't know if anyone here would remember Howard, let alone his female sidekick/significant other. That tower was in Cleveland, by the way (well, in the comic, if not in reality). I loved that much of the comic was set in Cleveland, my hometown.

inherently they're pretty silly and difficult to justify in any "normal" fantasy world.

It's just a matter of perception. When you really look at it, ducks are no more hard to justify as a sapient race in a fantasy world as any other given fantasy race, such as elves, minotaurs, fishmen (kuo-toa), frogmen (bullywugs), especially if you're talking about fantasy RPG worlds. I mean, we see anthropomorphic cats and dogs all the time in fantasy and scifi RPGs, and they don't strike me as particularly suited to a fantasy world.

 

[Turanil]

There is a new edition of Runequest?

I hated ducks in Runequest, or whatever game in fact.

 

[Turjan]

Ducks belong to Glorantha. As Glorantha is supposed to be the first setting published for the new RuneQuest, there should also be ducks. If the first book will be some ruleset without setting, then there is no need for them.

I say this although I personally find ducks a lame fantasy race, like most races of the anthropomorphic animal kind (Litorians? Sibeccai?). However, they are an iconic part of Glorantha. For people who don't like them: they are easy enough to avoid. It's not that they are sprawling all over the place.

 

[mythusmage]

Duck Fact: Real life ducks are grouchy little snots who love to bitch and complain. If they have nothing to bitch and complain about they grow despondent and bitch and complain about having nothing to bitch and complain about.

Most of the time they bitch and complain about those damn pushy geese.

 

[Templetroll]

There should be ducks if there is any connection Glorantha. They're classic!

Yes, they are a viable player race. They are laughable, until a squad of them suddenly turns on you and they all cast Fireblade on their shortswords. No, there's no laughing then, is there, lad? And then the lead duck is a Humakti Rune Lord and starts throwing around Sever Spirit. That's when the screaming starts, it is.

Or, worse yet, you run across a duck who dreams of flying. He joins the Orlanthi cults hoping to gain acess to storm magic so he can fly. But, instead he has learned the secrets of the Lightning Spear and toasts your Seven Mothers initiate who had all of the healing.

Stupid ducks...

In one scenario there was a party searching a ruin. They used a detection spell and determined there was some treasure in the cesspool under the latrine. A noble and a duck went down to get the treasure. The noble is wading though the filth, the duck is swimming on top of it. They find the loot and naturally, the noble fails a dex roll during this expedition. The duck thought the noble falling in the muck was hilarious and described it in detail to the rest of the party waiting above. They get back up and the noble comes down with one of the most horrendouse diseases in glorantha, Thunderlung. This disease makes you cough so much, so hard that your chest explodes.

The Duck decides that is too entertaining and dances around insulting the noble for being weak and clumsy. the noble decides to spend the last miserable moments of his life killing the duck.

He succeeds, with no hindrance from the rest of the group. As a matter of fact they treat the noble with as much care and respect as they can due to his having done them the favor of slaying the duck.

Ducks always had 'tude. I think they may have also been been inspired by Donald Duck; he certainly had the right attitude.

 

[davidschwartznz]

As to ducks in other settings, I'm doubtful. The swedish RPG Drakar och Demoner has them, as it originally was (a very poor) translation of Fantasy World in Worlds of Wonder.

Some of the old (I mean like 15 years ago) Final Fantasy games had ducks in stormtrooper hats armed with shortswords. That's why I voted for ducks.

If you can work Moogle into your game, that'd be cool too!

 

[Wombat]

Ducks were there in 1st edition RQ. Ducks were there in 2nd ed. Ducks were there in 3rd ed. Most importantly Ducks were there in White Bear, Red Moon, thus they actually pre-date RQ.

For my money, love 'em or hate 'em, the Duck stays in the movie!

 

[Eternalknight]

More significantly - Mongoose publishing RQ? I hadn't heard about that. Excuse me while I pop over to the Mongoose site...

See, you should check out this page more often!

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Quack, quack, quack........


That would be a yes!