If Glorantha-based Runequest was as big as D&D these days, you for sure would be having the guys at Dragonsfoot and other forums smack talking each other about the idea of anthropomorphic ducks in the game.
I don’t recall my exact reaction as a young teen towards intelligent ducks in a role playing game. But I do know that the second character I rolled up and ran in the old games at Aero Hobbies was a duck (my first and most beloved was a Dragonewt with a name so retarded I won’t mention it here). I might have been inspired by having a duck mini that was playing bagpipes. I think I only got to play him in maybe one or two games though. It wasn’t long into the first game before store owner Gary’s character took a dagger and deflated the pipes. Not that I didn’t deserve that; my duck was playing them as we explored the dungeon.
Back then, I guess ducks in Glorantha didn’t strike me as especially awkward. It was already a land that held great mystery and unknowns for me (that I am only getting the backstory on now, decades later), so ducks, dragon-men who came back stronger when they died, Trolls that didn’t automatically attack people nor get automatically attacked, and rapacious, diseased goat-men seemed as worthy as anything else in games. Plus I loved Judges Guild D&D adventure packs, especially those by Paul Jaquays, and those products got you used to lots of cheese and weirdness.
As to why they got included as a race, we may never know. I can’t find any info on specifics. I do know that Howard the Duck was very popular for a brief period in the late 70’s. On the cover of his first issue he was wearing Conan gear. This sounds as good of an inspiration as any, it being a part of the zeitgeist of the times. And they seemed a good replacements for hobbits in the way trolls and broos took the place of orcs and goblins from more standard fantasy settings.
I just know that in my eventual RQ games, Ducks will be a part of it (despite a serious lack of duck mini’s these days). Since I’ve got copies of Duck Pond and Duck Tower, that’s a given.
I never played RQ, but I'm pro-duck on general principal.
ReplyDeleteArmorcast has the old Lance and Lance minis now. No ducks, though. :(
ReplyDeletehttp://armorcast.com/store/index.php?cPath=116_98_146
Mongoose was doing minis for a bit, but apparently no longer. I was able to pick up a box of 10 ducks.
https://www.nobleknight.com/ProductDetail.asp_Q_ProductID_E_2147366121_A_InventoryID_E_0_A_ProductLineID_E_2137420490_A_ManufacturerID_E_617212936_A_CategoryID_E_5_A_GenreID_E_
Are anthropomorphic animals all that weird these days. I've got a full adventuring party of the Dark Sword animals. No ducks, but I've got an Owl wizard and Turtle Cleric, so what the duck?
ReplyDeleteBTW who makes/made that fig? Pretty sweet.
We never used ducks much when we played RQ. We were much more into the big, hard-hitting races as I recall.
ReplyDeleteThough I do recall writing up a race of anthropomorphic frogs ('kermits') for RQ in a fit of inspiration or madness.
I've never understood why elves and halflings and yuan-ti are okay, but ducks aren't.
ReplyDeleteI remember something about the creator of Glorantha asked his friends to each name a city in Glorantha. One of his friends wanted to name his town Duckburg, they couldn't use that name of course since it's a disney trademark. But his friend insisted that ducks should be included somehow. So, ducks got included as a race.
ReplyDeleteI remember something about the creator of Glorantha asked his friends to each name a city in Glorantha. One of his friends wanted to name his town Duckburg, they couldn't use that name of course since it's a disney trademark. But his friend insisted that ducks should be included somehow. So, ducks got included as a race.
ReplyDeleteThe ruined citadel map on the back of Duck Tower is pretty sweet. The whole thing seems very well put together actually, not that I've ever played it.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered if someone at Chaosium was a University of Oregon alumnus; Oregon's mascot is an anthropomorphic duck. Having grown up in Oregon, I never found RQ Ducks all that odd.
ReplyDelete