ANÁLISIS DE REGRESIÓN

Some gaming groups pride themselves on their voice acting, mannerisms and other character-building facets of their roleplaying skills. Although not all players will do so, a duck character is a great way to have a good time acting out their part in the story.

It might be a challenge for a player to immerse themselves in the world of the Durulz but we have drawn up the following helpful hints and acting suggestions to perhaps aid them.

* Sit on the floor or try to stay lower than the

* Try to avoid thoroughly theological discussions in public, as it might attract attention to your people’s curse through your semantic meanderings. Or worse, it might fully reveal your gods to the God Learners.

* Bring some crackers, torn up pieces of bread (for ducks) or beef jerky (for keets) to the game session and do your best to talk with your mouth full as often as possible. Ducks and keets are not known for their manners. The more that your fellow players find themselves ignoring you, the more ‘in character’ you will be!

* Never be too proud to run away from a combat. You will likely be blamed for anything bad that happens during a combat anyway, so you might as well shoulder the berating unharmed.

* You are not a leader. Even the dumbest idea delivered by the local trollkin is likely to be better received than anything that comes out of your bill – so do not even try unless asked to. Then complain a lot about it.

* Angst and bitterness are your two best friends.

When a smile comes to your bill it should be due to some Big People’s misfortune or discomfort. It is darkly pleasing whenever someone else in the world can suffer like your people have.

* True friends are a myth – a fable told to ducklings to keep them from committing suicide before their feathers come in. The people you are travelling and adventuring with are allies of the moment, nothing more. They will one day turn on you and blame you for something, so make sure you always recognise them for what they are. Duckfriends are the exception but they are too few and far between to count for much anyway.

Motivations

There are many reasons why a common Durulz would leave the ‘safety’ of his home and journey across a

80

Duck Characters

Ducktowns and keet villages cannot simply be placed wherever the survivors happen to end up; they require certain resources and amounts of space – not to mention a safe buffer from other dangers. This is why many Durulz risk everything and become an adventurer. They are on a search for a good place to settle in and hopefully return to tell the other refugees where it is.

Additionally, even if they are Big People, there is safety in numbers. A duck or keet travelling alone will likely become the meal of some hungry predator.

If they manage to tagalong with a group of other adventurer types they are surely to have much better chances at survival – if they do not get killed by their new ‘friends’, that is!

Religion

The teachings of the Durulz pantheon are rather widespread amongst their descendants and the various duck cults ask their members to view the world in many different lights. Some Durulz become world travellers because of the needs of their ancestor-gods, turning a normal quest or journey into a holy prerogative driven by the runedrakes of their faiths.

The specific faiths that tend to push their members to adventure do so by asking acolytes to walk in the footprints of their ancestors, doing much of the same that they did when they came to the Inner World.

Followers of Deathdrake and Stormbill wander the world in search of enemies to battle and vanquish, the Hurtler asks her children to see as much of the world as possible and the Seaside Brothers want their descendants to find their betrayers.

The followers of Duru-Orlanth the Adventurer are not simply encouraged to go into the wilds and seek excitement – they are instructed to. The actions of around them on behalf of their ancestor-gods’ myths and teachings must never forget that they are still the scapegoats of the Sky Gods. Adventurers that feel they are protected by their faiths only have to think back world that is seemingly out to make them miserable.

Whether it is for coin, quest or necessity, the desire to leave the community in search of more is very strong for most Durulz.

The following sections describe several good reasons why a duck or keet character might decide to pack up their things and begin their journeys across Glorantha.

Wanderlust

Durulz are naturally interested in seeing other places due to their ancient ties to the Sky and flight. Before they were cursed they could soar on the winds and see as much of the world as they wanted from the safety of the clouds. Even though they have lost their wings, their desire to see more than what they can did not vanish with their flight. They collectively call it wanderlust and it is the primary reason why any Durulz leaves home and seldom looks back.

Although it appears to have a stronger pull on the somewhat migratory keets than it does over the more

‘domesticated’ ducks, wanderlust begins to set in just after adulthood. When the Durulz reaches biological adulthood, just after their youthful ‘fuzz’ gives way to true feathers, making them venture further and further away from their homes until they are called upon for their rite of passage. When it comes time for their test of adulthood, they will be happy to go freely into the unknown world.

As a Durulz gets older they learn how to set aside their wanderlust for stability and community for the most part, realising that they have to settle down and work on making sure the next generation can be brought into the world safely. This does not mean that all Durulz give up adventuring or such when they reach a certain age; it just means that around the age of 40 years they stop feeling like they have to go and seek the unknown.

Safety

There are countless dangers to duck and keet settlements in the world. When the larger and deadlier of these dangers threatens the community, the community is often forced to fl ee. Surviving the threat is more important than permanence and this puts many adult ducks and keets on their feet and into the world to look for a new place to live.

Duck Characters

81

to how the Durulz pantheon was treated by the other gods of Glorantha… they will remember their place quickly enough.

Treasure

A Durulz’s life in Glorantha is a pretty hard one, so why not try to immerse it fortune and luxury? One of the biggest reasons why any duck or keet chooses to risk life and limb is the simplest – coin. Gold and jewels, magical artefacts and just luxurious things can be enough to drag a duck out of his home and into his armour.

Chief amongst all rumours of treasure that will bring the ducks out in numbers is whenever an ancient Ganderland artefact is said to have been found. When the Durulz escaped Canardela they brought with them many of their perfect tools, art and writings. Once a season or so something that supposedly was created by the True Durulz surfaces in an unlikely place and word spreads like wildfi re to every ducktown for hundreds of miles. Duck adventurers go scouring for the object, normally less enthused when they actually discover that the rumour was drummed up or the artefact has been taken by Big People looters. These Ganderland objects are rarely anything but

perfectly-crafted mundane devices made of a dense ivory-like substance that was prevalent in the ancient land.

Revenge

The biggest and most powerful cause that any Durulz uses to fuel his need for adventure is a burning revenge upon those that have kept them down and harmed them over the generations. They know that it is not the Big People’s fault that they have been taught to do their part in Yelm’s Sentence but the ducks have to turn their blame on someone. By hating the instruments of their angst they might actually be able to inflict some hurt back upon them; as they know they cannot hurt the Sky Gods themselves.

Ducks focus their bitter machinations on the Big People, especially those devoted to Yelm and his Sky God cronies. They find ways of making their lives harder; hindering them in any way they can without risking full scale retribution. Banditry, raiding and underhanded sabotage of their communities is commonplace but some more experienced ducks might look to helping the EWF and the Golden Dragon Emperor keep the Yelmites in check. The ducks might not be able to create an empire or army to rival the Big People’s cities and legions but no one fights an underdog guerrilla war better than the lowly duck.

82