Simon Hibbs said that some GMs would abuse the ability to dish out plot points and wouldn't do it consistently. I feel if the GM is going to abuse anything (including himself at the gaming table) the game's sunk anyway. It's all mutual trust I suppose.
Personally I hold the rational, considered and mature view that experience points are the spawn of Satan waiting to drag our souls off to hell. I'm amazed that someone hasn't come up with anything better (apart from the experience roll) in 25 years of the hobby.
Hero points stink even more. Why bother having player sanctioned fate and get out clauses when the GM can fudge it far easier? There again I hate rules which state that something happens "Because he's a player character" which colours the argument.
Vampyres in Society
Erik made a few points back about my four methods of hiding yourself as a Vampyre. Here are some further thoughts...
How many Vampyres a city could support depends on the amount of blood it takes to keep one alive. In the standard rules, Vampyres need about 20 fatigue points of blood a night to keep going, or one victim every other night. That's 120 dead bodies a year, which is a far pile, even in Glorantha. I imagine Boldhome would be too small to support even this drain without somebody noticing. Of course, if the Vampyre picked on itinerants he or she could go a fair while without being noticed. If you add a couple of Human followers (sort of brides of Uladrac) the time between having to fill up outside increases again.
The idea of hiding in the wilds doesn't mean you have to be that powerful. The Vampyre in Sun County is a bit gross, but any Vampyre could probably get away for a long time picking on travellers and the odd lonely shepherd coming back after a long day being the subject of folk songs.
Another variation on the "Take control of a village" idea is that the Vampyre might be locally politically powerful. This probably wouldn't happen in Sartar - although that Lunar sympathising Blackmor bloke might be a good candidate - as they're not exactly progressive.
Cheers,
Ash
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