Re: Initiates & Devotees

From: jeffkyer <jakyer_at_...>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 19:01:18 -0000

>
> > Some rules are broken but please Simon, play the game as is for a
> > some months before you start changing to the rules.
>
> I have played the game many times, just not in a campaign yet.
> I don't think that this change breaks the game world.
>
> For a start I doubt every Gloranthan has their magical
> affinities as their best abilities, so we won't be seeing every
> other Sartarite leaping into the sunset any time soon in my game.
> Even if they did, remember that even competent ordinary people
> don't get the ability ratings that PCs get.

Actually, most 'competent' sartarites will be getting the Keywords at 17. That's pretty decent for many things. Most heroes have to work with that for a fairly long time.

> Secondly I doubt all ordinary initiates actualy get all the
> feats listed under their affinities out of the gate, but for
> this game I am alowing my players to do that. In a lower-powered
> game I would expect initiates to start with one or two feats
> and gain more during play.

I'm sticking with Affinities and no feats for Initiates as they simply don't have the 'pull' to get precise feats for help. Greg's stated several times that you earn feats through going on minor heroquests to learn how the god used/discovered/whatevered the feat.

> Finaly, everyone I know who has generated a character for the
> first time, whether their characetr was an initiate or not,
> listed all the feats for their affinities. In fact the character
> generation rules tell you to do this, and make no distinction
> between initiates and devotees in this regard. It even defines

First Edition Rules. First Printing. There's been a LOT of discussion on this topic in the 2 years since. Most folks list the feats for convenience and to find out what sort of thing that god's version of the affinity bestows. Combat from Humakt and Combat from Orlanth give greatly different feats. Even Vinga's combat feats differ greatly from Destor's.

> Magical abilities in this way : "Magical abilities are typically
> called feats, spells, powers, or spirits." No mention of affinities.
> Therefore beginning players will assume that the feats they were
> told to write on their character sheet are the magical abilities
> that matter for their character.

Perhaps. But I'd prefer folks being taught the rules as is before going off to use house rules, particularly at convention demos.  

> That's certainly what happened in my game this time around, and
> it's also what happened in the Dara Happan high society game
> we played last year.

Oddly, its not what's happened in most of the Hero Wars games I'm aware of. Folks do differ in their way of using the rules.  

> As I said in my last post, this may not be the best solution for
> other people's games, it may not even be the best solution for my
> game, but I have to make a call and that's that.
>
>
> Simon Hibbs

Jeff Kyer