Re: Re: Three Worlds headaches

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_...>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 16:12:14 +0100

On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 08:22:43AM -0000, simon_hibbs2 wrote:
> For myself, I'd rather just have a single form of Common Magic,
> perhaps call them Talents. They can only be used for augments and
> can't be used after you concentrate on another form of magic.
> Concentrating on Common Magic lets you use them as abilities. End of
> story.
>
> I don't think Puma People shapechange is any kind of Common Magic as
> it doesn't even seem to be related to religion. It's not something
> you learn, whereas Common Magic is.

That's viable, I don't doubt, though it's pretty much 180 to my own preferred take. :-/ Surely the logic of different forms of common magic is that it describes people who have an ad hoc collection of different _methods_ of magic/worship, on some sort of "this is the way we've always done it around here, and heck, it's always seemed to work for us -- away with you and your -20 modifiers, I say!" basis. The 7M 'common magic' makes this explicit, surely. (I do think it's often thunderously inobvious _why_ a given CM effect is one and not the other, from example to example, I must admit, but that's as likely simply a function of the brevity of the write-up.)

So in short, I'd have everything *but* talents in CM (or in common religions, to make that possible distinction -- sure, have talents in your CM _keyword_ if you like...).  

> I do like the collision of the three worlds, it seems completely
> consistent with previous metaphysical models of Glorantha and
> explains a lot about the history of the world and why things are the
> way they are. I just think it's been applied a bit over-
> enthusiasticaly.

Agree entirely.  

> I may be wrong though. When it comes to actualy creating characters
> and playing the game it may work out fine, but I am concerned that it
> will lead to fiddly minimaxing what common magic you get based on
> what magic you're going to concentrate on later. I'd be very
> interested to hear people's experiences of using the existing system
> in play.

I can't say that's a big worry for me (not even an arm-chair worry, to deal with the familiar Jeff mantra -- on-going game, so wasn't exactly going to have a 'redesign existing characters to fit every joy and tittle of HQ' session if I could help it). Surely if you write nothing to contra-indicate in your char-desc, you get the 'default' CM for your culture; if one can cover a narratively reasonable reason for having something different, fair enough (YreasonableMV, of course). It's never going to be a game-breaker, so I'd hardly worry about that end.

Cheers,
Alex.