Stacking Magic

From: Rob Finnegan <rob.finnegan_at_...>
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 15:57:32 -0000

In the Stacking Magic paragraph (page 101) it says that you can normally augment with upto 3 magical abilities and that it takes "at least one to five minutes each, as the narrator judges. The narrator may also judge a penalty of -3 for each additional ability stacked beyond the first." Also that augmenting with more than 3 magical abilities takes even longer.

In the HeroQuest Rules Q & A at ( http://www.glorantha.com/support/hq_rules-qa.html ) it has a large section called the SWAT Team. Which basically describes a group of Heroes augmenting one Hero to take on the bad guy. But this description flies in the face of the Stacking Magic rule, as at the end of the first round the Augmented Hero has 5 Augments and at the end of the second round he has a bonus of 18 to his target number. Some these may have been mundane augments, but its still 9 augments.

The SWAT Team encounter seems fairly typical and so as a GM, in a similar encounter, I'd be inclined to use the stacking magic rule. I'm raising this as in my last game one Hero ended up with a +31 augment (10 due to equipment), which really through my encounter out a fair bit. They knew that they where going to have the encounter and had plenty of time, but I was pretty shocked when he told me his target number was 15WW!

So after the game was finished I started to check through the rules to find some help as this seemed a bit tooo much. When I found the stacking magic, it made me feel happier. But I'm a little concerned that the Rules Q & A muddies up the rules.