"Puma person" is a species, like "Human" or "Troll". It is also a culture, like "Gypsy"
Being able to shapechange is a Species trait. Being an animist is a cultural trait.
The problem is that we use the same words to describe two seperate "keywords".
Those abilities that you think would be "Species" keyword the hero would have no matter if they were raised by a puma person or a grotaran. The abilities that seem more cultural would depend on the culture the hero grew up in.
> >If you don't include a rank, then *I* would figure the characdter is
> >at the lowest level of worship.
>
> I believe that the clarification that you and/or Greg gave me previously is
> that, in fact, the "Religion Keyword" portion of the Homeland Keyword is
> equivalent to the first level of worship. That is, since you get it by
> mentioning the Homeland, that, yes, automatically you get the associated
> religion keyword, which is the first level of worship of that specialized
> religion.
Yep. unless otherwise specified, a Heortling is a lay member of the storm tribe, a Dara hAppan is a lay member of the yelmic faith, etc.
> So, in addition to "everyone" having magic from Common Magic, they all have
> magic from their "free" specialized religion, too. It's just sorta indirect
> magic in most cases.
Yep.
> Note that, in fact, Common Magic is not automatically allowed for characters
> who have a specialization, and according to RAW, the narrator has to
> specifically allow it. I believe most do, but you could disallow it by the
> rules based on this if you want to limit magic.
I haven;t heard ofd a narrator doing this, but correct.
> At first it seemed to me that the specialized religion keyword was a modular
> attachment to the homeland, but later discussions seemed to indicate that
> homeland was nigh synonymous with the relgion worshipped in the homeland.
Unless otherwise specified, yes, but only at the lowest level of worship. You can save a whole word or three by not specifying a religion/magical keyword.
> Put another way, Heortlings are all Orlanthi, and any Dragon-newts that live
Orlanthi all. Itt's possi8ble that they are something else, but that's the way to bet.
> in Sartar are better defined with a dragonnewt homeland keyword that
> indicates their religion.
Not sure what you're getting at, here - Dragonnewst certainly aren't Orlanthi...
Ducks are either Heortling Orlanthi, or they are
> not Heortling.
I suspect that diucks have a seperate religion and culture that we just haven't seen yet. *I* don;'t buy the purported "fact" that Ducks are eoither hertling or Orlanthi.
> But I think there's room for PCs to get away with such.
PCs are supposed to be special.
> >And also remember that concentrating is not for everyone - probably
> >75%+ of all gloranthans are not concentrated. And if you're not
> >concentrated, you can use different magical systems without penalty!
>
> In theory.
No, in fact. Just because I said it's rare doesn't make it any less true.
The problem with this is that, in practice, the only place that
> this occurs according to previous discussions is in terms of various forms
> of common magic. That is, you've said that it's rare to non-existent to
> impossible to have characters who are, say, both an Adept and a
> Practitioner. Under these circumstances there is very little reason that a
> player might decide not to concentrate his magic. So he can't take
> "Firemaking Charm" because he's concentrated in Theism? He just takes
> "Firemaking Feat" common magic instead.
Players will tend to concentrate their magic, because you get special bonuses and crunchy stuff whenh you do. Some players won't, for whatever reason. But few Gloranthans concentrate their magic precisely because they lose all those little charms and feats and spells and talents that have been part of their environment.
> >If it's a natural magical ability, then it is unaffected by Concentration.
>
> This is strong incentive to assume that any listed ability is natural magic.
> Not only because of the concentration issue, but because natural magic can
> be used "actively" unlike unconcentrated common magic. Rather this is just
> one more reason to concentrate if you're going to take common magic, to
> avoid the "passive" magic problem.
Thought like a true Player, not a gloranthan.
But PCs are special, so do what you want.
RR
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