So far as I understand it, yes. Clearly this will be true of many NPCs, although there appears to be some dispute over how viable it would be for PCs - though it obviously works for Jeff's players, and the rest of us haven't even seen the full system yet, which makes objections a little premature. It may depend on playing style.
>
> It's only in acquiring the whizz-bang big "divine" magics where you
> might suffer a disadvantage. But then, it has always been the case
> in
> post-Runequest Glorantha that the closer you emulate your divine
> archetype, the more powerful the magic you can wield. So yes, the
> more powerful magic is available to those who not only have the same
> runic associations as their god and who continuously recreate their
> god's actions. That's the essential nature of heroquest and why
> devotion is so powerful: it allows you to become your god. For a
> little while at least.
Yes, and this is why it doesn't worry me too much. I suppose it might be a problem if your players insist on giving all Ernaldans Earth, Life, Harmony, thus making her appear a more specialist cult than Chalana Arroy, whose followers can at least vary their third rune. How many groups would actually do this, and, indeed, how good a job the rules do of discouraging it, is another question, of course. The sub-cult rules, in particular, may sort out this potential problem.
So how many of the "over 10,000 combinations" will work for a given group may vary depending on taste. But it's a heck of a big starting point, and, as Jeff says in his blog, if you own old RQ and HQ1 books you can adapt some of their cults to increase the range of viable combinations.
Although I do wonder whether the "over 10,000" figure is for Gloranthans in general (some of whom can, for instance, have opposed power runes, so long as the third one is Chaos or Moon) or specifically for Heortlings. If it's the latter, there must be a heck of a lot of "minor" runes in the Sartar Book... in fact, there must be quite a lot even if it's just the former. Interesting, either way.
-- Trotsky Gamer and Skeptic ------------------------------------------------------ Trotsky's RPG website: http://www.ttrotsky.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ Not a Dead Communist: http://jrevell.blogspot.com/
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