Benedict Adamson:
> In a simulation game system, yes. The rating of an ability would
> correspond to some objective measure of the strength or intensity.
> But
> for a narrative game system it instead represents something like
> "plot
> importance": how strong it is in influencing the outcome of the
> story.
Some further thoughts on why runes would be important to wizards, despite wizardry being "something you know", rather than "something you are" (I don't these are mutually incompatible, and they're probably all partially true):
- Just because the spells themselves are something you know, doesn't mean that what you are doesn't matter at all; the runes are used as an augment not as the spells themselves, after all. So if I am a wizard with the Water rune and I come across a new grimoire that has that rune, I can't cast the spells in it, because I haven't learned them yet. But I will find them easier to use once I *do* know them, because my runic nature makes them more natural to me.
- The runic nature of a wizard reflects learning and knowledge, rather than some inherent nature. So my water rune wizard has spent ages studying water and its properties, and how to manipulate them. So he finds it easier to learn and use a new water rune grimoire, because he already has a lot of the background knowledge required; it builds on what he already knows.
- As Benedict says, the role in the story is relevant. If I am playing a wizard with the water rune, it's pretty likely that casting watery spells is a key part of my role in the story. So, if I find a new water grimoire, I find it easier to learn and use the spells in it, because that's the out-of-game reason for me finding the grimoire in the first place; there would be no narrative purpose me finding a book full of new water spells if I then couldn't figure out how to cast them.
--
Trotsky
Gamer and Skeptic
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Not a Dead Communist: http://jrevell.blogspot.com/