This is exactly what I mean. My players aren't going to be happy with
it. Gloratha stops feeling real, and will become a mutually told
stor... with hardly any defining rules.
I like the feel of living in the world. Thing's need to be
defined. There has to be consistensy, othervice the game will resemble
a fewer dream, nothing is solid, nothing is predictable.
> People may say that it is
> any of these, or something else, but the fact that everyone could
> interpret and play it differently is easily possible. Some things are
> defined; Chalana Arroy : Heal Wound and Lhankhor Mhy : Knowledge have
> a few statistical identifiers. Humakt : Death has rules and Issaries
> Trade Feats is given a play example. Taraltara mystic Mind Strike
> counter is given a very complete treatment. There ARE rules for
> enchanting runic metals, so one would assume that Orlanth : Combat
> (Enchant Iron) is related to this, but by the whole
> make-it-up-as-you-go-along-and-if-you-can't-you-are-not-*good enough*
> to be a Hero Wars player ethos, maybe Enchant Iron is meant to be
> about making a piece of Iron become an enchanted vessel for a feat
> (like some have suggested Truestone should be treated), but it's all
> just speculation. Is the official RULE then that if there is a written
> rule for the feat etc, use that, but if not write it yourself or make
> it up differently every time you play it? Also old players understand
> the concept of what, for example, Hedkoranth : Combat (Enchant Thunder
> Stone) might be about, but give the Hero Wars rules to a group of new
> players who know nothing about Glorantha or RuneQuest and I think you
> will see much head-scratching and confusion from page to page. I think
> I knew how the designers of RuneQuest were playing it. I think I knew
> how they intended it to be interpreted, and how to deal with
> situations not covered in the rules did not have a huge mystery
> surrounding them. I know I don't have a good grasp of how the Hero
> Wars designers are playing it or any other group for that
> matter. Often mention of these difficulties on the lists yields the
> useful (read useless?) response "well, go and play RuneQuest
> then!". But surely that's exactly the kind of elitist and
> non-embracing attitude that won't help to generate any new players or
> eliminate the confusion and evolve a great game from good concepts.
Amen. I'm sorry for the long quoute, but this is _really_ important. We are losing the very things I suspect Hero Wars is meant to enhance. We are losing a great deal of _information_ on Glorantha.
What will enchant thunderstone really mean to a new Hero Wars gamer?
We know that it enchants a lightning like power into the stone, which can then be thrown or slung at a foe. To a new GM this won't be clear.
Now some are about to say that it's _good_ that the new GM will have to scratch his head, and then make a decision that "A thunderstone will help a devotee of Orlanth to summon a storm".
Saying that this is a good thing is rediculous, tho. The buyers of Hero Wars need it to provide them with information on how Glorantha works and how it feels like. They aren't getting it, they are getting a lot of "do it yourself"
Me:
> > Hero Wars isn't helping much. Now we only have a cool name. The
> > mechanics are pretty much the same for each feat, and we don't get
> > _any_ description for a vast majority of them.
>
> Can the long cult format not include such information? ie. write the
> rules (as is done somewhat for Lhankhor Mhy : Knowledge or Humakt
> Death)? Would it really destroy the concepts of Hero Wars or hurt
> anyone to ask that these things be defined? This does NOT destroy
> creativity, it sets up common parameters that everyone can
> understand. If it DOES destroy creativity then remove the rules
> references from Knowledge and Death immediately as this is destroying
> the freedom of the rules for those effects!!!
Amen. This is a serious problem people. Not to us, who know and love Glorantha from RQ-2 days hence, but much more to the _new_ people we hope to attract, and who will help keep Glorantha alive.
> ie. Orlanth: Combat
> -----
> Armour of Woad:
> At least write some common posible effects from this. Possibly
> "Commonly used to replace material armour with enchanted blue
> war-paint". Some minimal statistics of what might be expected?
Indeed... how is the new gamer supposed to figure this out??
> Enchant Iron:
> Generic ritual p.233
> Enchant Silver:
> Generic ritual p.233
> Flickering Blade:
> Sword becomes as a bolt of lightning (as on cover?) and blah blah
> minimal rules definition of what we might expect from this?
I suspect this is somethign entirely different, but it only serves to illustrate the point. We need the descriptions! And preferably some rules. It's not as if the rules take much space in Hero Wars format.
> Leaping Shield:
> Description / basic effects? [maybe a few dozen ways I can interpret
> this from very simplistic to stupidly overpowerful...]
The name is strange... Is it supposed to be the "throw bronze edged shield" party trick that Morden uses?
> Overbear Foe:
> Description / basic effects? [not really very clear...]
Generic feat, worst kind. This sounds just like "I use 30 AP of Urox magic to overbear him". No description, just a feat that let's you augment at almost any combat situation.
> Swordhelp:
> Description / basic effects? [I don't have a clue...]
C above. These kind of feats really illustrate the new feat system manages to give us _less_ information than even the RQ one's did. Talk about progress. (and the system does have such good ideas...)
-Adept
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