First a big thanks for the posting on magic crystals last week - very enriching reading seeing how the Gloranthan "reality" we've all come to know and love is emulated with the HW rules. Good stuff - I'll be employing it in my very next session!
Which brings me on to my old axe-to-grind - non-"Rune" magic in HW. I guess my big point in last week's posting was that there was always a qualitative difference between the magics which "Rune levels" wielded and those which lesser mortals did in the old RQII/RQIII - a difference which seems to be missing in HW and which IMHO disturbs the "Gloranthan continuum" my players are used to. Hence the need I felt to "plug the gap" with something analogous to the old Befuddle / Disruption / Bladesharp-style spells. It's also interesting, knowing how those traditional Battle Magic spells used to work, trying to reproduce their effects in the HW game - for me, it's pushing my imagination beyond the obvious augment/edge/AP transfer syndrome.
We just finished ransacking Whiteye's Lair this weekend (again - but first time in HW!). I'm sure this is an old, old, statement on this list, but I really was stunned at just how difficult it is to get injured in low-level games! The very worst any character came off in combat was -15AP, after a solidly brilliant critical, etc - but that's only an Injury. Mostly anyone 'defeated' in combat was around 0AP to -6AP or so - enough to allow them to bounce up refreshed and fully-powered for the next combat. I'm sure this escalates rapidly in higher-powered campaigns, but I'm running a rock-bottom starter game (the old 'lay-member/initiate' style), and I'm clearly going to need something a little more 'dangerous' to spice things up. For us traditional roleplayers, a night's gaming with little more than bumps and bruises doesn't feel like we're taking on the world...
Still - game play was excellent. The action was more dynamic, far less simulationist / rulesy than the old RQ-style of play. We're all enjoying the storytelling / descriptive side of the rules, and, yes, it feels like Glorantha!
Looking forward to learning more about HW!
Cheers,
Sarah
Powered by hypermail