::blush::
Well, brilliant is going a bit far I think. I observed this method done by Greg when he ran an HQ game at Gloranthacon this year, and thought, "that worked really well". So I tried it with my own group, and, lo and behold, it worked really well again.
> There is just thing I would quibble maybe just a bit a bit
> about. When we did a round of what first hooked us on
> Glorantha, here on this list last Spring, I was far from the
> only one who said something about the omnipresent magic--the
> fact that everyone had it and it was part of everything.
>
> Now, what you described is challenging enough, but it seems to
> me that leaving magic totally out of it misses one of the big
> selling points of the game.
[snip]
I agree with you. My thinking on the matter was this. I told my players about how magic was part of everything in Glorantha, so "intellectually" they know it. Over the course of play, a few things here and there have popped up to demonstrate it, so they're starting to "feel" it too.
However, I wanted to keep the mechanical exposure as light as possible for them.
So I figured, if we assume that because magic underlies everything it's actually part of the background for a while, and *not* the foreground (hey, magic is part of everyday life, and therefore not necessarily exceptional, right?), then that might work to my advantage in the long term. Gradually I introduce magical aspects to the stories as they happen, so that the players begin to incorporate these bits and bobs as part of their "view" along with other day-to-day details of the character's lives.
Of course, it helped immensely that I was dealing with PCs who were not yet capable of big magic; as they as players are getting introduced to magic in the world/game, their characters are getting introduced to magic in the world/story.
I wanted to use one gradual awakening to reinforce the other. So far it's working out pretty well, and I thought the method recommendable.
(Finally, I should mention that my tactic was also specifically chosen because of the "we're waiting for HQ" situation I was under. I wanted to started play, but keep the "upgrade" hassle to a minimum. Now that everyone in the group has an HQ book to read and refer to, we can proceed to introduce more and more mechanical ornaments in on a regular basis, confident that we have the "one true reference document" to fall back on when we must.)
--
Viktor Haag : Software & Information Design : Research In Motion
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