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> I definitely think that this is the right sort of approach, and I think that a portrayal of mysticism versus non-mysticism where you have some unplayable ascetics/hermits/NPCS at one extreme and ordinary folks at the other extreme and nothing whatsoever of note in-between is just unbelievable.
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I think you have hit the nail on the head, in this discussion there is a whole missing area of people who are trying to follow a mystic path while still having to deal with the real world so they can progress to the sort of level of insight that this discussion seems to take as the minimum to be considered mystical at all. It feels a like a discussion of theists that ignores lay members and initiates.
If you take the all-consuming time constraints seriously then most Devotees and Shamen are barely playable for the same reasons that advanced mystics are unplayable. Unless their god/spirits are directly challenged or the community that supports them is threatened they have little cause to get involved in the story, the same would apply to a dedicated mystic of equivalent level. This does not mean that mystics have to be any more unplayable than theists or spiritists, just that those who are most obviously committed to the mystic path are at an advanced level of progression and as marginally playable as the equivalents from other cultures.
> We should be *focusing* on ordinary semi-mysticism as likely the most common type of "mysticism" that characters are likely to encounter and interact with in an imperfect world, instead of just dismissing it out of hand as not-really-mysticism-at-all.
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You could probably model all this with the theism rules but you could probably model wizardry with the theism rules if you really wanted to. The question is not if you use this set of rules but whether this set of rules give the atmospheric feel that you want for an enjoyable game. Personally I do not think the theistic progression works well for mystics, not at least in any game where mysticism is a significant part of the genre.
> Oriental narratives that attempt to include similar themes are quite happy to make easy and very simple distinctions between the wise men up in their mountain grottos and all of those in the ordinary word that seek to somehow emulate their wisdom.
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> From a HeroQuest point of view, it is hardly impossible to come up with storytelling rules that could successfully mirror these narrative themes.
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I had some ideas for a Teshnos campaign that I never got going but the core things I wanted to achieve with those rules were
* Mysticism is something you experience. * The core "benefit" along the way is insight. * Insight can make a character quite effective, although it grants no powers in itself it may grant an intuitive understanding of how to act. * Mystical characters can get magic from a variety of gods/spirits/spells which the wise have deemed not overly harmful. More advanced practitioners view this as a crutch to be left behind as they advance * Various common practices such as vows of poverty, chastity etc act in a similar way to geases and strengthen insight so long as they are followed correctly.
Most of which can easily be achieved game mechanically by means of augments and in HQ2 lingering benefits.
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Nic
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