>
> 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.
>
> Yes, but as I have suggested in an number of posts, these people can be
modeled using the normal rules. They will appear like theists or sorcerors
or animists with a special ability or two for flavor, like most cults of
whatever stripe. How do you see them as different?
> 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.
>
Except devotees and shamen etc get powers that make them fun to adventure with. A mystic probably shouldn't. And selling players on "at this stage you get these abilities, but, as you get more powerful you need to stop using them" isn't going to fly with most players. So, for the Yelmalian, it might be fun to remind yourself that your characters is, say, concerned with his physical purity because he expects that ill make his efforts at the end of his life easier, great, but the bulk of your role playing will be before your charecter gets bricked up in his tower.
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.
>
> I expect their will be mystically-oriented theists who use theist rules,
mystically oriented venerators who use wizardy rules, and so on. Most of
them won't need specific mysticism rules, will they? Or what would it add it
they did?
> * 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.
>
> This is true of all Gloranthan spiritual practice. They all require various
actions to be done/avoided for the spiritual health of the character. The
Wind Lord requirement to eat eggs (or it it abstain from eating eggs) is
important to the Wind Lord, but it has no necessary game mechanic, nore is
it the point of being the Wind Lord.
What is it in this "insight model" that would set it apart from any other Glkoranthan practice of the same general type -- theism, animism, etc? What mechanically needs to be added?
Peter Larsen
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