"Each of your rune affinities is a separate ability with its own rating. Choose up to three affinities as part of character creation. Pick one to start at 17; the others start at 13. Write the affinity names and runes on your character sheet. An affinity is a magical keyword, and costs two hero points to raise." (p. 110 of HQ2)
This is in the theism section, which is the only section saying people
have runes, which is why one interpretation of the authors' intent is
that only Theists have runes.
Others have argued everyone has runes with ratings, but only Theists
have the ability to tap them for magic. (others might get bonuses for
some magics)
Others have argued that maybe everyone has runes, but only Theists have
ratings, and the other systems mostly ignore them except for where it
might be interesting not to.
Or maybe only Orlanthi have them.
> Thus, how do you augment or roll a
> resistance check if you don't know what the value is? Sartar: Kingdom of
> Heroes, on the other hand, has rules for how you would set these values if
> you were part of that culture.
>
Which gives the answer "All Sartarites (or perhaps even "Heortlings" in
the sense of anyone using the Heort and the Second Sun rites) have runes
with ratings" - even the ones who go on to become Animists.
>
>
> Another example, my character has the trait of "male", but I have not
> assigned that as an ability and the character creation rules say nothing
> about giving this trait a number. I could always choose to make that an
> ability of my own (although I fail to see *any *specific uses for such a
> broadly worded trait) of course.
>
Yes. And one option is that while people HAVE runes in other cultures, they are like "male". You wouldn't give them a rating, but they might act as something that must be considered for credibility tests and situational modifiers.
LC
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