While the highest skill a PC of mine has ever got was 147% (and that was only by taking all the +5% weapon prohibition gifts and geases), for the record, I have no objection to high-powered PCs, NPCs, wandering monsters, demi-gods or special guest stars. (You only have to take a peek at Sun County - the vampire in crypt has a host of skills in the 150%+ range including Listen 396%!*) What I don't like is when such characters are unbelievable, implausible, wooden; lacking *context*, as ably described by David Cake last Digest. Loren's already repeated a chunk of the Cakester's fine words, and I'm gonna repeat another:
>Rather than simple a collection of tough combat abilities, a true
>Gloranthan hero should have powers that work on a bigger scale, and carry
>with them a place in both the social world (incur obligations, alliance,
>enmities) and the magical (they should change the character, not just make
>them tougher, but make them a bit more divine, more subject to the magical
>world).
Excellent! And y'know I think Martin Laurie's Deville character fits this mold admirably. [Someone pick Martin up off the floor, would'ya]. Deville's power has certainly come at a price, and his place in the world is definitely delimited by relationships both past and present.
Perhaps I'd tweak his stats down a peg or two first, but I'd have no problem introducing Deville as-written into a RQ campaign. It would be interesting to see how he gets on with the Lunar Coders.
Some more from David Cake:
>I certainly prefer high powered games to the 'collection of
>farmboys' style game so loved by many of the Tales crew - does that make me
>a power gamer?
Hey, in recent years I've been overthrown as Lunar Governor of Boldhome, been martyred as the Rokari Pope, usurped the Dara Happan throne (inheriting my predecessor's infamous 'Bugger Underling' card) and invaded Sartar as General Livius Thrax. Now, I'm crusading to get the part as Big Red in Reaching Moon's 'Life of Moonson' (coming to RQ Cons near you, mid-1997!) About as far from the farm as you can get, yes?
On the topic of LARPs, Doyle Wayne Ramos-Tavener wrote:
>I also percieve a shift to the idea that LARP is the way to go, the wave
>of the future when it comes to roleplaying Glorantha... Nonetheless it
>does seem to me that individuals on the "A" list mentioned above seem to
>share this view, and I do worry about the weight of their combined
>reputation endorsing the view that tabletop role playing in Glorantha
>is a thing of the past. Is this consensus view of those individuals
>on the list?
I'm all for "tabletop" roleplaying, which is why you'll find a great chunk of issue #12 devoted to exactly that*. LARPs are loads of fun, but it's unlikely you'd be able to get 80 chums together every second Friday night to play in one. The problem tabletop roleplaying has at the moment is a viable game system. RuneQuest is in urgent need of a new edition, preferably one which takes on many aspects of Pendragon (see Tales #6), and then a kickstart (see the Tales plan to get things moving again in #5, published 1991,*sigh*).
*Note that Tales would publish more scenario material if more people would submit 'em!
Cheers
MOB
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