Spirit Weapons

From: Glenn Glazer <gglazer_at_ucla.edu>
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 20:42:42 -0700

I don't know anything about ShadowRun, but Mage has a wonderfully descriptive, but mechanically odd (the usual White Wolf plus and minus,
*sigh*) system for duels between mages, where depending on the spheres of
magic one knows, one raises a shield and a lance, duelling with raw magical energy tinted by the sphere type (i.e., Forces is better for attack, Life better for defence, etc.) and skill in those spheres. The images the duel describes would make a wonderful scene in a novel, but I'm not sure how playable the system is. I'm sure that with some work you could tweak it into what you need or, at the very least, use it as description for the blah system in RQ.

I also like Chris Luehr's ideas - my version of the Spirit Plane is older than White Wolf, but somewhat like their Umbra. It was actually formed by a in-house rpg in San Diego called Alter Ego in which the Overworld (as it was called) was the conjuction of all myths, all dreams, the collective unconcious, heaven, hell, the whole shebang. A confusing, but very vivid place.

The thing I don't like about Chris' plan is the fall back on physical weapons. I would prefer things like shapechanging into totemic animals, formation of new spirit weapons based on spells or rune power or (perhaps) the odd magic item.

So, what do we have in RQ? Joe Yelmalio is wielding a spear of pure sunlight. Hsunchen are fully transformed into animal, perhaps super-animal forms. Hiro Kralorelan is looking distinctly draconic. Sean Orlanthi blocks blows with the winds and tosses lightning bolts. lk;fw8 Chaos is hard to look at. :)

Best,

Glenn

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End of Glorantha Digest V3 #224

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