Sorry to send such a rules centric post, but as the rules list is still in limbo, there seems to be no alternative.
I think Michael Morrisons suggestions for Runepower are the first variant that I actually like, and relatively simple to boot. I understood that when you sacrifice POW, you both learn that spell, and add that many points to your Runepower pool. I'm still not going to play it (some of the players over here come from a harsh school of play, and exploit what abilities they have with ruthless efficiency - as shown by their effectiveness at winning RQ Con DU tournaments), but that seems to show a nice gradual jump in abilities in power without introducing a new separate spell learning mechanic.
The biggest problem with RunePower is stacking. Inevitably, someone with 12 points of Runepower will want to use it to cast Shield 12, or Thunderbolt 4. It is quite probably that they will even want to cast such spells in a situation where it is in character, religiously and culturally appropriate, and good roleplaying. Which is still no confort as a GM when your cunningly crafted interesting villain is summarily vapourised. It really needs a solution to this problem. One variant of the system above might be that the number of points you have sacrificed for is also your stacking limit, so you might have to sacrifice 4 points of POW to get Shield 4. But perhaps this is too watered down a version of Runepower to appeal to Runepower advocates.
On Killing Harrek
I agree with Martin Laurie with the basic answer that killing Harrek is impractical by any means within the rules, but I want to make clear the issues behind that answer.
You see, I think Simon Phipp is quite correct when he says
>If he has RQ stats,
>he can be killed.
but I don't think Harrek can be properly described by mere RuneQuest stats. He has abilities that, while they can be described roughly in RQ terms, are outside the rules in that there is no means within the RQ rules for PCs to gain abilities that are comparable.
Now, if you want to make up RQ stats that give Harrek awesome abilities beyond the rules, and then give your players equally awesome abilities beyond the rules so they can go toe to toe, well good for you, but it doesn't prove much.
Ideally, I would like to see rules that made it obvious that Harrek could be killed, and also made it obvious that no mere clever tricks with a 100 initiates would do it, but you really needed to marshall the martial and magical resources of at least a small nation, and probably a large one - - presuming that Harrek doesn't have any nations on his side. Perhaps the new rules will go some way in this direction?
A deep question from Erik Sieurin
>So the quest-question is: Is intent important, or action?
[omitting his excellent example] The heroplane cannot look inside the heroquester except indirectly- - they are known by their actions and words, just as in the real world. So a hero can fake it. And this is exactly what many God Learners and illuminates do.
But there are problems. Perhaps you don't do it quite right, so there are subtle differences. You heal the lion, but he recognises that you did it out of self-interest not mercy - so he acknowledges his obligation, but does not put himself out to save you as much.
More to the point, without the proper intent, creative heroquesting is much more dangerous. The heroplane works by the rules of morality and story and instinct, not by the rules of the real world, so someone who is in the realms of creative heroquesting (and you certainly can end up off the beaten path without intending to) had better be very careful what they do - they are lost in myth without the proper instincts to guide them.
Does the Glowline extend into the Spirit Plane?
great question! The answer depends on the nature of the spirit plane. I think in the part of the Spirit Plane that is closest to the world, there is a correspondence to the physical geography. If you are in Sylila, and go into the frontier region of the spirit plane, you are in spiritual Sylila. And the Glowline exists.
But what happens as you get further away from the mundane world, into the inner parts of the spirit plane? Well, it depends what you think those places are like. My description of the spirit plane is that you enter a realm of increasing abstraction, so as you get to the inner plane yuo may eventually enter distinctly heroquesty places, such as the Courts of Silence, or the Place of Wolves. Then the question becomes not 'are you within the Glowline?' - thats a meaningless question. Instead, you should ask - is the Lunar influence strong here? I suspect if you travel to Danfives Halls of Redemption, Lunar magic always works at full strength, regardless of whether you are within the Glowline initially or not. Of course, in the vast number of cases, Lunar Influence will not be very strong in the deep parts of the spirit plane. But then again, there aren't an awful lot of Lunar Shamans.
And a big bravo to Mike Cule for the poem!
Cheers
David
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