There is an interesting discussion on Divine Magic currently in progress on the Digest. I would like to comment some of the last contributions and propose some ideas of my own. I am going to discuss rules, but my intent is to decrease the stress placed on game mechanics in order to enhance roleplaying and to make our games more connected to Gloranthan mythology as far as divine magic is concerned.
Michael C. Morrison
> I' m not sure I understand what it would mean to "learn" a spell without
> sacrificing for it
Divine spells are derived from HeroQuests. In fact, when you learn such a spell you are performing a limited version of the Quest in a safe and controlled environment. For instance, when your Orlanthi gets Shield he is performing the Arming of Orlanth (from KoS, Orlanthi Mythology) with the assistance of a RuleLord who has mastered the Quest himself. Hence the time spent learning the magic and the need to have a priest who instructs you in it. There is a very interesting article about this in Simon Phipp's web page (now defunct, I'm afraid).
If you suppose that you may perform the Quest without sacrificing POW, and just retain the knowledge of the myth to invoke it at a later time, then you have learned the spell without sacrificing for it.
David Cake
> The biggest problem with RunePower is stacking. Inevitably, someone
> with 12 points of Runepower will want to use it to cast Shield 12
I agree. Runepower is nice with good roleplayers, but you need artificial restrictions to keep powergamers under control. And although criticals are still possible, Shield 12 = almost invincible. Another point is that you need a lot of compicate restrictions also to avoid initiates of Orlanth and other deities full of already-detailed subcults and associates being able to cast 30+ special spells, not counting common divine magic. Special spells should require peculiar procedures to achieve both game balance and a good opportunity for roleplaying. Which takes me to the contribution by
Erik Sieurin
> The magic available at a temple depends on the rituals commonly performed
> there. Rare spells are gained through rare rituals.
I like this idea very much. The idea behind temple availability of spells at a given temple is one of the most colorful details in the whole description of RM, and helps a lot in describing the details of the social structure of your campaign setting, as it introduces local shrines giving access to peculiar spells and gives a good reason for clans to join into tribes and kingdoms and for clansmen to journey to the big city and partecipate in worship ceremonies there. Alas, I suspect that many GMs do not stress this restriction because the POW cost is the real drawback that usually limits players in learning DM.
I also appreciated Erik's variant divine magic system. I like the idea of "learning" a runespell and then spending Soul Points or Runepower points (it would be Runes in my own variant, thus limiting the spell stacking to the number of appropriate runes available, not the total number of runes) to cast it. I think that learning a divine spell should be intimately connected to one of the god's Heroquests, performed in a ritual way and with no variation from the myth.
My own considerations now.
What I would like to see is a great stress posed on cult rituals. For instance, the High Holy day ritual for Orlanth could be a great re-enacting of myth performed by the worshipers,
Imagine the High Holy Day ritual for Orlanth at a Major Temple. Hundreds of worshipers gather, and re-enact all myths from Orlanth's Saga, culminating with the Lightbringer Quest. The ritual has several stages, each portraying one of Orlanth's Heroic deeds. Each worshiper has then an opportunity of being Orlanth in the quest, thus gaining direct knowledge of the inner secrets of the cult. It is this mystical insight that allows the cultist to call upon that specific quest during mundane encounters in order to cast the appropriate divine spell. From a game POV, we could say that knowledge of the spell is gained during this ritual, be it one casting of the associate spell or the ability to cast the spell by means of Runepower points. IMHO it is the cultist who has mastered the most "standard Heroquests" who should be the most magically powerful and deserves Runelordship or Priesthood, not the one who had a lot of spare POW to exchange for divine spells. The mundane skill requirements for priesthood are a mere abstraction of the skills required to be victorious in these quests.
Now a real break in the whole DM affair would be roleplaying the rituals in order to determine success in gaining access to the spells. The GM should carefully introduce the whole ritual as a mini-scenario, with the spell as the final reward. Proper behaviour might even result in a "discount" in the POW price, at the GM's opinion. This requires a lot of work on the Gamemaster's part, but helps a lot in fleshing out both characters and cults.
Another important point in handling gloranthan divine magic is the matter of spell names. I do not think that different cults share the same name for the same spell. For instance, Orlanthi probably call Shield "Turnspear" because they get it through the Arming of Orlanth Quest (see KoS), while Uroxi call it something like "Bull's Hide". Orlanthi refer to Great Parry as "Shield of Arran", because that is the mythical source of the spell, while Babeester Gor avengers probably call it "Earth Shield". Some minoor traits of the spell may even be different from one cult and another.
As I stated before, some of these points were much better highlighted in Simon Phipp's page. Simon, where is all that nice stuff now?
http://www.geco.it/~guccione ------------------------------
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