Rules Questions Apologies + Other Stuff

From: Stephen P Martin <ilium_at_juno.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 02:02:33 EST


Sorry to be gone for ten or more Digests -- two days goes by fast!

My only request this time around is that people stop apologizing for posting rules questions. Until and unless the Rules Digest is resurrected (minus 1d3 from all stats, of course), please feel free to post these questions. The only thing that is annoying about them is the constant apologies!

David Dunham <dunham_at_pensee.com>
Uz trickster and other catchup
>
>Given that one role of Trickster is to demonstrate the results of
improper
>behavior, perhaps the troll Trickster goes around being nice to people.
>Perhaps the Dagori Inkarth Trickster is the Only Old One -- he
befriended
>humans and got quite a come-uppance!
>

I note that there was a major rift between OOO and Dagori Inkarth -- I rather like this idea. Of course, I doubt either OOO _or_ Dagori Inkarth would phrase the situation quite this way.

David Cake <davidc_at_cs.uwa.edu.au>
Rules etc.
>
> 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.

Although I did not add it in my comments before, this was exactly the mechanic I had thought about myself.

> 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.

I also recognized this problem, and I developed a solution to it, though I have no mechanics for it. Basically, every initiate or higher of a religion has a characteristic called "Divine Contact", which measures the strength of the character's link to his or her deity. Initially, when a character is initiated, their DC is 1. Now, they don't automatically gain a point for every POW they sacrifice, or every year. As I see it, certain major events will gain them a point -- becoming a Rune Lord, acolyte (maybe), or priest. A successful Divine Intervention. Obtaining a POW point pool of 20 points (or maybe 1 point every 10 or 15). Participating in a major cult heroquest. If playing PenDragon Pass, gaining a 20 in any 1 cult trait, or a 16+ in all cult traits. Things like this.

The maximum number of POW points that can be spent at once is equal to your Divine Contact rating. If this is 1, oh well. If you are an old, faithful, devout Priest, this may be 30. As such priests are unlikely to go on adventures, the GM can rest easy. Remember -- initiates who go adventuring are unlikely to be doing the kinds of things which will increase their DC (except for DI -- I'll have to rethink that).

>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.
>

I assume you mean the number of points you have sacrificed for a given spell. This idea is much simpler, and does have merit. I would like to see someone playtest it to see how well it works.

James Frusetta <gerakkag_at_wam.umd.edu> Rawk & Roko
>
>(And, BTW, who _do_ they consider to be the Sun God in Prax?)
>

According to Scott Schneider, the Praxian expert, they call the Sun "Bright Treasure". I think what it is varies with the teller, as does who brought it -- Waha or Storm Bull. I think that the original Praxian Sun God was so badly destroyed that it was not brought back as fully, say, as Yelm or even Elmal [sic]. It is merely the Bright part of the god, not the God part.

Personally, I have advocated for a number of years that the original Praxian Sun God was Yamsur the Splendid. I won't go into the evidence in detail here. But NO ONE in Glorantha knows this today.

Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com

- -----------------------------------------------
The Book of Drastic Resolutions
drastic_at_juno.com

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