Runepower variant

From: David Dunham <dunham_at_pensee.com>
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 20:59:11 -0800

I had an idea recently for a variant on David Cheng's Runepower idea (that you sacrifice POW not for specific rune spells, but to a pool; existing variants on this idea have you also learn specific spells which you can power from the pool).

Perhaps you sacrifice POW to Orlanth. It remains in your Runepower Pool until you use it. Once you call on Orlanth for the mighty Thunderbolt, 3 points of your RPP are converted into a Thunderbolt, and your enemy is smitten. Assuming you can regain the rune spell, you would regain a Thunderbolt, not 3 points of RPP. This gives some of the flexibility of Runepower, but still forces you to make choices.

Speaking of regaining spells, many of us adhere to the idea that initiates can regain rune magic, though much slower than priests (I first saw this in a RQ4 draft; in my PenDragon Pass rules, initiates usually regain one or two points per year, depending on how well they express the cult virtues). Jeff Richard recently added the twist that members of a War Clan* regain war-related magic more easily (which came in handy for our Varmandi since we were about to go to war against Malan, and were a war clan). In Orlanth's case, this means you could regain more points of Shield than normal, but probably fewer of Thunderbolt (since it's from his Thunderous aspect), and definitely fewer of Cloud Call.

• This is from unpublished Stafford notes. The concept is that a clan has devoted its magical energies to the gods of war. There's little to spare for fertility magic, so the crops are worse. One alternate is to be a Peace Clan, which reverses the situation. Most clans choose neither option.

David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_pensee.com> Glorantha/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein

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End of Glorantha Digest V4 #254

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