Re: Runepower variant

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_interzone.ucc.ie>
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997 14:10:45 GMT


David Dunham has another Runepower variant: (these days, who doesn't? ;-)

> 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.

I quite like this idea, and it seems to have something of the flavour of the DI-as-RM idea. It does, though, knock on the head the idea of performing a Minor HeroQuest to gain each spell you "know", an idea implicit in the RQ rules (so implicit you can barely see it, jeer the cynics :-/ ), is perserved by most of the RP variants, and which I'd personally like to see made Much More Explicit is future treatments. (Mentioning no games in particular, but I may be thinking of one whose initials are "G:tG".)

For both of these reasons, I'd be tempted to use this as an "add-on" to a RP system, rather than being the only mechanism. So normally, one would sack POW into one's "Pool", and Quest for desired spells in advance of their use. But in extremis, one could achieve a sort of "Limited DI" effect with one's "RPP", I'd suggest at a less favourable Bang per Buck exchange rate, and a lesser chance of success.

Those of a philosphical bent will doubtless sagaciously observe that any situation in which one was able to cast an "unknown" spell successfully was, ipso facto, a HeroQuest for that spell, so it does no real harm to the basic concept, if played judiciously.

> [War Clan*]
> * This is from unpublished Stafford notes.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.

This must be a frequent barroom topic of conversation with Greg. ;-) I have an (admittedly alcohol-fogged and time-dimmed) recollection of hearing him mention this. He went on to say that by going for either option, you _accumulated_ benefits, year on year... but if you ever switched options, you lost them all. Bummer. He went on to say that the Varmandi have been a War Clan for centuries -- and you can see why, in the contexts of their history, and indeed the PNWFC campaign snippets on the poor buggers.

Good luck (you may need it),
Alex.


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