Awakening Bunnies

From: Simon D. Hibbs <S.Hibbs_at_fcrd.gov.uk>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 14:56:59 +0000 (GMT)


Nick Brooke :

>I'd say the use of 'awakened' animals as Allied Spirits means that a
>similar power (though not necessarily identical to Fix/Release INT, as
>Simon says) is probably widespread. It may well be more limited in
>targets and ritualistic in nature than the Waha runespell.

I know game mechanics are often a red herring, but with Fix/Release INT the traget keeps the same INT, whereas with Allied Spirits it is supposedly a separate spirit that comes in and takes over the animal. Thus the two aer quite separate effects. In one the creature itself is transformed, while in the other a spirit is effectively summoned and bound into it.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't like the idea of taking one spell/power out of one context and putting it in another just because it seem like a neat thing to do. I imagine the birth of an inteligent wild animal as being a strange and mysterious magical event, probably beyond the scope of a literal reading of the RQ game mechanics.

When Sandy said that such a creature might have unusual magical powers and spells, someone writing up it's stats might give it a list of spells from the RQ magic system. That's just a convenience, it does not necesserily mean it literaly has those spells, but that's the easiest way to represent it's powers in the game. So saying that inteligent bunnies might cast Fix/Release INT on it's offspring is unhelpful as it is imposing a very mechanistic interpretation on what is happening.

Perhaps I'm spliting hairs too finely.

Simon


End of Glorantha Digest V4 #298


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