Hsunchen as non-humans (Was Re: Glorantha Digest V4 #312)

From: John R. Snead <jsnead_at_netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 14:42:31 -0800 (PST)


Arf <A.R.Wilson_at_herts.ac.uk> wrote:

>> From: "John R. Snead" <jsnead_at_netcom.com>
>>
>> With the recent talk of just how alien various non-humans on Glorantha
>> are I thought it might be useful to discuss just what non-humans are
>> suitable for play in parties which interact with humans (ie most folks
>>on Glorantha).

>My choices for *playable* non-human characters would be:
>Hsunchen: I don't count these guys as human, but I notice they're not on
>your list. One of my players has a Basmoli character based upon the
>description in ToTRM. I think these are good for inexperienced
>role-players as they can start off fairly one-dimensional and are easy
>to flesh out. (as is the case IMG)

Which issue of ToTRM? (Clearly one I don't have :(

So, in what way are Hsunchen non-human? In all the published material (expect for possibly that ToTRM article, which I'd *LOVE* someone to send me a synopsis of) they are portrayed as band-level groups with specific animal totems. The only odd thing being that some of them can actually turn into their totem animals on rare occasions.

I've toyed with the idea of making the various Hsunchen shapechange spells reusable for Initiates and perhaps less costly. 6 pts of power for 15 minutes as a lion seems less than useful, and to imply a pretty distant connection between the Hsunchen and their totem.    

Even if you allow Hsunchen to have a version of the Aranea & Gorakiki spell Transform Self (a sensible idea IMHO), it now costs 8 pts of Pow to transform into your totem animal for 6 hours. A bit more mythic, but unless it's reusable for all Hsunchen initiates, its not something anyone other than the Shamans will likely ever do.

Comments, Ideas, Suggestions???

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