> By making it sufficiently slow to (re)generate WILL, this becomes a
> non-problem; even if said Hero is immortal, he can only alter the HP
> at a low rate.
Well, the proposed mechanic makes it no slower for a Hero to (re)generate WILL than anyone else; it just avoids the "feedback loop" that'd make things even worse. But Real Heroes don't seem to work like this; they all pop off to the HeroPlane before all that long. (Possibly just boredom, as Nils suggested; who knows.)
> > But I think that some of the things Will is used for (in our system
> > and theirs), are such that they _ought_ to be "improvable" by HQ.
> I agree - WILL could be split into two parts, the "free will" part and
> the "influence" part.
Well, so far, so good; but what I'm skeptical of is the benefit of describing the "FWILL" part numerically. See numerous other postings about doing this by geas, trait, passion, etc.
> OTOH, INFLUENCE would be say POW + skills mastered + initiations +
> gifts + rune spells. I see no need for INFLUENCE to go down (at
> least, not normally).
Hrm, well, yeah. This part of the equation I'm even vaguer about. My current instinct is that we might as well bite the bullet and use POW as the basic currency (as R. Melvin's system does), but it's further complicated by "support and other factors" being generally on a "different scale", and that one isn't going to simply "spend" all the points at once, simply to "do the HQ". Rather, at each stage of the HQ, there will be opponents, tests, Required Things to Do, each of which will need or admit a different "power" or ability to be used to overcome it. Each of these may need to be "paid for" in some way or another. Then there's the (potentially) separate matter of the "tariff" on the particular Quest Object.
A slightly different question is on what will any "tests" be based? For this, the idea of expressing both personality traits, and powers (such as Element and Power Runes, in the last GS/SP system we saw hints of) as separate numeric values seems the way to go.
> Perhaps an example of what I mean: say there is a HQ for Humakt's
> magic sword of sharpness; this might have a basic cost of 1 FWILL.
> The possible outcomes for a successful HQ might be:
[escalating scale of breadth of effect, and required INFLUENCE]
Well, I'd say they also require progessively more "free will" too. I'd call these all "depth" type distinctions, with a bit of "social gain" on the side -- with the partial exception of the "Hero Cult" one -- see below.
> Another way of slicing HQs is
[ P[ersonal] transformation vs. S[ocial](?) effect; and
(i) revelation/s********e vs. (ii) transformation/o*******e ]
Bad Malcolm! You used the Nasty O-word and S-word! Let's not merge a useful discussion with what's become a mind-numbingly fruitless one, please? Not what you intended, I'm sure, but this, and in particular another posting, are perilously close for my tattered nerves...
I can see the logic of your taxonomy, though I don't know if it's meaningful to talk about all four for each individual Quest (that is, each Myth being enacted, or Path followed). Is there such a thing as a Personal Revelation LBQ, to take an arbitrary example? Or are some Quests inherently of one (or two or three) such types only?
> (4) something blue [huh?]
Vadeli? ;-)
> my P/S (i)/(ii) distinctions above do seem to me to hold some sort of
> importance in Glorantha - though perhaps (i) vs (ii) is simply depth?
Partially that. I think the "P/S" thing doesn't _necessarily_ affect the actual Quest itself -- it may simply be a case of doing exactly the same in each case, up until the Drink the Elixir moment. Do you guzzle it all down yourself, and get +100% Sword Attack, or bring it back, and give your clan +10%? (To take the perennial Greg example.) Unless I'm falsely assuming this, from omission of Staffordian statement to the contray any time he's described this (that I know of).
I don't for a moment say all these distinctions aren't meaningful, as they certainly are to Gloranthans. They wouldn't even describe them all as HeroQuests, I suspect. But for game purposes, I see great benefits in trying to treat them all with one "system", if we can feasibly get away with it -- I don't want to suddenly have to "shift gears" if I discover the current Quest isn't the "type" I originally thought it was, and audit all preceeding events of the quest in the light of this.
My Generic Classification would be something like the following. I think each of the following choices is generally available on _any_ quest. I also think each is really a continuum of options, not a discrete and wholly different thing which we should wheel out a different mechanic, unless we can avoid it. I'll wheel them out in sequence, from the first "choice" the Quester has, to the last.
(*) Apparently, the clever way to do this sort of thing is to have done some other quest, possibly an apparently unrelated one, and "segue'" from one to the other at the appropriate moment. Say, on the HoG quest, when Orlanth lunges at me, and I nimbly perform the appropriate part of the "Becoming a Vrok hawk and crapping on Rebullus Terminus from a Great Height" quest (one I made earlier, of course), then returning to a later Station of the HoG quest proper, to take a rather feebly contrived example.
Cheers,
Alex.
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #562
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