Rewriting the rules

From: rmeints_at_e-mail.com
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 05:16:18 EDT

Sergio seems to be on a quest to rewrite everything about Glorantha. I'm        
more in the mood to expand it. I don't want the daily to become the rules       
digest (I think it needs to be resurrected), so I'll keep the stats, etc.       
to a minimum. In general, spirit magic works just fine. I am incredibly         
in favour of giving spells much more local names than just "Bladesharp",        
but that's where most of the differentiation should stop. I have a hard         
enough time keeping on top of all the spells there are now without              
remembering that in Carse a "carouse til dawn" spell (also known as vigor)      
lasts an extra hour if cast neath the light of a tavern when a wench is in      
plain sight. It sounds nifty, but gets out of hand. I not in favour of          
foreigners being able to quickly learn magic when they travel around to         
foreign lands. Most Praxian shamans wouldn't teach half the people in their     
own tribe the spell "Lance of Tada" (Praxian version of vigor), let alone       
waste their time on an outsider, no matter how much cash they waived in         
front of them. Make learning spells a rare and complicated thing, especially    
for the more powerful spells. I call Heal 6 the "Hand of Arroin", and           
Mobility "Mostakos blessing", at least when I'm in Sartar. Unfortunately,       
you can't buy them for 299 Lunars at the local branch of the Lunar College      
of Magic. Enroll now, fall classes are starting soon. Financial aid available   
regardless of race, religion, or chaotic feature.                               

A final word on rules systems...                                                
Take RQ2 or RQ3 and drop the bits that really don't work for you. I'm           
focussing my energy on trying to write adventures and background material       
that can work with almost any Gloranthan system (i.e. rules lite). Spells       
and stats and such are only mentioned in general. I'm trying to find more       
reasons and opportunities to PLAY, not ways of rolling up characters or         
calculating complicated formulas to determine whether my arrows impale,         
once I factor in wind speed (WSp), smoothness of the arrow's finish (SAf),      
the Obesity factor (ObF) of the foe, and my Divine Association with the         
the local Archer Deity (DivAssLAD). I'm sorry, I don't have a complete table    
for the effects either.                                                         

Remember the golden rule of roleplaying:                                        
If the rules get in the way of having fun, ignore the rules.                    

As the newest associate editor of Tales, I'm hoping to get a number of ideas    
for future articles. If anyone has any feedback on what they would like to      
see in future issues, please let me know.                                       

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End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #180


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