re: temple hierarchy; farming skills

From: David Dunham <dunham_at_pensee.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 13:23:17 -0800


Allen Wallace wrote

> As to being left out of the Temple Hierarchy, I entirely stick to that.
> No matter how fervent the Initiate/ RuneLord/ whatever, if that person has
> spent there life fighting the cults enemies what the are going to know how
> to do is fight the cults enemies. They will not know how to run a temple.
> The may be respected, even venerated, but they will not be put in charge.

One aspect of the Seattle games I know of (farmer or not): if you want to be a priest or acolyte, you'd better have Worship <deity>! This isn't explicit in the RQ (or PenDragon Pass) rules, but it only makes sense that priests can actually run a temple, or at least perform the rituals if need be.

Adventurer-priests won't have the connections (political in the hierarchy, personal in their community) to be good temple staff.

Peter Metcalfe wrote

> >I've always assumed so. I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't
> >increase with experience. First Aid does. They are not purely academic
> >skills. They have a practical side.
>
> Unfortunately so do animal and plant lore (farming). Making the
> same skill for both the practical and academic aspects was a
> big mistake IMO.

I don't think so, in that it avoids skill proliferation (just how many skills do you want to see listed on the sheet, anyway?). I thought Craft (Farming) was a mistake, since there were already good skills to cover it - -- why introduce a new one that nobody had?

The problem is that there isn't a good name for the combined skills (Animal Lore/Herding and Plant Lore/Farming, and heck, Mineral Lore/Mining).

(Note: I understand that the skills can be divided the way Peter suggests. I just think that, even in a farmer game, it's not worth doing.)

David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_pensee.com> Glorantha/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein


End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #256


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