A magical taxidermy [*].

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_interzone.ucc.ie>
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 02:48:38 GMT


Sergio Mascarenhas makes several very valid points about the importance of community, personal conduct and relationship to the god, etc in casting magic, then blows it badly by suggesting we abolish POW. ;-) I think it's reasonable to hope that The New Game (appearing in a millenium near you) will have a bash at addressing these concerns, and presumably the mechanics will be much less BRPish, to the point where we may not be quite sure if POW was abolished or not...

> a) In RQ rules, if you sacrifice for a divine spell you loose the =
> corresponding CON. Why? My proposal is: you don't. The CON sacrificed =
> for the spell is not lost. So if you have 15 CON and sacrificed 12 for =
> Lhankor Mhy spells, you still have your 15 CON.

I agree with this view, though you've misspelt "POW" rather severely. (repeat ;-) multiply...) The big game mechanical issue, of course, is how much good is either sort of POW for any given magical activity? The RQ approach, that "specialised" POW is only good for casting rune spells, and "free" POW is good for everything _but_ casting rune spells is obviously a simplification of the True Gloranthan Picture. Instead, it would probably be more accurate to have a sliding scale of utility between these endpoints, something on the lines of:

        o Casting Lhankor Mhy's RM;

        o Asking Lhankor Mhy for DI;

        o defending against magical attack;

        o making a magical attack;

        o engaging in spirit combat;

        o Getting DI (or RM) from a _different_ god.

        o Casting a spell from a different "system" (e.g., sorcery).

That order is somewhat off the top of my head, but I hope one gets the general idea. (Doubtless I missed entire categories of things RQ uses POW for.)

The above would imply that for one thing, RQ has the two sorts arsebackwards  for DI purposes. Who ought to have the better DI chance, a sage with POW 8, and 27 points of LM rune magic, or some stripling with a POW of 16? (Several people have suggested over the aeons that in fact the whole DI/RM distinction is inherently bogus, and I essentially agree.)

Slainte,
Alex.


[*] Stuff the RQ magic system.


End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #462


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