HW Keywords

From: Mikael Raaterova <ginijji_at_telia.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 09:56:04 +0200


Trotsky:

>Although you have to admit, surely, that having the keyword 'Storm
>Voice' would tend to imply that one is, in fact, a Storm Voice.

That's actually not correct. A character who has the keyword 'Storm Voice' primarily means that he has the same basic abilities as a Storm Voice. It does *not* mean he automatically functions as a/the Storm Voice in your clan.

If the characters begin play with lower than standard skill levels, the 'Storm Voice' character is hardly more than an fresh initiate of Orlanth Thunderous. If the character has higher than standard skill levels he may actually be a person recognized by his clan and chieftain as a Storm Voice. Of course, it's up to the GM to decide the actual status of the character.

I do agree with you that the terminology is confusing. Keywords serve three functions:

  1. Guidelines for the GM as to what basic abilities NPCs could be expected to have. No Storm Voices have *only* the abilities included in the keyword 'Storm Voice' and not all Storm Voices have all of those abilities. Also, people who are not Storm Voices may have some or all of those abilities.
  2. Guidelines for what abilities newly generated characters have.
  3. Guidelines to the social positions and structures of orlanthing society.

So, 'Storm Voice', describing both a social position and a set of abilities (which do not always coincide), is terminologically confusing. I hope this will be more clearly addressed in later versions of HW.

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