'High Level' starts

From: Dom Twist <thazar_at_globalnet.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 10:56:48 +0100


Before I get another tirade launched against me let me point out that I accept that HW will not have a 'High Level' start, that is Rune Master/Priest, as default. I have no problem to players starting out as experianced, skilled characters who aspire to wotever mastery takes their players whim.
However Alex states:-

>To reiterate the basic point: in some ways it's easier to play an
>archetypal instance of [arbitrarily chosen Keyword] than to play
>some unfledged youth, whom to play effectively one needs to understand
>his society in a much more rounded fashion.

I disagree. A unfledged youth DOESNT understand his culture all that well. Indeed s/he is shielded from a lot of it untill they become a adult through ritual, told the adult secrets etc etc etc. It's a very good mechinism for a GM to introduce new players to the game world. Childhood is pretty simple for most players to get a handle on. It takes little effort for the GM to describe childhoods on a Orlanthi stead, for example aint to far from Tom Sawyer or Huck Fin or a gazillion other novels. How many Fantasy novels start out with the main Hero as a child? By playing through the Trials of Adulthood in traditional gloranthan/rq style the players can be introduced gradualy into the culture and their responcibilitys. It makes the debts you owe your clan/society that much clearer. Although IMG players have gone straight from this into a full on Campaign I would normally then continue generating experiance untill a few years later when the now fully adult characters are ready to take up the life of adventure/have it descend on them. A game session or so spent on the child/adult frontier makes things that much more real. If HW has a 'Long' Pendragon feel to it then there's no reason to throw in a few sessions as a kid and then fast forward to the meat of the tale.

I again state that I would not expect every person playing HW/RQ/wotever to start as a kiddie and work up. But I dont think its any harder to play..at least for a few sessions. In the same way if you're playing a Vam*ire game playing the character as a mortal and through the embrace makes for a more defined character. (Sorry to mention the dreaded V word)

Dom


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