<< If I understand you correctly, you are objecting to making the scale of
inhabitants the Mundane, physical world more vast than two levels of Mastery.
Correct? >>
I can't speak for Alex, but the objection I would be making is that, if I read David Scott's post correctly, three levels of mastery is the minimum to be a rune level. I wouldn't dispute that such people exist, and some who are more powerful too, but they ought to be few and far between, certainly far rarer than the 'typical' rune level.
<< There were several Mundane entities in RQ Glorantha that were always
recognized as being beyond stats. Gonn Orta leaps to mind. Yet we also knew
that there were people, described as Rune Lords or Priests or RLP, etc. who
could put up a fight with this scale of entity. Right?>>
A few individuals capable of taking on the likes of Gonn Orta might exist, but they're hardly what we'd normally think of as Rune Lords or whatever - they'd be far more powerful than that. If the minimum for rune level is WWW, then to describe someone capable of taking on Gonn Orta you'd need loads of levels of mastery, which I suspect is what Alex means by 'big-number-itis'.
<< No mastery: Normal Guy
W: Skilled Guy (or good initiate)
WW: Really skilled (nearly priest)
WWW: Rune lord or priest>>
If so, the term 'mastery' is obviously a misleading one, seems it seems rather peculiar to say that someone has 'mastered' a skill when they're so far short of rune level. Indeed, a very high proportion of the population (probably even a majority) would have a level of mastery in something or other under this scheme, which seems pretty strange to me, especially given Mikael's description of the effect of same. Of course, it could just be lousy terminology.
<< Though the using of RQ terminology is probably deceptive. The difference
between "WWW: Rune lord or priest" and "WWWW: Rune Lord-Priest" in RQ terms
does not seem that great to me>>
Indeed, non-existent in RQ3, IIRC.
<< In this context, you have to have multiple levels in Mastery for the
inhabitants of the Mundane World. Otherwise the discernable differences
between various power levels become to close in game terms, and as a
consequence cease to make sense, in terms of the Target Narrative that Greg
seems to want to have set in the game.>>
I dunno what a Target Narrative is, but it seems from Mikael's descriptions, and from comments made by Robin and Greg at Convulsion last year that one level of mastery (as it was defined then) is the absolute maximum one would want a PC to possess. That being so, it would clearly make no sense for the minimum for rune level to be two higher than that! Of course, some people would like to game at that power level, and its great that HW allows that possibility, but unless a mastery level now means much less than it did before (always possible) so that Mikael's descriptions are out-of-date, then a WWW character is well above the typical rune level type.
It sounds like a fight between a WWW character and a no-mastery character would be a pretty sure thing for the former, albeit not cast-iron guaranteed (and if I'm wrong here, many of my objections may be discarded), which definately should not describe a fight between a just-became-a-rune-priest character and a recent initiate; the former should have a sizable advantage, but not *that* big, IMO. OTOH, that doesn't mean that people with sort of power don't exist, and shouldn't be describable in HW, because they do and they should be.
Forward the glorious Red Army!
Trotsky
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