>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?
This distinction between the mundane, physical, world and the Otherworld is NOT the same distinction we are talking about here. You can still have completely mundane (as much as anything in Glorantha is, anyway) that have many levels of mastery, or people that have abilities that are many levels of mastery but still quite physical.
>There were several Mundane entities in RQ Glorantha that were always
>recognized >as being beyond stats. Gonn Orta leaps to mind.
Beyond the point where RQ stats are useful is not necessarily the same thing as being beyond stats. Gonn Orta would simply have a SIZ stat that was VERY VERY big, far beyond where RQ mechanics made any sense. He is a perfect example of someone who might have the HW ability Big and Strong into many levels of Mastery, representing the fact that he is many orders of magnitude bigger and stronger than human beings. This does not imply anything about whether his Big and Strong ability is magical or not, or his ability to reach the Heroplane.
>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?
Well, you need to be far more than simply a RLP to take on Gonn Orta in any physical contest. His magical ability is probably nowhere near his physical might, but probably still considerable.
>If you match the Chaos horror Cwim against a gross Storm Bull with 200+
>skills and lots of retainers, doesn't something like Cwim still win?
Sure. Cwim has several levels of mastery in Whack with Chaotic Claw, and heaps of levels of mastery in his defensive ability Giant Chaos Horror. The 200% Storm Bull is probably only around 3 levels of mastery in close combat. As even one level of mastery is an overwhelming advantage, Cwim will win.
>Having three levels of Mastery to qualify as Rune level seems to me to
>mean that the possible scale in HW to be more Finely Tuned then I would
>have initially thought. That is, the scale should not be thought of in
>terms of a 1-20 sort of thing, but rather in terms of Level of Mastery:
The idea that it should be thought of in terms of level of mastery is correct, because it means you can have Gonn Orta and Joe Sartarite on the same scale, which was a design goal of HW. This doesn't mean that everyone above three levels of mastery is magical.
What the 3 levels of mastery for the Hero plane bit DOES mean is that a magician must have 3 effective levels of mastery in an appropriate magic skill, or else he will not be able to perform rituals involving moving everybody to the hero plane. To contact the 'god plane' or whatever its called that is more magically powerful than the heroplane, you need three more levels of mastery in magic and you still need to perform your ritual. It does not mean if you have three levels of mastery in Kickboxing you can punch your way through to the Otherworld, or are otherwise intrinsically magical.
Regards David ------------------------------
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