At the risk of being Difficult, still raises a few questions in my mind... A slicem-dicem Orlanthi Hero could be able to beat up several Dream Dragons before breakfast, and still be 'mortal', though he's not exactly 'typical' any more... (Though, does 'archetypical' count?)
> Profound differences in levels of power should be marked with levels
> of Mastery, while fine differences should be marked with better
> Target numbers.
Very well put.
> So either a level of Mastery is really 'a level of aptitude' or
> multiple levels of Mastery imply Otherworldly, magical improvement
> of the skill beyond mundane, non-magical capabilities.
Maybe a bit of both, since the two are jolly-gosh hard to disentangle in Glorantha. In a (RW) discussion on magical 'Talents' (hi Myles!), the question was posited, what's the difference between being just mundanely (but exceedingly) stealthy, and having a magical ability such as 'learned Stealth at the paws of Yinkin'? That one had me stumped...
I think of a Mastery is being a sort of 'order of magnitude effect'. Makes you (something like) 1 person in a 100, and makes you able to beat up (something like) 10 of 'em at once. (The persons in question being whatever they are one level of W's lower than you...) This is just an intuition, not a citation from any version of the rules, nor the product of Deep Statistical Analysis. (Nor yet Spoken Word of Greg.)
> Harrek is deadly warrior, skilled in use of his weapons, and in the
> Dead Place, where no magic functions, he can be taken, just like
> professional wrestler can be taken down by any five trained cops.
Especially in Tokyo! (Sorry, that was gratuitous aikidophile advocacy.) I'm not sure -- interesting point.
> > [Joe Orlanthi, rune master, tribal champion, cultural hero]
> But are you saying the difference in these guys is all mortal mundane
> skill, or access to the Otherworld boosting of their skills?
'Tis a subtle distinction. They're Abilities, does that help? ;-) You obviously don't get very far up this scale, in practice, without having an Otherworld _source_ of these, but I think they function as 'mundane' skills, depending of course, excatly what you understand by 'mundane'... ("Want to see my Draw Sword Feat? Want to see it again...?")
Cheers,
Alex.
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #631
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