Re: The Glorantha Digest V6 #631

From: Doyle Wayne Ramos-Tavener <dwtavener_at_mail.esc4.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 18:51:27 -0500


At 01:45 PM 6/11/99 ,the somewhat less than difficult Alex F. wrote:

>Doyle Wayne Ramos-Tavener:
> > I should probably define "inhabitants the Mundane, physical world"
> > with the adjectives "typical, mortal inhabitants..." Much like I believe
> > you already supposed to be true.
>
>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?)

Close enough. Why were we discussing this? (grin)

> > 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.

Yeah, several others have convinced me this is absolutely true.

>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.)

Beware the Spoken Word. Once uttered, it becomes only Distant Memory.

> > 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? ;-)

Actually yes, since, as you properly point out, the distinction between what is magic and not magic has always been a sort of flawed dichotomy when trying to understand Glorantha.

>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...?")

Your "Fast reply with humor and grace" has always impressed me quite enough, thank you.

DWRT


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