I sure hope so! Part of my design goals is to get a set of rules you can use to play out any Gloranthan battle, from the Invasion of Chaos to the Siege of Whitewall.
> From: "Grawe, Philipp" <pgrawe_at_tusc.com.au>
> Subject: Large scale magics in Glorantha
> How do people run the large, army scale magics of Glorantha in game terms
?
> I find running individual people in large scale battles works quite well
and
> is good fun - it's a great way to play out the confusion, the blood and
guts
> and the sheer size of the battle by having a general idea of the run of
the
> battle without having to bring out the Hex maps and Ancients armies, you
> concentrate on the individual players and what they are doing within this.
> The problem is, how do you play out the huge scale ritual magics in such
an
> environment. Nothing is really defined - I've never played White Bear,
Red
> Moon, but I know the larger scale ritual magics exist in Glorantha, and
I'm
> pretty sure there's more to it than 500 guys casting Ignite at the enemy
all
> at the same time. The closest I can think of is the Humakti Morale spell,
> but I hear of vaguely defined rituals and I can imagine a whole lot more
you
> could do with 500 people worth of Power casting a spell in unison.
Well, the paradigm is shifting with the Hero Wars rules, and large-scale rituals are part and parcel of the game, rather than the exception. There have been vague hints in published products, the Cradle scenario (now available from the Reaching Moon Megacorp, see Rick Meintz's message a couple digests back)has a couple of examples when the Lunars try to stop the Cradle.
The wargame WBRM/Dragon Pass shows what a unit of magicians can do when they put their mind to it - how about a pillar of flame several kilometers in diameter, a rain of meteors, heavy downpours that flood rivers, or a earthquake that creates a several-kilometer chasm? basically, a trained Lunar School, or a Temple group, can lob the equivalent of a magical Tac-nuke. In a battle these aren't used because they are just too big. But there are scaled down versions that do have tactical applications - Harrek survived a major Sunstrike (he lost half his men, though).
> It seems a bit weak to say "Right, ok, the priests do a ritual for an hour
> and you all feel empowered by this. Add 50% to your attack". You'd much
> rather have one of the players who is a priest leading, or involved in the
> ritual and run it as part of the game.
Hero Wars should let you play the priest(s) as easily as you play the common footsoldier (okay, there may be a bit more involved in being the priest...). It depends on what "level" of play you want to do - are your characters the movers and shakers in Glorantha, or are they stickpickers? Runequest focused on building up Stickpickers, and broke down when they started Moving and Shaking - The character Onslought was viewed rather askance when he was presented to the list (What was his Bite skill? 120%?), but he was getting up to the "go toe-to-toe with Argrath" level.
Roderick
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