HOLIDAY GLORANTHA Oliver, I'm *really* enjoying the Fresser letters. Great stuff! And all the folks behind the Alkoth descriptions - brillig! (Not that I'm ever likely to visit mind you - it sounds just like Butlins).
SPIRIT MAGIC / HERO WARS
Wulf
>><< So, question is, from the write-up on the Issaries website, it looks
like
>>old style Spirit magic is no more -
Trotsky
>> The common man has access to magic, but the same rules are not used
to
>>describe the magic.
>> However, the specific spells from RQ are no more, and you only
really do
>>spirit magic if you in some way worship spirits (as the Praxians, hsunchen,
>>kolatings, etc. do). Low level worshippers of gods just use low level
theist
>>(divine) magic.
Given that spirit magic is more important in low-level, "Tommy Trollkin and the flint spear initiands scrambling for turnips and dreaming of stealing a sheep" -type campaigns, you can understand this particular aspect of HW, and possibly not be too worried about spirit magic falling into one of its scalability holes. I guess there may be problems too, (or at least caution) regarding the-formerly-much-loved-game-that-shall-not-be-mentioned (FMLGTSNBM) that is now owned by a mega-corp expansionist chaos empire employing cadres of lawyers organised into magical schools worshipping the divine breech-of-copyright. And of course, most low-level combat spirit magic in HW would merely 'translate' as die adds or disads, nothing half as sexy or graphic as having your right arm crisped to a negatively hit-pointed cinder by a lucky firearrow. Storytelling description rulz, ok!
Having said that, pretending that spirit magic ain't important or doesn't exist would strike me as a particularly daft ret con. Heortling Orlanthi for example, have always had a strong animistic subtradition mixed with their theism, and in HW terms this means remembering those inherited fetishes (aka spell matrices) in our precious hundred word writeups. The standardised character generation doesn't exactly highlight this, but GMs errr narrators can and will. Rules for fetishes and spirits who supply spells are part of HW.
General release may produce 'unofficial' translations of old spirit spells in the first months of general release, even if only as part of (equally and properly unofficial) 'translating your character of fifteen years from FMLGTSNBM' guides. I suspect there may be significant upscaling - Disruption 15w anyone?
Remember too that the spirit magic rules and descriptions themselves were game artefacts, and manifested somewhat differently in play than in 'gloranthan reality'.
I guess the general point of my raving is this: HW ain't Glorantha, any more than RQ or PDP or for that matter KODP is Glorantha. They are all descriptive systems, limited and shorthand descriptions of Glorantha, and each has its holes, simplifications, blind spots, ommissions, distortions of scale and liminal areas. This isn't a criticism - they're all fine games - it's a fact of life for *any* game that seeks to describe a whole physical and cultural universe within the confines of a single volume or seven. (Any universe is a Goedel universe. Any brain is an enculturated brain).
What each GM errr narrator has to decide in consultation with players is what is more important - the game system (for streamlined play and simplicity) or loyalty to Gloranthan reality as known from the many sources, which means fiddling with the rules a bit when they oversimplify or obscure. No game can reflect the totality completely, some form of compromise is always necessary. Different folks have different goals, which is why I'm responding to the post in the first place. IMG. IMHW.
Cheers
John
(desperately seeking java and scones).
nysalor_at_primus.com.au John Hughesjohnp.hughes_at_dva.gov.au
... a flying arrow, a crashing wave, night old ice, a coiled snake, a bride's bed talk, a broken sword, the play of bears, a king's son.
Havamal 86.
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