Re: A Rule Book Ate My Fetish

From: TTrotsky_at_aol.com
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 04:20:22 EST


John Hughes:

<< >> 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.>>

     Since, in HW, spirit magic can be just as powerful as divine magic, I'm not sure I understand your point here.

<< Having said that, pretending that spirit magic ain't important or doesn't exist would strike me as a particularly daft retcon. 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 write-ups. 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. >>

     Indeed. While the HW rules imply that Heortlings use little, if any, spirit magic (aside from the kolatings), I don't think they should be taken in any way as the definitive guide to Heortling magic. Rather, they attempt to give an overview of how divine magic works across Glorantha, and deal with what such traditions have in common, rather than what sets them apart. I suspect we'll have to wait for Thunder Rebels to get a clearer picture of how exactly spirit magic is woven into Heortling magical traditions, which it obviously must be.  

<< 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.>>

     There's no dispute that spells which have similar effect to the old spirit magic spells do exist, and are used among the Heortlings. OK, so bladesharp would be called 'augment bladed weapon*' and would be described as a low level divine feat in rules terms, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

     <>

     Certainly, they should be scalable, IMO. The HW feat 'augment bladed weapon', would be like bladesharp when its at 15 or so, but would merge into Truesword by the time its reached 15W.

<< 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.>>

     No, but it is, at least in intent, a closer match to Gloranthan 'reality' than RQ was. But not the be-all and end-all, by any means, I agree.

Forward the glorious Red Army!

     Trotsky


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