I don't think it really works that way. Firstly, I think that it'd work best as a 'honest broker' style of ritual, where the quester is not a directly interested party, but is trying to reconcile two other warring parties to each other. And I think the effect is manifest not so much as 'enforce deal as I'd like it to be done', as 'discern the deal that might be doable'. The parties can then doubtless manage to undo it all over again, left to their own devices. (Why am I thinking George Mitchell here...?)
> 'Runequest', from what I remember, is compatible my image of a world in
> which magic to affect peoples' minds is a rare thing, whose targets would
> certainly not be happy about it. On the other hand, what I have seen of
> 'Hero Quest' tends to go the other way: the devotees of trader gods run
> around performing the feats 'Convince buyer' and 'Convince seller', the
> devotees of gods having to do with leadership have feats for getting their
> way in negotiations, and so on.
I don't think of such things as being 'mind affecting', but rather as 'glibness enhancing'. You're not casting them on the _buyer_, but on yourself, who you then try to convince with the smoothness of your patter, and the honest, expansive nature of your extravagent mediterranean arm-gestures, etc. Imagine a magic that could turn the man in the street into Richard Branson; or Richard Branson into an actually credible business person. ;-) (If running for political office, it'd turn you into a plain old country boy, it seems, at least in many an electoral district.) It doesn't need to be sure-fire ('convincing retailer... must... resist!'), just make enough of a difference, enough of the time, to improve the 'bottom line'.
This is in the grand tradition of Glorantha magic, note: back in RQ2 were were told that the Gods 'prefer' not to do wholesale creation, like a blazing aetheric sword that leaps at your opponent all of its own devices, but rather 'work with what you've got', a la Bladesharp, Fireblade, and the like. (Or indeed, Glamour.) Hero Wars just extends the same principle somewhat more widely.
Cheers,
Alex.
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