>More I think about it the more the rigid division of the Other Side into
>Sorcery, God and Spirit Planes seems silly or just a human construct.
Yup. I am very likely to make it much less rigid in my games. I generally do not intend to use the -20 modifier for being in the'wrong part' of the Otherworld, too. Which doesn't mean I disagree with the concept, just that the mechanism is a good deal subtler and less reliable than that. Heroquesting in someone elses otherworld is certainly very dangerous, but I think mostly because you evoke very different response and behave the wrong way. Ie many beings will just attack you. And an Orlanthi is hardly likely to perform the correct 'humbly submit to authority' response that many Dara Happan otherworld denizens expect, etc. You do get modifiers of at least -20 or so for attempting to travel to parts of the underworld that are inappropriate, and often cannot even try - but if you manage to get to some other cultures mythic landscape from your own, you can try your luck.
I much prefer a single squishy amorphous weird and dangerous Otherworld to the rigidly categorised one that HW suggests.
Alex replying to DD
>> And I don't think the Hero Wars bit is about heroquesting, it's about
>> Other Side travel (vaguely the equivalent of a shaman searching for
>> spirits).
>
>Pretty much the same thing, surely? What we think of as 'heroquesting'
>is what one might term 'theistic Other Side travel', to a first
>approximation.
Count me in with Alex here. The different between heroquesting and just theists roaming around in the Otherworld is about intent and action - they both take place in much the same place, I think.
I still believe that an awful lot of good sorcerous heroquesting stuff can be got at by looking at the Western Esoteric tradition in occultism, cutting out mention of specific deities where appropriate. Alchemy, for example, seems to me to be eminently sorcerous, and has produced a fascinating tradition of whacky symbolic and artistic representations.
>Hasn't it been Ceremoniously Gregged that Arkat Kingtroll get sorcerous
>'effects' through what's essentially (or at least, resembles to the
>untutored eye -- like uz's) a theistic or shamanic method?
Just when I think I have complained about all the Naff Retcons, another one sneaks up on me.
Cheers David ------------------------------
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #676
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