<< But this isn't how we know it works in Glorantha. Arkat didn't wander
along, getting a little better every week. He heroquested, hard. He gained
new knowledge, unearthed dark secrets, broke the rules. He improved in
leaps and bounds. That to me is more heroic. And that, to me, is
discouraged by the current rules.
>>
I am sure skill increases and character progression are a game artefact rather than a story construct. They are there to meet the desires of the players to see some development of their character. It is a throwback, I think, to a feeling that by getting better you are "winning".
I am sure that skill increases occur in real life, but if one were to assess Harrek in game terms then you can bet he started of pretty amazing, and got better only as a result of skinning gods, looting fantastic treasures etc, not as a generally slow increase in abilities. I will quote from one of Robin Laws' other RPG's (Dying Earth):
"We say "perhaps" because in most works of adventure fiction, ..<snip>...., you rarely see characters palpably improve over the course of their adventures. However, roleplaying gamers really like to increase the numbers on their character sheets....."
One could rule that different characters either gain or use HP's at different rates, based on how inherently heroic they are. (normal people get nothing, increase nothing, "our" heroes (the players) and their enemies increase at the standard rate, while SuperHeros get x10 Hero Points just because.
I don't have a strong opinion on this yet as my characters are not unreasonably powerful. I feel that I might impose the increased cost per level of mastery thing if it came to it. I don't have BA yet but from the sounds of it the mastery inflation is going to be sligthly distressing. From 5W being a remarkable troubleshooter for the clan who gets called on to do stuff 'cos they're so great 5W sounds like a hopeless loser who wouldn't even make it into the warband. I think normal professionals should be approx 1W in their best skill, and that normal (or worse) people make up 905of the population.
Keith
Keith
Powered by hypermail