Re: Staging Healing

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 15:24:51 -0700

Bruce Ferrie <bruceferrie_at_...> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> This is prompted by a thread Ian Cooper started on RPGnet about
> adventure ideas for healers and how to handle healing in extended
> contests. I started pondering how to add a bit of depth and dramatic
> impact to healing, so here's what I've come up with off the top of my

Excellent thoughts! One comment, though--in Glorantha, it is entirely possible that the healer is actually fighting a conscious actor. The most obvious example would be spirits of disease, but with a little imagination, you could come up with anything. (e.g. Oddi was wounded by a troll berserker. His death would be to the glory of Zorak Zoran. Therefore, a demon is present, fighting against efforts to heal Oddi.)

So the injury's/disease's AP bids could represent things like, "Evil forces are trying to block your healing sense", "Your hands are being numbed by dark magic", "Unseen forces are trying to frighten your Spirit of Healing away from the patient"... A healer might go through an extended contest against what seems like (and is!) a perfectly normal, mundane injury, when suddenly the narrator pops out with something like, "The wound calls upon Krarsht to devour the medicine you placed on it. That's an 8 AP bid, augmented by the wound's "Hate Lightbringers" ability..." It ought to give the contest a Gloranthan feel!