Re: Question on affinities (subject title changed)

From: badelberg <badelberg_at_...>
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 19:14:31 -0000


> I don't see why these must be innately very, very hard to do. If
> you have flying magic, what use is itt if you can't use it
> to fly with at fairly low levels?
>
> The problem is of course, you won't be able to fly very well.
> However I think a character with something like Sky Walking
> (perhaps a personal power put in the character's writeup) should
> at least be able to get off the ground and hover a bit on
> beating the default difficulty of 14 for magical abilities.
> Have a look at the 'levels of vicotry' table and decide whether
> a particular task might require a marginal, minor, major or
> complete victory. Setting a required victory level can be
> another good way to make things tougher to do complex or
> sdifficult tasks without having to ramp up the resistance
> numbers. Just remember to make this clear before the roll, and
> be aware that players do have Hero Points.
>
> Hero Wars, and Hero Quest are games about mythic, magical
> adventure so I don't think you should be afraid to let your
> players do cool stuff and have fun.
>

The problem is HW feats have no concept of difficulty built into them. Many of the feats describe almost mundane abilities and others earth shattering abilities, but they all cost the same. Compare say Sword Help versus Killing Rain. Simple interpratation would imply on guy is little better at fighting while the other guy was able to destroy an army.

I like to weigh what the affects of magic would have on society. If learning to fly is only a little harder than learning to ride a horse why doesn't everybody fly.

I think you were closer with your comment that they don't fly well. I think low levels of success may allow for you use suprise gusts of wind that break your fall or carry your jump a long distance. More moderate levels might allow some sort of glide, or a completly uncontroled flight, at the mercy of the wind. A lot this is harder to justify with Solar flight abilities. Floating up a sun beam is magical any way you look at it.

I guess part of this is playing style. I really like the idea that a lot of magic in Glorantha could be described as subtle. I like the idea that a Malkioni (SP?) traveling with an Oralanth initiate could convince him self that there is nothing to this lesser god worship and that the strange things he sees happen around him is just chance. Only when facing more powerful heros does magic seem in your face and undeniable.

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