Sounds fun! My knowledge of ancient Russia is pretty much limited to
what I gleamed from "Old Peter's Russian [folk]Tales" as a kid, but
that seemed like an interesting place.
>
> 4. Scaling up the envisaged ranges for personality traits and
> relationships, to give them a greater role (so it is not ridiculous
> to have Love Family 1W2), again at the same time providing more
> explicit guidance on when this should and should not be allowed for
> augments and the penalties/pitfalls, so it is not abused.
This seems appropriate, I seem to recall that a number of the folk
tales hinged on the strength of emotion or relationship.
>
> 5. No common magic as such, but far more scope for using the
Natural
> Magic rules for odd knacks. This is one of the definite differences
> between Glorantha and Russia: I don't want ordinary peasants having
> active magic, although they can still pray for protection and even
> miracles and use their piety as 'magic resistance.' Likewise, odd
> little knacks such as herbal cures or the like can either be normal
> abilities or Natural Magic.
And icons, surely! After all, wasn't it an icon that saved Novgorad
from the Tartars? Mighty magic some of them contained....
>
> 6. Remove the options and fix it that initiative in an extended
goes
> to the highest bidder, to encourage high bids and outrageous
> manouvres.
a bonus side effect is that this may emphasize the ability to use
high ratings in odd abilities to win through. You know that if you
put it all on the line, you can use your perfect faith, dazzling
smile, or whatever BEFORE the opponent gets to apply steel to your
delicate bits.
>
> 11. No heroquesting; I don't think this really fits the Russian
> model. Instead, I'd propose that by 'crossing over' instead you
come
> to the parallel otherworlds ('the thrice-ninth kingdom' et al) into
> which you can adventure, but not necessarily following
> the 'tramline' approach of a heroquest. This is the one I am still
> most unsure about.
I think this is key. Again based on one slim volume of folk tales, it seems that people spent an awful lot of time visiting the King of the Sea, down the hole in the world where the swan princess came from, behind the west wind in the palace of the daughter of the sun, etc. I thought how Ars Magica tried to handle this was a little mechanical, but it seemed to more or less work for them. Certainly it would seem to be implied that there are certain times and places to cross over, rather than being skill driven.
Good luck with this, I look forward to seeing the result!
--Bryan
PS. And how do you model Baba Yaga?
>
> My thinking was that it was appropriate to post here, because
> through discussion of the HQ game engine, we can all enrish our
> understanding of the game as a whole. That said, I appreciate that
> this is not set in Glorantha, so if the moderators have any qualms
> with this thread, obviously I will withdraw it without any demur.
>
> All the best
>
> Mark
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