At this point I've lost the "this" that you want straitening out. What, exactly, are you asking for?
> >The "Not all common magic" sentence refers to the two examples. Put a
> >paragraph between that sentence and "There might be variants": there
might
> >be other systems that, like Self-Rock, allow you to concentrate all CM
> >abilities.
>
> OK. Sure. I suppose in Glorantha if you look far enough that you can find
> anything. But there's no way in the core book to do this, is there, other
> than Self-Rock?
Nope. No way. Not at all. Not in the core book. Does that mean we won't put another way in a supplement some time? Nope. No way. Not at all.
> I have the answer now, but nobody else who's not on this list or who
doesn't
> have the supplements has the answer. Or have I overlooked anything?
Well, they could always visit the website to see if their question is in the FAQ, and if it's not, send an email to: herowars-qa_at_..., or if all else fails and they have no computer access, send a snail-mail letter to the address listed on the title page of the book.
> And Self-Rock is also an exception. Hence the need to have the explanation
> of whether it's a specific exception the likes of which may be repeated
> elsewhere, or whether its a statement about the world as a whole. Again,
> just pointing out where the confusion comes from. Note that either of the
> following approaches would have worked to make for no confusion:
>
> "Self-Rock Teaching is the only way in Glorantha to concentrate all Common
> Magic."
> "Self-Rock Teaching is an example of one way to concentrate Common Magic."
>
> Instead the book says:
>
> "Selfrock teaching is a widespread way..."
>
> See how that reads ambiguously? The section is either giving an example of
> "a" way to concentrate common magic, or it's enumerating the only
exception
> to the normal rules that allow this special sort of concentration.
As Peter said, the indefinite article "a" in "a widespread way" does not eliminate the possibility of other ways (or even other widespread ways). Even if we'd written "*the* widespread way" that doesn't eliminate to possibility of other, more local, ways. Only if we'd written "the absolutely *only* way" would we have eliminated any other ways (and the hero wars are all about rules being broken, so we *still* could put another way to concentrate common magic in a book and get away with it).
> >You have access to all the "Common Religions" of your homeland (Frex,
> >Heortlings only have access to the Flesh Man Religion, while Dara Happans
> >have access to the People Talents, League Magic and Great Parents
> >"religions"). Lanbril is basically a "Common religion" tied to the
"Thief"
> >occupation, rather than to a particular homeland. You don't really need
to
> >list any of these as a common magic provider; "Common Magic" is usually
> >good
> >enough as the keyword. If you're (planning on) concentrating, then just
> >count "Common Magic" as your Magic keyword.
>
> This seems to contradict our other poster on the subject. And it seems
odd.
> My question is, what about the skills that the Lanbril religion keyword
> give? Do you get those if your character is a thief and has the common
magic
> keyword? WIthout noting it elsewhere?
Okay, in this case (and Donander) you problably should list more than just "Common Magic". It depends on what you (as a player and/or narrator) need to know. mentioning that you belong to Lanbril is a good idea for a player, because thenyou can tell the narrator that you're taking the abilities listed under it.
If you are *just* taking 5 common magic abilities, then it *probably* doesn't matter. If you want to be precisde, list where you got them from. If you don't, don't.
If I take one of these keywords, do
> they count against any limit, or are they like the standard religion for
the
> homeland, available for free as an adjunct of that keyword?
There is no limit. You can have as many doifferent specialized magic keywords as time & resource constraints (and the narrator) will let you. You can have several Occupation keywords. You might even conceivably have multiple homeland keywords, if you can justify them (we disciourage this sort of thing, but we can't *stop* you...
> I have seen characters with Lanbril or Donandar, I think. And there's the
> character on P25 HQ. Again, does any of this count against any limits?
Nope, 'cause there's no limits.
> > > Or do those without enumeration fail to provide more
> > > than just the common magic abilities themselves (this is what I've
> >always
> > > thought to be the case)?
> >
> >This is, basically, the case. Sure, there are ceremonies, etc. that
> >everyone
> >does; count it as your 10% "Commmunity worship" requirement (BTW, No-one
> >with any magic gotten from a religion has less than a 10%
requirement...),
> >but there aren't any sort of religious hierarchies or the like.
>
> So, it it's not enumerated, there's no keyword to be had there? Only the
> ones listed in the book have keywords associated?
At least until we get around to deciding that a specific one needs a keyword, but we probably won't.
> >Because we (authors) don't bother to list it - especially if the hero is
> >concentrated, when he has to give up common magic anyway. But even if
he's
> >not concentrated, we don't bother to list all the abilities he might
have -
> >a "Keyword 19" listing is assumed to take care of piddling little "+1 or
+2
> >to base" abilities. We only list abilities that are important for the
> >narrator to run the character, and common magic usually isn't important.
>
> Really? So the lack of mention of common magic for most characters was an
> intentional omission?
More like we just didn't think it was important. When a character can be described with a single keyword ("There are 5 'Warrior 17' guards"), there's not a lot of incentive for us to add more than is necessary. Every writer for Issaries puvblications has their own style. There's not a guideline saying "don't list common magic".
>What made Vai Mader Sa so important, then, for the guy
> on P25 that it got listed there?
because he was an example character, and the writer wanted to make VMS important to him.
RR
It is by my order and for the good of the state that the bearer of this has
done what he has done.
- Richelieu
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