>From: "Andrew Solovay" <asolovay_at_...>
>I wasn't saying it should be *easy*, and I wasn't proposing a
>straightforward mechanism to do it (a la "spend X HPs, increase an allied
>spirit's score by 1"). Yes, there would certainly be game balance
>considerations there.
And I wasn't implying that you were saying it was easy. Simply that it might be counterproductive to go down this line of reasoning.
>All I was doing was objecting to the statement, "Spirits are otherworld
>entities, *therefore* their scores can't increase." It seems to me that
>within Gloranthan metaphysics, there would be ways for their scores to go
>up
>short of a full-on heroquest.
It's been my experience that, in fact, rules such as this were designed specifically to reflect Gloranthan metaphysics. That is, I can't say for certain, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that Greg thought that Spirits were "fixed" in power - inalterable in terms of Gloranthan metaphysics.
Yes, sure Guardians are an exception, but then it seems to me that these are potentially two very different phenomena.
OTOH, perhaps this was put in merely for game balance, who can say? But my point is that, since it's better balanced by not allowing increases, and sans clarification from the designers on the point, why not assume that the rule reflects Gloranthan metaphysics, and find a way to represent any exceptions you can think of using already present rules? I mean, is the idea that spirits can't get any more powerful really counterintuitive somehow in terms of the in-game reality? Yeah it's an exception to the standard rules, but one they obviously made quite consciously.
This all said, I don't really have a strong objection to where you're going with what you're proposing. If you're trying to match some strong vision you have of how you want play to go, then, of course, I say go for it. I'm all for tampering with the rules to make them work better for the game you're running.
Mike
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