Hmmm. Its bad form to quote yourself; so please forgive me, I try not
to make a habit of it. But I just said that the concentrated magic
rules are a mistake and dont achieve anything useful. I expected
opinion to be divided, with perhaps a rebuffal from some quarters, but
no one batted an eyelid.
Does that mean its taken as a given, the whole community agrees and is
already ignoring those rules? Or does everyone lurve the concentrated
magic rules because they have some purpose that has escaped me and
assumes that I am posting a troll?
- In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, I wrote:
> Drop (1) concentrated magic and (2) the whole threeworlds theory.
> You dont need them as neither add anything (except extra complexity)
> to the game.
>
> [Concentrated magic] is just a clumsy attempt to add rules
> to stop players minimaxing by mixing different sorts of magic.
>
> a) They aren't going to minimax like that anyway in HQ: its not
> beneficial in the way it would have been in RQ.
>
> b) Since gaining and using abilities is by discussion and [is]
> judged against a common understanding of the setting no rules
> are needed.
>
> c) Since HQ play focuses heavily on social groups and their
> reactions to PCs, PCs should be allowed to follow or break social
> rules as they wish. They will probably not mess with incompatable
> magic systems for the same reasons the other people in their
> society dont - because it isn't worth it. And if they consciously
> decide to ignore the accepted rules thats ok, the players know what
> its going to mean in play [and so have bought into the results].
>
> [The three magic worlds stuff] is just a theory. Its not a universal
> and provable truth of Glorantha. As such it should be in a sidebar
> in a background book; certainly not entangled in the rules.