If all you're comparing is HQ concentrated with HQ unconcentrated, yes, same thing, but we were talking about the *introduction* of concentration to a system that was doing fine without it. Before that, affinities cost 3 to raise. Now, they cost 6 unless you're concentrated. And, as we were saying, concentration is not the norm for Gloranthans. If you wanted to say "weird people who concentrate only pay half", that would take their costs to 1.5. 3 was the standard.
> I dont think you can separate the rules from the theology of
> Glorantha easily.
Seems simple enough to me. The rules say "X is impossible". The theology says "Humakt will be very angry with you if you do X". And those are two very different things. The latter is by far the more fun.
> > But even so, that made life awkward for the high-end
> specialists, not
> > for normal people. Hardly ever game-relevant. This
> concentration rule
> > hits the standard PC where it hurts.
> What do you mean by 'standard' pc. IMG it had no effect
> whatsoever as everyone began as a devotee.
Same in the Swords campaign, but that's hardly normal! Standard initiate, clan-based Orlanthi. You know, the sort of PCs intended to go through that "Sartar Rising" arc that in fact no-one seems to be playing "straight". OK, so maybe they're as common as the family with 2.4 children, but suddenly doubling the cost of magic for the "norm" seems like a pretty daft thing to do, especially when discussion thus far had suggested that it was already too expensive.
The effect on devotees, as I understand it, was zero, so no point in discussing it.
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