This has been a fascinating discussion, even if it has drifted into Digest territory.
On Friday 18 November 2005 3:02 pm, Mike Holmes wrote:
...
> because we are, in fact, talking about the concepts behind the rules, which
> tells us how to apply them (otherwise I'd probably have moved it to RPG at
> least).
So lets bring this back to the rules. (To be honest, I haven't gotten anything from the digest in ages, so I don't know if something has happened to it.)
What is the game purpose of concentration then? It seems to be a bit superfulous. The people of Glorantha don't know of the 3 otherworlds, and most of their religions are not consigned to one or the other but rather are mixed. The social/religious limitations seem to be more stringent anyway. Concentration becomes required for people at the equivalent of Devotee level, where they have already put aside magic from other sources that the one they are dedicated to.
So why is it there? It seems to cause weird incentives due to to the Hero Point bonus, but doesn't accurately reflect Glorantha. In other words, a concentrated Orlanthi getting a charm from Kolat loses his concentration bonus (backsliding), while using something from Zorak Zoran won't. Why is the otherworld (which most Orlanthi know nothing about) a more powerful issue than the religion?
Greg himself slipped and said concentration when he was referring to Devotion, and it does seem more intuitive to think of concentration with respect to a single diety, not an otherworld.
I've long considered removing concentration from my games, instead giving the bonus when someone gives up magic from other gods, rather than tying it to the other world. If anything, Greg's posts to Mike have made that seem more reasonable than ever. Can someone tell me why this would be a bad idea. (I tend to think that the people writing the rules put them in for a purpose, so I assume there is something about concentration that I'm not seeing.)
LC
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