> 1. I've often read something along the lines of "Additional abilities
> start at 17 if part of a keyword". Does it make sense to list or
> narrate this ability during chargen?
Good question. We've never run into this -- narrators have just suggested leaving out stuff in the narrative if it's obvious from the keywords, or players have figured that out on their own.
> 2. Magic keywords and the narrative method. What do I have to include
> explicitly?
In our games, we always had to specify the specialized magic keyword and level (e.g. practitioner, devotee) in the narrative. Common Magic and whether a not the character was Concentrated were left out.
> "Your hero is probably a spiritist of ..."
> (p. 51). How strong is that notion? That is,
> does it mean the char IS
> a spiritist if not explicitly listed/narrated otherwise?
See answer above. I guess if a player decided not to specify a specialized magic keyword, he'd be a communal worshipper/spiritist/church member of the dominant religion based on the homeland keyword unless he explicitly said otherwise. But no player has ever done that in our game.
> 4. Concentration. Should a char who wants to concentrate their magic
> either during gen or in the near future pick appropriate common magic
> abilities only (i.e. charms for an animism concentration)?
This is what we've done in our games. It effectively means that many characters can't have common magic at all if they have concentrated on an Otherworld. For example, Heortlings would typically have Flesh Man common magic or common magic from the sample list in the HeroQuest rule book -- all talents. That means that concentrated theist Heortlings would typically not have common magic at all starting play, because they can't use talents.
In one game I played, the gamemaster solved this problem by providing a list of common magic feats for the homeland, so that concentrated characters could still have at least a few common magic abilities.
I can't remember exactly how we decided on the nature of magical abilities invented in player narratives. One solution is to require the player to add the word "feat", "charm", or the like in the narrative (e.g. "He knows the FlattenFoe and FlyThroughDirt feats").
> 5. ...If my narrative / list indicates
> a one or more magical abilities, what do I do with those?
We always put them in the Common Magic keyword.
> If it counts as an extra
> ability: Can it be used actively without concentration?
I can't recall what we did about this, because most players concentrated and specified that their invented abilities were from the "right" Otherworld.
> 6. ...Would anyone be kind enough to look over the narrative and
> character sheet I'll assemble when the questions above have become a
> bit clearer to me? Is this the right place to ask that, or does this
> belong to the HQ-RPG list?
This is probably the right list.
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