>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? It seems like a waste of words
>to
>mention something you'll get from your keyword anyway. [The rule
>might
>be: "If the ability isn't listed in the book, it's new and needs to
>be
>explicitely narrated." This doesn't follow from the rules as I've
>read
>them, though.]
There are, in RAW HQ (RAW standing for "Rules As Written"), two distinct types of abilities - Keyword and "Other". Keyword abilities listed in the book are inclusive, not exclusive. If the player/narrator can justify a particular ability as keyword, then keyword it is. A "cavalry" or other rider-type character should have some idea of basic horse (bison, wyvern, whatever) maintenance, for example.
No, it doesn't make sense to "spend" words or a list slot on something you get from the keyword, though if you want to increase the ability you *might* want to mention that he's a really good rider (or whatever), but that can be done without spending words; just use some of your 20 points on it.
If the player wants an abilty that really can't fit into one of his keywords, then yes, he needs to mention it. Flaming breath, Handsome, etc.
>2. Magic keywords and the narrative method. What do I have to include
>explicitly? Is there anything included implicitely? To be more
>precise: Doesn't every character have some common magic, no matter if
>it's mentioned in their narrative or not? [My guess: Yes, nearly
>everyone has common magic, but you still need to mention it somehow
>in
>your narrative. Purely for balancing reasons / because the rules say
>so. I'm not sure if they _do_ say so, however.]
I don't have my book with me, so I can't saw what the rulessay on the matter. But yes, you should mention that "Bob belongs to the "Really Old Faith" (where "ROF" stands in for the name of your Common religion). You *don't* need to say what magical abilites he gets from it in your narrative.
>3. is related to #2. I think I read somewhere in HQ that all Puma
>People are spiritists. I don't mean the paragraph in the Homeland
>description where it says "Your hero is probably a spiritist of ..."
>(p. 51). How strong is that notion?
All puma people are *animists*. I don't have the source material at hand (man I hate to be away from my library!)
Animism is the sttyle of magic they practice/religion they follow. "Spiritist" is a rank wothin that magical path, like "Initiate" within the Theist style of worship.
That is, does it mean the char IS
>a spiritist if not explicitly listed/narrated otherwise? So, if I
>don't include it in my narrative, is the char still a spiritist and
>gains all the abilities under that keyword? [Again I think you have
>to
>include this in the narrative. I assume you never get a specialized
>magic keyword for free - even less so than the common magic keyword.]
You need to include his "rank" (Spiritst, Shaman, whatever) and the path/tradition he followes. So "Spiritist/Practitioner/Shaman of The Grand Puma" (or whatever it is they worship - did I mention I hate being away from my library?)
If you don't include a rank, then *I* would figure the characdter is at the lowest level of worship.
>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 would
>leave a Puma living with heortlings with only the list of sample
>common magic (p. 29), right? The abilities in this list are
>unspecified in the terms of being charms, talents, feats etc. Since
>the rules say that magical abilities not further qualified "on the
>character sheet" are talents, the player who wants to have and keep
>abilities from that list would have to specify they're charms in
>his/her case. Where does the player do that? In the narrative/list?
>Only on the sheet? If in the narrative/list, would it be allowable to
>subsume 5 abilities in one item just to make sure they're charms? [I
>would say it's sufficient to say sth like "has learned magic from
>humans" in the narrative. You'd write them down as charms when
>writing
>down the actual abilities on your sheet.]
If you want to mini-max, then yes, all those Common Magic abilities should be specified as whatever translates to your magic system.
Note that some magical ranks (Devotee) mean that you give up common magic all together - so if you start the game as a devotee, don't even bother with Common Magic.
And also remember that concentrating is not for everyone - probably 75%+ of all gloranthans are not concentrated. And if you're not concentrated, you can use different magical systems without penalty!
>5. Magical abilities listed/narrated. If my narrative / list
>indicates
>a one or more magical abilities, what do I do with those? Do they
>count among the common magic / specialized magic abilities I'll get
>from my magic keywords? That is, if it says "is known for munching on
>hot coals" (stolen from some discussion on here, I think), does that
>leave the player with only 4 other common magic abilities to get due
>to a common magic keyword included elsewhere? If it counts as an
>extra
>ability: Can it be used actively without concentration?
It depends on where you put those abilities in the first place. if
you put them into "Common Magic", then they follow all the rules of
Common Magic. If you don't put it into any particular magical
category, then it becomes a Natural Magic ability. See the "Natural
Magic" article on the Issaries website
(http://www.issaries.com/support/natural_magic.html)
If it's a natural magical ability, then it is unaffected by Concentration.
Since you're doing a Puma Persoon, you might also want to look at the FAQ and Errata on the Glorantha.com site, particularly: http://www.issaries.com/support/hq_faq.html#Homelands http://www.issaries.com/support/1001_errata.html
RR
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