For the last 18 months I've been running a Gloranthan game for a bunch of people that don't really give a flying <insert rude word of choice in here> about the world and representing their characters in complete cultural verisimilitude. Within about three minutes of character creation starting I realised that the best way of doing things was ditch all the various special cases that clutter the system up and use one simple rule:
"If it matters, it's an ability."
And, more to the point, they're all acquired and work in the same way. None of this concentrated vs unconcentrated stuff, forget the levels of worship - if you've got Worship Destor at a high level you're probably devoted. I only kept one cost multiplier and that was unrelated to story.
Other manifestations of this:
Cheers,
Ash
> There's been some heat, and some smoke, and a lot of
> good stuf on the
> question of "How should HQ model Gloranthan Magic".
>
> First off, the *basic* rules are still the same no
> matter what ability
> you're using - magic, combat, relationship, basic
> arithmatic - You choose an
> ability, add augments/penalties, and roll against a
> resistance. That basic
> mechanic should *not* change.
>
> For the record, I'm in favor of removing the
> "equipment" bonuses for
> non-ability weapons in all contests, especially
> including combat. If you've
> got bog-standard gear, you get no bonus. If you're
> missing gear, you might
> get a penalty. I might be amenable to +/- equipment
> bonus/penalty for
> "better gear", but Plate Armor and Two handed Axe
> vrs No Armor and Dagger
> can favor either side - I had a teacher who could
> whip most anyone with just
> a stick, so even that isn't a rule I'm totally for.
>
> If you've got a piece of equipment as an Ability
> ("Spear of the Morning Sun
> 17", then that's an abiltiy and you can use it as an
> augment or actively,
> just like any other ability). And if you want named
> Ability-items for other
> things "Pen of the Gracious Prose", Counting Board
> of Significance",
> "Senthera's Hair Curlers" you can apply them to
> appropriate contest as a
> normal ablity.
>
> That's just my take on the "equipment" question.
> Makes all "basic" contests
> equal, doesn't make combat "different" than any
> other contest because of all
> the automatic Equipment bonuses.
>
> As far as magic, and the differences between God,
> Spirit and Essence magic -
> I'm for difference. The main differences are:
> 1) How do we get it.
> 2) How much can we play with the name to get an
> effect.
>
> #1 is not really a problem at all from my point of
> view - we don't get
> Combat abiltiies the same way we get Relationship
> Abilities, or Literacy
> abilities, etc. So having three different worlds
> having three different ways
> of getting magic doesn't faze me. "No, Bobby, you
> can't learn 'Sword and
> Shield Combat' from a tree, you'll have to find a
> teacher."
>
> #2 - The ways we can use magic - this is not a
> question of changing the
> basic contest system, but additions to it (just like
> "equipment" (whether
> the current auto bonuses or my suggested
> Ability-equipment ones) bonuses are
> *additions* to the basic contest resolution system).
> Having the magic used
> differently is not *just* a mechanical difference,
> but an insight into how
> Glorantha works -If you improvise a feat, you are
> doing something your god
> could have done (obviously, I'd rather see
> improvisation in the mode of a
> particualr god than just "Mastakos *could* have
> ridden a horse if he wanted
> to" - but that's really a Player-Narrator question).
> Spiritrs can be really
> powerful, but can do limited stuff, and can't get
> any better. Spells do what
> they say and no more. I *like* the differences.
>
> And since I'm on a roll...
>
> Common magic - make it all augment-only, and forget
> about "where" it comes
> from (ie, remove the "Feat/Spell/Charm/Talent"
> categorizations).
>
> Concentration - Rather than concentrate on a
> particular system of magic,
> concentrate on a particular being. So you want to Be
> a Devotee of Humakt?
> Great, you can't have any other kind of magic (even
> Common magic). I'd
> abolish the "Concentrated Initiate/Practitioner/Lay
> person" categories
> altogether. If you want to concentrate, you need a
> strong focus to
> concentrate on. if you want to change your
> concentration (Now you want to be
> a Devotee of Chalana Arroy?), then you'll lose some
> abilities because you
> were so focused on another being. Shamans would (I
> think) concentrate on
> their Fetch. Magi, possibly on their Familiar (since
> I haven't seen the Magi
> rules, I can't really comment - maybe instead of
> their familiar, on a
> particular School or Founder node. I haven't
> bothered to think much on
> them).
>
> But may main point is:
> The three-world model can work easily in HQ, as it
> doesn't *change* the
> basic resolution system, but adds to it.
>
> The question then becomes: "How much *you* want
> added?" In an ideal world
> (or, as we say around here: "If I ran the zoo"), the
> basic presentation
> would present the three-world mopdel in the "Where
> we get our magic from"
> text, and be pretty vanilla in the "How do we use
> it" part. But the Advanced
> magic levels *should* have more
> particular-to-their-system rules.
>
> Go ahead and present counter-arguments if you want,
> I don't really care.
> Some points I'm not strong on, some I think pretty
> strongly should be the
> core concepts of that particular part of the new
> Gloranthan-HQ. Some things
> I can flip-flop on, some will remain steady. At the
> end of the day, unless
> I'm picked to work on the manuscript you won't have
> to worry about what I
> think anyway (unless you play in a game I run).
>
> RR
> The questions that have come up are more in the "How
> do we learn" and "How
> much can we get away with improvising" magic.
> He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense
> that the world was mad
> R. Sabatini, Scaramouche
>
>
>
>
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