Re: Genre rules

From: David Dunham <david_at_...>
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:27:52 -0800


LC

>tried to deduce what the setting accepted by
>way of the rules, not realizing there had been no intention to have the
>rules describe the setting

I think a better way of describing the intent was that the rules can only model the setting to a loose approximation, and only for the purpose of telling heroic stories.

>Should one view the mechanical
>distinctions between Spirit/Theist/Essence magic as reflective of
>something about the way Gloranthan magic works, or not?

This isn't really a rules issue, but the different Otherworlds is established Glorantha. While it would be entirely possible to lump them all under "Magic" and have a workable, fun game, Gloranthans observe them to be different, which is why there are rules distinctions.

>Or, they are just in the
>appendix because they were in HW and HQ1 and people expect to see them
>there

Mechanically, the earlier editions could have lumped them all under "Magic" too. All the Gloranthan rules sets have some attempt to model this because it's part of Glorantha.

>Indeed. I happen to like the Rune Affinity thing in its implication that
>Orlanthi in some way view themselves as tied to the primal powers more
>than they do the gods. Your adult initiation doesn't initiate you to a
>god, it pulls up the connection to the runes in your soul directly.

I think now you're letting the rules color your view of the setting -- no surprise since they're always an inaccurate approximation.

As outsiders, we see the rune affinities. An Orlanthi is going to say something like "I am drawn equally to Orlanth and Issaries, which is why I am a Goodvoice", not "My Air and Communications runes are both a Mastery."

Paul

>Regardless of the designers thinking (which might be partly motivated
>by a desire to hark back to RuneQuest)

To runes, at least. I don't think RQ ever had a very good rune-based magic system.

-- 

David Dunham
Glorantha/HQ/RQ page: www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html

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