One thing I'm struggling with in HQ (2e) is keywords, or at least some of the optional forms of them (umbrella and package). Let's take a silly example, and see if it shows where I'm missing something. So I define a keyword "Agri-Worker" for my futuristic setting, with a list of incorporated abilities like Plant Crops, Harvest Crops, Maintain Farm, etc. etc. Basically, he's a farmer in the culture of that specific game setting.
Now, by the rules as I understand them, if a character named Alan takes the Agri-Worker keyword at a score of 17, he effectively gets Plant Crops 17, Harvest Crops 17, Maintain Farm 17, etc. On the other hand, another character, called Frank, could have a description that starts out with "Frank was born and bred in the backwoods of Beta Epsilon 5, a third generation farmer." Then he underlines the word farmer, adds it to his list of abilities, and gives it a score of 17. So we have Alan with a keyword of Agri-Worker at 17, and Frank with an ability of Farmer at 17.
So far so good, and for all intents and purposes they seem pretty functionally equivalent. Now they finish their first few stories and want to raise their scores. Frank can spend 1 point to raise his Farmer ability to 18. Alan is a bit more complicated. According to the sidebar on Improving Keywords (pg 57), depending on the setting and the GM, it might cost 1 point to raise the keyword just like any other ability. Alternatively, it might cost 2 points to raise the entire keyword to 18 if it is treated as an umbrella, or maybe it is a package and cannot be raised at all so you'd have to spend 1 pt each on Plant Crops, Harvest Crops, Maintain Farm, and every other ability included in the package.
I get the importance of defining keywords to convey information about an unfamiliar setting. It adds flavor to call the farmers in a futuristic setting something like Agri-Workers; it highlights the difference between our every day world and the game setting, and gives the opportunity to introduce new cultural elements. For example, I don't know anything about Glorantha, but the example keyword in the book of "Humakti weaponthane" sounds to me like some sort of fighter with a bunch of cool cultural elements thrown in. I'm all for defining that as a keyword, so it is as natural for my players to include it in their description / ability list as it would be for them to include "Knight of the Round Table", another fighter with cool cultural elements that they are already familiar with.
Keywords make sense for me in that descriptive context. I just don't get what makes them mechanically different than any other broad ability, so why would they need special rules for how to advance them? From a game-mechanics point-of-view, what is the motivation for the umbrella or package rules for keywords, particularly their advancement rules? Is there any reason I shouldn't just use keywords for descriptive purposes but let them function the same as any other ability, and be increased the same as any other ability?
Thanks,
Lindharin
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