Re: Mundane Superman versus Magical Superman

From: Philippe Krait <philippe.krait_at_...-csf.com>
Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 15:50:43 +0100


> From: philip.hibbs_at_...
>
> >would be to say that you can't
> >increase an ability beyond 20W unless you
> >provide a specifically magical way of being
> >taught.
>
> That's an interesting idea, I might use that. It gives greater cultural and
> religious distinction.

Actually, although I don't like Mikael's "everything is magical" explanation, I think this one is to arbitrary for myself.

What I think is that the key there is "improvisational modifier". If you have the ability "run" and you are human, to me it still means "run like a human". And it means that I won't allow you to run against a horse and win. I could give such an outrageous improvisational modifier that you will lose, except in extreme circumstances (horse fumbles and thus falls down for example), or even disallow the roll if it's too inhuman (like jumping across a wide river).

Thus, even though you train everyday and raise only your "run" skill (which would be stupid), you will never be able to outrun the horse as you are only human.

But this does not preclude the "everything is magical" world view, rather the contrary in fact.

Because the world is so full of magic and there are so many myth to interact with, it's in fact more easy to gain a magical affinity allowing you to "run like a horse" rather than increasing your "run" ability. Or to gain a "fast like the wind" ability and use it to augment your "run" and thus beat the horse.

But to me, living in a very magical world does not mean that, by training only, you acquire "magical-like capabilities". You have to think in terms of the world. And what it means for Glorantha is that people, to progress in terms of what they can do, turn at least as much towards the myth than towards mundane training.

And this is true all across the spectrum of abilities. But of course, the ones which are the best are those who combine the two, i.e. excellent "mundane" training and a lot of concurrent magical abilities. I don't doubt that Harrek has something like 10w4 in close fighting because he's the paramount fighter in the world (and he had a lot of training for that, mundan and magical but training still) so he can terminate any adversary without even resorting to magic (and probably without breaking a sweat), but when augmenting it with his "Rip to shreds like a berserk bear" ability, also at 10w4 he becomes truly formidable like the (super-)hero that he is.

Now, between somebody having run 10w2 and somebody having only run 10w and "fast like the wind" 10w, it will all depend on the circumstances and improvisational modifiers.

Philippe

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