Re: Digest Number 297

From: Richard Melvin <rmelvin_at_...>
Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2000 16:21:06 +0100

>
>Mine can. That's why you must define the abilities of the illusion.
>Tell it to use it's Close Combat, and it'll do so as well as, and as
>inventively, as a 'real' man of the same ability, until told
>otherwise. It's not a man, it's a Close Combat illusion, which the
>illusionist has created in the form of a man. Better yet, give it Hunt
>Small Game 2W, and it'll catch supper.

Hmm, do you have non-illusionist PCs in your games?

Do they feel perhaps a bit left out?

I know HW is supposed to be high-powered, but I just can't see any mortal magician routinely using creation magic on that scale. Maybe with a 10-year ritual or something, but not to fetch supper.

Instead, surely the point of an illusionist is that they create only what is necessary for the task in hand.

If it only needs to speak, it will be a disembodied voice. If it needs to emit light, it will do so, if it needs to block light, it can do that as well, if the illusionist is sufficiently skilled.

Like most things in Glorantha, this can be seen as organised around elements: Air for sound, Light for a light source and colour[1], Darkness for opaqueness[2], etc.

An illusionist worth his salt will only put in the elements that are needed - the goal is always to achieve the desired results with the minimum expenditure of effort.

A true illusionist, with full flexibility, would almost certainly be a variety of GodLearner - only the Jrusteli had the intellectual freedom of though and intuitive understanding of magic to work that way. Of course, maybe some of the new sorcery schools of the Lunar Empire, or Nolos and Pasos, are heading down that path again...

There aren't really any good rules in HW at the moment for flexible sorcery, so there is no point trying to force this kind of thing into one of the existing templates.

On the other hand, the Puppeteer's Troupe of Dragon Pass are presumably some kind of God-learner remnant. Think of a touring rock band, and their roadies and technicians, being the only survivor of western civilisation.

So you would expect their magic to work on the same principles as high GodLearner magic, but for any normal individual to only know enough to do their job in the Troupe. This works reasonably well as a theist cult - the affinities would be something like Lighting Man, Sound Man and Puppeteer[3].

Richard

[1] Creatures of pure darkness are always black.

[2] Light without darkness appears translucent - you can always see

    the background through an angel.

[3] The Puppeteers mostly use carved wooden mannequins, as it is a

    lot easier to animate one as a base for an illusion than to     create all that mass from scratch.
    On occasion, when the Troupe has been attacked by bandits,     the bandits have found just how much damage a solid wooden arm     can do, and just how hard it is to hurt something that doesn't     feel pain...

Richard