> Rather than limit the ability ratings of your heroes, just make the
For the combat machine in the group, this works to a point but there are other ways. For example in the Gwandor campaign which is now heading for 80 sessions the Argrath player started as a weaponthane and is now a w4 in Manage Kingdom while his weapon skills topped out at w2. Sure he can take on a lot of peasants but a decent clan champion should kill him in close combat in no time. What changed the player from a fighter to a planner who sends his bodyguards into battle and directs the fray rather than joining it is the pressures of the game world. He simply would not be an efficient character if he'd simply kept pumping his heropoints into close combat, in fact he would have already lost to the lunars or his rival Argraths.
Some of my players have characters that hit w6 when they augment (the Humakti Disciple for one) but their magic is in the w2 range which means a potent and boosted lunar mage can be very dangerous against them, or so can attacking a priest in his temple or in the presence of a holy artifact or group support. Glorantha is geared that the little guy, with a whole bunch of other little guys can actually beat the individual hero if they stand still long enough (and everyone has to do that eventually unless you are rootless like Harrek)
In other words, I guess what I'm saying (and this is directed to Jamie mainly) is that you don't have to be wandering the godplane, fighting the MoM or combating the underworld denizens to have a reality grounded game even at huge levels of power. Heros have lives, loves and cares even if w4 or more and this makes them vulnerable to far lesser opponents or opponents with no combat ability at all. To steal from Spiderman "with great power comes great responsibility" and as a narrator it is easy to chain the players to it and in doing so create a very reality grounded game. See how risible the w4 close combat character looks when he becomes king of a tribe and then is asked to handle a tule border dispute or an argument over a cow when his Rule Tribe skill is 17 or his Know Law skill is 13 and his opponent is 17w at Argue Black is White.
Militarily a hero cannot take a kingdom. He may be able to kill any single or multiple opponent force facing him, but ultimately he cannot hold ground, raise taxes, adminster provinces or lead ceremonies on his own. They need others and the others they have are NOT w4. I consider a w4 close combat player to be rather like a tactical nuke, deadly on the battlefield to all concerned but ultimately a strategic irrelevance if misused. Often in a session they might not even get to swing their sword as they are much too important to be actually fighting on the front line! Occasionally they can dust off their armour, in the right place at the right time they can be decisive but this is what Glorantha warfare is all about. Paper, rock, scissors. The enemy has heroes too.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that this whole argument seems to revolve around the players becoming uncontrollable to the narrator due to their obscene combat skills. I say that in Heroquest(Wars) that this is misusing the system. This ain't RQ, all the tools for successfully integrating all aspects of a reality style campaign are built right into the game system by making the skills all the same. The players are eminently controllable if the narrator approaches it correctly.
What use being a sword hero if your foe is a Seductive Vamp 20w and your only defence against her undoubted charms is your Stoic skill of 17 that you never bothered to raise because you have a close combat of 12w4. How do you think Jar-eel is so damn nasty? Any guy she can't kill in battle she seduces! Harrek had his Surly Barbarian skill to help him and it was massively augmented by his Hate Lunars ability. Had Jar-eel been an Esrolian seductress, then it would have been quite different. Palm of hand time.
Martin Laurie
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