> From: bethexton_at_...
>Subject: Re: An Issaries Riposte
>> >Now I'm fighting a training duel. Do I pull out
>> >all the magical
>> >stops? Depends on what kind of person I am or on
>> >the situation
>> >doesn't it? I might want to kill this bastard I'm
>> >duelling despite
>> >what the rules demand.
>>
>> Well, I can{t imagine training someone you{d want
>to kill. But in
>the training circumstances, of coure you{d not use
>the full magic
>when you are teaching someone. Ever teach a kid to
>play checkers? So
>of course you don't use it all the time.
>
>Here I disagree with both of you. When you are
>teaching someone it
>is usually not so effective just to be sloppy and
>do a poor job.
I am not talking about doing a poor job. If I don't have to use all my magic to teach someone, then I won't use it.
>Rather, it seems to me that the best teachers use
>their skills to the
>utmost....just with an objective other than "beat
>this poor
>schmuck." You don't want to throw it, that seems
>too easy. But you
>give them opportunities, and if they see the
>opportunity and figure
>out how to take advantage of it, they learn
>something.
Yes, and a beginner will never have that opportunity if you are totally pumped up.
>Obviously, but I given the general point of how do
>you deal with your
>regular customers (say a Harst Bronzetongue who
>regularly brings food
>from the steads to sell at the city market)
That Harst is my own clansman, right?
He gives the grain to me. He gets the swords and spices he needs.
It isn{t even a contest. We swap.
>Trading isn't quite analogous, but somewhat
>similar, to the training
>example. When an Issaries trader wants to give
>someone a fair shake,
>I think of course they use their magic in its most
>effective way, be
>it augment or otherwise. But they use it to ensure
>teh outcome that
>they want. Heck, it might be to give a GOOD deal
>to the other guy,
>but at the same time to convince him that he earned
>it. For what it
>is worth, the little I've talked to people who are
>used to haggling,
>they find it very disapointing when they are just
>given what they
>want, far better to have earned it. Or maybe you
>give him a good
>deal, and convince him that you did it out of the
>generosity of your
>heart (of course you had no ulterior motive, you
>are just a nice guy,
>really...). Or that he just happened to get lucky,
>and you really
>did want to get rid of that last basket of cabbages
>and head home
>before the rain starts. After all, the feats are
>things
>like "convince seller" not "convince seller to
>sell at a ruinously
>low price." They can be used for many purposes,
>so what canny
>trader wouldn't use them?
I don't even think we are disagreeing here. You want the guy to have the cabbage so you can go home? Do what you want.
>>>
>> > Now it's some
>> >Lunars. Do I pull out all the stops when
...
>But more seriously, I'm sure lots of lunars get
>ripped off by not
>quite so stupid barbarians once. The next time
>they know to use
>their relationships to get their own trader to do
>the bargaining for
>them, if they really care.
Of course.
>> >If my chief is always using his command
>followers
>> >to get me and ...
>When the chief uses magic to rally the clan to him,
>it is not mind
>control that they resent, the magic makes him that
>much more
>charismatic, that much more like the greatest
>leader of all. You
>rally to him because you want to. The only ones
>resentful are those
>who want what others have and resent them for it.
>Better banish
>those grumbling about the chief's magic :)
Agred. Let them take their clan someplace else...
>Which is not to say I think most people bother with
>magic all the
>time. There are days I wear kind of scruffy jeans
>to work, or can't
>be bothered running spell check. But when you care
>about something,
>you use everything you have, and in Glorantha that
>means magic.
AGreed.
The magic is for the important times.
Usually you odnt need it to convince your clansmen to do what you want them to do. But when you need it,thereit is.
>All IMO, of course!
Not too different from mine.
Sincerely,
Greg Stafford
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