> Hello,
>
> Do you mean the "raw" sorcery independent of the recognized churches and orders (HeroQuest, pg. 155 right)?
> I am sure you mean _wizardry_, which of course was termed
> Sorcery in both RuneQuest and Hero Wars.
No, I'm actually looking at sorcery. The game I'm going to run in the summer centers around a sorcery-academy in the city of Riverjoin (on the Janube). Of course I'll also have to figure out the more traditional liturgist and wizard professions.
<snip>
> Privileged boys might be apprenticed to a master
> at age 15, give or take a year.
> The basic teachings of the school and some traditions
> would be known after two years.
> After another year, the boy might know 1-3 simple spells.
> By that time, he would be 18 Gloranthan years old.
>
> If he keeps studying hard, at the expense of many other
> things, like learning a non-magical trade, he can be
> a journeyman by the time he's 20.
> It gets harder for most people after that.
> Probably add another 5 years to be an experienced
> journeyman who knows two dozen spells and might even
> have seen grimoires from other schools [age: 25].
>
> Depending on the traditions, the hierarchies and
> pressures from outside, then maybe after an average
> of another 4 or 5 years the character could be a
> "master" [age: 30].
That doesn't sound bad. It's pretty close to my own preliminary ideas, except parhaps people could be sent to study even younger. I'm finding inspiration from archeological finds of old Assyria. The scribe school (with both religious and magical training, as well as cryptology and the like) is surprisingly well documented after some recent discoveries.
<snip>
> Mind you, my rule of thumb basically dictates that
> it seems unlikely to be recognized as a master before
> age 30, even if you are very good.
> This is not Luke Skywalker who goes from being a farm
> kid who's never heard of the Jedi (A New Hope) to
> being a Jedi Master (Return of the Jedi) in 4 years of "game time". ;-)
Yes indeed. I'm going to try to run the game taking inspiration from Ars Magica and H�rnmaster's Shek-Pvar. Both give detailed focus on the right sort of magical study. I'm indeed looking for the life of the magicians, not the supercharged growth of a magical culture Hero. :)
> In order to reach the rank of a grandmaster or magus,
> I think you'd have to study on to age 50 to 60.
Definitely, and also live that long. In ancient China, people became venerable elders when they reached the age of sixty. A sixty year old mage will be respected, and if powerful enough, will be titled a magus by his peers.
> This should mesh well with the other rule of
> thumb in HQ, saying that you can give a character an
> automatic +1 to all their keyword abilities per every
> uneventful year.
>
> -- Norbert
Yes, I like the timescale.
-Adept
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