No difference at all. If a PC goes as far as creating a named sword and putting lots of HPs into it then it becomes a heroic item like Balastor's Axe. I'd suggest the player ought to write up some of the history that justifies that level of power. In truth I'd much rather a player did that than just goes digging in the Rubble for a predefined object.
The other alternative is to allow such super-weapons to be acquired by anyone. So that instead of it being the PCs' story it becomes the story of the collection of objects the PCs have acquired. There's also the risk of unbalancing the game between players because some have a super-weapon while others haven't. Then the story concentrates on those who have one and turns the rest into supporting characters.
>> Powerful magic items in Glorantha aren't just goodies to be
>> collected. They're plot lines.
>
>I would replace "Glorantha" with "Hero Quest" in that sentence,
>and even then I would treat it with caution.
Nothing to do with a rules mechanic. Even in RQII the idea of magic items having personalities and agendas was present even though the rules didn't favour that style of game. As one example you've got Nose Biter the Babeester Gori Axe currently being carried by a trollkin known only as Nose Biter's Feet. If a PC acquires Nose Biter you've got a problem in RQ because there's no way of representing any conflict between the PC's wishes and those of the Axe.
One of the problems with Balastor's Axe and the Windsword are that they were both first described when RQ was little more than a D&D varient. So the descriptions in Balastor's Barracks and Griffin Mountain are in the D&D magic object style.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
Powered by hypermail