> OK but how about if I substitute wizardry, theism and animism in that
> sentence with unarmed combat, persuasion and seamanship?
>
> I agree that the differences between the magical worlds are
> interesting and worth exploring in the game, but I don't see why that
> necessitates extra rules for how abilities are gained, annotated,
> improved and applied compared to any other abilities.
Partly because we, as 21st century humans, don't have a good idea (or even a general idea) of how magic "works" in Glorantha, as opposed to unarmed combat, persuasion or seamanship. We have ideas (good, bad or indifferent, based on experience, books or movies) of how "mundane" abilites (such as your triad) work, and how they are acquired, and what sorts of things they can modify or be modified with, but magic is beyond our everyday experience. So there needs to be more explanation, especially when (in this case) we have three different "ways" magic works in non-rules terms.
Partly because stories set in Glornatha revolve around (at whatever orbit you want) the magic of Glorantha, and how that magic is used/abused by characters. If this were a Pirate game, I'd definitely expect more explanations and yes, even rules, for sailing a ship (ships being somewhat central to the Pirate theme). If this were a Chinese Shaolin Monk game, I'd expect more explanation and rules about unarmed combat, schools and styles of unarmed combat, etc.
>From my point of view, as a game player of 30+ years, and a rules-writer of
17+ years, I'd rather include more rules and have players strip out what
they don't want, rather than provide only the basics and force them to
either write their own rules, or buy another 64-page book for $25 (hmm,
maybe not, were I a *publisher*...). It's a lot easier for a narrator to say
"We're not using the rules for Worship levels" (or whatever) than to say "To
get a feat you need to worship a god. How do you do that? Err, Umm,
howsabout this..."
RR
He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad
R. Sabatini, Scaramouche
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