Re: Monasticism and Mysticism.

From: nichughes2001 <nicolas.h_at_iZfIb2irToem2exIfnYzmJ2JJd_mQZudPVcEa9MMl6ZrrVhBBSdNpTgsJqv34YHejj>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:17:18 -0000

>
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 5:07 PM, nichughes2001 <nicolas.h_at_...> wrote:
>
>
> >
> > I think you have hit the nail on the head, in this discussion there is a
> > whole missing area of people who are trying to follow a mystic path while
> > still having to deal with the real world so they can progress to the sort of
> > level of insight that this discussion seems to take as the minimum to be
> > considered mystical at all. It feels a like a discussion of theists that
> > ignores lay members and initiates.
> >
> > Yes, but as I have suggested in an number of posts, these people can be
> modeled using the normal rules. They will appear like theists or sorcerors
> or animists with a special ability or two for flavor, like most cults of
> whatever stripe. How do you see them as different?
>

You mean apart from the fact that mysticism is different, not just in absolute terms (who actually cares that much in a game) but in terms of genre and atmosphere.

In terms of game mechanics its about tuning the rules to the genre so that they support the atmosphere that you are trying to create. For a game in a mystic culture all I am suggesting is that trying to model everything with Theism rules is no more ideal than trying to model the Monotheists of the West with Theist rules. Either could work but neither would necessarily be the best way to help the game fit into the genre. For games with occasional encounters with mystic cultures that sort of thing is just fine - we got by without Gloranthan sorcery rules for years and hardly bothered because most games only dealt with the occasional NPC wizard.

If you never want to play a game in the East Isles or Teshnos or any of the other mystic cultures of Glorantha then you don't need or want special mysticism rules. Same as if you don't ever want to play a game in the West you probably don't need or want Sorcery rules and we got by just fine without them for years.

> >
>
> Except devotees and shamen etc get powers that make them fun to adventure
> with.

My point is that in practice we bend the rules by letting player devotees be special cases that don't have to spend all their time on religious mumbo-jumbo and casting blessings for people in the community. The same could be done for mystics of equivalent commitment in a game with a more mystical genre. The idea that mystics are inherently unplayable because advanced mystics would spend all their time on mysticism is only true to the extent that it is true of the other magic systems that everyone seems to get on with playing just fine anyway.

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Nic