Re: Creating and playing a Lucky character

From: Andrew Larsen <aelarsen_at_kK-InVakCOE0YnC445NkgmxohU9pCwdDcEF66UEwZS693DK9fpMYENOwbpJP1gaWqy7>
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2011 13:27:03 -0500

Another way to look at this is to use the Norse concept of luck, which is found in the Icelandic sagas quite often. For the Norse, luck is an nebulous quality that some people have and some don't (and some are actively unlucky). When someone is lucky, things simply go his way. He gets the breaks he needs to accomplish his goals; his livestock does better, he's successful in battle, and so on. There is little use opposing a lucky person, because you will eventually lose. But there is no shame in losing to a lucky person, because the odds are stacked against you. However, a person is not necessary lucky permanently. Lucky people can lose their luck, either through some moral fault or bad choice, or simply because their luck has deserted them. Losing one's luck is, in the sagas, normally a sign that someone is going to die soon, and they often have a sense that their luck has left them, or is about to leave them.

        How you translate this into game mechanics is up to you.

Andrew E. Larsen
On Aug 6, 2011, at 11:46 AM, jorganos wrote:

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> >
> > The old Chaosium-era concept of the Luck rune (which I concede may or may not be current), was that it was a (non-Celestial Court?) Power rune denoting "good fortune", mirrored by the Fate rune which denoted misfortune and/or "the way of the world". The write-up suggested that the Fate rune was sometimes used by "loser cultures" to explain their place in the world, thereby saying that bad luck was, for them, the way of the world.
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> ...
> > Or is there another rune which simultaneously conveys good and bad luck in a better way?
> ...
> > Alternatively have the Luck and Fate runes been merged to make just one rune, denoting good and bad luck?
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> Ages ago I did some weird ASCII graphics on the RuneQuest Digest, investigating the (Chaosium- and AH-Era) Runes.
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> A rune and its opposite often combine to something like a circle or asterisk, e.g. Truth and Illusion, or Fertility and Death. (ok, the other two pairs of power Runes don't work that well)
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> As for the "pair" of Luck and Fate, my analysis was that the Luck Rune is the lower half of the Fate Rune.
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> From there you get the Bad Luck Rune (which is the the upper half of Fater, or Luck rune upside down, _\_/_ ).
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> In lieu of "Bad Luck", maybe it could be called the "Curse" Rune. (Others might call it the Wacken Open Air Rune, at least it's a common hand sign seen there this weekend.)
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