> > Same with trolls; giving them the Darkness rune is a bit like giving
> > humans the Man rune - its kind of assumed anyway, and doesn't need to be
> > specifically listed. But any troll turning up as an NPC or something in
> > an Orlanthi game I'd say has Darkness, because that's a dramatic
> > contrast to the PCs in that sort of game.
>
> Yes, you don't have to give the troll a Darkness rune just for being a troll, but most are > also in Darkness based religions and wielding Darkness based magic. I think the Darkness > rune for trolls is at least as common as the Air Rune in Orlanthi society, probably more.
I agree with Trotsky that darkness Should be an implied rune for trolls, just like the man rune is for humans. A non-darkness PC in a troll campaign would be as out of place as a non-humaniod PC amongst the Orlanthi (not technically impossible, perhaps, but vanishingly unlikely.) In most cases, I'd be much more open to a potential PC who lacked the man rune (a dehori, or intelligent insect, frex) than one without darkness in a troll-community based campaign.
That said, in my games, I do include the darkness rune explicitly for PCs. It is useful for tracking a Heroes association with the deeper mysteries of troll religion, and also (probably even moreso) as a reminder to the Human player how important Darkness is to their Character. Human PC's do not need a Man rune, because their Players are Human, and inherently understand what humans can do, and how they think and feel. Similarly, a Dehori character would "need" a Spirit rune more to remind the player about it's "spiritness" than because the "real" spirit would ever actually think about such things.
This gives trolls a bit less "diversity" of runes - Darkness, Ancestor, Temper (vs Element, Power, Other) than humans, but to my mind, but that seems entirely appropriate for an elder races.
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