[Glorantha] Under the Red Moon

Having had a little more time to read...

>What does the lunar field college actually do?

Page 20 - engineering, spying, foreign and domestic relations, protection, troubleshooting, etc.

Basically whatever the commander might need. (The key word here is "flexible".)

>and at what level?

Page 21 - Powerful. What that means in your campaign really depends on the levels your PCs are at.

>Does the field college bombard the enemy with elemental forces, and if so,
>which element? Do they call down blinding light from the moon, or summon
>up flights of magically enraged sparrows (I hope not).

I've not had time to go through the 50-odd pages of cults, but the field colleges would be able to call on most of the useful ones.

>What sort of a character is a typical supporting member of a field
>college?

A graduate or senior student of the university.

> Do they have useful personal magic

Of course.

>, or do they just work as an amplifyer for the higher ups?

"Just" seems entirely the wrong word. Certainly this is how they perform the most impressive magics.

> Do the six colleges specialize in different aspects of magic?

No. Page 20 tells us that the six schools have no effect on paths, etc. Having said that, I would expect that those whose moon aspect gives useful wartime magic probably field that more often than others. Natha and Gerra spring to mind.

> Is that a function of the current top people, or do they
>have regimental traditions?

The traditions of universities are rarely affected much by the people who happen to be in charge at the moment. Again flexibility is the virtue here - specialists are not overly useful.

> What are the HQ:game engine statistics of a
>field college on war footing?

In terms of actual numbers? Depends on the level of your PCs, and the purpose of the college in your story, just like every other stat. Even if a book supplies them, they're bound to be wrong for an individual campaign, except perhaps at the very starting level. Better to provide more keywords, and leave the GM to make the numbers up to suit his game.

Cheers,
Graham

-- 
Graham Robinson
graham_at_albionsoft.com

Albion Software Engineering Ltd.