From: Alex Ferguson (abf@interzone.ucc.ie)
Date: Mon 23 Jun 1997 - 01:05:48 EEST
Mike Cule is chained to the burning wheel of Free Will:
> Well, I rather like the idea that as you become more and more like a god
> you become more and more rigid in all aspects of your behaviour.
Hrm, I dunno about this. Does Yelmalio _have_ a favourite breakfast
cereal, or pizza topping, or an official position on foxes (silver or
otherwise)? If not, why ought performing numerous Yelmalio HQ's reduce
ones Free Will in such areas?
It probably is true that whenever you HQ, all sorts of "incidental"
things you do on the quest erode your Will in ways that aren't related
to the ostensible "plot" of the Quest. Perhaps a Will stat would be
a way to model this "generic" loss of freedom of Action, but as others
have noted, having trait-pairs that read as 39/0, 0/39... etc, will
do the same job, and have the advantage of being more "keyed" to the
nature of the Quest, and of the religion concerned.
[gift/geas from a sort of "heroquest"]
> But note that it is only a lesser HeroQuest, one
> that follows a preset path, not an experimental heroquest which makes
> something new. Although one can turn to the other as Arkat showed.
Indeed, and a "GiftQuest" must be even more preset than a "normal"
(non-experimental) HQ, as there seems no significant chance of failure
(to reverse-engineer from the RQ mechanics).
> > [Orlanthi don't think precisely that Orlanth _can't_ act, just that
> > if he does Extremely Bad Things happen.]
> No, I say that Orlanthi think that Orlanth can't act in ways that are outside
> his defined nature.
The Orlanthi characterise the Compromise as an Oath, which seems to
imply that it could be broken by the Gods, not that they're chained
to it, like Prometheus to his rock. (Which isn't to say whether or
not they're _right.) The unfortunate side-effect if they _do_ break
it, though, is that chaos returns and the universe dies. (Bummer.)
> > In a real, freeform, no-
> > holds-barred HQ, they might get dumped on you in any and all
> > permutations, depending most crucially on whether you Drink the
> > Elixier without ever having Left the Path, or Crash and Burn en route.
> Yes, this is the distinction between (in my terms) HeroQuesting and Being
> A Hero. There is a continuity between the regular rituals conducted on the
> Mundane Plane and the set HeroQuests that take you into the God Time.
That's not quite what I meant, since even the most unoriginal of HQs
_do_ contain the possibility of failure. I think one can also go on
pretty large-scale HQs without being (at least intentionally) the least
inovative. But it is true, at least in large part, that Being A Hero
does require that you innovate somewhat, otherwise there'll be no point
in having a Hero Cult to you -- they'll just follow whoever _you_
followed, his or her cult. Theoretically, though, one could become a
Harrek-style "Hero" by purely unoriginal means, I think.
> Can any of the more mathematical types propose a set of bands that might be
> used to define how many points of Will need to be sacrificed to make a change
> wrought on the God Plane permanent?
Pascal's triangle? Fibonacci numbers? Interval between successive
Kate Bush albums, Peter Gabriel singles, or issues of most Gloranthan
fanzines? ;-) I don't know, it's not clear to me what sort of
progression you want, or what would be considered an "elegant"
implementation.
> In the mundane world you have the free use of your Free Will
What _is_ the signifance of this stat in the mundane world, then?
> But in the Other World of PENDRAGON and in the God Plane of Glorantha, those
> traits become much more vivid and well defined.
Interesting way of looking at it. Perhaps the corrolary of this is that
> Hmm, a mechanical note to myself: you can burn temporary Will to get another
Did someone say Hero Points? ;-) But what's "temporary Will", exactly?
your actions on the HP/GP are also have a more dramatic effect on how
those traits change, at least in those instances where there's a "free"
choice (from the player's POV).
> chance at a trait roll in the God Plane.
Cheers,
Alex.
------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 13 Jun 2003 - 17:01:48 EEST