From: Simon Hibbs (simonh@msi-uk.com)
Date: Mon 03 Aug 1998 - 13:00:09 EEST
Nikolas Lloyd :
>What use is the luck rune in Glorantha/RQ? Do people in Glorantha
>believe in luck?
.....
> On Earth I might not walk under a ladder, or drop a coin in a well
"for
>luck", but in Glorantha, I would say, people might do similar things to
>avoid enacting the walking-under-the-ladder ritual (an evil thing), or
to
>sacrifice to the well spirit, and would not regard any results of these
>acts as "luck" but simply the straightforward consequences of rituals
and
>sacrifices.
The orriginal meanings of many of these little rituals have been lost,
and so traditions meant to appeas specific local spirits have become
generalised 'good luck' rituals. Tossing coins into wells is a common
passtime and would orriginaly have been sacrifices to water spirits,
which give life and sustenance. Many communities were founded at the
sites of springs and so the spirit of the spring is identified with the
general good fortune of the community. In Glorantha the original
meanings of many of these rituals are still remembered, and are what are
commonly known as Spirit Magic.
At a deeper level, I believe luck is a recognised power for many
cultures in Glorantha, but I think warding off bad luck is probably seen
as more important and more likely to succeed by most people than
attracting good luck.
>In action films, the two main types of action are fights and chases.
>Chases are often long and complicated. I find it odd that no rules
system
>I have ever seen deals with chases. In RQ the faster runner always
wins,
>and that's all there is to it.
Of course, the nice thing about Hero Wars is that the opposed resolution
mechanic is perfect for exactly this kind of competiton. The two
contestants simply engage in a contest between their 'swiftness' or
'fleet footed' attributes. If they have no relevent attribute, they get
the default 12/8 the same as everyone else.
I have nothing against combat as a dramatic tool. It's the bread and
butter of roleplaying. The nice thing about HW though is that whatever
bells or whistles you add to the combat resolution system, you can steal
the same mechanics and apply them to other types of contests.
HW does have rules for various kinds of modifiers to abilities,
principaly edges (which modify action point losses) and die modifiers.
These are used in the optional weapon and armour rules, though I can't
see the point. If you want a well armed and armoured character I can't
see what's wrong with writing that into the character description as
'specialisation' type bonuses on your combat ability, with the
disadvantage that you need the kit to get the bonus.
Simon Hibbs
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