From: Doyle Wayne Ramos-Tavener (dwtavener@mail.esc4.com)
Date: Sat 12 Jun 1999 - 02:42:08 EEST
At 12:27 PM 6/11/99 , Trotsky wrote:
>Doyle:
>
><< I wouldn't dispute that such people exist, and some who
> >are more powerful too, but they ought to be few and far between, certainly
> >far rarer than the 'typical' rune level.
>
> I tentatively disagree.>>
>
> As I mentioned in some earlier posts I'd estimate rune level at around
>2% of the adult population (rather less, therefore, of the total population)
>whereas I'd put three-level mastery people at the interclan hero sort of
>level, i.e. below 0.1%. This seems to fit entirely with comments made by Greg
>at the last Convulsion about the frequency of such heros - he described a
>best-person-in-the-clan hero (ergo, around 0.2% of the adult population) as
>being second-level mastery as the game was envisaged then.
I don't disagree with your figures at all. When you say "ought to be few
and far between..." I took it to meant that they should not be showing up
that often in scenarios, not the general populace. My bad.
I do think, however, that those figures (percentage of individuals of with
sills levels exceeding one level of Mastery) will go up as the Hero Wars
progress.
><< It seems clear to me from listening to Greg's fiction reading that these
>sort of individuals are a lot more common than RQ Glorantha has led us to
>recognize. >>
>
> I would sincerely hope they are not that much more frequent (a bit more
>I can handle), or much of Glorantha's atmosphere would be destroyed, IMO.
I am certainly _not_ going to pass judgement on your opinion of what
exactly that atmosphere should be.
Speaking only for myself, I am more than willing to destroy the conception
I had in my mind of what Glorantha was if something cooler shows up.
I cannot emphasize how much my eyes were peeled by listening to that
fiction read of Greg's.* RQ will never, ever satisfy me again, as my
conceptions of what Glorantha is or is not have been destroyed.
><< It sounds like a fight between a WWW character and a no-mastery
> >character would be a pretty sure thing for the former, albeit not
>cast-iron
> >guaranteed (and if I'm wrong here, many of my objections may be
>discarded),
> >which definately should not describe a fight between a
> >just-became-a-rune-priest character and a recent initiate; the former
>should
> >have a sizable advantage, but not *that* big, IMO.
>
> Agreed, using a RQ paradigm (Oops, there goes that word again. Somebody
>smack me.) >>
>
> The rules paradigm is irrelevant; it ought not to happen or it destroys
>the atmosphere of the setting, regardless of what rules you happen to be
>using.
I think this is irresolvable for us: our ideas about atmosphere are, I
think, too divergent. My argument is that the RQ rules have, in large part,
given you the atmosphere that you speak of when you think of Gloranthan
reality, not the other way around.
I think it reasonable to assume that you reject this, and there is
certainly no way to prove it either way, is there?
Imagine for a moment how our 'impression' of Glorantha is gained. Through
play of RQ and other RPGs of like mind, boardgame play and reading of
fiction and invented myth.
The impression one gains from play of RQ different than that you get from
reading fiction or myth about Glorantha. (Greg's recent fiction, anyway.
The Zero stories, fer instance, obviously take place in an RQish
Glorantha.)
Is either perspective more valid the other? I can't make that objective
statement, but I, personally, value my interpretation of the fiction over
my past RQ/Gloranthan role playing sessions. YMMV.
I think and believe that Hero Wars will be a more 'transparent' vehicle for
role playing in Glorantha (thought perhaps not perfect, that's what a
second edition is for). I believe this because the fundamental design
principles are different. RQ is mostly about being a better D&D, while HW
is more about being a better Gloranthan game.
DWRT
------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 13 Jun 2003 - 20:17:13 EEST