From: Barron Chugg (bchugg@leland.stanford.edu)
Date: Mon 25 Jul 1994 - 11:17:27 EEST
Hello All.
> A point people seem to miss about initation in Glorantha is that
>it is more than what happens on earth....
> ...Normally, it's not really dangerous if you
>meet the qualifications. If you are playing games however. . .
Good point and one I had not completely considered. I agree that initiation is more mystical than portrayed in the rules ("Ya pays ya money and ya gets ya benefits...") and the mystical side should be more emphasised.
On the particular example, maybe in the third age initiation _has_ become more mundane and less mystical.
>Normally, meeting the skill requirements is just the minimum necessary.
Yeah, good point. Becoming a RLvl should not be like getting into college. Many other influences should be considered. How well has the initiate served the cult? How many times (if any) have they received divine intervention (a sure sign of divine favor)? Have they donated anything of note to the cult? Have they gone on any pilgramiges or whatever?
Why thank you.
> A few comments. Arriving ahead
> of time for a worship service in terms of days seems odd to
> me.
My thinking was that there are many "pre-rituals" that the general public is not welcome at (cult secrets if you will). Also there are probably physical preparations to be made (grunt work, but sacred grunt work). Then again, there is time for the priests to interact with and observe the candidate.
> Also, I prefer that a PCs
> direction/adventuring comes at the behest of the cult.
This is one of the main ways to keep the PCs in close touch with their cult. Also it gives the priests a chance to test the applicant some more.
>The Barron quills:
But it is not necessary to refer me to "your excellency". }:-)>
>The only difficulty I can find with this is its removal of scope for those
>future heroquesters.
Yeah, I see you argument. My ideas work best in a smaller, local scale. Where the PCs are fixed in a given communicty/culture. For more world spanning games (or any game of "homeless wanderers") you'll want a more relaxed set of criteria. Since your PCs are not focused on initiathood and stuff, I'd just stick with the standard rules.
> Most characters *don't* want to become high priest!!
I think that _any_ rune level is a powerful and important position within a community and thus should be chosen carefully. You don't have to have aspirations _that_ high in order to be tested.
> So saying, I think it is
>important to allow potential heroes the ability to bypass all this cult-related
>sitting-in-the-temple stuff, and get them out there.
As a sort of aside, I agree. Often heroes are the people that are able to exist outside of their society and, maybe even challenge the societies beliefs. I just can't imagine that these people make up the majority of RQ characters.
>I'm not saying that a good roleplay of some pretty "mundane" holy days is not
>useful or fun; but not the 20-25% of the time!
Well, I doubt anyone roleplays a priest PC's 90% time in temple business. I mean, that would be awfully boring. But the 20% can give the GM a chance to impart "hidden knowlege" to the character, as well as giving the player and character a better view of how the cult works and what rituals look like. (Reference Jeorg's comments about defining cult rituals.)
>So, while some more rules about orthodox cult progression paths are needed,
>remember (IMHO) that there can always be some who will do it by a different
>way.
There should always be ways to bypass set progression. I just don't think that it should be the norm to do so.
> Instead of holding up the left elbow of the 8th assistant priest to the
>chief-sub priest, let the heroes investigate who put the red wine in the
>alter cup instead of the "blood of humackt" two hours before the ceremony
>(while the chief priest was praying to it! :-)
I think that they can do both. That's a great start for a scenerio, though. Here's the candidate trying to help out one priest while all hell is breaking loose in the background and he has to deal with the hell _and_ carry out his role in the ceremony (lest baaaaaad things happen). Great premis...
Your main point is good: that these are not for every campaign. When I think about RQ I tend to think locally. If someone else is thinking in a broader context then these ideas would be something of a problem. I guess you could get around them by saying the itinerant adventurers _are_ fulfilling some special role in the cult ecology and are thus treated differently. I don't think that this would be stretching it much for most cults.
Looking forward to Convulsion reports...
Barron
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