From: Ken McKinney cleverly disguised as Michael Derry (mad@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu)
Date: Sat 29 Jun 1991 - 09:56:33 EEST
<CRIMMARTI@urvax.urich.edu> comments on my sorcery system:
Off-the-top-of-my-head comments re: alternate sorcery rules:
INFINITY is not, in Glorantha, the ability to create something out
of nothing. Only chaos has shown any ability to approach that, and it only
really pulls something into Glorantha from the chaos void around it. Thus,
there should be some other rune to use in summoning (not creating) substances.
Only one en in Dragonewt. It's Drago-newt, not dragon-newt, in honor
of the Duke Recreational Adventure Gaming Organization, which was what DRAGO
used to stand for (though last I heard it stood for nothing in particular).
TRADE makes an excellent sorcery rune. Although it shares some
characteristics with HARMONY, it is the only rune associated with language.
Have fun playtesting!
-M
Well, I had some problems with Infinity too, and originally wanted to
use the fertility rune instead. But it seemed silly for a create fire
spell to use fertility and fire, since one doesn't associate "growing"
with elemental forces. I used Infinity because it seemed to fit the
bill better than anything else and because it was so ill-defined that
I didn't think I would conflict with anything else. One can argue that
creation is the most powerful force in glorantha, and its rune would be
the most powerful rune. Well, Arachne Solara owns the infinity rune,
and she is definitely the most powerful god.
But maybe your're right, and I'm trying to be too much like Ars Magica and
put magic into glorantha that doesn't belong there. Do you think that
the creation-type spells should be treated as summonings? That would
imply that the Magic rune is the mechanism to use. But magic is needed
as a form rune, so we can have spells that affect magic. Also, summoning
as is is a very time consuming process (one hour per mp of the creature)
and is dealt with outside of the 3 main magic systems. Or alternatively,
should there be no creation spells in the sorcery system? I'd really
like more feedback on this. Right now there is some symmetry among the
empowering runes: Infinity/Death, Mastery/Disorder, Truth/Illusion. If
I get rid of Infinity this goes away.
Re: The trade rune as a form rune: I guess the trade rune could be the
mechanism for translating between languages. Would there need to be a
separate spell for each language pair, or would it be general purpose? I
tried to stay away from spells which generate knowledge in my descriptions,
because it seems to make the scholar's work too easy (after all, knowledge
is the most valuable commodity in Glorantha). I guess I could make the
spell difficulties really high so only the scholar/sage type sorcerers
would be able to cast the spell.
Thanks for the comments! Also, if anyone has any info on Ethilrist, I'd
love to hear it! I'm in the process of rolling up characters in my
campaign now. So far they include a Humakti/Orlanthi Initiate (mercenary
who used to be a farmer near boldhome), an Argan Argar Initiate (Troll),
and a 23 year old Brithini Zzabur who got sick of studying endlessly and
being reminded that he would never be as good as his 500 year old
counterparts, and left for adventure on a merchant ship out of Laufol.
Ken McKinney
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