From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Thu 10 Jun 1993 - 01:45:57 EEST
I'll comment on the ideas in Paul Reilly's proposed Sorcery rules system
I am *delighted* by Paul's suggestion that Wizards create an "artificial
first; I'll test the mechanics before responding on those.
Fetch" made up of suppressed desires, self-denial and the like. It opens
up a new moral dimension in the sorcery system, as we now have the
groundwork for a mechanism for penalising characters who act against the
rigid moral tenets of their religion (whatever those may be) -- their
"Presence" would start to diminish (as well it might!). Old Wizard Marlet
would be delighted!
Likewise, the idea that sorcery spells "parasitise" their users is nicely
thought out, and builds up into a game mechanic that nicely reproduces an
existing Gloranthan prejudice. The Wizard's Staff (etc.) is a suitably
dignified replacement for the overly-Familiar menagerie carried around by
sorcerers in RQ3. The dilemma Wizards will now face - "Keep Magic In or
Let It Out" - looks like an enjoyable one for players to wrestle with and
balance. The mathematics seem largely to have disappeared, which can only
be a good thing.
This whole system looks plausible at first sight, and I shall be paying it
close attention for the next few days, hoping to weasel out any flaws
buried in it. Simply by noticing that most people in a sorcery-using
society are not Adepts or Apprentices, then attending to their needs
(rather than creating new kinds of Fireball), Paul has taken a great leap
beyond most discussion on this topic. I am happily impressed.
Three quibbles:
The version of the rules I downloaded seemed to have a hiatus in the
I'm not sure that we need to call the "anti-Fetch's" POW characteristic by
middle, about where the Presence-creating ritual "Trial" would probably
have been detailed. Is this just my machine playing up, or wasn't it
written yet?
any special name (after all, Shamans get by with "Fetch POW"): what we need
is a name for this Spiritual Thing that Wizards have but the rest of us
don't. "Presence" doesn't ring any bells for me. Nor do the obvious
"spiritual" things -- "Genius", "Daimon", "Guardian Angel", etc. Ideas,
anyone?
Also, "Astral" doesn't work for me as a rules term, though certainly the
Apart from those, I have no conceptual problems with this (yet?), which is
West is big enough that some Wizards [including our lecturer] might think
their magic came from the stars -- after all, they wear plenty of them on
their robes!
more than can be said for any other proposed Sorcery system I have seen.
It has flavour! It has a social dimension!! It might even work!!!
Thanks, Paul.
Nick
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