From: Graeme A Lindsell (gal502@cscgpo.anu.edu.au)
Date: Fri 11 Jun 1993 - 22:02:21 EEST
A general comment: I had 250k of text sent from both the RQ mailing
lists yesterday (and they said it was a dead system...).
Re: Pauls and Mikes new system
The problem with making it too difficult to become a sorcerer is that
you'll have very few PC sorcerers. This is the problem with Warhammer
FRP, the magicians are gross but it takes an eternity to get any good.
As a result, there are a lot more NPC magicians than PC's.
I would suggest reducing the number of separate skills a sorcerer needs
to know, to something like the Ars Magica Creo, Ignem style. Spells could
be trained up separately, and should be easier than learning the lores.
(This is a hint for Paul to publish his rune sorcery concept: the
westerners would divide their sorcery lores into runic areas; the other
cultures could do it differently.)
Range: this takes P&M's sorcery even further from RQIII but I think the
range rules look a little out of place now. I think a sytem purely based
on sympathetic targetting (as a skill mod, since intensity is now limited
by skill) would be more in place. This would also vary by culture too,
but completely different write-ups for cultures has been part of the cults
since the beginning.
The "special effects" of Presence: Loren suggested some nice ideas, but
they all appeared fairly nasty (i.e hideous appearance, animals frightened).
I think these are a case for Pendragon-like personality traits: an adept
binds his twin to the physical world, unlike a shaman, and so his personality
becomes obvious in the real world. If the character is genuinely nasty, as
many independent sorcerers seem to be, then there should be hideous and
frightening effects. If he's saintly, there should be comforting, reassuring
effects. Of course, what might comfort fellow worshippers may frighten others:
the Dominican approach rather than the Franciscan...
In short, I think the effects should be personal, rather than cultural.
Someone (I forget who) said he thought that most sorcerers are fairly
twisted. I think this should be avoided, especially as part of the rules
system: ie adepts "crippling their fetch". This is a theistic or animistic
prejudice: adepts control their twin. They would say that shamans are
controlled by theirs, and are insane/possessed. I don't think the base
rules system should contain these slants.
One problem with this is that Glorantha seems to be slanted against the
sorcerers. Whether this is a product of the theistic bias of RQI & II,
or Greg's dislike of authoritarian churches, I'm not sure.
Re: Animistic spirit magic: though I posted my problems with the system
yesterday, I do prefer it to the current system as an explanation of how
spirit magic works. The problem with re-doing it for RQIV is that it isn't
broken, maybe not perfect, but not broken. What I would really like for
RQIV is more spirit magic spells: I think the list emphasizes combat spells
too much.
Graeme.
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