From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Sun 13 Jun 1993 - 03:49:42 EEST
In <14FA53424BB@marketest.wharton.upenn.edu>, Curtis writes:
>>>
I'd just like to say I support the idea of including the Rune Power idea
as an optional rule. Right now the mechanics remind me of nothing less
than AD&D with disposable magic spell feel. "Well I'm going to the
Orlanth temple and I'm going to pick up two teleport greanges and one
flight grenade." I think the idea of Rune Power where you can ask the
god for any spell has a better feel.
With this system if two groups want to swear an Oath spell the
Humakt initaite can step in and cast oath if he has to(assuing he's
already sacrificed some pow) I think divine spells should enable mortals
to act as symbolic representitives of the gods and being able to call on
any of the gods pwoers available to you when they are needed seems more
in line with this. A Storm Bull worshipper shouldn't have to sit down
and plan what spells he's going to need ahead of time.
<<<
One serious weakness with the Rune Power system is that any spell the
deity has is granted to the initiate. I didn't like that for Godunya's
magic in GoG, and I don't want to see it in RQ4. Even if the assigned
spells for shrines etc are not those I'd expect there, and are something
of a rules construct, I simply don't see initiates or priests visiting
some obscure shrine and regain some very powerful magic.
If the Rune Power system is to be used, an initiate ought to be able to
cast only those spells he learned once. That is, the initiate must have
gained the power he asks for once, before he can use it. This also with
regard to stacking limits. The Rune Power system as I read it now has no
stacking limits, if an Orlanthi faces a great troll and has forgotten to
put on his armour, he still can cast all of his Rune Power for shield, say
seven points. This is gross! My proposal would imply that he cannot stack
any spell higher than the number of times he sacrificed for it.
The example David Cheng gave to propagate his Rune Power system, the
Ernalda initiate who has three points off Bless Crops and spends them on
Heal body, would be possible in my variant only if she once learned the
spell. If she once did, she could cast it as often as she can provide
three points of Rune Power. Anything else would have to be DI.
>>>
If play balance is an option I have two suggestions. One is that
initiates would have to sacrifice two pow for every one point of spell
they could ask for. But considering that it'll be one use anyway I don't
think this is needed. My other suggestion is that the first spell asked
for each day is granted. But then everytime you ask for another spell
you have to roll a die(1d10 for initiates and 1d100 for priests) if you
roll under the number of points you've already cast that's it for the
day. You'll have to fall back on DI if you need your god to save you.
This can be explained any number of ways, the god is annoyed witht he
frequent requests, it's a function of the Compromise, the god is busy,
etc.
The other thing I liek about this is that it would add bit of
similarity to priests and the other two magic types. Just like a shaman
makes his otherself awaken as a fetch on the spirit plane and feeds it
pow and a sorceror binds his otherself to the real world and gives it
pow a priest gives his otherself to his god and stores his pow that way,
as a pool to be drawn on later.
Comments?
<<<
Certainly!
The Rune Power system seems a bit like a revolution in divine magic. As
such I'd assign it to the revolutionary deity in Glorantha, the Red
Goddess, but hardly the conventional deities. The free for all approach
which allows incredible stacking (eg of extension) severely cuts at the
balance of the system. It makes the priest/runelord as powerful as the
deity, up to the limit of the sacrificed Rune Power points. These can be
high, so high that the priest exhibits stronger magic than the deity!
Rune magic is powerful as it is because it's instant. The only limitation
it has is that the regaining takes a lot of time and effort, much more
than for magic points. If we allow free access to any spell the deity can
give, how do we handle associate deities' magic? How sub-cults' special
spells? How do we handle overstacking?
While I would allow to recast Heal Body if one has used up the one use one
has sacrificed for, if one gives up three points of ohter divine magic.
Equally I'd allow a character who has sacrificed for two points of Shield
to cast Shield 2 as often as he has Rune Power points, but not to cast
Shield 4 once. But this may sound confusing for somebody who just begins
with RQ and has to cope with three different magic systems, so make it
optional, at best.
Don't make the system too complicated! Even if this means that some
mechanisms remind of D&D. The whole genre does!
-- -- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de 0,,
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