Re: Designing & Rescuing Magic Systems

From: Guy_Robinson.sbd-e@rx.xerox.com
Date: Thu 06 Jan 1994 - 10:58:31 EET


Dave,

Rest assured that I read the entirity of your mail note and I found it
constructive and interesting. Thank you for reminding me of the hero
quest concept and providing me with an excellent argument for the
extreme rarity, or prehaps absence, of sorcerers in Glorantha.

I must conceeed that RQ3 brought some usefull concepts with it.

In RQ2 shaman dealt with the otherwise largely disinterested spirits
that populated the spirit plane. They were underused and there were
obvious parts missing like disease spirits, for example.

Spirits appeared else where in the rules and in Golranthan society and
they were described in a rather haphazard manner.

In RQ3 they fleshed out the spirits, made Battle Magic the domain of
Shamans but in doing so Battle Magic was shifted from it's role as
the low magic of a fantasy society.

To restore this I would recommend that both Priests and Shamans
should be able to teach Battle Magic and that further more the

similarities in their social and magicial roles, to cults and
tribes respectively, should be explained.

Your views about Runes are noted. In my reading of RQ2, given
my preliction for bleak backgrounds, the Runes appeared to be
more prominent that the Gods themselves who largely seemed
bound to conform to them and be described by them.

In RuneQuest 2 the Priest can scarifice for Rune Magic because he
has mastered the Spirit Rune and has been accepted by his cult
and diety as a Priest. The Rune Lord has also mastered a certain
Rune when he becomes a Rune Lord (I've forgotten which).

At least your explaination the Runes as a cultural variant are
usefull for people who seek ways to design variations in local
magic. After all the events of god time could, after all, be
viewed from differing perspectives.

I admit that codifying exactly what occurs after death might be
distastfull and inappropriate for a number of reasons. However
just as the death of a character's physicial body is dealt with
so should the short term fate of the character's spirit.

This could allow spell that only work on the freshly dead, when
the spirit has yet become too dissassociated with it's body, to
be defined.

RQ3 was a turkey. It was the first role playing game to hit the
UK at the kind of "premium" price it was sold at. Subsequently
all I possess of it is a second hand copy of the Magic Book.

What I am trying to do is build a general consensus and discusion
about RQ magic. This has so far proved usefull for me and I hope
it aids RQIV to save from the fate of RQ's last release.

        -- Guy Robinson --


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