From: Wayne Shaw (shadow@qedbbs.com)
Date: Thu 27 Jan 1994 - 19:11:10 EET
JOVANOVIC@CUCCFA.CCC.COLUMBIA.EDU writes:
>
> From the comments on hit location tables, it sounds like a
> good idea might be to add an appendix of alternative rules.
> This would primarily consist of optional rules that enhance
> the realism of the game, but add to the complexity and time
> it takes to resolve situations. Seperate melee and spear/
> missile/spell hit location tables would be a good example of
> what could go into this appendix, more detailed skill resolution
> results (the Botch), etc. How would that sound to people?
>
Sounds fine to me. As you may recall, I'm one of the people who thinks
that a real balance should be eyed when you trade off something for
simplicity, but I feel no need for some of the more complex rules I feel
desireable to be a part of the core rules. But they should EXIST, and be
presented as legitimate. The alternate hit locations sound a perfect
candidate for this.
> term used by Greg Stafford is "personal magic". Gloranthan priests
> (divine magicians) do not call this spirit magic - that
> term specifically applies to what shaman teach, thus the
> distinction between spirit and cult magic. A good general
> term would be useful, and we'll gladly take suggestions
> for something better than "battle magic".
>
The problem is, as long as different cultures use different terms, any
term is going to run into the problem that "spirit magic" does. Why not
just call it spirit magic in the rules (after all, it originates from
spirits, just the way divine magic originates from divinities) and note
that that's not the term cults use? Battle magic really does imply
something about the nature of the magic that is not true; only a handfull
of spells are specifically combat oriented.
> With respect to sorcery duration, the basic problem is that
> in Glorantha (at least according to Greg Stafford) sorcerers,
> even Brithini, at skill levels well above 100%, simply do not
> walk around with dozens of long duration spells on them. Rather,
[Insert usual non-Gloranthan RQ f grumbling and move on.]
> churn out dozens of spells again. The Maintain manipulation
> is specifically meant to be used to maintain long duration spells,
> but in a way that brings sorcerers more in line with how
> sorcery works in Glorantha.
Could someone describe this manipulation for me? It may fill the need I
have for long duration spells in my game as adequately as a fix for the
duration would.
>
> With respect to character generation, we had a number of complaints
> that the last set of character generation rules was overly complex and
> that character generation took too long. These comments far outweighed
> those from people saying that they liked the system just the way it was.
This still bemuses me to no end. Once I explained this to people, the
only people who took any great length of time with it were those who
wanted to do something complex; those who wanted something simple were
able to generate characters in less than a half hour. How much simpler
than that can someone want it?
------------------------------
shadow@qedbbs.com (Wayne Shaw) or qed!shadow
The QED BBS -- (310)420-9327
0,,
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Sat 05 Jul 2003 - 20:32:37 EEST