[Rq-rules] Re: Forgotten Magics

[Simon Phipp]

So, CTRL-W closes the current window. That's interesting and extremely annoying when you've almost finished your email :-(

Bjorn Stolen:
  
  >> The trouble with this idea is that unless you have a potter in your 
>>campaign, you wouldn't want 
  >>to write up a potter cult. So, unless you've a 
>>lot of time on your hands, there isn't much point 
  >>writing up speciality 
>>spells for all the different crafts.
>
> This is an example of stuff that irritates some Norwegian RPG'ers: We don't 
  > say "unless you have a warrior in your campagin, you wouldn't want to write 
> up a warrior cult."
   
  Well, yes I would. I wouldn't write up yet another warrior cult for the sake of writing a warrior cult up, unless someone wanted to play a warrior from that cult and the cult had an established mythos.
   
  When I wrote up some cults for Alternate Earth Arthurian Britain, I was struck by the enormous number of Celtic (and Saxon) gods of "Warrior With a Spear and Shield", all essentially the same. Why write up loads of variants? It doesn't achieve anything.
   
  I don't have a lot of spare time and what time I have has to be focussed on writing things up that I am interested in. If one of my players wanted to play a potter then I would develop the potter cult. Otherwise I won't.
  
> The point the "anti combat focus people" tries to make, is that a RPG (that 
> doesn't confess to be a pure combat-driven RPG) should not have any more 
> focus/specialisation towards combat than towards other fields in life.
   
  Well, Rq has non-combat spells and skills. Land of Ninja has Ki/Chi abilities for crafts such as calligraphy. If I wanted to run a Bushido/Nippon game then I would expand these, I don't so I won't.
  
> In RQ3, there are special rules for combat (choosing between sweeping 
> attacks or overhead-blow-attacks, etc) that indicates that combat is "more 
> importaint" than other fields.

  There are too many combat rules in RQ, and much too many in more recent versions of RQ, which are getting a bit silly in the number of extra combat rules.
   
  However, it depends on the amount of abstraction you want in a game. I know almost nothing about Farming and all I need to play a farmer is Animal Lore, Plant Lore, Craft farming, Craft Herding and Craft Animal Husbandry. Everything else works off bonuses and penalties. Of course, I have spells such as Sunripen, Bless Crops, Bless Beasts or whatever that will help me. I could also have special magic that increases my skills or magical items such as a plough that ploughs any sized field in a day, a black bull that always sires twins, a bucket that doubles the yield of cows milked into it and so on. These would help me, but there will always be a level of abstraction that I am not interested in going past. Other people might want a more detailed model and name all the animals.
   
  In the Irish Legends, they list the acceptable crafts that a village/clan should have and there are loads of them. One Hero tries to get into the Clan Hearth, but is denied. He says he is a smith, but they have a smith, he is a farmer but they have a farmer and so on. He lists all the crafts and each position is filled, then he asks if they have anyone who can do all those things. Of course, they don't and he is let in. His cult has spells to enhance craft skills and gain mastery in various crafts.
   
  Do we need more of these? Almost certainly. Am I going to do it? Almost certainly not. Would I use the spells if someone else did them? Almost certainly.
   
  Leon Kirshtein:
> I have always had spirit spells which affect
> induvidual skills. Basically, the spell will add
> either +10% or +5%/+1, if applicable, per point (they
> are all variable) to some skill. I did not bother
> listing them all in my database since there are too
> many skills.

  They could be listed as a single generic spell - Enhance (Skill) or whatever. That's a bit generic for my tastes as they should live in a cult, but it is a way around the problem.
   
  Ashley Munday:
  
  > You ever thought that if you want an RPG with a
> non-combat emphasis then there are probably better
> games to use than RQ?
   
  Well, RQ can be used for loads of settings, so it is valid.

> Also, why bother having specific spirit magic spells
> and be arsed writing them up? Let one point of spirit
> magic enhance an item and give it a +5% bonus when
> it's used, let the player call it whatever they want
> and leave it at that.
   
  Yes, that's the easy way. But then there are divine spells that are more complex.
  
David Smart:
  > And there are a number of divine spells used by Mostali, according to the
  > RQ3 publications on Gloranthan gods by Avalon Hill. Herders can use the
> Beast Speech and Call [Animal] spells. Farmers and ranchers can use the
> Bless Earth, Bless Animals, and Bless Crops spells while midwives could use
> the Comfort Song spell. And the Trickster offers the Clever Tongue spell to
> help his followers with get out of tight situations (or cause one) , which
> in its turn can be counteracted by the Detect Truth spell offered by either
> Lhankor My or Humakt (I forget which).
   
  Yes, there are loads of craft-enhancing spells, if you go and look for them.
   
  If you can't find them, write some up and put them on the web. 
   
  Got to go and play RQ tonight.
   
  See Ya
   
  Simon
   
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