[Rq-rules] Spirits cults versus religion

[Clive Wickens]

Wayne said:

"Remember, this was about a non-reusable rune spell that created Bladesharp 
10"

Not as such, no. I was thinking around the idea that in RQ ( at least RQ3 ) 
at present a spirit cult generally gives access to one, maybe two divine 
spells. My feelings about the spirit plane/world is that its denizens are 
pretty damn varied ( bear in mind I don't play in Glorantha ) and that there 
was more scope for spirit cults in what they delivered. This was one of the 
reasons I was curious as to the crossover point between spirit cult and a 
religion and what the difference between the two was.

I think that spirit cults might be able to deliver all sorts of weird and 
interesting things. Maybe they are spirits in their own right, maybe they 
are aspects or fragments of other gods or concepts, who knows ?

So, it seemed to me that instead of a divine magic a spirit might be able to 
deliver, spirit magic spells, skills, access to other spirits, gifts ( and 
maybe geasa to go with them ), legendary abilities, basically all sorts of 
stuff.

Now I picked the Bladesharp 10 as an example, it's a pretty extreme example 
I'll grant you as Bladesharp 10 is a pretty meaty magic to be possessing. 
But it's the kind of thing that might be delivered by a spirit. The trick of 
course is balance out the power of the spell. So maybe the spirit that 
provides it ( hereafter known as Sword In The Rocks= SITR ) can only be 
contacted in one very specific locale, maybe SITR can only be contacted once 
a year, possibly the Bladesharp 10 will only work against certain enemies of 
SITR ( Trolls, Broos, take your pick ! ). Maybe it can ONLY be cast at 
strength 10, in which case without a bound spirit or MP matrix you're going 
to run out of MP's pretty fast, not a good thing.

So I don't have a problem with powerful spells in the game as long as 
there's a limiting factor involved. My understanding is that spirit magic 
spells don't actually have an upper limit, it just gets harder and harder to 
find them and learn them, so maybe SITR demands a big price for handing over 
the mega Bladesharp.

Cheers,

Clive----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wayne Shaw" <shaw at caprica.com>
To: "Discussion of RuneQuest rules." <rq-rules at crashbox.com>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Rq-rules] Spirits cults versus religion


> At 11:34 AM 7/23/2007, you wrote:
>>Also, keep in mind that divine spells can only be cast once in a given
>>situation.  Even reusable ones need to be renewed by prayer at a temple. 
>>So
>>if my character knows Diamond Edge, I can cast it at best once a day 
>>(unless
>>I sacrifice for multiple castings of it).  Spirit magic spells can be cast
>>as often as I have the mps to fuel it.  So if I know Bladesharp 10, I can
>>cast on multiple weapons, assuming I have the mps to fuel it.  And because
>
> Remember, this was about a non-reusable rune spell that created Bladesharp 
> 10.
>
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