[Rq-rules] House Rule Query

[Lev Lafayette]

Actually on that note an oft-forgotten somewhat
RuneQuest-ish sort of game from the period,
Swordbearer, based its magic system on attuning to
nodes, pure examples of elements or spirit.

Whilst one could find elemental nodes "out in nature",
spirit nodes were found in various body parts. A cow,
for example, may have a one in ten chance of having a
phlegmatic spirit node in its udder (I'm making this
bit up, I don't actually have the rules in front of
me) and if such a spirit was discovered, the wizard
would have to capture/attune to the node.

It was seriously, seriously cool. It also meant a hell
of a lot of animals got sacrificed to get some pretty
minor magic :-)

On the other hand, sentient species always had at
least one spirit node... 

Yeah, you can see where that's heading!

All the best,



Lev


--- steve at limitedchaos.com wrote:


---------------------------------
Tom said "I have always thought that this (sacrifice
of valued beast/object) happened PLUS the POW!"

Exactly correct.
 
Getting Divine Magic is a big deal. The gods want
their pound of flesh, and for them Flesh = POW. Of
course the applicant is sacrificing cattle (or flowers
or heads of ones enemies or sea bass - whatever) and
going through a major ceremony. That's all assumed
(and probably should have been emphasized in one of
the various god books or other) in the sacrifice of
POW. You don't just march into a temple, write a check
for 2 pts of POW, and walk out with Shield 2.
 
Sure, you can have a system where you trade oxen for
Divine Magic, but that isn't RuneQuest. You can change
the POW costs, make spells more or less frequently
re-usable, make them more or less available to
different grades of worshippers, more or less
powerful, but the exchange of POW for divine
intervention in the form of spells, as well as regular
DI, is central to the dynamic of the game. If this
seems to make Spirit Magic and Sorcery more attractive
than Divine Magic, then there is probably something
wrong with Spirit Magic and Sorcery in your game.
 
Just the viewpoint of one of the creators. :)
 
Steve Perrin


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Rq-rules] House Rule Query
From: Thomas Zunder <tom at zunder.org.uk>
Date: Sun, February 10, 2008 5:38 am
To: "Discussion of RuneQuest rules."
<rq-rules at crashbox.com>

I have always thought that this happened PLUS the POW!
Players would probably exploit this.. the actual
sacrifice of POW makes the player feel it is a
sacrifice, as well as the character.

royce at efn.org wrote:

Hi, All,   I wonder if the following idea for a house
rule would be a mistake.   Instead of sacrificing POW,
a character may sacrifice an animal at thetemple. 
(Said animal must be bought from the temple priests at
someinflated price, of course.)  Better spells would
require a larger, moreexpensive animal -- goat for
weaker spells, bull for stronger spells,and human
sacrifice a possibility for bad guys worshipping
disreputablegods.  (Ba'al, anyone?)   So, would this
make divine magic _too_ accessible, _too_ cheap?   I
am not wedded to the substitution notion, having
merely stolen itfrom Classical mythology, so please
feel free to shoot it down.   Thanks ahead of time for
any
feedback.Asher_______________________________________________RQ-Rules
mailing
listRQ-Rules at crashbox.comhttp://crashbox.com/mailman/listinfo/rq-rules
 



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