[Rq-rules] House Rule Query

[Guy Hoyle]

I understand this rationale, but what confuses me is that reducing POW
actually punishes the character who tries to use Divine Magic or Divine
Intervention.  As his power goes down, his Luck roll and his Magic Points
and his Spirit Magic roll go down (even for cult spirit magic).  He's not as
much in touch with his gods anymore, which seems contrary to me. If the
character is using the god's magic to do the god's work in the world,
shouldn't he be more in touch with the god, not less?
 
The only workaround that I've thought of (and I haven't tried playing this)
is to keep a tally of the points sacrificed on DI and Divine magic, and use
that to supplement your Luck and Spirit Magic (maybe Sacrifice Points/x).
This would probably have some kind of horrible, unforseen effect on game
balance, though.
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: rq-rules-bounces at crashbox.com [mailto:rq-rules-bounces at crashbox.com]
On Behalf Of steve at limitedchaos.com
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 5:04 PM
To: Discussion of RuneQuest rules.
Subject: RE: [Rq-rules] House Rule Query


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. :)
 

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