Subject: RQ Discussions 14 Distribution Date: June 16, 1991 ====================================================================== From: mcwalla@algol.cs.umbc.edu (Mark C Wallace) Subject: Re: RQ discussion 13 > From: Tim Leask > > I was also wondering how people using socery in their campaigns have > managed to handle the problem of sorceror's running around with lots > of long duration spells up all the time, and how you deal with the problem > of dispelling magic across different spheres of magic. The second question is easier to handle; each of the spells (dispell/dismiss/Neutralize contain rules for handling cross sphere magical disposal. It seems more difficult to dispell sorcery, and conversly easier for a sorceror to dispose of anyone elses magic, but the answer to that question runs into the answer to question 1. To wit, how to handle sorcerors using long duration spells. In reality this question is a rephrasing of what I ask myself at least once every game session, "How to handle sorcerors!?!?!" I'm not currently GMing, but the folling are the guidelines I've worked up to handle sorcerors when I restart the campaign. First, INT must be rolled honest. a sorceror should have an INT of 17 or higher only 5% of the time; approximately 50% of sorcerors should have an INT less than 13. In the past I've been nice and allowed people to do strange things with dice to play high INT cahracters, but never again. Second, strictly limit the sorcerors access to stored power. Never allow a sorceror the "BindPower Spirit" spell (or even SUmmon/Dominate same). That makes sorcerors too powerful. Third, limit sorcerors in the spells they can acquire. 1 years income for a crafter seems a reasonable price to pay for something as valuable as a spell. You can mitigate teh effects of this by creating two and three point spells which are undecomposable. For example, allow the aspirant mage to purchase "Become Cat", a two point spell which is the combination of reduce size and metamorphose to cat form. The effect is useful, but cannot be decomposed into the two constituent spells. Fourth, worship of the invisible god is a serious business; magi should be reluctant to travel more than a weeks travel from a temple of the invisible god. Those who ignore their religious duties should incur the enmity of their fellows. Magi should be reluctant to take potential heretics as students, since it reflects badly on their souls. Archmagi are more likely to challenge/depose other Archmagi who are agnostic, because they give magi a bad rep, and for other reasons. Fifth, limit the creation of magic items. The following is a rules change my players and I use. Each magical item, once created, has a personality or ego. Any further attempt to enchant that object is treated as a spell cast at MP's equal to the number of POW points expended in creating the item; failure means the enchantment fails, and the enchanter looses some POW. Apart from the above limits, I'd like to point out that View Magic is active, and therefore cannot be held up while adventuring. (that is from memory, so redirect flames to /dev/Eurmal). Second, Divine spellcasters should have easy access to Dismiss magic 8 or more (though three is all they need to dispell a palsy 6). Shamans strength's lie elsewhere. If they can't get a spirit to cast dispell 8, they should just possess the mage, and force him to do the Neutralize. Shamans have enourmous power, but it is in quite a different sphere than priests and Magi. Finally, a few Palsy 6 spells from any range whatsoever, with any duration, should waste that mage. ====================================================================== From: Andrew Bell (bell@cs.unc.edu) Subject: Re: Sorcery problems >I was also wondering how people using socery in their campaigns have >managed to handle the problem of sorceror's running around with lots >of long duration spells up all the time, and how you deal with the problem >of dispelling magic across different spheres of magic. One way to handle it is to not think of it as a problem. Stafford's vision of Glorantha is apparently one where sorcerors and their buddies have long duration spells up at a time, and thus it's not a problem, it's the way things are. Likewise, the rules or the errata explain that 1 intensity sorcery = 1 point spirit magic = 1/2 1 point divine magic, and thus a 2 intensity neutralize magic has a 50% chance of dispelling a bladesharp 2 or a Truesword. Presumably, however, the problem for you is a problem of balance -- mixing sorcerers with other classes results in a much stronger party than one without sorcerers. While this would appear to be fairly rare in most of Glorantha, due to the social schisms between the godless sorcerers and the god worshipers, certainly there must be some mixing (else why would Chalana Arroy worshipers be permitted to be sorcerers) and this may have a less than desirable effect on play balance. Well, if play balance is what you seek, I suggest changing the sorcery rules. Frankly, I'd suggest this anyway -- it seems bizarre to me, for example, that suddenly shouting "Hey, I'm an archmage!" would reduce the amount of time one needs to spend practicing one's sorcery... Furthermore, the rules as is don't mimic the traditional concepts of magic very well anyway, if you're using them outside the Gloranthan setting. The only obvious alternative is to make life difficult for the sorcerer, which will merely result in annoyed players. Instead, I recommend making sorcerers more flexible in exchange for a reduction in their ability to cast long duration and high intensity spells, at least at low skill levels. One easy way to do this is to kill the whole concept of free int, and instead limit boosting of intensity, range, and duration to (say) 1 point on any per 5% of skill. Thus a sorcerer with a 45% skill at a spell could cast a 3 intensity, +3 range, and +3 duration spell, or a 9 intensity spell, and so on. The range, duration, and intensity skills could be a further limit, with no more than +1 of each for each 5% in the appropriate skill. You might even want to use 10% instead, and then the sorcerer would have to make magic items or do extremely long rituals to cast those really long duration spells. In exchange, the sorcerer could then get a more diverse collection of spells (as the free int requirement disappears.) High int is still useful to a sorcerer under these rules, as it affects the character's chance to successfully learn a spell from training and still limits the total number of spells, although it isn't quite as important as it is under the standard rules. ====================================================================== The RuneQuest(tm) mailing list is a courtesy of Andrew Bell. All opinions and material above are the responsibility of the originator, and copyrights are held by them. Unless specified in the specific article, all RQ Digest material is freely redistributable on a not-for-profit basis as long as author credit is included. RuneQuest is a trademark of Chaosium, Inc. Send submissions, mailing list changes, requests for old article lists, etc. to: bell@cs.unc.edu ...!mcnc!unc!bell Request old articles by volume number and issue number.