[Glorantha] Re: Glorantha Digest, Vol 12, Issue 272

[Ian Cooper]

There is a preview of part of the magic chapter for Mongoose's RuneQuest at: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/rqpreview3.pdf
 
 One interesting aspect is that this appears to describe a new type of Gloranthan magic: Rune Magic (not to be confused, perhaps, with old Rune Magic in RQ2). RuneQuest has certainly had no equivalent before - though the fact that runes must be 'integrated' reminds me of magic crystals, as does the fact that many runes are thought to be the blood of the gods. Interestingly RuneQuest suggests that this is 'by far the most common type of magic in Glorantha', and that Divine Magic is similar but 'bypases the need for runes' (similar to old RQ Rune Magic???).
 
 HeroQuest seems to have no direct equivalent, although I believe crystals are still canon just mechanically different in HQ. It does not seem to really fall into the common magic 'bucket', because of the need to seek and obtain runes, 'placed in adventures and Quests by the Games Master', to use them as opposed to magic that anyone can do.  In HeroQuest terms they look like access to affinities (or feats) through the foci of crystals.
 
 Now while some of this might be better answered by Mongoose's material one question that immediately springs to mind is: Is this a Second Age difference? The fact that it is the 'most common type of magic in Glorantha' leads to this question as we would have thought to seen this before. Even when we transitioned from RQ to HQ there were analogies - Battle Magic to Common Magic, Rune Magic to feats for example. Or is this a revision, and something we would see in the Third Age too. Seems like a very big change from what we know for that, but maybe. Perhaps it relates to the RuneQuest sight that the godlearners possesed. We know magic has changed at the end of the ages. However I don't recall seeing this kind of thing inand of  Greg's writings before, even when referring to earlier ages.
 
 Any wisdom out there from folks more involved in the RuneQuest/Second Age stuff?
 
Ian Cooper