[Glorantha] Re: Rune Magic

[David Weihe]

donald at grove.demon.co.uk (Donald R. Oddy) wrote:
> Well RQ was firmly based in a monetary economy and it's clear
> much of Glorantha doesn't actually have such an economy.

Rather, the economics were EXPRESSED in a single currency economy.  In
the RW Middle Ages, there were a dozen different florins, marks,
thalars, etc., all of different values.  Major merchants had to know
the purity of each, and then would determine the value of an offer, by
weighing the coins if nothing else would work.  I expect that
Gloranthan coinage worked the same way.  OTOH, doing such complicated
work would have killed the fun, unless you were running a merchant's
campaign (not absurd, unlike AD&D, T&T, or Chiv&Sorcery).

Why, it would almost be like running a business in pre-Euro Europe :-)

OTOH, the Lunar Empire doesn't run on exchanging cows between the
Emperor and his governors, so Glorantha DOES opporate on a monetary
economy; it just does not extend down to the peasant level, normally.

> There was also
> an emphasis on fighting magic which a farmer wouldn't be very
> interested in. I see the farmer learning a spell to protect the
> blade of his plough before one to sharpen his spear.

RQ Bladesharp works for both.  One of the advantages of RQ Battle Magic
was the easy way that normally useful magic could be weaponized ("Kill
Rats" becoming Disruption, the best way to crank up your power, frex).


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