[Glorantha] Re: Rune Magic

[Donald R. Oddy]

In message <20060614164208.70012.qmail at web42104.mail.mud.yahoo.com> David Weihe writes:
>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).

The existance of currency doesn't make a monetary economy. Even
using currency in it's widest sense (including cows, seashells
etc.) it only becomes a monetary economy when the currency is
actually used most all transactions. Alternatives include the 
barter economy which doesn't even use a standard currency, the 
feudal economy where most transactions are expressed as a share 
of crop or in days labour, a slave economy where the slave owner
provides for their slaves in return for the work they do or a 
gifting economy such as the Heortlings use. I'm sure Glorantha
has every one of these variations but equally for most games
they are a irrelevant complexity. That's what's good about the
HQ wealth system, it abstracts economics into a neutral system
rather than a monetary one which doesn't fit many of the
transactions.

>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.

Given that 90% of the population are peasants and they will be
involved in 90% of the transactions the economy as a whole isn't 
monetary. Even in the Lunar Empire where some Heartland provinces
have taxes assessed in coinage they are likely to be paid in goods 
at the lower levels.

>> 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).

True, although I think this was a side effect of an easy and risk
free way of boosting magic power rather than a magic system designed
for general use.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/