[Glorantha] Re: Glorantha Digest, Vol 12, Issue 452

[Roger]

I really don't see the Imperial University graduate as being just another
standard scholar like a LM from Notchet - if he is why write up the Imperial
University at such length?

What makes HQ much more newbie-unfriendly than the simple and flexible core
mechanics suggest it should be is this constant alternation in publications
between the very detailed treatment given to some areas of the rules and
setting and the casual handwaving that dismisses others as something that
any good GM can make up on the fly (a lunar field college of magic - yeah
right I'll knock one of those out in a couple of minutes).

This seems to operate at the level even of an individual keyword.

Consider Yanafal Tarnils - if you created a character using info in HQ, the
Hero Book and ILH1 he'd be a initiate or devotee with three affinities and
listed feats and could be played by anyone in a pick-up or demo game using
the HB character sheet after a very brief explanation of the core rules.

As presented in ILH2, YT is much more of a headache.

Novice/ordinate maps directly to initiate/devotee so that change is not such
a big deal.

Warlord remains an affinity (albeit an affinity that is not going to get
used very often unless he's a senior officer in a military campaign
involving losts of pitched battles) and thus straightforward enough.

However Soldier is now the Soldier On formulary .

To properly understand what this means the player and GM now has to read the
whole Wizardry chapter of the HQ book which will tell him that a formulary
is not an ability but a list of spells, each of which has to be learned and
raised separately and which are in effect fire and forget as they have to be
put into a talisman which can be used once only and then has to be recharged
by taking it to an order liturgist.

But then YT is not a wizardly order and doesn't have liturgists or talismans
so what the hell does all that mean?

OK the 'talisman' is explained as being the same as an amulet (or in YT's
case his scimitar) but who carries out the liturgist role - does it have to
be a Preceptor as these are the people who carry out the function of leading
worship ceremonies or can any Ordinate or for that matter Novice do it?

As for Combat this now becomes 'Combat Spirits' and to uinderstand how to
use them you'll have to go off and read the whole Animism chapter

This presents several issues:

Firstly they are not really Spirits at all but presumably Lunes - which
according to AR are very different entities - for a start ISTR you actually
needed a lump of moon rock to even summon one?

Secondly it is not specified whether these 'Spirits' are in Charms or
Fetishes.

If they are charms they just give you augments and you can't do anything to
improve their ratings other than pay more HPs to get another stronger one.

If they are Fetishes they can be used as active abilities and be released to
give a humungous one-use bonus or AP boost, but you have to not only spend
hero points on gaining each one but also on creating and developing a
relationship to each - and again you can't raise their abilities so they get
progressively less useful at higher power levels.

And again who summons these Spirits and puts them into
Charms/Fetishes/Amulets?

As amulets function as talismans, charms and fetishes and it is specifically
stated that YT uses a scimitar as an amulet how do you handle the fact that
it will house multiple spells and spirits at different ratings (and that any
YT can be easily magically neutered by separating them from their scimitar)

Sure I can house rule all these, but would have much rather that ILH2 had
dumped one or two of the keywords that are reallly only there to provide
flavour ('Him Indoors' for instance) in order to give a more detailed
explanation of how these mixed denominations actually work.

In he absence of such an explanation it is so much easier  to stick with
'around here we only have the theist cult of YT as presented in HQ and HB'.