Confusing

[Obbehobbe]

Hey!

I have just bought RQ2 and I do like the game and the mechanics, but I am a bit confused about the rules for magic.

I am trying to find how you aquire spells and how many points you have to buy spells?

I am going to run a custom world (Not Glorantha) with low magic. My questions is...

1. You choose a profession, and get access to some different styles of magic. Spirit, Sorcery. And the common magic is free for all magic users. Is this correct?

2. You then buy magnitudes with spell-points? How many spell points do you get as a new character? Is it 6 or is that only for the Glorantha setting.

3. Do I always need to join a cult, pact, etc to get access to spells? Or can I be some kind of "free wizard"

3a. If yes on 3 - how do I get runes, and how many runes can I pick as a starting character.

Thank in advance

/T

 

[Jujitsudave]

The magic system does NOT suit low magic well. I suggest that you eliminate common magic entirely and curb most of the magic significantly as well. The rules have in mind that your character is a member of a cult or other such organization that supplies you with spells. Being that it is not Glorantha and as you say, low magic, You may want to make each grimoire (sorcery) 1 to 2 spells.

Read spirit magic very closely as well. It may also be too powerful for low magic.

On the other hand, you could keep Common Magic and discard the rest for your low magic world.

Regardless, I really hope that Legend revises or re-does the magic system.

1. Common magic is a skill that can be used by anyone, regardless of profession

2. Your magic points are equal to your POW stat.

3. Honestly, I still don't really know. The rules are very vague; again I hope they change this.

 

[mwsasser]

You could always make Common Magic not so common. Give it a different name for flavor and require a little research to find the spells. Keep in mind that Common Magic isn't powerful compared to the others, so don't overdo that.

Also remember that you can control the starting number of spells if you allow them for starting characters. Perhaps restrict them to 2 magnitude worth of spells or even 1 magnitude worth. That would really restrict them.

My campaign doesn't allow certain backgrounds depending on where the characters start, so that knocks out whole classes of magic. Or you can do like I've done once or twice and make those types of magic "lost" and run a campaign around finding those lost types of magic to save the kingdom ect.

Answer to 3 again depends on how you want to run your campaign world. The system suggests using trainers to gain new skills on page(s) 51-53 but I don't see why you couldn't learn on your own if you results were halved. Somebody had to figure out how things worked at some point, why not you too? Finding spells should be quest related though, I don't think they'd stumble into those by accident.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

3. Do I always need to join a cult, pact, etc to get access to spells? Or can I be some kind of "free wizard"

3a. If yes on 3 - how do I get runes, and how many runes can I pick as a starting character.

3. Honestly, I still don't really know. The rules are very vague; again I hope they change this.

It's a setting decision not a system one. But I would have thought if you are gaining magic from some external source you ought to have some sort of connection to that source

 

[Simulacrum]

It's a setting decision not a system one. But I would have thought if you are gaining magic from some external source you ought to have some sort of connection to that source

This +1. The RQ cults framework provides a default game basis for acquiring spells, and that allows for metagame short-cuts where needed. If you don't want to adhere to that, then you need to generate some basic setting-specific rules of your own, or rely entirely on narrative.

Most simply, a character either has to do something (join a cult or order, progress within it) or pay something (in services or cash value) to acquire a new spell - or both. Which just goes to say, as Duncan suggests, what you do need for your setting is to lay out what the source is, who controls access to it, and how.

 

[HalfOrc HalfBiscuit]

It's a setting decision not a system one. But I would have thought if you are gaining magic from some external source you ought to have some sort of connection to that source

This +1. The RQ cults framework provides a default game basis for acquiring spells, and that allows for metagame short-cuts where needed. If you don't want to adhere to that, then you need to generate some basic setting-specific rules of your own, or rely entirely on narrative.

Most simply, a character either has to do something (join a cult or order, progress within it) or pay something (in services or cash value) to acquire a new spell - or both. Which just goes to say, as Duncan suggests, what you do need for your setting is to lay out what the source is, who controls access to it, and how.

+2

I've said before, I think people get too hung up on the word "cult" - try substituting "tradition", "order", "school".

 

[mwsasser]

I've said before, I think people get too hung up on the word "cult" - try substituting "tradition", "order", "school".

Agreed. Also you'd never call your own religion a cult. Cults are what those other people are in. :wink:

 

[PhilHibbs]

Agreed. Also you'd never call your own religion a cult. Cults are what those other people are in. :wink:

That is, I think, a modern western Christian thing. The word actually derives from the Latin word for care and worship and adoration, which is also the same root as "culture".

 

[mwsasser]

So does the term Cult come from earlier versions of RQ or from MRQ? Maybe we should suggest the word be transitioned to something less confusing in future Legend publications?

 

[PhilHibbs]

So does the term Cult come from earlier versions of RQ or from MRQ? Maybe we should suggest the word be transitioned to something less confusing in future Legend publications?

It's been used in RuneQuest since the very early days, probably the first edition in, er, 1978? I don't have a problem with the term, probably because I've got used to it since those early years. "Religion" isn't really appropriate, because that covers an entire belief system and its pantheon of deities. Unfortunately, monotheism will make any term that refers to a sub-religion of a pantheon into a dangerous term.

 

[soltakss]

Agreed. Also you'd never call your own religion a cult. Cults are what those other people are in. :wink:

The catholic Church has had the Cult of the Saints for centuries, so Cult is/was used as a description for a religious practise.

I've got no problem with it, but I've played RQ for nearly 30 years, so like Phil I've got used to it.

 

[DamonJynx]

Legend will probably stick with Cults as they're universal, i.e. can be used for divine magic and/or sorcery. You could easily substitute "Religion" for Divine Cults and "Arcane Academy" (A D&D'ism I know, but it suits) for Sorcery Cults. Spirit Magic/Shamanism is ideally suited "Druidic" type magic IMO.