:idea:
Reading Cults of Glorantha, I have just realized that one of my old Idea about divine magic was now easy to put in place.
Instead of playing acquisition of divine spells like a trade (pay with points, you'll get the magic) which seems to me a little bit too much like supermarket business, I would like to reinforce the sacred aspect of the act and roleplay the acquisition as a minor Heroquest. I think that we can take some of the game time for this because PCs don't get so often the occasion to buy new spells.
Acquiring a one spell for the first time would request at least the same effort than doing a Heroquest with 10% (?) resonance (we can imagine some circumstances where it would be harder, for example if it a secondary pact or an obscure spell). Acquiring the spell a second time will ask to go deeper in the myth and would be a 20% (?) resonance Heroquest spell. The Game master will have of course to think about when and how the god made this mythical and magical act to be re-enacted but it can be fun to give to the player some secret hints about his god (after all at minimum he is initiated, it must me something more intimate than choosing in the rule book).
The god may have done this mythical act several time, so each time Heroquesting could be different even for the same spell or player, and the quest would not be boring because of the repetitiveness...
Because the divine magic is acquired in temples, it would not be too difficult to be successful, especially by choosing the most favorable conditions and supports (you can imagine communities supporting the PCs for some useful spells and disagreeing for others... nice game sessions ahead).
We can also imagine standard Heroquests with a special stage where the Heroquester may learn directly Divine Magic by this way...
Casting the spell, especially in a ritual, would be re-enacting the Heroquest at a mundane level. This would be done by pure roleplay from the player, but the master may then give positive or negative modifications to the player's Lore [Theology] test for the quality of the description. Even an instantaneous spell may require a specific state of mind that could be described like "I'm Orlanth the Thunderous, Commander of Storms, King of the winds, Gathered of Clouds and Master of Lightning and Thunder. I summon the sacred spear upon my enemies!" (doesn't it sound better than "My PC casts a lightning bolt at my next action..." ? :roll
. I'm pretty sure that players can do a lot of efforts to get a simple +10% on their tests when casting their divine magic... :twisted:
What do you think?
I haven't read all the details of the rules (and it is difficult to sort between all the variations from old RQs, MRQ1, MRQ2 and BRP) but is there something that I forget that would flaw this idea ?
Your comments are welcome. :?
Reading Cults of Glorantha, I have just realized that one of my old Idea about divine magic was now easy to put in place.
Instead of playing acquisition of divine spells like a trade (pay with points, you'll get the magic) which seems to me a little bit too much like supermarket business, I would like to reinforce the sacred aspect of the act and roleplay the acquisition as a minor Heroquest. I think that we can take some of the game time for this because PCs don't get so often the occasion to buy new spells.
Acquiring a one spell for the first time would request at least the same effort than doing a Heroquest with 10% (?) resonance (we can imagine some circumstances where it would be harder, for example if it a secondary pact or an obscure spell). Acquiring the spell a second time will ask to go deeper in the myth and would be a 20% (?) resonance Heroquest spell. The Game master will have of course to think about when and how the god made this mythical and magical act to be re-enacted but it can be fun to give to the player some secret hints about his god (after all at minimum he is initiated, it must me something more intimate than choosing in the rule book).
The god may have done this mythical act several time, so each time Heroquesting could be different even for the same spell or player, and the quest would not be boring because of the repetitiveness...
Because the divine magic is acquired in temples, it would not be too difficult to be successful, especially by choosing the most favorable conditions and supports (you can imagine communities supporting the PCs for some useful spells and disagreeing for others... nice game sessions ahead).
We can also imagine standard Heroquests with a special stage where the Heroquester may learn directly Divine Magic by this way...
Casting the spell, especially in a ritual, would be re-enacting the Heroquest at a mundane level. This would be done by pure roleplay from the player, but the master may then give positive or negative modifications to the player's Lore [Theology] test for the quality of the description. Even an instantaneous spell may require a specific state of mind that could be described like "I'm Orlanth the Thunderous, Commander of Storms, King of the winds, Gathered of Clouds and Master of Lightning and Thunder. I summon the sacred spear upon my enemies!" (doesn't it sound better than "My PC casts a lightning bolt at my next action..." ? :roll
. I'm pretty sure that players can do a lot of efforts to get a simple +10% on their tests when casting their divine magic... :twisted: What do you think?
I haven't read all the details of the rules (and it is difficult to sort between all the variations from old RQs, MRQ1, MRQ2 and BRP) but is there something that I forget that would flaw this idea ?
Your comments are welcome. :?
