Historical fantasy

[duncan_disorderly]

RE: Saints, Relics and Runes

While the Rulebook Runes do not necessarily tie in to the concept of Patron Saints, this needn't be a bar on the concept of holy relics being the game-world source of "Runes" for the purpose of Rune Magic. Rather decide which spells are provided by which saint. and then rather than Runes like "Light", "Death", "Disorder" you would have Runes Like "St George", "St Stephen", "St Christopher" etc. The MRQ Rune Magic rules would seem to model this very well - especially with the Rulebook approach of most Runes only giving one or two spells!

 

[zozotroll]

Actually, the only 1-2 spells per rune is one of the things that irritate me the most. You almost need a spell casting skill for every spell. And with improvement rolls so few, that is really tough to have much variety in magic at all.

I am waiting and hopeing that the spell book will fix this to a degree, but am very afraid that with so many magic systems to address, that there will only be a few new spells for each system. So instead of 1-2 spells per rune you might get 2-3 per rune.

 

[weasel_fierce]

the spellbook will propably fix a lot of that. I'd adopt spells from Cults of glorantha 2 as well (since those are basically rune spells anyways)

I'd raise the improvement rate a bit, or use a RQ3 style xp/training system.

 

[zozotroll]

I have raised the improvement rolls by one, and may go higher. I dont want to go back to players doing things randomly just so that they can check the box.

Mind I dont think the game as is is terrible, just that a few things need some work. Between the Spellbook, and deluxe I hope a lot of those are fixed. And that the GMs book will give even more options.

And failing that, there is always this forum, where I have found the answer to several problems and already added to my game.

 

[weasel_fierce]

One guy suggested raising the improvement rolls by 1 or so, as well as the GM giving 1 or 2 improvement rolls that he dictates (good way to give people lores and other rarely used skills)

 

[zozotroll]

My players tend to use lores a lot, but skip on 1st aid, and slieght, and riding. Pile all the healing on the shamin. Well practitioner really.

None of the divine PCs have hit initiate yet, so I dont have a grip on how the rolls effect them. They do make it harder to reach initiate though.

 

[weasel_fierce]

initiates should have an easier time, since they only need one skill to function.

 

[RosenMcStern]

On the subject of runes / relics / saints:

Undoubtedly, there is no ultimate reason why one should not use rune magic to represent Christianity or Islam or Hebraism. On a game mechanics basis, Christian PCs look like the most suitable candidates for rune magic, since they have Relics, that are items of great power. I am absolutely certain that someone will use Monotheistic Rune Magic and have great fun. However, I still have these big questions:

a) How do you handle Islam? Figures and representations are a big no-no for Muslims. I really doubt there could be a Muslim Rune Magic with any semblance of realism.

b) Technically, there is no reason why you cannot have a Rune connected to each Saint. You just associtate a number of suitable spells and here you go. However, this means that your character sheet reads: Runecasting (St. Peter), Runecasting (St. Augustin), Runecasting (St. Catherine). Personally, I think that a character sheet which reads Lore (Catholicism) or Lore (Islam) or Lore (Torah) inspires better roleplaying. But this is a matter of taste.

c) While there is no doubt that a believer who has access to a Relic, whether you represent it as a Rune or as an enchanted item, has more chances to call upon his God, using rune magic in this fashion means that a believer who has Faith but not access to a Relic is magically helpless. Again, definitely not the way I envision it.

In short words, when there is a better, straightforward solution, why stretch the applicability of rune magic to handle cases that it was not meant to handle?

 

[Utgardloki]

I had once asked about Islamic magic on another forum, and got the answer that elemental-type magic could fit into the Islamic world-view. I might do that.

And while Islam has a prohibition against images, icons, and idols, I don't think they'd have a problem with glyphs that were understood as keys to unlock arcane power, and not at all objects of worship. Perhaps the Islamic wizards are usually taught by Djinni or Efreeti.

As for the problem of only a couple spells per rune, for my Iron Kingdoms: Runequest and Atomic Kingdoms campaign proposals, I planned to put some of the work on the player. If a player wanted to create reasonable spells for her rules or adapt them from other game systems, that would be great.

The big problem with that approach is that some players do not agree with me on what a reasonable spell is. My idea of a reasonable spell is like one called kiss of frost that I made for a D&D sorceress, a 1st level spell closely modelled on magic missile. One player's idea of a reasonable spell was one that takes spells from an enemy's mind and gives it to him and is a fourth level spell. When I said that based on the write-up it should be an eighth level spell, he said that it had to be fourth level "because my caster can only cast 4th level spells".

So if you have players who can restrain themselves and write their own spells without getting munchkiny, I'd advise it as a way to retain GM sanity. If not, tell the troublesome player to go play Mage: The Awakening or Exalted: What is the point of this game? and find some serious role-players for your runequest adventures.