Non-canon-contradicting fudge for Rune Magic in glorantha

[Sinisalo]

Rune Magic
Nearly everyone uses rune magic but hardly anyone is runetouched. They get access to their spells via charms (see Cults of Glorantha II). In my game charms give all the benefits of being runetouched except that the owner does not have access to the Runic Powers (see table on page 65 of Runequest). Each cult can get access to (or create) rune charms for all its cult spells. It is easy to get access to rune charms for those runes that the cult is associated with. For others you may have to go further afield and thus the cost increases. Someone in your community will be able to tatoo you a charm for the rune of your choice, it just may cost you or take longer.

Most of the time rune charms are tatoos. This stops trade in charms and also binds the enchanting of charms to the new owner’s conduct in society. Built into the process of enchanting charms is the (free) user condition that only the tatooed person may use the charm, thus preventing any grisly practices.

Owners of true runes may create charms of those runes if they also have the enchanting skill. The enchanting skill is reduced to the level of the runecasting ability (if it is greater) when enchanting charms.

Examples,
1. An Orlanth Adventurous intitiate wants to learn Mobility from his cult (which teaches it as one of its cult spells). Mobility is tied to the Motion rune. Because Motion is one of the cult’s runes the cult gets one of its priests to enchant a Motion rune charm.

2. An Orlanth Adventurous initiate wants to learn Bladesharp from his cult (which teaches it as one of its cult spells). Bladesharp is tied to the Metal rune which is not one of the cult’s runes. However, Metal is one of the runes associated with the god Gustbran who has a priest nearby. The Orlanth cult asks the Gustbran priest to tatoo the initiate with a metal rune.

3. An Orlanth Adventurous initiate wants to learn Cover of Night from his cult (which teaches it as one of its cult spells). Cover of Night is tied to the Shadow rune - a rune which is neither associated with the cult nor with any other cult associated with Orlanth Adventurous. All is not lost since one of the Orlanth Priests owns a shadow true rune and being an expert with both it and enchanting agrees to enchant the intiate a Shadow charm.

When running your campaign be careful not to treat charms like any other commodity. It takes commitment and personal power to create and generally is only done during community ceremonies such as initiations or festivals. Cults can’t spend all their time locked in a charm creating productivity cycle. For this reason I would insist that the enchanter provide the POW to create the charm (except perhaps at initiation), thus forcing the enchanter to give it careful thought before enchanting.

Glorantha the Second Age mentions that the use of runes replaces an older, more difficult, means of utilising Rune Magic. What that book hints at is the use of spells without runes or charms, though difficult and time consuming, is possible and in fact takes place. By learning each spell individually (and thus having an individual skill for each spell) the caster will find himself investing far more effort for the same results as a caster who uses runes or charms. Organisations that use this method on a regular basis will lose out to those cults that don’t. However sometimes this method is the only way to gain access to a spell, and so the practice still exists. Hero bands use this method to pass on their magical functions.

Example,
An Orlanth Adventurous initiate wants to learn Skybolt from his cult (which teaches it as one of its cult spells). Skybolt is tied to the Chaos rune - a rune which is neither associated with the cult nor with any other cult associated with Orlanth Adventurous. “chaos spells taught by Orlanth. Surely that is not right?”, says the initiate. “It’s quite a complicated matter...It’s an ecumenical matter...Oh just shut up. ”, says Loz, I mean, the priest. All is not lost since the cult teaches it as an individual spell without consorting with chaos runes or charms.

 

[Loz]

An Orlanth Adventurous initiate wants to learn Skybolt from his cult (which teaches it as one of its cult spells). Skybolt is tied to the Chaos rune - a rune which is neither associated with the cult nor with any other cult associated with Orlanth Adventurous. “chaos spells taught by Orlanth. Surely that is not right?”, says the initiate. “It’s quite a complicated matter...It’s an ecumenical matter...Oh just shut up. ”, says Loz, I mean, the priest. All is not lost since the cult teaches it as an individual spell without consorting with chaos runes or charms.

You've clearly not played in any of my games. I'd be more likely to say... 'Cool. Don't worry, there's a myth that covers it. Let's make it up later...'

:wink:

 

[Deleriad]

This is nicely thought through and is a nice way of retro-engineering Glorantha via the rules. It will still tend to create a fairly magic poor Glorantha though (unless you're using Folk Magic) and doesn't seem to fit Glorantha as laid out in the past. I do like the outcome of runes becoming rarer though.

My preference is to go for a slightly less minimal fix. I'm still refining it before starting a prequel scenario to Blood of Orlanth. The basics of it is:

1. Taking *most* of the rune magic spells and allowing them to be cast through a single skill: common magic. The limit of common magic is that no spell can exceed magnitude 3. (some spells such as hand of death are true rune spells.) Essentially common magic replaces folk Magic as the type of magic that is composed of the "what works" magic.

2. The common magic and divine magic belonging to a cult is taught using a single skill. Because the deity has greater access to this magic, members who are acolytes are higher in the cult can beyond Magnitude 4.

3. Integration with a rune (a rare occurrence) allows the development of the runecasting spell, the casting of common magic associated with that rune and the casting of specialist rune magic that can only be cast through that rune (e.g. from the Spellbook). The Magnitude 4 limit is removed for runecast magic.

It's a broader fix than the one above. I *think* it also makes rune magic a bit more interesting.

 

[Sinisalo]

This is nicely thought through and is a nice way of retro-engineering Glorantha via the rules. It will still tend to create a fairly magic poor Glorantha though (unless you're using Folk Magic) and doesn't seem to fit Glorantha as laid out in the past. I do like the outcome of runes becoming rarer though.

Thank you. Retro-engineering, I knew there was a word. To be honest I'm grabbing at hints that Jeff Kyer, Robin Laws and Loz have thrown into their books that seem to be mostly edited out. Someone's got to wrestle with this rune business. As for magic poor, remember initiates now have access to reusable divine magic which in the good old days you had to resacrifice for (yes I know none of us did but that was house rules).

My preference is to go for a slightly less minimal fix. I'm still refining it before starting a prequel scenario to Blood of Orlanth. The basics of it is:

1. Taking *most* of the rune magic spells and allowing them to be cast through a single skill: common magic. The limit of common magic is that no spell can exceed magnitude 3. (some spells such as hand of death are true rune spells.) Essentially common magic replaces folk Magic as the type of magic that is composed of the "what works" magic.

2. The common magic and divine magic belonging to a cult is taught using a single skill. Because the deity has greater access to this magic, members who are acolytes are higher in the cult can beyond Magnitude 4.

3. Integration with a rune (a rare occurrence) allows the development of the runecasting spell, the casting of common magic associated with that rune and the casting of specialist rune magic that can only be cast through that rune (e.g. from the Spellbook). The Magnitude 4 limit is removed for runecast magic.

It's a broader fix than the one above. I *think* it also makes rune magic a bit more interesting.

Yes and I think most people are going along this sort of route. But my aim for posting was to a) fit in with what Mongoose have already written and b) give ordinary theists some sort of common magic that can be used against people which Folk Magic doesn't really do.

It's clear Mongoose have invested into the idea of Runes and rune spells linked to those runes. That's not going to go away, I think, from their published work. Jeff Kyer has said spiritists use charms to get access to rune spells and Robin Laws says Orlanthi common magic is based on older spiritist methods (whether this is theologically true or not), hence what I wrote.

I personally give my players access to all their cults rune spells via the theology skill and without the necessity of runes. But this isn't about what I would like but moving the debate forward to get the sort of Runequest that might work in partnership with Mongoose and their aims.

 

[Deleriad]

I personally give my players access to all their cults rune spells via the theology skill and without the necessity of runes. But this isn't about what I would like but moving the debate forward to get the sort of Runequest that might work in partnership with Mongoose and their aims.

I suspect that just about everyone who is playing any sort of sustained RQ in Glorantha is doing just that. The exception would be someone who is new to RQ and new to Glorantha, doesn't read the net and is happily playing RQ RAW.

As you imply, I think Mongoose or at least Matt Sprange has decided that runes are MRQ's USP, initially. It's just that rune magic as written sits uneasily between being a nickel and dime common magic system and one that is meant to be exotic and difficult to master. Playing it RAW out of just the RQ core books is incredibly unsatisfying. You find a rune, integrate it and then can generally cast just one spell and are not very good at that. The end result is that even the authors of your premier campaign books basically do their best to ignore the system.

Personally I suspect that Mongoose are going to rewrite a lot of this but that they will come up with a back story first at the end of which magic in Glorantha will suddenly start to work in some new way and, hey looky, they've come up with a new improved MRQ 2.0 as well.

 

[Sinisalo]

As you imply, I think Mongoose or at least Matt Sprange has decided that runes are MRQ's USP, initially.

USP?

 

[Loz]

Unique Selling Point