RuneQuest Player Characters who start with Sorcery

[Voriof]

There certainly is no reason in the game rules why a character could not use sorcery, rune magic, and divine magic.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), this is notthe case in the core rule set. In Glorantha, however...

OTOTH, if that last sentence applies, it is then theoretically possible for a rune caster of any cult to try to figure out the secrets of sorcery and make them available to his comrads.

Not usually. You get Rune Magic which is personal and/or folk magic and only ONE otherworld magic. Sorcery, Shamanism, and Divine Magic all draw from separate otherworlds. To use them requires you to commit your soul to that kind of magic. There is very little room to maneuver in this sort of case.

There *are* exceptions but they are rare.

Edit: Simonh is wise. His repy about world views is spot on and only accents the problem with knowing two different systems at any kind of depth. I believe its possible to be laymembers/intitates/students/spiritists of the various systems but to learn anything deeper usually requires abandoning all other kinds of magic except Rune Magic.

Voriof

 

[duncan_disorderly]

My main concern is game balance.

Game balance is an illusion, especially if you treat it entirely as a mechanical exercise. While you want every player to be able to participate equally, this doesn't require that they are mechanically equivalent.

Runequest does not have the class mechanism to balance PCs out. So if a witchborn character has a major advantage over a non-witchborn character ("Hey, I can just point my finger at the guy and he freezes!"), then how can this be balanced?

You only get a certain number of skill increases, and if you need to spend them all on improving magical skills then you can't spend them on more mundane skills.

 

[weasel_fierce]

balance in an RPG means each player has fun with his character. The D&D sense of "everyone can perform genocide at the same pace" balance isnt really worth anything.

 

[Utgardloki]

balance in an RPG means each player has fun with his character. The D&D sense of "everyone can perform genocide at the same pace" balance isnt really worth anything.

I can see the point that game balance means different things in a Runequest game, a D&D game, or a Star Wars game (either D6 or D20). It probably would be a good idea to warn the players about the benefits or disadvantages of their decisions, so if in the Iron Kingdoms, all the players want witchborn characters, I can deal with that. If a player does not want a witchborn character, I can deal with that too; as long as a player is happy with his choices.

As for my own Runequest plans, I am thinking of running the Iron Kingdoms characters through an Iron Kingdoms adventure, and then shunting those PCs off to Glorantha and other worlds through divine teleportation. I've been planning to run the Drow War series, but it looks like by the time they get to adventure #1 in Drow War, they'll already be experienced Runequest characters.

 

[weasel_fierce]

Sounds like a kickass campaign, thats what