Summoning and Enchanting

[Deleriad]

I was going to post this in a thread on BRP about Divine Magic but it was OT and is more MRQ focused than BRP focused. Anyway, RosenMcStern was discussing Merrie England and mentioned summoning and enchanting which leads me to wonder.

Are the rules for enchantments in MRQ actually in good? I ask because I've never seen any evidence that they've ever actually been played with. The difficulty in regaining POW in MRQ makes me wonder if the enchantment system is basically so cost ineffective as not to be playable any more. I don't know, it's just a question.

Summoning in MRQ is all over the place these days. Partly because the magic systems no longer assume that magicians have access to multiple sources of MPs but the summoning rules are hugely MP intensive so it's no longer clear how to use the rules or even if they can be used in any meaningful way. Also the various summoning spells are split over several books and self-contradictory. Again this makes me wonder whether anyone is actually using these rules in play.

 

[Mugen]

Maybe the solution in OpenQuest is better for MRQ.

Instead of POW sacrifices, OpenQuest uses Improvement rolls costs.

For instance, to make permanent MP storages you have to pay 1 Improvement roll per Magic Point stored (note that you can make non-permanent MP storages, but as a GM I think I would not allow this...).

 

[RosenMcStern]

I have never used them, but I have a player who has taken the Enchant skill, so I suppose he intends to use it. I have also seen players using up their improvement rolls to increase their characteristics, so I do not think the cost/effectiveness is so bad. Remember that the chance to simply "waste" your POW is much lower than in older RQs, and you can put conditions on the item without any extra POW cost, so I think the rules are good and workable.

All in all, I think the rules for making items, enchanted or not, that are in the RuneQuest companion are the best I have seen in a d100 game so far.

 

[soltakss]

All in all, I think the rules for making items, enchanted or not, that are in the RuneQuest companion are the best I have seen in a d100 game so far.

I'd agree with that. The rules for making enchantments, equipment and customising objects are probably the best things in RQM.

 

[soltakss]

Are the rules for enchantments in MRQ actually in good? I ask because I've never seen any evidence that they've ever actually been played with. The difficulty in regaining POW in MRQ makes me wonder if the enchantment system is basically so cost ineffective as not to be playable any more. I don't know, it's just a question.

The enchantment rules are very good, easy to understand and easy to use. I use some of them in my RQ3 game (I don't play RQM because my players didn't like the playtest rules).

The POW regain problem is solved, as others have said, by allowing characteristic increases by spending experience points. As a GM or player I wouldn't have a problem with that.

Summoning in MRQ is all over the place these days. Partly because the magic systems no longer assume that magicians have access to multiple sources of MPs but the summoning rules are hugely MP intensive so it's no longer clear how to use the rules or even if they can be used in any meaningful way. Also the various summoning spells are split over several books and self-contradictory. Again this makes me wonder whether anyone is actually using these rules in play.

The problem with Summoning in RQM is that it tries to be all things to all men. It uses the same rules for summonings of all types and then tries to shoehorn everything into the same set.

I would treat summoning differently by setting. Demon summoning in Elric shouldn't be the same as demon summoning in Merrie England or summoning spirits in the Stone Age or summoning elementals in Glorantha. The core mechanics might be the same but the costs, paraphenalia and spells may well be vastly different.

 

[Deleriad]

The POW regain problem is solved, as others have said, by allowing characteristic increases by spending experience points. As a GM or player I wouldn't have a problem with that.

I do the same as players seem keen to increase characteristics, especially in order to qualify for legendary abilities. I do find the penalty for failure extreme though. I'm thinking of saying that if they fail then they can add +1% to 3 different skills that have the characteristic in their base chance. That maybe too generous.

So far people seem to be saying that the enchanting rules are good. Not so sure about summoning. The more I look at them, the more I wouldn't use the generic summoning rules as written.