Types of damage and the runes

[Deleriad]

I've been mulling over a clearer definition of damage types so that you could say for example, that so and so causes X amount of heat damage and that such and such a spell protects against physical and cold damage - for example.

It then struck me that it might be possible to associate the elemental runes with types of damage. For example:
Darkness = cold
Earth = force
Fire/sky = heat
Storm/air = lightning
Water = acid

Associating a rune is merely flavour but it gives a cosmological background to the system.

Impact damage (i.e.a punch in the eye) would then be Force damage. All damage could be assumed to be force damage unless otherwise stated.

The extra type of damage would be "Magic" and be associated with the Magic rune, naturally.

Using this you could say, then, that Disruption causes 1D3 Magic Damage. The protection spell provides its Magnitude in APs against Force Damage.

It does lead to some dilemmas though. For example, Fireblade would deal 1D10 Heat Damage instead of the usual force damage which then begs the question - does armour or armour providing spells protect against Fireblade? The implication is that it doesn't. Indeed, looking at how MRQ is written, there is a good argument that Fireblade damage is not stopped by armour. Ditto, how do you parry a Fireblade?

 

[RosenMcStern]

The traditional association in RQ is acid=chaos. Water could have cold associated (but there should be also a cold rune), as shown by the Scythe of Winter legendary spell included by Bryan in the Legendary Heroes book.

Darkness is usually associated with Fear rather than cold, although the darkness elemental also does cold damage. For the rest, the associations are interesting. And Fireblade traditionally is stopped by armour.

 

[Loz]

Water = Asphyxiation?

I can't make the connection between water and acid, but, unless you're a fish, then water will certainly cause asphyxiation. And mix it with the Motion rune, then it'll impart a lot of Force, too.

 

[Deleriad]

water and acid was simply due to them both being liquids. It's a stretch but I was looking for a different unique damage type for each element.

Basically, if you think of an element as a form of matter and damage as caused by energy then possibly you could a dyad of matter and energy associated with each rune. (This is not intended to apply physics to the runes, just to use analogies.)

You can make a case for 4 of the elements translating quite nicely but water is more difficult.

The gamist rationale is so that you can easily identify what kind of damage by a particular kind of attack and what, therefore, provides protection against it. RQ generally has "normal," fire, cold, lightning and magical damage. It also has acid. It would be nice to be able to map acid to water on the premise that it is to water what, for example, lightning is to the air. It doesn't really work unless you set up the cosmology specifically to do so.

On the gamist front, it would be nice at some point to see the relationship between different types of damage and protections spelled out. (You could also add a 6th element at some point - the moon - which does brain damage.)

In Gloranthan terms you could argue that initially, the 5 elements provided life-giving, nurturing energies (dark = shady restfulness, earth = protective support, sky = fertile warmth, water = thirst quenching life, air = life-giving breath.) When the world turned then these discovered their fatal aspect: dark that freezes, earth that crushes, sky that burns, air that shocks, water that destroys.

 

[Grrrr]

IIt then struck me that it might be possible to associate the elemental runes with types of damage. For example:
Darkness = cold
Earth = force
Fire/sky = heat
Storm/air = lightning
Water = acid

Hmmmm

How's about matching Elemental Runes with a 'normal' type of damage and 'Elemental' ones.

With mayhap the less obvious connections nixed and made as specific as necessary. i.e. Air is not Lightning but Storm would be.


Air - Edged weapons, Asphyxiate (Gilled Beasts)
Chaos - Acid
Cold - Cold
Earth - Blunt Weapons
Fire - Heat
Sky - Piercing Weapons
Storm - Lightning
Water - Asphyxiate (Lunged Beasts)

Now what makes it complicated is that Runes in Glorantha are descended simplest to most complex. So when I make up the above list I can happily justify the Beast Rune allowing Natural Weapons as these will be Blunt (Earth) and/or Edged (Air).

If the heirachy/family history of Runes is the same in your world then this will hold up. If not it won't.

Grrrr

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Air - Edged weapons, Asphyxiate (Gilled Beasts)
Chaos - Acid
Cold - Cold
Earth - Blunt Weapons
Fire - Heat
Sky - Piercing Weapons
Storm - Lightning
Water - Asphyxiate (Lunged Beasts)

Traditionally Air is Swords, Earth is Axes and Darkness is Blunt Weapons (Water is Nets, Fire/Sky is Piercing weapons and Moon is Scimitars to complete the elemental runes)