Intro

For me back in the day the ubiquity of battle magic was something that made RQ and Glorantha significantly different and better than the other games of the time, and to keep the same look and feel  to the world it needs to keep its prominence, and see a world where magic is as common a response to a problem as technology is our world.

Keeping spirit/battle/folk magic front and centre needs to be key to any Gloranthan system, and this needs to be the case in the WOD storyteller mash up.

There has to my knowledge never been any link between spirit magic and runes within the game mechanic, there is a linkage between runes and spirit magic in the game world and it would be good if the game mechanic would reflect it.

I am aiming for a system where characters with high traits in runes associated with a particular spirit magic spell find it easier to cast and their spells are more potent when they do. Where characters without  associated runes can still use the sprit magic spells but their magic less powerful.

Base Spirit Magic Mechanic

The premise of the system is this

• All characters have variable points in various runes( usually 1 to 5)
• All characters have variable point in various battle magic spells (usually 1 to 5)
• All spirit magic spells have a native rune associated with them
• Casing any spirit magic spell costs a single quinessence point.

When casting a spirit magic spell the caster can choose to

• Amplify his battle magic spell through a rune of his choice.
• Use his knowledge of the spell only

If a character chooses to amplify his spell through the use of his runes, the following mechanic kicks in

• A players dice pool is the sum of the traits in battle magic and the traits in the particular spell
• The target difficulty of the roll for the spells effect is set by relevance of the rune chosen to the spell and the target effect or situation.
  • Difficulty 5 – Native rune
  • Difficulty 6 – High relevance
  • Difficulty 7 – Slight relevance
  • Difficulty 8 – Tenuous relevance
  • Difficulty 9 – No relevance
  • Difficulty 10 – Opposing Rune

If the character chooses not amplify the battle magic spell

• The dice pool is the character trait level in the spell
• The difficulty will be a standard 6

As with all WOD storyteller systems the number of dice rolled over the difficulty is the number of success on the test.

For Example  Jema the Chalana Arroy Healer has a trait of 3 in the spell heal and 2 in the life rune. If she choose not to amplify the spell with her Rune she would roll 3 dice with target numbers of 6, so a 2, 4, and 8 rolled mean she has one success.

However if she were to amplify the spell with her rune she would roll 5 dice with a target number of 5, meaning a 3,5,7,5,8 would give her 4 successes.

Ricca the Ernelda priestess has Heal 3 and Earth 4, if she were to amplify with her earth rune by channelling the healing power of the earth into her target she would have a dice pool of 7 and difficulty of 6 as it is a highly relevant rune in an appropriate situation.

Alric the shaman has Heal 2 and Spirit 5, he can amplify his heal through his spirit but it is only slightly relevant so he will have a dice pool of 7 but a difficulty of 7.

Shoga the Deathlord has Heal 2 and Death 5, if he was to try to amplify the heal spell through a death rune, the difficulty would be 10 due to opposing nature and he is as likely to damage his target as heal him.

Runes and Relevancy

The spell descriptions listed below all list native runes and runes with high relevance, however some guidance on other runes.

• Elemental runes – Elemental runes are either native, highly relevant but only become relevant if the physical element is present and could be manipulated to the effect desired. More often they are neutral, but sometimes are opposed when opposing spells native to other elements.
• Power Runes – Power runes are brought into play when associated to the effect being sought and tend to be highly relevant or opposing runes,
• Form Runes – Form runes usually become slightly relevant when the target of the spell relates to the form.
• Condition Runes – Condition Runes slightly relevant to lots of situations especially spirit, magic, infinity, luck and fate which can be used in most situations.

However these decisions should be taken by the storyteller in game time.

Effects of Spirit Spells

Spirit Magic in Glorantha has traditionally worked with one of  work with one of three game mechanics;

• Buff – Bonuses are given to various skill checks and combat actions
• Opposed Roll – An effect takes place on a third party if an opposed roll is won
• Instant effect – Things just happen.

These three mechanics need to be considered in the new system.

Buffs

• One spirit magic buff can be cast a round in addition to a characters main action.
• A character maybe affected by different buffs at the same time, but not of similar types (defensive, offensive, anti magic, movement, stealth, communication, etc).
• Each success made will be added to all rolls of a certain type for the duration of the scene.
• The dice roll affected will be determined by the spell and can be found in the spell table.

Opposed Roll

• These spells take an action to cast.
• Opposed rolls are made when casting spells over targets who wish to resist. The Target will almost always resist with their willpower at a target of 6.
• If a spell succeeds the amount successes of the caster over the defender determine the strength or length of the effect of the spell.

Instant Effect

• These spells take an action to cast.
• One success is enough for an complete success, extra success dive more detailed information

Hopefully this creates a spirit magic system that reflects the best of old Gloranthan RQ, works in the storytellers system and gives runes more an prominence in the system.

Character backgrounds in Glorantha is a very simple bit of rewrite. With no  significant system changes, just a selected, tweaked and sometimes re titled character backgrounds.

My Initial selection is as follows

• Allies – Key NPC allies and walking plot devices
• Artifact – Magical item or heirloom defined with GM
• Contacts – Contacts for information and resources
• Cult Status – Status within your cult
• Destiny – The magnitude of the sense of fate that the character has upon him. The game effect extra floating bonus dice pool role per session, for any challenges relating to the characers sense of Destiny.
• Family – Characters family connection to, the power and/or size of their family
• Homestead – The ownership of land and home
• Influence – The ability to influence society and people of power
• Mentor – A useful and insightful mentor(s)
• Past Lives – The ability to call on the ability perceptions and knowledge of those that have gone before. The game effect is floating dice pool per sessions where players  have no natural ability .
• Resources -The ability gather money and use physical resources
• Status – Your characters Status in his home culture
• Witta/ Communal Spirit – Your characters spiritual connection to the community or group spirit, also contributes to the spirits power and abilities

Open to suggestions, additions and improverments

OK the first thing any system needs is a character definition system and the classic storyteller system is good.

A focus on varied social and mental attributes(stats), as well as physical attributes is an appeal for a game with thoughtful players interested in characterisation. So no changes to the base attribute model.

• Physical: – Strength, Stamina, Dexterity
• Mental: – Intelligence, Wits, Perception
• Social: – Charisma, Appearance, Manipulation

The RQ Pow stat will be tied into runes and virtues in this system. The Siz Stat will have to be assumed in strength and stamina, but its a trade off I am happy to get for perception, wits , appearance and manipulation.

Classic WOD abilities do not translate into Glorantha and we do need to look at a specific Gloranthan set of abilities. I started with a Mage the Sorcerers Crusade abilities list trimmed some out, added some  Werewolf abilities and then created and added some that I thought were Glorantha to cover the basic abilities set.

The aim was to cover 90% of the players skill requirement with these skill sets, ensure a Gloranthan feel, and push players towards the use of magic and cult.

• Talents – Alertness, Artistic, Athletics, Awareness, Brawl, Dodge, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Subterfuge
• Skills – Archery, Crafts, Etiquette, Leadership, Larceny, Mechanisms, Melee, Riding, Stealth, Survival
• Knowledge – Academics, Culture, Investigation, Languages, Medicine, Myth, Politics, Divine Lore, Sorcerers Lore, Spirit Lore

I’m happy with the coverage and choice but if anyone can suggest better names than Divine Lore, Sorcerers Lore, Spirit Lore I would love some alternatives.

As the classic storyteller five dots in skills and abilities refer to the normal species maximum for a normal Human, I think Glorantha Heros can surpass what is expected as normal and have gone for an eight dots per attributes as a ceiling.

I am currently unaware of how I will manage access to stats over 5 dots, but the capacity needs to be there to determine the detail at a later date.

Runes, Virtues , Spirit Magic, Backgrounds will probably all change through the development process of the game mash up, but they do need their place on the first draft of the Character sheet.

I have also decide to keep nature and demeanour from the WOD system as they can be interesting in helping characters define themselves.

Please comment on coverage of skills, and potential names for the three magical lores or anything else you think maybe fun.

Hi All,

I ran a really fun gloranthan game for a bunch of old friends who I used to play Whitewolf games with last night. I used the classic whitewolf storyteller WOD system because everyone knew it and it was quick dirty character gen and straight into gaming.

It worked well and as our style is more plot and character than crunch, the system didn’t get in the way. However it didn’t push the magic and the cult angle as strongly as I would of liked and at times I felt like it was ‘Cadfael’ the role playing game.

So my intent was to convert all characters into RQ2 or RQ3 and go with a native gloranthan system in the long run so I didn’t have to recreate gloranthan  magic and work out that Monster. However this morning a few things seemed flat on the old RQ3 character sheet, and for our style of play the Whitewolf core system may be a better starting point.

So i’m about to create a Gloranthan skin for the storyteller system, I thought id share this process in a few posts, so people can laugh at my trials tribulations, false starts and failures.

Ideas will be gratefully reviewed, constrictive criticism will be resisted and then assimilated when no one is looking, and debate is a fun part of the creative process.

Currently what I think we will get in the WOD system is;

• Better characterisation around social and mental stats and skills
• A built in character background system which is easily converted and developed
• A flaws and merits system which
  • Aids character definition
  • Can be used to incorporate gifts and geases, rune touched and feats
  • Can be modified to reflect changes as runic affinities become stronger

What I will need to create or significantly change is;

• Trim combat to make it fast, quick and deadly as Jeff suggested an Glorantha combat system should be.
• Create a magic system(s) that reflect Gloranthan Runequest which is quick easy and simple with the classic WOD system
• Look at how runes would work in the system
• Look at how virtues would work in the system

So I will make at least one posts  covering each of these areas, some may need three of four attempts.