Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 2430570" data-attributes="member: 3649">They share nothing at all as far as the things you mention. Harn was written several years after RuneQuest and has a totally different game system. I would not exactly call RQ a 'low magic' world but rather a 'low power' one. Everyone can and does learn some magic unless they are just lazy, incredibly poor, or stupid. Pretty much anyone joining a cult, and almost everyone does, can learn some battle magic spells for a pretty reasonable price. You have 'battle magic' or 'spirit magic' spells that are generally low-power spells that do some basic things like create light or make your sword a better weapon. Most battle magic in the original rules had levels from 1-6; that was also the amount of temporary Power ( a stat, usually 3-18) used to power it. Spells could also be powered, if I remember right, by bound spirits.  There was Rune Magic, which came directly from your god and could do a great many things. There were some generic Rune Magic spells, then each god had one or more spells that could be learned by initiates and priests. Initiates could learn rune magic but it cost them permanent points of Power to do so; it was one-use and then you had to spend permanent Power again to get it back (Power had a chance of increasing every time you overcame someone's resistance with it). Priests had access to some renewable spells but they renewed only once per week. Rune magic wasn't something you just tossed around willy-nilly. My favorite one? Couvade (sp, probably), from the cult of Kyger Litor, the troll goddess. It passes all the pain and discomfort of pregnancy and childbirth to the male. It makes birth easier for the female (a prime consideration, given the troll curse mentioned above) and the male gets points for the macho suffering. Though I don't think there were rules for it, massed priests could combine their power and really change things. They could cause earthquakes, move mountains, burn cities, all that good stuff. The really powerful stuff was very rare; you might see a couple three incidents of it in your lifetime.  There were some other types of magic as well. The atheistic Brythonians (I think) had a form of sorcery (you saw this in RQ3), and I'm pretty sure the people of Pamalt had another system. The far east used dragon magic.  Major magic items were pretty rare but small petty ones were not uncommon.</blockquote>

Verification