Rune 3.0 discussion March
Let's start with a nice can of worms -- what is the basis of the Rune College? What is its flavour of magic?
The current introduction states that it is "concerned with the use of special symbols of power to shape mana into desired forms" but that is a way of doing magic, not a type of magic?
What is is the College's quick / one sentence brief? (i.e. Necromancers do death and undead magics, Witches do curses and pastoral magic, E&E are classic pointy hatted wizards, etc).
The college currently appears to be a swiss army knife, with a bit of a lean towards shamanism? Is shamanistic magic the desired focus of the college?
What would an archtypical / stereotypical Rune Mage look like? Sure there would be many who would vary from the norm -- not all Necromancers look gaunt and pale -- but what would the common conception of a rune Mage look like? Dressed in furs, covered in tattoos, big gnarly staff, animal companions?
Martin Dickson 14:35, 24 Mar 2006 (NZST)
Flip-side of the "what is it all about" considerations, I'd like to see the runes themselves as central as possible and suggested to the working group back in November the following:
Runes are the way that RMs do preparation. Rune college spells (leave rituals aisde for the moment) all require prepared runes to cast. Once prepared a rune will last for a period of time before it can no longer be used for a spell. To cast a spell the Rune mage uses a Cast action, but does not need to use a Prepare/Pass action (that's already been done by preparing the Rune).
There are three kinds of rune etching:
- Normal / Standard
- this is the default form, it is drawn with ink or paint (or blood), etc, it takes 1 minute to draw the rune or runes needed for a specific spell, and once drawn will remain fresh and usable for [some time -- perhaps hours]. It may only be used once (after a spell has been cast with it as the focus, and once the spell ends it will fade and be useless).
- Permanent
- by taking at least an hour, and by using [some rare / expensive ingredients] the mage can carve, burn, tattoo, etc a rune that will last indefinitely and can be used more than once. The rune isn't active permanently, it simply remains fresh indefinitely.
- Sketch
- if the Rune mage needs to cast a spell *right now* and doesn't have a prepared rune then they can sketch one on a surface or in the air (a glowing sigil). This costs extra FT / has lower BC, etc. Basically it is an available but emergency option. The sigil can be used once and only remains fresh for a Pulse.
The idea here was to give Rune casting a different feel, while keeping it pretty simple. Some ideas around runes having their own ranks were discussed and discarded as too complex / too hard to administer. By the same token, the expiry on standard runes was intended to prevent the runestick inventory problems. The permanent runes allow for and encourage tattooed or ritually scarred rune mages who can then quickly cast spells on themselves.
Rituals a slightly different in that they are package deals, all of the runes needed to cast and all of the casting is done within the ritual, no additional runes are needed.
Martin Dickson 16:44, 24 Mar 2006 (NZST)
2.1.5 is indeed a step in making the Rune College more useable in its current form but more needs to be done (as is being suggested for 3.0) to make it a good college
How much of the Rune college is actually to do with runes and how much is the more base Shaman / Animist mage type? Working with Runes is one thing but dealing with the spirits, controlling them and other entities is a more shamanistic type feel.
Chris C 8:35, 25 Mar 2006 (NZST)
And is it a concern that unless the Runes are being used for intrinsically literary / writing type magics then they are simply a mechanic / rationalisation for the College?
Andrew Withy's variant rune college (Inscribers) is very interesting, and very appropriate for the setting and people using it (Merchant Princes), but would be of less use to adventurers, and given that the major purpose of the college is for PCs -- who are adventurers -- then another consideration becomes: what style / flavour of magic based around runes would be good for adventurers?
My only concern with Shamanism as the basis of the type of magic in the college is that (to me) Shamanism has a strongly pre-literate feeling.
Martin Dickson 08:42, 25 Mar 2006 (NZST)
If Runes are seen as the first step to full literacy, then the idea of a Shaman using them to access powers not available to the mundane feels right to me. However doesn't Wicca have a flavour of Shamanism too?
By the way, I found this Wikipedia article interesting
--Errol 22:42, 25 Mar 2006 (NZST)
I don't think that the Rune college is shamanic, at least in the sense of being focused around ancestral forces and spirits. As Martin has said, it is a means of performing magic, rather than an element of magic as necromancy is or the elemental/celestial colleges are.
This is not to say that I don't think there is no place for a Shaman character. I just don't think that there is any particular point in making it the Rune College. As an allusion to how they might have been used in the real world, then it is clear that runes were not used shamanistically.
I think that runes are an element of language. Perhaps they are the pale written shadows of the utterances of Powers. Perhaps they are a geometry of meaning, cunningly contrived to bring their writer's will about.
This is a different position to the current path of development for the college. It would emphasise written forms, not just runes, so include glyphs, scripts, books and perhaps other media which do not specifically use written forms (e.g. Qhipu, the Incan method of recording information in knots).
I believe, however, it would be a better path of development than the current one.
I saw an email on a dq discussion list that suggested that the Viking Sagas could contain a good basis for the Rune College. Maybe that could be worth looking into. --Keith 17:44, 21 Dec 2007 (NZDT)
I think, if Norse sagas are the basis of the college, then there is a problem. It becomes not so much a college about writing and becomes, instead, a college about big hairy chaps who hang around in boats.
The main difference is that this would be a college that was elemental in nature, the element in question being 'vikingness'. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's kind of hard to reason from that particular element to portal magic, rune walls, visitation and the like. These magics have become a reasonably integral part of the Guild playing environment and I do not believe that the game can do without them.
I believe that the viking theme fails to provide a rationalisation that explains the magic that needs to stay in the game. Whereas, since magic based on writing can do anything you can think of, the problem of rationalising existing rune magic doesn't arise.
Jim
