Overthinking

[james_davis_nicoll]

"Using Basic Roleplaying as the template, with the detail iron quenches magic, who would prevail along the border between a metal-using, non-magical society roughly on par with the Song and metal-shunning society with functioning magic?"



Results so far:

Noticing the spell list in BRP is short on useful utilitarian magic, like light a fire or preserve food.

How does a magic using society secure a source of food? Are we talking sylvaculture here?

Why the difference? Maybe just an accident of geology meant metal working paid off faster for one, whereas it remained a curiosity for the other.

How is it these two groups are only just encountering each other? Which leads to an idea about a world whose Antarctica analog is freezing over, cooling the world and opening land bridges to a continent humans have never visited before.

Comments

[mindstalk]

Glorantha had a barrier on travel between the two main continents imposed by an angry wizard; I think it goes down before a RQIII game starts.

RQIII spirit magic (the most common kind) includes Ignite, also Repair and Heal as mentioned. Endurance converts magic points to fatigue points -- Instant/Permanent, not duration. Bladesharp and Bludgeon are meant for combat but plausibly could increase tool effectiveness too.

Divine magic has Bless Crops and Cloud Call, with big enough effect areas to be useful. Divine magic and Sorcery have water-breathing spells.

No food preservation, though.