reverancepavane | rune-based skills in Glorantha (Reply)

In many skill-based systems you get collections of skills that perform the same basic function, but in different ways. For example, many skill-based games have different skills for Bribery, Negotiation, Leadership, Gossip, Fast Talk et al, when what most of these skills is trying to do is the same thing - influence another person. So why not have a single Influence skill with a preferred mode.

Now, in the current incarnation of Glorantha, everyone has a single elemental rune which represents their affinity to the five elements (Fire, Darkness, Earth, Air, Water). So why not extend this to skills, so each skill is associated with a different elemental rune. So Influence (Air) is Oratory, whilst Influence (Fire) is Command, Influence (Water) is Negotiate, Influence (Earth) is Bargain, and Influence (Darkness) is either Gossip or Fast Talk.

The nice advantage of this is that you can extend the qualities of the element to the skill. And since each element trumps the element that follows it in the list (so Fire defeats Darkness, Darkness defeats Earth, Earth defeats Air, Air defeats Water, and Water defeats Fire), using a certain mode of Influence will be more of less effective according to the audience. So for example, using Influence (Air) [Oratory] would be relatively ineffective against someone with an Earth orientation, whereas Influence (Earth) [Bargain] would be advantageous. I already do this for overt Rune magic. For example the damaging effect of most Air magic tends to be lightning, which, as you can imagine, is quite effective when used against things immersed in a pool of water.

However people would be more likely to respond to a mode that is similar to their preferred elemental mode. So perhaps some sort of distribution similar to the Ka distribution in Nephilim might be appropriate. So a player gets their full ability against someone with a similar elemental affinity, and reduced ability in the other modes. They still only have the one skill, it's just it's application changes.

Now the interesting thing is that you can also associate skills such as Influence with the various Condition Runes as well as the Elemental Runes. For example, you might have different modes of the Movement Rune, so Move (Darkness) is Sneak, Move (Air) is Athletics (or Jump or even Fly), Move (Water) is Swimming, and so on. Similarly the Death Rune presents us with Melee (Fire) is Spear, Melee (Air) is Sword, Melee (Earth) is Axe and so on, as well as Missile (Fire) being Bow, Missile (Air) being Javelin (or Sling), and so on. So it might be possible to reduce the entire skill set for Runequest (or in my case Runeclaw) to the Condition Runes, as modified by the Elemental Runes.

Although I think I do like the separate skills, and perhaps the cost of learning a skill would be affected by it's elemental affinity. The bonus from the Cult Trait, Rune Magic, and general Cult Magic is always directed to the appropriate skill, so Orlanthi magic only augments Oratory (usually as "Boast").

And of course, there are the exceptions that make the rules. For example we have odd runes like the Moon Rune, so Influence (Moon) might be Beguile, Movement (Moon) might be Balance (or Dance), and Melee (Moon) is the Scimitar. Whilst some consider it to be an elemental rune (and it often acts as such), it is outside the cycle of elements, so it won't get the advantages and disadvantages that the other elemental runes get. Instead it will be tied to the cyclical nature of the Red Moon.

Some interesting thoughts here to explore. Are spears more effective than clubs? Are axes more effective than swords? And what about those deities (such as Orlanth), who stole the secrets of the other elemental deities for their followers.