Lords of Olympus Q&A

This is the revival of the Lords of Olympus Q&A series; what with the new blog, I figure we ought to let people know about it again. 

The rules are simple: if you have a question about LoO, then please post it in this thread on the theRPGsite, the home of the OFFICIAL Amber DRPG, Erick Wujcik, and Lords of Olympus Forum! Remember, its the only official Amber RPG fan-forum that was authorized by Erick Wujcik himself (who was a moderator there until his untimely death).

Any question you post to the thread above will be answered within a week's time by yours truly, and will be summarized here on my blog on a regular basis.

So, on to the questions:

Q: "I'm studying the game and preparing to run it in some week.
My first question: you stated that "Olympian Magic and Primordial Magic function in every world"; am I correct in deducing that Ineffable Names, Elementalism, Enchantment and  Glamour don't work in some world?
PS It's a good game, RPGPundit!"

A: thank you!  And yes, your deduction is correct; while each of those other powers will usually work (at variable levels of strength) in different worlds, they will not necessarily work in all worlds.  Those several powers are meant to be the most significant cross-world powers available.
Note that this also means that there can be other powers that only work in one or two worlds; there are power-creation rules available in the LoO rulebook; though in some cases the GM might wish to have these powers available through role-play rather than point-buy.  In any case, the powers listed in the rulebook are those that are generally functional to some degree in the vast majority of worlds/realms.


Q: "Another question about the naga example: when our hero switch to Prowess to hit the neck of the naga, the naga too has to switch to bite and so has to loosen the grip?"

A: Actually, you will note in the combat example that I mention that the Naga continues to squeeze the hero in its grip; because it is using two different "appendages" (for lack of a better term), squeezing with its coils while trying to strike at him with its head, it can continue to use might to squeeze the hero while using prowess to try to bite at him; this is only possible because the PC has given the naga the opportunity to strike at him by letting go of the naga's head in order to try to strike at it.  The point of the example is that trying to switch abilities is an often dangerous move, and that the GM should be very careful to make sure that a) the ability can be switched, and b) that what the PC is attempting would really be governed by the new ability and not the old one.  Remember, in the example "Brett" first asks the GM if he can headbutt the Naga with Prowess, and the GM rules that in this case the headbutt would still be Might; "Brett" was trying to get to switch to his better ability without having to take any risk on his part.  Of course, its not that any switch MUST involve risk, just that it often does.
A lot of this is just common sense: the naga can try to bite even while it keeps squeezing, so it makes sense that it be able to do both.


That's it for today!  Please feel free to write with any LoO questions!

RPGPundit

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