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Shadow World Channelers Guide v2.0

I recently posted up an updated version of my “Channelers Guide” over at the RM Forums and thoughts I’d make a few comments.

  1. Book title. I’m still not sure what to call this! I use “Guide”, “Handbook”, “Religions” interchangeably at different points. Is this work about Channeling, religions, Priests?
  2. Analog approach. Despite efforts to improve my work efficiency, I’m still using an old school approach to updates. I’ll jot down an idea, write a quick note or send myself an email and then put those scraps in a folder. Then when it accumulates I’ll add it to the master doc, add copy and then edit/page setup.
  3. Now that I have a group again the new material is piling up! I have 2 channelers in the group and I wanted to flesh out a few more religion details as part of their character backgrounds. I’m already thinking about v3.0 but want to finish up the Book of Essaence first.
  4. As Micael pointed out on the RM Forums, I left out 6 spell lists for some of the Gods of Charon. Most of those had some treatment already in Powers so I didn’t focus on either adding too, or creating a new religious organization. For now. I’ll be adding those in the next version.
  5. Other adds for v3.0. Summary of any significant religions in the various books. Artifacts, maybe some common temple floorplans or designs. With the spell lists and new material it’s going to push to 100-120 page count.
  6. Editing. I have no skills as an editor or in page layout. I wish I could put out a more professional product, but the last 10% just takes too much time.

Here are the links to the spell lists not included in the guide.

Andaras: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3787
Scalu: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3799
Nynaku: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3804
Kesh’ta’kai: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3782
Moralis: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3802
Klysus: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3803

Book of Essaence (BoE). This project has been a lingering goal of mine for quite some time. In fact I should have written this first, before BASiL, to help guide the design of spell lists. There are pieces of the BoE throughout this blog: powers and spells of the Earthwardens, Dragonlords, Xiosians, Essaence flows, magical languages. BoE is tying all of these pieces together into a cohesive whole, with a history starting in the 1st Era and following the origins of spells through to “present day”. The outline is currently at a dozen or so pages, but spell lists will inflate that for the final product. With the baseline finished I’ve come to the conclusion that early magic had to have 2 stages: Proto-Magic and then Arcane magic. That solved a lot of issues I kept encountering.

So why do the BoE? Much of it is academic and would have little if any impact on gameplay. Perhaps it’s my nature, but Terry left many gaps in the Shadow World setting, particularly in the underpinnings of the magic system. We have the “results” (Spell Law) but we never had a clear idea how it got there. Kulthea is not in a fantasy universe of magic; it’s in our “real” universe with a special circumstance that allows for magic. For me, this needed better road rules!

Anyway, I’m moving along quite nicely with my writing goals for 2026. Will I hit all of my benchmarks? Probably not, especially as my RL gets hectic again in a few months. Either way, I’m no longer waiting for any real opportunity from ICE to expand the Shadow World product line. If I have ideas in my head that need writing down I’ll keep on going.

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Shadow World Religions Supplement

I finally finished a better version of my various SW channeling and religion files done and packaged it into a “SW Religions & Channeling Handbook”. You can find it HERE. (you need a Rolemaster forum account to see it and download it. You can register HERE.).

I already have some new material for it and some updates, but it might give GMs and players a few ideas on how to structure a Cleric/Priest in Shadow World.

I’ve also updated my Shadow World master file list here on the blog.

PROJECT BASIL: CHANNELING

I’m starting the process of consolidating all of my uploaded files on the RM Forums over here to the Rolemasterblog.com. I’ve uploaded over 200 docs scattered throughout the Rolemaster and Shadow World threads, but to see them or download them requires a user account.

These are just the lists and not the associated notes that accompany each. For info on our Channeling mechanics, I blogged about it HERE and for Essence mechanics HERE.

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The theme of 2017

I have been looking back at a few posts from this year. One of the recurring themes seems to be that none of us are in love with Channelling magic. I have stated that you could do away with it and roll the spell lists into mentalism and essaence very easily. The very core concept that Channelling magic is an act of god makes no sense at all when you take Shadow Worlds gods into account as they are not divine beings, just very powerful mundane ones.

Brian’s rewrite of the respective clerical base lists really shows what Channelling could have been but isn’t.

Does channelling magic need more love?

I think the problem with the Channelling realm is twofold. The first is Life Giving. If it is in your campaigns and generally available then it takes a major element of threat out of your games. If you don’t allow it then you have taken the one thing that Channelling can do that no one else can out of the game.

The other problem is the Paladin. This the ultimate icon of the Channelling realm. The pin up boy of heroines everywhere. To make the Paladin work in off the shelf Rolemaster required all sorts of patches and fixes. The RoCo1 profession is generally considered overpowered and without the ‘transcend armour’ skill potentially non functioning. If you play with fully featured encumbrance rules then the Paladin is in trouble again.

On the other hand a Mentalism Paladin works just fine and there is already a profession. I mean of course the Noble Warrior, that is a Paladin without gods.

The Forgotten Realms is the setting for my campaign. In this setting the idea of clerics Raising Dead is not a problem. It cuts both ways in that dead characters can be brought back but so can evil villains and an arch Nemesis. (Do you reckon the plural of Nemesis is Nemesi? Spell Check doesn’t like it!)

I have a game running right now that is RMC pretty much Rules As Written (RAW). That game has professions and all three realms. I am hoping to start a game later this year with my profession-less, level-less, Realm-less and with emphasised Stats. If that test game works as well as I had hoped and the players have fun then that could be the death of the Channelling Realm for me!