From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Sat 10 Aug 1996 - 01:54:11 EEST
Martin Laurie points at me saying
>all I objected to was your objection to my statements on the grounds
>that I should be more vague and less detailed.
and later says
>As a GM
>it really narks me not to know what these races get up to.
Well, I guess part of what really narks me about Martins
description of the Blue Vadeli, as both a GM and someone with a wider
interest in Glorantha, is to be told in great detail exactly *what* they
do, without being told the Gloranthan *why*. Essentially, the information
was useless to me - the precise mechanics of their alleged necrophiliac
practices are something unlikely to come up in play in my game - if they
ever meet Blue Vadeli I doubt they'll find out exactly what happens to
their corpse. Whereas far before I felt any need to work out the mechanical
details, I'd like to know how a Blue Vadeli explains it morally and
magically, how it fits into their culture, or Western thought in general.
Some details of what meeting a blue is like (even if we accept necophilia,
I doubt its something they get into on the first date, at least against a
party of presumably resistant PCs).
To reuse Martins example of the trolls
>I think the prime example of this is the Trolls. They were HEAVILY demistified
>and became a people instead of a group of monsters.
For example, we have the vague idea that they remove organs for
magical purposes. We haven't been told exactly which ones or why or many of
the details. And we have a wealth of detail about their customs, myth,
beliefs and so on.
For my conclusion on the whole debate, may I say that the alleged
'splatterpunk' nature of Martins Blue Vadeli was not, in itself, a reason
why I disliked it. But it did make it a little harder for me to like it,
because was likely to put people off, so it needed to have something I
really liked, which it didn't.
>I thought
ah, that would be the Brithini digest, but it is lost to the world
>this was a digest devoted to discussing all things Gloranthan and to discussing
>ideas in a pure and unfettered way, free of personal feelings, free of
>political
>dogma, free of anything other than logical and fast paced debate.
with the rest of the Kingdom of Logic. A tragedy. Its Joy of the Heart, and
Liberation of the Soul, and all that modern rubbish here.
Hazia
As determined last night, IMG (or at least in In My Prax) hazia is
not, strictly speaking, illegal. It is, however, strictly regulated and to
grow or sell or possess it without the appropriate Lunar authorisation is
illegal. In pracice, it is illegal in Lunar Prax to almost everybody
though, as the Lunars tightly control the trade because they find the
debilitating effects on their soldiers a major problem, and they also
discourage it as a concession to Solanthos. Only Lunars with very tight
connections to the Lunar High Command might get it.
But then again, it quietly grows in lots of places out in the
wastes, and to many nomad tribes it is neither illegal nor particularly
immoral, though overindulgence is weakness, and weakness is looked on
harshly (but they say the same thing about food, water, fun, etc. out there
in the wastes). Some tribes disapprove, others use it with enthusiasm, and
for some reason are not as susceptible to the effects of withdrawal.
Boggles
> Boggles always appear singly, leading some rash scholars to the
>conclusion
>that only one exists in the whole world. We should be so lucky.
I think in Sandy's game they once met a never ending party of
boggles (party as in celebration, rather than party as in group of
adventurers). They were feasting in a castle along one of the paths to the
top of the Plateau of Statues, I think.
And in conclusion to this rambling missive, let me ramble in the
direction of Nicks home page. May I heartily recommend several bits it, I
learnt a lot AND laughed out loud several times (especially the sentences
beginning 'The Red/White/'original' Moon is associated with...').
Cheers
David
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