From: Nick Brooke (Nick_Brooke@compuserve.com)
Date: Mon 04 Aug 1997 - 12:06:32 EEST
________
I thought Patrik's description of an Orlanthi ritual was very
colourful, insightful, and moving. One of these days, I have
to describe and choreograph a week of Lunar ceremonies at the
Moonbroth Oasis; I hope I can come up with manifestations of
divine terror that are half-way as convincing as Patrik's.
________________
Michael Morrison worries about hungry trolls becoming boring:
> Adventuring in troll lands is not only dangerous, but also
> boring. Every troll you (as a non-troll) meet will try to
> kill you and eat you. No role playing for you the player,
> just combat after combat after...
Surely not. Don't you remember the troll greeting ritual:
you chuck'em some tasty food, and say "Eat this, not me!"
The aim of emphasising troll hunger (as recent posters have
done) is to stress that trolls are *alien* and *scary* --
most humans will want nothing to do with them, and most
humans will stay a safe distance from troll country. Which
appears to be the Gloranthan case. Because you never know
when a troll might get peckish, you have to keep them fed
or keep them scared -- and both are role-playing, non-combat
activities. *Especially*, I might add, in a more PenDragon
Pass-like game, where the availability of foodstuffs and
ability to terrify people are both more quantifiable and
more important to your characters.
> The bar scene would never happen! "Look, food!", the bar-
> tender says while four drunken uz run toward the door as
> the humans enter the bar. Swords and maces clash ...
"...or *would* have clashed, had not the humans had a wise
*Don't* go barging into someone else's country unless you
and experienced troll-country scout with them. Chucking the
week-old dead piglet into the room, he growled out "Eat this,
not us!" The trolls grinned -- a horrible sight -- and fell
upon the offering. Meanwhile, Durngard made the Issaries
greeting sign to the bartender, who began wiping off his
smaller tankards, expecting good business from these would-be
visitors to Crab Town. The bolgs he'd make today would afford
many meals -- perhaps even some of those new dinosaur steaks
they were serving down at Gobbleguts..."
know enough of their customs to get by. By keeping trolls
(and the other Elder Races) scary, we avoid the D'n'Dism of
polyphyletic PC parties, where racial differences amount to
a difference in ear size, precise parentage, and range of
infravision. I prefer PC groups that don't sound like the
first line of a complex racial joke, realistically xeno-
phobic human societies, and reasons to learn the customs and
way of life of those foreigners and non-humans you have to
interact with.
Just my 2p'orth,
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Nick
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