From: Peter Metcalfe (metcalph@voyager.co.nz)
Date: Tue 04 Aug 1998 - 09:13:59 EEST
Nikolas Lloyd
NL>>>Do people in Glorantha believe in luck?
Me>> Yes. In Jolar, there is even a plant called 'Damn-my-luck'.
>Proving that the word exists, but not defining the concept.
I think we can use the standard english meaning of the word. Unless
you have reasons to believe that this is not the case?
>I remember
>meeting someone who kept saying that "There is no such thing as luck".
And he is either an idiot, someone who is overly fond of playing
stupid word games, or both.
>We had a conversation about golf. He said that if a man hits the ball
>in a certain way, then it will, under the prevailing conditions, certainly
>go into the hole, and that there was therefore no involvement of luck.
If this is true, then I would expect top-notch golfers to be far
more consistent in their putting than appears to be the case. But
given that there are cases where better golfers have been trounced
by worse golfers and that we call this phenomenon 'luck'.
>I may say "damn-my-luck", but this doesn't mean that a rune
>determined the outcome.
Nobody has said the rune has determined the outcome. All that has
been said is that luck exists just as much as it does in glorantha
as it does here.
>> And quite a few of those spells are generalized luck spells. I
>> imagine there are quite a few gloranthans who have luck totems.
>Name a generalised luck spell.
I was talking about luck spells that gloranthans have, not luck
spells written in the roolz. Touching a rabbits foot is an
excellent example of a luckspell.
>Are you suggesting that Speedart makes an archer luckier? [fun with
>strawman deleted]
No. Whatever gave you that idea?
>I prefer a Glorantha without luck, because it means that people will
>judge the man, the character, as worthy or otherwise, not put it down
>to mystical influence. An RPG is all about character.
It would be much nicer if you stated how you thought luck operated
in glorantha (ie the existance of luck rune doling out good fortune all
over the globe) and what you felt was wrong with the concept. That
way we could have a more productive discussion then to have to guess
at the root of your problems and catch fire because our responses do
not address what you feel is important.
Secondly what is so bad about having a lucky or unlucky character?
>> >If fate is unalterable destiny, then what is a heroquest?
Me>> An attempt to alter alterable destiny.
>Fair enough, but this still introduces the concept of unalterable destiny.
So? I'm going to be dead in a hundred years time and most gloranthans
have similar fates. Even the immortal gloranthans will eventually
be like the dinosaurs. But that does not mean that such fates dominate
our present actions considering that we (and most gloranthans) do not
know when they will occur.
- --Peter Metcalfe
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