From: Alex Ferguson (abf@cs.ucc.ie)
Date: Sat 07 Oct 2000 - 01:43:50 EEST
Mikko:
> I'm sorry, but I don't recognize that. What I mean is that I don't run RPG
> worlds as literature, or shared hallusinations. I run them as worlds,
> which do not function by plot causality and dramatical rules. I want the
> worlds to feel real both for myself and my gamers.
To expand: by expounding that you do not run your games as shared
(or otherwise) hallucinations, in the context of this discussion,
you imply that someone else, perhaps among your "opponents", does.
I dispute that, from my personal practice, and all I've read from
others who seem to broadly agree. Please either flame specific
culprits more selectively and specifically, or don't impute such
suggestions to "the opposition" at all.
A more appropriate word than literature is narrative, I think. Your
game _is_ narrative, it's simply a matter of how more or less
self-conscious it is about its own narrative nature. I want my game
world to feel real too, so I don't feel the sting of your proposition of
predetermination of the totality of Gloranthan nature is, therefore, the
way to go as a criticism of _my_ approach. For me, approximation is
necessary and inevitable: you simply won't be able to describe All of
Glorantha, in a complete and rigorous way. Thus you can either attempt
a description that's deliberately and acknowledgedly (to oneself, at
least) partial in both senses of the word, deciding how things work for
an Orlanthi, Heortling, Sartarite, Culbrea, Elkenval, Inarsson (etc,
etc, or whatever else) perspective, and become "more true" by
particularisation of that approximation. Or you can limit yourself
before you start, decide for once and for always what the beginning and
end of Gloranthan reality is, independent of religion, culture, etc, and
never have to worry either about ever finding oneself in a contradictory
position, and equally, never in the slightest danger of getting near
Glorantha as it was conceived, either.
Give me a problematic game world over a shallow one, any day of the
week.
Goodnight,
Alex.
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