From: argrath@aol.com
Date: Tue 29 Mar 1994 - 04:44:14 EEST
Guy Robinson has a bit in his otherwise fine write-up of North Prax about
Sallow Root, an addictive substance which aids oratory and has shaken the
foundations of Arkat's Dark Empire. (ADE died out centuries ago in most of
our worlds, but that's OK.)
This, with the hazia of Sun County and subsequent releases, makes two addictive magical drugs in Glorantha. IMHO, this is two too many for a fantasy RPG world. Actually, it's not the drugs themselves that I object to (although an argument could be made there), but the fact that they are outlawed and persecuted much as drugs are in the 20th century West.
I'd like to know of just one historic parallel, just one drug that was outlawed anywhere in the world before the Opium Wars. And don't tell me that the witches of Europe had a drug that the Church outlawed--that's just speculation, and in any case never a drug in common use.
Drug laws are as much a part of 19th and 20th century Western civilization as the secret ballot or the six-gun. Any world that has any of those things is mixing genres.
Just Say No.
--Martin
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