From: staats@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon 11 Apr 1994 - 23:59:37 EEST
Greetings!
I just wanted to add a couple of bolgs worth of thoughts to this discussion.
From a gaming standpoint, the more Earth-like the RQ version of Glorantha is, the easier it is to suspend disbelief, the name of the game in roleplaying. It is a very neat thing that Greg could stand in the mountains of Australia and ``see'' Sartar. It is much easier for gamers to ``see'' waving fields of grass under a blue sky than totally alien flora and fauna under a puce sky. I always imagine that Glorantha would be very much like Earth except for noted differences, e.g. magic works, there is a giant whirlpool in the center of the sea, etc. I also assume that, at the very least, human motivations and behavior are similar to those found on Earth. Along those lines, it seems completely reasonable that Glorantha would sport games similar to those played by peoples on Earth. There are many excellent books on the history of gaming, and it is amazing just how similar games are the whole world over. Games were and are played on Earth for a variety of reasons, and not all of these apply directly to liesure time activities. Various religions have associated with games throughout the ages. Games have been used to settle disputes in lieu of bloodshed. Games are used as a means of honing survival skills. The list goes on. If Gloranthans are anything at all like their Terrestial counterparts, games should be widespread, and many of them would be similar to games played on Earth.
The similarities between cultures in Glorantha and real, historical cultures on Earth, give the GM a great chance to introduce bits of atmosphere to a Campaign session.
The default interpretation of things in Glorantha should be Earth-like unless directly stated otherwise.
Tschuess!
Rich Staats
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