From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Thu 05 May 1994 - 09:03:24 EEST
John Hughes in X-RQ-ID: 3899
> *** IMPORTANT PREAMBLE: ON EXPLORING GLORANTHA
> Looking back over the last few months, I've noticed a familiar
> pattern emerging in Digest discussion. In exploring aspects of the
> old lozenge, we often slip back and forth between different levels of
> 'Gloranthan' reality, acting according to the level we're most
> familiar with, or perhaps in the faith that all the levels somehow
> mesh. The most familiar shifting occurs when to trying to reconcile
> RQ rules with what we know of Gloranthan society from other
> sources. There are others.
> Now perhaps I'm a cynic and of little faith, but I like to draw
> distinctions as to what 'level' I'm discussing. I see at least four
> fairly distinct and (IMHO) ultimately unreconcilable levels of
> Gloranthan 'reality'. If each is a 'map', let me list them in terms of
> smaller and smaller 'scales'.
> GLORANTHA AS COMBAT-SIMULATION (COMBAT REALITY)
> GLORANTHA AS DERIVED FROM RQ RULES (RQ-DERIVED REALITY)
> GLORANTHA AS A LITERARY CREATION (LITERARY REALITY)
> GLORANTHA AS A CLOSED, FULLY-FUNCTIONING WORLD
> (GLORANTHAN REALITY)
> __________
> The difficulty in reconciling these levels may explain why there
> have been so few published scenarios in the past fifteen years, why
> they seem to concentrate on combat, and why so few have that
> uniquely Gloranthan 'feel'.
I hesitated to GM in Glorantha several years for some of these reasons. While I don't subscribe to the school that magic by its nature has no rules, gaming conventions (like standard casting time or duration, or worst of all magic points and POW points as measure of Life Force) tend to simplify the more complex realities.
I disagree about your fourth level - if a world background is not as fully functional as I can imagine it, I cannot really GM on it, and as a player (too rarely...) I tend to stumble into the pits of unconsidered consequences, to the detriment of my incolvement.
> My main reason in bringing this up is to make the comment that RQ
> rules will break down at lower/higher levels of detail, as will any
> 'map' or simulation. The cult and magic rules are especially fragile.
This is "hinting" at Alex' and my discussion on initiation, isn't it? Well, if a simulation fails to describe the details, in thermodynamics I have learned to apply modifications to the original function/rule to bend it to apply. The RQ rules are a fair basic tool for Gloranthan experiences, but as soon as you want to leave the immanent abstraction of the rules (e.g. for combat, but also for magic) you conflict with reality and playability.
> (Of course, cult writeups are GodLearner documents, and so should
> be treated with a healthy contempt). I especially think it is
> unprofitable to vacillate in discussion between different levels.
> Choose the one most profitable for your purposes and go for it.
> Don't worry or complain if it breaks down at other levels, and
> DON"T TRY TO CONSTRUCT ELABORATE RECONCILIATIONS.
Here we disagree. I want to reduce the difference between the realities
you postulate as far as possible. The simulation mechanics must not
hamper the simulation, so they need fine tuning.
> And
> make clear in your posts which level you are operating on.
I regard Glorantha as a fully functioning world that happens to be the playground of my admittedly faulty simulation, which allow myself and other players to feel involvement. Game rules are there to resolve part of the problems.
I want this to work on all levels as good as possible.
I won't distinguish between rules, literature or even scientific models as tools to describe the reality of the Glorantha (or other fantasy) experience, to me they all sum up and contribute to my personal One True World. Since I share this experience with others, it helps if their experience isn't too different from mine.
> Comments? Flames? Contact numbers for a good therapist?
Yes. On all levels. <g>
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
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