From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Mon 23 May 1994 - 22:48:53 EEST
> What kind of campaign are you currently running, Nick? I don't mean
> this as a challenge. I'm curious if you prefer to put the players into
> a small local area (like Pavis or the Grazelands, say) and have them
> caught up in the politics and activities of that tiny microcosm.
I'm not running a campaign, these days. I play in David Hall's irregular Sartar games, where our player characters are all members of the same Orlanthi tribe, clan, and household (Lismelder / Greydog / Hodirsons). The most recent game I ran was last summer: Mike Dawson's wonderful "Gaumata's Vision", with an all-Yelmalion party making up a half-file of Sun Dome militia. We also play some odd one-offs and playtests of stuff for future publication; earlier this year we had an almost-freeform session as the commanding officers of a Lunar army operating in the Bush Range.
So I guess you're right: the name "Microcosm Man" fits me like a glove!
I greatly enjoy the hierarchies and relationships in close-knit social groups of player characters; the incestuous nature of Orlanthi clan and tribal politics has me in fits of cackling glee (whenever I stop cheering and voting for my relatives to consider it). Life at the top end of the Lunar army was, if anything, worse: backbiting is one thing, but having my zealous People's Tribune (a hybrid religious-cum- political morale officer) 'fragged' (as I understand you Colonials have it) by the officers of her own side was a low-water mark for my faith in the glowing future of the Lunar Way...
Sadly, with work and other commitments, we don't get to play RQ more than once a month these days; often less. Snif.
What can I say? Wonderful beer, excellent company, some fine freeforming (including an unscripted intervention leading a squad of Lunar soldiers to close down the Sartar High Council), and a practical use for my degree at last (RQ role-playing in Dark Age Britain, courtesy of Adam Lawrence)! This was a very convivial and hugely enjoyable event, thanks to the hard work of our tolerant and amiable hosts from the German RuneQuest-Gesellschaft. Loads of praise is due to Ingo Tschinke, Helge Reuter, Joerg Baumgartner, and all the other organisers and referees who contributed to the success of the weekend. Issaries the Talking God must have been watching over us -- there was no perceptible language barrier, and my Speak German is at approx. 1%. Even the assembled Storm Bull contingent didn't cause too many problems for our delegation from the Reaching Moon...
SB: "Death to the Red Goddess!"
7M: "No, no: death and rebirth to the Red Goddess!"
^^^ ^^^^^^^
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