From: Aden Steinke (Aden_Steinke@ms-gw.uow.edu.au)
Date: Wed 25 May 1994 - 01:55:13 EEST
Hi All;
Devin Cutler said
> Jesper Wahrner makes some good points about RQ and Glorantha,
> but I think he fails to realize that their will always be a
> schism between Glorantha as a literary creation and Glorantha
> (RQ) as a game.
IMHO it is not so much between Glorantha as a literary creation and as a game as between Glorantha as a place to game in where players and GMs alike require some 'absolutes' in order to maintain player involvement by those players that do not have the time and or the inclination to keep up with the permutations discussed in the RQ Daily, and Glorantha as a place for people to explore theoretical possibilities.
> While a good literary creation does have to possess internal
> consistency, it does not have to provide, in full view of the
> public, a formulised mechanism for its inner workings.
True, to be a practicable gaming environment into which new players can be brought the mechanisms should be both consistent and transparent - without Emal / Yelmalio changes suddenly appearing.
> Similarly, I am becoming less enamoured of how cults are being
> handled. Why this need for so many different cultic variations
> over Glorantha (i.e. "...what we really need is a cult of
> Yelmalio for Peloria, one for Prax, one of Pavis, one for
> Grazelanders, one for Sartar...")? Yes, cults varied wildly
> here on earth, but Glorantha is not earth.
Yes - while regional variation is necessary to provide spice to the gaming environment, and such things as hero questing and regional practices can give this variation - overall the Dieties in Glorantha are real and present in a direct manner not experienced here on Earth. As such the basics of creed/practice/behavior should be the almost the same eveywhere a God is worshipped - Humakti would not be assasins, Orlanthi would not have local relationships with Chaos - or the God would step in and either by cuting off renewable divine magic and intervention or by reprisal.
Otherwise you are saying that the Gloranthan Gods are not 'real' self willed entities with likes and dislikes. If behavior or structure is pleasing to Humakt in one place it should be pleasing in another.
Aden Steinke
a.steinke@uow.edu.au
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