Rules on the list, Gods, Ralios...

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From: Graeme Lindsell (lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au)
Date: Wed 25 May 1994 - 21:24:04 EEST


 Graeme Lindsell reluctantly entering the fray:

jdegon@vega.iii.com writes:
>I dislike the amount of conflict that has been engendered by Devin's
>comments about the content of the daily.

 Total agreement from me here: if people want the Daily to have more rules topics, then post and dicuss them. I must admit to seeing very few followups of rules articles on this Daily, they tend to post and then vanish. The RQ4 list has also been responsible for absorbing most of the rules articles for the last year or so, but since RQ: AiG is in limbo that's died.

 Arguments about whether the list has an agressive scholarly bent are IMO more pointless than the most abstruse discussions, since I don't get anything useful out of them.

 Of cousre, this is Henk's list, and he has the final say over what goes on here, if only because he can pull the plug on it if he wants

 To start a rules related discussion:

 In River of Cradles I noticed that the requirements to become a Storm Priest have increased significantly: the Storm Priest now needs 90% in 3 skills. In fact, there isn't a single rune level in any of the RoC write-up that deosn't need at least one skill at 90% (I include the shamans of Daka Fal, as only a fool would wan't to try to create a fetch without 90%+ Summon). Is this part of a deliberate move to make rune levels harder to attain, or is it only a change in Orlanth? In Dorastor: Land of Player Character Disposal Services Dorasta and Telmor still have the old 50% in 5 skills for priesthood or acolyte status.

Aden Steinke writes
>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.

 They're not: they may be real, but they certainly have far less free will than any mortal - something usually blamed on the Compromise but which may be far more fundamental to Glorantha IMO. Gloranthan gods appear to have less free will than the Greek gods - you never see Orlanth paying a faithful (or at least brave) initiate a personal visit, or Uleria manifesting to seduce a handsome man.

 As for whether they're real or not, I found the presence of Shargash in Dara Happan mythology as confirming that these gods do have a real aspect. I wonder how the Dara Happans reconcile the similarity between Shargash and Orlanth?

 My feeling on the matter is that the inhabitants of Glorantha can worship how they please, but those who worship the more primal (more real?) god tend to be gain more powers and benefits from their worship. I see Spirits of Reprisal more as results of breaking local social prohibitions than a reaction of the god. Of cousre the worshippers may choose to HeroQuest to change the "primal" god to be closer to the one they like.

>Gary Newton submits: A Modest Proposal For Safelster

 While it's interesting, it seems to be more replacing Renaissance Italy with Tsarist Russia, which had similar wide open spaces and oppressed peasants. This isn't to say I don't like the idea: in many ways I prefer the russian idea to the Italian one, which seems a case of "lets design an area that's great to run adventures in!"

--
Graeme Lindsell a.k.a lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra. "I was 17 miles from Greybridge before I was caught by the school leopard" Ripping Yarns - Tomkinson's Schooldays.

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