From: Urox@aol.com
Date: Tue 05 Jul 1994 - 21:56:45 EEST
Last week I commented about roles for women characters and several people
responded (rather humorously):
Barron said:
I can, however, imagine a very interesting scenario that is based on a
"women's roles" basis. Intriguing noblewomen would be a great start. A
murder in a nunnery or the Paps would be another. To stretch the imagery a
little more, how about travelling healers and their Babsi bodyguards. Or any
scenario of the "your men are gone and you must protect the homestead anyway
you can" variety. I'd like to hear other peoples ideas of "women's"
scenarios.
Pam Carlson wrote:
Well, in Dara Happa, or the West, or any of those generally repressive areas, playing ANYONE with no opportunity wouldn't be much fun. Yes, there might be a lot of content and personally fulfilled Dendara initiates in the Lunar Heartland, but I can't imagine playing one.
GM: "So, What's your plan for today?
"Player: "Let's see... I'll bet the kids need diapering, and the floor needs
to be swept... OH! Neveshantakementherask hasn't had breakfast yet -the poor
man might drop dead by noon if I don't get his breakfast. Hey, I'll bet I
could find some laundry to scrub, too! Can I make my search roll?"
(Player rolls 08)
GM: "Wow! You found some crusty old sandal-wrappings under the bed!"
OK, you got me ;-). I was assuming that being an "adventurer" is not a real
option for most people in Glorantha.
But you can have fun anyway, like Pam's farmers who won't leave the farm:
"While I am grateful to have such enthusiasm, I can't get 'em off the damn
farm!"
This illustrates it's not really a woman-only problem:
GM: "So, What's your plan for today?
Orlanthi Farmer, Lunar worker, Rokari peasant: "Let's see, I have to plow the field/ tote that bale, dig that ditch. Can I make my search roll? GM: "you bend your plow on a big rock which will take all day to dig out ....etc.
I think traveling, adventuring, trading etc. can be quite interesting when
you're raised to not think head bashing is the first and only option (see Pam
below). IMO being a homeless wanderer who kills stuff to get their treasure
really sucks, unless you're playing a game that makes it "cool" (refer to
most D & D campaigns). In the western film Culpepper Cattle Co. Gary Grimes
is told, "Cowboying (read adventuring) is something you do when you can't do
nothin' else."
In fact, being a soldier, warrior etc. is only "fun" in movies and games. If
there are any combat vets on the Daily I hope they'll feel free to correct
me, but based on my uncle's tales of four tours in Vietnam I'd say war
changes people irreversibly in ways they might have avoided given the choice.
In my own experience I know this to be true. I spent a year in East Timor (former Portuguese colony occupied by Indonesia) in '89-90 and never really got over it. Even though I wasn't actually being shot at or tortured I felt stressed and on edge 24 hours a day. People were constantly being picked up for interrogation and torture and everyone had tales about their families being murdered and villages napalmed. The secret police watched me all the time and bugged our conversations, so anytime I met someone outside the capital I had to worry about their being interrogated for talking with a foreigner. Let me tell you about _real_ Danfive Xaron agents sometime.
Because I'm an American, and male, I felt like I was supposed to _do_ something or "take action." There was horror all around and since I could do almost nothing about it (our government supplies the weapons) so I felt frustrated and depressed all the time. But I noticed the Swiss Red Cross nurses, who had to actually see the tortured political prisoners daily, seemed able to take satisfaction from the little things they could do for people to make their lives a little easier. So I wondered if women aren't much better at dealing with those kind of situations.
Forgive the babbling, I'll take it alt.culture.indonesia next time.
Mark (last week)
While the testosterone hampered men in Loskalm etc. are busy bashing each
other, strutting about self- importantly and mucking things up, women could
be moving in their own way to work for issues they feel are important and
even establishing new cults/sects for themselves.
Pam:
I like this idea. The secretive "Dara Happan Ladies Knitting Needle
Assassination Team" could be highly effective in those dart competitions.
Women can get especially nasty when they protect their kin. Think of the
"female bear protecting her cubs" stories. Babeester Gor seems to be the
Gloranthan exemplification of this, but there could be protection subcults
associated with other earth deities. (Maybe not quite so twisted?) Dendaran
Daughters for Defense? Praxian Mothers Against Marauding Morokanth? Sisters
of Sartar? The Grazers have the Feathered Horse Queen, whose representatives
teach "steak knife" skill....And, I'm gonna go out on a limb, here... I think
that women tend to be less confrontational than men, and they prefer to look
for compromise rather than argue. Perhaps this is a function of the above
brain hormone influence, maybe it's learned, but that doesn't really matter.
In Glorantha, it would allow for women to make good diplomats, translators,
merchants -good Issaries/Etyries culties. I wonder if a radical solar woman
could join Lokarnos? Could a Western woman be a shopkeeper or a trader?
These are great ideas and I hope I can use some of them. My main problem is I
usually can't find many women players and few guys are interested. This
non-confrontational approach is just what I was getting at. I don't feel that
"interesting" should at all mean "good in battle" for character roles. But I
recognize that Glorantha is a violent world where high adventure takes place,
so no flames please.
By the way Pam, it's Mark, not Marc, but it's pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove." for you Monty Python fans :-).
Mark Foster
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:35:42 EEST