From: Paul Reilly (paul@phyast.pitt.edu)
Date: Fri 07 Jan 1994 - 01:56:50 EET
David Cake writes:
> The point of all this is that the runes are basically a cultural
This is exactly right, and it really annoys me. I _liked_ the idea that
> This change is due to a change in thinking on the part of Greg Stafford.
>artifact, that is reflected in the mythology, but they are not necessarily the
>deep profound basic secrets of the universe that RQ2 made them out to be.
GLorantha had deep underlying laws, some of which had been discovered by the
inhabitants. "Everything is cultural relativism" BUGS me, because it broke
up this vision of a REAL secondary world with consistent laws of its own.
Having set out the basic premises for Glorantha, it is "cheating" to change
them. Why not start another world with new premises?
I think that many of the changes going on in Glorantha are intended to make
Glorantha a "better" distorted copy of Earth. This, in my opinion, is a
mistake. Glorantha used to be its own world - related to Earth, but different
in its uderlying principles. Now that there ARE no underlying principles,
it drifts toward being a bad, boring copy of Earth. I would rather play out
a game set in sixth-century Constantinople with Justinian and Belisarius as
characters, than in a Glorantha where the relationship between the Red
Emperor and Fazzur is obviously cribbed from same. If the premises of the
world include magic, then so be it: why forget about Oaths and other loyalty-
insuring magic that allows the Emperor to trust his great generals? There is
now too much of "Glorantha is just like Earth, but with magic." I would
rather explore the consequences of Glorantha's different premises, or go and
play a historical game.
Enough tirade for now. All in all, I like Glorantha and am pleased with
Greg. But it seemed like a more real world when there were natural laws to
it - now it seems Chaotic, with no rules or different rules in different
areas. What was wrong with Devolution?
- Paul Reilly
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