The nail has been capitally struck!

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From: Bryan J. Maloney (jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu)
Date: Tue 22 Feb 1994 - 19:15:51 EET

Somebody (Robinson, I think) hit DEAD-ON one thing that was bothering the
edges of my mind regarding RQ:AiG. The package as presented provides a great
deal of erudition on Glorantha, but relatively nothing in the way of USEFUL
information. For example: We are regaled with an enormous tale of Arkat but
we are told NOTHING regarding the importance of initiation in Orlanthi or
Praxian culture. Sorry, but even if Arkat is important to the history of
Glorantha, I would favor jettisoning the story if it were necessary to have
space to point out that an Orlanthi without an initiation/membership in a
cult (which is PART OF a religion) has no standing in the community.

Give us USEFUL information about Glorantha--assume that the VAST MAJORITY
of RQ:AiG buyers have never heard of Greg Stafford, Glorantha, or RQ, and don't give a shit about any of them. Sorry to slap you in the face with a nasty
fact, but this will probably be the truth. Put into RQ:AiG what is necessary
to PLAY Glorantha, not what is necessary to philosophize about it. Put in
the neat, colorful tidbits of social and cultural "stuff" that gives a world
flavor and limits. You don't have to worry about mechanical limits on spell
power available (a definite D&Dism) if you carefully and EXPLICITLY lay out
the SOCIETIES of the world and explicitly lay out the fact that magic only
exists within the context of these societies and how this context functions.

LESS HISTORY MORE SOCIETY, OR RQ:AiG is dead, dead, dead.

Let me put it this way: If you have a good timeline, you can dispense with
the vast majority of prose history. To be blunt, it don't mean shit if
that's all you have to the world--might as well go play Forgotten Realms.
I want MEAT. I want the societies as they ARE in the setting. I want SOLID
daily stuff, not hoary old stories. Save the majority of the erudition for
a work on Gloranthan religions, okay? Put the CORE stuff in the CORE game.
The core stuff is the day-to-day of the cultures, NOT reams of history.

Let's put it another way: While the American Revolution and the doctrines
debated surrounding it are very important in the formation of USA culture,
and to have an in-depth understanding of the roots and underlying workings of
USA culture, nobody would be so foolish as to think that the best way to
enculturate (NOT indoctrinate) somebody to the USA is to give a narrative of
our history and legends while completely ignoring "insignificant" details of
the modern society like legal sanction for monogomy and no other forms of
marriage, the widespread legal ownership of firearms, the crime rate, the
high rate of gadget ownership (and general gadgetophilia of the population),
the general USA chauvinism, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Presenting a world
for an RPG setting is an attempt at a fictional ENCULTURATION of the player
so that player can create and play characters that FIT the world. Erudite
mumblings regarding history, myth, etc. have their place, but that should
be SECONDARY to getting a solid feel for the world FIRST.

VERY MANY of the problems I have seen raised about RQ:AiG (the poor
introduction, the "abusibility" of spell availability, the problems with
enchantment, arguments over the "fact" that Ernalda is the "best" battle
cult, etc.) stem from this central, probably fatal flaw. RQ:AiG as it
currently stands FAILS utterly in enculturating players into Glorantha even
though it produces reams of scholarly (dare I say "sterile scholarly"?)
information on the world.

You serve us meringue when we starve for barley and meat.

Bryan J. Maloney

0,,

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