re: Why Encyclopedia?

From: johnjmedway <jmedway_at_io.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 01:01:25 -0600


>Date: Sun, 21 Dec 1997 06:12:25 EST
>From: Klyfix <Klyfix_at_aol.com>
>Subject: Why Encyclopedia?

- -..
> But I do have an old (1994) Grolier CD ROM encyclopedia that can give me
>some idea about a whole slew of cultures past and present. I'm not wanting a
>Super Duper thing that has Everything Ever Known in Glorantha so that I'd know
>more than Lhankhor Mhy himself; just a good overview as I've already noted;
>what is Universal Knowledge, what is known or believed by many but not all
>cultures, and so on. I think I've gone into that at least twice already, so
>I'll avoid excessively repeating myself.

You sort of do have one, or rather, several. The Glorantha boxed set is Groliers. Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror are Encarta, and KoS is Encyclopedia Britannica, and ... They may be a bit narrow-minded and culture-biased, but you cannot believe that Groliers isn't as well.

Encyclopedias from the same country in the same year on Earth won't agree on everything, so why should a bag of less sophisticated/advanced cultures with almost zero communications technology be expected to agree at all?

Anyway, if you were to play in the setting of Homeric Greece, why would you need to know if the Chinese believed in X, or that germs existed, or ...? Likewise who gives a XO_at_#! about Zeus if you're playing in the Inca Empire? It's just not relevant to the people in the culture.

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