Re: Re: Player characters challenging societies' rules

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:51:07 -0800

> While I largely agree, there's an awful lot of culture, history and
> myth to expect new people to take on board. A D&D MU may be stretching
> it, but I can certainly see plenty of times when it's a lot easier to
> have players taking on the role of outsiders than expecting them to
> just click with things we've spent 20 years havering on about.
>
> My next HeroWars game will probably be focussed on Lunar settlers
> who've been given land in Dragon Pass and have to try and work out who
> their hairy neighbours are and how to get on with them. Very much
> easier to engage new players with something like that than give them
> 1000 pages of HeroWars texts and expect them to read and understand
> the lot.

The problem with starting "outsiders" in Heortling territory is that those outsiders supposedly have a culture of their own (Dara Happan Lunars, or Praxian Beast Riders, whatever), making *two* sets of cultural baggage that the player has to contend with: their nominal culture that they are supposed to know already, and the one they are "learning". Not to say that it can't work, but a new Gloranthan player should probably best be given one set of cultural norms to deal with instead of two. That's why many people start their first characters as young men and women - they get the cultural "stuff" in much the same way that a Gloranthan Native would (okay, so they haven't spent 15 years hearing stories about Orlanth every day of their lives, but you get the drift).
RR