Re: Re: "Sufficient" detail

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 15:12:52 -0700

>
> Or, to put it more seriously, the rules model literary
> conceits. They do not simulate reality and are not detectable
> or measurable in the world of Glorantha. The characters
> are no more aware of them than Hamlet is that he's in a
> character in a play, or Captain Ahab knows that he's
> in a really long novel by Herman Melville.
>
> We, the readers, may not know what Morden's magic is
> at the beginning of the story. We discover it in the
> midst of the story, as pacing properly dictates.

To add to this, not only do we *as readers* not know, but we *as authors* don't necessarily know - which models how Tolkein wrote the Lord of the Rings - he did not know, at the time he introduced him, that "Strider" was in reality Aragorn, King of the West. Strider was just a shadowy and slightly menacing figure met in Bree. Many authors complain/exclaim that their characters "take over the story" - and that is exactly what Roleplaying is about. The Narrator writes the bones, but the players fill in details, and can "take over" and reroute the story entirely by their actions.

Roderick