Re: "Sufficient" detail

From: Mikko Rintasaari <mikrin_at_...>
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 18:54:46 +0300 (EET DST)


On Wed, 16 Aug 2000 philip.hibbs_at_... wrote:

>
> >I don't want my Glorantha to feel like a story, or a TV
> >series episode. But it sure seems that Hero Wars writers
> >are determined to force this on me. :/
>
> That's what Glorantha is. It's a story, and it's magic follows the rules of
> dramatic licence.

Nonesense. That is just one of the possible RPG philosophies, and definitely not the only true way of running an RPG.

The only RPG I'd run like that would be based on the (GURPS) Discworld.

There is no way I can't run Glorantha like I run my 2300 AD game. Trying to figure out how the reality of Glorantha works, and run it consistently with that. I definitely don't run things based on "Plot Causality" and "Narrative forces" (to quoute mr. Prachett). Even the Discworld only tries to run on narrative logic, (with the characters directly opposed to this), and the discworld is a _parody_.   My games are not parodies.

> If you want to run it as a simulation of a rationalisable
> world, then you are trying to bend it out of shape, and shouldn't expect
> the game system to cater to this end as a primary focus.

What do you mean realistic? I'm sure Glorantha is entirely realistic to it's denizens, and it has it's own natural laws. That those laws are diffenet from ours has nothing to do with realism.

> I agree about the
> "TV series episode" model, though, I'm not happy with it. TV series
> inevitably aim at the lowest common denominator. At least, the successful
> ones do.

Amen.

        -Adept

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