Thought I'd publicly post this truth, lest anyone think that John and I plan to murder one another at RQ Down Under. (Anyone interested in a duel with me, I generally prefer broadaxes at fifty paces.)
Nils exposes his liberal wimp bleeding heart sympathies:
>Now these Wicked Ministers may of course have not really so wicked.
>What about that they were just conservative solar priests who didn't
>approve of Daruda's innovative ways?
Come now, Nils. If we can't hold up conservative solar priests as the epitome of evil, then who _can_ we use for such a demonstration?
Ian or Katts:
>Numbers : I wasnt arguing the Lunars had more soldiers, I was
>arguing the ones they had were more effective than the
>farmers/soldiers of the Orlanthi.
And you are right. A typical professional Lunar soldier is better than the great mass of Orlanthi soldierdom. On the other hand, the typical Orlanthi clansman is probably better than your typical Lunar militia. The Orlanthi have professional warriors, too, but I admit that they're probably not as good as the Lunar equivalents. Also, the very best Lunar units are doubtless better than the very best Orlanthi. All that said, the quality of the Lunar army does NOT explain their persistent victories over almost all opponents, because not all (or even most) opponents are _not_ Orlanthi.
>Lunar Heroes : I was probably using the word "hero" a little too
>loosely. More precisely, I was describing the way the Lunars train
>their operatives ? apparatchiks ? special agents ? whatever. The
>guys who beat up the ice spirits, assasinate Belintar and do stuff
>like that. And I think 10 is a reasonable age to start training -
>look at how early sports talent scouts pick out their kids for
>feeding into the maw of the AIS and other sports institutes.
Ah. Well, I'm perfectly willing to believe that the Lunars start training such folk _before_ birth, at times. And they certainly spend time in such work. However, I think this is just a different way of getting talented professionals. The old-time Dara Happans did it by relying on breeding (Yelm rulers), and the Orlanthi do it by experience (adventures), the Praxians by warfare and constant raids, while the Westerners do it by what amounts to research (the classic wizard in his tower). The Lunars use training, but I'm not sure this technique is any better or more effective, just different, though I agree it leads to a different type of talent than the others.
For what it's worth, though I typify the Orlanthi experience-gaining technique as "adventures", this has nothing to do with adventurers as a class, seeing as I don't think there is such thing as a "class" of adventurers.
I would like to compile a list of just where everyone who is running a campaign is doing so. If you're running a campaign, please e-mail me the locale in which it mostly takes place. If you're playing in a campaign, please mail me if (and only if) the gamemaster does not take the Digest (so could not mail me himself). Lurkers take note! I'd like your data too. If your campaign is migratory (like mine), it probably still has a central starting point (like mine) which the players tend to migrate back to every now and then, so use it as the locale.
I promise not to let this information fall into the wrong hands.
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