Do Ducks Have Teeth Pt 2.

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_spirit.com.au>
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 1995 15:19:38 +1000


CONTINUED FROM PART 1. The literary and mythological level of stories and characters is where Glorantha began. Most rpgs don't have this level to deal with - even the companies that print game-derived 'novels' produce linear adolescent fantasies where you can usually tell when the dice are being rolled. The major exceptions are Middle Earth and Tekumel, and like Glorantha they both pre-existed their roleplaying incarnations.

Most Gloranthan games and stories are readily recognisable as belonging to a particular literary genre - that of heroic fantasy. Any genre brings with it certain unwritten but universally understood rules and conventions that dictate what can and should happen within a story. Within such a level, the tale becomes as important as the rules. The needs of the story will dictate that whatever your combat skills, the dastardly broo will beat and capture you so you can ultimately escape and wreak your righteous revenge upon them. One of the assumptions of this genre is that adventurers act as 'trouble-magnets'. Another is that they are 'special' people, and that fate will deal with them in a particular way.

Working at this level, you can suspend game rules or invoke 'meta-rules' for a given effect without having to universalise the consequences in either a positive or negative way. The submission guidelines for the projected Chaosium collection of Gloranthan fiction, 'Heroes of the King' provide an example of this - they state that healing spells are much less common than the RQ rules suggest. Story and effect are more important than a consistent portrayal of reality, so holes and contradictions in the background not important to immediate events can be rightfully ignored.

Working at this level you go into details beyond those provided by your rule-set, striving to portray the flow and colour of everyday life. You might explicitly or implicitly play with our earthly experience for irony or contrast. You may use exaggeration and distortion for entertainment and effect. And for your characters, their beliefs, hopes and failures become as important as their stats and experience checks.

'King of Sartar' is the best example to date that deals with Glorantha on this level. Scenarios can work at this level, especially when you're prepared to leave the dice behind and trust to your group's storytelling instincts.There seems to be a growing concensus that Heroquest has to work at this level.

Related to this 'literary' or 'genre' view is the the perspective of Glorantha as a myth. Not only about myth, but a myth in itself. Myth is about defining what is right and true, about imposing finite categories on on an infinite universe, creating 'culture' - breaking reality down into manageable categories so it can be understood. Myth is not primarily about logic or even story. In so far that Glorantha is itself a myth... well that's an essay in itself.

['Emic' is an anthropological term meaning the view a particular society has of itself: the view from within a culture. It is contrasted with the 'etic' or exterior (supposedly more 'objective' view).]

When you begin to ask questions like, 'What does it MEAN to sacrifice a point of POW, to give in some way a part of your life force to the god? or 'Do people REALLY give spells names like "Bladesharp 6"?', you're operating on a higher level of Gloranthan reality.

On this level (which often blends fairly seamlessly with the literary or mythological level), Glorantha exists as a 'real' world. Actions have consequences far beyond game or literary phenomena, and need to be systematically recorded and explored. Gloranthan societies each have a unique structure and function, similar to Terran societies but operating according to the nature of Gloranthan reality and mythologic, with consequences that shape emic conceptions of gender, economics, history, religion, art, power and law. OUR preconceptions and biases as explorers have to be made explicit as well.

You have to be pretty committed to operate at this level. It is the realm of the scholar and dedicated explorer, of the serious co-creator.You do not so much play the game as take holidays in Alda Chur. It is evoked mainly in background descriptive articles and 'Gloranthan' documents. Many Digest explorations attempt to operate at this level.

['Nomic' is a philosophical term relating to natural law. On this level, if it is describable, the map finally becomes the territory.]

In his descriptions of Glorantha, Greg Stafford gives few clues as to the nature of any underlying 'ultimate' reality. What, for instance, is the true nature of the forces that shape and guide Glorantha - the 'gods'? We know of four contradictory belief systems within Glorantha - the theistic, mystic, naturalistic and humanist, each with its own working and consistent explanation of 'reality' and the forces behind it. Can we as explorers penetrate beneath these emic descriptions to understand the mechanics and underlying laws of Glorantha, to seek the ultimate answers?

Some explorers believe that we can. Others believe the quest is fruitless and even misleading, because belief itself has a very special reality-status within the Gloranthan universe. The debate continues.

The difficulty in fully integrating these levels may explain why there have been so few published scenarios in the past fifteen years have that uniquely Gloranthan 'feel'. Most instead rely on combat and generic fantasy elements where every inn holds an encounter and every Dark Secret(TM) comes down to hoards of broo appearing out of nowhere. It may also explain why Greg Stafford does not write scenarios.

Following my original post on this topic, several contributors to the Digest responded with helpful comments concerning 'level jumping'.

Jonas Schiott pointed out that the bulkheads between the various levels are not hermetically sealed - a point echoed by several other respondents. Joerg Baumgartner argued cogently that we should be trying to reduce reduce the difference between the realities as far as possible, fine tuning the simulation mechanics so they do not hamper the simulation. Joerg also pointed out that the levels build upon each other in actual play and storytelling, contributing to our personal experience of Glorantha. Alex Ferguson pointed out the majority view is that that we don't have to change Glorantha to suit RuneQuest, but rather adjust RQ where necessary to suit our knowledge of Gloranthan reality.

And Martin Crim talked about ducks.

Martin pointed out that some things that are undeniably Gloranthan work best in only certain levels. Ducks for instance. Ducks are comic, and work in the rules-derived and literary realities. Do they have teeth? Of course, so they can hold their cigars (says John Castellucci). This is probably not an emic answer - in fact creating a plausible one is going to be tough, because the essential comic relief nature of Ducks will show through. ('No! No!', John screams in frustration. 'You don't understand! Ducks are Twagic! Serious! Twagic!')

Martin also provided an example of concepts evolving into new levels. Trolls and (especially) trollkin were originally just monsters to kill, rules-level creations. With the publication of Trollpack, they evolved through the literary/genre level into a fully fledged Gloranthan culture with strongly defined emic values. They continue to work in all three levels dependent on circumstance - for instance in an Uz bash (rules and combat), Trollball (literary exaggeration) or in a religious or trading mission within an Uz stronghold (lots of loving detail and a strong emic perspective).

Using levels when thinking about Glorantha is merely a conceptual tool. Sometimes it can be helpful, sometimes a hindrance. What is does do is remind us of the incredible richness of the Gloranthan experience, and how symbols and concepts borrowed from Terran mythology or generic fantasy (concepts that are often stereotypically shallow in other FRPGs) can evolve into something uniquely Gloranthan, fully-rounded, and wonder-ful.

That's what the Glorantha Digest is all about. Glorantha just keeps on growing. Our challenge is to keep on growing with it, and to keep on having fun as we explore.

THANKS to Jonas, Alex, Martin, Devin, Joerg, Sandy Petersen, Nick Brooke, Peter Metcalfe and the other Digesters who have commented either directly or indirectly on the ideas contained in my original posting. I have paraphrased their responses rather than directly quoting them because my own conceptualisation and labelling of the various levels has changed - partly in response to their comments.

END PART II OF II.


End of Glorantha Digest V2 #34


WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html

Powered by hypermail