War Music

From: Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_compuserve.com>
Date: 16 Nov 95 15:51:18 EST



Jonas, in a peculiarly Latinate post (very hard to read, and even harder to take seriously for its deliberate obscurity and mock-academic curlicues):

> My impression is that the posters who dislike the 'martial elements only'
> approach are largely people who do not use the KoW in their own campaigns,
> and thus have little incentive to develop the entity.

Haven't you become not un-tied up in double-negatives, here? Surely the people who don't give a toss about the KoW don't need *any* aspect of it, not just the 'martial elements'. Whereas people who use the KoW need to know how it impacts on other people (including visitors), but still (IMHO) don't need a "What My Father Told Me" or "What Lord Death On A Horse Says" article from the POV of Ultimate Evil, let alone an Art History section.

I'd guess you're trying to say that because I've never used the KoW in a game, I can afford to ignore the question of how good their domestic poetry and sculpture might be, not to mention the pressing question of whether the marginal land-tax rates are higher within the borders of the KoW or neighbouring Jonatela. This is, alas, bollocks. Our freeform game "How the West was One" is set in Sog City, faced with the threat of imminent invasion by the Kingdom of War. The authors (David Hall, Kevin Jacklin and myself) spent a fair wee while brainstorming, and discussing, and corresponding with Those Who Know, to form a workable model of KoW operations for the purposes of our game. The overwhelming impression we developed was that treating the KoW as a 'reasonable' society would go utterly against the aims of its creators.

Jonas says that I "oppose the development on-list of the non-martial details of the KoW". Yeah, that's true enough, when I can't see how these details will improve our use of the Kingdom of War as an Enemy Threat in gaming. I don't so much oppose them, as knock those who believe that writing (frex),

> *if* we lift not only the devshirme but other things like the complex
> system of cadastral surveys (the tahrirs), or the unique kanun law
> -- and if a poet is a friend of Lord Death&, as Baki was a friend of
> Suleiman the Magnificent...

adds much to the joy of Gloranthan gaming. (Anyone who *wants* cadastration has got it coming, if you want my opinion).

On a second front, Jonas writes:

> In all the speculation about how Loskalm will fare against the KoW, I've
> yet to read a post which says: 'Well, in our campaign Loskalm trounced
> them nicely by 1632.' I'd expect to read something like that (or its
> opposite) if people were really playing out the Hero Wars.

Something like this came up as a sideline during the genesis of HtWwO. Greg's response to a proposed timeline which included the military defeat and subsequent impotence of the KoW was along the lines of "NO! The Kingdom of War is there to be defeated by Player Characters, not by the Kingdom of Loskalm." Ipse dixit, as Jonas would doubtless concur.

> Others, like me, dislike the KoW and have dropped it.

Then why the (peculiarly wide) bandwidth? If the argument's irrelevant to your campaign, and you dislike the subject of it, what are you hoping to contribute? (Or is all this high-falutin' obscurantism meant to confuse and derail those who *are* interested in using this part of Glorantha for their gaming?).



Jean:  

> As a side note, I disagree with Nick Brookes on the subject of Bosnia during
WWI. As another side note, I couldn't give two hoots. If you think that Franco-British involvement in an expedition to Belgrade was typical of their participation in a war that ostensibly started with the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian Archduke in a Bosnian city, and not a barely-remembered side-show, I can't possibly argue with you, being situated on an altogether different planet. (Wow, a Jonas sentence! Easy, isn't it?).

Oh dear: looks like my only Big Posts today are hostile and negative. Must be biorhythms. I'll be away next week dodging my critics, so you can sit on those flames 'til Sunday 26th.

Yours, fighting for a legible mailing list,



Nick

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