Carmanians; Geniuses

From: Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_compuserve.com>
Date: 11 Dec 95 05:11:12 EST


Me:
>> Put it another way: how much do mainstream Rokari and Hrestoli know >> about the Carmanians, eh?

Joerg:
> Little enough that they were fooled by the Lunar scam at Sog City...
> Which is why Loren had to write up the church you and David left out
> for HtWW1.

Exactly! Despite our public sympathy for the Lunar cause, and my own love for the Carmanians, David Hall and I could not see how to work a "real" Carmanian cleric into the framework of the Ecclesiastical Council: any vizier or magus worth his salt would have turned up, pronounced a fatwah on the rest of Malkionism, denounced them all as God Learners, and been burned at the stake for his pains. Not much gameplay in that.

That's why we ran with poor old brainwashed Senechorius, who had a carefully-crafted "acceptable" compromise theology drummed into him by Lunar Intelligence. He even embraced the multiplicity of Truth: not the most orthodox Carmanian attitude!

Our Carmanian Candidate was meant to sow dissension in the ranks of Malkionism: if you believe in hereditary priesthoods then he was lineally descended from the oldest established Malkioni church in Glorantha. (Interestingly enough, this argument attracted most support from the anti-hereditary Hrestoli Idealists of Loskalm at RQCon2). He was also holder of some hefty floating votes, with all the voting power of an Ecclesiarch but very few Articles of Faith to pin him down in the voting rounds.

Conoisseurs of Gloranthan trivia who were at Convulsion '94 but didn't make it to RQCon2 (yes, both of you!) might like to know that, after his barnstorming performance in the first run of HtWwO (receiving a mere handful of disreputable votes for Pope), Senechorius was in fact appointed Ecclesiarch of All Malkionism by an overwhelming majority when we re-ran the freeform. The Hrestoli Idealists, who put him up as their candidate, claim that his conditioning was broken by the cunning sorceries of their Watchdog Council (an amazing incident, involving the most perfectly-timed use of a "Tea and Sympathy" card that I can imagine), and that he has now fully embraced the Idealist way: the lost sheep returning to the fold. The Rokari (bad losers!) claim he's changed one set of brainwashings for another, and that No Way is he an acceptable Ecclesiarch.

And what does the Carmanian Church know about all this? Bugger all.

The inspiration for Senechorius came from The Manchurian Candidate, The Last Emperor, and the poor old Dalai Lama under Chinese rule. The Lunar Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the Arrolian Colonies was also Carmanian, but Artaphaestos couldn't give two hoots for traditional Carmanian or Western religion: he was a Lunar Yanafali through and through.



How To Be A Genius

> To me as a player being the dumb-ass green boy who never saw more
> than his farm is a cliche I was forced to play so often that I can
> go through that in my sleep... that's Minimal Game Fun to me.

You don't have to be a dumb hick to be prejudiced, ignorant and parochial. Why not play an over-educated Carmanian Vizier, or Lunar Philosopher, or Lhankor Mhy Sage, or Kralori Mandarin, or Western Wizard, or Pavic Mason, who knows So Damn Much about his own people's way of thinking, secret knowledge, history and lore that he hasn't got time to assimilate anyone else's. You aren't a "dumb-ass farm boy" -- you're a powerhouse of useless knowledge. Remember Tostig's monologue of useless misinformation on the Mostali from DW24 ("It happened that way to King Amaling of Seshnela, once")? Surely you can improvise the same!

It's pretty easy to wing it, aided by no more than a "What the Priest Said" section, a slight gift for useless verbiage, and a cooperative GM (to tip you off on the rare occasions when you *do* know something useful). Remember that you are far better educated and informed than the ignorant companions who accompany you: it would be a waste to give them the full benefit of your knowledge.

It might be worth developing catchphrases to allow your character to clam up if caught in a tricky situation: for example, an Old Pavic Mason who is caught in a contradiction can merely huff that these are Masonic Secrets and he could have his tongue cut out for explaining the errors in your version of EWF history. A Lunar Philosopher would raise one eyebrow and say, "Aha! So you, too, can see the Paradox!" A Carmanian could begin hurling curses at his audience: "Fools! Dolts! Sons of Imbeciles! You think to question the Truth!?" But if the other players are your friends, they won't be working to undermine your character concept, will they?

You've seen *far* more than a humble farm: you have studied and taught at Universities, correspond with the great thinkers of the age, know your High Priest's daughter, hob-nob with nobility, and are an acknowledged Authority on Brithini Iron Statuary of the Second Age. But that still doesn't mean you have a Baedeker's Guide to the West when your ship pulls out from harbour and heads along the Mournsea Coast.

You might want to *write* one, though: "Of course I haven't wasted my time reading any mere travellers' tales penned by lecherous seamen, braggart soldiers and dishonest merchants! My understanding of the Dialectical Principles of Dualism will enable me to divine the Truth about these ignorant foreigners' godforsaken customs in far less time, and produce the authoritative account for the Hierophant's library! Now, you there! What's that strangely-dressed man saying to us? Who does he think he is?"

(I had loads of fun doing this once as a Druid in a game run by Jon Quaife: leading people around the Old Spiral Paths when we were climbing hills; telling them the cod druidical history of the ruins, which I made up on the spur of the moment; threatening them with the wrath of the Heron if they stepped out of line. That was a double-act with Steve Thomas's Old Madge the witch [and her pet goat], who kept hinting at sinister covens and Satanic powers, and using the Evil Eye on those who offended her. The other PCs in the party were, almost literally, a Fighter, Magic User, Cleric and Thief, which gave us all the more room to enjoy ourselves).



How To Be A Genius 2:
A Little Gaming Trick

Another gaming thing you may want to try is: if the party does have one hyper-educated INT 18 Genius-type along to solve problems, the GM can allow the players to drop out of character and brainstorm collectively when the Genius is trying to puzzle something out. This way, everyone can contribute whatever they want to, thinking laterally and out of character as they like. Then return to character and let the player of the Genius deliver whatever parts of the communal solution his PC would like to present.

(Meanwhile, the other PCs are standing around picking their noses, or polishing their armour, or grooming the llamas, or chasing the milkmaids, or whatever it is you get up to when Mr. Logic is solving the party's troubles. "What's 'ee up to, Morris?" "I dunno, Wilfrid. Must be off in one of his funny thinking trances, again. I'm glad my brain doesn't need those. Anyhow, it seems the King of the Culbrea was out hunting...").

This little gaming trick makes it possible to play *really* intelligent characters without leaving the less brilliant players, or players of INT 10 characters (like myself) with nothing to do.

I don't like problem-solving adventures much myself, but doing this makes them far more bearable: you avoid that horrible staying-in-character difficulty when *Nick* knows the answer, but Nick's thick-skulled Telmori bodyguard character would have no hope of doing so. (As if!).



Nick

Powered by hypermail