As Loren has fired warning flares over the Esrolian military thread, I'll try and keep this short and sweet.
Martin Laurie objected to two aspects of my last post. First, I mentioned the difference in statistical rolls precisely to _remind_ Martin that some of us don't play that way, and I believe that was the only comment I made on that particular aspect of his argument (in fact, I have to admit that at least in the gaming circles I travel in, it has been long-standing policy to ignore gender-based differences in human characteristic rolls, most certainly for PCs and generally for NPCs as well; I would, I suppose, be curious to find out if Martin enforces gender-based rolls for his female players, but that might be best answered in private email). Having sparred RW women before (Tae Kwon Do in my case, not Muay Tai), I am well aware of gender differences in fighting style and ability; however, I am also aware that RW social (and physical) conditioning plays a material part in those differences, so when we're talking about a fictional matriarchy that has existed since (hmm; before?) the Dawn I would argue it's necessary to rethink our predispositions. 1600+ years of matriarchal culture is bound to produce a slightly different cultural norm. This was, I think, also the point behind Ian's (tongue-in-cheek?) comment about "75% of Esrolian women are stronger than the top 25% of Esrolian men."
Secondly, yes, this is obviously an open discussion group, and I don't believe that at any point I suggested that Martin _not_ air his views; the fact that this is an open discussion group does not, AFAIK, prevent me or anyone else from expressing criticism on a poster's tone, language, or ideas, and I thought the term "distasteful" a reasonably polite one. As my comments should have revealed, I tended to agree with Martin about the degree of skill and training available to Esrolian men, though like Peter I find Babeester Gor a perfectly attractive cult for young women in Esrolia and think women play a key, if not the key, role in Esrolia's defense. Martin summons the accusatory spirit of Political Correctness (sigh), and I would only say that I find it as unnecessary to work the term "snotty bitches" into a discussion of Esrolian military tactics as I would the term "sheep fucking hill-billies" into a discussion of Orlanthi ones.
As a quick note, I tend to think of the Lunar defeat at the Building Wall Battle as a bit more sweeping than Andrew Joelson does -- why else would the Lunars bother to conquer the incredibly poor terrain of the Prax over the riches of Esrolia? Not even the dismemberment of the Pharoah by the Razoress was enough to tempt the Lunars into Esrolia proper, until they had folks on the inside; that said, the "bayonet probe" theory works just as well. Thanks to Peter Metcalfe for reminding me that Jeff Richards came up with the trollkin militia parallel, and for mentioning the Seshnelan Serpent connection (everybody sing "Don't know much about Seshnelan history"). I will agree to disagree with Peter about the military/defender role of consort cults in Esrolia, and leave it at that.
Your Glorantha May Vary, a lot. Hopefully relurking before this becomes
KoW2,
Mark
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #494
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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