Re: Staying on Topic

From: Timothy Byrd <tbyrd_at_microsim.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 96 19:15:52 PST


This is sorta-kinda related...

One thing I have been thinking about for a while is how chaos-centric Glorantha seems to have become over the years. I started playing RQ I (with the tan and red cover, remember) way back when and most of the focus was on characters and the exotic-ness of the world. Even WBRM and NG only have passing bits of chaos, like the broo and crimson bat units. Now, we see discussions of the mating strategies of the vadeli, and more supplements are dedicated to Chaos than to Compromise. What's happened? Has everyone ODed on Lovecraft or something?

> Officially, STARRY WISDOM is the journal of the newly forming Cult
> of Chaos (yeah, I remember that CULTS OF TERROR said you should
> never play any of the Chaotic cultists, but no one ever pays
> attention to warning stickers, right?).

Now there's a quote to warm the heart of the mass media... What if some investigative reporter searched through the Glorantha Digest archives looking for juice? Yikes!

If I wanted that much chaos, I'd be playing CoC not RQ!

*whew*

There. I've said it. It may not mean anything to anyone else on the list, but it's been bugging me for a while.

For my game, I don't want to "get into the head" of a disgusting chaotic thing, nor do I want my players to. I rate that about as highly as I would rate having a neighbor who can think just like Hannibal Lecter.

I see roleplaying games as both a form of entertainment and a way to get people to start thinking about things. (I guess I would fall in the player-transformation camp of hero-questing.) I think it's a Bad Idea in general to have people identifying with broo - I've met enough people who might as well be ogres, and it's made me wish for a sixteen ton block of truestone. People learn the think the way they practice thinking, and I don't want to encourage chaos any more than the mass media already does. (You may not agree with that last statement, but I've seen it's equivalent in both Christian writings and those of the Dalai Lama, and anything that they can agree on bears some consideration.)

***

OK, now that I'm done venting, I have a question for everyone. In your game, if the players were going to clean up Dorastor, how could they go about it?

Later,

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