Feed the Trolls!

From: Nick Brooke <Nick_Brooke_at_compuserve.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 1997 05:06:32 -0400



I thought Patrik's description of an Orlanthi ritual was very colourful, insightful, and moving. One of these days, I have to describe and choreograph a week of Lunar ceremonies at the Moonbroth Oasis; I hope I can come up with manifestations of divine terror that are half-way as convincing as Patrik's.

Michael Morrison worries about hungry trolls becoming boring:

> Adventuring in troll lands is not only dangerous, but also
> boring. Every troll you (as a non-troll) meet will try to
> kill you and eat you. No role playing for you the player,
> just combat after combat after...

Surely not. Don't you remember the troll greeting ritual: you chuck'em some tasty food, and say "Eat this, not me!"

The aim of emphasising troll hunger (as recent posters have done) is to stress that trolls are *alien* and *scary* -- most humans will want nothing to do with them, and most humans will stay a safe distance from troll country. Which appears to be the Gloranthan case. Because you never know when a troll might get peckish, you have to keep them fed or keep them scared -- and both are role-playing, non-combat activities. *Especially*, I might add, in a more PenDragon Pass-like game, where the availability of foodstuffs and ability to terrify people are both more quantifiable and more important to your characters.

> The bar scene would never happen! "Look, food!", the bar-
> tender says while four drunken uz run toward the door as
> the humans enter the bar. Swords and maces clash ...

"...or *would* have clashed, had not the humans had a wise and experienced troll-country scout with them. Chucking the week-old dead piglet into the room, he growled out "Eat this, not us!" The trolls grinned -- a horrible sight -- and fell upon the offering. Meanwhile, Durngard made the Issaries greeting sign to the bartender, who began wiping off his smaller tankards, expecting good business from these would-be visitors to Crab Town. The bolgs he'd make today would afford many meals -- perhaps even some of those new dinosaur steaks they were serving down at Gobbleguts..."

*Don't* go barging into someone else's country unless you know enough of their customs to get by. By keeping trolls (and the other Elder Races) scary, we avoid the D'n'Dism of polyphyletic PC parties, where racial differences amount to a difference in ear size, precise parentage, and range of infravision. I prefer PC groups that don't sound like the first line of a complex racial joke, realistically xenophobic  human societies, and reasons to learn the customs and way of life of those foreigners and non-humans you have to interact with.

Just my 2p'orth,

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Nick
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