> an homage to Carl Barks in his Glorantha.
That4s very interesting. The problem is that being a foreigner that knows
nothing about Uncle Scrooge comics or Carl Barks I can't understand that
reference.
> I feel that understanding the ducks too much takes away from their
> comical mystique. Let them stay a race we only vaguely understand. Let
> some of them lay eggs and some of them bear live young.
Like I said, I'me completely in the black in what concerns their 'comical
mystique'.
The point I'm trying to make Rick is the next: I can understand that to
Greg Stafford and to you ducks have a special private meaning. Some people
like myself can't grasp that meaning.
Its the same thing with other aspects of Glorantha: someone wrote yesterday
that the clash between Orlanthi and Lunars in DP was inspired by the Roman
occupation of the british islands. I know Glorantha since 83 and I never
realised it. If I was to find a RW analogy, I would look in my own cultural
background and point to the occupation of the Iberian peninsula by arabs in
the 7th century and the fight conducted by christians to get rid of them in
the middle ages.
The problem is that in this last case the original inspiration doesn't 'impose' on the imagination of those - like me - that entered Glorantha without that previous knowledge. But what you are implying is that we are forced to look at ducks with the previous knowledge and emotional environment that Greg and you share. We (I at least) can't. The way you see ducks is artificial to me. It disrupts the 'suspention of disbelieve' that makes Glorantha so attractive.
If Chaosium or Issaries, Inc. or whoelse is thinking of selling products based on Glorantha they must understand that the buyer should not be forced to acknowledge and conform to the private refferences and feelings of the designers of that fiction. If things are to private, don't publish them, keep them to yourselves (note that I'm only speaking about commercial products). If they publish them, they must be prepared to explain what they publish in a meaningfull way from the point of view of the reader, not of the writer. There should be no subjective reasons to things that 'we only vaguely understand'.
> Let them call Cacodemon, Quakodemon.
Why not? People speak in very different ways. When I read what I write to
GD, I can't but notice how bad are my english skills. My excuse is that i'm
no english speaking native. We can acept that ducks speak differently and
with a funny accent. But I don't see why people shouldn't accept ducks and
their funny accent as something normal and aren't able to live with it.
> Ducks are great NPC's.
Yes! But can also be great PC's. I always saw them as potential PC's. I
never reduced them to NPC's. I even think that they make better PC's than
Storm Bull followers or Trolls.
Any way, thank you for that reference to Uncle Scrooge comics and Carl Barks. I'll try to find them, be sure.
Sergio Mascarenhas
Powered by hypermail