Re: Gloranthan friendliness

From: Paolo Guccione <p.guccione_at_geco.it>
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 22:54:17 +0100


V.S. Greene
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> And perhaps Glorantha has become so arcane that no beginner could
> possibly comprehend it. There's no real core of "truth" anymore; everything's
> subjective as a thousand different views of every little detail of Gloranthan
> life get put forth in the digest and the only published overview of the world
> has been declared invalid. While there's certainly something to everybody
> having their own way of looking at the world, it would be nice to have some
> common truth that we can depart from if we choose.

The problem is that there is no such thing as "Gloranthan Life". There is Orlanthi life (not quite, in fact, rather Sartarite Life and Delelan Life), Praxian Life, Lunar Life, Malkioni Life, Kralori Life, not to mention the non-Draconic nonhumans (the Draconic ones are just impossible to comprehend for humans). Just like the Real World. When you play a Praxian game, you do not need to know all points shared by your pantheon and the Orlanthi gods, you only need to play Praxian characters, with all their "subjectivistic" beliefs and prejudices. This makes them more real, that's all. The great thing in Glorantha is that you have _hundreds_ of cultures to play in, all detailed and all different.

Just avoid to give your players any details about other cultures. They already have plenty of them to mess with ...

> I'd like an "Encyclopedia
> Glorantha" myself.

Do you own an "Earth Encyclopedia"? I mean, one that really gives you the feeling of being part of every single RW culture, not just visiting their countries. One that gives you a positive synthesis of every single culture and belief on Earth? I do not.

Paolo Guccione	p.guccione_at_geco.it
		http://www.geco.it/~guccione

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