Candles in Jars etc.

From: Kmnellist_at_aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1999 16:28:12 EST


:

<<
 I just want to add my vote to David Cheng and (especially) Jon  Thorvaldson for the ideas of ignoring or even mythically dismissing  whole aspects of r/w science.
>>

 So do I:

My rule of thumb for real world physics/chemistry is to try to see if it could be told as a story from a Gloranthan perspective; ie explained from a Gloranthan POV or imagining it happening in RW myth/ancient history: like Beowulf, or Gilgamesh, or the Old Testament etc.. No such story would have a "candle in a jar" experiment, so players shouldn't even be thinking about it. If it needs "thinking about" to work out what would happen in the RW then I would let the players know what their Characters know.

Burning candle in jar example; Trickster stole fire by hiding it in his palm, so fire clearly doesn't need Air; perhaps candles need air to carry away the Darkness residue left by the burnt candle; if the candle were pure, such as torches made from Yelmalio's blood, there would be no darkness residue hence no need for air. But what about Thanatari Darklight. The whole thing gets complicated. No one wants to imagine a world where people wander around with candles in jars to keep the wind out.

RW science is a result of scientific methods which presumable have not been established in Glorantha. The idea of doing repeated experiments to prove or disprove a hypothesis seems to be the opposite of most Gloranthan thinking.

Keith Nellist


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