No matter how useful it might be for each of us as creative forces in
Glorantha to use the SU and the US as analogues for the Lunar Empire, it's
important for game purposes that details of the Lunar Empire not interrupt
the process of immersion in the fantasy world. If there are obvious,
cosmetic soviet or american influences on the LE (red square, comrades, five
year plans, gulags, rolls royce brand carriages, boss hawg, count "fox
mulder" julan) then the setting becomes less plausible and less playable.
Likewise, the same cosmetic things will make the necessary suspension of
disbelief difficult for those who write or read about Glorantha. This is the
reason I have never been fond of the TotRM crew's Soviet analogies for the
Lunar Empire. They turned the Lunar Empire into a satire of the USSR rather
than a vast, mysterious, fantasy empire. There's nothing wrong with satire,
but I prefer not to mix a mythically resonant world like Glorantha with too
much satire. Ducks, nasobemes, gulpers and frumious bandersnatches are quite
enough. There is no need for internecine battle between the Free Sartarite
People's Front and the People's Front to Free Sartar. Not because Sartar is
united, but because Monty Python references don't enhance my roleplaying or
fantasy writing/reading experience in Glorantha.
YGMV.
Cheers,
Loren