Loren's opinion:
>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.
and then went on to say this, about the Lunar Empire's need to drive south:
>One thing that people are missing on the Lunar expansion south is this. The
>Lunar Empire is huge, wide spread, and landlocked. Sure, there's the white
>sea. Hahaha. It doesn't do much good to putter around a giant icy sea
>without any surface passage to the big, wide world now does it?
Whoops, another Soviet analogy just leaps off the screen doesn't it?
James Frusetta sez:
>>The only route to the sea, until the Sweet Sea opened up a few years
>>ago, was south through Prax or Sartar. The Lunars have conquered
>>Pavis and Corflu, giving them one route to the sea.
In my scenario "Beyond the Building Wall" (Tales #13), I suggest that the Lunar invasion of Esrolia was also spurred on by a desire to get a warm-water sea port for trade, though, as James suggests, there might be other motivations at work:
>>I suspect we're mirroring debate that's taking place in the Empire,
>>amusingly. ;)
I reckon this urgent desire to get into sea-borne trade might be something like the current RW internet stock boom. Since the Opening of the Seas, everyone sees that epic trading opportunities abound and no one wants to miss out. Everyone wants to get in early, on the ground floor so-to-speak. Unfortunately, once things settle down, the reality ain't gonna match the hype. I know the Opening was some ago now, but Lunar momentum down south is difficult to stop, even if they are falling deeper and deeper into the mire (hmmm, Vietnam analogy anyone?)
Back to Loren:
>There's nothing wrong with satire, but I prefer not to mix a mythically
>resonant world like Glorantha with too much satire.
I actually agree, but surely there's time and a place for everything? As I recall Nick saying to Greg at the last Convulsion, it's doubtful "Reaching Moon Megacorp's 'Life of Takenegi'" (in which 50 players loyally adore the One True Yelmic Emperor of Dara Happa, in accordance with ancient rites reconstructed from various of Greg's photocopied works-in-progress) would have been a critical success. I usually leave the po-faced mythological journeying up Greg's bottom to those who are best at it, and primarily concentrate on weird and whacky gaming shit: "Rune Metal Jacket", Maculus's photocopier, "Hut of Darkness", JR Goldbreath and so on. (And don't forget, Greg himself is not adverse to the odd bit of satire and has given us Leonardo the Scientist, "The Wizards of Gore" and Corflu, to name a few). IMO Glorantha has room for both, in moderation. Which is why I'm justifably peeved when (for once) I was party to creation of something mythologically resonant - and which does also happen to have entertaining gaming possibilities - that is seemingly jettisoned for no other reason than "it's not broken, so let's break it anyway".
Cheers,
MOB
Email me : mrmob_at_ozemail.com.au
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