Re: "Sufficient" detail

From: Mikko Rintasaari <mikrin_at_...>
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 17:02:36 +0300 (EET DST)


On Mon, 14 Aug 2000, Thomas Bagwell wrote:

> > > Actually, I never had a problem bringing the Kulthean deities to "gameable
> > > detail". Certainly it didn't require an enormous workload. In any case,
> you
> > > don't have to develop the Gloranthan deities and cults...that's already done
> in
> > > exhaustive detail. You just have to describe a few feats or allow your
> players
> > > to do so. That's much easier.
> >
> > So you vere quite happy with the Role Monster "Generic priestly
> > spells" list, and hardly any references to the dieties other than Klysus
> > and Eissa? Brrr...
> > Parhaps we are used to quite different levels of detail in games then.
>
> No, actually. It took me all of about 5-10 minutes to put together a customized
> set of spell lists. As to details on the deities and their religions, all that
> was important was that I and the player running the priest knew about them. We
> worked together to form a religion we were both interested in. It just took a
> couple of casual conversations over pizza and beer. Whenever more detail was
> needed, it was easy enough to supply it as needed. Did I plan out every detail
> of every religion in advance? No...of course not. It would have added nothing.

I see. well, In running a world somebody else has created I try to get as true and cohesive a picture as I can get. I think it's important to know rather well what the gods (of Kulthea) are capable of, and how their followers effect the workings of the cultures where they are known.
  I suppose we just operate under different levels of detail. I need to know quite a bit of a gameworld to run it so that it feels real and believable to myself. I'm not just running stories for my gamers with some backroundcolor. I try to run a world in which their characters live and die.  

> > > I don't see that describing feats will take much Gloranthan research at all.
> > > Certainly, you can if you want to. I'm sure I won't.
> >
> > So what makes it Glorantha then? Glorantha has unique flavor, and much
> > loving detail crafted into Her, I feel we are losing a part of that
> > detail.
>
> The overall background, history and mythology make it Glorantha...not the
> specifics of a few feats, which is all that I've intended to address here.

Coherense and clarity help in my view. The feat's have to fit the rest of Glorantha, and the myths and mythic reality of the deity in question.

> > Detail make the world Tom. At least they do for me, and I don't like
> > having to make it all up myself.
>

<snip>
> Detail can make the world, but it doesn't mean it will make it interesting or
> enjoyable. That's entirely up to the GM.
>
> Detail to the level of nailing down every feat description is unnecessary if the
> player and GM can easily come up with ones that give them more enjoyment and a
> more intuitive feel for the feats and setting.

We just have to agree to disagree here. I feel that having guidelines for the feats is always a good thing. You say it isn't? No way to agree on this I suppose.  

> To cap this off, all I can say is that different people prefer different levels
> of detail, and I think that's the ultimate issue this topic boils down to. It
> is an unarguable position based on personal preference. Those who want all the
> detail already laid out and set in stone...be it for consistency or peace of
> mind, and those he just need what they feel is sufficient detail and who prefer
> to fill some of it in themselves...either to enhance their feel for the setting,
> or because they feel extraneous detail is constricting.
>
> Tom B.

Ah, but Tom, this is one of the reasons I bother writing these. I like to have that detail, and am not happy with the fact that I'm not gettin any guidelines as to what a given feat is supposed to do. Would you bo opposed to there being those guidelines, for people like me who want them? Nobody forces the people who don't like them to use 'em, but the current situation is forcing people like me to try to play ESP games to figure out what the author had in mind when naming the feat.

        -Adept

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