The Myth, The Story, The *Fun* from John Hughes on 2002-02-19 (HeroQuest RPG)

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_...>
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 13:35:14 -0800

>
> > With the help of your brain ?
> >
> > Julian Lord
> >
>
> Thank you for your kind support.
>

In some ways, this is the crux of the issue. Glorantha has always been a gaming world, *by* and *for* roleplayers. Any 'scholarly' or systematic approach to describing it has to take this into account. The needs of a gaming GM are not those of a librarian or even of an ethnographer, facts need to be somewhat fluid, some areas need to be, and are, deliberately kept vague so they can be adapted and molded to the situation and campaign at hand. Glorantha presupposes an imaginative engagement, an effort on your part to sew it together, not to tear it apart. There is an expectation that anyone involved will engage into shaping a shared reality and story.

Any meaningful response to Glorantha *must* IMO be in this spirit, the positive, imaginative response of a GM or involved player who is sharing a story and carving out a group myth. Detached, 'scholarly' or critical responses that are not aware of the story and the game are often , quite literally, meaningless, even when they are fun.

I'm not using this as an excuse for Glorantha's failings, we are all trying to make our world as rich and explainable as possible, and we are all aware we have a ways to go. But it does explain the nature of some of the responses to the current non-thread.

We are neither librarians nor anthropologists nor historians nor cultural critics. We are gamers. We can use those disciplines as tools in certain circumstances, but the game and the story always come first. Glorantha is not a collection of facts, it is a story, and we are *always* the storytellers. And if we can't imaginatively, positively engage with that story ourselves, we can hardly expect others to understand or sympathise with our criticisms. Glorantha is a world for storytellers, mythmakers, and vision-seers.To walk there without imaginative engagement is to walk blind. Now roll the damn dice.

John

nysalor_at_...                              John Hughes

Questlines: http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/

"The whole race... is madly fond of war, high-spirited and quick to battle... and on whatever pretext you stir them up, you will have them ready to face danger, even if they have nothing on their side but their own strength and courage ."

Strabo, on the Celts, 1st century BC.