>I think the big problem is that aldryami have never been given the sort of
>treatment that uz have, not even in RQ, so we don't know how alien they are.
>
Actually, I think its the other way about: there hasn't been a detailed
treatment of the aldryami, therefore we think they're a lot more alien
than they actually are. We see some things about them, and think 'well,
that's really weird', but we don't get enough of the day-to-day stuff to
appreciate them in their proper context. They're clearly weirder than
they looked in RQ, too, and I suspect people over-estimate just how
*much* weirder they've got. Now, there are races in Glorantha which are
unplayably strange - the dragonewts being the obvious example - but I
don't think the aldryami are among them.
For instance, there's been a suggestion here that elves are part of a hive mind, but I don't think the situation is quite that extreme (unlike the Voralans, who actually are that way IMO). Sure, they're in touch with the forest and its life force in a way that's different from anything a human can do, but their relationship with the rest of the forest is similar to that of the relationship of a Heortling with his close family - he's part of it, but still an autonomous being. Dryads and runners are probably a lot less so, but part of the function of elves is to be capable of individual free will. The Rathori of Fronela and the Laskali of Pamaltela don't seem to have any great difficulty getting on with them, and I wouldn't say those peoples are any weirder than, say, the Kitori.
The problem isn't so much playing elves per se - which I doubt would be any harder than playing Uz if we had a similarly sized book to describe them - but finding interesting stuff for them to do. That's why you'd need an exploratory group able and willing to travel outside the forests to be the basis for your campaign. I suspect its the same with ludoch and malasps, BTW*, although its obviously a bit more difficult to figure out ways round that one!
-- Trotsky Gamer and Skeptic ------------------------------------------------------ Trotsky's RPG website: http://www.ttrotsky.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
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