Re: Playing Trickster--other trickster gods?

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 12:50:05 -0700


James Frusetta <gerakkag_at_...> wrote:
>

> I'd think being a *foreigner* and a trickster is an even faster route
> to the lynching. Of course, being a foreign non-human trickster might
> take the cake and the hat-trick...

I guess I was thinking more about problem A: How can you play a trickster, when they're all miserable and psychotic? Answer: Play a different culture's trickster, where they aren't like that.

That doesn't, true, address problem B: How can you play a trickster, when Sartarites kill tricksters on sight?

Of course, if you're a non-Eurmali trickster (worshipping some relatively tame trickster god, along the lines of Hermes or Coyote or even Loki), they may well not recognize you as a trickster. Imagine, for example, that ancient Greece was next door to Sartar. You come into Boldhome and they say, "Who do you worship, then?" You say, "His name's 'Hermes'." "What's he like?" "Oh, he's the messenger of the gods. Watches over travelers and the like. Also he guides the spirits of the deads--'soul-leader', that's one of our names for him." "Oh, he sounds a lot like Issaries!" You just wouldn't mention things like, "Oh, and when he was three days old he stole the light-god's cattle. And the storm-god gets Hermes to run interference whenever he wants to sleep around without his wife catching him. And..."

That lets a player play a trickster-character--one with skills like "fart silently" and "balance bucket of milk over doorway"--while still having a plausible cover-story, and not being utterly unplayable. You'd still have the cultural difficulties of being a foreigner, but Sartarites *don't* necessarily kill foreigners on sight--especially if they've got friends, like, say, the other PCs.

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