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>I find it doubtful that baboon females are quite so non-competitive
>as all that. They just channel it more productively :)
Agree totally. Allison certainly spelled it out. It seems my one paragraph summary was a little too brief. :)
The flipside of cooperation is total hierarchy. The female baboons I've generated have highly explicit stats (masteries even) relating to receiving and giving orders. A is the top of the heap, she gives orders to B, who passes them on to C, who runs around doing most of the physical work *and* minding the baby. The outcome of this, in a HQ universe, is that younger, subordinate baboons pick up skills much more quickly than their seniors. And perhaps resent the order-givers like hell - a classic roleplaying set up. :)
Breaking out and reordering the hierarchy will be the big challenge. This is probably where the males come in. Subordinate males are always sneaking about looking for opportunistic mating opportunities: if Sneaky Pete manages to beat off the old Alpha and becomes novo baboono uno, his own (junior) mates may well become the new senior wives. New CEO, new Board.
All of which makes baboon politics a lot less idealistic and a good deal more Machiavellian - long periods of fluid, ordered female cooperation punctuated by brief periods of total anarchy. Junior males on the edge in every sense, constantly fighting and looking for opportunities to tear down the boss.
Add this to a post-mechanical society (baboons don't like being burdened by 'stuff'') and an amazing capacity to memorise story and lore, and possibilities for a unique baboon world-view start taking very solid form.
My challenge, as a believer in inate baboon superiority, is to work out why that set it up this way. :)
Possibly a topic to return to post-Scotscon. And I'll chuck a croquet match into the module, just for the sheer hell of it.
Cheers
John
Phone (02) 6125 0649
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