Spot on! Glorantha is a background for so many different things: games - from sunday afternoon broo-bashes to world-changing epics: stories - all sorts, all genres, all lengths: and as a shared world for myth-building and mutual creativity. All of these demand different levels of detail, "scale" and emphasis. DP, KODP, a HW broo-bash, the recent history of Sartar, Timmy Trollkin's rock collection, or the myriad uses of enlo urine all must emphasise some things and forget, ignore or simplify others.
This was really driven home to me a few days ago when I ran Ian Thomson and clan's updated "Garhound Contests" through a virgin spellchecker. So many - hundreds and hundreds! - of new names, terms and concepts, even though Garhound is an excellent 'beginners' module. The learning curve is just so steep.
My only quibble with Ian's post is his description of the Orlanthi model as
a God-Learner fiction. God Learners! What are "God-Learners"!?! The God
Learner model is a Third Age fiction of unity, when in fact we have a myriad
collection of diverse and individual sub-cultures. Such un-deconstructed
ur-myths are born of phallotechnophobic attitudes in Western culture,
perpetrated by smug, Pre-derridian-post-structuralist, naive-positivistic,
pre-cyborg scientistic Lhankor Mhys whose less-than-savoury relationships
with their parchment sources are well-known to us all. As Timmy Trollkin
once
said, How can you speak of a single model for these people when ....
[Exit stage left, dragged kicking, screaming and ranting to do the shopping... oh 'eck.]
John
Powered by hypermail