Re: Barbarian Adventures

From: contracycle <gamartin_at_...>
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 16:30:21 -0000


> Told me section' and in the Tribes information. Agreed, the history
> is not as detailed as in KoS, but do we want too much repeated
> information.

Indeed, and there lies the rub. HW suffers a personality crisis about whether it is for newbies or established gloranthaphiles. A product which requires a seperate purchase should a) come with a warning as in batteries not included and b) can freely be considered broken or deceptive.

> I do not think that they have ever said this. Can you provide me
> with the evidence?

It came up as part of the discussion on mapping recently, I forget which particular list. The suggestion was made that if Issaries were to specify tribal lands and whatnot this might conflict with playerestablished  data.

> You've obviously not witnessed any of Ryan Dancey's 3rd Ed Rules
> and Tools only rants =)

No, but I've seen similar arguments elsewhere. Ryan can go write rules for LARPers and improv theatre groups, if he likes. I think the argument has some merit, but IMO only when supported by settingspecific  material to which a tools-only product could be married.

> The Lunar presence creates the need for a more detailed map? I'm
> not sure I follow this argument. I too would love to see a map. I

Introducing geopolitics is hard when there is no geo to politic. Just exactly how extensive is the Lunar occupation? Where are their primary strongpoints? is there a border? I'm not even necessarily asking for this information to be specified, but its hard to tackle myself without a proper map - and if I had no net access, I would have almost no map at all.

> am justing pointing out that it does not stop play.

It stopped my play. I was initially very excited with HW, but decided in the end there was not enough info for me to be happy and I would wait for more to be published. But what I got was a spell list - oh sorry, a book of myths. OK, so now I'm being sarcastic, but I thought ST was pretty much a waste of money; or more accurately, it would have been perfect if a later supplement after more setting material had been established. Now I'm in the position of waiting to see IF the setting material will be established.

> I don't know how great the demand for information on mechanisms of
> production and tools beyond the coverage in TR would be. I would go

Traditionally slim, which is why I had such hopes for an RPG nominally based on cultural and social interactions.

> to analog cultures here if this is the sort of information you
> desire. I am not sure that there is a huge demand to know what a
> farmer's common tools are. Which RPGs do you suggest have this
> level of detail? Any particular supplements you think handle this
> better.

Well, Harn has some very good material culture stuff, as does L5R, although its exposition is a bit broken (they don't relate two arms of the economy, but they do discuss each arm). In fact L5R is quite interesting in this regard because it pays so little attention to the actual religious beliefs of people; but it discusses that culture anyway through its objects - the role and significance of a gunsen, a saki cup, the daisho, how clothing is made, the peasant economy. Not everything in the first book, obviously - but the start of it certainly was, and the rest duly delivered. HW gives us a schedule of blood-prices, but no indication of cattle numbers, so we can't really determine how expensive the fine is. Many games avoid this sort of thing by adopting a "default" mediaeval economy which they believe their audience believes it knows enough about to be getting on with, and this is often good enough (although not good). But here we are talking about a totally different cattle-based economy which frames the interactions of its members and which is largely not, IMO, seriously addressed. Honourable mention also to Ars Magic's Mythic Europe, a marvellous piece demonstrating just how easy it is to do a gazzeteer that gives good and useful information about named places without ruling out any ambiguity - and provides not merely a "who is king" but who WAS king too. Obviously AM has the advantage of a real world to work from, but I certainly think it was a good example of how world exposition can be carried out.

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