t_m_ellis wrote:
>
> I'd tend to disagree here. Both from an "old hand" point of view -
> People who had RQ characters that were Issaries merchants or Humakt
> warriors, for example wanted that information sooner rather than
> later, and from a "newcomer" point of view - how can you establish
> the setting material if you are missing one of the elemental building
> blocks. If these cults exist and have a sizeable representation then
> it would be odd if they were completly ignored in all the early
> setting material
Speaking from the POV of someone who's trying to run a game, its hard to run a lot of the standard characters you meet in Glorantha without those rules. Humakti are everywhere. Issaries is the god of merchants, traders and travellers.
It would have made writing scenarios pretty brutal. I just wish that the gap between BA and ST had not been so long.
> > 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).
>
> Ha! You must be joking. L5R completly ignores the whole question of
> Economy in a way at least an order of magnitude beyond any other
> RPG. The only place it is even mentioned at all is the "joke"
> preface to "Way of the Kolat" (MGtR).
They ignored it deliberately. But from what I was told by AEG types, they were considering doing an economy but then backed off half way through implementing it so now Rokugan is stuck with this half-feudal obligation, half barter wierdness that just doesn't work no matter how hard you squint.
(If you want to use economics in Rokugan, buy Sengoku and just use the rules for money there)
> ...to the extent that playing a "religious character" becomes quite a
> challenge... L5R Religion is a hodge-podge of Confucianism, Buddhism
> and Shinto, with no real explanation of why they are mixed together,
> or who deals with which function.
And there's no way to play a religous shugenja, which is what they are supposed to be. They are now 'just magicians' really. A shame.
> the "Archeology" Approach. Hmm, here's an object, now lets find an
> excuse for fitting it in to the culture. The problem is that it
> leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions and no way to
> extrapolate. We know that performing a Tea Ceremony will allow you
> to recover void points, but we don't know why - Is it the Tea, the
> Ceremony, both, neither. Hero Wars works the other way around - We
That never occured to me. With L5R, one just learns not to ask questions of the world-mechanics (not the rules mechanics). Its like asking why magic works in D&D, unfortunately. That, I think, is one of the major differences between Glorantha and most other gaming worlds. We can ask questions and get answers and extrapolate on our own.
Sometimes the answers we get aren't quite what we wanted but at least we get them.
> know that in myth, peacekeepers covered weapons with rugs to prevent
> bloodshed, so now we know why Ernaldans throw rugs over fueding
> Orlanthi's swords to defuse a brawl...
And we know why Yelmalio isn't Elmal.... =)
Jeff
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