Jeff Crap-speaker:
> And here is the difference between "popular Glorantha" and "mythic
> Glorantha" that got Jane so pissed off. Needing a "socially
> acceptable outlet for women warriors" is a game construct. Folk want
> to play Xena with red hair. Fine. The game rules allow that. But don't be surprised if the
> underlying mythology doesn't match up with the game construct.
With genuine respect to Jeff, that's a load of bison-shit. Using this example, look at the U.S. Army and tell me there isn't a real world need for a "socially acceptable outlet for women warriors." It's not just a game construct. And, to the extent it is a game construct, it is just as much a story-telling construct. If people want to play Xena with red hair because it's a great story.
How about we argue about the extent to which Kallyr _is_ Xena with red hair? If she isn't, it doesn't matter whether its gaming material or deep myth: she still isn't. I don't demand perfect correlation between published materials of any kind, but I don't buy any supposed difference between popular and mythic Glorantha. There are excusable differences:
- There's a difference in presentation, assuredly. I don't need to know that Kallyr has 10W3 in Star God's Babe in the legend of her life, while I do to play HeroQuest in that part of her life.
- There are differences because gaming materials must be edited down to a publishable length. Cutting out low-value references to Vingans' sex lives is rational if it is inconsequential. Put another way, we can get more details about some things in the deep background that are _additional_ to those in the gaming materials.
- There are differences because authors are human. If Greg wants to change his mind so that Vinga's a lesbian now, that's fine. He's Greg: its his nature and we've been living with it for a long time.
But the idea that the facts on the ground are _different_ depending on whether they appear in gaming material or mythic background is lame. Either Vinga's got lesbian tendencies or not, whether it's HeroQuest or deep speculation. And if it's ambiguous, it's ambiguous in play and in myth (until the players or readers make up their minds).
Chris, with a Molotov cocktail in one hand and a Margarita in the other, trying to remember which not to drink.