On 4/6/07, Juha Ratilainen <jualra_at_TLEdiWUD2v3W4ws2TZyC5Bl5FD2ykPECoYVeGfaLzFJzeBqD25L0pxRMx_MyyE_QL6VVW7cZeIM.yahoo.invalid> wrote:
>
> --- "Jeff Richard" wrote:
> > As Greg has said, many things in Thunder Rebels and Storm Tribes are
> > written for popular play, not the "real Glorantha". This discussion
> > is about deep Gloranthan background, not popular play, so I am
> > responding with deep background that contradicts stuff that was
> > written for popular play.
>
>
> So Gloranthan gaming cannot handle deep background? Players are
> unable to make up characters that could be "real" Gloranthans and
> need to be fed with simplifications and half-truths? GM's don't need
> to know the real deal, something "popular" will do - as they couldn't
> handle real Glorantha anyway.
>
> I always thought that deep, mature and challenging stuff was exactly
> what made gamers interested in Glorantha. Seems I was wrong.
>
> Why the popular stuff *must* contradict the deeper, true background,
> is still beyond me however. Simplifying the more complex stuff
> for "popular play" would be quite sufficient.
>
> Once upon a time, the Unfinished Works were collections of
> writings that could be incomplete / wrong, and what was in the game
> books was official. Now it seems it's the other way around...
>
> I'm not interested in the Vinga discussion at all. However, as I'm
> about to start a Lunar campaign, I'd love to hear about the things in
> ILH's that are only meant for popular play - so that I could leave
> them out of my game.
>
> --jr
I agree - why do we need to be fed wrong information in order to play games
set in Glorantha? Aside from anything else, this means that when the 'truth'
is published later, it makes us wrong.
I DO have an interest in the Vinga discussion, as Vingans have been quite
important in the game I'm running. Including a clan which has a high
proportion of Vingans (apparently impossible, because they can't get
pregnant and the clan wouldn't have enough kids) and specifically a PC
Vingan pregnancy. Now I read here that this is all nonsense, and my
Glorantha has varied so much as to be entirely incompatible. It argues
strongly against me buying any book of Heortling Mythology, as it contains
myths completely at odds with the books I had, foolishly, thought to be
'official'. This aside from questions such as 'why is Kallyr always
portrayed as female?' that this new information brings into play.
Also, I'm afraid I'm unwilling to take someone's description of a myth that
has yet to be published over the accumulated published information. I would
suggest it's, at the least, a bad idea to publish such a myth without a
matching cult write-up for any gods or goddesses who are so massively
changed as Vinga appears to be by this. I would prefer no retcons at all, of
course, but as a minimum - give us compatible cult write-ups.
--
Jakob Pape
"Sometimes subtlety comes in the form of large explosions and jammed open
airlock doors."