Re: Real World Vingans

From: Jakob Pape <chaomancer_at_Qhwg7L0cMcY2g2iB3lN2_-onubq47xPFfPPLYybdQVOb4GUxrU2QULrc0pM4MH_5q>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:50:43 +0100



>
> In message <46A6A7A7.5070905_at_iRAANetkh602cVDEktbN9CXb8E6jVbcm4IRQHnC260oi6qPZfcqomSXII-4n8al3xYulse5Cj88wQFi_WbX9n_FWA71xZw.yahoo.invalid> Greg Stafford writes:
>
> >> If you look at Thunder Rebels though the cultural assumptions of
> >> modern Europe and the US
> >
> >And there is the rub. I have always assumed
> >that the average HQ player would know better than to project modern
> >European/US mores onto an ancient society. I had just assumed that we
> >were better educated and informed than that. This mistaken assumption of
> >mine accounts for a lot of the heat that my comments often generate from
> >this list.
>
> In my experience it's not a matter of education but an ability to
> switch viewpoints. Some people have it, others don't. It's probably
> learnable but outside Social Anthropology Degrees I don't know
> where it's formally taught.

Aside from that excellent point, I also think that some of us have trouble changing assumptions because we can't always see what to switch to. If we know (or can look up) how, say, Orlanthi think about gender or marriage or whatever, that's great - at least I and my group love Glorantha because it is different. We like playing up to the differences (except where we don't and Our Glorantha Varies).

If we don't know about the Orlanthi, but happen to have an idea of what Vikings or Celts thought, we might go with that. But if we don't have anything to go on, well, it takes an effort to not use the assumptions of our own culture. Sometimes we forget to make that effort, and sometimes it doesn't feel worth the effort if we'd just be making something up to fill the gaps afterwards - at least our cultural assumptions are easy to apply.

So modern assumptions creep in, for want of a better idea. And then it's more work to get rid of them; perhaps with a better education we could cope, but in my experience (tiny!) the 'average HQ player' is exactly as educated in these matters as any other roleplayer: not a lot.

Unfortunately, there's not much to do except accept that we'll misunderstand things sometimes because of this - which will require patience on both sides to sort out. Fortunately, as long as we all remember that, patience isn't too hard to find.

My 2p on the subject.

-- 
Jakob Pape

"Sometimes subtlety comes in the form of large explosions and jammed open
airlock doors."


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


           

Powered by hypermail