I agree with a lot of what M. Carteau says here. There are examples of this kind of issue in the campaign vignette in "Elder Secrets of Glorantha", albeit from the different standpoint of a group of adventurers meeting a group of "broken" dwarves, and learning about both the broken dwarves and Mostali society through a series of scenarios in which they interact with the 'broken' dwarves.
Another unofficial but interesting analogy I have heard about people using for Mostali is to substitute the words "World Machine" for "Computer", their society is a bit like the one for the role-playing game "Paranoia". The idea intrigues me, as a way of running a campaign for "broken dwarves" who sort-of remain inside Mostali society. Equally I can see an argument that maybe it is all a bit too anachronistic/silly
Bit of a non-sequitur, but I have my own questions about Mostali, because I don't understand the difference between the "race" of a dwarf and the "caste" of a dwarf, if any. At least not when one considers the role of Clay dwarves as well:
- Did the terms "Copper Dwarf", "Lead Dwarf", "Gold Dwarf", etc. originally denote "races" or "species" of Dwarf specifically evolved for their caste duties (like the various colours of Vadeli?). If so, how would they differ in game mechanics terms from the kind of 'workaday' Mostali that we know about in RQ
- I recall a posting from ages ago in which someone, possibly Greg himself, said that over time dwarves become more like the element of their caste, with the result that any dwarf that becomes a Diamond Dwarf literally become crystalline and multi-faceted. Is this true, and is there an intermediate stage where they take on the properties of their element before they begin to take on the crystalline aspect?
- Were "Clay Dwarves" then an inferior mass-produced dwarf, designed to provide labour and numbers for these other species
- Are Clay Dwarves now the basic "species"/"race" to which most Mostali belong nowadays almost to the exclusion of all others?
- Are there many/any dwarves belonging to the original "races" of the Octamony?
- As a result of this have the element-based terms come, nowadays, to describe the castes to which Clay Dwarves belong? e.g. now 'true' Quicksilver Dwarves are as rare as male dryads in Dagori Inkarth, are clay dwarves in the Quicksilver caste called "Quicksilver Dwarves" rather than "Clay Quicksilver Dwarves"
- Is it possible for a clay dwarf that is very good at their caste duties to develop into something like the original form of their caste and look like/take on the properties of a pre-clay "octamony" dwarf, so that e.g. a master plumber of Heroic ability ceases to look like/be a Clay Dwarf in the Lead Dwarf caste, and becomes indistinguishable from a Lead Dwarf from pre-Clay Dwarf antiquity?
- Bearing in mind what was said earlier about how Diamond Dwarves become crystalline, how does any such evolution affect the physical appearance of the dwarf?
- Is it possible in game mechanics terms, to say at what kind of age/skill levels these transformations begin to take place?
Broken dwarves, obviously, cannot progress. How quickly do they age?
Also there is an old source (one of the fanzines about Pavis) which said that the Flintnail dwarves of Pavis were not proper Mostali? Is that simply because they are heretics and therefore lose the sort-of agelessness that devout Mostali share with the Brithini, or is there even more to it than this?
Many thanks,
Richard Hayes
To: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, 30 May 2011, 22:01
Subject: Re: What does a BROKEN Dwarf Day consist of?
Selon Andrew Larsen <aelarsen_at_1-I5NFX8clJzfJ85Ceqit8vBPT2jWI4X7szmbmd4NJIi1Sqbfjyud_WztiBPKrncW-9WvDUNow.yahoo.invalid>:
> The problem with this approach, although it's a fun idea, is that it's
> not very good for role playing. No one is going to want to play a Dwarf
> character like that. So I think a more loose approach to Dwarves is more
> suitable for gaming. But if the Dwarves are just NPCs it works well.
/// Ah, I had misunderstood your query. To me, this is what mostali are like :
built to fulfill a job/mission in the Great Repair, and having biological needs
to sustain. That's it. The most common word my PCs hear from mostali NPCs is
"irrelevant".
If you want to play a mostali, then either it has a mission walking the earth,
or it's broken. Or both. "Broken" means he begins to think and feel by
it/himself. I happen to know a lot about autism and you could play one as a
person with autism slowly developping its personality.
I also imagine a mostali outside his initial program will spend a lot of time
idling, wondering what to do, desesperately trying not to become crazy by
practising a lot of compulsive behavirors : polishing his axe-head fifty times a
day, drawing the same tech diagrams a thousand times, etc.
Also, in human, above-ground society, he wouldn't know what to eat, where to
sleep, how to wash ("properly maintain the unit) : he's been used to have water
from the tap, heat and ligthing on demand, etc, a galley where to get his food
(always the same). What we consider as daily routine would be challenges for
him, and fun to roleplay.
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