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I'm reading the Forgotten Realms Novels- #202 The Howling Delve by Jaleigh Johnson (Dungeons 2)
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8007900" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>I've noticed that Ed likes to mix political intrigue into a lot of his stories. For all of the monsters and power-mad would-be tyrants looking to rule the world or become a god or whatnot, there's quite often some group that is looking to establish a monopoly on a lucrative trading route or move a particular aristocratic family into a position of power. It's something that I actually quite like.</p><p></p><p>...or at least I <em>would</em>, if it were done better.</p><p></p><p>The problem, to my mind, is that when you put the machinations of uber-power players (e.g. people who can conceivably bind flights of dragons to their will) on the same stage as people who have to struggle to, say, manipulate local economic forces, it takes some skill not to have the former make the latter look small and inconsequential by comparison. Indeed, this sort of gets tied in to the issues of having low-level characters get involved with the plots of high-level characters; while the disparity in power varies a lot depending on which edition you're playing (and to be fair, Ed seems to want to stick to AD&D 1E, where it was a lot slimmer than in, say, 3E), having characters who are centuries old, command supreme magical power, and regularly consort with gods and fight arch-devils stick their nose into local politics tends to come across like an Olympic swimmer playing in the kiddie pool.</p><p></p><p>Now, I'm firmly of the opinion that a talented author can make this work, not just in terms of making the smaller-scale aspects relevant, but in terms of making them <em>important</em> (and without resorting to the cliche of providing some small-scale "tipping point" that breaks a deadlock between two greater powers; that always bugged me how providing the 1% effort that pushed things into the endzone, after 99% of the work was done by the other guy, was treated as being somehow just as - or even more - heroic). But that's actually really hard to do, and quite often is contingent on building up a great deal of the setting's infrastructure, showing how it all comes together in order to make it clear what manipulating it actually <em>means</em> in terms of what can be accomplished.</p><p></p><p>This, however, isn't where Ed Greenwood's skills lie. He much prefers to focus on characters (particularly their emotional sides), along with gonzo magic, rather than political and economic structures. The result is that the high-level characters are essentially babysitting most of the low-level ones when they show up, rather than actually <em>needing</em> them to do something that they, for all their magic and power, can't.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8007900, member: 8461"] I've noticed that Ed likes to mix political intrigue into a lot of his stories. For all of the monsters and power-mad would-be tyrants looking to rule the world or become a god or whatnot, there's quite often some group that is looking to establish a monopoly on a lucrative trading route or move a particular aristocratic family into a position of power. It's something that I actually quite like. ...or at least I [I]would[/I], if it were done better. The problem, to my mind, is that when you put the machinations of uber-power players (e.g. people who can conceivably bind flights of dragons to their will) on the same stage as people who have to struggle to, say, manipulate local economic forces, it takes some skill not to have the former make the latter look small and inconsequential by comparison. Indeed, this sort of gets tied in to the issues of having low-level characters get involved with the plots of high-level characters; while the disparity in power varies a lot depending on which edition you're playing (and to be fair, Ed seems to want to stick to AD&D 1E, where it was a lot slimmer than in, say, 3E), having characters who are centuries old, command supreme magical power, and regularly consort with gods and fight arch-devils stick their nose into local politics tends to come across like an Olympic swimmer playing in the kiddie pool. Now, I'm firmly of the opinion that a talented author can make this work, not just in terms of making the smaller-scale aspects relevant, but in terms of making them [I]important[/I] (and without resorting to the cliche of providing some small-scale "tipping point" that breaks a deadlock between two greater powers; that always bugged me how providing the 1% effort that pushed things into the endzone, after 99% of the work was done by the other guy, was treated as being somehow just as - or even more - heroic). But that's actually really hard to do, and quite often is contingent on building up a great deal of the setting's infrastructure, showing how it all comes together in order to make it clear what manipulating it actually [I]means[/I] in terms of what can be accomplished. This, however, isn't where Ed Greenwood's skills lie. He much prefers to focus on characters (particularly their emotional sides), along with gonzo magic, rather than political and economic structures. The result is that the high-level characters are essentially babysitting most of the low-level ones when they show up, rather than actually [I]needing[/I] them to do something that they, for all their magic and power, can't. [/QUOTE]
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