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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9136779" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I think you may be confusing Glorfindel, Elf-lord of Rivendell, with Glothfindel, the Elven ranger who travels the Fellreev and the Phostwood and is a friend of Fea-bella!</p><p></p><p>We have themes of greed and longing - as evoked by the Elfstone, the history and spirit of the Petty Dwarf that inhabits it, its taking by Gerda, and Megloss's attempt to take it in turn.</p><p></p><p>There are also themes of family, and uncertainty in that respect - as evoked by Golin's learning something about his parents' friendship with his alchemist friend, and in our most recent session Fea-bella learning that she has a half-brother, Lareth the Beautiful, resulting from his mother's (hitherto secret from her) relationship with the human sorcerer Beholder of Fates. This can also be a type of longing.</p><p></p><p>And there is the theme of the "otherworld's" bearing upon this world - Fea-bella is a Dream-haunted Dreamwalker, and it is the Petty Dwarf's dream spirit that inhabits the Elfstone; the NPC Elf Celedhring stole a post from the Elven dreamhouse, and the house into which it is built was the house of a human wizard before it ultimately became Megloss's house; and beneath Megloss's house is a series of caves in which Celedhring entered into communion with the Outer Dark. This same void, according to a book Fea-bella read in Beholder of Fates's library, meant that Lareth's birth was ill-omened; and is the admixture of elemental Earth and Air revered in the forgotten temple.</p><p></p><p>That book was On the Mingling of Elven and Human Knowledge of the Firmament. The use of human and Elven relations - Megloss's house, Lareth's birth - to evoke the world and otherworld relations (which can <em>also</em> be a type of longing) is a well-known fantasy trope. Likewise the use of Dwarven and Elven conflict to evoke the interplay of greed and longing, at least since JRRT. While I don't think the setting I've described is especially deep, I think it is as deep as anything I know from GH or Shadow World or the Known World (just to mention some of the FRPG settings I know from their stuff) or that I've heard of from FR (which I know by reputation).</p><p></p><p>I think the strength of RPGing as a medium for fiction is that it is shared imagining, generated through a distinct sort of process (via the allocation of roles). The thematic content is therefore built up, via play, by the participants. They introduce it, note it, build on it, play on it, manipulate it, sometimes repudiate it. This is why I don't think it's self-evident that doing it in advance will make it better or more resonant.</p><p></p><p>I posted this in another current thread, on GM agency:</p><p>The only FRPG session I know that remotely approximates Middle Earth is Glorantha. (And Middle Earth itself, as a RPG setting, I often feel is stripped of its thematic weight and resolved into its mere details.)</p><p></p><p>But most FRPG settings in my view are much as I've described Greyhawk above.</p><p></p><p>I don't know what prompted the player to go with explosives. I don't think that, at that stage, he had looked at the equipment list (which includes alchemical fireworks of various sorts). Maybe he was thinking of Warcraft (is that the game with the Dwarves that say "I love blowing things up!"?)</p><p></p><p>In the Torchbearer rules, the boundary between what is made via Alchemy and what is made via Enchanting is porous, but it does include smoke bombs and grenades.</p><p></p><p>That is not canonical for Greyhawk, but given that GH is just Gygax et al's version of the Hyborian Age, and the notion of canon for the Hyborian Age is ultimately incoherent given that the whole point of the Hyborian Age is to be whatever REH needed it to be to tell some or other Conan story, I don't feel bothered by it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9136779, member: 42582"] I think you may be confusing Glorfindel, Elf-lord of Rivendell, with Glothfindel, the Elven ranger who travels the Fellreev and the Phostwood and is a friend of Fea-bella! We have themes of greed and longing - as evoked by the Elfstone, the history and spirit of the Petty Dwarf that inhabits it, its taking by Gerda, and Megloss's attempt to take it in turn. There are also themes of family, and uncertainty in that respect - as evoked by Golin's learning something about his parents' friendship with his alchemist friend, and in our most recent session Fea-bella learning that she has a half-brother, Lareth the Beautiful, resulting from his mother's (hitherto secret from her) relationship with the human sorcerer Beholder of Fates. This can also be a type of longing. And there is the theme of the "otherworld's" bearing upon this world - Fea-bella is a Dream-haunted Dreamwalker, and it is the Petty Dwarf's dream spirit that inhabits the Elfstone; the NPC Elf Celedhring stole a post from the Elven dreamhouse, and the house into which it is built was the house of a human wizard before it ultimately became Megloss's house; and beneath Megloss's house is a series of caves in which Celedhring entered into communion with the Outer Dark. This same void, according to a book Fea-bella read in Beholder of Fates's library, meant that Lareth's birth was ill-omened; and is the admixture of elemental Earth and Air revered in the forgotten temple. That book was On the Mingling of Elven and Human Knowledge of the Firmament. The use of human and Elven relations - Megloss's house, Lareth's birth - to evoke the world and otherworld relations (which can [I]also[/I] be a type of longing) is a well-known fantasy trope. Likewise the use of Dwarven and Elven conflict to evoke the interplay of greed and longing, at least since JRRT. While I don't think the setting I've described is especially deep, I think it is as deep as anything I know from GH or Shadow World or the Known World (just to mention some of the FRPG settings I know from their stuff) or that I've heard of from FR (which I know by reputation). I think the strength of RPGing as a medium for fiction is that it is shared imagining, generated through a distinct sort of process (via the allocation of roles). The thematic content is therefore built up, via play, by the participants. They introduce it, note it, build on it, play on it, manipulate it, sometimes repudiate it. This is why I don't think it's self-evident that doing it in advance will make it better or more resonant. I posted this in another current thread, on GM agency: The only FRPG session I know that remotely approximates Middle Earth is Glorantha. (And Middle Earth itself, as a RPG setting, I often feel is stripped of its thematic weight and resolved into its mere details.) But most FRPG settings in my view are much as I've described Greyhawk above. I don't know what prompted the player to go with explosives. I don't think that, at that stage, he had looked at the equipment list (which includes alchemical fireworks of various sorts). Maybe he was thinking of Warcraft (is that the game with the Dwarves that say "I love blowing things up!"?) In the Torchbearer rules, the boundary between what is made via Alchemy and what is made via Enchanting is porous, but it does include smoke bombs and grenades. That is not canonical for Greyhawk, but given that GH is just Gygax et al's version of the Hyborian Age, and the notion of canon for the Hyborian Age is ultimately incoherent given that the whole point of the Hyborian Age is to be whatever REH needed it to be to tell some or other Conan story, I don't feel bothered by it. [/QUOTE]
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