Something I've noticed about Lloegyr... Fundamental Attribution Error is in full swing, and I love it. As characters get drawn into conflict, the players get into wars of words, and the rhetoric starts to fly. Most of the time, players get drawn into their own IC justifications, believing what they're saying... and that's awesome. Really... it's how real people work: we make up rational arguments to justify our feelings. So if you really want to be king, you argue you would be the best king, and start believing it... because you want to be king.
But...
There's a slight problem with the rhetoric sometimes, and it causes people problems when dealing with NPCs. It's when the rhetoric appeals to the modern Americans we are, and not the fictional Heorots and Aels and Vincians and Kraki we pretend to be.
There's a lot of people who are preaching "peace" to NPCs, and to think of the country (I stopped counting at ten PCs using this argument in the past week... so I'm not talking about you, I'm talking to everyone). Telling a Heorot to work for peace is like telling your typical American to work for accurate and straight-forward food packaging... most will agree it's a good cause, but they just don't give a shit. Telling an Ael to think of their country is like telling U.S. citizen to think about "North America..." no one gives a shit about their continent. Peace and patriotism are more modern concerns, and your traditional Heorot cares about family and honor more than anything else.
I don't mind players having more modern values... I think it makes the game more tragic. Just realize that making an argument for peace is like making an argument about calorie labels... even if you're right, the people you're talking to (i.e. the NPCs) might not care.
But...
There's a slight problem with the rhetoric sometimes, and it causes people problems when dealing with NPCs. It's when the rhetoric appeals to the modern Americans we are, and not the fictional Heorots and Aels and Vincians and Kraki we pretend to be.
There's a lot of people who are preaching "peace" to NPCs, and to think of the country (I stopped counting at ten PCs using this argument in the past week... so I'm not talking about you, I'm talking to everyone). Telling a Heorot to work for peace is like telling your typical American to work for accurate and straight-forward food packaging... most will agree it's a good cause, but they just don't give a shit. Telling an Ael to think of their country is like telling U.S. citizen to think about "North America..." no one gives a shit about their continent. Peace and patriotism are more modern concerns, and your traditional Heorot cares about family and honor more than anything else.
I don't mind players having more modern values... I think it makes the game more tragic. Just realize that making an argument for peace is like making an argument about calorie labels... even if you're right, the people you're talking to (i.e. the NPCs) might not care.
But think of the children!!
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, one of the things I love about Lloegyr is knowing how Jason feels about the events from a modern eye and then deciding how Aldred will act from his medieval perspective.
This is definitely one of the things that Ever gets wrong. A LOT. But, since he's also one of the few men in Lloegyr who is not, has never been, and never wanted to be a warrior, he's more than a little odd right there.
ReplyDelete