[Chorus] Creation Myths
DexCon follow-up #2
Luke and Tony(?) talked at DexCon about setting material in games, and how arbitrarily lame and useless it is that every single (note: hyperbole) book starts with the world's creation myth, which is usually:
1) held as fact
2) less interesting than any existing creation myth
3) doesn't come up in actual play at all
And, really, that is so worthless. In terms of a setting appreciation book, it's okay but a little cliche. In terms of role-playing games, we need setting for play, and this isn't providing it.
And yet I really shouldn't throw stones. Chorus will have a creation myth or two in the book. Indeed, the mythology and cosmology of the World from Chorus is one of its most important points.
For a certain sort of protagonist, the game is exactly about enacting and creating myths. And so the book will be full of myths. Bursting with stories, I hope, about the red-hatted girl and the wolf the saved her, about the king who hunted his own people, about the woman who married a cow, about the man who loved the sea, about the king who made war on death, about the slave-queen of Omelas and the lady of the North, about love, death, politics, the devil, the sun, that famine where your brother died, the lord of light blessed-be-he, and the deep blue sea. And, yes, it will have a creation myth. It starts like this.
Once, long ago, before the world began, before what began the world began, and just as what began to begin the world began, a man and a woman lived together in a little house at the edge of the mind, and they loved each other very much. The woman's name was Original Darkness and the man's name was Flash of Insight.
Luke and Tony(?) talked at DexCon about setting material in games, and how arbitrarily lame and useless it is that every single (note: hyperbole) book starts with the world's creation myth, which is usually:
1) held as fact
2) less interesting than any existing creation myth
3) doesn't come up in actual play at all
And, really, that is so worthless. In terms of a setting appreciation book, it's okay but a little cliche. In terms of role-playing games, we need setting for play, and this isn't providing it.
And yet I really shouldn't throw stones. Chorus will have a creation myth or two in the book. Indeed, the mythology and cosmology of the World from Chorus is one of its most important points.
For a certain sort of protagonist, the game is exactly about enacting and creating myths. And so the book will be full of myths. Bursting with stories, I hope, about the red-hatted girl and the wolf the saved her, about the king who hunted his own people, about the woman who married a cow, about the man who loved the sea, about the king who made war on death, about the slave-queen of Omelas and the lady of the North, about love, death, politics, the devil, the sun, that famine where your brother died, the lord of light blessed-be-he, and the deep blue sea. And, yes, it will have a creation myth. It starts like this.
Once, long ago, before the world began, before what began the world began, and just as what began to begin the world began, a man and a woman lived together in a little house at the edge of the mind, and they loved each other very much. The woman's name was Original Darkness and the man's name was Flash of Insight.
3 Comments:
I agree- Lame, fucking lame.
The only time I like World Creation Fiction at the beginning of the game is if it's in 1-3 sentences (or better yet, a poem), on an all-blank black or white page, as the introductory page to the introduction chapter.
It's like a cookie. A Setting Cookie. Something light to nosh on as you continue reading what the game's about.
-Andy
I agree with what was said. But I don't think it was me, unless I've forgotten.
It was Judd and Luke.
yrs--
--Ben
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