tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post786326545883553238..comments2024-03-29T03:53:01.413-07:00Comments on B/X BLACKRAZOR: The Age of AquariusJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-16142669373440426042012-08-04T11:16:20.403-07:002012-08-04T11:16:20.403-07:00@ RIchard:
Well, sure, it's pure speculation ...@ RIchard:<br /><br />Well, sure, it's pure speculation to consider "what were you thinking?" of anyone, whether past or currently living and breathing. That's not really what I was saying.<br /><br />Astrological interpretation is a convenient shorthand for describing trends and tendencies; it is symbolic of the times we live in (in this case, discussing astrological ages), but who knows how much direct influence it has? That is to say, I'm not sure that a "switch gets flipped" just because an age progresses into a new constellation. However, the behavior of people IS influenced by other people (one sees this in changing social values over times...people dress a lot differently in the 21st century than in the 19th century or the 15th century for example). And being descriptive of trends, one can draw a correlation between the two. But whether it is solely descriptive ("God gives us coded writing in the stars to tell us what's going on") or has an actual influence ("the stars trigger spiritual evolution") or a little bit of both is something long debated and discussed by astrologers.<br /><br />I don't know if you had the chance to read my addendum to this post, but I do realize folks have been killing each other for centuries. What I'm talking about here is the detachment that accompanies the act of violence in our current age...the inhumanity of the act because we lack a connection to our fellow. I would suggest...hell, argue...that in past ages the act of violence was extremely personal and done for different reasons, also descriptive of their age (specifically empire in the Piscean age and aggression in the Arien age)...but those are loong posts for a different time. Maybe later this week (as they might better be used to signify the ancient, classic, and medieval periods best modeled by the D&D game). <br /><br />And, yes, in all ages there are exceptions to trends. Free will always plays a part.<br />; )<br /><br />(sorry, I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment...I'll write more later)JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08532311924539491087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-89631163546003620842012-08-04T02:49:44.750-07:002012-08-04T02:49:44.750-07:00Thanks for writing this - now I understand how we ...Thanks for writing this - now I understand how we come at things from such different angles.<br /><br />My concern here is with how we would know how detached or attached people were in the past (and attached to what, exactly?). And if we find a difference that we're confident is not just our own prejudice or cultural projection, then how we might isolate factors that could explain a change in detachment. Several ideas have been put forward for social change around and after 1750, mostly based on changes in economic circumstances, population densities, the societal costs of producing food and shelter, and available technologies. All of these are speculative and most of them presuppose some fundamental shift in spirit between "modern man" and whatever came before it but for myself, I cannot say either that I know the spirit of what came before or that I know what modernity is (apart from being a term used to justify a bunch of theses and political positions). Specifically on the topic of atrocities, I don't see the past hundred or two hundred years as exceptional beyond what can be explained by changes in technology and population density. The Allies might have fire-bombed Dresden but then Napoleon burned 7000 prisoners of war in a tower during his invasion of Egypt and the Mongols slaughtered whole cities - and then came back a few days later to mop up people who'd managed to hide the first time - and towns were set on fire in the Warring States period in China and... it looks to me like this is just a thing humans do sometimes.<br /><br />It's certainly true that in Europe (and I count the US culturally as Europe for these sorts of arguments) we now have unprecedented social and spatial mobility, which means we have to make connections more often and with a wider variety of people than we used to, or that we have more opportunities for isolation but on the other hand a thousand years ago there was a substantial class of scholars and soldiers in the Islamic world (of whom ibn Batutta was one example) who migrated across large distances, entered and left quite different cultural regions, and from the writings they themselves left behind (to be read with critical caution, naturally) they seem to have been anything but detached from the peoples they met along the way, while magistrates in Ming China, appointed by central authority, might be quite detached from the towns where they officiated.<br /><br />All that said, I agree with your point that we should be conscious of what sorts of societies we put in our games, and how socially attached the PCs are, in particular. I'd like to play games and make art with deeper and more complex social attachments partly because they make for great plot generators and they can increase the emotional stakes at play - there's a limit to how involved or involving murderhobo stories can get.richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13517340075234811323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-18893383305385094732012-08-03T13:30:36.722-07:002012-08-03T13:30:36.722-07:00Best Post Ever. That is all.Best Post Ever. That is all.Gonsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10443004278549501528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-57739796335699263372012-08-03T10:52:06.685-07:002012-08-03T10:52:06.685-07:00Hollywood has been producing movies with this sort...Hollywood has been producing movies with this sort of non-detached human sentimentality you suggest at the end of your post, and it hasn't worked yet to produce any sort of story that's compelling or interesting. It is, however, very preachy, trite, priggish and dull.<br /><br />But you keep trying.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.com