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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!down!tilt!chenr
From: chenr@tilt.FUN (The 1200 baud hacker)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: High/Low Level
Message-ID: <203@tilt.FUN>
Date: Wed, 7-Nov-84 23:10:05 EST
Article-I.D.: tilt.203
Posted: Wed Nov  7 23:10:05 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Nov-84 06:47:04 EST
References: <1995@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Organization: Princeton University EECS Dept
Lines: 60

> First of all, the spelling Ghods is an old fanzine trick to avoid confusing
> the fictional gods with possible real life entities, thus avoiding offending
> people.  Particularly useful when your fictional world has a Christian deity
> who isn't exactly like the real world one (if there is one).

This is net.games.frp.  If somebody gets upset because I spell God God, that's
their problem.  If you can't stand the heat, move to net.religion:-).

> Secondly, the whole issue of high-level vs. low-level has been discussed in
> great (I'm tempted to say excruciating) detail before, in forums like A&E.
> Each side has its merits, and each side its faults, and no one "wins" the
> argument.

Agreed.  It's having fun that counts.

> Third, let me explain my comments about fighting Ghods and why that is
> munchkinism.
> 
> My feeling is that Ghods should be portrayed on a different level from normal
> characters.  Ghods are SUPERnatural, not natural, and should be portrayed that
> way.

And magic isn't supernatural?  Somebody want to tell me what's natural about
summoning up a Type V demon to cook breakfast?

> To assign Ghods hit points and magic spells is to make them mundane,
> and that is, I think, a major mistake.
> After all, what does it mean to kill a Ghod?  The concept simply doesn't
> apply.  Of course EGG and the other eggheads at TSR got themselves into this
> bind and slipped out a back door.  They claimed that the Ghods in G,DG & H
> were just "avatars" of the real Ghods.  But that just begs the question...
> Ghods traditionally have great power over the natural plane.  Why should they
> manifest themselves as an avatar that can be beaten?  No reason at all.

Plenty of reasons.  Some gods might have more power on the Prime Material Plane
(due to say, more worshippers, say) and thus be able to manifest more power.
As a matter of fact, since you like citing fiction so much, there is a lot
of precedent for defeating avatars of not-so-powerful gods.  Being a god
doesn't mean that one is all-powerful everywhere, or even on the Prime Material
Plane.  There should be rules and power limitations even for gods and in most
mythos there are.

> Let me slip back to my Flatland analogy.  Suppose your FRP universe is
> represented on a flat piece of paper, and a particularly tough character as
> a tangled mass of lines.  A Ghod doesn't have to be *tough* - in game terms -
> to wipe out your character.  Ghod is three dimensional, and he simply has
> to pick up an eraser and "erase" you out of existence.  So the question of
> conflict never comes up.  Ghods, after all, are GHODs!

Personally, I think this is a lousy analogy and a lousy interpretation.
For one thing, it doesn't answer the question of WHY gods would want or even
care about being worshipped nor why gods can have a differing amount of
apparent power.

--

Hey, a deck of cards.  Blackjack, anybody?

	Ray Chen
	princeton!tilt!chenr