Played, of all things, Dungeon World last night.
DW is not usually my jam; it is a bit heavy and feels too close to D&D. I know that's intention; still, I have hangups with D&D.
Still, sometimes things are glorious. We had 3 players, two of us new in an ongoing campaign. In each previous session, the PCs had learned more about the necromancer kingdom to the east. Everything they learned convinced the players that the necromancers were the good guys.
So, of course, the two of us who were new were from the necromancer kingdom. I played a wizard necromancer, the other new PC was a Paladin. We were out of towners, finding ourselves in a bar (of course), with a local drunken fighter.
Fantastic moments:
-- Using unseen servant to raise the dead, and have quickie zombie servants.
-- Magic Missile as a spell to prepare the dead to come back to life.
-- Describing the undead lands as a parliamentary democratic theocracy with a planned economy. You can be any religion you want, but you only receive the minimum basic income (hah) if you are of the Faith.
- You elect your local priest, and the priests elect the bishops. And the bishops elect the Council, which has a chairman. Wizards, though, don't need to be elected. There's a house of lords -- "experts" -- that absolutely includes wizards.
-- Afterwards, thinking through the economic ramifications of long standing undead labor.
-- Getting really concerned about having a class of person who do all the work and are thought of as less than human. This is concerning.
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Are you concerned about robots?
ReplyDeleteYes. Star Wars Droids, too.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually wondering more about modern robots (like the ones that paint auto-bodies on assembly lines) than hypothetical self-aware robots (like Star Wars Droids).
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm trying to get to the question of "What if the beings being considered 'less than people' are really markedly less than people in a lot of important respects?"
Less so. But, and here's where I've come to over years: its a process that matters by degrees, not by a threshold.
ReplyDeleteSo, I morally am concerned about dogs, but less so than people. The degree to which I am concerned about modern robots is pretty low, as I think there is nothing that it is like to be a modern robot, to misattribute Nagel.
Rainbow Brite ruled over these fluffy henchlings called Sprites who toiled in the mines fornStar Crystals which were melted in the central tower and color was piped into the universe.
ReplyDeleteI wondered how well compensated these beings were. Do they have houses? Cots? Piles of straw?
Chad Robb Were they allowed to quit?
ReplyDeleteI never saw one dare refuse a direct order. They might have been bred to mine compulsively like dwarves.
ReplyDeleteJust as elves abhorrence toward iron limited them, the beings in RB were perpetual children. Small, soft hands, but the inheritors of enough means to dress lavishly and keep private quarters.
Elves could never have moved out of the stone age if they hadn't made the dwarves. No nails, no rails, everything would have to be done with glue and wheat paste and sharp silver.
ReplyDeleteDwarves can coat iron in gold.
http://imago.hitherby.com/2004/02/rainbow-noir/
ReplyDeleteSome modifications:
ReplyDelete-- The minimum basic income is nothing of the kind; it is a gift to the faithful for performing acts of worship. It is the act of doing the ritual observances which powers clerics. Go to service once a week, get more than enough flour to make bread.
-- Public works projects! When you have lifeless servants who don't need to sleep, you better have public works. Think Rome for the scale of public works.
-- Capital punishment, and being raised as a zombie.