ZGG: Blackmoor-Centrism

[Havard]

I agree across the board Havard. One thing is to treat some of those "Huge" battles as scribal exagerations.

"temples" often are just small shrines in places like Japan.

Some of those wizard organizations should be widespread guilds or orders within some other organization.

Cool. for the most part this would make sense anyway. Although if something like the Wizards Cabal extends beyond the North, that too has implications.

This is certainly a problem with trying to flesh out everything about Blackmoor yet ignoring the fact that the Great Kingdom was off map somewhere. We do get that feeling that everything interesting is in this tiny location.

A couple of thoughts on this:

1. My understanding is that there are dozens of "triangles" in the ocean where ships sink and whatnot, yet the "Bermuda Triangle" gets all of the press. Just because one spot is particularly interesting doesn't mean that nothing else is happening elsewhere in the world, only that the scope of the campaign is more local.

2. Consider the first Star Wars movie from the 1970's, then think about how the scope changed after Return of the Jedi. In the first movie, Princess Leia was really important, Darth Vader was really important, the tiny slice of the galaxy that we got to view was really important. Later we find out that Leia is just one senator among many and Mon Mothma is in charge, Vader is second fiddle to the Emperor, and the one little rebel group wasn't that big a deal compared to a vast universe.

My point is that Blackmoor-centric isn't a bad thing. We can focus on the part of the world that is really interesting and ignore the fact that other interesting things might go on unnoticed and behind the curtain.

Just my thinking out loud.

Your example is failed on me since I am the biggest Return of the Jedi fan in this part of the solar system, however I do agree with you that the focus should be on Blackmoor/the North. I also agree that if you lose sight of this focus then that will make Blackmoor seem less important.

My criticism against Blackmoor-centrism in the books has to do with how certain elements are presented in a way that makes it seem like everything has to be crammed into that map.

Going back to Star Wars: In Episode IV, we are told that Leia is a member of the Imperial Senate. That doesn't mean that we should move the senate to Tatooine, which is in effect what TWC and BMPG seem to be doing.

Similarly, I like the fact that the Blackmoor/Thonian Pantheon has a multitude of Gods, but could it not be possible that many of them are for the most part worshipped off map, without neccessarily shifting the focus to that place?

As to the importance of Blackmoor, I have stated in my campaign that the fate of Blackmoor determines the fate of the world.



-Havard