[Rq-rules] Re: Farewell to CON and thoughts on APP

[Paul Cardwell]

Yes, you did fail to understand.  I was discussing
game rules, but I am quite willing to expand it to
real life with a few exceptions.

The primary exception is in cultures with extensive
mass media - which even today is not the majority. 
There, superficial looks have inordinate effect
because the mass media has declared it to be
important.  Any lie repeated often enough, especially
if no other viewpoints are permitted, will convince
the great masses of the validity of an absurdity.

In cultures where this is lacking, significant persons
are only known to the masses by reputation, seen at a
distance, or in controlled settings where the
trappings of power are more significant than the
person his/herself.

Gygax, as I originally referred, mentioned, in the
context of how charisma differed from attractiveness,
Hitler and Napoleon.  On the other side, one could
also include Abraham Lincoln and Mohandas K. Ghandi.

Napolean and Lincoln were before photographs could be
reproduced in newspapers; Ghandi in a region of low
adult literacy and both he and Hitler in places of
heavily controlled mass media (Hitler to be praised,
Ghandi to be ridiculed).

Therefore, in those examples as well as countless
others, appearance was rather minor.  Indeed, only in
the case of the media-manufactured celebraties (those
famous for being famous), is appearance of any
significance.  And there, lacking any true charisma,
appearence is indeed everything - but only by default.
 It is also why those with only appearance and nothing
substandial last such a short time in the public eye.

Paul Cardwell


--- Styopa <styopa1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 1/17/07, Paul Cardwell <carpgachair at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I still fail to see what effect APP has on
> anything.
> 
> 
> Are you talking about real-world or only game rules?
> 
> In full combat armor, one is both unable to see what
> > the character looks like, and is going to be
> > considering factors other than looks (how
> proficient
> > does he/she appear with the weaponry, how
> > forthright/tentative, and that sort of thing). 
> How
> > good looking is irrelevant.
> >
> > In civil situations, the primary concern is going
> to
> > be quality of merchandise, clarity of information,
> and
> > that sort of thing.
> 
> 
> Eh.  Hopefully I'm just misunderstanding, because
> otherwise that's
> simplistic to the point of disingenuousness.  Are
> you seriously suggesting
> that looks are irrelevant?  I don't think one would
> have to be Shallow Hal
> to acknowledge the pervasive impact physical
> attractiveness has on
> everything in life from job prospects, to income, to
> happiness and even
> physical health.
> 
> Now, if the rules don't reflect this, it's either a
> failure of the rules, or
> overoptimistic nerdly wishful thinking (although I
> suspect it's rather
> universally true geographically, chronologically,
> and culturally, that
> physical appearance is more important to/for females
> than males).
> 
> I've spent time with runway models both incognito
> and when they're all
> dolled up from a shoot (both genders).  Granted,
> most of them are still
> rather striking without the gear, but you'd be
> amazed at how a stunningly
> beautiful woman can dominate an entire room without
> trying.
> 
> Note: because they never had an impact in the role
> playing games that you
> participated in doesn't, ipso facto, mean that they
> SHOULDN'T.


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com