>I've been told that Issaries has to cut much OUT of the manuscripts
>it is developing into books, so describing anything as 'padding' is
>unfair.
Padding, nonetheless, in game terms. If this was a real, or even realistic, world, there may be as many worshipped entities. But it's not, it's a game, and the current number of deities, and more importantly the books needed to detail them, is unnecessary.
>When it comes to combat orientated Heortling gods, I tend to be more
>sympathetic with you. Could Vingkot have been left for a later
>supplement, I wonder? However, most of the others assuredly don't
>overlap. Skovara is not at all like Kev, for example.
A good example. Why do we need either at all? Everyone could do Divination before, why have a goddess who just does the same? Likewise Roitina - everyone can create rituals, why have such a specialist? Skovara and Donadar are just covering the same ground, taking up page counts.
>Well, you can have a perfectly playable world with no gods
>(modern-day or SciFi RPGs). Indeed, you can play with none (be a
>mystic or animist) or only one (be a sorcerer) in Glorantha, if you
>want. Its not really the point, is it?
A playable Glorantha, I meant, of course. And the point is, why is the Great Satan of Simulationism only a Bad Thing when applied to observable, verifiable, real-world phenomenon, but when it comes to the theology, mythology and culture of the cultures created in the game, we must have every last, tiny, repetitious detail? "narrative Simuationism" - Thou Shalt get the Fiction Right, but the Fact can be Fudged Over or Ignored.
>I'm confused. What do you want, exactly? A playable system that does
>not require a dozen books? HW is already that: many of us were
>happily playing with only the initial pair of rule books (plus a
>seldom used Anaxial's Roster) for ages before Thunder Rebels and
>Storm Tribe came out.
An excellent point! There, in the original books, we had a very credible pantheon of only 19 gods (plus, admittedly, a number of subcults of Orlanth & Ernalda, but still within that couple of dozen). So why now do we have 33 different slices of Orlanth alone?
>Or do you want to do more than scratch the surface of Heortling
>religion? If so, how do you propose to do this WITHOUT a quantity of
>writing?
I don't object to the writing, only the quantity...
>Consider the thickness of the Bible. Consider how much more
>you need to know to understand Christianity. Do you know what the
>Talmud is? Yep, real and realistic religions have a lot of 'stuff'.
Yes, but so what? This is not 'real or realistic', it's a game. All it has to be is playable. It doesn't have to educate & constrain your thoughts to an acceptable lifestyle, doesn't keep people employed and comfortable by attesting their superiority over the masses (the sales figures ought to keep issaries Inc. employed, but the actual religions don't!). And besides, it's not the 'realism' that matters, it's the multitude of different subjects. D&D became famous for it's multitude of monsters & magic items, now HW/HQ is doing the same with lists of Affinities & Feats.
Wulf
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