Guy:
<< If you were new to Glorantha, and wanted to start a campaign for people
who have had no exposure to Glorantha, but had access to all published
Gloranthan settings (official or unofficial),
- Which one, if any, would you choose?>>
If I were new to Glorantha I think I would go for the Barbarian adventures,
Orlanth is Dead, Thunder Rebel path, simply because there is more stuff
published. I guess it might depend on what sort of thing I thought my players
might like but it's pretty hypothetical.
2) If you chose NOT to go with a previously-established Gloranthan setting,
which non-published area would you go with?
If I were a newbie then I am sure I would not have even heard of some of
these places but if I explain the potentially interesting areas I might
suggest if someone asked me. I am not restricting myself to the late third
age because I like years to fly by without worrying thay I've missed things
from the "official" timeline:
- Carmania at the start of the Blood King's War. Heroes would be the
only-just-entering-adulthood noble sons and daughters of the generation
killed in the First Battle of Chaos and are thus foes of the New Moon
Queendom. Benefits of this setting are that the heroes are young and know
little about Glorantha, have no elders to pass on their wisdom so must find
things out for themselves. They have an enemy (the New Moon), other problems
(previous generation was absent) possible quests (father went mad and joined
the Mad Horde). There is published background on Carmania to get one started
and also plenty of time for the Heroes to grow up and either turn red or die
fighting.
- Kingdoms of New Wisdom. Heroes are exiles from the Kingdom of Splendour
ruling a wretched land of Ignorants and trollkin. This has plenty of
potential: huge mysterious ruins to explore, ominous prophesies, a remnant
troll population lurking in their old domain, weird and dangerous cults and
cultists (like Call of Cthulhu) , an imperial enemy on the border (Immanant
Masters from the New Dragon Ring of Shang Hsa), potential for unusual Heroes
(assorted flavours of Hsunchen, Pentan mercenaries, Kralori alchemists, even
stranded Jrusteli adventurists). Potentially long range story arcs - "moving
a star" might involve a secret mission into Kralorela, visiting the City of
the Stars, crossing the Bridge over the River Kwai, encounters with the
Extraordinarily Fair Feminine Legalists, etc. For those of you wit a
wargaming bent, the whole area coudl also be a "warring states" type area -
the Exarch become Dragon Kings after all, "Kings" means Kingdoms, so they are
not a unified buch without an Emperor.
- ...damn, run out of tie. more later.