Re: New Poll on Heroquest.com

From: Tim Ellis <tim_at_...>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 08:04:40 -0000

Which is a good thing in and of itself.
The problem with the poll is that it is an either or affair rather than a "rank in order of preference" since each option has both pros and cons

As a "prefinished work" it would presumably be "fastest to market", assuming that Issaries have accessible electronic copies of the originals and would be making few changes - however it would have the little appeal to people who have the original - the physical quality of the prefinished works is marginally better than the paper covered AH books, but not by a great amount. Also, while the infamous Issaries Fan Publication Policy is still up in the air, these books are only available by Mail Order from WH23 (and in terms of widescale availabilty, even if UW does pick up European reprints again it will still only be Mail Order from a handful of distributors - Maybe easier than hunting down G:CotHW on E-Bay, but not an "impulse buy" to draw people in.)

As an "Offical" Issaries product, incorporating material out of "Missing Lands" we would be getting better Production quality (and it would tie in with "Men of the Sea....") but it would (presumably) need more editing/revision work doing on it (the Prefinished works come with a disclaimer that Issaries may contradict them in finished products, but we would hope that finished products would not require too much subsequent revision). Also as an official Issaries product it will "eat up" a slot that could otherwise produce Men of the West, Trader Princes, ILH2, etc. And, from the point of view of someone who has the original Glorantha and Missing lands, I would rather see Issaries concentrate on new material rather than reprints

As a "Moon Design" book ("with many additions...") we get a book whose production quality will be better than the originals, and which will be available in Games stores. We also avoid tying up Issaries in producing it, leaving them free to concentrate on the new material. One possible downside is that there is likely to be little or no revision to the material, even if anything is contradicted by more recent sources. Rick has steered clear of the RQ3 material up to now, so assuming that this is a realistic possibility it opens up the possibility of further volumes of reprints (Elder Secrets?) - It also presumes that this solution will be an acceptable one under the new Fan Publication Policy (Assuming MDP is classed as a "Fan Publication" rather than a licensed product?)

A Proper Comprehensive Atlas of Glorantha would be a fine thing, but I fear it may take as long to appear as Heroquest did...("The Comprehensive Gloranthan Atlas will be available next year..."). Also, I wonder if it really is the "best" solution - In some ways I think a broad overview together with "Dragon Pass" like Gazeteers would be a better/more practical solution.

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