>From: "jclebreu" <gljc38_at_...>
>
>BUT more than a year without a book to support the game is a very
>very long time and it is ruining (?) all the efforts done to promote
>the game and have new players or narrators
No it hasn't. I've recruited dozens of players for HQ over the past year. Just by playing the game with them online or at cons. In many cases I didn't even use the Glorantha setting at all. The rules of HQ alone are enough to attract new players. Because it's a better game than most of the rest out there.
Not one of them asked what the production schedule was for the game. They just asked where they could get the rule book.
It's along-standing myth in RPG publication that you have to have a supplement treadmill going to have a "live" game. What you really need is to support the central game as a product by providing personal and personable service to the people who are interested. Which this game has had in spades over the years.
In fact, the supplement treadmill is, generally speaking, how most RPG companies go out of business. Less so these days with the ability to more cheaply produce smaller print runs. But if you don't want Rick to go out of business, then pray that he keeps his print runs down in size, and produces relatively few products, and that those products focus on being useable in play (as opposed to massive tomes of background material). It's the only feasible business model for a hobby with so few people involved. This isn't mass media print publishing, but perhaps some polar opposite of that; so don't try to use those models for how to run a RPG company. Or, like TSR, you'll go bankrupt three times no matter how popular your game system is.
Sure, I want to see ILH2 as well (for somewhat bizzare technical reasons). But it won't actually have a lot of impact on my play - I mostly don't play in Glorantha, using out of print stuff for my background instead. Nor will it have impact for many others, I suspect. Mostly these supplements are for all of you collectors out there who want to read more about Glorantha. Nothing wrong with that, but it has little to do with the health of the primary game system, which relates directly to how many people actually play the game.
This is the main means by which RPGs spread in popularity to new players. People show it to others by playing it with them. If you're waiting for ILH2 to show HQ to other players...
...all I can ask is why wait?
If this is getting off topic, I'll gladly move the conversation to a new venue.
Mike
Powered by hypermail