What's needed for the game and nothing that the characters wouldn't know. Maybe quarter page of A4 as a reminder of what I need to explain.
>One of the main complaints I get when trying to get new players
>interested in Glorantha is that it is so vast it is hard to get into -
>people do not know where to start. Much of the setting information
>is spread over several books, many of which are out of print, and
>much of it seems incomprehensible.
Concentrate on the culture the PCs will be from. Other cultures are strange and different. That should be a culture which is in a few in print books.
>There is also the issue with how race is treated in Glorantha - some
>people find it boarding on racism.
I can see this being a tricky issue. There are a lot of racial stereotypes floating about in Glorantha and practices (like slavery) that will upset some people. However no race has the dominance of resources and culture that white people have in the modern world and the big conflicts between peoples are magical/religious. It's also true that most Gloranthan cultures are xenophobic which may well be expressed in racist ways. It's potentially an area to be explored in the story.
Overall I regard the fact that most cultures are depicted as white to be the biggest problem. I know Greg has said he sees the Orlanthi as brown skinned but just about every publication shows them as white and there are good mythical reasons for Dara Happens also to be. I see no reason why all the rest of the people of Genertela can't be various shades of brown and yellow.
>Also the fans are perceived to focus on the esoteric and are very
>cliquey, certainly not welcoming to any one new or to new ideas. Of
>course that is only the perception but it is a common complaint I
>encounter. The Glorantha.com site is a good resource but is still full
>of information that is often seen as hard to penetrate.
I don't think Glorantha can be simplified enough to avoid this complaint. But it's no more so than other fandoms. No one has created an entire language as Tolkien did for Lord of the Rings. Nor are there arguments about the precise capabilities of various pieces of equipment like the ones about Star Wars spaceships.
>These are big hurdles to get over, I have tried many times, some with
>success but many times in failure.
>
>So how can we do it?
Well one woman I know doesn't play in Glorantha. She plays Bison Riders.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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