Re: How to Introduce Glorantha to newbies?

From: John Machin <orichalka_at_zMuIrgtKYRgWrzq99fxTes2ZD8I-Cb9hGVvDxEEquB9d0qSxrUa1QAvfaleAKWulBl>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 10:43:29 +1000


2009/8/30 continuum2008 <Continuum2008_at_OjFXetd7Uh4kFTN_EZAZzdKkNIWRDXHTQQIrazO3zYegd3mu1wEY48EXCt9gSBmzAUcXzmewlrySzh616Lto3GP5.yahoo.invalid>:
> So how can we do it?

When I have done it (only once thus far, but the game continues!) I've tried to "translate" rather than "teach".

Instead of trying to get the player to understand what they need to understand about Glorantha in order to make an informed choice, I ask them what they want to do.
This can take a while, but its useful in nearly every game to get a good handle on what the players want to do. The back and forth of hashing out the concept in non-Gloranthan terms continues until both I and the player are happy.

Then I start to translate it into the Gloranthan idiom. Glorantha is rich enough that it can accomodate a lot of the ideas players will have; and it is flexible enough to allow "personal discovery" of a tribe state nation or cult that fits the concept if nothing otherwise extant leaps to mind.

I find that basing the game of "touchstones" like the concept and using generic terms instead of specifically Glorantha terms until people are confident (e,g, first using "the Earth Goddess", then "the Earth Goddess Ernalda", finally "Ernalda") with them really helps.

Also pick your story well - if you are mostly dealing with newcomers to Glorantha don't chuck them in the deep end. Let them be foreigners or explorers so that their character's discoveries are the same as their own. If you have a few experts, let their characters be the locals or native guides or quislings. If you have just a few newcomers then perhaps put their characters under the tutelage of experienced Gloranthaphiles - thereby letting the out-of-game education become more easily integrated into the game by making it an in-game education too.

These techniques are mostly useful in long-form games, I've not tried to bring Glorantha to people at conventions, yet.

-- 
John Machin
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."
- Athanasius Kircher, 'The Great Art of Knowledge'.

           

Powered by hypermail