I don’t like Glorantha but I play in the setting because my group is awesome and they like it. My biggest problem as a newbie was that there is no single book that is written from an objective perspective. The setting comes across as a mash-up with no overriding theme or unity behind it. It seems similar to Rifts maybe, only there’s some hidden esoteric stuff that people argue about that has nothing to do with actual play.
It seems there are three versions of Glorantha:
One: A world about living myth and religious syncretism where heroes forge magic and values. This version is totally unsupported by the game rules and books.
Two: A world with lots of different cultures that act as a generic setting mash up. This seems to be the default mode of play and it’s the way our group plays. In this mode I find the rest of the setting just gets in the way and breaks my suspension of disbelief.
Three: Hack and slash heroes. The world is just full of weird and wonderful stuff to see while you go about hacking up bad guys.
What would sell me on the world is a working version of mode one. It would be a big source book and it would have chapters like this.
One: Living myth. A big bit just about myth and values.
Two: Gloranthan metaphysics. How to become a god, change myths, become enlightened, gain new magic, kill a god, all the good stuff. (Not an overview, I mean actual nuts and bolts game mechanics on how to do this stuff)
Three: An over view of the different cultures of Glorantha in terms of values, magic and with a list of myths. (this would all be written POV) Four: The history of the world through the eyes of some different cultures. This would be written from POV)
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