Misc stuff, "BUTS" wish-list.

From: MSmylie_at_aol.com
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 15:00:57 -0400


Hello all.

A few quick comments, playing catch-up once again. First off, Nick Brooke noted that for all their anti-Lunarism, the Sartarites only seem to mount rebellions, half-hearted or otherwise, about once every ten years or so. I would only want to point out that it could be argued that this is because that's how long it takes for a generation of orphans to reach adulthood and thus, presumably, fighting age -- i.e., that rebellions need a kind of "critical mass" of fighting age individuals in order to occur, and that it takes about a decade for the right numbers to be reached as the descendants of the guys that failed the first time around grow up to take their place. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall some Roman or Byzantine writer making such a point about generations of barbarian orphans -- perhaps Vegetius or Procopius?

Secondly, Pam Carlson had started a thread about Pelorian clans; recently I ran across an interesting argument in T.J. Cornell's _The Beginnings of Rome_ (Routledge 1995), in which he argues that the evidence from naming-patterns - -- the rise of the use of the nomen gentilicium, the clan ("gens") name -- actually indicates that the clan system rose and spread _with_ urbanisation.  In fact, to quote him directly: "What needs to be emphasized is that the onomastic system characteristic of the gens seems to have spread in conjunction with the process of urbanisation. This feature of the evidence runs counter to a well-entrenched nineteenth-century theory that the gens originated as a 'pre-political' organisation, which was weakened and ultimately eclipsed by the rise of the state. In fact, the evidence implies the contrary." In a sense, I suppose it could be argued that clan identifications actually become _more_ important in the vast swell of urban populations (perhaps similar to the way the ancient Athenians emphasized the demes and tribes, or the intense rivalries between family groups in the Italian city-states) as a way of providing a way of self-identification -- belonging to a sub-group within the group, as it were. Such identifications may actually be _less_ important in sparsely populated rural areas. Don't know if anyone would find this idea useful, but there it is.

Finally, on the "BUTS" idea -- great idea in general; in fact, once someone's actually put the packet together, I'd love to get a copy. OTOH, with the publication of _Wyrm's Footprints_ (highly recommended to Paul, btw, along with _The Fortunate Succession_ and _The Glorious ReAscent of Yelm_, both of which have the added bonus of being usable as player handouts rather than just something to mull over like most of KoS), I'm not sure how much OOP stuff there is that doesn't strictly qualify as "RQ" rather than "Gloranthan" material. I, for one, would love to see some of the old background material from White Bear Red Moon or the old Dragon Pass games made available as I can never find the stuff myself, but I have to admit that my instinct would be to ask, like Michael Raaterova, for "Scenario Packs" -- I agree with him completely that they're arguably the best way of introducing Gloranthan ideas, at least for gamers, though I have no doubt that the copyright ramifications are considerably more complicated. In particular, I would note the old _Borderlands_ and _Big Rubble_ scenarios (don't have 'em, have always wanted 'em :-)); the Cradle scenario from the old _Pavis_ boxed set (don't know if there are plans to rerelease that at some point, or if the Argrath connection has made it a no-no); the Gloranthan versions of the three Balazaring Citadels in _Griffin Mountain_, along with the character of Joh Mith and Gonn Orta's castle (key old campaign figures without whom Glorantha seems emptier, IMO); Biturian's journal entries from the old _Cults of Prax_; some of the magic items from _Plunder_; and the Holy Country info from the
_RQ Companion_, though it may need to be updated, along with the fragment of
_A History of My Black Horse Troop_, particularly now that Ethilrist is
ensconsed in his Roost. Most of that stuff seems sufficiently informative about Glorantha while also being practical for a GM, at least IMO.

Well, that's a wish list, anyway, for whoever winds up the arbiter of this thing (if my vote counts, I'm more than happy to second Sandy's suggestion of David Dunham, assuming he's interested) -- some of the stuff I have and would be willing to photocopy, though I assume Sandy's got all this stuff already; hmm, it also occurs to me that I've got a couple of old Judges Guild items by Paul Jaquays -- _Hell-Pits of Night Fang_ and _Duck Tower_. Minimal Gloranthan content, I suppose, though I believe the dead hero Hrothmir in
_Hell-Pits_ may be the same horned hero that shows up in Paul's Thanatar cult
history; maybe there's room for some updating? I believe Jaquays still works in the industry (for The Other Game?), but have no idea who owns the copyrights for the old Judges Guild stuff -- I know Mayfair put out a really bad rewrite of the old City-State of the Invincible Overlord, and somebody's put out Tegel Manor, but anyone know who's got the rights on that stuff?

Just some thoughts.
Mark


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