Nick Brooke

From: SimonPhipp_at_aol.com
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 17:50:35 -0400


Having just come back from Convulsions, I read my backed up email and saw several gems from Nick Brooke. I had already received an email from him on the same subject, but decided to ignore it in the cause of goodwill. However, because of the vitriolic outbursts from Nick I thought I had better comment. It is a shame that Nick decides to express his opinion in the form of personal attacks, especially when he seems to be quite a nice chap in real life. Perhaps it is like Road Rage - in real life a mild mannered person, but on the internet a Monster :-).

> I'd like to apologise on behalf of the RQing community at large for the
> undeservedly negative vibes which your eminently reasonable recent post
> attracted (V3#35, V3#40).

I am pleased that you speak for the entire RQ community, Nick. I would hate to think that this was your own personal view and not that of the whole community.

As a matter of interest, I have checked out what I said about the "Boy am I lost" post and have reproduced it here again:

> Simple, Paul, all you need to do is buy every RQ supplement, even the ones
> out of print, then buy all the Gloranthan stuff, then get hold of
everything
> published in fanzines, everything on Digests and earlier forums, then find
> out what Greg Stafford, Sandy Petersen et al have ever written or spoken on
> the subject and you're away. By the way, when you have done all this, could
> you send me a copy?

I appear to have missed a ":-)" symbol off the end, sorry about that. Perhaps I am not used to indicating when I am trying to be humorous, assuming that people can work this out from the context and phrasing. Perhaps some people cannot.

Paul actually asked:
> Can someone suggest a way to bring myself up to speed? I'm intrigued,
> even fascinated, but there's so much information around I don't know
> where to start.

My explanation is, in fact, exactly how to do what he asked. I did not say it was easy. In fact I have tried to disseminate as much Gloranthan material as I can in the past, but finances and time limits how much I can do.

> (Alternatively, you could just buy Wyrms Footprints which, as Nick Brooke
> implies, has everything you need to know about Glorantha and more - you
don't
> need to buy anything else because it is so fantastic :-) )

OK, once again this was an attempt at sarcasm (perhaps the symbol does not mean what I think it means). I was merely reacting to Nick's overstating (in my opinion) of how good Wyrms Footprints is. Whilst Wyrms Footprints is an excellent product which has been long overdue and has given access to many people to the Wyrms Footnotes articles for the first time, which I wholeheartedly applaud, I still feel that it is not the be-all and end-all of Gloranthan products. This is what I was trying to get across. Perhaps Nick is being over-sensitive.

> When Simon Phipps (sic)
> publishes something as useful as Wyrms Footprints, I sincerely hope that
he'll
> let us all know.

We can't all be part of the Glorious Megacorp, Nick, cliques prevent that. For a time, I was involved with Tales of the Reaching Moon when it was in the planning stages, before it even had a title, but personal circumstances meant that I was only on the periphery. I even managed to contibute an article in an early issue, but am the first to admit that I am not a writer. However, I could proof read as easily as the next man, so please do not assume that your position is anything special.

> Some gamers out there appear to have no interest in
> sustaining our hobby. We at the Reaching Moon Megacorp do, which is why we
> invest our time and money in reprinting old sources and creating new ones
for
> the benefit of the gaming public. I hope you'll find our efforts are
worthwhile.

I would be the first to recognise what Tales of the Reaching Moon and the Megacorp has done for the RQ game - it has revitalised the hobby. However, there does seem to be the impression that the Megacorp is a little cliquey. This may be completely unfounded, but the impression is there, nonetheless. Perhaps it is possible to break into the Outer Circle and prove that anyone can help the cause, I certainly hope so. If there is anything that I can do for the Megacorp, just let me know and I will be only too glad to try to help out.

Now, on the subject of "Boy am I lost" and David Boatright's offer, you wrote:

>Perhaps using someone with more of a feel for spelling and grammar would be
>a better idea?

Well, this is very constructive. If you had bothered to read Dacid's earlier posts, you would have seen that he does occasionally lapse into slang/colloquial speech, but as he said this was due to over-imbibing which I am sure happens to many people. But he can certainly defend himself.

David was offering to scan the Glornathan texts and convert them into text files for emailing to people who wanted them. This is a very reasonable offer and would save on the time needed to photocopy material and would also save on postage. In fact it is an excellent idea and should not have been shot down by your good self, Nick. It looks as though Dacid has withdrawn his offer on the basis of your comments, Nick - well done. Perhaps you can alienate some other people while you are at it.

> I know that I'm prejudiced (being chief proofreader for the
> Megacorp), but I also know from personal experience how tricky it is to get

> scanned-in material to look good. And this "NO BUTS!" package would be
> meant to appeal to newbies, not to us fanatics who can be bothered to see
> the virtues which shine through a slipshod production.

Prejudiced, surely not.

Yes, it would be nice to have a full collection of all the Gloranthan material in a nice format. In fact, Avalon Hill tried to do this with Trollpak, Troll Gods, Into Uzdom, Griffin Island, Snakepipe Hollow etc. Can anyone remember the comments on all the reprints - everyone asked when they were going to bring out something new, rather than all the reprints. If we are going to have to pay for expensive supplements, then we should get new material as well as old, in my opinion.

However, what we are talking about with the Bringing Up to Speed project is a quick and cheap way of giving access to many new gamers ( or even those gamers who only have RQ3 products) to those products which came out for early RuneQuest. I doubt very much if people would mind that they only have photocopied articles from Wyrms Footprints or whatever. In fact, in my experience, people are only too pleased to receive photocopies of out of print material.

Given the production rates of Tales of the Reaching Moon, how long would it take to produce such a package? Prohibitively long, I feel. I am not trying to knock the Megacorp, but it should have priorities and they should be the production of new scenarios, new background material and support for the hobby, not reprinting snippets of information. That can be best left to a background group of people, or groups of people.

> Can I also suggest formally coordinating with the Megacorp, so's to avoid
> driving a coach and horses through our forthcoming publications schedule?
> (If Waha and Eiritha had been distributed in photocopy three months ago, I
> doubt we'd be seeing three issues of Tales this year!).

Why not? How many versions of the cult of Kyger Litor have their been in published RQ material? Would you refuse to buy a RQ product because it had another version of the cult? I certainly would not, although I would complain about the fact that it was there. People buy Tales for several reasons: Firstly to support the RuneQuest game; Secondly to find out more about Glorantha; Thirdly to see scenarios and stories and Fourthly because they have seen it on a shelf somewhere or have heard of it from somebody else. They would not care if Tales had a new version of a cult which they had already seen as long as there was new material there.


Finally, I would just like to say that I am trying to be reasonable, but cannot understand why you feel it necessary to attack people personally in order to get your point across. I have seen it several times in the Digests that I have read and find it an unsightly trait. A reasoned argument does far more for the game, in my opinion.

The Bringing up to Speed campaign is an excellent idea, but may be stymied on Copyright issues. I certainly hope it succeeds so that everyone can enjoy Glorantha fully.

Hope this has not annoyed or irritated anyone, but I had to respond to Nick's comments. Hopefully, he can restrict his comments to personal email rather than a public forum.

Simon


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