And as for a new Gloranthan game...... I'd like to address some words to the developement team.
Let me make the first observation about mechanics.
I hate (with a deep hate) the Pendragon Character Trait rules. I realise that they are probably necessary in some form when running HeroQuests but they are too often used as straitjackets for the players: "You have fumbled your Chaste roll: you *must* try to seduce the Countess." or "You have failed your Piety roll: No sight of the Holy Grail for you!"
I would propose that on the Mundane Plane, Player Characters (if no one else) have Freedom of Will. They may choose to do what they will most of the time: unless you have got a Personality Trait to a Notable (15+) level you may always choose to act contrary to it. (The high Traits are the equivalent to having that Trait as a Mental Disadvantage in GURPS say.)
What you choose to do *will* put experience ticks on your traits and *will* affect your reputation with other inhabitants of the Mundane Plane. (Which may or may not reflect your True Character.)
But on the God Plane (Ah! on the God Plane) your True Self is all you have. There you are constrained by what you have made of yourself on the Mundane Plane and when you plunge into the Baths of Testing, your soul and your purpose had better be damn pure. When you face the Great Test of Purity and Courage, you had better be sure that you are Pure and Courageous because out There can be no fooling about what and who you are.
This would also apply to Initiations which are, after all, a form of HeroQuest.
And one other thing: the new rules have got to improve on the start made in RQ3 on modeling societies. The interaction between individuals, cultures and the Mythical World is what is needed to make Glorantha work to the full.
You will have to work hard to expand the basic engine that Pendragon uses to model a feudal culture so that it can model all sorts of cultures. I think it *is* possible but it will take hard work.
(Would I love to look over your shoulders and kibbitz? Even throw in a suggestion or two? Naturally, but I think that applies to everyone on the list)
And what does this imply for the future of RQ? Nothing good....
AKA Theophilus Prince Archbishop of the Far Isles Motto Nulla Spes Sit in Resistando (Resistance is Uslesss) Ask me about the Far Isles Medieval Society: Better Living through Pan-Medieval Anachronisms.
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