Various things

From: David Cake <davidc_at_cs.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 16:46:24 +0800

        A couple of minor addendums to Nicks account of the travails of Glorantha/ RQ over the last decade or so....

>Avalon Hill, who had never previously been RPG publishers, proceeded to
>neglect and abuse the game for many years, producing boxed sets of flimsy
>paper booklets, usually with cruddy artwork.

        AH had published RPGs before, but their startling lack of success should have been a warning.... Powers and Perils was the AH offering, which came in the flimsy paper book format.

        I think an important point to make about AH is that until Kens sojourn all the decent Gloranthan products where produced by either Chaosium or long time Chaosium associates ("Troy Bankert", Sandy) with Chaosium assistance or MOB. Their ability to produce quality product in house seemed entirely absent. IIRC there was not a thing written that met with Gregs Gloranthan approval from outside Chaosium or Megacorp circles until Ken Rolstons day (who not only published excellent stuff by Mike Dawson, but got Johnathon Tweet to write something (not someone active in RQ circles but a well known talented designer for other games who I would love to see more of)).

>Dave Dobyski's 'artwork' was the last straw...

        To be fair on Mr. Dobyski, it seems that the problem was that he never even claimed to be an artist, just a designer, and AH seemed to think the difference did not matter and they could save money by having him do everything. His design work on RQ products has been quite fine IIRC (didn't he do the Sun County maps?).

>This was hailed as the "RuneQuest Renaissance", while it
>lasted.

        While I wouldn't expect Nick to say so, humble chap that he is, I always thought the term 'RuneQuest Renaissance' referred as much to the great material available through TOTRM, and the rise in Cons and other events - a Renaissance of the community, not just the products line - for all of which we have to thank the Reaching Moon Megacorp in large part. But if the term indeed refers to the actual flow of AH products, I guess we must sadly conclude that the RQ Renaissance is dead. The difference between Ken Rolstons term as editor and otherwise has shown that if AH does not have a RuneQuest editor who is experienced, interested, and empowered to develop new products then new products will only appear if someone is prepared to write them with minimal AH assistance. The experiences of those who have worked as RQ Editor seems to show they have no interest in having such an editor. And as Chaosium is probably not too keen to develop RQ product while working on their own new Gloranthan RPG, that means if we want quality Gloranthan output we had better write it ourselves.

        From which I must conclude, the RQ Renaissance is dead - but the Gloranthan Renaissance continues, and long may it last! Unfortunately, things look likely to be lean in terms of new RPG products through early '97, but hopefully pretty bright after that.

        Anyway, back to things Gloranthan.

>To try and get a Gloranthan line from this, how do the Lunar Empire spread
>propoganda from Glamour central - do they use broadsheets (given that most
>Orlanthi/Praxians can't read) or Gim Gim type people.

	Propaganda to inside the Empire, or to the frontiers?
	To the frontiers, I think they brief (via printed instructions,
special training, Examiners and so on) information to the Seven Mothers cult missionaries, who are in charge of spreading the word. Or the local governer simply issues his own propaganda, frequently by taking over and strictly controlling whatever means of spreading news existed before (for example, Portin Dunbar the Town Crier in the town of Boldhome).

        Inside the Empire, I think the official word is distributed many ways (through written briefings, announcements from officials, state supported artists and poets, etc.) and the Emperors Spoken Word and the Examiners and many other branches of the state are on hand to have a quiet word with anybody who defies the official state line.

        LEGAL SYSTEMS         It has crossed my mind that the Dara Happans probably have a different legal system for full citizens than for anyone else. The Yelm initiates get certain legal priveleges, quite possibly they are not able to be condemned to punishment by someone who does not outrank them. I'm sure Dara Happan Yelmic courts have all manner of rituals even stranger than Earth courts, including blessings by various deities, special means of address, strange robes. Meanwhile, there are also low courts, which while possibly presided over by a bigwig are more of a rough examination of the facts followed by some swift beating for the malefactor. The laws of Hamurabi are certainly a good start, though I think it has grown considerably more baroque and complex since then. I was imagine something like medieval church law, with took up dozens of volumes and had numerous contradictory precedents at different times. I imagine for the Dara Happans, precedent is enormously important.

        Real Yelmic bigwigs may have some right of appeal to the Senate? Or perhaps they have that right unless the Emperor vetoes it.

        The Sartarites according to KOS have a fairly Viking like law system. I have run this in campaigns a couple of times. A couple of interesting scenarios can be found in the Vikings boxed set. I have run the bait-and-switch PC fights berserker in trial by combat one twice now with the same players and both times they fell for it. I have also run a couple of little vignettes where a PC VIP presides at a trial and faces difficult choices (like blatant attempts at bribery and using family connections).

        Oh, and a public grumble - Australian copies of Tales #14 appear to have disappeared into the void. I would appreciate knowing what steps to resolve this are being made.

        Cheers

                David


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