Stephen Martin:
>Otherwise, to people who don't have all the sources, an assumption
>could be made that you are quoting published or "official" (whatever
>that means) information.
Nick replies:
>>Why, whatever you *say* is "official", is official, of course! Let's not
>>tie ourselves up in absurd semantic knots about this trivial non-issue.
>>If enough of us like something, we'll all use it. That's how Glorantha
>>moves forwards, now that there's no mass-market commercial/"official"
>>published material coming out any more.
Steve then asks:
>>>Maybe other people should comment on this -- do people prefer that
>>>people claim their own work as theirs, and quote published sources
>>>when they repeat information from them, or would they prefer it all be
>>>meshed together, who really cares what Greg or Sandy says about
>>>Glorantha?
Well, this issue was brought up some years ago at the first RQ Con (1). As reported in the conference journal (2), I recounted how a poster to the RuneQuest Digest(3) demanded that Nick Brooke state which source he got such-and-such facts from. Nick replied that he gets his information from the same well-spring Greg Stafford gets his from: he makes it up!(4)
Such a position is supported by Stafford himself, in his Designers Notes to the Genertela supplement(5). There he notes that it was his initial intention to create a fantasy world "which delighted others others and wherein they could participate. I have succeeded. Now Glorantha is yours, not mine."(6)
(1) "RQ Con", Baltimore USA, January 1994 (2) Cheng, D. (ed.) 'The RuneQuest-Con Compendium', New York 1994 (3) Bell, A (mod.) 'RQ Digest', the precursor of the current Glorantha Digest. (4) Cheng, op.cit. (5) Stafford, G. et al. Glorantha: 'Genertela, Crucible of the Hero Wars',
Avalon Hill, Baltimore 1988.
(6) Ibid. p.36
(Sigh) I for one think there is enough quasi-academic wanking going on here without trying to turn this digest into a full-blown academic journal. When everything must be justified by moldering "official" texts, much of them from over a decade ago, what happens to creativity?
Cheers
MOB PS Steve, you've only been on board a short while, and this is not the first "improvement" to the Digest you've suggested in that time. Things have actually worked pretty well as they are up to now; maybe you should take time to get a hang of what goes on here before trying to mould it to your vision.
...and now, a controversial 'Note from Nochet' that's sure to confound the scholars!
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #125
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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