>example, the primary city of the Indus valley was Harappa, and there is
>Judeijo-Daro, Moheijo-Daro etc.. The only thing I know of them is that
they
>built cities with large citadels (a la Mycenae). Does anyone know
anything
>about them? Is it all just a coincidence?
>
Although the word Dara Happa first appeared in RuneQuest Companion, as
near as I can remember (where it seemed to refer to a god, not a place),
I believe that much of Greg's recent inspiration on Dara Happa and the
Lunars both has come partly from Indian beliefs. Though there are other
influences as well.
>
Martin Laurie <102541.3423_at_CompuServe.COM>
Cerebralism
>
I have been working with Greg for years now, and I know
>>how he and Chaosium can be.
>
>Could you enlighten us as to how Chaosium and Greg can be as I am
unaware of >how production decisions are made and as to why - I can only
conclude fro
>what we've seen so far that they simply aren't made or aren't made at
any kind of
>pace that I would call "quick".
>
As for how Chaosium is, and this is my observation, as I have no official
relation with them other than selling The Book of Drastic Resolutions
through Wizard's Attic. Anyways, as far as I can tell, finished,
accepted, fully layed out products have been known to lie around for 2
years or more, waiting for their shot. Or, like Heroes of the King, they
remain in the state of "being read" for an ungodly long time.
As for how Greg is, he is just like any other creative genius -- he writes what comes to him, when it comes to him. As anyone on the Digest probably knows, writing something is not always easy. And if Greg does not have interest or inspiration, or if he does not have time, something is going to get ignored.
I don't know how the production decisions are made at Chaosium, though I suspect that if the word Chthulhu (or Mythos) is in the title it has a much better chance of seeing print sooner. I am sure Greg is not the sole person to decide these things -- he is not the only owner of Chaosium.
>Because of this I think its very depressing and annoying that in the two
years
>I've been on the digest I've never seen a post by Greg which simply
defies
>belief that he doesn't pay any attention to the ideas that well forth
here.
I agree that it is a shame Greg is not involved on the Digest, though I can partly understand this -- the time commitment required is tremendous. It is one of the reasons I avoided the Digest for so long -- I spend at least an extra hour a day on my computer, reading and responding to the Digest. For my purposes, it is well worth it, but it is taxing. As it is, I have done less work on the next volume of Drastic in the last two months than I did in the month before I started on the Digest. And some of my other computer commitments have been held up for a bit.
>Sandy has dropped off totally (and is sorely missed) and I have never
seen a
>single survey done by Chaosium of what WE the CONSUMER want from
>Glorantha. Its
>like the people on this list don't exist and if thats the case, thats
the worst
>marketing I've ever seen.
>
I would suggest you send your concerns directly to Rob Heinsoo, as this
is now part of his area of concern, if I understand his position at
Chaosium correctly.
>To me the annoying thing is that Chaosium wouldn't even have to do
>much work as
>there a zillions of people in this list who could contribute tons of
stuff and
>plenty of ideas to Glorantha but how often is this list heeded, how
often do we
>see the names of a digester on a publication from Chaosium unless they
do it
>themselves? Lets face it, the people on this list have been
significantly
>prolific,producing at least as much material as Avalon Hill and Chaosium
>combined over the last four years in fanzines and the plethora of web
sites
>which are truly labours of love.
>
I have to take issue with this -- how many of the people on the Digest
sent any material to Avalon Hill over the last six years? When Ken
Rolston came on board, there were maybe 4 manuscripts on hand, two of
which were incomplete. Most of what was published at Avalon Hill while he
was there was created and written based on his ideas. A lot of it was
reprinted material, dressed up as new in mostly good ways.
No game company can publish material based solely on _ideas_ -- if more people had submitted manuscripts, even incomplete ones, to Ken Rolston, what came out might have been different. Though I will admit that we would still be where we are today.
But when and/or if a new Gloranthan game comes out, people on the Digest are going to need to do more than have _ideas_ about Yelm and Shargash, more than what has appeared in the fanzines, more than discussions. If Chaosium does not receive submissions, no matter what their intent is, nothing will be published.
>Fanzines and no product. Does this sound right to you?
>Does this sound even remotely fair to the fans of Glorantha?
>
Again, who has written even a single scenario and submitted it? MOB has
done a hell of a lot more, and is in my opinion one of the driving forces
behind the RQ Renaissance, in some ways more than David Hall -- his focus
and time commitment resulted in Sun County. Ken's time and effort
resulted in RoC (which was 1/2 reprinted material), Shadows on the
Borderlands (2/3 reprinted), Dorastor, Strangers in Prax, and Lords of
Terror (about 1/3 reprinted).
Some others tried, and unfortunately did not have a chance to see their work in print -- Pat Elwer's Tower of Night, Harald Smith's Imther. Am I missing anything? And, I will point out that _both_ of these campaign sets were submitted to Chaosium in the late 80s, languishing first there and then at Avalon Hill. _That_ was unfair. The current situation is just unfortunate.
>
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