Open Letter To the Gloranthan Digest

From: BiturianV_at_aol.com
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 21:29:22 -0500 (EST)


Glorantha Con IV
What a blast. You lot are good people. Seminars were a kick, the mini-LARPs went well, the MegaCorp commandants brought wonderful products to complement their personalities, and from what I could tell, most everyone was having at least as much fun as I was. As several others have commented, the best part of going to the convention was meeting members of the Gloranthan tribe. That's what makes this next anecdote a bit sweeter: when I mention Glorantha Con to editors at other game companies, they flinch -- for many other gaming companies, the notion of a convention run and populated by their most zealous fans sounds like a deep circle of Hell. Hah!

Digest Process
The Glorantha Digest is being administered by a Chaosium employee at present. Two other Chaosium employees read or skim the Glorantha Digest regularly. I'm one of the two skim-readers; I skim it whenever I can, but don't presently have time to read everything. I'm unlikely to respond to a large number of posts, but I'll respond when I can and occasionally chime in with longer updates. Thanks to all of you for making the Glorantha Digest such a good read.

Follow-up on Publishing Plans
We're in the process of putting together a Gloranthan publishing effort that will include new miniatures games, new boardgames, Gloranthan fiction, a new rpg, and Gloranthan sourcebooks. We're still working on the early stages of this process. All of the above-mentioned products and lines are being worked on, at some level, by various people, but none of them are on our solid publishing schedule at this time. The schedule is in flux, partly because of increasing perspective on the preparatory steps we need to take before launching new lines, and partly because of Acts of Wakboth such as the military drafting of the Glorantha editor at our Italian sister-company, Stratelibri.

We know that overly optimistic assessments of our publishing schedule raised everyone's expectations back in '96. We also know that what the majority of Glorantha fans want most is a new RPG. We're aiming to deliver on expectations, but we now know that the process is going to take longer than our core fans would like it to. We're also aware that the order in which products end up being released probably won't match many of our fans' ideal schedules. Happily, Chaosium presently occupies a secure time-space-financial bubble. We have some time to develop the Glorantha lines properly rather than needing to publish-or-perish. When we do publish new lines of Glorantha products, we'll have our marketing and publishing gears operating in synch to make sure that they have every chance of financial success (ensuring continuing publication) as well as aesthetic success.

If you've read THE MEINTS INDEX TO GLORANTHA, you'll have seen the hilarious "What Never Was" text boxes scattered throughout the book. Rick went through old Chaosium publications, press releases, and convention announcements to find around 15 splendid cases of Upcoming Product Announcements that passed directly into mythology instead of publishing history.

We intend to avoid adding more products to Rick's dream library of Never-Was Glorantha stuff. Until new products are on the actual Chaosium or Stratelibri publishing and shipping schedule, these updates will focus upon what we are working on at Chaosium rather than on hypothetical product schedules.

What Chaosium Has Been Working On
Greg's efforts in 1997 have focused on detailing the history, regiments and culture of the Lunar army. The material he's putting together will form a big part of the basic background for all upcoming products.

Meanwhile, I've been designing a new boardgame system tentatively titled BATTLES IN GLORANTHA. This game springs from Stratelibri's desire to introduce Glorantha to its European market. Instead of simply reprinting the DRAGON PASS and NOMAD GODS wargames, we have designed a new boardgame system for simpler and faster 2-player or multi-player games.

The first game, THE HERO WARS: BATTLES IN GLORANTHA, is coming along very quickly, partly because it uses the battalia, maps, and themes originally established by WB & RM. Playtests have all gone smoothly, including a 4-player scenario Eric Rowe and I ran at Glorantha Con. Two player games usually take an hour, 4 player games can take a lot longer, but not the 7+ hours you'd need to finish a game of DRAGON PASS. Design work is a couple of days from being done, then we'll send the game to Stratelibri for development and final playtesting.

The boardgames provide quick and playable access to Gloranthan conflicts which have been mostly out of gaming range. In the new system, it's no problem to pit Sir Ethilrist and His Black Horse Troop against the Lunars, or to send Cragspider and her troops up against the Dragonewts. Purists needn't worry, Sartar vs. Lunar scenarios are still the staple of the Dragon Pass battles. Multi-player games work team-style or every-side-for-themselves, which helps with the NOMAD GODS side of the design equation.

The HERO WARS boardgame will be published first by Stratelibri in Europe. We'll publish it later in the United States. I don't have an estimated publishing date for the first game in the series, but I have seen its likely cover, which is a tasty reintepretation of the foursome (Harrek, Gunda, Red Emperor, Jar-eel) pictured on the first AH cover for DRAGON PASS.

New Server Upcoming
Chaosium is waiting for the phone company to install the lines that will make the Chaosium server possible. When our ISDN line is installed, we're going to be setting up an official Gloranthan clearing-house on the Chaosium server. Services will probably include archives of the mailing lists, access to some out of print material, regular updates, and new forums for people with particular Gloranthan interests.

Yours in Issaries,
Rob Heinsoo
Chaosium's Glorantha Editor


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