> Have any of you tried playing with multiple GMS-taking turns
> GMing and playing?
Yes indeed. I've been involved with one in the Boston area for quite a while. It's an RQ3 game set in Glorantha. I've written up a number of the scenarios I created for it; the writeups are available at my RQ web site (http://www.tiac.web/users/maranci/rq.htm), and some are likely to be published in upcoming issues of Tradetalk.
I'm also working on a campaign writeup for the web site.
In my experience the key element is to set very firm ground rules, and to have a clearly defined consensus on the nature of the campaign. We didn't do that, and it led to serious problems. Eventually we had to wipe out an entire chain of events, and re-wind the campaign to an earlier point.
There were several factors that lead to this situation. For one thing, players had wildly differing levels of knowledge about Glorantha. Some wanted to deal with Gloranthan culture on a highly detailed level, while others were more interested in "low" adventure. Issues of power and control were also a problem; major changes in the home village of the PCs by one GM created havoc in the plans of others. Tone, the degree of "darkness" in the game, was another point of variance.
After extensive discussion the campaign was mildly re-engineered, and certain ground rules were assumed. Effectively, it was decided to focus on adventure, with the home village a "write-protected" base. This makes it easy for different GMs to create stand-alone adventures for the PCs.
If I were to start such a campaign again, I'd certainly have the ground rules of the campaign carefully written out in advance. Issues such as character creation, "write-protecting", tone, the possibility of inter-party conflict, power levels, and how GMs should handle their own PC while running would all be covered.
> "Tales of the Reaching Moon" desperately needs good
> Gloranthan scenarios written for the RuneQuest game system.
Gee, I wish I'd known! But will "Tales" still be interested in RQ/Gloranthan scenarios after (if) G:TG comes out? Personally, I'm likely to stick with RQ rather than move to Glorantha: The Game. I'll continue to use Glorantha as well as my own settings, but my purchases of Avalon Hill RQ material and Chaosium Glorantha material will become much more selective -- it will depend on the quality and usefulness of specific products more than anything else.
Since I've wandered into the topic of new products, I was struck with an idea for a product that I'd definitely like to buy: cult-specific source books. I'm playing an Orlanthi at the moment, and have discovered that there are *huge* gaps in the published information available. It seems to me that it would make sense to publish really *detailed* information on individual cults in small books, perhaps 20 - 40 pages in length. These would be in addition to overview books giving info on many cults, at about the level of detail as _Cults of Prax_ -- Gods of Glorantha_ was too superficial for me. The overview book(s) would give sufficient detail to run PCs and NPCs in that cult, but for full depth the individual cult handbook would be authoritative. This would allow the company to sell more products, and would be extremely useful for gamers and Glorantha scholars alike.
The cult books would include *all* associated cults (instead of just ones with their own listings in _GoG_), subcults, more detailed descriptions of specialized cult magic, specific ceremonies for Initiation and higher status roles, information on various holy days, deeply detailed cult background and history, plot hooks, major NPCs in the religion, regional variations, more detail on allied spirits and cult spirits, plot hooks, possible HeroQuests, and other information.
I'm sure that books like these would sell to Gloranthan GMs, and to players with PCs in the relevant cult. Not all cults would necessarily warrant their own book, of course, but certainly the Lightbringers and many other popular PC cults would sell. For a start, I can guarantee that I'd buy the Orlanth book.
-->Pete
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------Editor, Interregnum RPG/Science Fiction APA/magazine -- email for info. Interregnum WWW home page: http://www.tiac.net/users/maranci/index.html FRP adventures, art and more: http://www.tiac.net/users/maranci/rq.htm
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