I missed out on the whole "what I'd like to see published" survey 'cuz I was
too busy to read the digest for a couple of months. Here's what I'd like to
see in terms of content:
- A new rule book with rules that lend themselves to going from
nitty-gritty herding-the-sheep low fantasy to heroquesting high fantasy.
- A Glorantha book that includes the God Learner basics ala GoG and the
regional descriptions of G:CotHW. Most of the work has already been done.
It just needs to be compiled and edited.
- Regional books that establish campaigns on the size of Prax (using
existing CoP, RoC, etc.), Trolls, Elves, Dwarves, (not dragon newts)
Dorastar, Southerm Lunar Provinces, Northern Dragon Pass, Holy Country,
Carmania, Elder Wilds, Dara Happa, etc. The marketing idea would be that
each member of a gaming group should able to invest in just one campaign
area in which he or she is the GM and the others are the players. From a
development viewpoint, much of this is already written in one form or
another (e.g all the great troll materials). You could probably recruit
talented fans to write more. I guess at some point this should extend to
the Malkioni regions of the west, Pent and the Kralorean regions of the
east, Pamaltela, Jrustela, etc., but I think that can wait a long time. My
impression is that most of us play in central Genertela.
- Subregion books, eg. Sun County, Pavis, Risklands, a Sartar book, a
Grazelands book, a Heortlands book, an Esrolia book, etc. Lots of adventure
hooks here. The GM for the region would buy at least a few of these, but
maybe not all. The Sartar book would be an early pick for new work. Again,
talented fans could write some of this. Releases should be paced so that
the GM in each group responsible for gaming in the area won't be faced with
a high cash drain.
- Lots of adventures, cheaply produced. I don't need a whole lot to work
with. It is the initial creative spark that is hard. So maybe books with
one to two page adventure outlines would be just as good. Introductory
adventures should have more work put into them than adventures intended for
experienced GMs. This is where talented fans will have to contribute to
make Glorantha appealing for new blood.
In terms of style, I'd like to see:
- No damn boxes that squash flat when my 15 month old puts her rump on
them. These books are usually thin enough to put them together into a
bigger softbound book like River of Cradles (I think it was).
- Put a pocket in the back of the book to slip the map into. I really
hate losing maps.
- A hardback version of the rule book and maybe the Glorantha book. My
RQ2 hardback will long outlast my RQ3 softback and I think most folks would
be willing to spring extra dough for the rule book (though perhaps nothing
else).
The cost of all of this advice is just $0.02 and you get what you pay for.
Awaiting my hopes to be dashed yet again,
Chris Lemens
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #335
WWW at http://rider.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html