> You said you don't care about the "roolz" for Glorantha material...
No: I said "The roolz don't matter: your ideas are all that matter!", and=
that "the mechanics are the *last* things I pay attention to". Now, I *do=
*
care about the rules, but less than I care about Glorantha. (Hell, I spen=
t
*weeks* working over the RQ4 draft, before that project was killed). But =
if
the precise edition of the rules you adhere to prevents you from enjoying=
,
or being able to use, some good Gloranthan material, something's gone wro=
ng.
Some *great* Gloranthan scenarios are rules-lite or rules-free: just look=
=
at "A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine, and Thou" (Tales #15) for an example.=
> I think there are still plenty of people around for whom RQ/Glorantha a=
re
> not entities that can be so easily segregated. Something I *do* wonder
> is what is going to happen to those people...
Erm... There is currently *no* connection between RuneQuest and Glorantha=
,
other than historical. Avalon Hill *cannot* print any more Gloranthan RQ
supplements, and Chaosium have no rights to the name "RuneQuest". But we'=
ll
keep on playing RuneQuest in Glorantha, and holding RQ-based Gloranthan
conventions, and publishing RQ/Glorantha fanzines, and so far there's bee=
n
not the slightest suggestion from anyone that we should stop this at once=
'cos it's illegal.
(The nearest we got was, apparently, some confused noises out of Avalon H=
ill,
back while they were *still* publishing Gloranthan RuneQuest, convincing =
some
con organisers that AH didn't want any games *other* than RuneQuest to be=
played at an event called RuneQuest-Con. This is (AFAIK) why the name of =
the
Cons was changed to the much less-evocative "Glorantha-Con". At which poi=
nt,
of course, Avalon Hill complained that the name "RuneQuest" had been drop=
ped
from the conventions... It makes you want to laugh *and* cry, sometimes).=
> Will they move to GtG...?
There *is* no G:tG. If one happens, and I can understand it, and like it,=
and have time to play it, then maybe I'll switch. Unless carrying on gami=
ng
with an RQ2/RQ3/Pendragon hybrid system (as at present) seems more fun. P=
art
of the reason the rules don't matter is that most of us have invented our=
own
incompatible hybrid systems anyway, so that printing a "by-the-book" perf=
ect
set of RQ3 stats isn't particularly useful to the "average Tales reader"
(who'll have to convert them anyway).
Another part is that different groups play at different levels: someone l=
ike "Horntail" (thanks, Robert, for the timely example!) would be ridicul=
ously
dangerous to some campaigns, embarrassingly trivial to others. So, given =
the
choice between printing three paragraphs of new Gloranthan information or=
a
three-paragraph-equivalent set of RQ stats ("Nick's eyes glaze over at th=
e
sight of so many numbers"), I know which way I'd jump.
BTW, have you ever *tried* proof-reading a RQ NPC for publication. Boring=
,
boring, boring. The four-armed family from "Shadows on the Borderlands" i=
s
completely understandable... I wouldn't wish this job on a dog. (You know=
,
we lost a couple of pages of RQ stats from Tales #13: the designer didn't=
notice he'd left them out, 'cos his eyes glazed over whenever he looked a=
t
them).
> Will they be allowed to continue playing RQ and distributing material t=
o
> do so...?
How do you think Chaosium, or Avalon Hill, or the United States Governmen=
t,
or *anyone*, could say you weren't "allowed" to carry on playing Gloranth=
an
RuneQuest? Where does this paranoia come from? What has happened to make =
you
fear the worst, other than Chaosium explicitly *allowing* amateur Glorant=
han
publications?
I guess all I'm really saying is, please don't turn "fair use" (which is,=
as
the name suggests, fair enough) into an implausible excuse for flagrant a=
nd
deliberate copyright violations ("All my players need photocopies of 'Cul=
ts
of Prax' to play games set in Glorantha: Chaosium must have known they wo=
uld
when they first printed it. It's their fault it's been out of print for s=
o
long, making it impossible for anyone to join my gaming group, so I'll ju=
st
start making full copies of the book for anyone who asks, selling them at=
cost price to keep the game system alive...").
The boat's still afloat, and I don't really want to start rocking it just=
now.
That's all.
> Or will they leave the RQ/Glorantha community entirely?
We can't stop them, can we? It's still a free country, last time I looked=
=2E
If they do get interested in "boys and nylons", good luck to 'em! All we
can do is keep printing RQ/Glorantha material and hope people are still
interested enough to keep reading and playing the game. It's lucky we get=
so much encouragement (and a charitable blind eye) from the two companies=
involved, eh?
::::
Nick
::::=
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