For about the past 6 months, I've been dealing with what I've come to call my Gloranthan Depression. You see, I *like* Glorantha, but it depresses me severely. I'm an information junkie, and I try to read and understand any cogent material on Glorantha that I can find. But everytime I find something out about Glorantha, I have deeper, harder questions born. It gets progressively harder to find the information I'm craving. I feel more and more like a tired gold rusher panning a stream depleted by my predecessors.
Point in case. I'm reading merrily along and learn there are these
beings called Gold Wheel Dancers. For years, I've seen them casually
mentioned here and there in the material. Then, suddenly, I find a
piece on the web about Gold Wheel Dancers. Great, it answers the basic
question, but it's laden with facts I heretofor had no inkling of (War
Between Giants and Dragons? I don't ever remember reading that...did I
miss it somewhere? Pinchining Who?) The depression deepens...
Which is why - at this moment - I'm not playing in Glorantha. I'm
waiting. I tell my players "We'll play in Glorantha when the new stuff
comes out..." They shuffle their feet and say "Well, it'll still
overwhelm us." In the meantime, I read my TotRMs, follow the mailing
list when I can, browse Loren's website, and poke at the various
Gloranthan and sourcebooks and manuscripts I have stacked up the corner
of my bedroom.
Which is why I'm ecstatic that the Chaosium/Lhankor Mhy Project has
begin collating out-of-print and other material at the Chaosium web
site. I think the web is the perfect vehicle to disseminate the
Gloranthan Canon (though, I realize it could eat at Chaosium's profits
to published all Gloranthan info online wholesale). At the very least,
I can direct my players to it during game down-time, freeing me from the
tremendous burden of being one of two people in a group of 7 with any
appreciable Gloranthan knowledge.
I told one of my new players a couple of weeks ago something I'll relate
to you now. I was reading the aforementioned article on Gold Wheel
Dancers (and other items) when I got a lump in the pit of my stomach. It
was saying, "There's just too much Gloranthan information you will never
even have a chance to learn. Don't even try."
But, maybe the lump was wrong after all...
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