I think my server troubles are over. There are two posts still lost in cyberspace, however, and they can yet appear.
The Digest has had a great effect in my gaming. All my players are in it, and I would not be playing in Glorantha otherwise. By the way, I play by e-mail, and that allows enough time to get gloranthan chrome in the game without being a guru.
Most of what I know about the West, and what I have used in my Safelster campaign have been gleaned from the Web and the Digest. However once I decided what I wanted, I ignored everything I did not like.
So Kustria has not changed from its initial roots in my mind, but the Castle Coasters, the Naskorioni, the Loskalmi, Tiskos and the Ralian orlanthi have evolved as people shared their ideas and they were discussed in the Digest and privately.
Indeed one of the reasons I chose the West was because it was almost virgin country, where my ideas would not go against many gloranthan fans, and they could help someone interested in travelling West.
I don't have the interests in myths, or the storytelling abilities, or the shamanistic streak, or the antropological interest of many of the Digest contributors. I prefer convoluted plots, basic human interaction and magic as a means instead of an end. The West gives me all that. And rapiers, gentlemen, secret societies aplenty, central heating, books, alchemy...
A scholar discussion on the arkati heresies becomes fundamental for my games, as is the Ralian art of war, or the existence or not of a Malkioni Holy Book. Other scholar discussions are useless now, but may become important in the future, if one player travels to the Lunar Empire, or another sets up a smuggling ring with the Holy Country. But I don't save them. I just read them and snatch some details to give colour to my games.
Some useful details I got from the pike discussion:
Templars have coppiced (sp?) trees, which they keep carefully.
The militia uses more bows than SC gives credit.
Yelmalion's attack at night if possible.
The sartarite sun dome is more hoplite like, instead of phalangists, and has more combined arms (peltasts and cavalry).
I won't play or allow yelmalion player's, but they will appear often if I game in the region.
There is no surviving Ralian Sun Dome Temple IMG, but there are ruins.
The brithini have no pikes, and perhaps no long spears (quite deviated from the original thread, but I had an insight last week). And also, no plate armour.
The Gloranthan Digest is the only mailing list I have been for longer than six months, and it's been more than two years now. NPCs I don't need, magic items neither. Stories and chrome, however, I use aplenty.
And even if I play RQIII, I use less dice now, and may become diceless when the current adventure ends. As time passes, and characters are visualized in our minds, rules become less necessary.
Mailing lists are not, IMO, the right place for scenarios, finished NPCs or long hooks. That's what magazines, fanzines and web pages are for. Here we work with unfinished ideas. The final work needs a better place with more general exposure.
At least that has been my experience.
Jose
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