=2E..
We could release a quick supporting publication called "Peoples of Glorantha" or something, *immediately* after the rules, to contain the following articles, most of which already exist:
GoG "Staves From the Storm Priest" RoC The Cult of Orlanth RoC The Cult of Ernalda (and say "this is typical: extrapolate!") RoC The Cult of Humakt (and say: "Yanafal Tarnils is v.similar") T#6 Tribal map of Sartar (Tales#6) HotB Map of Boldhome
(*) stuff about tribal life extracted from King of Sartar
(*) a brief (but more detailed than in RQ:AiG) history of Sartar
________________
GoG "Talking to the Moon Woman" CoP The Cult of the Seven Mothers GoG The Cult of the Red Goddess (and full write-up of Lunar Magic)var. Political Map of Peloria (the Lunar Empire and neighbours) *NEW* Military Map of Dragon Pass and Prax (Lunar garrisons, etc.) *NEW* stuff about career paths in the Lunar army and bureaucracy
GoG "Tales of the Wastes" CoP The Cult of Waha CoP The Cult of Eiritha
(*) Praxian Spirit Cults
and after Moonbroth, current grazing regions, alliances, etc.)
*NEW* means nothing like this exists in any official or published
form, to the best of my knowledge (spin-offs like "Nomad Clan"
in Tales #1 might be a great help).
(*) means the material for this article exists in a near-finished
form, but might need a tad of editing to get it into the right
shape.
Working on really crude averages, and ignoring changes in print size and page layout from previous publications, each section should be:
What Dad Said 4 pages
What God Says 2 pages
Various Cults 8 pages or more
A couple of Maps 2 pages
Everyday Life 2 pages
History 2 pages or more
---------------
20 pages plus
Multiply by four, and you've got an eighty-page book that reprints some of the best and most useful Gloranthan cultural information. If that sounds small, there are loads more things we could chuck in: pages full of good Gloranthan art being the most obvious. About 60% of it already exists, 20% will take some editing/unearthing, and 20% will have to be written up more or less from scratch.
The advantage of planning to do this is basically that we can put stuff that would be "really nice to have in the rules" into this book instead -- and we can put more in here than the rulebook could ever hold!
Any comments?
=2E..
> 80 pages for free sounds like an awful lot, however.
When did I say it was "for free"? It'd be a bona fide supporting product, like Cults of Prax was for RQ2. Mostly reprints, some new stuff -- what's new about that, for current versions of RuneQuest?
> The disadvantage is that it's both more work and another product > and a lot of good art, and it's not clear how much Avalon Hill > will support that.
As I noted in drawing up that proposed list of contents, over half of the "work" has been done already. I hope and believe Avalon Hill can see that a product which immediately supports and expands on their new top-flight relaunched edition of RuneQuest would be a good thing. Certainly, this was the consensus picked up from discussions with Oliver & Co. at RQCon: that getting some momentum going is very important to the future of the game. Don't *just* sell them a rule book then wait six months before the second release: hit'em while they're recovering from the initial shock & joy of Glorantha, with something that'll be useful. If only the people who draw up contracts can be made to see sense...
Yeah, getting "good Gloranthan art" could be a problem. We offered Dan Barker's services to Avalon Hill, but nothing has come of that yet. After many past disappointments, I don't really trust their in-house artists.
=2E..
> Who's to write and edit it? Surely not the people working on RQIV > AiG who will probably be burned out for two years after this; are > the advocates volunteering here?
Well, Ray: 60% of it is done already, 20% is easy to extract from existing material. It's the non-existent last 20% that will be real work. I *would* volunteer, but with How the West was One, the Carmania Book, proofing and improving RQ:AiG, Wyrms Footprints, Tales and so on taking up a lot of my time, I'd perhaps not be the best person for the job.
> It is not reasonable to wait for AH to pay for supplements to > be developed. Lacking the much despised mass market, it is not > economical for them to do so, and they are not in this business > because they love RQ.
The difference between the five projects listed above which I am working on, (only one of which involves Avalon Hill) and my "Peoples of Glorantha" proposal is that I know, at the end of the day, that my current work *will* see print if it's at all possible. The people who want to produce it are friends who like my stuff and can publish it themselves. I am not going to be paid for any of it, but my incentive is there. Try talking to MOB some time about Avalon Hill and contracts: the disincentive is not that they don't pay you to develop them, which only a noodle-head would expect in this "business", but that they aren't prepared to commit themselves to doing anything with the finished product.
Of course, I was a fool to omit Storm Bull from the Praxian cults listed in the proposed contents table. He should certainly be there.
What I'd *now* suggest would be to take each of these "chapters" (Orlanthi, Lunar, Pavic, Praxian) and make them into the core content of a culturally-based regional supplement -- include a typical stead, or clan, or town, or whatever, to serve as "Salisbury" (a Pendragon reference); a selection of "everyday" scenarios (Hunting, Militia Duty, Market Day, Day in Court) as well as some exotic encounters (The Posse, Outlaws!, The Riot, Troll Attack), and at least one full-blown heavy-duty "dungeon" type scenario: a tough-to-crack location which you could go up against from within or outside the culture, the nature of which in itself *explains* aspects of the culture in question -- like a heretical Temple, or an atypical Stead, or a weird Clan, or some such place. With exotic ancient treasures, secrets, etc. to boot.
There'll be more work rewriting existing Cults for a non-RQ-based game than for the essentially familiar RQ4:AiG proposal; indeed, the idea of a "Cult Writeup" may be passe -- look at "PenDragon Pass" for alternative ideas. And the pages of culture-specific character generation info that were included in the RQ4:AiG draft would now be in the cultural supplement itself, adding to the pagecount.
I *do* think exploring the world this way would be better than either working from overviews (the RQ3 approach) or focussing on one culture and treating *everything* in its terms (the Pendragon3 and, arguably, PenDragon Pass approach). I want to see supplements that can really "get into" foreign cultures: less of the grab-bag approach of Pendragon's "Knights Adventurous" and Pendragon4 (here's a page about this culture, here's a page about that...), more the patient, detailed work (inc. new character gen. info., new magic systems, culture-specific scenarios, etc.) of Pendragon's "Savage Wilds" (Welsh), "Pagan Shores" (Irish), "Beyond the Wall" (Picts), "Land of Giants" (Scandinavians), etc.
And, like I said, maps. Big, colourful maps. Spread 'em out on the table, say "You live here", and Glorantha comes *alive*. (I love maps, me).
::::
Nick
::::
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #303
Powered by hypermail