> Richard Meints wrote
>
> > When the digest first began, people who were bursting with ideas...
> > [snip]
> > Many years and 1000's of issues later, there doesn't seem to be that
> > much "new" material being put forward. [snip]
> > The digest, with several shining exceptions, has fallen into a state of
> > people asking questions (a great thing to do) and getting vague/esoteric
> > snotty/condescending answers, and the posting of lengthy dissertations
> > on topics like the use of Amerind languages as a good template for
> > Darktongue. [snip]
> > What can be done? [snip] Write scenarios.
>
> This is my first posting to this list. I have been lurking since April.
> I joined, hoping to get access to scenarios - YES: SCENARIOS, or at least
> scenario ideas which would help me springboard my mind and my players
> into realms of ADVENTURE! Instead, I skip through most of these digests,
> and marvel that people have the time to argue some of the points they do.
> It's a game. Or is it? Is the study of Glorantha more fun than the
> playing in it? The same few names appear on this list time and time
> again. Do these people play RQ as well as talk about it? What proportion
> of the time do they spend playing, and what preparing for play?
>
> New folks like me, while interested in some of what is said (eg. the stuff
> I accidentally deleted on how dwarves sense things underground), are I'm
> sure put off by the debates which make up most of this list. I daren't
> enter most of them, because I cannot compete with the staggering obscure
> knowledge these people have of a world which doesn't even exist. I have
> read a bookshelf three feet wide of Gloranthan publications, and still
> couldn't hope to keep up with what these people "know".
>
> If you want new blood, make joining fun. I feel that I have been dropped
> into the fourth year of an advanced history and geography course, and am
> supposed to keep pace with the people who joined in the first year.
>
> Where are the scenarios, the cameos?
>
> Lloyd
The process you (and all of us) are witnessing is the long, slow, painful
death of RuneQuest and Glorantha (which will not survive their tortuous
severing)...the digest and the Glorantha community will continue to fold
in and feed on itself until the list consists of Peter Metcalfe and
Nick Brooke arguing amongst themselves :)...
On a more serious note, it's pretty hard to mistake all the signs:
- - Recent Glorantha-cons ill-attended and poorly reviewed
- - Prominent digest personalities posting less and less (MOB, for example)
or disappearing entirely (Sandy)
- - Issaries Inc. efforts floundering
- - LARPS proliferating, RPG campaigns dying off
- - Commericial publications halted, fan-published materials fading fast
All these factors point towards a dwindling fan base, a seemingly
impossible result given the loyalty of RQ/Glorantha fans through the
lean years, but nevertheless, although many digesters will no doubt
deny it, the promise of Hero Wars is not enough to sustain this
community...people want RuneQuest *and* Glorantha, together...and although
remaining Glorantha-only fans may be fanatical, in the gaming business
quality of customers means nothing beyond a certain point; it's quantity of
customers that counts.