> The process you (and all of us) are witnessing is the long, slow, painful
> death of RuneQuest and Glorantha
I've heard this one many times before, and I just don't believe it anymore. RuneQuest and Glorantha are hardly dying. People keep on saying that RQ is a broken games system, and this simply isn't true. Apart from the major bugs in the system that we know, and love, so well, BRP is a superlative RPG system, which could easily have been repaired, if it hadn't been for a few legal problems.
Someone mentioned Virtual ASL. Virtual RQ is out there as well, but it ain't centralised, and it ain't organised. But it's the best edition of RQ yet ! Look at Sandy's sorcery, to start with; look at the stuff available on-line from Issaries: look at the Book of Drastic resolutions; look at the tons and tons of goodies available from the dozenss of RQ websites that are out there. Does this look like death to you?
This isn't the death of RuneQuest and Glorantha, Brian.
We are witnessing the death of the Age of Print.
> (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 :)...
Why are you so pessimistic?
> On a more serious note, it's pretty hard to mistake all the signs:
>
> - - Recent Glorantha-cons ill-attended and poorly reviewed
by whom? That Glorantha-cons are ill-attended is hardly surprising, given the lack of widely-available new RealRQ and/or Glorantha material, though ...
> - - Prominent digest personalities posting less and less (MOB, for example)
> or disappearing entirely (Sandy)
But there is Questlines, and there is Sandy's sorcery. And maybe they are up Issaries' publishing sleeve?
> - - Issaries Inc. efforts floundering
floundering? this is the second time I've heard this malicious rumour. Sounds like bollocks IMHO.
> - - LARPS proliferating, RPG campaigns dying off
last I heard, the CCG assault on the RPG market was relenting, and people were returning to RPGs. The opposite of what you say, in fact. LARPs are, I think, a marginal phenomenon.
> - - Commericial publications halted, fan-published materials fading fast
Fading fast? what nonsense is this? They are, in fact proliferating. Look at the websites, again. Look at Drastic, Tales, Enclosure, Questlines, Ye Book of Tentacles, Tradetalk, RQA (although this might become HWA or GA, perhaps ...), and so on, and even our own french project Entropie, which should be available v. soon - -.. (Buy! Buy! Buy!)
Again, the opposite is true IMHO
> 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...
Burt we already _have_ RQ and Glorantha together. we have been playing it since the seventies !!Quite frankly, I find the current situation wherein Gloranthan BRP is being developed and published, in various ways, by the people who actually care about it FAR preferable to hanging on AHs financial lips. I, personally, feel more hopeful today about the future of Gloranthan role-playing than I have at any time since 1984.
> 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.
Quantity is Robin's, Greg's, Issaries' and the Fates' job.
Anyway, the international sales figures for RQ were, in fact, high enough for it to be viable. It continues to sell, even now. I can see no reason why HW shouldn't follow suit.
Especially with people like us to support it ;-)
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