I was kind of stunned to see that AH and Chaosium left glorantha behind to make Monster Coliseum (but the monster book is still useful). Then Viking. I had to wait for Gods of G. to read anything related to glorantha. I just bought everything after that, form the worst (lost city of Eldarad) to the best (River of Cradle). But the real revelation was Tales of the Reaching Moon. It seemed that the most useful pieces were in there. Even AH and Chaosium picked the best parts to put them in their new supplements. And then, lately, came the digest on my computer screen. For more than a year now, I try to read everything on web pages too. Glorantha is living on the Internet now.
All this to come to this point : If some are saying that Glorantha is dying, I'm saying that it has never been so alive before. Sure, nobody is making money out of it, nothing I read must be considered official, but, hell, there is a lot more to ignite my imagination now than there was when I was 11. I can read new things everyday, I can even write to a dedicated community built around a world I love. Please, stop complaining about the fate of Glorantha. Who else, except Gloranthan role-players, can have access to such a rich environment in which they can not only research for years without seeing the end but also put their own ideas on a board for everyone else to see and discuss.
For those who are already complaining about Hero Wars, would you please just wait until it is printed. I know nothing more about it than what was written to the digest, but it is a game about glorantha and that's what matter. Regardless of rules, if the new game is set around cultural viewpoints, it will succeed. Each time I had new players coming to my Glorantha, they were amazed by the background availaible to them. No need to read everything but enough (particularly with the What my father told me and what the Priest told me articles) to flesh out a character. Nobody wants to play a chaotic neutral thief anymore : we need cultural quirks, clothes, rituals and points of view. We need illustrations showing the world and its marvels.
My point is that the essence of my game is about cultural clash. When the pc's are traveling they don't find another dungeon or just another band of Tremere vampires but an alien culture with wich they must interact (and survive ...) So, let the next game focus on this : cultural viewpoints.
A lot have been said about the french editions of runequest. Being a francophone (I live in Montreal) I also bought the oriflam range of products. Believe me, it's far above anything ever printed by Avalon Hill. The binding and illustrations are perfect, some works even received out of print material (like les dieux de Glorantha printing the most useful parts of what became "the best of" Wyrms Footprints). They also managed to put all the rules books in one binding, which make it easier for the GM. La guerre des Hiros and les Dieux Nomades are also above their previous editions, both in clarity and in design.
The one thing I'm really waiting for is the computer game. I know almost nothing about it now and I don't seem to have been selected as a beta tester. But I have dreamed about it for so many years that I almost can't sleep anymore. Maybe one day we will see a computer RPG, or an adventure game, or a 3d first-person game, or a Real-Time strategy game. Glorantha is the important thing, I just don't care about the system if it makes me travel to this fabulous world.
Luc Lavergne
Softimage trainer
National Animation and Design Centre
Montreal
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #41
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