HW and rejuvenating Glorantha

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 23:09:56 GMT


Shannon Appel lays down the law:

> RuneQuest really got the short
> end of the stick under the Avalon Hill regime (something that's not
> entirely their fault, I should be quick to note). Sales fell off to
> the point where it wasn't profitable to print RQ (though AH continued
> to do so), so it's not a surprise at all that there are less groups in
> the world now. *THIS* is why Hero Wars is required: to rejuvenate the
> Gloranthan community.

Which I entirely concur with. Although I would like (Hell I'd love!) to get my hands on an updated RQ I realise that this will never happen on a commercial basis unless some RQ loon wins the Lottery and blows the money on such a noncommercial  project.

It would be possible to web publish RQ: AiG but I'm sure that Chaosium would not regard this as a sane thing to do and would regard releasing a competing game system for its premier game world as not entirely in their commercial interests. (If this isn't the way you regard it fellas, let us know!)

> To repeat: RuneQuest did not have adequate sales to support a
> game line and has not for many years. It has a core group of loyal
> fans that we're very grateful for, but in order to make it successful
> we need to double or triple that number. A new game that will appeal
> to new gamers should do this. (And I'm sure old fans will still be
> pleased, because we'll be printing background supplements on all kinds
> of interesting Glorantha places.)

All of which is true. But why are you convinced that HW is the product to do it? I don't find its central mechanic intuitive. That's my main problem. I read OVER THE EDGE (which surely must have a part in HW ancestry, especially in the character generation) and thought 'Wow! I understand this! I can use this!'

With HW this did not happen.

Two other objections that occur to me.

The scale of the game drops the PCs right into high level Gloranthan adventure. There does not seem to be an easy way to run a campaign where the PCs are less powerful people gradually learning about the world and maturing the way they could with RQ. Getting to the heights of power is often the fun for many players not being there.

And the second flaw seems to me to be a lack of support for leading people into using the magic system. This is trivial to fix but at the moment the magic system seems to me to have too few 'learner slopes' (or maybe I mean 'training wheels') in the form of already worked out 'feats'. I think there may be too much enthusiasm for the freeform nature of the system and not enough realisation that some people may be frustrated by having an infinite number of options.

I'm clear that HW is the future. I'm just anxious that it should be a viable one and that its developers should bear in mind that the new blood they are trying to attract to Glorantha must include a large number of people who know nothing about the world. They must not find the learning curve of HW too steep.

Actor And Genius
AKA Theophilus Prince Archbishop Of The Far Isles Medieval Society Arms Purpure An Open Book Proper: On the Dexter Page an Alpha Or On the Sinister an Omega Or. Motto Nulla Spes Sit in Resistendo (Resistance is Useless). Ask me about the Far Isles: Better Living through Pan-Medieval Anachronisms.


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