> To Mr. Cule:
>
> To judge Hero Wars solely on the basis of an early draft (and a
> fragmentary one at that, it would seem) strikes me as surprisingly
> narrow-minded for someone with such a long history of contribution to the
> Gloranthan milieu. I'm certain you dislike portions of the RuneQuest and
> PenDragon Pass systems as well, yet you've managed to live with (or
> modify) those. Why the double standard?
Because the flaws in those systems are details and therefore fixable. I fear that the flaws in HW derive from Robin's philosophy and therefore are central.
I also fear that most potential clients (especially those who aren't as experienced with RPGs and Glorantha as Me Good Self) will be put off by these.
No double standard. Only one: Can I run a game with these rules?
> Your comments are often laced with criticisms of the design philosophy
> rather than the rules themselves. Coupled with your decision to resign
> from playtesting, your swipes begin to seem more aimed at Robin than at
> providing an objective analysis to those outside the circle of
> playtesters. To your credit, you have commented on what you *like* about
> Hero Wars to almost the same extent as what you do *not* like. I fail to
> understand why you put so much effort into criticizing a work in
> progress, however; the rules are continually evolving toward the final,
> published work.
Well, I mean no disrespect to Robin. I would not be so angry with him if so much of the HW draft wasn't so damn good. But when we talked at Convulsion we quickly came to the conclusion that we had diametrically opposed central ideas about what makes a good RPG.
> That work is still over a year away from its completion. Let's give Hero
> Wars a chance to grow. The current draft of the rules, like the revised
> drafts of Entekosiad, The Glorious ReAscent of Yelm, and Fortunate
> Succession, is the *only* version that genuinely matters. That draft
> likely changes on a weekly basis.
Perhaps. But I didn't see signs in the two drafts I saw of any change in the core system, the 'Status Points' idea which is what I'm really against.
> Commentary on older drafts of Hero Wars
> only serves to misinform people about the game, and foster doubts about
> Glorantha's future. Should Hero Wars fail, there will be *no* new
> material available whatsoever, save for that in the fan publications. My
> philosophy regarding Glorantha is this: if you prize, evangelize.
I think that the problem is that the current path that it is taking is not a workable one. I want (deeply, madly, truly) to change Robin's mind and even get through to Greg that he needs to throw the system at the brick wall of some highly sceptical role-players and not just with enthusiasts for Robin's style of gaming.
> BTW, why is it that, opposed as you seem to be to a rules-lite approach
> to Glorantha, I find your name listed in the credits for the "Baron
> Munchausen" storytelling game? Pot? Kettle? Black? ;)
I have nothing against rules-lite. As I said before I *loved* OTE and also EVERWAY, Jonathon Tweet's lovely rules-lite systems. I think that simple models are good as long as what they model simply makes sense. I don't think that HW as it currently stands creates a world which makes sense. RQ (for all its clunkiness) had a core set of modelling ideas that worked and brought the world into being in the minds of the gamers.
On the other hand this really is off topic:
> Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 11:37:21 +0100
> From: "Hibbs, Philip" <philip.hibbs_at_tnt.co.uk>
> Subject: Michael 's Arms
>
> >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).
>
> Is there a bitmap or metafile of this anywhere?
No. Damn! Another thing I shall have to get put on the Far Isles web site... (Oh, go and do a web search....)
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