Re: The Glorantha Digest V6 #103

From: Brian Tickler <tickler_at_netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 23:42:23 -0700 (PDT)


> Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 13:32:58 +0100
> From: Simon Hibbs <simonh_at_msi-uk.com>
> Subject: The Gloranthan Community on the Digest
>
> Brian T. Tickler :
>
> >You're asking a lot here...the normal course of action when a
> >newcomer brings this up is for various Digest Illuminaries to >pat
> themselves on the back, remind each other of how helpful >they are and
> how much good they bring to the Glorantha fans, >and say
> "Condescending? Why do people keep bringing that >up? We're not
> condescending in the least..."
>
> I realy don't think this is the case. I've saw the same kinds of
> comments since I first joined the digest many years ago, but I never
> experienced it myself.

Um, I find your statement somewhat puzzling...you say that you've seen these same comments for *years*...are all these people wrong? Maybe they're just mistaken about the impressions they've gotten... :)  

> There are a number of things that realy get up the noses of a lot of
> people on the digest, especialy old timers.
>
> The first is people jumping streight on to the digest and posting their
> own opinions, much of which directly contradicts published sources, and
> either implying that it's the way Glorantha is, or that it's is the way
> it should be if it isn't.

Ah, I see. Here's a few things that get into the noses of us "old timers" who are not posting to the digest on a regular basis:

  1. People who get upset just because someone "posted their own opinion", as if that was something horrible to do.
  2. People who list obscure material and call it "published sources".
  3. People who consider themselves somehow more entitled to post to the digest than others based on various annoying criteria.

> Second most irritating is people who insist (usualy by implication) that
> the RuneQuest X (insert favourite version here) rules are realy
> Glorantha, and all the cultural waffle and history everyone else talks
> about is just irrelevent fluff.

Perhaps you're inferring what people are not implying?  

> Third most iritating is people who say that all this fan publication
> business, and the decade of unpaid work people have put into Glorantha,
> is realy all a waste of time. Nobody with their feet on the ground
> should even bother buying any of this amateur stuff. What we realy need
> is _yet_another_ warmed over reprint of a 15 year old suplement for a
> dead out of date game system, to rejuvenate the hobby.

Ditto from above.

> The digest is part of the small but living, breathing _Gloranthan_
> community as it exists today. That community has hopes and fears, and if
> threatened it will defend itself.

What you may see as a threat others may see as a rescue attempt.

> Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 10:50:49 -0700
> From: Shannon Appel <appel_at_chaosium.com>
> Subject: Re: The Glorantha Digest V6 #32
>
> >> You've been very direly misinformed if you've gotten that impression.
> >> I've now seen parts of the first four Issaries manuscripts: An
> >> Introduction to Glorantha, Hero Wars, Sartar, and The Orlanthi
> >> Player's Guide. A very agressive publication schedule has been set out
> >> for the first two years, and the first score or so books have been
> >> planned. I'd say the future of Glorantha, as laid out by Issaries,
> >> looks brighter than it has at just about any other time in the last 20
> >> years. No hyperbole there either. This is going to be real cool.
> >
> >Ok, that sounds wonderful, but how exactly is what you're saying any
> >different than Chaosium touting Dorastor and Masters of Luck and Death
> >way back when? What is this fundamental change in Chaosium that is going
> >to make the results different this time around? Sorry to be harsh, but
> >(revisionist history on the Digest aside), Chaosium has proved to be
> >just as poor at producing timely RQ/Glorantha product as AH ever was...
>
> Incorrect.
>
> Chaosium published RuneQuest from 1978 to 1983, a total of 6
> years. During that time period they came out with 23 distinct books +
> 6 reprints/new-editions of some of those books + somewhere around 10
> issues of a supporting magazine (RQ support started in 5 or 6 of
> WF). That ranges between 4 and 6.5 products a year, depending on how
> you count it, a very respectable number.

I'd be interested to see the full list if you've got it...  

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