Re: The Glorantha Digest V6 #496

From: Brian Tickler <tickler_at_netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 11:29:30 -0800 (PST)


> Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 06:43:40 EST
> From: <TTrotsky_at_aol.com>
> Subject: Re: Bronze Age Feel
>
> Craig Carter:
>
> << Ken's summation of the early RQ game supplements having a 'Bronze age feel'
> is spot on. It's the main reason that my group started to play RQ in the first
> place. The early supplements had a distinct classical feel to them although I
> must confess to not having read them for years so this could be me suffering
> from acute nostalgia. >>
>
> In my experience, the 'bronze age feel' is the most often quoted reason
> for people starting to game in Glorantha. If it is being scrapped wholesale
> (it obviously ain't true for all of Glorantha) or if it never really existed
> in the first place and they're now trying to make that more clear, then I am
> not convinced that that's a good selling strategy.
>
> <<I suspect that I'm in a minority when I admit to having no interest in the
> Western stuff or the oriental bits >>
>
> I think you'll find the reverse!

Agreed. The reason people left DnD for RQ originally had much to do with not only the Bronze Age look and feel, but also the tight, well fleshed out areas delineated by the 2-page Dragon Pass/Prax map in the RQ2 rulebook. I've always considered Greg's "Snodal" period and the environs created during it to be "mental first drafts" of material largely based on other game worlds and literary works, and frankly, best left as such :).

The material available on Prax and the Zola Fel river valley in my opinion is worth more than all the "outlying" kingdoms and empires of Genertela combined. This one small area has got to be most cohesive, unique, and gamable area in any game world, and I'm willing to bet this even against game worlds I've never heard of...

I may be more extreme in this view than most, but almost every RQ player I've ever talked to came into the game partly for these reasons.

<<because it always seems like they were stuck on afterwards.>> >
> Ironically, the West (or parts of it) was actually developed first - it
> just didn't appear in the RPG material until RQ3.
>
> << I definitely prefer the Bronze age/ Classical/ Dark age/ Celtic/ Saxon etc
> bit in the middle.>>
>
> You'll be pleased to know that that's what's being published first, then.
> The western, eastern and Pamaltelan stuff will probably come much later.

At least Issaries recognizes that they need to push their strengths first, then expand later. The key of course is to publish new material on these areas and segregate it from the obilgatory old material, so that the current fan base isn't paging though a 3rd round of reprinted and rehashed stuff trying to separate the new material from the old...

> Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 16:25:03 GMT
> From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_yeats.ucc.ie>
> Subject: Re: Come on, join the GTA!
>
> Of course, the 150-odd Observers will still be able to get the same
> Mundane benefits (assuming they come into being), but will they be
> able to correctly perceive the Mysteries?

Which brings up an interesting question...what's going on with the "Observers"? When I looked on the web page for an Email link to use to become an Observer (last month, I think), I could only find instructions on how to handle donations, so I ended up Emailing the only link I could dig up on the page (Greg's Email, I believe). I've heard nothing back up to this point, though. Perhaps I've been declined for past considerations ;).

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