Publishing

From: Neil <neil_at_wimp.freeuk.com>
Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 08:00:27 +0100

Martin wrote:
> > >Answer me this, if you will. In what article, precisely, done by the RMM > > >is there a detailed description of the Imperial succesion?
>

MOB:
> >Wrong question. I said "already widely-understood, resonant and
> >entertaining **GA** version", not some definitive "published version".
>

Martin:
> Generally accepted, when in fact the details have only been discussed in
> this debate to any depth? It seems to me that if it is generally accepted
> (by the 10% of digesters that post on the subject), then that is a new
> thing. In addition, I really don't think that one can say "generally"
> unless the vast
> majority of players in Glorantha accept it too. If there is no product for
> them to read and understand, then how can they accept it generally or
> otherwise? How can it even be debated?

Martin,

Things don't need to be published to be generally accepted. I'm not particularly interested in all the fine details of imperial succession. It doesn't really come into the low-level games I run around the Zola Fel. This meant that I never found it important to understand exactly how Moonson reincarnated. However, I was aware that he did, he had Masks, each Mask was different, and Masks had great effects on Lunar policy. In fact, my impression, gained purely by osmosis, was that the Masks were _more_ different than the RMM model actually says. No publications, but I knew enough to hand-wave in a game, and knew how to find more detail if needed. I'd call it GAG.

And now for the ad-hominem bit, cos I'm angry.

I think it is extraordinarily fucking rich for _any_ official representative of Issaries/Chaosium to complain about the lack of published material for Glorantha. How many 'official' publications has Chaosium put out over the past ten years? The RMM, the Chaos Society, BoDR, and all the rest, have done extraordinary deeds over the past decade or so to keep Glorantha alive. All the people involved in these projects have dedicated vast amounts of time, effort, money, and goodwill in Glorantha. Every time they wanted to write something up for publication, they had to do _all_ the work required to write it, edit it, critique it, typeset it, find printers, get printers to print it properly, distribute it, and then deal with the discussion it caused. And they managed to do all this in their _spare_time_, while holding down their own demanding and tiring jobs. I for one am extremely grateful for the heroic (and I use the word advisedly) efforts all the fan publishers have put in to Glorantha over the years. I'm sure I couldn't have maintained the level of activity of the fan publishers, let alone do it for over a decade.

So if you want to complain about a lack of published work, why the fuck wasn't Chaosium publishing?

And if Issaries wants Glorantha to be a success, it should be doing all it can to harness the energy and drive of the fan publishers.

All Hail the Reaching Moon!
All Hail Fan Publication!

Neil.

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