Never a good idea. You also shouldn't drive when 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
Martin is *not* and official representitive for Issaries Inc. *I*'m not an official representitive, though I'm a close contender.
Martin is a freelance author working on a project for Issaries. He has no hand in how the company runs, what topics will be discussed in official books, or really too much free will in some matters of which he is writing. MOB said that Glorantha was his hobby - it is just so with Martin. Yes, he will get paid by Issaries for the work he is doing on SGU, just as MOB was paid for Sun County (at least, I assume he was paid...). Glorantha is just as much Martin's hobby, or my hobby, or Trotsky's or anyone else's who will get paid for putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) as MOB or Nick or Andre et al.
Martin's opinions are his own, and do not reflect Issaries policy. My opinions are my own and do not reflect Issaries policy. In some cases we can say "Greg wants" or "Greg says" or "Greg feels". Since we are writing for Greg, we do what Greg wants. If we disagree, we can (and do) try to change Greg's mind. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but ultimately we *have* to write to Greg's specs or have it edited to them by someone else. This is true in *any* publishing house, not just Issaries. For years I was a freelancer with a regular job, and had to cleave to the specs given me by my editor. Sometimes I managed to get him to change his mind on some points, but there was always the dread and anticipation of seeing the published book and how far it differed from what I intended and wrote.
> 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.
Greg knows and appreciates the fan support. The problem is that the fans and he have different ideas of his world. While it's not as critical in a "fan publication", he wants *Issaries* to publish *his* world.
> So if you want to complain about a lack of published work, why the fuck
> wasn't Chaosium publishing?
Because of the deal with Avalon Hill. While it could have been a great marriage of creative energy and publishing power, instead it turned acrimonious.
> 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.
I'd love to get Greg and the RMM to sit down, talk out the problem and get on with producing material. Will this happen? I don't know. There are currently hurt feelings all over the place that need to be assuaged.
Roderick
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