I only make it because I asked on t'other list a while back who was using the series as intended, and got answers back suggesting that no-one was. Plenty of people using bits of it, or using it as background, or starting a decade or more earlier, but no-one playing it "straight". Which may reflect the make-up of the list rather than of the generla Gloranthan population. Or something.
> I have on several occasions looked
> at using the SR books but always put it aside because it gave
> me the feeling that the players were not an integral part of
> the story, and that the story was totally overpowering the
> players, no matter what they did.
>
> The Gathering Thunder book was the worst of all, with whole
> areas where the players seem to be told to sit and watch as
> events happen.
>
> I dont like this, it seems too distant and removed. Is it
> just me or do others have problems with the style of the scenarios ?
Personally, yes, I have huge problems with it. As I may have mentioned once or twice before...
I had the same problem with the Cradle scenario - you get to be cannon fodder while NPCs do the brain-work. Which is the wrong way round.
Gathering Thunder has the advantage that it's a great *story*. But that's it. I think it holds the record for the most obtrusively rail-roaded scene ever - the fight as they get ejected from the Boat. Having spent nearly three books building up "you guys think Kallyr is wonderful", you're in a fight, right next to her, she's losing badly, and it is ASSUMED that the players do nothing about it. And we get a description of how that fight is lost. WTF are the players there for? They're not even being allowed to be cannon-fodder!
I'm not sure this belongs on the Rules list, though, because part of the problem is that it ignores the rules. Your player's got "Kill everything" at 10W4, and she just rolled a 1? Sorry, you still lose the fight.
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