> > Locations. So far we have yet to see more than a paragraph or so
>on any
> > town, mountain, river or swamp. Hopefully Orlanth is Dead will
>contain a
> > detailed description of Whitewall, but there are hundreds of
>fascinating
> > places - lets see them!
>
>Well, it won't, but what is there should knock your socks off, and
>provide a pretty compelling response to all those who asked 'but
>where are the Hero Wars?' in response to BA.
I think that's unfortunate. Letting the players take part in the siege of Whitewall is going to be a tad harder without at least a map and list of important buildings...
>On the other hand, yes, I agree that this would be nice to see.
>However, given that Issaries is a small outfit, I think Greg is
>right to let his products be dynamic and driven by the *story*
>rather than more passive and just describing a *location.* Yes, I
>know it's possible to hit both, but ultimately you have to place the
>emphasis somewhere. One of the things that I did find disappointing
>about RQ was that it felt richly crafted but static. People and
>places just were. With HW, location is less important than action,
>character and story. It is, I agree, a different way of looking at
>it, but in a way, think of a film. Fun films often are successful in
>conveying a sense of place without really going into the detail.
>When you watched 'Gladiator', were you captured by the storming
>battle scene at the opening, or were you wondering about the social
>structure from which those barbarian warriors had been drawn?
Having not seen Gladiator, I can't comment on that, but... Films do spend incredible amounts of detail on location. Months are spent on designing and creating sets, especially for historical, fantasy, or sci-fi. Okay, they don't need to produce street maps or socio-economic models, but they do need to get across what the place looks like, and how it works, at least with respect to the story. In films, that may not look much, because all of this takes place in the background, behind the story, but it is incredibly important to the story.
I would argue that location is very important to telling the story - we needs scenery to set our stories against. Too much of what we have from Issaries so far is set on a hill, a river, a valley, a stead. That's fine, and it makes converting scenarios to your own campaign easier, but if my players say 'okay we're heading to Jonstown', I really need to know more than the tribes that own it, the name of its wyter, and the fact it has a big Lankhor Mhy temple. (Of course, I do, 'cos I have the Jonstown Guide, but that isn't going to help anyone who doesn't...) As it is, the stories currently seem strangely divorced from the setting. We are encouraged to make up the details, but at the minute the framework seems a little thin.
>All that said, there is, of course, scope for other work to
>complement the official Issaries line, on which I'll post separately.
I hoped my mention of several UW products and stuff on the web site would indicate that products from people other than Issaries could fill my perceived need. Fan writers are ALWAYS going to be an important part of Gloranthan publication, and mistaking them for the fan-produced drivel other areas suffer from is a big mistake.
Cheers,
Graham
-- Graham Robinson graham_at_... Albion Software Engineering Ltd.
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