RE: What Issaries should publish

From: Meints, Richard (R.J.) <"Meints,>
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 13:02:53 -0500

Benedict Adamson points out that Issaries probably would'nt publish a GM type book because of their story arc focus and that they don't care for tiny details, plus the people who write these things don't need it because they can make it up themselves. He then goes on to point out all of the previous Sartar bits that have been published. To this I would respond that Issaries has the desire to publish or support the fan publication of well written Gloranthan material suitable for Hero Wars. While many old timers have all the articles or publications he mentions, most of them are not easily avilable, if at all, to the new gamers in Glorantha. Based on the responses I've seen in these newsgroups I diagree with Benedict's assertion that most GMs can make up this "tiny bits" info for themselves. Some GMs can, especially amongst the veterans, but they are only a minority, probably less than 25%.

Ian Cooper restates that the two man outfit that is Issaries doesn't have the resources to undertake such an effort. While this is a well known situation, my intention was not to have them write the stuff, just help get it PUBLISHED. If we players write it, get the art, and lay it out, all to a standard Issaries likes, it will get published by them or a fan publisher.

Mark Galeotti then encourages us all to get writing, which is one of my favorite time-honored pleas as well. He also points out that fan publishers can make up for a lot of what Issaries can't publish themselves. More power to you, Mark.

Virtually every small game company I know of has most of their game supplements written by contracted pros, not full time staff writers. Why should Glorantha be the exception? Chaosium relies on Pagan publishing to help support their Cthulhu line. Pendragon is all done by contracted pros. Everything Hogshead for Warhammer fantasy does is farmed out. Issaries may have to go a few steps further in terms of layout and art, but that is also a commonly farmed out thing. Most small game companies have incredibly small full time staff.

Fortunately, the trends for quality products from Issaries looks encouraging. Better books with what we want in them.

Rick