The opposition, publishing

From: Benedict Adamson <badamson_at_...>
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:40:20 +0100

morganconrad wrote:
...
> As for the "how many cults" debate, the problem with the "ok, you use
> your few cults, but we want all this depth" argument, is that the
> most important depth, THE OPPOSITION, (or, in our campaigns,
> the "forces of civilization") doesn't exist yet.
...

People are already playing HW and don't seem to have problems creating opposition for their episodes. The HW:AiG rule book includes write ups for several Lunar and Dara Happan gods that Heortlings might come across worshippers of. You were previously complaining about the amount of stuff in and Thunder Rebels and Storm Tribe. The write ups in HW:AiG should be terse enough for you. So what is your complaint, exactly? Do you want no depth, or only depth for 'the opposition', or depth?

Also, you have an unstated assumption: only the Lunars are 'opposition'. HW assumes an initial medium powered campaign. The truth is, the Lunars are too powerful as opponents in a medium power campaign (you are taking on the Lunar EMPIRE, not a lone cultist; communities are important). For medium power Heortling campaigns, adventures should start centred in clan life. See Barbarian Adventures. The truth is, for medium powered Heortlings, the opposition are... OTHER HEORTLINGS. If you are a cattle raiding Finovian, they are the carls of your neighbouring clans. If you are a psychopathic Uroxi or Humakti, they are the peacemaking Ernaldans of your own clan (yep, women of your clan; not other warriors). If you are politically ambitious, they are your Orlanth Dar and Ernalda the Queen rivals. So, TR and ST provide plenty of information about Heortling opponents.

In an ideal world, Issaries Inc could publish everything that everyone wants. But this is the real world, and -I-I- are not even a medium sized game publisher. They've had to make choices about priorities. Many people have expressed a desire to play Heortlings, and -I-I- has responded by focusing they publications on them. But to keep others happy, they have provided terse information about many others, and did so in the initial rule books. I think they deserve credit for making the best of a difficult situation.

Your posts on this subject have been negative. What one realistic practical difference do you think -I-I- should make to its publishing schedule to make things better? Not better for you (be realistic), but better for the Glorantha fan community as a whole, or better for -I-I- themselves?