Glorantha: We Are All Us

From: reinierd <reinierd_at_...>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 08:37:46 -0000

As usual, this debate is spinning off into as many directions as Glorantha has fans, and is not delivering the One True Answer that will lead Glorantha to life everlasting. However, maybe it's worth doing a quick, incomplete inventory of what we've got:

FOR SURVIVAL
--One of the most coherent, fun, and dynamic imaginary worlds out
there. IMHO the best.
--A fanatical fan base
--A very talented fan base
--More publications and a fuller product pipeline - official and
unofficial – than ever
--Meaty background, mythical coherence
--A pretty big database of Gloranthan fiction
--Pretty lively web debate and resources

PROBLEMS
--We don't know who the customer is. What are the target market
segments beyond the fanatics?
--Even if we know the additional target market segments, we don't
know what they want. And it's not easy to get a coherent picture of what they want. Finding out is likely to be expensive.
--Not enough financial resources, and virtually no hope of making a
positive financial return no matter what the resources available. RPGs are just not a good industry for sustained returns. (Sorry.)

OUTREACH AND GROWING THE USER BASE
--We'd better pay attention to those people who have actually gone
out and done demo games to bring new players in
--There is a common thread saying there isn't enough material that is
well-presented and easily digestible for newbies. This includes intro scenarios.

SO WHAT?
--Same old thing; it's up to the fans (as well as Issaries) to
produce products they'd like to see, and to sponsor them financially. IMHO the fan work has been outstanding. But let's be clear: a Glorantha RPG is very unlikely to be successful as a commercial venture.
--Let's not backseat-drive Issaries too much. There's only so much
they can do at one time, and changing their product launch strategy every 5 minutes to suit the latest fan suggestion does not help anyone. Let Issaries stay the course on their part of the product, and let fans fill in the gaps. Fan-published stuff is probably the best way to address the many niche needs of the market.
--There *is* a slim hope of making financial returns some day on
Glorantha as a "media property" or whatever. After all, Tolkien is not an easy read for your average movie goer and his world made it big. But John Hughes is probably right in suggesting that it would take Gloranthan fiction to make that happen.