Probably a good thing to get in there, but I think it would be better
to get a more generic article or two in first...you don't want people
seeing "HeroQuest" and automatically thinking "Oh yah, that weird
game where you play those strange races." (yah, obviously I'm not
amongst the uzophiles. They are cool to have in Glorantha, I'm just
not personally someone who finds playing things that non-human
interesting).
>
> More seriously: one of the best things about Glorantha for me has
always been the
> non-human races, which actually have some character instead of the
Other Game approach of
> "elves are tall pretty noble humans, dwarves are short squat greedy
humans, etc."* But
> there's not a lot of info out there for playing non-humans (other
than uz).
Gee, I always thought that was because they were close to unplayable except in very exceptional groups, or as parodies (like playing Paranoia as Mostali). OK, tongue partially in cheek there, and I thought I recall somewhere in one of these threads talks of plans for source books about the various races, both so you could play them if you really wanted to, and also so more normal heroes could interact with them.
>
> One problem I've heard from a couple of friends that have toyed
around with HW is that
> they feel a need to improvise quite a bit to play non-Sartarite
characters (and now,
> presumably, Lunars), since they want classic "two Orlanthi, an
Uroxi, a bison rider, a
> troll and a duck" campaigns.
Well, HQ will have ten homelands in it, and assuming that doesn't change it will at least allow to play "Two Orlanthi, a Grazer, a bison rider, and Puma-person." (or even, if you can imagine, an aetheist!) Of course, then you need scenarios that accept such diverse groups, which are probably in shorter supply. It is much harder to write a really satisfying stand alone scenario when you have no grasp of the groups motivations. When writing for a clan based group, you can use their relation to the clan. For a rebel group, serving the rebellion. For a ragtag group of weirdos who are Duke Thunderbluster's troubleshooters their employer tells them to do it. For a random group of crazy people (aka adventurers)? You can still right something with dangers and rewards, but it is harder to make it a satisfying story.
--Bryan
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