> From: "Tim Huntley" <tim_at_...>
>Subject: New Gloranthan...
>
>Hello.
>
>I'm a relatively new Gloranthan, and I just joined the list. I was exposed
>to Glorantha many years ago via the RQ3 boxed set, but didn't pay much
>attention to it until I heard all the hype surrounding the HeroQuest game
>and the publishing agreement with SJ Games. So, I purchased HeroQuest last
>night.
>
>My question is this - for someone who is a relative HeroQuest/Glorantha
>n00b, the HeroQuest book seems to throw out a lot of Gloranthan references
>very early on via sidebars and such. Is HeroQuest self contained enough
>that after a thorough read I'll be up to speed with the state of the world?
>Or should I temporarily shelf HQ and go read over some of the earlier
>HeroWars stuff?
Well, I was almost entirely new to Glorantha when I bought the Hero Wars
box, so I think I know where you're coming from. And the answer is: HQ gives
you the very broad outlines, and then throws out a huge number of references
that you won't understand. You will not feel that you're up to speed on the
state of the world after reading it. But that doesn't matter as much as you
think, because the world is too large & various for anyone to be up to speed
on the whole thing... even if the information had been published, which (in
most cases) it has not.
For an actual game, you're going to have to make up a lot of stuff, and the
HQ book gives you a good jumping-off point. If you are interested in
Glorantha for its own sake, the HW book "Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero
Wars" will interest you -- but it's still an outline, more detailed but
still a jumping-off point for making up stuff. Really, you're probably
better off just inventing material as you need it. Then, when inspiration
flags, ask this list to be pointed at existing sources or (at least as
often) for non-canonical suggestiions.
The HW published material has a lot of detail if you want to run Heortlings
from Sartar; rather less for anywhere else. Lokornos.com will give you some
idea how much there is beyond the currently published works, on lots of
different areas of the world. But the mass of material is too much to
assimilate all at once: have mercy on your players, as well as yourself, and
introduce it over the course of play instead of trying to make everything
clear at the beginning.
> From: Julian Lord <jlord_at_...>
>Subject: Well, what's it like then ?
>
>Won't have it by next week at the earliest, so what's it actually like ?
- Tremendously improved presentation. Very few typoes, professional layout,
generally clear organization with a good number of examples.
- The basic rules are slimmed down a bit but not greatly changed.
- Theism is changed a little; sorcery/wizardry is hardly altered but has a
major addition of a mid-level of magic use [*]. Animism is significantly
changed, with not integration, charms (the new word for fetishes) the basic
form of magic; spirit allies are added (the new meaning of "fetishes") and
non-shamans can do more. Mysticism is deleted except for a few cryptic
references. Applause for the lot: I don't think I noticed _any_ rules change
that I thought was a clear regression.
[* with a nearly-crippling disadvantage that isn't justified in game balance
terms, AFAICT. That was my major rules niggle after a once-over.]
- Common magic means that all PCs and NPCs gets more magical powers. It
also emphasizes that there's freaky magical stuff going on at all levels of
life in Glorantha.
- Relationships are moved to front-and-center, more prominent in the rules
than hero-questing. (Hero Bands and the guardian rules go in this chapter,
for one thing.) This emphasizes the champion-of-your-community aspect of
Glorantha and the Hero Wars.
- OTOH, the default play style of the rules is effectively a mixed band of
misfits rather than a group with a common cultural background: "open Range"
in HW terms. One doubts that this will be true in any of the supplements; I
haven't decided if that's an inconsistency, or division of labor (after all,
the game ought to support both styles, right?).
- The total effect, as someone else said, is less "Hero Wars 2.0" than a
genuinely new game.
Craig Neumeier, LHN
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