Re: What makes it special?

From: Bryan <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 02:17:36 -0000

It varies a lot from person to person, of course. For that matter, I would not have called myself a Glorantha fan until recently. I was introduced to the world back in RQ3 days, in the late 80's. I bought a lot of the background material, and liked the world, but it I wasn't that committed to the world itself. When I was first introduced to Hero Wars, I loved a lot of aspects of the rules, but almost regretted that it was set in Glorantha.

Then the new supporting material began to come out, and I realized how the new rules let Glorantha blossom in a way that it had not done before. One thing that I liked about Runequest was that "everyone has magic." But now I look at Glorantha, and say "the whole world IS magic."

And it is magic. In a way it is like being a six year old again....did you ever think that a certain tree looked like a creepy giant, or imagine that if you walked only on the blue tiles it would be lucky? Well, in Glorantha that could be true for some people, with thousands of years of history and myth that explain why it is so. On a more major level, water runs towards the sea because it is trying to fill a hole in the world, winds blow because they are powered by supernatural creatures whose nature is to blow, science is a heresy and the way to gain power in the world is to learn more deeply its myths.

Which makes a nice break from being an electrical engineer :)

The other big thing about Glorantha is that most game worlds are set in "new beginnings." You know, the great wars happened in the past destroying mighty empires, now maybe new evil is arising, great things are changing, but basically teh world is full of options.

Not Glorantha. Nope, in many ways the world is coming to an end. Oh, it won't literally end, but it is going to pass through the eye of a needle, and much will get left behind. It is very Arthurian in this aspect, you are at best creating a last patch of light before a very dark time. At times I've hated this part of Glorantha. But at the same time, it adds an emotional richness that I've not seen in other games. You aren't just fighting for yourself, or even a cause--you are fighting for the very survival of your family, your people, and even your gods. Even if you succeed, that may be enough, but if you don't succeed here and now, then failure is for certain.

As for how to get into it....it is hard to point at what written source. As is perhaps befitting, a fair bit of it is almost verbal lore, or at least collective thinking on this group and elsewhere. Some is in fan publications, or out of print books for different games. If anything, I'd suggest starting with the www.glorantha.com website, browse around, read the myths (errr, maybe not the east islands ones, at least not yet), for that matter just refresh the main page and read all the mottos (most of the 'the old world is ending, and....' form). After that, if you are really ambitious, try and find, somehow and somewhere, a copy of King of Sartar, the post-apoctalyptic history of the period when Hero Quest is set. If you can't find that, well, get whatever you can, and start assembling your own kaleidescope view of the world.

--Bryan