On the 'special materials' topic - to me it's obvious that Greg can do anything he damn well wants with his output in whatever form. He could write the Godlearner secret daily and use it for toilet paper if he so chose. And I completely understand his desire to support / inspire conventions, etc.
But... on the other hand I personally don't love the possibility of 'secret writings'. Personally as a perpetual newbie (see more below) I rely on 'official materials' to inform me, much of which in the future will apparently be written by people other than Greg. So newbie me would like all those people to have access to the same information - like Peter alluded to, I'm more than happy to have people like him plumb the unfinished works and turn it into game material. And I understand that there's a lot of uncertainty in the idea that 'special materials' will be published 'later'; and in any case in the meantime we have information pockets.
So... my suggested compromise/moderate position is to ASK greg (since I have no right to demand it) to give essentially everyone the opportunity to access information. Reward the conventions, etc, by publishing in a special format; or by publishing somewhat earlier with a clearly defined plan to publish later; etc.
Alternatively, just clearly say 'all this material is irrelevant and purely hypothetical and will never make it into game materials'.
On to another topic! How long can one be a newbie? I first played glorantha 20 years ago, I probably have 60+ documents of some sort (books, magazines, samizdats, etc), I've demoed HW or HQ at 3 or 4 cons (including a fantastic experience with John Hughes' 'Beak No Evil')... And yet I still feel like a newbie: I've never attempted to read the unfinished material, never authored anything used beyond my group, etc. It raises some interest thoughts in my mind that I'd still call myself a newbie. I think it means that Glorantha (like many other things) depends on having a large number of very knowledgeable people. I value Greg, and of course acknowledge his legal ownership of Glorantha; but I also value John Hughes, Peter Metcalfe, and so many others. So as a perpetual newby and mere mortal I'm not happy when the gods fight and one goes away.
Anyway, on a lighter note... As a perpetual newbie, I would LOVE to have a Glorantha wiki, or encyclopedia, or just a damn glossary! For me personally a wiki or website would be most useful, but I'd be grateful for anything.
theo
Powered by hypermail