This is quite possibly one of the finest rants I have ever heard.
Here, here, sir! Here, here!
I think that in the 'march of mundanity' much of the magic seems to have got lost and swallowed up in a maelstrom of anachronism's, real worldism and an attempt to represent classical or actual history within the Gloranthan fictional setting.
YGWV glory be!
In my Glorantha Kallyr is a kind of Luke Skywalker character. A classic heroic fiction mould.
For others she is a blood thirsty tribal warlord who thinks nothing of murdering women and children to get her own way, possibly a la Boudicca of history.
Some fall somewhere in between. Its not to everyones taste to have the hero's wearing white hats.
Personally I have always relied on the scale as shown in the orginal RQ2 rulebook, and find it perfectly acceptable.
The mountains of sartar do not reach alpine heights in my game, because its not required, just that they are big enough to be obstacles thatr makes travel both dangerous and difficult. Better to move round them.
I'm not resident on any other lists, but I would like to see this post on RPG net and some of the other gloranthan lists.
Cheers, Rob
>
> > This is where we need Experts. So, if you are one (and those
> > qualifications sound like it), want to give us the answer?
>
> My answer is the same as before: I'm not interested, I'm afraid. Whilst I can sympathize with the desire to inform our imaginations with observations of the natural wonders our own world can offer, we always have to go that little step further, and conflate it with Earthly process.
>
> At some point in time - and I admit I'm pushed to define exactly when - Glorantha started to think too much. Logos started rub up, panting, a little too disconcertingly against Mythos' leg. At least for my liking.
>
> World design seemed to take on a different bent; boxes started being ticked; we started to say 'no' rather than 'yes'.
>
> I find it a little curious that what many of us might consider the most evocative areas of Glorantha--Dragon Pass, Peloria, Prax--are noted aberrations, hold-outs against broader, later regulations of climate and geography, and "this should go there".
>
> If Dragon Pass was sketched today, in whatever official-cum-fandom manner we possess, would it contain slumbering dragon-mountains, the Dragonewts, zombies, ducks, dwarfs, Grazers, Sun Domers, barbarians, trolls, wasp riders, giant windmills, Earth cultists, giant flowers, demon-horse riders &c. in such kaleidoscopic proximity? I doubt it.
>
> And how would the community react if Greg, or an author in conjunction with Greg, suggested that smack bang next to Thunder Rebels-era Sartar there was a dusty land of chapparal and rhinos, ostriches and intelligent tapirs? I'm not convinced that the mythic reasons behind Prax's climate and ecology would gain easy acceptance.
>
> So I'm afraid this is why I don't want to supply my 'expertise'; I'd rather Glorantha loosened its tie and went crazy, instead of enfranchising mundanity. I doubt it will happen, but I can hope.
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> Stew.
>