What I'm about to say does not (or may not) apply to gaming groups of Glorantha veterans (something I haven't seen outside of three of the dozens of gaming conventions I have attended, and something I have never seen in a home RPG game).
If I run a game set in Glorantha, it's because I want the interesting *because of its complex setting* world of Glorantha to be featured. Since I have fewer than 5% of my players with *any* knowledge of Glorantha (and *no* Glorantha veterans), I feel the need to show them in game the world of Glorantha, in doses in the game. Other worlds, such as Tekumel, create the same situation.
If I run a game where Glorantha newbies play powerful heroes, the powerful heroes will have the ability to make big things happen, and there is little chance that these big things will reflect the interesting *because of its complex setting* world of Glorantha - because I'm not going to hand out a bunch of information to irritate the 90% of players I've encountered who don't like to study for their RPG sessions. A short set of bullet points isn't capable of conveying the interesting *because of its complex setting* world of Glorantha. In summary, starting out newbies as powerful heroes in Glorantha will mean leaving behind the interesting *because of its complex setting* world of Glorantha. There's nothing wrong with running a Glorantha game that doesn't convey the interesting depth of the world, but then there is little reason to bother with Glorantha - adding a couple Glorantha elements to a generic fantasy setting doesn't make the setting Glorantha *IMO*.
If someone disagrees with this, please provide at least a hint of a method to get around this situation that works for a home multi-session game. One shot games at conventions can get away with as much or as little Glorantha content as desired because there is no follow-up.
The Star Wars universe doesn't have this problem because people have already studied the setting in several movies, and possibly in several books. Similarly, there is a lot of easily accessible information for various other settings, even Tekumel has a series of not-widely-available novels. There is no such gateway to Glorantha.
What I have said above has little to do with the new HeroQuest game as a generic gaming engine, but it has a lot to do with whatever is done to adapt Glorantha to the new HeroQuest game.
Thanks,
Andy
Powered by hypermail