>Glorantha appeals to
>players who love narrative but its very fullness of narrative can
>sometimes make it harder to run a true narrativist game than a blank
>slate might. I think as a community we have learnt how to deal with
>this problem in creative ways, for an ultimately richer gaming
>experience, but we had to learn (and well known examples of play like
>the various Seattle Farmers games where a big part of how we learnt
>as a community).
I think the existing story makes a great backdrop for saga-style games (e.g. the Taming of Dragon Pass campaign which used PenDragon Pass rules). This seems to be working pretty well in my Imperial Age game, where I'm trying to cover up to a year per session, and driving part of the plot from the grand events of the EWF/Carmanian Empire struggle. (The primary means of subsistence is hunting, but it probably still qualifies as a Seattle Farmers game.)
>I think its almost the default style of Gloranthan
>play to walk a tightrope between narrativist and simulationist play,
>trying to braid your characters individual narratives into the grand
>narratives (mostly created by Greg) that sweep them up.
I don't know that having an existing narrative means your own play is simulationist.
Having simulationist elements for players to riff off of has driven one of the cool plot lines in my game. But I'm not sure that's what you're saying.
>When you sit
>down to create a narrative within your group, Gregs voice is somehow
>always there at the back of the group (which is OK by me, because I
>like Gregs stories, but its a distraction to classic narrativist
>play).
There's so little detail provided that I'm not sure this is the case. As I said, I'm given the overall plot, but there's so much room to fit it to the players in Anadikki that I don't really feel Greg's voice at all. May be my players disagree.
As for Travel Narratives, somehow Griffin Mountain comes to mind. Perhaps because it's such a great RPG supplement, and people want to use it in existing campaigns. Those campaigns aren't set in Balazar, so by default you have to travel to get there. I suspect the portion of Orlmarthing Saga (perhaps to be published some day by Moon Design) that deals with travelling there is closest to a Travel Narrative.
--
David Dunham
Glorantha/HQ/RQ page: www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html
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