> >> Glorantha: The Second Age (both editions). It is Ikankos, one of the Janubian city states.
> > Glorantha: The Second Age is not a core Third Age book and is not part of the publishing canon.
>
> Well, hello Captain Obvious on the first part there. I don't think there is a single part of Glorantha where second age material is less relevant to third age canon than the Janube valley anyway.
While you may have your opinions on the subject, I don't think you need to be rude to others when expressing them.
> > You can certainly use the various Mongoose products in your games, but future publications may ignore or contradict them. For example, "Glorantha: The Second Age" was not referenced for the upcoming Guide to Glorantha.
>
> I'm aware of the limits of the Mongoose material, some of which is flawed (and I'm not so keen on cyborgs and such myself), though I'm sure you'd agree some of it is excellent.
> But I find purism about sources can too easily just become a lack of respect for the creativity of others -- in this particular case, there seems no particular reason to reject it. The Janubian river valley has pretty much always been a cradle of all sorts of heterodox weirdness in canon, as far as I'm aware.
I feel this raises may questions about sources, but not about purism of sources, more one of practicality. Glorantha has a long history and clearly things will fall by the wayside, whether it's by new products being released or the quality of the product in hindsight being questioned. Another problem is key authors changing their mind, for example about Yelmalio or how long human gestation is. If the current core writers are choosing to ignore certain products, i'm sure there are good reasons.
While I do own the Mongoose set (c/o that great value pdf bundle), I find most of the content to be not in keeping with my feel for Glorantha, only a few books IMO were any good. It would seem that some of the authors had never read any old RQ products or even the middle sea empire book. Luckily as it's completely self contained that won't affect anyone playing in it as it's consistent within itself. The continuity between 2nd & 3rd age products is only a problem if you are playing a game that spans both. Those who would do this I sure would be able to iron out problems in consistency.
As for what is considered core material and what isn't, that's going to cause some to disagree with what the publishers say. To me some of it's very clear. Sartar and the companion for example has superseded Thunder Rebels & Storm Tribe. While I find the Imperial Lunar handbooks content entirely questionable and personally ignore them. I'd like to see a list of products that Moon Design consider "canon", that they are working from. As Moon Design also works closely with Greg, I'm sure it would help streamline what we use as references.
Finally, one of the complaints about Glorantha is that it is too complicated for new players to get into. If we continue to refer to old out of print or PDF sources that people can't obtain, then we are potentially driving away glorantha's future. Moon Design is heading in the right direction with all this, so far releasing quality well written products, that let us leave the distant past behind. I'm sure Pavis will mean I can get rid of those old out of date Avalon Hill supplements.
David Scott.
30 Alfred Road, Acton, W3 6LH.
020-8150-9716 / 07956-589433
http://www.davidscott.org.uk/
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