[Glorantha] Glorantha The 2nd Age

I bought this last week and have been reading it on the train. I'm not sure what I expected of it, but was anxious about the contents as I had a special personal interest in the 2nd Age as I had run a HW game there, and had compiled a few notes on events and people of the time. My concern was that the G:tSA would either be so good as to make my version less interesting, or so different so as to make my version feel invalidated or wrong or (efven worse) the published version invalid or wrong.

Neither of these concerns have materialised, but there is something odd that I can't quite put my finger about the whole book. There are a few niggles, like spelling mistakes, and details like the Balazar/Votankiland anachronism that Peter mentioned. I could list a few spelling errors, some of which are fun
(Vanch is Vaird, Bon Bolar is renamed Don Bolar, and I must admit to liking the
new spelling of Bon Karpach - Bonnkerpatch)

Peter also mentions in his review the odd coverage in the gazetteer. I think this starts approaching my feeling of oddness about the whole book. It is almost, in some respects, a 2nd age version of Glorantha:Crucible of the Hero Wars, but with areas missing and additional cultural details and a campaign setting. Actually it is a 908ST snapshot of the world in the same way the Crucible was a snapshot of Genertela in 1621ST.

This is OK ,and done well enough in the available space provided and there are some great new insights and colourful details, and 908 is a good year to choose, what with the 2 year winter and all those magical experiments, but I don't think all the fun things have been exploited enough.

Like another Glorantha publication, Dorastor Land of Doom, the book seems split into two parts for two different audiences -for Doraster the grand scheme with horrific monster stats, and then the low level campaign setting. I'm not sure I like the Safelster campaign setting. It seems old school to me, listing taverns, equipment suppliers and the like. It reminds me of an old Judges Guild book, like Verbosh, with all these strange characters waiting for the adventurers to come along to interact with them.

I think this is what bugs me about the whole book. There is this whole tantalising world with all this stuff going on, but here we are in a small city in Safelster. The sweep of history seems sort of frozen in 908, rather than rushing past as I feel it should in this era of wars, rebellion, disaster and magical innovation.

I feel like an old grouch complaining like this. I mean, I love the colour of Kralorela and its regions, the Timinits despite the illustrations, the fact that others have realised that the 2nd Age is much more exciting than the 3rd Age, the guidance on how to play a Godlearner, a Wyrmtalker and a Kralori
(although I think the advice on playing elfs is probably bad advice for friendly
tabletop gaming). I love some of the funnier one liners - a Dara Happan explaining that they don't adventure but do "engage on acts of legendary heroism" - or the Teshnan "strategic payment of tribute" . The whole book is excellent, and probably achieves what the author intended, and is accurate enough (even for a pedant like me who wonders why the Queendom of Loral Island wasn't mentioned, or that the cult of Issaries and Tradetalk was not highlighted much, or what Zistorite mass produced weapons were like, or that Lord Labrygon is nowhere to be seen, or Aralonit/Arolanit, premature Tusk Riders), but to me, it doesn't highlight the drama of the 2nd Age.

I guess I should face the fact that I was never going to be completely happy with a book about the second age, but that I am happier than I might have been. Perhaps a "Two Year Winter"campaign book, or the Player Characters being the guys who did the dirty work on the Goddess Switch, or something similar, rather than the suggested adventures of bandit suppression, or putting down rebellions.

Despite my criticism, thanks to Mongoose for publishing and Robin for writing and compiling an excellent book.

Keith Received on Sat 04 Nov 2006 - 11:59:19 EET