From: Nick
Date: Fri 02 Feb 1996 - 08:02:00 EET
Nick here.
=2E..
We could release a quick supporting publication called "Peoples
of Glorantha" or something, *immediately* after the rules, to
contain the following articles, most of which already exist:
___________________
ORLANTHI CHARACTERS
PB:G "What My Father Told Me" (Orlanthi) and supporting article
GoG "Staves From the Storm Priest"
RoC The Cult of Orlanth
RoC The Cult of Ernalda (and say "this is typical: extrapolate!")
RoC The Cult of Humakt (and say: "Yanafal Tarnils is v.similar")
T#6 Tribal map of Sartar (Tales#6)
HotB Map of Boldhome
(*) stuff about tribal life extracted from King of Sartar
(*) a brief (but more detailed than in RQ:AiG) history of Sartar
________________
LUNAR CHARACTERS
*NEW* "What My Mothers Told Me" (Lunar) and supporting article
GoG "Talking to the Moon Woman"
CoP The Cult of the Seven Mothers
GoG The Cult of the Red Goddess (and full write-up of Lunar Magic)
var. Political Map of Peloria (the Lunar Empire and neighbours)
*NEW* Military Map of Dragon Pass and Prax (Lunar garrisons, etc.)
*NEW* stuff about career paths in the Lunar army and bureaucracy
(*) a brief (but more detailed, again) history of the Lunar Empire
________________
PAVIC CHARACTERS
*NEW* "What My Father Told Me" (Pavic) and supporting article
*NEW* "Masonic Secrets" (a "What the Priest Says" for Pavis Cult)
Pavis The Cult of Pavis
Pavis The Cult of Flintnail (a Sorcery school, not a divine Cult)
Pavis "A Pavis Panorama" (this illo is a must!)
Pavis Map of the Streets of New Pavis
Rubble Map showing Regions of the Rubble
(*) interesting facts about everyday life in Pavis, from the box
(*) you guessed it: a historical article on Pavis
__________________
PRAXIAN CHARACTERS
PB:G "What My Father Told Me" (Praxian) and supporting article
GoG "Tales of the Wastes"
CoP The Cult of Waha
CoP The Cult of Eiritha
(*) Praxian Spirit Cults
var. Map of Sacred Prax
Codex A listing of Praxian Tribes and their peculiarities
*NEW* stuff about everyday life in a Nomad Clan, yearly round, etc.
(*) Recent Praxian History (last twenty years or so: tribes before
and after Moonbroth, current grazing regions, alliances, etc.)
*NEW* means nothing like this exists in any official or published
form, to the best of my knowledge (spin-offs like "Nomad Clan"
in Tales #1 might be a great help).
(*) means the material for this article exists in a near-finished
form, but might need a tad of editing to get it into the right
shape.
Working on really crude averages, and ignoring changes in print size
and page layout from previous publications, each section should be:
What Dad Said 4 pages
What God Says 2 pages
Various Cults 8 pages or more
A couple of Maps 2 pages
Everyday Life 2 pages
History 2 pages or more
---------------
20 pages plus
Multiply by four, and you've got an eighty-page book that reprints
some of the best and most useful Gloranthan cultural information.
If that sounds small, there are loads more things we could chuck
in: pages full of good Gloranthan art being the most obvious. About
60% of it already exists, 20% will take some editing/unearthing,
and 20% will have to be written up more or less from scratch.
The advantage of planning to do this is basically that we can put
stuff that would be "really nice to have in the rules" into this
book instead -- and we can put more in here than the rulebook
could ever hold!
Any comments?
=2E..
____________
David Dunham said (of "Peoples of Dragon Pass and Environs"):
> 80 pages for free sounds like an awful lot, however.
When did I say it was "for free"? It'd be a bona fide supporting
product, like Cults of Prax was for RQ2. Mostly reprints, some
new stuff -- what's new about that, for current versions of
RuneQuest?
> The disadvantage is that it's both more work and another product
> and a lot of good art, and it's not clear how much Avalon Hill
> will support that.
As I noted in drawing up that proposed list of contents, over half
of the "work" has been done already. I hope and believe Avalon Hill
can see that a product which immediately supports and expands on
their new top-flight relaunched edition of RuneQuest would be a good
thing. Certainly, this was the consensus picked up from discussions
with Oliver & Co. at RQCon: that getting some momentum going is very
important to the future of the game. Don't *just* sell them a rule
book then wait six months before the second release: hit'em while
they're recovering from the initial shock & joy of Glorantha, with
something that'll be useful. If only the people who draw up contracts
can be made to see sense...
Yeah, getting "good Gloranthan art" could be a problem. We offered
Dan Barker's services to Avalon Hill, but nothing has come of that
yet. After many past disappointments, I don't really trust their
in-house artists.
=2E..
__________
Ray Turney asked:
> Who's to write and edit it? Surely not the people working on RQIV
> AiG who will probably be burned out for two years after this; are
> the advocates volunteering here?
Well, Ray: 60% of it is done already, 20% is easy to extract from
existing material. It's the non-existent last 20% that will be
real work. I *would* volunteer, but with How the West was One,
the Carmania Book, proofing and improving RQ:AiG, Wyrms Foot-
prints, Tales and so on taking up a lot of my time, I'd perhaps
not be the best person for the job.
> It is not reasonable to wait for AH to pay for supplements to
> be developed. Lacking the much despised mass market, it is not
> economical for them to do so, and they are not in this business
> because they love RQ.
The difference between the five projects listed above which I am
working on, (only one of which involves Avalon Hill) and my "Peoples
of Glorantha" proposal is that I know, at the end of the day, that
my current work *will* see print if it's at all possible. The people
who want to produce it are friends who like my stuff and can publish
it themselves. I am not going to be paid for any of it, but my
incentive is there. Try talking to MOB some time about Avalon Hill
and contracts: the disincentive is not that they don't pay you to
develop them, which only a noodle-head would expect in this "busi-
ness", but that they aren't prepared to commit themselves to doing
anything with the finished product.
Of course, I was a fool to omit Storm Bull from the Praxian cults
listed in the proposed contents table. He should certainly be there.
- -------- End Forwarded Message --------
What I'd *now* suggest would be to take each of these "chapters"
There'll be more work rewriting existing Cults for a non-RQ-based
(Orlanthi, Lunar, Pavic, Praxian) and make them into the core
content of a culturally-based regional supplement -- include a
typical stead, or clan, or town, or whatever, to serve as
"Salisbury" (a Pendragon reference); a selection of "everyday"
scenarios (Hunting, Militia Duty, Market Day, Day in Court) as
well as some exotic encounters (The Posse, Outlaws!, The Riot,
Troll Attack), and at least one full-blown heavy-duty "dungeon"
type scenario: a tough-to-crack location which you could go up
against from within or outside the culture, the nature of which
in itself *explains* aspects of the culture in question -- like
a heretical Temple, or an atypical Stead, or a weird Clan, or
some such place. With exotic ancient treasures, secrets, etc.
to boot.
game than for the essentially familiar RQ4:AiG proposal; indeed,
the idea of a "Cult Writeup" may be passe -- look at "PenDragon
Pass" for alternative ideas. And the pages of culture-specific
character generation info that were included in the RQ4:AiG
draft would now be in the cultural supplement itself, adding to
the pagecount.
I *do* think exploring the world this way would be better than
either working from overviews (the RQ3 approach) or focussing on
one culture and treating *everything* in its terms (the Pendragon3
and, arguably, PenDragon Pass approach). I want to see supplements
that can really "get into" foreign cultures: less of the grab-bag
approach of Pendragon's "Knights Adventurous" and Pendragon4 (here's
a page about this culture, here's a page about that...), more the
patient, detailed work (inc. new character gen. info., new magic
systems, culture-specific scenarios, etc.) of Pendragon's "Savage
Wilds" (Welsh), "Pagan Shores" (Irish), "Beyond the Wall" (Picts),
"Land of Giants" (Scandinavians), etc.
And, like I said, maps. Big, colourful maps. Spread 'em out on
the table, say "You live here", and Glorantha comes *alive*. (I
love maps, me).
::::
Nick
::::
------------------------------
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