From: devinc@aol.com
Date: Wed 23 Feb 1994 - 11:35:19 EET
Devin Cutler here, breaking my 1 posting a day limit because I have a lot to
say:
Regarding Bryan Maloney's call for meat:
I agree with his general philosophy that the core is important. One thing all
the people on this net have to realize is that there are two widely different
audiences for RQAiG out there. There is us, who generally know much of what
there is to know about Glorantha, and who like to put on the role of scholars
and muck about with the minutae and philisophical aspects of Glorantha, and
then there are the masses.
We are a secondary market. Why? We are probably going to purchase RQAiG no
matter what it contains (unless it is complete crap). We have access to many
of the old supplements, etc. We are also not a huge market.
The masses are the first market. They play AD&D, Vampire, etc. While no one
The masses want, as Bryan points out, a complete core system. If they buy the
thinks we should co-opt the RQ system and sell out to gain these masses, the
fact is that if we want to have a game that is played by more than a few
highly intellectual probably approaching middle aged males, then we need to
find a way to make certain that the rules offer as much access to the masses
as we can stomach, without destroying the soul of the game.
RQAiG rulebook and find out that they cannot run a good campaign without bu
ying a whole bunch of other supplements, they'll chuck the game instantly.
These new players really do not need to know everything about the past
history of Glorantha. Only enough to tell them why things are the way they
are now. Why does everyone hate Chaos? What is Time? Why do the Orlanthi and
Lunars fight each other?
I also agree with Bryan that when rules are couched into sociological
frameworks, they often become more usable and self-limiting. HOWEVER,
sociological moires should not become a subst
itute for good, tight, no-loopholes rules. The problem is that PC's (who
tend, especially wi
th first time players and GM's, to be wanderers, drifters, outcasts, and
adventurers) generally move along the edges of society or skirt them
altogether. Sociological moires will have little effect on these people,
except as obstacles to be avoided. Bad role-playing, maybe, but also the kind
of role playing
initially done by the newcomers to RQ. Let's give them the proper rules
restrictions (i.e. limits on battle magic availability) and then explain why
in sociological terms, so that as they are weaned away from AD&D type playing
and become more sophisticated, they will have their framework and will have
already been playing that way from the start..
Devin Cutler
devinc@aol.com
0,,
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