svensson

Well, to put out a high quality game that's close to what the fans want in anything like a timely manner, you need a team of highly motivated and highly skilled fanboys. And that's hard to assemble at any time. Just ask the people who are actual fans of, say, Star Wars or Star Trek who tried to put out a quality product. And by 'quality' I mean a solid story that's engrossing, entertaining, and agrees with canon as well as having excellent technical elements and doesn't crash all the time. That's a tall order for anybody. And just to add to all that, the deeper the canon-lore, the more critical the fan base. For all the commercial success of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy [and especially his Hobbit trilogy], many of his directorial decisions were widely criticized by fans. The same goes with the games in the franchise... Shadow of Mordor /Shadow of War were visually beautiful with a rather unique and interesting storyline and mechanics, but were lambasted by the fan base. All of this is why Cyberpunk 2077 has taken so long to produce and the studio has been adamant its 'it'll be released when it's done' stance. I also think that is one reason why Traveller hasn't seen a big-budget game. I mean, could you imagine the fannish microscope if anyone were to announce a Warhammer 40K big budget film?

I live to serve... mostly breakfasts

It depends on the level of detail the players want. If I have a table full of ex-military, I'll differentiate between Drive Tracked Vehicle and Drive Wheeled Vehicle and Rifle and Shotgun. At that same table, if the game is modern [post-Vietnam], Rifle will also cover SMG because of the advent of the assault rifle making handling autofire part of Basic Training. If the game is Great War or War Two, SMG is a separate skill. Why? Because at that table with that particular group they want that level of detail. If I'm sitting at a table of medical people, First Aid is going to be different than Medical: Trauma and Medical:Surgery. At the end of the day, I certainly don't want to bleed skill points off of skills the players will need to survive the campaign just for the sake of character concept. But then again, a person who generated a Military NCO from a ranch in Texas had better have a real good story on how his character got Mythos Lore 45% at campaign start

I'm an ex-tanker. TREADHEADS FOREVER

Well, I can tell you from personal experience that driving an automobile is way different than riding a motorcyle or piloting a ship or aircraft. What I would do is require different skills for Drive [any 4-wheeled vehicle], Drive Motorcyle, Pilot Heavier Than Air Craft, Pilot Lighter than Air Craft, Pilot Powered Small Boat, Pilot Powered Ship, and Sailing. The same would go for animal powered transport... Ride Horse and Drive Wagon.

The Game Matrix in Lakewood WA is carrying a whole slew of BRP /CoC /HQ/RQ2/ and RQG. I have the slipcase edition on preorder from them.

I wouldn't mind a multiplayer mode either. Set up a team and hit the epic adventures would be fine. I also wouldn't object to a party based game like Baldur's Gate [etc.] The problem with MMO open worlds is that you're trying to reduce the travel time between one point and another. For those of you who played EverQuest back in the day, remember the ridiculous run times in Western and Eastern Karana? Like 20 minutes of real time and two days of in game running down a road with absolutely no encounters. But consider some of the current genre of really good open world games, like Witcher 3 for one example, and then imagine running around Sartar or Prax. Kinda awesome, right? Or a Sun Domer or Lunar or Praxian... Brief bit of gamer history for me... In an RQ2 game well over a decade ago, I played a Rhino Rider Praxian who worshiped Orlanth. EVERYBODY else in my party made it Rune levels except me...even the Chalanna Arroy healer and we did not make life easy for him. No matter how hard I tried, no matter what I did, I could not get any sword skill over 85%. I must have erased a hole through three character sheets erasing check marks off 1-H [x] Sword Attack. And when you have three freaking sword styles [short-, broad-, two-handed] at 85%, you know the universe hates you So the idea that I can play Grettir Windwander and his trusty Rhino, Windbreaker, in a computer game has a certain appeal

Let me also add that what I'm hoping for is an open-world single player RPG with a deep storyline. I have visions in my head of adding clan tattoos to my character, buying spirit magic from my cult, having to quest for access to Rune magic, developing my character from a farm boy into a Rune Lord, all that stuff. I won't get it, but it's what I want to see. And I'm not encouraged by the the whole toys to life thing. Jokes aside, I see a lot of that as just a thinly disguised microtransaction designed to nickle and dime players into paying to win. If I wanted that bullshit, I'd play EA's FIFA franchise.

Well, I'm one of those freaks who is pretty picky about his games. I know what I like and I don't spend money on games that I won't like even if they're from franchises that I love. For example, I'm a huge fan of Fallout but wasn't even interested in either Fallout Shelter or Fallout '76. Strangely enough, I was even willing to give Mass Effect Andromeda a chance. I thought of it as the first book of a trilogy and was willing to see what the second 'book' had to say. If The Glorantha Game is the kind of game I'm looking for, awesome. I'll be in waiting in line with all the other preorder honks. If it isn't, then I won't be interested. But I am happy as Hell that Glorantha is finally getting the game treatment it has coming and am looking forward to eventual announcement.

Help! Does anyone out there have the old RQ2 Questworld box set? I need a pdf of the Introduction To Questworld [the folio that describes the continent of Kanos, not the adventure booklets]. I have the box set and I know I had the whole thing at one point, but I pulled the Intro out to start setting up a campaign and now I can't find the folder with the work in it. And that was at least two apartment moves ago... So if anyone is willing to scan just the Introduction folio, I'd be deeply grateful. Thanks all!

Something to look forward to after Cyberpunk 2077 [contains excitement]

I missed the announcement. I'll check the FLGS and see if they're in Bits and Mortar. For some reason I had it in my head that there would be a code included in the shrink wrap. However that might have been another company. Thanks for the answer.

A future history spanning to, say, 1650 would be good too!

Quick question. Will there be a purchase code in the shipcase edition for PDFs for those of us who'd like to support our FLGS by purchasing there? Thanks.

At my last look [day before yesterday], all three ships carrying the Slipcase Edition [RQG, GM Kit, and Bestiary] were in either in-port or in the final legs of their voyage. These ships were headed to Southampton UK, Sydney NSW, and Long Beach CA. Of these, the Long Beach vessel had the farthest to go. Expect them to be available by the end of the month [March 2019].

I'll grant you that the Guide is definitely a tome. Digging that SOB out to reference can be a chore when you're trying not to tear the dustcover, etc. As to a new edition of the same material, I'd rather prefer to get a glimpse of what Glorantha looks like after the fall of the Red Moon. I mean, what does Dragon Pass look like after Heortling culture is nearly exterminated and Orlanth only survives by the skin of his teeth? But more art, especially more GOOD art, is always welcome. Maybe a Visions of Dragon Pass book with juried and authorized art and illustrations. You know, now that I think of it, a couple of books of art that depict the scenes from the travels of Biturian Varosh and Paulus Longvale could be good.

So I want to get a game going in my local area, but I'm tired of having to buy a rule book, get read up on the world /milieu /genre enough to present the material, convince people to play, and then run into a dead end when the game dies, or it gets sold to another company that *drastically* rewrites the rules. [for example, the various iterations of Middle Earth, Star Trek, Star Wars etc.]. To solve this, I dug out my old RQ2 Questworld box set, dusted off the Kanos continent, and am putting together a transplanted Earth society on that continent. 'Just add magic' so to speak. And it's NOT a society you'd expect, either. My struggle with all this is convincing players 'raised' on leveling systems and experience points that there is an alternative that is more homogeneous and 'natural'... that they can do anything they want if they're willing to spend the time and effort, but that they'll only get better in skills they spend time and effort on. With all that, I've found that the big advantage RQG has is the long back story that players can read up on if they wish to. There's lots of illustrative art, and lots of hand waves that help a player get into their role. With Mythras/RQ6, not so much.

Are you speaking of the big 2-volume set? If so, I don't know about that... that's kind of pricey just for new art and not new content. As I understand it, the GoG was supposed to be the be-all-and-end-all of what Glorantha is and is not. If so, I thought there was a lot of new art in it. Especially art with a newer direction than previously [the artwork depicting the various peoples for example]. Maybe it was new to me or something. This isn't to say that there isn't some extraordinary art coming out lately, there absolutely is. Were I to suggest something, I would like to see some more art depict the gear of the various societies. In the RQG main rules I really enjoyed the Heortling artwork showing Farmer, Thane, Noble, Rune Lord, and Priest and I'd like to see some depictions of Esrolians, Dara Happans/Pelorians, Praxians, etc.

OK, over on the Glorantha board we almost got into political stuff. We certainly don't want a political debate in this forum. But I got to looking at the 2016 CthulhuTrump campaign stuff and I thought.... Would an image of Teresa May and Donald Trump dancing around an altar summoning Hastur be funny? Yes. Yes it would....

XIN LOS ANGELES tracks as being in Vancouver BC by tomorrow afternoon on VesselFinder. You Ozzies can try and figure that out in ANZ metric time, plus or minus DST... Since her last port of call was in the PRC, I'm presuming she's inbound for Longbeach CA.

It might be useful if we set aside the normal meanings for the words 'iron', 'bronze', 'copper' and so forth. Those words imply that that the Gloranthan metals called by those names possess properties and respond to treatment the same as Earth metals of the same name. And it is very clear from their discussion in Greg's writings and the metals' treatment in RQ that this is not the case. We know these things for sure: *Gloranthan bronze is not usually smelted from tin and copper. They are the literal Bones of the Gods that slain in the Gods War. *Many human cults know the secret of working Gloranthan iron/ Ur-metal. A smaller number know the secret of working it into steel. Orlanth, Humakt, Yelm, Yelmalio and cults within the Lunar Empire [Blue Moon, etc.] certainly do. And the Mostali don't send gobblers after all of them, so the secret of Ur-metal must not be all that very important. A Lesser Secret rather than a Greater. *Many Rune metals can be enchanted to the properties of bronze, but few to the properties of iron.

Why do I have this vision in my head of a marching phalanx getting spun around like Russian Cossack dancer

Well, let me point out that working raw iron into sharp blades isn't all that much more sophisticated than working copper. The Xhosa and Bantu peoples of Southern Africa [the Zulus are a Bantu people] were able to make assegai blades using stone anvils and hammers. There's nothing that says the Mostali don't trade blade blanks for the locals to pound into specific shape. However, I also realize that Gloranthan Ur-metal [Runic Iron] is not the same as chemical element Fe on Earth Prime. While I might bring up some Earth equivilents, the Metals of Acos are what Greg Stafford said they are, not our chemistry or shop teachers

So true. And you can say that about any franchise or genre. Sometimes you just have to let the magic be magic and the warp drive work because the author says so.