Oracle

Indeed translating the names has some consequences. The obvious example are the maps provided with all these great Glorantha related publications. On these maps all names are printed in their English versions. Of course you can try to modify these maps too, but this is quite a challenge (I've tried already for one or two maps) and needs much more effort than just find a translation for a name ... So I understand, that you can see translating the names as a questionable approach at least. But I'm mainly interested to create a good story through a game session and this involves creating the right flair and atmosphere. And using translated names adds a lot to that. Another point is, that there already exist German versions of several Glorantha based publications (e.g. Apple Lane, Glorantha - Introduction to the HeroWars), which use the same approach (i.e. translating 'speaking' names into a German version of that name), so I'm just following an existing tradition . And if my players really want to dive into existing Glorantha material not yet translated , I will provide them happily with a glossary giving them the original names.

Currently I'm trying to translate some descriptions about Glorantha into German (which is my native language). One of the thinks, I like with Glorantha, are the 'speaking' names, i.e. names, which tell you something about the place or the person immediately. As I'm running my fresh HeroQuest campaign in German, I would like to translate this kind of names to German too, for transferring this 'speaking name' effect. For this I have to understand the meaning of the name, so that I can find a appropriate translation. In most cases these meanings are quite obvious: Boldhome = the home of the bold and daring Furthest = the furthest (place) that the Lunar Empire would ever go (from the description in HeroQuest Glorantha) The Spike = Mostal loved tools, and so called the place the Spike because it was the thing which nailed together all of reality and held it in place. Starbrow = a star on the forehead (supported by several pictures) Sometime it's not so obvious, but still manageable: Wideread = someone, who has read a lot And sometimes no translation is needed at all, e.g. Pavis, Kero Fin, Kallyr, Orlanth, Fazzur But lately I'm running into names, where I'm not able to make that decision, because I do not know, if there was an intention for that name. Current examples: Dunstop. Just a name? Or a combination of kind of a colour (Dun) and stop or top? The Paps. Just a name? Or a name describing breasts or even nipples? We're talking about the Deep Womb, so the name may be have such a kind of an intentional meaning? Pimper's Block. Pimper is just a name? Or is there some meaningful relation to pimp? You get the idea ... I would like to use this thread to ask this kind of question every time I'm running into such issues. So let's start with Dunstop, The Paps and Pimper's Block ...

In HeroQuest Glorantha, page 124 at the end of the 'Drawing on Resources' section you can read the following: Maybe it's just that my English isn't good enough (I'm from Germany, so I'm not a native English speaker), but this sentence is not really clear to me. Given that one of my heroes tries to convince his community to use the wealth of the community for paying a ransom, which will free another hero from being a captive, and he fails with a Marginal Defeat, then he gets a Depletion Penalty of -6 for the rest of the time interval used for resource calculations, e.g. the rest of the season. Because the captive is a high ranking and very respected person in the community and he's still not freed at the end of the season I would like to this penalty a longer lasting penalty. (As far as I understood it would go away at the end of the time interval otherwise). So what do I do now? Decreasing the penalty now (end of time interval/season) by 3, i.e. the penalty is -3 during the next time interval/season and disappears at the end of this second time interval/season, because I would decrease it by 3 again at that point? Or do I misinterpret the above statement? A clarification / examples would be much appreciated.