JonL

Oh, I'm aware. While I'm from the US, my parents' last names are/were "Hertzog" and "Laufersweiler" (I hope to visit Laufersweiler some day). Nonetheless "No Germans" is not a common tag on dating app profiles, nobody has ever accused me of only being hired because of affirmative action, Germans here have not faced housing discrimination in living memory, most of our heritage foods are considered normal, even if Germans characters are often baddies, most protagonists in TV & movies look like me, I've never heard a rumor about a German restaurant serving stray cats & dogs, children don't pass a mocking silly sing-song language off as German on the playground, and nobody assumes I have an inadequate penis because of my last name. For you (I presume, please forgive me if I'm wrong) and I, prejudicial stereotypes in media are an unpleasant annoyance. For others, they're part of a much more painful bigger picture. A friend once likened it to The Death of a Thousand Cuts.

Without disputing that, as you obviously know your own process, things like this... ... along with Mandarins etc. can connect to hassles with monolithic representation and stereotypes that Asian-descended people who have grown up in North America or Europe face in ways that than ancient Mesopotamian imagery does not present for Middle-Eastern-descended people. The latter of course have their own struggles too, but a Dara Happan dressed like Senacherib doesn't bring those into play. We don't have Babylonian equivalents of Emperor Ming of Mongo(lia) knocking around our culture, nor a show like Daredevil where all the JapaneseIraqi characters on the show are criminal NinjasChariot-archers, but the white lead is better at NinjustuChariot-archery than any of them. None of that is Glorantha's/Greg's/Jan's/your fault, but the surrounding context is out there and is part of the impact regardless of how creators might intend for things to be received.

WRT knowledge of ancient lore specifically, I don't disagree. While things like language barriers and access to key sources may be lower depending where you're starting out, a devoted and successful scholar (whether professional or arm-chair) overcomes such things in whatever discipline. Incorporating insider perspectives nonetheless helps with lots of subtle things you won't find in a book, museum, or journal; and most especially help avoid being part of ongoing problems in ways an outsider may not recognize. A good resource for this stuff in particular is the Asians Represent Podcast, where Asian-descended RPG designers (including the aforementioned Ms. Cheng) talk about their experiences and have some very constructive and nuanced conversations. I was particularly impressed when after they gave some very on-point critiques of L5R, their next step was, "You know, lets play this together and figure out how to make it better."

Ah, copypasta fail, sorry. Here is the link to Anna Kreider interviewing Bankuei about Orientalism in RPGs. Remember, he's not some 20 year old who just took his first Sociology class ranting on tumblr, he used to be an active and enthusiastic member of the Glorantha community in the early 2000s, and has written a great deal of solid, constructive, and insightful material about RPGs and associated culture. Another part of the uncountable cost of failing to constructively address or engage with this stuff is the loss to the community of the contributions, whether relating to their background or not, of great people we drive away. Imagine if Moon Design had hired Chris ten years ago and given him the keys to clean-up Kralorela. If he hadn't gotten fed-up with hearing about "an autocratic Oriental society" and walked away, the guy who wrote this, this, and this might today be working with Ian on QuestWorlds. That's all the past now, we can't undo it. What we can do though is take the opportunity to learn from it and do better in the future.

An outsider who studies deeply can indeed learn quite a bit, and even sometimes do great work. I have a Euro-descended friend who writes mystery novels set in 19th Century China and, thanks to having spent years living over there, she manages to not be inadvertently hurtful. The key part there is the years spent living with and really getting to know the people she's writing about. An outsider can also notice things that insiders might take for granted, fresh eyes bringing new insights to bear. This too has value. However, an outsider is almost always going to overlook some subtleties, misconstrue certain contexts, not see the significance of how insiders respond to things, etc. that are readily apparent to someone who has grown up in a culture or navigated the intersection between two cultures. An outside expert who has learned the language and done the deep dives into primary sources and noteworthy commentaries thereon, and can even get an approving nod when ordering off-the-menu at the mom & pop restaurant in an ethnic-neighborhood still does not have the same perspective as someone who has spent a lifetime being alternately fetishized, stigmatized, erased, and stereotyped because of their ancestry and cultural background. I can keep up with my Vietnamese boss when he takes us out to his favorite joints, but I don't have first-hand experience with being shamed/ostracized in the school cafeteria because my parents pack "weird" and "gross" stuff for my lunch. To be clear, I'm not saying that only insiders should write about their stuff. Rather, we should recognize that even an expert outsider should at ideally want to collaborate with a knowledgeable insider who can bring that perspective to the table. Outsiders should be conscious of and respectful that they're playing with someone else's toys, and welcome input from insiders who can let them know when they're about to break something and point out cool things that the outsider is missing. I'm not suggesting that Chaosium grab a random Chinatown resident off the street, any more than they would ask my father to write a Deep Ones of Lake Erie CoC supplement just because he happens to be from Ohio. Rather, adding the perspective someone like Agatha Cheng, Bankuei, or similarly appropriate choice should be a no-brainer in terms of making the best work possible and to hopefully avoid repeating past mistakes. Heck, if you were working on a Voormain book, wouldn't you at the very least ask Jeff Okomoto to look over a draft and give feedback?

I don't think Kralorela needs to be purged of Chinese influence so much as needs to dig deeper into Chinese periods that are more Bronze Age-appropriate, and get away from over-reliance on stereotypes. Go over here and read what Chris Chinn (aka Bankuei) has to say about this sort of thing, he even calls out the Guide specifically. Now look back and read The Blood Monsoon, which he wrote before frustration with the stereotypes etc. soured him on Glorantha altogether. Which brings me around to this: If we don't get some Asian/Asian-descended writers involved, we're going to keep screwing Kralorela up , no matter how well intentioned or well researched the attempt. We will perpetuate painful stereotypes and tropes that we are not even aware of being hurtful, and we will not even realize that we are doing it until it's too late. While I like Millans's stuff in Rule One, hopefully Chaosium can reach out to someone like Agatha Cheng (Hearts of Wu Lin) to come on board as a consultant at the very least.

I'm most curious about the one in Fronela. It would have been at the far frontier of the Bright Empire, and removed from all the EWF, Monrogh, Lunar, etc. meddling. What does Palangio's Dayanserus cult look like after being left alone in the far North for several hundred years?

I would figure Disorder and Darkness, but not Chaos per se.

I speculate that a modern Elmali would suck in an adherent of Danfive Xaron from the triumphant closing act of a Lunar Storm-fighting quest to appear as Yonesh. Sky Tribe symbolism sees Sedenya/Moon as an inconsistent and cold Sun. DX's Moon rune encompasses Storm much like cold Yonesh is "riddled with Storm runes." Fun part would be if that Elmali later did quests where Yavor's head is his ally/counselor, he'd probably drag that same Lunar along as the head. Perhaps an opportunity for detente arises.

I bet a resurgent Elmali Rune Lord who recovers the lost secret of Elmal Guards the Sun Path could unleash a Sunspear — "I am the sun!" <THWAKOOM>

With chained/serial simple contests, you just frame a simple contest on a specific event or exchange rather than an overall conflict. Any benefits of victory or consequences of defeat are applied immediately, rather than deferring to the end as in an extended contest. There is no result point tally (HQ2/G style) or AP bidding (HW/Q1 style) so conflicts are open-ended. They can end whenever it makes sense based on the outcome of the individual contests. One fight might end when someone gives up after taking a nasty gash, another might be a nasty grind out to the death. Here's a summary I posted in another thread last fall:

I hear there's a rare bog, Kraljaki bog, a bog down by the Blocky-o...

The Vadeli realized that Law 0 is, "THOSE WHO DO NOT FOLLOW THE LAW MUST GROW OLD AND DIE." By systematically breaking ALL of the Law, they can also break Law 0.

The Brithini angle is interesting in that raping Gunda's mother was likely an act of suicide, if a slow one. Consensual sex with outsiders ought to blow immortality, let alone rape.

If you've got French nomenclature in-setting in 5th Century Briton, your game has gone in a very different direction.

Ideally, this would be presented in a sortable big table with Modern Name: Roman Name: Cymru Name:Saxon Name: Descriptive Name : Other/Alternate Names like: Salisbury | Sarum | Sorviodūnum | Searoburg | The Rock | Caer Caradog Winchester | Venta Belgarum | Wenta | Wintan-ceastre | White City | Caer Gwynn London | Londinium | Llundein | Lundenwic | Thames Mouth, Lud's Dun | Caer Lud Andover | Levcomagus | Onn Dwfr | Andreferas | Anton Ford | Great Shining, Ash Water Chichester | Noviomagus Regentorum | Caeau Newydd | Cisse-ceaster | New Fields, Cisse's Fort | Dinas Regeni ...and so on.

If they're indistinguishable from a regular human or troll when in either shape, there may be a few (or quite a few) hiding in plain sight. Eliminating a cult entirely is much harder than merely driving it underground/to-the-margins.

To my formerly-a-professional-printer's eye, the helms, the Duck's sword, the shovel head, and the axe-head all have a lot more red in them than the spear-head does. Backing that up: here are some color samples taken from highlights in the spear-head vs highlights on the Duck's sword, both of which are facing the Sun in their respective frames:

A gold-headed spear that stays perfectly rigid when used as an oversized bindle? In the Zola Fel valley? She totally punked a Sun Domer. I'm thinking she wrestled him for it after he said something chauvanistic.

You know who could cure the curse? Dark & Light heroquesters tag-teaming Night & Day as both Kyger Litor and Dayanserus, playing both sides to engineer their desired outcome. What sort of benefit to the Light side of such an unlikely alliance would make it worth their participation?

Gbaji was at Night & Day, whispering in the pro- and anti- Bright Empire champions' ears, saying. "Go for it, all out! This is your moment! Don't worry about the consequences, you've got this."

When I run con games, I usually start off with a quick "wandering monster" warm-up encounter to get newcomers used to HQ's mechanics. I recall fondly an astonished player remarking, upon the party dispatching overcoming a Scorpion Men ambush, "Last week, in my Pathfinder game we ran into some goblins and the fight took two hours." I'll still enjoy a crunchy grind every now and then, and had great fun doing the Pathfinder 2 playtest last year, but my overall preference these days runs much more towards lighter fare.

Shadow weakness? Nay! The twin tragedies of the Eldar are Hubris and Fate. If I ran a Beleriand HQ game, any Firstborn characters would chose one of those two as their high-flaw, and tie the other as they wish. Any who swore the Oath or otherwise fall under the Doom of Mandos would get a +M to those flaws when it rears its head.

I very much agree. For example, I dig how in this illustration of the Holy Country, a very hazy Kiero Fin is visible in the extreme distance:

You have the right of it. While it won't have as large an impact vs High Resistance and lower, the impact vs Very High and Nearly Impossible will be quite significant. Part of being M2 worth of awesome is that you can often prevail over lesser challenges even when hindered. However, dropping from 2M2 to 16M vs 14M or 14M2 is a big deal. If you wanted to sort-of scale it, you could do something like make bonuses and penalties proportional to the ability rating. Perhaps something like: Fixed Proportional +M 3/1 +9 2/1 +6 3/2 +3 5/4 -3 4/5 -6 2/3 -9 1/2 -M 1/3 I would find this awkward in play though. If you do something along these lines, perhaps consider a handout with the values for bonused/penalized ratings already computed for easy reference.