Players Guide to Glorantha Poll

[Rurik]

After bringing a new poll publishing mecha-magical printing demon on line I am finally ready to bring back the mug eating polls. First up is Players Guide. Unfortunately, Bryan, just to be difficult, has no favorite mug.

Punishment/Rewards will be as follows:

Sucks Real Bad          Slow Death by Dog Vomit.
Sucks                   Quick Lynching.
Kinda Sucks             Forced to Eat His Sith Figures.
Just OK                 Blame the new Printing Press. Wait for Next Book.
Good                    Get the Guy a Cool Mug.
Rocks                   Beer.
Best Book Ever          Slow Death by Uleria Cultists.

 

[B_Steele]

Firstly Rurik, your poll options made me spit tea onto my work desk. Good on you!

Well...as a Games Master for Glorantha in my area, I decided to vote on this. Even though I wrote the thing, I went with 'Good' because I think it has a great deal of very useful information and crunch in it. I would have bopped it up to 'Rocks', but it could benefit from some additional background myth information; and I feel that the book suffers a tiny bit from that. Also, I would have liked it to be in colour - but I can't be choosy...I'm just happy that people will finally get to see it!

Otherwise, I am very happy with the final result and think that most fans will enjoy it as much as I did, and perhaps even fall into GsA a bit deeper - kind of like the immersion that old RQ fans seem to have.

That's all we want to do...make a good product that our readers will enjoy and make use out of. Here's to hoping that you guys see it in that light.

Cheers all,
Bry

 

[Rurik]

Well...as a Games Master for Glorantha in my area, I decided to vote on this. Even though I wrote the thing, I went with 'Good' because I think it has a great deal of very useful information and crunch in it. I would have bopped it up to 'Rocks', but it could benefit from some additional background myth information; and I feel that the book suffers a tiny bit from that. Also, I would have liked it to be in colour - but I can't be choosy...I'm just happy that people will finally get to see it!

You can't fool me. You voted 'Good" because you want to manipulate the results to get a cool mug out of the deal.

 

[elgrin]

I like the idea of substituting Sith figure-eating for mugs, nice idea Rurik. The volume has got a 'deserves a beer' vote from me. There is enough background in it, so that after a couple of weeks it is already affecting the PC's directly in the game I'm running.
I agree with young Mr Steele that more would have been better, and inclusion of the 'amendments' from the pdf PG would have been a real and very tangible bonus. Why two documents with the same name but missing the bits from one in the other? Don't tell me - page count again!
Overall worth the money in good old Sterling - don't know how it ranks on that score in dollars.

 

[captrooper]

I think its okay. Not a good as GSA or Ralios, which I really liked, but worth the money and good content. As I said in my thread, it gave me the odd groan at things I don't particularly like but as all our GWV I don't mind and kind of expect it. It will be a book that gets plenty of use though for character generation purposes.
To get a 'good' vote it would have needed to be in colour and maybe have a rundown of a few 'typical' people in various professions for each culture to give any Gloranthan newbies more of a feel for the place.
To get a higher vote, it would have had to be Pavis :wink:
Chris

 

[JonGeere]

Unfortunately the book failed for me on a number of fronts.

The crimpled pages and loose binding mean I'll be seeking a replacement.

The text lacks the depth and feel of Glorantha that clearly came across in GtSA and Ralios. Maybe it will be better for newcomers to Glorantha, but I find that hard to believe.

The pages seemed to have a lot of 'white space'. If you like to quickly shoot through a book to catch bits and pieces for your character / NPC then this is the one for you. Don't expect more than frothy stuff.

Not terrible, just disappointing.

 

[Rurik]

The crimpled pages and loose binding mean I'll be seeking a replacement.

:shock:

This does not bode well for the new printing press. Would you say your copy is inferior to the books previously released in a similar format?

The Companion for example is also 96 pages and B&W.

 

[Sinisalo]

Just got it. By the way Travelling Man said it wouldnt be coming for a while because you had "distribution problems". I went and bought it up the road.

I voted good because it is an interesting book and had rules for FOLK MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!

Even though I don't understand why Folk Magic is restricted to 2 magnitude (why not 5,1 or even your whatever skill divided by 100) it is open ended and creative enough for me to be able to simulate Glorantha post Heroquest. Importantly I did not groan when I read it and actually breathed a sigh of relief.

£15 for three pages and I don't feel ripped off! Well done.

You may not feel that it is cost effective but a qualified printer, artworker and binder might turn out to be a good investment. There were registration, print quality (look at the grey dots covering what should be white space) and gluing problems on my copy. And the hard cover is warped.

I'm actually happy with my copy just letting you know what I got!

 

[JonGeere]

The crimpled pages and loose binding mean I'll be seeking a replacement.

:shock:

This does not bode well for the new printing press. Would you say your copy is inferior to the books previously released in a similar format?

The Companion for example is also 96 pages and B&W.

Apart from what I mentioned the quality looks as good as the previous releases. I would hope these problems are fixable as Mongoose gets adept at handling the machine.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Hi guys,

As always, we will freely replace any books you are not happy with in terms of production quality. We have already tackled the problems you cite here and all future releases will be of the highest quality.

 

[CharlieMonster]

Finally got around to cracking my copy (pretty much literally due to the loose binding, though thankfully the page seem content to stay attached to the book). For the most part I liked it and it seems a good, albeit overdue, addition to the range.

The backgrounds and professions seem pretty good, although given the text describes Iron Dwarves as having the only proper combat training among the Mostali Castes, their skill options don't seem a great deal better then the other castes. I also loved some of the new equipment.

My only major quibble is Sorcery in the professions, it's a bit vague. A Malkioni Apprentice Sorceror has up to two picks to spend on sorcery. Is that Sorcery spells or Augmenting Skills? If it's skills does he also get one spell per skill as a normal character would with Runecasting?

Something else that would have been nice, would be guidance on how to work Spirit Magic & Sorcery into the "Starting with experienced characters" rule from the Core Rules.

I loved the Folk Magic, simple, adaptable and above-all not overpowering.

I voted good because it is an interesting book and had rules for FOLK MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!

Even though I don't understand why Folk Magic is restricted to 2 magnitude (why not 5,1 or even your whatever skill divided by 100) it is open ended and creative enough for me to be able to simulate Glorantha post Heroquest. Importantly I did not groan when I read it and actually breathed a sigh of relief.

Possibly the level cap is to keep it what it is, easily accessable day-to-day magic, for everyday folks. People seeking greater magical power would gravitate to the higher paths offered by there culture which offer better returns. Those who continue to rely on folk magic being to busy with their daily lives to spend time fixing something that isn't broke. A second point of magnitude allows a little variation to artificially represent the influence of individual talent or aptitude. Just a bit of rationalising on the fly, but that's my interpretation.

In summary, quibbles aside (you can't please all the people, all the time) it is a very good book and I would recommend it to anyone running in Glorantha.

 

[CharlieMonster]

(you can't please all the people, all the time)

I've never understood why people can't grasp this simple fact and then do the logical thing of just making sure they do please me all the time!!! It's a mad, mad, world!

 

[B_Steele]

My only major quibble is Sorcery in the professions, it's a bit vague. A Malkioni Apprentice Sorceror has up to two picks to spend on sorcery. Is that Sorcery spells or Augmenting Skills? If it's skills does he also get one spell per skill as a normal character would with Runecasting?

I run it that the character gets to grab X number of Sorcery Skills - period. Sorcery is pretty powerful, so a starting character should not get the opportunity to rock out with serious Sorcery. So the actual spells are what I would have granted by the backgrounds/profession. Anything else (Manipulation Skills), in my games, needs to be purchased with Free Points as if buying Advanced Skills.

That being said, I made sure that the upcoming RQ Spellbook had some new and improved generic Magical Backgrounds and Professions in it that people could grab that grant a bit more magical oomph.

Hope that helps?

Bry - who looks like he is getting a mug from Rurik.

 

[Rurik]

I still think you engaged in voter fraud to try to manipulate a cool mug out of this. And most of us stateside don't have our books yet.

However if you get me ticket out to Origins (and back home again too) I suppose I could bring one out in person.

Were you hoping for a Sith mug or were you thinking of breaking away from the dark side? It really isn't all that good for your soul.

 

[B_Steele]

No way...the Dark Side is where its at.

All the cool kids are doing it.

And, in all seriousness, the Player's Guide should be available by now. Hmm...

-Bry

 

[Rurik]

No way...the Dark Side is where its at.

All the cool kids are doing it.

You mean like Hayden Christiensen?

And, in all seriousness, the Player's Guide should be available by now. Hmm...

My flgs didn't get it last week, but I know some online shops started showing it in stock towards the end of the week, so mine should come in later this week.

I hope.

 

[B_Steele]

...so mine should come in later this week...

Well, I am eager to hear what you think about it. Dark Side or no, I always appreciate intelligent remarks and comments on my work.

-Bry

 

[The Greek]

Possibly the level cap is to keep it what it is, easily accessable day-to-day magic, for everyday folks. People seeking greater magical power would gravitate to the higher paths offered by there culture which offer better returns. Those who continue to rely on folk magic being to busy with their daily lives to spend time fixing something that isn't broke. A second point of magnitude allows a little variation to artificially represent the influence of individual talent or aptitude. Just a bit of rationalising on the fly, but that's my interpretation.

You are pretty much spot on with your rationalising there.

Folk Magic was always meant to be a minor magical talent people have the ability to access, but not much more than a few useful tricks. By keeping the Magnitude down to 2 points it helps reflect the fact that although the spells are very useful when it comes down to it if you want decent magical power you have to go out looking for some hard stuff, not the watered down Budcoors-equivalent in the RQ Magic world.

 

[The Greek]

The backgrounds and professions seem pretty good, although given the text describes Iron Dwarves as having the only proper combat training among the Mostali Castes, their skill options don't seem a great deal better then the other castes. I also loved some of the new equipment.

Well Player Character Dwarfs (which is what these are) will be relatively well-rounded dwarfs (from a humanocentric stand-point). PC Iron Dwarfds will therefore have other skills that non-PC Iron Dwarfs would ignore in favour of being able to bash the malfunctions of the world that much better. Similarly non-Iron Dwarf PCs will pick up as much combat ability as they can, unusually for their castes, since as a bunch of Individualists it is only a matter of time before they will need to use them!

The idea is that PC dwarfs are very weird in their dwarfness. Not usual dwarfs at all. Non-PC Iron Dwarfs would be rock hard (so to speak).

 

[Rurik]

My copy finally arrived.

Yay!