Players Guide to Glorantha Poll
- Thread starter Rurik
- Start date
I just picked it up and the binding sucks.
The Cover is actually seems a bit more substantial than my other books - though I'm not at home so can't compare them yet. And I think the colors are a bit more vibrant. So that is encouraging. Also I think the pages are a bit heavier than earlier B&W books and the art looks like the printing quality is just fine.
But enough with the good. There is a noticable gap between the bound pages and the back of the spine - the only thing holding the pages to the cover is the sheet inside the front and back cover that is attached to both the cover and the interior pages (I forget what it is called - coverplate maybe? ). On the front the seam where that piece of paper joins the cover to the pages seems to have a bit to much paper - making an excess fold, and on the back it seems to have a bit to little paper, making a small gap.
If Mongoose ever wants to find out who exactly bound the book it should be easy as there is a fingerprint in glue on the back cover.
So actually, once they learn how to bind the books or hire someone with bindry experience I think these will be nice quality books.
The Cover is actually seems a bit more substantial than my other books - though I'm not at home so can't compare them yet. And I think the colors are a bit more vibrant. So that is encouraging. Also I think the pages are a bit heavier than earlier B&W books and the art looks like the printing quality is just fine.
But enough with the good. There is a noticable gap between the bound pages and the back of the spine - the only thing holding the pages to the cover is the sheet inside the front and back cover that is attached to both the cover and the interior pages (I forget what it is called - coverplate maybe? ). On the front the seam where that piece of paper joins the cover to the pages seems to have a bit to much paper - making an excess fold, and on the back it seems to have a bit to little paper, making a small gap.
If Mongoose ever wants to find out who exactly bound the book it should be easy as there is a fingerprint in glue on the back cover.
So actually, once they learn how to bind the books or hire someone with bindry experience I think these will be nice quality books.
Rurik said:
Actually, they don't
The older books _look_ as if they do, and we will soon be adding the tabs that make them look as if they are sewn (they really are just sticky tabs with fabric on one end - they give the books a classy edge
). However, true sewn books are quite rare these days - and you have to destroy the book to see whether they are or not, which is probably not recommended. . .As for the method of binding, we are very happy with the way the pages are collated, and have not had one failure over around 10,000 books put together so far. The method of fixing the core of the book to the case is an ongoing thing - we have already changed the method from that you have seen in the Player's Guide, and will be changing once again in about a month's time. There are many different ways we can do this, and we will be experimenting with most of them.
We now have a two tier quality control process on books going out and if anyone, for any reason, is not satisfied with a book, we will replace it with no quibbles (as always).
Now we are producing our own books, we have ultimate control over how they get put together. We will be using this to bring you all sorts of wonderful things in the future but, for now, we will be learning to walk before we run!
Players Guide to Glorantha is pretty good.
There's a bit of guff about how to play characters, choosing sides and that kind of thing, so skip over that to the good bits.
There are new backgrounds, professions, spells, Legendary Abilities and Magic Items for The Godlearners, EWF, Orlanthi, Other Malkioni, Pelorians, Praxian and Pentian Nomads, Kralori, Teshnans, Vithelans, Pamaltelans, Aldryami, Uz, Mostali, Timinits, Ducks, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Hsunchen and Waertagi.
The backgrounds and professions look reasonable and are in addition to the standard ones from RQ or RQ Companion. The Character Generation gives stats, typical backgrounds/professions and a little bit of background and are good enough, although lacking in any great detail.
The Legendary Abilities are varied and interesting. The spells are generally good, although I am on the fence as to whether they should be part of cults or available as "Common" Magic for a culture. The magic items are useful and range from minor to major items.
Folk Magic is interesting but sketchy. There are sample spells and rules for generating spells and spell properties. They could be useful in games as they are not tied to a rune, automatically work and can be cast alongside other actions. There are a few restrictions, they are limited to 2 Magnitude and you can't learn a spell to increase a skill you don't have, both conditions I would quite happily ignore, and only work for one action/blow. But, if you want an easy +10% to a skill, then Folk Magic is the way to do it.
As to the quality of the book itself, I bought mine at Tentacles and it is good enough. It isn't falling apart, the bindings are quite strong, although two of the blank pages at the front and rear are glued together quite a way in, making them difficult to open, but they are blank so that isn't a problem. As to why there are effectively 5 blank pages at the front and 5 blank pages at the rear of the book, that's a different question. Perhaps they ran out of material to include, or they thoughtfully provided those pages for notes.
So, overall it's pretty good. It could have done with more detail, but it covers twenty cultures across the whole of Glorantha. Everything in it is immediately useful and allows people to play the PC species described.
If you want to play Minotaurs or Centaurs in any setting, not just Glorantha, this is worth buying just for that. If you want to use PCs/NPCs from any of the cultures described, this is worth buying. If you want cool spells, Legendary Abilities and magic Items for a non-Gloranthan game then this is worth buying. Otherwise, have a think about it and if you have some spare change then you should probably buy it.
There's a bit of guff about how to play characters, choosing sides and that kind of thing, so skip over that to the good bits.
There are new backgrounds, professions, spells, Legendary Abilities and Magic Items for The Godlearners, EWF, Orlanthi, Other Malkioni, Pelorians, Praxian and Pentian Nomads, Kralori, Teshnans, Vithelans, Pamaltelans, Aldryami, Uz, Mostali, Timinits, Ducks, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Hsunchen and Waertagi.
The backgrounds and professions look reasonable and are in addition to the standard ones from RQ or RQ Companion. The Character Generation gives stats, typical backgrounds/professions and a little bit of background and are good enough, although lacking in any great detail.
The Legendary Abilities are varied and interesting. The spells are generally good, although I am on the fence as to whether they should be part of cults or available as "Common" Magic for a culture. The magic items are useful and range from minor to major items.
Folk Magic is interesting but sketchy. There are sample spells and rules for generating spells and spell properties. They could be useful in games as they are not tied to a rune, automatically work and can be cast alongside other actions. There are a few restrictions, they are limited to 2 Magnitude and you can't learn a spell to increase a skill you don't have, both conditions I would quite happily ignore, and only work for one action/blow. But, if you want an easy +10% to a skill, then Folk Magic is the way to do it.
As to the quality of the book itself, I bought mine at Tentacles and it is good enough. It isn't falling apart, the bindings are quite strong, although two of the blank pages at the front and rear are glued together quite a way in, making them difficult to open, but they are blank so that isn't a problem. As to why there are effectively 5 blank pages at the front and 5 blank pages at the rear of the book, that's a different question. Perhaps they ran out of material to include, or they thoughtfully provided those pages for notes.
So, overall it's pretty good. It could have done with more detail, but it covers twenty cultures across the whole of Glorantha. Everything in it is immediately useful and allows people to play the PC species described.
If you want to play Minotaurs or Centaurs in any setting, not just Glorantha, this is worth buying just for that. If you want to use PCs/NPCs from any of the cultures described, this is worth buying. If you want cool spells, Legendary Abilities and magic Items for a non-Gloranthan game then this is worth buying. Otherwise, have a think about it and if you have some spare change then you should probably buy it.
