What kind of book for Glorantha do you want

[The King]

Which do you mean: Blood over Gold or Griffin Mountain? BoG was (and is) designed to have a useful campaign arc while GM is utterly freeform - but as I said there were other books inspiring me. Borderlands was the other big RQ touchstone I used. That and the fact that there has not been a starting-character arc book published in Glorantha in many years aside from the very Orlanth-o-centric Barbarian Adventures. Jeff

Yes, I was talking of Blodd over gold.

As far as I know, Sartar Rising is being turned into the Great Argrath Campaign by Greg. However, the scenarios that I wrote for the Dragonraising book along with a bunch of other material will probably be published as Vorifssaga as soon as I get my damned thesis done (having a two year old really cuts into writing time).

Doesn't Greg intend to write it as a book (like King of Sartar)?
What kind of thesis?

Many things still need to be done with HeroQuest and the Holy country and Pharaon would be a nice addition.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

As far as I know, Sartar Rising is being turned into the Great Argrath Campaign by Greg.

Doesn't Greg intend to write it as a book (like King of Sartar)?

As I Understand it "The Great Argrath Campaign" is a HQ/Gloranthan equivalent to the Pendragon "The Great Pendragon Campaign" No more little bits of plot leaked out a bit at a time, and long pauses while you wait for the next volume to arrive, this will be the whole story arc in one book (which would always be my preferred route anyway). I'm not sure if this will start where "Sartar Rising" finished, or whether it will incorporate that material, or whether it will cover that period, but with new material. If it's only half as good as "The Great Pendragon Campaign" it will still be awesome!

Greg is also working on a novel, which will be the story of Harmast Barefoot, who first completed the Lightbringers Quest, bringing Arkat back to fight Gbaji. Whether this will be like King of Sartar, or a more "traditional" novel, or somewhere in between the two remains to be seen...

 

[Voriof]

As far as I know, Sartar Rising is being turned into the Great Argrath Campaign by Greg.

Doesn't Greg intend to write it as a book (like King of Sartar)?

As I Understand it "The Great Argrath Campaign" is a HQ/Gloranthan equivalent to the Pendragon "The Great Pendragon Campaign" No more little bits of plot leaked out a bit at a time, and long pauses while you wait for the next volume to arrive, this will be the whole story arc in one book (which would always be my preferred route anyway). I'm not sure if this will start where "Sartar Rising" finished, or whether it will incorporate that material, or whether it will cover that period, but with new material. If it's only half as good as "The Great Pendragon Campaign" it will still be awesome!

Well, remember that the Great Pendragon Campaign starts a decade before the death of Uther. I'd suspect that the book might start before the fall of the Kingdom in that time of 'life as normal' that we always heard about for the Heortlings but never saw. I would not be surprised if it ran from the late 1500's right up to the 1650's after the rise of the Chaos Empire from the ruins of the fallen Red Moon.

Greg is also working on a novel, which will be the story of Harmast Barefoot, who first completed the Lightbringers Quest, bringing Arkat back to fight Gbaji. Whether this will be like King of Sartar, or a more "traditional" novel, or somewhere in between the two remains to be seen...

This I am looking forward to as well.

Many things still need to be done with HeroQuest and the Holy country and Pharaoh would be a nice addition.

Yeah. The Land of 10,000 Goddesses should help with that a bit. My thesis is a study on environmental degradation in the Bronze Age in several mountain valleys in south-central Turkey. It helps with existing baseline studies and will, in some small well, help us extrapolate the effects of this based on events in antiquity.


Jeff

 

[richaje]

Many things still need to be done with HeroQuest and the Holy country and Pharaon would be a nice addition.

Gosh, between "History of the Heortling Peoples" and "Land of 10,000 Goddesses", I rather thought that Greg and I have done a lot of writing about Kethaela! Or least about Heortland and Esrolia.....

Jeff

 

[Voriof]

Many things still need to be done with HeroQuest and the Holy country and Pharaon would be a nice addition.

Gosh, between "History of the Heortling Peoples" and "Land of 10,000 Goddesses", I rather thought that Greg and I have done a lot of writing about Kethaela! Or least about Heortland and Esrolia.....

Jeff

Hate to burst bubbles but they aren't as generally available/accessible as you might like to think, Jeff. Sorry.

Jeff

 

[richaje]

Hate to burst bubbles but they aren't as generally available/accessible as you might like to think, Jeff. Sorry.

Come on, "History of the Heortling Peoples" is widely available and accessible as a PDF. "Land of the 10,000 Goddesses" is in its penultimate draft stage (complete with brand new Mike O'Connor and Simon Bray art, maps of the city of Nochet by Colin Driver, and loads of Second Age goodness), so I'm not surprised it isn't very available or accessible. I just was thinking Greg and I have written a lot about Kethaela in the last year or two.

 

[Voriof]

Hate to burst bubbles but they aren't as generally available/accessible as you might like to think, Jeff. Sorry.

Come on, "History of the Heortling Peoples" is widely available and accessible as a PDF. "

Not everyone uses or likes pdfs (or are aware of their existence) and the hard-copies are not exactly easy to get a hold of. Remember the comment about something not being known unti you find out about it - most of the local RQ and Glorantha folks have never heard about most of this stuff.

It's not all puppies and flowers everywhere.

So, for me the OT boils down to: I want actual books I can hold and lend to my players (something else pdfs are lousy at due to the DRM) that will be useful to me in my gaming.

Jeff

 

[RosenMcStern]

Jeff, as we have already discussed on a non-public list, we are all widely aware that the sad fate of "Blood over Gold" or "History of the Heortling People" is not Rick's fault but the printer's, and we will continue to support both Issaries and Moon Design. But BoG and History cannot be considered "Widely accessible" just because you can download them legally from DriveThru.

A book that is widely accessible is one that non-geeks can buy at their local store, or from Amazon, at most. Accessibility includes being able to read it when you take a break from using technology to enhance your imagination, and PDFs do not fall into this category.

And in any case I do not give a **** ****. I have a printed copy and everyone else doesn't! :twisted:

 

[The King]

Gosh, between "History of the Heortling Peoples" and "Land of 10,000 Goddesses", I rather thought that Greg and I have done a lot of writing about Kethaela! Or least about Heortland and Esrolia.....

Jeff

I am talking of gaming material (scenarios) and not only fictions though short stories are as good as any other form of background (my reference being John Hugues's article on Pamaltela (Dorradi) in TofRM #11.

 

[The King]

As I Understand it "The Great Argrath Campaign" is a HQ/Gloranthan equivalent to the Pendragon "The Great Pendragon Campaign" No more little bits of plot leaked out a bit at a time, and long pauses while you wait for the next volume to arrive, this will be the whole story arc in one book (which would always be my preferred route anyway). I'm not sure if this will start where "Sartar Rising" finished, or whether it will incorporate that material, or whether it will cover that period, but with new material. If it's only half as good as "The Great Pendragon Campaign" it will still be awesome!...

Thais is excellent news. Though I'd prefer it be at least as good as the Great Pendragon Campaign if not better.
And when it is expected for release?

 

[The King]

Hate to burst bubbles but they aren't as generally available/accessible as you might like to think, Jeff. Sorry.

Come on, "History of the Heortling Peoples" is widely available and accessible as a PDF.

Yes I saw this one was available on DriveThruRPG.com.

"Land of the 10,000 Goddesses"

I never heard about it but if it's a printed release it'll be a pleasure to buy it.

I usually buy this hard to find (printed) stuff on nobleknight.com.

 

[richaje]

Not everyone uses or likes pdfs (or are aware of their existence) and the hard-copies are not exactly easy to get a hold of. Remember the comment about something not being known unti you find out about it - most of the local RQ and Glorantha folks have never heard about most of this stuff.

It's not all puppies and flowers everywhere.

So, for me the OT boils down to: I want actual books I can hold and lend to my players (something else pdfs are lousy at due to the DRM) that will be useful to me in my gaming.

Soon it shall be puppies and flowers everywhere!

Jeff

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Hate to burst bubbles but they aren't as generally available/accessible as you might like to think, Jeff. Sorry.

Come on, "History of the Heortling Peoples" is widely available and accessible as a PDF.

"Widely Available" means you can walk into a shop and walk out with a copy. Since we are talking about stuff that is designed to be of interest to gamers rather than gateway product for non gamers, I'll accept "walk into a games shop and walk out with a copy". "You can buy it on half a dozen specialist websites" does not count.

"Widely Accessible" could mean "readily understood by newcomers" - which is a claim the Stafford library (formerly "Unfinished Works") have never claimed. (Blood over Gold, I understand is supposed to be "Widely Accessible" in this sense). Or it could mean "You can access this work anywhere without the need of specific hardware/software, a mains cable or batteries - that is in the form of a printed book rather than an electronic pdf file. (Blood over Gold, unfortunately is still not "Widely Accessible" in this sense, which is why I still don't have a copy).

So while HHP, Middle Sea Empire and Land of 10,000 Goddessess and their like are great, and I wouldn't want to discourage you (or Greg, or anyone else) from continuing to work on such projects, I don't think you can claim a product which advertises itself as "esoteric" and is only available in a sub-optimal format from a limited number of websites can be considered to be widely accessible and available, and to answer the needs of potential customers looking for something more like "Borderlands", "Griffin Mountain", "Sun County" "Orlanth is Dead", "Imperial Lunar Handbook", "Clanking City" or "Blood of Orlanth" (to take a cross system sample of books that might qualify)

 

[The King]

My thesis is a study on environmental degradation in the Bronze Age in several mountain valleys in south-central Turkey. It helps with existing baseline studies and will, in some small well, help us extrapolate the effects of this based on events in antiquity.
Jeff

What do you mean by environmental degradation? Effect of manmade deforestation or somethink like this?

 

[Voriof]

My thesis is a study on environmental degradation in the Bronze Age in several mountain valleys in south-central Turkey. It helps with existing baseline studies and will, in some small well, help us extrapolate the effects of this based on events in antiquity.
Jeff

What do you mean by environmental degradation? Effect of manmade deforestation or somethink like this?

Something like that. It is somewhat complex. There was a massive episode of climate change in the Eastern Med which may possibly be linked to the spread of pyroculture (smithing and to a lesser extent pottery making) and the need for charcoal.

I am studying changes in the Goksu River valley. We are discovering that the local changes are related to the creation of a landslide-bounded lake which lasted for several thousand years, its abrupt draining and the subsequent deflation of the local water table. That said, we still are seeing massive erosion, probably as a result of poor agricultural and forestry practices from antiquity to, well, the present.

Jeff

 

[The King]

Something like that. It is somewhat complex. There was a massive episode of climate change in the Eastern Med which may possibly be linked to the spread of pyroculture (smithing and to a lesser extent pottery making) and the need for charcoal.

I am studying changes in the Goksu River valley. We are discovering that the local changes are related to the creation of a landslide-bounded lake which lasted for several thousand years, its abrupt draining and the subsequent deflation of the local water table. That said, we still are seeing massive erosion, probably as a result of poor agricultural and forestry practices from antiquity to, well, the present.

Jeff

Quite a specialization! So I guess you're currently in Turkey.

 

[Mark Mohrfield]

"Land of the 10,000 Goddesses" is in its penultimate draft stage (complete with brand new Mike O'Connor and Simon Bray art, maps of the city of Nochet by Colin Driver, and loads of Second Age goodness)

What would this be?

Mark Mohrfield

 

[richaje]

"Land of the 10,000 Goddesses" is in its penultimate draft stage (complete with brand new Mike O'Connor and Simon Bray art, maps of the city of Nochet by Colin Driver, and loads of Second Age goodness)

What would this be?

Mark Mohrfield

This would be the background book Greg and I have put together about the history and mythology of Esrolia, with a particular emphasis on the city of Nochet and the Great Temple at Ezel.

Jeff

 

[Mark Mohrfield]

What would this be?

Mark Mohrfield

This would be the background book Greg and I have put together about the history and mythology of Esrolia, with a particular emphasis on the city of Nochet and the Great Temple at Ezel.

Jeff

Is it for RQ or HQ or is it a Stafford Library product? (In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing it!)


Mark Mohrfield

 

[richaje]

This would be the background book Greg and I have put together about the history and mythology of Esrolia, with a particular emphasis on the city of Nochet and the Great Temple at Ezel.

Jeff

Is it for RQ or HQ or is it a Stafford Library product? (In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing it!)


Mark Mohrfield

Stafford Library. That way we can write background for both MRQ and HQ.

Jeff