What's the big deal about Glorantha?

[Osentalka]

As far as i have heared Greg suggested that Mongoose could have ONE third age region, or the entire world, but in a different age. They choose to explore the complete world.

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

And that's what really matters.

For me, it's the combination of Trollball mayhem and Dr Seus jokes on the one hand and far out metaphysics at the other that keeps me entertained and interested.

I'll go further and say what makes it so 'real', in the sense that it encompasses so much of what makes life so diverse and so much fun. There's something in Glorantha for everyone from good old fashioned hack-n-slash cave bashing to playing emissaries to the World Council of Friends in a freeform. But equally everyone is likely to find aspects of it that drive them nuts, be it arguing about obscure details of heroquesting theory, or the existence of Grotarons or ducks.

Simon Hibbs

Yeah, I agree, to an extent. It's important to keep some kind of perspective on these things, though. Whilst Glorantha is certainly several cuts above the average fantasy rpg setting, (in fact, it's certainly one of the greatest), it's best when viewed in those terms.

I've never had an issue with ducks, btw.

 

[Khamulcalle]

I am really excited about Glorantha and everything within it. I have not played RQ since -82-83 I guess, but comin' back to the geam and Glorantha feels really great. I GM'ed my 10 year old son and his friends today (We are playing Apple Lane of course) and it feels great and the kids have a great time...

Glorantha ftw!

//Khamul

 

[duncan_disorderly]

I thought it was Howard the Duck, rather than Donald.

You're right, it was Howard.

Simon

I thought it was more a generalized duck thing, with inspiration from Howard, Uncle Scrooge, etc.

The story that I have heard from Greg on a couple of occasions is that when he was producing the map of Dragon Pass for "White Bear & Red Moon" (the original Gloranthan board game, later reissued as "Dragon Pass"), he wanted to thank his friends who had made it possible, and as he couldn't pay them, he offered to name a towm after each of them - so Wilmskirk for William Church who drew the maps, etc. One of his friends was a big fan of Carl Barks and wanted "his" town to be called Duckburg. Greg foresaw that this might lead to problems with Disney, who are fierce protectors of their IP, so persuaded him to settle for Duck Point instead. Having named the settlement, it seemed obvious that the inhabitants must be Ducks - and that's why there are Ducks in Glorantha (If Greg's friend had been a Tex Avery fan, Glorantha might have been full of anthromorphic rabbites instead...)

 

[Vagni]

I am really excited about Glorantha and everything within it. I have not played RQ since -82-83 I guess, but comin' back to the geam and Glorantha feels really great. I GM'ed my 10 year old son and his friends today (We are playing Apple Lane of course) and it feels great and the kids have a great time...

Glorantha ftw!

//Khamul

It's great to know that there are some younger players out there too. A big well done to you for encouraging them.

 

[danbuter]

My main problem with Glorantha is that I only like to play Western Europe style fantasy, and Glorantha ain't that.

 

[Vile]

It is if you play in western Genertela.

 

[jolt]

The original question, as asked, lacks context and so isn't a valid question. Today, the term "generic fantasy" and "Tolkien rip-off" mean practicaly the same thing. But Tolkien's fantasy isn't generic; no moreso than Howard"s Conan/Kull, Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser or Norton's Witch World et. al..

Therefore, the question becomes, "How is Glorantha not a Tolkien rip-off"? I would think even a casual perusal of both worlds would answer that question (and if not, has already been well answered by others already).

Now, both works are fictional and both works are fantasy. In that regard, they share some of the tropes of the genre which you could find comparing any two fictional fantasy works; gaming or otherwise. But if you're going to go that deep you might as well claim that all fantasy worlds are, effectively, the same which just leads to circular semantic discussions of little value.

"Exotic" in terms of fantasy literature and/or gaming nowadays is far too loaded a word to carry much meaning or weight.

jolt