by Rob Heinsoo
INVOCATION:
Arachne Solara,
Greatest Mother,
Inner Spirit of all Glorantha,
Web Keeper,
Mother of Time,
Shower blessed factoids upon us as I take some swings
at your spider-shaped pinata
*WHACK!*
Press Release from the Recent Past
March 4, 1997
Chaosium Inc. and Avalon Hill have officially ended their fourteen year business relationship. The trademark “Runequest” and the rules to the Runequest role-playing game are now the sole property of Avalon Hill. Chaosium Inc. will not ever produce Runequest again. All of the rights to Glorantha remain the sole property of Chaosium Inc.
Avalon Hill will continue to sell the Gloranthan products it still has in stock, but no future Avalon Hill publications shall be Gloranthan.
When asked for a comment, Chaosium company president Greg Stafford stated, “This is another step in our own development of a full line of Gloranthan games and books. Avalon Hill can now pursue their own development and creative freedom with the Runequest line, and we wish them good luck with it.”
*THUNK!*
All Glorantha’s Yesterdays,
Summarized Today
Rick Meints, a talented busybody with a sense of humor, has compiled an annotated index of most every publication over the past 20-something years that has contained Glorantha material. THE MEINTS INDEX TO GLORANTHA (also known as the MIG) is a 72-page perfect bound book published this January by the UK’s Reaching Moon MegaCorp. The MIG summarizes Chaosium and Avalon Hill Gloranthan and RQ products, provides thumbnail views of their covers, and lists the contents for the full run of magazines, such as Wyrm’s Footnotes and Different Worlds. As well as filling me in on some products I’d never heard of, Rick’s MIG inspired me with a Holy Quest: I never want to give the man more material for his “What Never Was . . . ” sidebars that detail Chaosium products that were promised and then failed to appear! The MIG is available through the Wizard’s Attic (call 1-800-213-1493).
*KA-THWHACK!*
. . . Leaves from the Past:
The Lhankor Mhy Library
Chaosium’s web pages will soon include several strands of Glorantha pages. One of the first features of the new Glorantha pages will be a selection of out-of-print materials from past Glorantha publications. The first batch of out-of-print material is being chosen to help introduce newcomers to Glorantha. The Glorantha pages should be updated every couple of weeks with a blend of introductory material and esoterica.
*WHACK WHACK WHACK*
One Paragraph on the Future
Stratelibri, our sister company in Italy, may release several Gloranthan products in Europe in 1997, including the new boardgame tentatively titled The Hero Wars: Battles in Glorantha. Regardless of Stratelibri’s publishing schedule, Chaosium is not expecting to follow suit until early ’98. We are working on the Gloranthan skirmish miniatures game and trade paperback sourcebooks as spring ’98 releases in the United States. A fiction line and our new Gloranthan RPG will follow the miniatures game onto the market.
*CHUNK!*
Skirmishing into Glorantha’s
Minis Game Future
Long time Glorantha followers will be happy with the 25mm skirmish game because it will pivot upon key battles and raids of Gloranthan history and forge onto the Hero Plane. We’re staging the game with an eye toward expanding our audience’s experience of the Hero Plane interactions between Gods and mortals.
-Rob Heinsoo
Glorantha Editor
This article was drawn from Starry Wisdom V1 #2, Spring 1997. To regularly receive the newest Starry Wisdom magazine, join the Cult of Chaos