Discuss: Kickstart the Guide to Glorantha

Submitted by Jeff on Thu, 01/11/2012 – 08:10

Want to talk about the upcoming Kickstarter campaign for the Guide to Glorantha? Here’s the place to discuss the announcement!

Glorantha Qs for Moon Design

Submitted by roko_joko on Sat, 22/12/2012 – 18:10.

Glorantha questions for Moon Design, based on preview draft 3 of the Guide:What are the troll populations of Koromodol, the Kingdom of Ignorance, and Kralorela proper?Have the relationships between corn and blood, and Hon-Eel and corn, been removed from the canon?Can I ask you to describe the locations of Jangi-Shar (Kralorean end of the Lunar caravan route), Su Lo Chan (KoI capital), and Tulufan and Kodzant (other KoI cities)?

Sandy Petersen

Submitted by Terra Incognita on Sun, 09/12/2012 – 01:19.

I was little surprised and am glad to see Sandy’s name in the credit of authors. (Even if he isn’t active to the editing of GtG. Probably for the articles of Missing Lands?) I think his name appeals greatly to Kickstarter.

Does this over-write the older HW/HQ material?

Submitted by betx on Fri, 30/11/2012 – 15:53.

Just curious about how much the contents of some of the HW/HQ1 publications will be maintained?  I’m thinking the Dragon Pass Gazetteer, Men of the Sea, Blood Over Gold, and ILH-1 & 2, although I may have forgotten some others.I know that some of these had a lot of contributions from people other than the core Gloranthan team–either written under contract or took in contributions from many people in the community.  I’m wondering if there was effort to roll the information from these into the new product, or if they’ve generally been over-written because Greg had information that hadn’t been extracted and published before, which may not have agreed with those publications?Regards;–Bryan

Submitted by metcalph on Fri, 30/11/2012 – 16:23.

Looking at the Guide.
Dragon Pass Gazetteer:  There’s very little overwriting of the Gazetteer.  That’s because it was fare more detailed than the guide and the main points are pretty established canon.  I’ve heard the map has been changed around a bit.
Men of the Sea:  I don’t think the one-page nautical country writeups are canonical anymore.  The Malkioni bits have been superseded (see previous artwork for details) and there’s a fair bit of difference between what Men of the Sea says and what the Guide says.
Blood Over Gold:  Maniria has changed although there’s little actual contradiction between the city of Fay Jee as presented in the Guide and in Blood Over Gold.  For example the Tower of the False Sun is there.  The difference is mainly in how the Orlanthi of the region are portrayed.
Imperial Lunar Handbook: Pretty much changed, even down to the names of the Satraps for some satrapies.  I’ve also noticed in the map fragment significant differences such as the location of Amoli (just south of Raibanth in the Lunar Map, some distance to the west in the Guide Map fragment).
Under the Red Moon.  Little geographical details here so largely unchanged but I don’t think it will hold up under a Gods of Glorantha style treatment.

Submitted by Rick on Sat, 24/11/2012 – 22:50.

A little history on how the Guide to Glorantha has developed, especially prior to the launch of our Kickstarter:

Documenting ALL of Glorantha for the Guide is not a small task. We knew we wanted to do it eventually, but we were unsure how much detail was really of interest to everyone. We took it for granted that, in general, everybody is in favor of more, if not everything being in the book. Of course, doing that takes an increasing amount of time and money, plus there is also the limit of what will realistically will fit into a book before it becomes too unwieldy to use (or too expensive to ship overseas). We want to document all of Glorantha as much as people want, so we have set up stretch goals to help gauge that interest. The Guide is already the single largest volume of Gloranthan lore and it is well on its way to getting even bigger.

We are also very sensitive to delays in delivering this material. Super-detailing Central and Western Genertela is easier than super-detailing Kralorela and Teshnos, which is easier than Super-detailing Pamaltela, which is easier than super-detailing Vithela, Vormain, and the East Isles. We don’t even have a firm page count on those areas yet, especially for the Gazeteer material.

We knew that before we started this Kickstarter, so we tried to spell that out from day one. The initial stretch goals involved adding some art and super-detailing the maps. We knew that the art would make it into the Guide itself, and we think we can get the maps done so they are all in the Argan Argar Atlas, at least up through all of Pamaltela without much delay. Post launch we have added MORE stretch goals, especially IN BETWEEN current stretch goals, both to provide more value for money and to get more material into print. Thus, to balance getting material out in a timely fashion and at a price that fits the budget we are producing three books:

1. The Guide to Glorantha: This is the whopping big full color hardcover containing 300k+ words of text, maps, illustrations, color plates, and so on. This book is simply too big to expand with stretch goal material without making it way too expensive to ship, and also not delay it 6+ months.

2. The AAA Atlas: This is all the color maps in one book, arranged like a road atlas. This will definitely include the new maps of Kralorela and Teshnos, and our goal is to include the super-detailed maps of Pamaltela.

3. The Companion to the Guide. This includes the new gazeteers of places of interest (currently Kralorela and Teshnos, but likely to include Fonrit, Umathela, and other places pretty soon), monographs by various notable RPG writers, and other such new material as is unlocked by additional stretch goals. This is available to everyone who contributed at the SCRIBE level as a free pdf, and to RUNE LORD/PRIEST level and above as a free printed version. Once we have a better idea of the likely page count of the Companion and overall funding raised we’ll announce what is likely to happen in terms of more people getting the free printed version. We’re also exploring just having people pay print cost and shipping, etc.

This is a LOT of material. The Guide is somewhere around 400 pages. The Atlas is getting quite big as well (well over 80 pages of just full page maps). The Companion is likely going to get much bigger over the next few days or weeks too.

Submitted by metcalph on Sat, 24/11/2012 – 16:16.

The unpublished “Roots of Glorantha” are stories written by Greg in the late 60s and early 70s.  They are Gloranthan only in the sense that the Book of Lost Tales is Tolkienesque.

Companion Volumes?

Submitted by Martin Helsdon on Mon, 19/11/2012 – 19:25.

Just spent the last hour skimming through the draft: very impressive piece of work, and it will be even more impressive with the illustrations and maps.Given the success of this Kickstarter, are there any plans for similar campaigns? The Guide is excellent, but it begs for companion volumes. An updated and expanded Gods of Glorantha detailing the major gods/spirits/schools of each major pantheon (to the level of those provided for Sartar & Pavis) would be surely as popular?

Game System Specific

Submitted by BlindGuyNW on Mon, 19/11/2012 – 20:13.

As I recall, one reason this idea is a little harder to implement is that such descriptions very easily veer into game mechanics territory. Also, I recall reading that the plan was to detail cults in setting-specific volumes, a la Sartar. I can understand this, because religion without larger context is less meaningful.That being said, once a few more of these supplements are released, by all means, a reference would be lovely.

Guide then Gods?

Submitted by Martin Helsdon on Tue, 20/11/2012 – 06:03.

The classic ‘Cults of Prax’ and ‘Cults of Terror’ worked without a massive quantity of context. As for mechanics, those could reside in a smaller book, much like the Argan Argar atlas? Given the structure of both related game systems, it would not be difficult to disengage status, for example, within a cult, with the related game mechanics.My comment was driven by the thought that the Guide presents considerable detail as it explores the cultures and locations of the Gloranthan universe, including the basic structure and nature of the related pantheons, but the related cults and myths are ‘missing’. I realise that it is possible to argue that there’s inevitably detail ‘missing’ (it would be impractical to detail every facet of life in Glorantha in one book) but the gods seem to be the next step. It is interesting to note that the Avalon Hill series had them in reverse order, gods then world. I’d love to have a hardback ‘cults’ book sitting next to the guide on the shelf. Can’t wait to see the guide in all its glory.

A new cults book

Submitted by Baron on Thu, 22/11/2012 – 00:11.

I don’t think a cults book would have the same general appeal as this guide. I play Chaosium’s RQ2, and love my Cult Compendium. I doubt anyone will be doing comparable official RQ2 write-ups of any new cults and putting them in a nice hardcover coffee table book for me.As I’ve said before, I’m looking forward to the rumored supplemental docs that will take HQ books and provide RQ6 stats. I’ll check them out, if they’re free downloads, and if they make the HQ books easy enough for me to use, then I’ll become a HQ customer. I bought a slew of HW books when they first came out, but soon learned that type of game isn’t to my taste.

Prosopaedia

Submitted by Martin Helsdon on Fri, 23/11/2012 – 12:40.

The Cult Companion is a good book (I have a copy on the shelf) but its coverage is very specific. A scaled up Prosopaedia (from the AH Gods of Glorantha), with a page for every deity, and several more pages for the major deities (those listed under the various pantheons in the new Guide) would be very useful.

Roots of Glorantha

Submitted by PhilHibbs on Mon, 19/11/2012 – 16:56.

What exactly is in the Roots of Glorantha bundle and what format is it in? Is it 15 separate books, what are they, and in what ways are they different from or the same as existing published monographs?RICK SEZ: Roots of Glorantha: This is a collection of fifteen bound volumes of Greg Stafford’s ORIGINAL Glorantha stories from the 1960s and early 1970s. These are the first stories about Glorantha Greg wrote and they established many of the basic foundations of the setting, especially the West. Scattered throughout the text are hand drawn maps, timelines, and genealogies. They have never been published and are available only to those who have made the Seven Mothers/Lightbringers pledge.PHIL SEZ: Thanks, I see it’s also on the FAQ.

Related Pages

Page Last updated: 2020-03-22 13:02:06