Quote from: Lynn;593684That's a very good reason for not achieving great sales. Its much easier to play Fantasy Canada.

I don't think Tekumel or RQ/Glorantha are alone in this. Running a fairly realistic Japan game like Bushido or, to a lesser extent, something like Skyrealms of Jorune have the same problem.

Agreed. The nature of RPGs is such that the GM needs to be able to paint in broad strokes. If we're playing old-school D&D with an implied pulp fantasy Eurocentric setting, and I as GM say "after three days riding, you spy a small village in the distance", then I can have a reasonable level of expectation that everyone around the table has compatible mental pictures of what I've just described. Two players might differ on how large it is, or how hilly the surrounding land is, but everyone's got a workable picture we can probably refine from with not much problem.

If you're gaming with something more exotic, then this will not work to the same degree. If we're playing AD&D, I don't need to describe to you what Orcs are. You'll know roughly what they look like, and what to expect of their behaviour. If we're playing Star Trek, the same is true of Klingons. But if we're playing Skyrealms of Jorune, I would need to explain to you as a player in more detail what a Ramian is, even though this might be something as obvious in-character as a Klingon in Star Trek.

This slows things down, and I expect there's probably even people who would just see it as a straight up deal breaker that they don't want to have to play from that position of weak setting knowledge.

Quote from: Grymbok;593980But if we're playing Skyrealms of Jorune, I would need to explain to you as a player in more detail what a Ramian is, even though this might be something as obvious in-character as a Klingon in Star Trek.

This slows things down, and I expect there's probably even people who would just see it as a straight up deal breaker that they don't want to have to play from that position of weak setting knowledge.

"I know orcs, I don't know Ramian. Because my mind congealed at the age of 23, there's no space left."

Fuck that kind of person. They have mentally checked out.

Quote from: RPGPundit;593759The problem is the "barbarians off the boat" thing never made any sense to begin with.   I mean, what boat?! Where do these barbarians come from? Do they act like european adventurers? If not, you just have a compounded problem of having to play equally alien "barbarians" who are also pariahs in a state that is totally alien to both player AND character.

That's a tough question. I don't know enough about Tekumel to answer. But in Skyrealms of Jorune, I recall some suggestion that players begin as country bumpkins that come from some mountain village to the big city in order to get citizenship.

My reference for Bushido comes straight out of James Clavell's Shogun (which is a fictionalized verison of historical events), where you have a European shipwrecked, then finding a way to fit in somehow without getting his head lopped off in the process (seeing a few NPCs get heads chopped off or burned alive in front of them is one way).

It does suggest a related question though - how do you prepare your players for a somewhat alien setting in which their characters should be familiar? As a GM, do you cut them a lot of slack at first as they learn what's appropriate or inappropriate?

How would you introduce players to Arrows of Indra, if they haven't a remotest clue about Indian culture or history?

Quote from: Lynn;594104How would you introduce players to Arrows of Indra, if they haven't a remotest clue about Indian culture or history?

That's the thing, people do have the remotest clue; its something that at least as stereotype is identifiable. Its not completely alien.

My playtesters for arrows of indra are all uruguayans (a country with a very very low East Indian population, and, to my chagrin, not one Indian restaurant!) and yet they all figured out who their characters were and what they were doing almost instantly.

RPGPundit

Quote from: silva;593463Nice thead, Butch.

Like Melan said at the Runequest thread: Glorantha evolved from culture-infused adventuring to anthropological simulation. Tekumel took the same route, I think.

Dont know the reason for that, though. Maybe its a trend with big those settings created outside the sphere of gaming ?

One of the reasons why, I feel, is because Glorantha was for many years abandoned by Stafford while he dealt with other areas of his life.  This dealt with the arm chair anthropologists in Glorantha fandom somewhat taking over the setting,and pushback from factions within the fandom (like the Seattle Farmer's Collective) who were all about the gaming - while I hear that the Seattle Farmers got all anthropological, they demanded that it be gameable - if you want to be woad covered barbarians, that's cool, but raid for some cattle or solve local problems, dammit.  Just play!

That's why I feel that Pavis, the big megadungeon setting for Glorantha, is the best place to get introduced to the setting.  HeroQuest Glorantha, while cool, is not meant for beginners.

Quote from: RPGPundit;594117That's the thing, people do have the remotest clue; its something that at least as stereotype is identifiable. Its not completely alien.

That's good to know. I confess that I became much more interested in India after watching The Story of India, so Ill be checking out Arrows of Indra.

Quote from: Lynn;594428That's good to know. I confess that I became much more interested in India after watching The Story of India, so Ill be checking out Arrows of Indra.

Awesome!

RPGPundit