Well, yes. We’re Beer With Teeth. We write these professionally.
We like building up the world of Glorantha, which is unique in just how much has already been built by fans. Entire clans and tribes are defined by ‘the Tribe’, the Glorantha fan-base around the world, and the enduring legacy of Glorantha is the phrase, often uttered by Greg Stafford, “I did not know that.”
He’d take a suggestion by fans about his world, and he’d go ‘that is right’. Chaosium continues that – it takes in the fan world, talks to fans, argues passionately with fans1If you’re arguing passionately with a member of Chaosium, do try to be at least tangential to right. It makes everything a lot easier.. Builds on what the fans do.
Sandheart, one of the gems of the Jonstown Compendium, appears on official maps now. The Balkoth Tribe, created by Stuart Mousir-Harrison2aka Dr Moose, is known to my PC, because one of them killed her grandfather. They’re people who exist in the game. The Greydog Clan, first defined by Jon Quaife, has lived along that there river by that marsh for generations, and it’s official. It reached Chaosium by mailing lists, by fanzines, by face to face talks at cons.
Excitingly, in The Pegasus Plateau, there is a little village called Greyrock. The Ulanding Clan were there, and it turns out that Greyrock was, once we sent in the adventure we wrote, another name for the Ulanding. It wasn’t until we sent it in, and now it is. We’re official as well, and the game session that we wrote to give our GM some in-character time has become part of the world of Glorantha.
Glorantha is glorious because it fits in so many people’s work, and is generous about issuing invitations.
Our two additions to the world are The Dregs of Clearwine, a look into a tiny but fascinating slice of lower class life, and Cups of Clearwine, an overview of a middle-class area. The feedback from Chaosium has been great, and I’m pretty sure that some day, NPCs like this that we create, and situations we create, will be official there as well. Check them out and you’ll see what we mean about adding to the world.
