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Guide to Glorantha #1
Guide to Glorantha Volume 1
Coming in at a collective 800 pages and over 12 pounds, the two volumes of the Guide to Glorantha (which are 10 by 12 inch, full color, faux leather hardcover books) are a complete encyclopedia of Glorantha. Cosmology, culture, geography, history, mythology, people, and places are all explored in never before published detail. Hundreds of maps and illustrations bring the setting to life.
The Guide to Glorantha is more than just a roleplaying game supplement and are not written for any particular role-playing game rules system.
Contents include:
The major human cultures of Glorantha
The Elder Races
Mythos and History
The Major Pantheons
Comprehensive and detailed information on all the lands of Genertela, Pamaltela, and the islands of Glorantha, including color maps, population and political maps, and descriptions of every human settlement of more than 1000 people.
Constellations and planets of Glorantha
Weather systems
Detailed information on the Red Moon
Information on the Hero Wars
and much much more.
The Guide to Glorantha is more than just a roleplaying game supplement and are not written for any particular role-playing game rules system.
Contents include:
The major human cultures of Glorantha
The Elder Races
Mythos and History
The Major Pantheons
Comprehensive and detailed information on all the lands of Genertela, Pamaltela, and the islands of Glorantha, including color maps, population and political maps, and descriptions of every human settlement of more than 1000 people.
Constellations and planets of Glorantha
Weather systems
Detailed information on the Red Moon
Information on the Hero Wars
and much much more.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
7 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 8, 2022
This was drinking from the firehouse.
Glorantha, the world where the Runequest is set, has to be one of the most detailed, beautiful, fantasy worlds ever conceived. It's not a planet, but rather a lozenge-shaped self-contained place, with the Land sitting under the Middle Air and the Sky, and sitting on the Waters above the Underworld. Gods and spirits are very real, and factor in daily life.
Since it was first introduced in 1975's White Bear and Red Moon, Glorantha has been detailed by both creator Greg Stafford and many, many others, writing in magazines, old APAs, official releases, and homebrew notes that reached Greg Stafford. The result is a rich, detailed world.
The The Guide to Goorantha Volume 1 collects much of that information. The various human cultures of the world, the Elder Races, a history of the world since the Creation (including a detailed set of illustrations showing the war over the Sky during the God Age), and then a region-by-region examination, with maps, population details, history, and story hooks for every region of Genertela, the northern continent.
Drinking from the firehouse. It took me close to seven months to finish this because there is just so much information! If you play Runequest, or just love fantasy worlds, this is a must-have!
Now onto Volume 2!
Glorantha, the world where the Runequest is set, has to be one of the most detailed, beautiful, fantasy worlds ever conceived. It's not a planet, but rather a lozenge-shaped self-contained place, with the Land sitting under the Middle Air and the Sky, and sitting on the Waters above the Underworld. Gods and spirits are very real, and factor in daily life.
Since it was first introduced in 1975's White Bear and Red Moon, Glorantha has been detailed by both creator Greg Stafford and many, many others, writing in magazines, old APAs, official releases, and homebrew notes that reached Greg Stafford. The result is a rich, detailed world.
The The Guide to Goorantha Volume 1 collects much of that information. The various human cultures of the world, the Elder Races, a history of the world since the Creation (including a detailed set of illustrations showing the war over the Sky during the God Age), and then a region-by-region examination, with maps, population details, history, and story hooks for every region of Genertela, the northern continent.
Drinking from the firehouse. It took me close to seven months to finish this because there is just so much information! If you play Runequest, or just love fantasy worlds, this is a must-have!
Now onto Volume 2!
September 3, 2014
The definitive guide to Greg Stafford's intricate, highly original fantasy world.
Whole the Guide doesn't add much to the knowledge of Dragon Pass and Prax if you have the relevant HeroQuest books, it adds a great deal of detail to the areas outside Genertela, and does a fine job of assembling material from long out-of-print into a pair of lavishly produced volumes.
Note: this review covers both volumes.
Whole the Guide doesn't add much to the knowledge of Dragon Pass and Prax if you have the relevant HeroQuest books, it adds a great deal of detail to the areas outside Genertela, and does a fine job of assembling material from long out-of-print into a pair of lavishly produced volumes.
Note: this review covers both volumes.
December 21, 2022
Definitive text defining the Glorantha canon. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
Read
April 18, 2023Eh. I tried again to read this, with a group read-along, but it's really a very opaque introduction to the subject and doesn't inspire me to play.
January 6, 2015
It is difficult to review such a huge Roleplaying tome as this. The 2 volume set that is The Guide To Glorantha is a compilation and reworking of a huge body of work. New material is scattered throughout and the majority of the art work is new with the most impressive pieces commissioned due to the successful Kickstarter.
Upon picking this book up (one volume at a time) you are struck by its sheer weight. I don't own many other books this heavy, let alone roleplaying texts. The second impression is the quality. Most roleplaying products approximate real books. They have a flimsy and ephemeral feel, aimed at quick utility but not built to last. This is changing as more small publishers move into hardback publishing, and this book sets the standard for quality. It sports a glossy colour dust sheet, an embossed faux leather cover with faux gold lettering on the cover and spine, and a lay-flat binding of the sort seen on encyclopaedias. The paper is much better than most encyclopaedias which compliments the full colour interior.
The art direction and page layout are inspired, but it is possible to get lost in all the detail, and I find myself flicking around to find things or locate myself. It seems a bit of a waste to have the foot of each page only inform you of the book title instead of the chapter or section. In both the 'cultural' and 'races' section there are coloured tabs to aid the reader, but these disappear in the core geographical chapters, only to reappear in the appendices. It is also a shame that the first volume doesn't quite manage to contain the Genertela material, which runs over into the second volume. A little reshuffling might have allowed for this.
The art itself is where the main value of this book lies for anyone like me who has already read much of the material in previous formats. The new art is wonderful and copious. Sumptuous full colour plates and detailed monochrome line art positively drip with cultural detail. The art that has been reused from other publications has been carefully chosen and is mainly used to break up the text and provide context.
The detailed work carried out mapping the world is not to be underestimated as the preexisting maps of Glorantha were contradictory and, except in well played areas, lacking detail. Now the new map takes pride of place, portioned into beautiful double page spreads complete with a subtle hex map almost underlying the rich detail. Those same maps are often used slightly less successfully to present other information with the most successful being the adapted monochrome political maps.
The majority of the text is gathered from the Avalon Hill Gloranthan box set and the 'unpublished' works which presented the rest of the world in a direct and unpolished manner for the hard core fan. Anyone who owned the Avalon Hill material has probably, like me, wished that the rest of the world had been published properly, and these two volumes are the answer to that wish and more. The text has been reworked and reedited, and presented alongside the aforementioned art and maps to create a simply overwhelming whole. I am not sure I will ever be able to fill out the "finished" entry in the review form here, because this just isn't a book I could read from cover to cover. Instead it will be a place to visit and get lost in.
Upon picking this book up (one volume at a time) you are struck by its sheer weight. I don't own many other books this heavy, let alone roleplaying texts. The second impression is the quality. Most roleplaying products approximate real books. They have a flimsy and ephemeral feel, aimed at quick utility but not built to last. This is changing as more small publishers move into hardback publishing, and this book sets the standard for quality. It sports a glossy colour dust sheet, an embossed faux leather cover with faux gold lettering on the cover and spine, and a lay-flat binding of the sort seen on encyclopaedias. The paper is much better than most encyclopaedias which compliments the full colour interior.
The art direction and page layout are inspired, but it is possible to get lost in all the detail, and I find myself flicking around to find things or locate myself. It seems a bit of a waste to have the foot of each page only inform you of the book title instead of the chapter or section. In both the 'cultural' and 'races' section there are coloured tabs to aid the reader, but these disappear in the core geographical chapters, only to reappear in the appendices. It is also a shame that the first volume doesn't quite manage to contain the Genertela material, which runs over into the second volume. A little reshuffling might have allowed for this.
The art itself is where the main value of this book lies for anyone like me who has already read much of the material in previous formats. The new art is wonderful and copious. Sumptuous full colour plates and detailed monochrome line art positively drip with cultural detail. The art that has been reused from other publications has been carefully chosen and is mainly used to break up the text and provide context.
The detailed work carried out mapping the world is not to be underestimated as the preexisting maps of Glorantha were contradictory and, except in well played areas, lacking detail. Now the new map takes pride of place, portioned into beautiful double page spreads complete with a subtle hex map almost underlying the rich detail. Those same maps are often used slightly less successfully to present other information with the most successful being the adapted monochrome political maps.
The majority of the text is gathered from the Avalon Hill Gloranthan box set and the 'unpublished' works which presented the rest of the world in a direct and unpolished manner for the hard core fan. Anyone who owned the Avalon Hill material has probably, like me, wished that the rest of the world had been published properly, and these two volumes are the answer to that wish and more. The text has been reworked and reedited, and presented alongside the aforementioned art and maps to create a simply overwhelming whole. I am not sure I will ever be able to fill out the "finished" entry in the review form here, because this just isn't a book I could read from cover to cover. Instead it will be a place to visit and get lost in.
November 2, 2014
Volume 1 of a two volume set describing the fantasy world of Glorantha. This volume gives an overview of the cultures, races, religions and history of the world of Glorantha as well as a gazetteer covering most of the northern continent of Genertela.
Not exactly light reading, but an exhaustive look at one of the most well-developed worlds in the history of fantasy gaming.
Not exactly light reading, but an exhaustive look at one of the most well-developed worlds in the history of fantasy gaming.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews