Glorantha

2017-09-18T14:59:13Z

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One of the first settings for roleplaying games. It began in 1966 when Greg Stafford was trying to pull some wiccan chicks into his wargaming group. Glorantha is based off of themes found in myth rather than from Tolkein's works, and given the fact that Greg is a practicing shaman with a degree in Comparative Religion it's completely batshit. The "world" is a cube floating in an endless sea topped with a dome of stars that is really the underside of a land of gods and myths. As for other planets there are the various moons which seem to do little more than fuck everything up which is fortunately not often (unless other civilisations or cults get in the way). Everything that occurs in Glorantha generally has some sentient being or magical force responsible for it. For example, all rivers flow in any particular direction because a god had decided, been forced, or been bribed to be there (as the god and the river are one in the same). The people/elements/plants/ducks/lizardmen that inhabit Glorantha are generally religious zealots or ingrates that are more than willing to be extorted by any local gods that they have the poor fortune to witness. Aside from these Neanderthals there are a number of civilizations that seem to get by okay when they pool their efforts and trade off with the stronger gods. That is, except for the Lunar Empire, which seems to fuck everyone's shit up by using a mysterious magic known as logical reasoning. Aside from the Lunars, there is also the Orlanthi who follow Orlanth (very original guys) and fought the Lunar Empire in order to get [[King of Dragon Pass|their own videogame]] and spotlight status. Besides these major players, Glorantha contains more individual peoples and places than can be covered in a singular paragraph.

Recently a new, gigantic lore book titled "Guide to Glorantha" was released (12 lbs of lore) and covers everything (generally speaking). Sadly it is only available in pdf format and unlikely to be reprinted, but it did make enough money to keep the setting going with new lore.

For more reading pirate the book on /tg/ or support Greg's retirement fund.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorantha the wikipedia page]

Fighting Fantasy

2017-09-18T14:54:22Z

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Created by Ian Livingstone and the other Steve Jackson (not the one from Texas), Fighting Fantasy is a series of adventure game books from the 1980's. These were the same guys who founded [[Games Workshop]].

Unlike a normal boring book you get to make choices in the story as you are the hero. Usually it's either you succeed or you go down the wrong corridor and die.The story does not progress in a linear fashion but rather is divided into a series of numbered sections. Beginning at the first section, the reader chooses an option (e.g. Section 1 to Section 180) which in turn provides an outcome for the decision and advances the story. Usually. What actually happens is most people read all the potential options, and then pick one. This leads to multiple bookmarks and fingers being jammed in the book.

Also, dice are involved (but not really!) you're supposed to roll two dice during combat but no-one ever does. Sometimes you 'have' to roll dice to pick the next option etc. Keeping your thumb on the page where you are and then flipping back if you mess up and die. Sometimes the authors would put in some maths question to make you think and stop the reader from cheating. (done in ''Return to Firetop Mountain''). In one book you even commanded your own personal army and could have them do the fighting for you (''Armies of Death'').

Awesome illustrations were used to help depict where you were. A variety of books were printed starting with the Warlock of Firetop mountain more titles followed such as The Forest of Doom and Appointment with F.E.A.R (for which UK comic artist Brian Bolland provided the illustrations).

Apart from single player books, several multi-player roleplay books came out such as the Riddling Reaver and Dungeoneer. Art books such as "Out of the Pit" with illustrations by Christos Achilleos were released as well. These multi-player versions were amusing to play since the core rules were not changed much between single and multi-player, so your [[PC|characters]] could do pretty much whatever the fuck they liked with only the occasional need to roll dice, and, since there are only three characteristics in fighting fantasy, it's very easy to get the hang of.

Some ground rules to stay alive in fighting fantasy:
-If your character ever opens a door and the room ''doesn't'' contain a big scary monster, run like hell because [[meme|it's a trap!]].
-never play "''Chasms of Malice''", it gets to the point where you just start counting how many times your character died instead of counting ''stamina'' points. (The current record is 247 deaths before winning)
-never fight an elemental
-never ever fight an earth elemental
-never fight a dragon (obviously) unless you see an obvious way to win, like finding a spell that kills dragons.
-play "''Sorcery!''", it's good, and you can play as a [[wizard]] who (spoiler alert) can accidentally cast a time travel spell that makes you win if you do roll for it right or become trapped in the time of the dinosaurs etc if you roll for it wrong.
-play "''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain''" because it's very much an [[Old School Roleplaying|old-school dungeon crawler]] and the plot is basically a D&D murderhobo who goes off to kill a nice old man in a dungeon and steal his treasure. Always go east.

Also some computer game versions came out, like "Forest of Doom" on the ZX Spectrum and "DeathTrap Dungeon" on the PC and Playstation 1. There was also a mediocre "Warlock of Firetop Mountain" boardgame. Eventually after exhausting the thesarus and dictionary of cool words to send the readers to, the series stopped. Reprints of the fighting fantasy books have since been issued.

"Sorcery" is now available in a pretty nice computerised version in iOS and Steam. It even let's you "put your finger in the book" and rewind a decision that you instantly regret. Part 3 turns the game into an open world with a unique time travel mechanic, which is a refreshing change for those who read the original part 3, and Part 4 taketh away your privilege to rewind time so be warned.

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Glorantha

Fighting Fantasy