I had an experience similar to T. Foster.  I was about burned out on Glorantha by the time KODP came along so I didn't pick it up. I still play Runequest to this day but in different settings.

I'm a huge fan of Stafford's work but HeroQuest did get a little too metaphysical for me.  Plus the elves as walking plants thing never was a favorite of mine.

I may pick up KODP though for nostalgia's sake.

Also, FWIW, I think going back to 2nd Edition Runequest material is the best way to get into Glorantha.  Before it got too weird.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;346563I was interested in Glorantha until I played the computer game. The experience of frequent failure over unforeseeable details I could do nothing about put me off.

Ah, but that's the beauty of KoDP. It's a deep immersion into the viscitudes of leading a highly religious, iron-age tribe. You have to manage barely reconcilable factions and interests, in a hostile and potently-magical world. There are often no right answers among the choices presented to you - only hardwon experience of how to mitigate disaster. KoDP does not challenge your analytical skills - it challenges your wisdom in the face of savage adversity. There's no game like it.

Mate, if I want to experience constant incomprehension of events around me and harsh choices between simple failure or utter disaster I don't need a computer game, I have my life.

Quote from: Haffrung;346637KoDP does not challenge your analytical skills - it challenges your wisdom in the face of savage adversity.

I have not seen it put that way yet, but it rings true. The strategic aspect of KotDP mostly comes out in the longer term, in questions like "will I have enough potent heroes in the next generation when my current advisors become old and frail?" When it comes together, it is really satisfying (obviously, if you reload after failures, you pretty much kill that part of the game). When it doesn't, it can still be interesting. After a while, the game does run out of new situations, but it takes a long time to get there.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;346639Mate, if I want to experience constant incomprehension of events around me and harsh choices between simple failure or utter disaster I don't need a computer game, I have my life.

Okay, that may be my favorite quote of the year.

QuoteOn the positive side of things, it helps inspire a real sense of the vicissitudes of superstition, which I came to enjoy.

I think this may be the cause of my passion for KoDP. No other interative fiction I tried felt so fantastic but, at the same time, so humanly resonant. It seems to me that under all that fantasy and magical milieu, there is a core that is (scaringly) human, in the way things work.


(sorry if I coulndt express myself better. Im brazilian and my english is pretty rusted nowadays)