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We just posted the full finished pic in the latest update over on the 13th Age in Glorantha Kickstarter, so here are the Monkey Ruins in all their glory:

Something we announced at our RuneQuest panel at UK Games Expo on the weekend: we're bringing out a GLORANTHA QUICKSTART to go along with the RuneQuest Quickstart. It will be a user-friendly introduction to Greg Stafford's epic campaign world, ideal for newcomers to the wonders of Glorantha. This is an excerpt of the cover (still a work-in-progress). It's by the amazingly talented Andre Fetisov, who also did the RQ Quickstart cover. It depicts the storm god Orlanth and his thanes, an assemblage of heroes and heroquesters (our warrior on the right has graduated from killing rock lizards...)

Andrey's Monkey Ruins pic is shaping up beautifully! A few tweaks to be made to the foreground, but here's the top 1/4 of the piece:

Actually, you are Talar, an outer atomic explorer, who crash lands in Prax centuries after your journey began. Your companions have their INT fixed and become herd men. You escape the baboons at Monkey Ruins, then you ride off with a beautiful herd girl. As you ride along the coast you recognize an oddly reassembled statue from your "Godlearner" era, allowing you to suddenly realize you're home, and that those bastards blew it all to hell...

Over on the G+ Group @Steve has been reading the Guide to Glorantha. I asked if anyone was interested in taking part in a group read and discussion of the Guide to Glorantha, so here's my proposal. I've split Volume 1 up in to 16 weeks worth of reading. I've tried to keep it even and not too taxing - this is reading an Encyclopaedia not a piece of roaring fiction. This will also help us in the discussion here as too much stuff will get lost if we read too much. Just like a book circle/reading group, every week we will read a section on our own. Please make some notes, you might like to base them on some that book circles use (i edited this down, but it should give you an idea): What is different from your own culture? What do you find most surprising, intriguing or difficult to understand? What are the implications for the future? Are there long- or short-term consequences to the issues raised in the book? Are they positive or negative...affirming or frightening? Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...? What was memorable? What have you learned after reading this section? We won't be limiting the chat to just the text, it will cover art and maps too. I've also all the stuff that went into making the guide, not limited to just the sections I worked on. I may be able to show some scrappy maps, hand drawn art and bits that were left out along the way - no promises though! At the beginning of the week, i'll start a new thread and list the sections at the top. If you want to comment / add you opinion / etc, all I ask is that you've actually read the section. Coming in from the outside without that is not the point of this, but you can of course just go and read the section or join later, drop in and out etc. Here are the weekly sections (Page counts approximate!): Week 1 17 Pages World Structure 7 Introduction 8 Week 2 19 pages Major Cultures 18 Hsunchen Culture 18 Doraddi Culture 22 Praxian Culture 26 Orlanthi Culture 31 Week 3 20 pages Pelorian Culture 38 4 pages Fonritian Culture 43 5 pages Western Culture 48 6 pages Kralori Culture 54 5 pages Week 4 18 pages Elder Races 59 Aldryami 59 Dragonewts 70 Dragons 77 Week 5 21 pages The Mostali 81 The Uz 91 Merfolk 103 Week 6 18 pages Lesser Elder Races 106 Time in Glorantha 111 Mythos & History 113 Week 7 24 pages The Dawn Age 125 The Second Age 132 The Third Age 140 Week 8 12 pages Major Pantheons 150 The Hero Planes. 154 Beyond the Middle World 158 Regions of Glorantha 163 Week 9 34 pages Genertela 166 Dragon Pass 168 Sartar 172 Tarsh 175 The Grazelanders 175 Elder Wilds 191 Week 10 32 pages Fronela 199 Kingdom of Loskalm 203 Akem 212 Junora 215 Janube River States 216 Jonatela 222 Northern Fronela 229 Week 11 14 pages Holy Country 234 Caladraland 243 Esrolia 244 Shadow Plateau 244 Heortland 245 God Forgot 248 Week 12 31 pages Kralorela 260 Boshan Province 268 Hanjan Province 272 Hum Chang Province 275 Jaubon Province 279 Puchai Province 281 Shiyang Province 283 Wanzow Province 285 Chen Durel, the Bliss of Ignorance 286 Week 13 29 pages Lunar Empire 292 The Lunar Heartland 299 First Blessed 307 Darjiin 309 Doblian 310 Karasal 311 Kostaddi 313 Oraya 314 Oronin 316 Silver Shadow 317 Sylila 319 Carmania 322 Week 14 23 pages Lunar Provinces 328 Aggar 331 Holay 335 Imther 338 Vanch 339 Talastar 341 Dorastor 342 Lunar Allies 344 Week 15 22 pages Maniria 350 Pent 363 Week 16 24 pages Ralios 373 Safelster 375 Vesmonstran 387 East Wilds 393 to 398 ---- I'll be reading my PDF of the Guide to avoid arm strain. If you don't have copy, you can get one here: http://www.chaosium.com/the-guide-to-glorantha-pdf/ If you want the print copy in its lovely slip case: http://www.chaosium.com/the-guide-to-glorantha-pdf/ I will give you all notice of the timings and we'll start in a few weeks - likely a week Monday - 26th July.

Personally, it's also a bit sobering for me to think I was involved in the first completely new Glorantha scenarios to appear for Chaosium/AH RuneQuest (Sun County, which came out eight years after the launch of RQIII) and the last (in Strangers in Prax), 23 years ago. We are going to ensure our new edition has plenty of Gloranthan scenarios to play from the go-get.

That is indeed what the Quickstart said. I have qualified that prior with the statement that the QS represents a compressed version of the rules that both tried to hit the "normal" level of crunchiness for the system, but also was playable in a short session with new players. It also represents the state of the rules in (IIRC) early February when it was written. At that time, we were tweaking some existing rules. The feedback then was very pro- weapon/shield damage. People liked the inevitable wear and tear on weapons and their gear, and the playtests were very enthusiastic about things like shields being cloven, etc. Here's the text from the current iteration of the rules dealing with just these issues: Summary of Combat Actions Attack A regular success does normal rolled damage plus damage modifier. A special success does special damage (impaling, slashing, crushing) plus damage modifier. A critical success ignores armor and does special damage plus damage modifier. Dodge A successful Dodge roll avoids any damage. A special success with a Dodge roll is required to avoid a special success attack, and a critical success Dodge roll is required to avoid a critical success attack. Parry A successful parry always blocks an attack, whether the attack is a regular, special, or critical success. In each case, the attacker rolls damage. If the damage is below the parrying weapon/shield’s hit points, no damage is done. If damage exceeds parrying weapon/shield’s hit points, excess damage always goes to an adjacent hit location on the defender (see page @@) and the parrying weapon/shield loses 1 hit point. When parrying an attack that rolled a special success, the excess damage above the parrying weapon/shield goes to an adjacent hit location on the defender (see page @@) and the parrying weapon/shield loses the same amount of hit points. A parry vs. an impaling attack might mean the attacker’s weapon is stuck into the shield (see page @@). When parrying a critical success, rolled damage is applied directly to the parrying weapon/shield’s hit points. If it exceeds the hit points, the parrying weapon/shield is destroyed. Any excess damage goes to an adjacent location on the defender, and armor is not subtracted. A special parry vs. a normal attack allows the defender to roll the parrying weapon/shield’s damage and compare it to the attacking weapon’s hit points. If the damage done from the parry exceeds the attacking weapon’s hit points, it takes 1 hit point of damage. A critical parry versus a normal or special attack will apply the parrying weapon/shield’s damage directly to the attacker’s weapon. A critical parry vs. a critical attack avoids all damage altogether. Each subsequent parry after the first is reduced by –20%, cumulatively. A weapon or shield cannot be used to attack and/or parry in the same strike rank, nor can one be used to attack and/or parry more than once in the same strike rank.

I can say from personal experience that as you reach a certain age, the speed of thought adds an extra strike rank

A new RuneQuest Design Notes from Jeff, outlining some of the refinements to the rules we're making, based on the Free RPG Day feedback: http://www.chaosium.com/blog/designing-the-new-runequest-part-17

Week 0 of the Guide to Glorantha Group Read commences. You've got until next Monday 26th June to read up to and including page 17 which includes: The Cover, The Forward, World Structure and Introduction. You can find the full weekly structure here: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/6388-group-read-of-the-guide-to-glorantha/ Don't forget the reading also includes looking at the art and maps. Make a few notes about what interests you, what you like dislike, or just what you think is cool. I will start the discussion thread here next week on Monday 26th June likely the evening (GMT+1) please don't start until then.

Black Horse At the start of the Third Age, Seshnela sank, and the Red Moon was born, which doomed the Carmanian Empire. The worship of the Invisible God in Peloria was left in the hands of mercenary captains who acted as Priests and Knights for their troops. One of these mercenary captains was Sir Ethilrist. Sir Ethilrist was a mercenary captain from Ralios, a descendant of the Hero Arkat. After a series of defeats, he led his Troop across the great mountains, through the Syndics Ban, and into the Lunar Empire. To avoid the Ban, he led his troop through Hell. When they left Ralios they were the White Horse Troop. When they emerged on the western borders of the empire they were the Black Horse Troop, and Ethilrist was a Hero. The Black Horses of the Black Horse Troop were taken from the herds started when the Sun was a resident of Hell. The conditions of Hell made for a very different breed of horse, to the extent that they are carnivorous and capable of fighting with bite and claw like a cat. They are also heavily armored naturally and can see in the dark like Trolls. A new Black Horse is not foaled until one has died, for only a set number of Black Horse spirits, 2600 to be exact, were taken from Hell. The Black Horses are pitch black in color, and instead of hooves, they have fierce claws like a cat. Their teeth are sharp. They are found only in Black Horse County or with the Black Horse Troop. The characteristics of the Black Horses are as follows: Black Horse Characteristics Average STR 3D6+24 33-36 Move 12 CON 1D6+12 15-16 Hit Points 20-21 SIZ 2D6+24 31 Magic Points 15-16 POW 3D6+6 15-16 Base SR 2 INT 3D6 10–11 DEX 4D6 14 CHA 3D6 10-11 Location D20 Armor/HP Right Hind Leg 01–02 5/6 Left Hind Leg 03–04 5/6 Hindquarter 05–07 5/8 Forequarter 08–10 5/8 Right Fore Leg 11–13 5/6 Left Fore Leg 14–16 5/6 Head 17–20 5/7 Weapon % Damage SR Pts Bite 75 3D6 6 Claw 60 1D6+3D6 6 – Rear & Plunge 60 2D6+3D6 6 – Note: A Black Horse may attack with its Bite and Claw simultaneously, or may make a Rear & Plunge attack. Armor: 5 points of shadowy hide. Spells: A black horse usually has spirit magic spells equal to its CHA.

So I finally caved and bought this today now begins the long read

Justice League or Sartar or Orlanthers Assemble!

The Glorantha Quickstart will be 48 pages, like the RQ Quickstart. Also like the RQ Quickstart it will be available free in PDF and at a very reasonable cost for print. We haven't got a firm release date yet, but it will be out before the core rules are.

Yes, we have bananas...

The entire work is profoundly inspired by the original Trollpak, obviously, and nearly all of the original material will appear in to the new version. Book 1 has by far the majority of the previously-existing material. Even so, more than half of book 1 is brand new, containing detailed advice and hooks for using Uz in your regular campaigns, two well-detailed troll Clans, and six all-new adventures (with a couple nods to old favorites) suitable for a typical adventuring party (heheh - "typical" adventurers). Book 2 then deep dives into Uz culture, religion, and everything you need to know to play troll Uz characters from the Uz point of view. Big Clan and Char creation sections, with detailed Job descriptions, and cult write-ups for the Seven Sacred Ancestors, and other important troll gods and ancestors. It has a series of adventures for a party of young trolls, set in the Great Caves region, focussing on clan life and Uz culture. Book 3 gives a broader description of Dagori Inkarth, with encounters and a massively expanded description of the Redstone Caverns, detailing the seven major clans, Cult writeups that didn't fit in book 2, and even several of the Uzuz residents of the deepest caves. It then takes the campaign from Book 2 in several unexpected new directions, culminating in one of the definitive events of the Hero Wars. Work continues, with a few exciting developments that I am not certain are meant to be public just yet.

For me personally, I really enjoy the author's work. Plus he seems like a really nice guy and I wanted to support him so he'll make more. Rod

I would have thought Derik and the Pol Joni would open for the Broo Fighters.

Australian Indigenous art is by no means a single tradition - central dessert dot painting and 'map' or 'track' art, Northern coast 'x-ray' bark painting, ochre body painting designs. representational cave painting, etc. And of course a lot of interesting evolving traditions via contact with European and other cultures too. I'm guessing you mean the 'map' or 'track' style, which is symbolic rather than strictly representational (though the symbols mostly represent tracks), except you specifically say not dot painting, which makes it sound like you mean something else? That sort of art would be a good match - part of its role is to record maps of important landmarks used to navigate around the big empty deserts. Though it also records stories, often at the same time - a story often involves a lot of travel and the series of sites where various events happen is the story in geographical form. This reminds me of great story from when we lived in Central Australia, actually. My wife (who is a doctor) attended a discussion/lecture in which the indigenous healers (some might call them shamans, their own word is ngangkari), many of whom do not speech English and have to be translated, are discussing their role and work - how they generally accept Western medicine is best for many physical ailments, but they still have many duties, including healing the sadness caused when a traveller leaves part of their soul behind and the ngangkari must travel far to retrieve and return it. A member of the audience asks how they know that someone needs them to perform this duty when they may be hundreds of kilometres away. Once the question is translated for them, they look at the questioner like he is an idiot - and hold up a mobile phone.

Ok, I want to chime in here. I was gone for a while, playing Monte Cook's Cypher System. I also tried out the Entropic Gaming System. The most fun during the last two years I actually had with XPG (Airship Daedalus). I must admit, all the above systems are good. They all do something very good, other things not so. But whatever I was playing, I always thought: it was so easy using BRP for this or that. And it was purely that I was pissed about what Chaosium did to the Big Golden Book, when I turned to these other systems. It was their decision to do what they had to do. But putting all that aside: I am still thinking the BRP rule system is awesome. Nothing can really beat it, in terms of my playing style - except maybe Alephtar's Revolution D100. And that is the system I am using since it came out. It can be narrative, it can be crunchy - just as you need it in your story (or depending on your players style). I still love the BRP, but I found a successor. I am still able to use all my BRP settings and books, but I am supporting a company now that was putting out a lot of good setting books for the BRP system in the past. I never was a fan of Glorantha. And I am not a fan of RuneQuest either. I do not like Fantasy RPG's at all. So I am glad I found a company which is releasing good non-fantasy setting books for a good system. For a system I feel comfortable with. Anyway, this is not a rant about what Chaosium did or did not or does or what Alephtar is doing better. I just wanted to share my opinion about the BRP game family in general and how you will always come back to one of its incarnations, once you are infected with the BRP virus. It might take you some years to realise how fluent BRP games play (not read), and how players do not need to be bound by detailed rules to play a character, who feels real and alive. At the table most players forget about these detailed rules anyway, once an action scene comes up. Also, I want to say the BRP rule system(s) won't be anything without the community - and without this forum. Thanks for the volunteers who keep it up and running and thanks to the community which is an excellent example how a game system some people do not even know it is still around, can survive dire times. I'm back on board.

There seems an awful lot of over-analyzing going on here. Here's what pretty much every Praxian cult agrees upon: Prax was once Genert's Garden, the richest and lushest part of Glorantha. It was destroyed by the Devil, and exists at all because of the sacrifices made by Storm Bull and Eiritha. Despite that sacrifice, we all would have died but for Waha. He made the Covenant so man and beasts could survive in Prax. He made the Good Canal to drain away the Devil's poison. And so on. Each cult has their own gloss and secrets to attach to that. Storm Bull knows that Orlanth is his brother and ally. Eiritha knows that Ernalda is her mother. The Praxians also know about IFWW, about Orlanth, Humakt, and Yelm, etc. But these stories coexist with other stories - they have 1600 years of nearly continuous contact with Dragon Pass (admittedly broken from 1120 to 1350 or so) and so these are not classified as "Praxian stories" and "Outlander stories".

Hi, I've published a review of the RuneQuest Quickstart. This time in English. https://elruneblog.blogspot.com.es/2017/06/a-review-of-runequest-quickstart.html I have enjoyed reading it and I hope I can run the adventure soon, maybe I'll insert it in my Prax-Pavis campaign. In the review I also present some ideas of what sort of FrankenQuest I would build now.

Of course the ship has painted eyes. How else would it know where to go?

You need to know about Ouranekki http://www.glorantha.com/for-those-who-are-interested-heres-my-base-sketch-for-a-sixth-wane-ouranekki-board-note-the-strong/ Board, pieces and rules: Ouranekki.pdf Go to G+ and search for Ouranekki, @Charles did a great piece of work on that.

Keep in mind, if I say something is new, then it's new to me. I do not posses all available Glorantha sources, let alone that I would have read them all. So here are my notes to the week 1 read: Book Jacket: Great illustration, which immediately triggers my curiosity. I can identify Harrek, the Berserker and Jar-Eel the Razoress, but who are the two other figures, which you can see, if you hold the book top down? But this is the Guide (sic!) to Glorantha, and therefore this question is answered immediately on the inside of the book jacket: they are Can Shu, the Exarch of Ignorance and Cragspider, the Firewitch. Title page: Kind of Atlas figure carrying the stars, the heaven on his shoulders. Another mysterious sight for the not (yet) inaugurated reader. An impressive list of authors, co-authors, and illustrators. Many names I know from other Glorantha publications. And the usual protection blessing, this time through Lhankor Mhy (how appropriate). pp. 2+3: another impressive list of names, this time the supporters of the Kickstarter for the Guide. And some of the people I know even personally. p. 4: and another list of supporters … plus an illustration depicting a (religious) harvest procession … very appropriate, as the existence of this Guide is something, you really have to celebrate. p. 5: the table of contents for Volume I … gives a first impression, what to expect p. 6: the foreword tells a short version of the nearly 50 years old history about how Glorantha was initially discovered by Greg Stafford and explored and refined over the years by him and a lot of other people. Told by Greg Stafford himself. Nice details, not known before. It also tells, how the vision of one man became the vision of many – which explains the long lists of contributors and Kickstarter supporters on the first pages. p.7: a map of the World of Glorantha, nothing new here, but an awesome colouring of the map. Plus a short description of Glorantha and its structure, which is quite similar to the description found in the Glorantha book of Runequest III. pp. 8-9,11: The first part of this Introduction is quite similar to the beginning of the 'Editor’s Introduction' in the Glorantha book from RuneQuest III box Glorantha: Genertela, Crucible of the Hero Wars. The section about 'Types of Civilization' starts similar to the section 'Levels of Civilization' in the same Glorantha book, but instead of the former descriptions of 'Human Racial Types' (which appear later in the Guide) the four civilization types are listed. These descriptions seem to be based on similar descriptions of the civilization types in the Player’s Book of the Genertela box, but are summarized descriptions of these civilization types only, although updated and improved. Especially the term Barbarian has been changed to Chiefdom. Descriptions have been also made more generic, because they do not describe anymore Genertelan types only. The following sections ('Magic and Religion', 'Demographics and Population Growth', 'Life and Death' and 'Social Organization and Politics') seem to be again quite similar to the same text passages in the 'Editor’s Introduction' in the Glorantha book from Glorantha: Genertela, Crucible of the Hero Wars. A bit restructured and adapted, but mostly the same. p. 9: boxed text 'Four Paths to Magic'. Basic description of the four types of magic existing in Glorantha. No new contents, but a very useful summary I’ve never seen before in that form. p. 10: The 'Cosmology of Glorantha'. Great illustration plus explanation of what you see in this illustration. p. 11: new 'Magic and Warfare' sidebox. pp. 11, 13-15: The 'Economic' section is much more extended in comparison to the respective section in the Genertela box. New section about 'International Trade'. Contains a very picturesque description of a large market like in Nochet. New section about 'Gloranthan Warfare' with useful descriptions of Light and Heavy Infantry and Cavalry. New sidebox about 'Sea Trade'. p. 12: boxed text 'Coins in Glorantha'. Very nice overview with descriptions and very convincing example illustrations of some coins commonly used in Central Genertela. Illustrations could be from a museum catalog. New from my perspective and very useful for getting an idea, how the coins in Genertela look like. pp. 14+15: The 'Harrek and Jar-Eel' fresko. Great illustration, which shows both Heroes in their mundane as well as in their mythical form. Surrounded by (new) boxed texts describing the Heroes as well as the details of the illustration. Creates a good impression who and what these two Heroes are. Also contained is a description of the Red Goddess. p. 16: boxed text 'Bones of the Gods'. Slightly revised and enhanced version of a text from the Secrets Book in the RuneQuest III box Elder Secrets. pp.16+17: All sections on these pages ('Adventurers in the World of Glorantha', 'Human Racial Types' and 'Physical Nature') are revised and adapted (mainly avoiding references to the RuneQuest game system) texts from the 'Editor’s Introduction' in the Glorantha book from the RuneQuest III box Glorantha: Genertela, Crucible of the Hero Wars. The boxed text 'An Analysis of the Crystals of the Gods' is the reprint of a document from the Nochet Knowledgs Temple. First seen in the Secrets Book contained in the RuneQuest III box Elder Secrets.

We are pleased to have appointed a new director of marketing and media, the writer, journalist and editor Lillian Cohen-Moore. Lillian's extensive RPG writing and editing credits include releases for White Wolf, Paizo, Atlas Games, Catalyst Game Labs, and many others. Lillian was also a Gen Con 2014 'Industry Insider', along with Greg Stafford and Ken Hite. Over on the Stafford Codex (Greg Stafford's personal site), Greg's got the transcript and audio of the panel they did together at the con. They discuss how the act of creating, exploring, and defining a game world resembles the creation and exploration of myth. Well worth checking out! http://www.staffordcodex.com/news/2015/1/1/gaming-as-mythic-exploration-gencon-2014-audio-and-transcript

I'm amazed I actually came across the RuneQuest Quickstart here in Brisbane; wonders will never cease...! People should be aware that it really doesn't contain any char gen process, it only discusses the role of abilities, hit points, magic points, etc. However its not designed to make characters, as it is essentially a scenario with some pre-gen characters ready to go. It's a great introduction to the setting, the characters are very Gloranthan, and the setting is perfect for beginning characters. The Quickstart does provide a brief overview of the combat rules, and has a page or so of spot rules, and it's perfectly serviceable to run the scenario. It also covers a few very important new rules such a Passions and Runes, and how to use them to augment abilities and such. On the topic of such, Passions work like they do in Pendragon and Mythras. It is a good idea to bring Passions into the classic RQ line, as these have really helped flesh out character motivations in my other games, and not having them would fall short for me now.. But the work of sheer brilliance in these rules is the notion of porting Pendragon's Personality Traits into Runes, it's both old and new at the same time. I'm surprised how much these rules feel like an organic extension of the classic line of RQ. I remember back in the 1990s I was always hoping Greg Stafford would somehow port some of his Pendragon concepts over to RuneQuest. So in a sense it looks like this is happening now. Instead of waiting until RQG, anyone with the RQ Classic book (RQ2) could easily just update by adding this RQ Quickstart to those rules. You could probably do likewise with RQ3, although the stat values appear more in synch with RQ2's calculations, which only means sometimes opponents may have one or two extra Hit Points over their RQ3 counterparts. But RQ Classic+RQG Quickstart should work really well; at least for the next six months until RQG hits the shelves. Anyway I thought I would only ever see this product in pdf form, so I'm so happy I managed to grab a copy. So good to see the cover artwork in the flesh. Really starting to feel that RQG is on its way now

The baboons of the Monkey Ruins say the fallen ape-head statue in the background is of the great Apeymandius, King of Kings, look on my works ye Mighty, and despair, etc... Others (Philip Robin Hibbs) claim the Monkey King's name was actually Ozymandrill...

@HorusArisen i dont own classic fantasy and my only experience with mythras so far has been with m-space however i did get to play classic fantasy last year at gen con. it was like old dnd on steroids. we had a ton of fun. it took some time to get the hang of its not hack n slash and i didnt have a ton of hit points in a pool to use. i think everyone at the table i was at was first time players of mythras and classic fantasy. the next day i was at a table waiting for the gm and overheard one of the players from my game of classic fantasy the other day telling his friends at the table next to me how awesome the game was. was it just the gm and his abilities? was it the classic fantasy system and the way it simulates classic dnd? or was it a combination of the 2? we may never know but i can say that that one guy was super excited about classic fantasy and was spreading the word about it. if that person who didnt know what classic fantasy was, but had bought the ticket in order to fill his time slot was that excited about it after playing it that one time what do you think the chances of your players enjoying it much like him will be?

Please note what was said in the original post - this is an excerpt of a work-in-progress. When finished, the whole pic will be three times larger than the screen grab here. BTW I see two women in the excerpt, and the one at Orlanth's side is wearing the same armour as the warrior on the cover of the RuneQuest Quickstart, because she is the same person. And that armour is a direct homage to Luise Perrine's wonderful cover art for the original Chaosium editions of the game.

We have included that article in this version. Plus I got permission from John T. Sapienze Jr. to include his review article. Those will be in the revised version due out shortly.

Actually, you are making it more complex than it is. At chargen you pick three special Rune spells (or more if you sacrificed additional points of POW for additional Rune points). Not three "points" of Rune magic, but three spells. If you pick a stackable spell, you can stack it. You get Shield, not Shield 1, then Shield 2, etc. If you pick a three-point Rune spell, great! It just means that one of your spells requires all your starting Rune points to cast. If you sacrifice for another Rune point, you can take another spell - one point, two point, three point, stackable, no difference. This is NOT intended to be a balancing mechanism (balance is provided by the limited number of Rune points). It is merely intended to make the spell options manageable for new players.

I thought I knew the authors, but I haven't yet met Jason Richard or Jeff Durall... Given the gaffes in describing the setting as new or Roman, I would say this is an unbiased review by someone completely unfamiliar with either RQ or Glorantha. Which means that the new approach works for absolute newcomers.

In the next week I'm polishing up some Ravenloft material I have been sitting on and I need someplace to put it. I haven't been active on message boards at all recently. I have a thread that I was using over at RPGNet but it has been pretty dormant for a while now. Additionally, the occasional recommendations that I just run it using D&D were a little annoying. So here's a preview. I hope to nail everything down by the end of next week. I'd like to have everything ready for players soon. I'll probably continue to tweak things far into the future. Any comments or advice is welcome. Enjoy.

My reply for every case is STORY FIRST!!

The player can always choose to refuse the call of a Rune or Passion - but that can result in a reduction of its rating. If you have been taking the advantages of having an Air Rune at 95% (with a great chance of casting Rune magic, augments, etc.) and then choose to refuse the call of the Air Rune when it is inconvenient, then you have just proven that you don't have the Air Rune at 95%! Same thing with passions - you say you have an Honor or Loyalty to your clan at 90%, but choose to do something else when it is inconvenient, then odds are your passion will go down.

I have quite a few ideas for developing the Scourged Earth, and will most likely do so gradually. So it isn't dead yet, and I'm glad it's piqued your interest.

Next Saturday- 17th June, Tony Parry and I will be running two tables of the Runequest quickstart, hosted by Cardiff's FLGS Rules of Play. So we'll be able to accommodate up to 10 players. Details on time and venue will follow, as it won't be held at the store itself- there's a card event going on which brings in "real money". So the Runequest loving owner is looking for a suitable venue to hire. Once we have that, I'll let you know the arrangements. I know we have a fair few people who'd love to try to new edition out in South Wales, hopefully we'll see you on the day. Andrew

It's back! Intro page for now, a proper page next week. http://www.princeofsartar.com/comic/introduction-chapter-6/

I'm hearing 'Bennie and The Jets': "He's got Lamellar Boots, and a Chainmail Suit, He's as bad as you've ever seen - D-D-D-Derek and The Pol-Joni! Derek! Derek! Derek! Derek, and The Pol-Joni!" (keep repeating and fade out) Now you hear it, it can't be unheard

Well there will be now.

This makes me think I should get on doing a Mythras series for YouTube demonstrating a variety of aspects of it. Talked about doing it with a couple folks on various boards

I have been talking to an author (one you know, actually, Hannu), who proposed a good, gonzo, sword and sorcery scenario that would fit perfectly into Monster Island. So there is a possibility.

Following our call for Game Masters, we're excited that over 60 people have volunteered. This means next weekend we'll have mythic adventures taking place in game stores all across the world, including the USA, Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Sweden, Spain, France, Portugal and Puerto Rico. Todd will be sending the GMs the PDF of the RuneQuest Quickstart shortly, so they can get themselves ready. http://www.chaosium.com/blog/runequest-worldwide-for-free-rpg-day/

In fact I'm not the right one to tell you for different reasons: this was my first Runequest session after a long, long time (probably around 30 years) ... I thought and still think the story and the Gamemaster as well as the players are more important than the used rule set ... during the last years I concentrated on HeroQuest Glorantha, because that's supporting my approach to role playing games so perfectly ... But besides that: as far as I can say, yes, it felt like Runequest, in fact even more so, because Runes played a much more important part than in previous versions (as far as I remember ). So the 'updates' (that I could identify) improved the rules. And it definitely feels very Gloranthan, which makes it very attractive to me. Fighting did not take too much time and was overall short and effective (if not to say deadly, because it was not in all cases ). The pre-generated characters in some cases gave me a suprisingly new view on how to define certain character types like Lhankor Mhy sages or Ernalda priestesses (but that may be just my personal view). The history of the pre-generated characters was created using the new rules for character history and gave them a background, which made them immediately more interesting. The new passions did drive the actions of some of the characters, which supported real role playing. Overall it was real fun to play through this scenario. So I liked it and I will definitely give it a try as soon as the rules are available.

Anthony Boyd shares his unboxing of 'Parallel Lines' - an extremely touching video. Thank you Anthony! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX4fxTyAn84&feature=youtu.be

And by way of comparison, here's the Mission beside the frontage of a far grander temple, such as the one built at Elkoi. (The larger temple is not square but built in the hexastyle peripteral style.)

I don't think so. Of course it's being over-analyzed. This a forum for Gloranthaphiles.

So I have made some decisions and wanted to share them out. All good things. Kaerune' is now Skae (pr. sky-a). Skaemyr was too close to Skyrim and Skaerune' too close to RQ (IMO, no one said anything to me). I want Skae to stand on it's own as a fantastic game and world. I feel very good about this, better than any of the other names. There will be a new and updated version of Salt Mine Blues, I hope by the end of July. Sooner if possible. I am also keeping Sorcery for Skae, but Soul Magic and Weirding are changing and being combined into one. Still working out the details here. It will all be called Weird Magic. Additionally the smithing / crafting magic will become the third kind of available magic for characters. Have not landed on a proper name for it yet. There will be a master (and free) Quest21 Rulebook and SRD. The book will be out before the SRD. I have an artist working on the cover for Runed Worlds. It will be a bit retro and I am happy with how it is looking. Speaking of covers, here is the new one for Salt Mine Blues

Dodge and Jump are both primarily built on muscle reaction and exertion, hence the base chance being based primarily on the raw characteristic. Orate and Persuade are skills one learns through social interaction. You can have a naturally high CHA and have no idea about public speaking, such as creating a convincing argument and keeping an audience rapt, or figuring out how to sway someone in the short-term that helping you is in their best interests. There are many, many real-world examples of people that are attractive and charming, and yet come across as complete idiots when speaking publicly... but I am hard-pressed to fink of examples of highly-agile people who are not good at jumping and feats of body-eye coordination (like dodging).