Nick Brooke

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

He is probably arrogant and doesn't interact with common people. He is King of Pavis so has people to talk to other people. He is surrounded by his bodyguards and council, so he listens to them. When he talks to other people, they are summoned to his Council. 

So, he would be arrogant, driven, power-hungry, almost desperate, probably volatile.

I make that two votes for Cleopatra. Any more?

Thanks, @Malin! Customer ratings and reviews are always welcome on DriveThruRPG (but note that you have to wait 24 hours after purchase before you can leave a rating, to rein in some weird online behaviours). If you liked reading that, you'll probably enjoy Crimson King as well.

NEWS FLASH: I've cut 20% off the price of both print versions of A Rough Guide to Glamour for the duration of the sale. (English language only, je suis désolé / ごめんなさい)

There are great discounts on loads of Miskatonic Repository digital community content products for Call of Cthulhu in the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales at DriveThruRPG!

My psychedelic epic mini-campaign Black Spear is currently 40% off in PDF; I've thrown in a 20% discount on the print editions, because I'm nice like that.

On 11/17/2023 at 3:52 PM, tooley1chris said:

Who has experience with Print on Demand? I used LuLu to get my ISBN but have only published on DTRPG.

LOOKS like POD on DTRPG is a bit of a pain, takes longer, and might not be as good quality as LuLu.

Wondering what thoughts are in this from experienced user, please. 

I've prepared about 120 books for POD on DTRPG. What problems are you having?

I think that ship has sailed.  

I like this take from Drew: The White Bull.

There are great discounts on loads of Jonstown Compendium digital community content products for RuneQuest and Glorantha in the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales at DriveThruRPG!

Not sure what to get? Then pick up my free guide to the Best-Selling Jonstown Compendium titles over the last twelve months. Or for the programme’s all-time best-sellers, there’s always my JC Catalogue and JC Index…

I will have multiple copies of (newest print releases listed first in each programme):

JONSTOWN COMPENDIUM / RUNEQUEST & GLORANTHA
Nochet: Queen of Cities
Pavis County: Secrets of the Borderlands
Old Pavis: The City that Time Forgot
Furthest: Crown Jewel of Lunar Tarsh
New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever
Voralans: The Black Elves of Glorantha
Edge of Empire
DuckPac Books 1&2
The Children of Hykim
The Seven Tailed Wolf (Six Seasons, Book 3)
The Six Paths
Men of the West
The Armies & Enemies of Dragon Pass
Black Spear
Six Seasons in Sartar

MISKATONIC REPOSITORY / CALL OF CTHULHU
Japan: Empire of Shadows
William Bailey's Haunted Mansion
Al-Azif Unearthed: The Unraveling
In Strange Seas Compendium
Zgrozy: From Beyond
Idol of Thoth
Horror at El Dorado Royale
Spark of Life
Whispers from Wavering Hills
Swamp Song
Dream House / Of Wrath and Blood
Phantom of Wilson Creek
Castle of Greed
Host and Hostility
Branches of Bone
My Little Sister
Grindhouse: Ultimate Collection
Viral
Of Sorrow and Clay
Dragon of Wantley
Dockside Dogs
Heinrich's Guide to Character Creation
Hammersmith Haunting
Sorrow in Tsavo
Full Fathom Five

And I'll have single copies of forty more best-selling print-on-demand titles, to show off and sell. If you desperately want a specific title, please turn up early to avoid disappointment. The trading floors open at 10:00am.

The prices at Dragonmeet will be based on DriveThruRPG website prices, converted into pounds, plus a contribution to our bulk shipping costs (which is all but certain to be less than you'd pay if you bought them online). The books are in standard colour (where available), usually in softcover (where available), so if you have your heart set on another format, you may need to order it online.

All creators will receive their usual share of royalties after the show.

It's Thanksgiving: I should mention that Chaosium can only do this through the great generosity of DriveThruRPG and the enthusiastic support we receive from our creators, fans and customers. Thank you all.

13 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

i don’t know why, but I am imagining the place overrun by very small, very polite newtlings. Hordes of the things. Maybe some tribble-like reproduction gone haywire. They mean no harm, and they look up at you with big innocent eyes, but they are everywhere — how are they to be fed? And they are people, so you cannot just exterminate them like rats. Probably a terrible idea.

I can guess why. (Unintended consequence of success in Black Spear, Act IV.)

It’s a hefty tome… and it’s in good company.

It’s a hefty tome…

5 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Argenteus is a walking example of why the White Moonies are right.

“Fascinating, Citizen. Your freedom of speech is, of course, enshrined in Imperial law. Please, step this way and explain your theories to us at greater length. My associate will take notes. This is entirely voluntary, at first, and you are welcome to invite your friends and family: the more, the merrier!”

5 minutes ago, Jens said:

Jar-Eel always struck me as almost more of an incarnation of the Red Goddess than an independent agent- born after generations of a careful breeding project, allows the Red Goddess to have more direct influence than other Gods usually do. But as @Nick Brooke points out, this does fail at a critical moment, although Jar-Eel has had decades of exemplary service before then. 

You think that's a "failure"? I think it's exemplary Lunar behaviour. Love over War. Do what your heart tells you is right, even as Emperors and Warlords shout about their Duty. And what's so Lunar about "exemplary service," anyway? Betraying allies when they least expect it is another manifestation of the Moon Goddess... Orlanth couldn't have slain Yelm without assistance from Annilla, the Blue Moon Goddess of assassinations and conspiracies.

A ROUGH GUIDE TO GLAMOUR describes the Monster Coliseum on page 17 (illustrated by Simon Bray). The Mortal Gladiatorial Contests are held in Earth Season, "a popular favourite with sports fans."

LIFE OF MOONSON, BOOK ONE includes the masked gladiator "Hunter" and mentions his nemesis, the Tentacled Gladiator.

A poster in the entrance passage of the Insula from CITIZENS advertises the Big Fight between Maximus and The Khan, but that happened a while back. The residents are more into chariot-racing, anyway: "COME ON, THE BLUES!!!" (Not to mention the resident who's into illegal Street Racing: "Go, Greased Lightning," and all that.) 

1 hour ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Where can I (as a gloranthan visitor) find any gladiators "show" ?

And depending on the location/culture, is there any difference about rules, death, weapons, warriors (free, slave, murderers or any other big criminals) ? Is it only a show or a religious sacrifice ?

Knowing only about roman gladiators, I have probably some bias. So any cultural explanation will be welcomed 🙂

[...] And, last question, is there any material about it (JC or elsewhere) ?

FURTHEST: Crown Jewel of Lunar Tarsh has several pages about gladiatorial spectacles held at the Moirasseum of Furthest, including ten gladiatorial styles (all illustrated, Usborne-style: five local, five from Glamour), two rival gladiator schools, and a bunch of noble sponsors. The cover art depicts the Blood Rites of Hon-eel after the fashion of Gérôme's Pollice Verso (the painting Ridley Scott used to sell Gladiator to the studio), and there's an external view of the Moirasseum by Philip McDonnell inside the book (although you'll hardly notice it behind the statue of Phat Hon-eel).

2 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

From the little I know, Lunar loyalty at the highest level is to the Red Goddess.  The Red Emperor in question seems to have been a mistake who endangered the Goddess's rule and expansion.  In clear minded Illuminated fashion, she (Jar-Eel as the Goddess's avatar anyway) decided he had to go.

Conceivably, appointing a Red Emperor has, in the light of Seven Wanes' experience, turned out to be a mistake that endangers the Lunar Way: I don't think we need to pin this on Argenteus and imagine it's fixed when he goes. (Also, the coup leader seems to have been his Great Sister, not Jar-eel. But plotting with a bunch of conspirators who all wear masks & veils, literally and metaphorically, and hold up mirrors to reflect everything right back at you makes it hard to identify a ringleader.)

Jar-eel the Razoress conspires against the rightful Red Emperor, and abandons her duties for love at a critical moment.

I agree, of course, that these are “exemplary Lunar” behaviours, I was just amused enough to mention it.

(The Creator/Creatrix remaining outside their creation is very on-brand.)

We tend to say Creatrix nowadays, but I don’t think she’s in the Prosopaedia either.

These Monographs.

Updated again on 20 November:

• Nochet: Adventurer's Guide, by Harald Smith & Simon Bray: a superb companion and expansion to Harald Smith’s comprehensive tome Nochet, Queen of Cities, two-thirds of the material in this book is entirely new and covers adventurer creation, new cults and occupations, in-world narratives for both newcomers and residents introducing the city, and a fully-detailed example of an Enfranchised House and its clients and friends. The reprinted material is all player-facing: in particular, the Getting Around section (which summarises every district and its neighbourhoods in a characterful page or two, without detailing every building) opens the City up for players to explore, while preserving all the GM’s secrets.
  
  New occupations include Laborer, Overseer, Sailor, Servant, and two specialist types of Warrior: Marine and Militia, plus Background and Recent Events tables.
  
  Short-form cult writeups for Delaeo (Beauty and Good Fortune), Delaina (Music and Wisdom), Durev (the Everyman), Ernalda Talosa (Mother of Serpents), Imarja (the Creatrix), Irillo (the Good Defender), Kadone (the Grounder), Ketha (Land Goddess), Lyksos (River God), Auntie Nym (thieves’ spirit cult), Orana (Fertility, Pleasure and Marriage), Panaxles (the Builder), Serdrodosa (the Earth Witch), Sestarto (the Artist) and Vogarth (Strongman), plus two pages of cult special Rune magics.
  
  (124 pages for $7.99)

1 hour ago, RandomNumber said:

Hi... Nochet is going to be my first JC POD order 🙂. I'm visiting the UK next year and can avoid the hefty shipping charge to Australia.  Some JC POD's have a premium color option.  Will that be on offer for Nochet? Thanks.

No, premium colour would be an unduly expensive format for Nochet: I would only ever recommend it for books with lots of gorgeous original internal colour artwork, and even then it’s strictly optional. For the Queen of Cities, standard (cheap) colour is fine.

My Australian friends find the shipping rates affordable, though: might they look less hefty if you ordered multiple printed books in one shipment?

7 hours ago, ColoradoCthulhu said:

I posted a question for the author concerning the availability of a printed soft cover version of The Pastores.

It’s happening. The proof-print was ordered a couple of weeks ago; when it’s delivered, if it turns out OK, the print edition can go on sale.

NB: all of the former Monographs are pre-approved for print-on-demand via the Miskatonic Repository, there is no need for them to hit the usual Electrum (251+ sales) threshold. They have to be updated to use the 7th edition rules, though, and print preparation is a non-trivial effort.

See also the Red Emperor’s full cult writeups in A Rough Guide to Glamour (non-canonical, but written with much love and scholarship) and Cults of Glorantha: The Lunar Way (coming in March 2024, and highly compatible with its predecessor).