Nick Brooke

6 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Not conjoined! 😉  I can't recall which "schools" he had them come from though I believe they were from two different ones.

But sounds like a cool idea (seem to recall a conjoined pair in the Dorastor book).

There’s also a conjoined Sultan in the Guide to Glorantha, hurrah!

But a pair of conjoined twin Carmanian sorcerers, one good, one evil, is next-level stuff, and you are to be applauded for putting them in my brain. (Starts scribbling)

38 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Back in my old Imther campaign...

BTW, Harald, where was your awesome Cheeses of Imther article published back in the nineties?

37 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Back in my old Imther campaign, one of my players ran a pair of Carmanian sorcerers - so he definitely liked the Carmanians! 

Conjoined? Cool character concept, I’m stealing it.

14 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Does anyone like the Carmanians?

(Tentatively raises a hand)

28 minutes ago, soltakss said:

For me, sultan and satrap are just words for the same thing. Pentians used Sultan, so when they ruled peloria in the First and Third Ages Sultans were the in thing. Carmanians used Satrap, so their terminology was good for a bit. The Lunars use Satrap as they don't like the Pentians, not one bit.

But the Red Goddess herself said "Sultan"... and some Lunars don't like the Carmanians, not one bit.

23 minutes ago, seneschal said:

Nobody fuzz it better.

Thanks for the inspiring links! Mine are more a rigorously Gloranthified version of:

On 3/2/2020 at 9:18 PM, Skyfox_Crimson said:

I just joined this site and am wondering if there are any fellow furries who I can chat with. That's all.

I’m not a furry*, but I did recently commission a bunch of furry-adjacent art for a weird Gloranthan scenario I’ve been working on.

Keep an eye out for something called The Spy Who Foxed Me, maybe later this year (if all goes well).

* he said, making no judgements

33 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Should we be thinking that he meant "pasha" when he went for "sultan"?

In the mid-nineties, Greg told me "satrap" was the word he'd meant to use all along, and that he'd mis-spoken when he called them "sultans." (But as far as I'm concerned, that was twenty years too late: they were sultans in WB&RM/Dragon Pass, and in the Orange Box, and by then I knew Satrap was a Carmanian loan-word for people the Pentans called Sultans).

From an MGF perspective, you already know the sort of things you'd expect to find in a Sultan's Palace; it's more of a reach for you to populate a Satrapal Court out of the blue.

And  that's why I use both words, interchangeably, in my own work, and enjoy tweaking the noses of the self-proclaimed novelty-chasing Hindu Hittite fetishists who only ever listen to acoustic Assyrian war-chants while gaming.

If you're thinking of distributing your own stuff via the Jonstown Compendium, there's an active, supportive and technically knowledgeable Jonstown Compendium Creators Circle on Facebook with about a hundred participants. Let me know if you need an invite.

Just now, Sir_Godspeed said:

I've been meaning to ask: those borders and fonts, are they custom-made, or does Chaosium provide access to them for Compendium authors?

The faded runic border and parchment page background are from Chaosium's standard templates (Word & InDesign), which everyone can access for free, here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/295890/Jonstown-Compendium-Templates

I have a slightly fancier Word template (which automates Tables of Contents, among other things), attached to this post. (The Guide is laid out in InDesign, though)

The header font I'm using is Ignacious -- you can find free versions online, make sure the one you install allows you to embed it in PDFs (some versions don't).

The body text font is Minion Pro, which comes with InDesign -- if you're working in Word, I'd use something like Georgia instead.

Finally, that familiar piece of art is Plague by Gene Day, (c) 2020 by Moon Design Publications and used with permission. (Always ask before using other people's stuff!)

Cheers, Nick

Word Template (NB).docx

Quote

Has this crisis been harming your gaming or making it difficult to play?

Yup. I've just cancelled my scheduled monthly RuneQuest sessions, my excellent local club (the Role Play Haven) has cancelled its weekly game nights, my best mate's postponed a Call of Cthulhu campaign, a boardgame last weekend fell through... so my gaming's been somewhat affected.

On the other hand, it frees up more time for me to work on books. So that's a plus. (Arguably)

On 3/6/2020 at 9:41 PM, Akhôrahil said:

Well... except the Red Emperor (hey, he's Carmanian now, isn't that odd!) again and again...

I can't remember who posited the Lunar Empire making contact with the Arrolians, and the latter going "Who the heck is that, that's not my Red Emperor, I know what he looks like!" when they see the current Red Emperor.

That was me, an idea I developed for our 70-player Malkioni freeform How the West was One (1994), blathered about on forums and in website posts for the rest of the nineties, and finally printed in my article Holiday Glorantha: Arrolia in Tales of the Reaching Moon #20 (2002). There are bits and bobs on my former etyries.com site, cunningly hidden in the Malkioni Sects section: http://etyries.albionsoft.com/etyries.com/sects/arrolian.html

Final draft manuscript ToC, just need 1 pic, 1 map and then we’re done.

Final draft manuscript ToC, just need 1 pic, 1 map and then we’re done.

13 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Or Danny DeVito?

I can only assume you’re referring to Ivex Devouring Dog, dedicated linch-pin of the Imperial economy. He and ten other VIPs are described in the “Rough Guide to Glamour.” 

8 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

Why is no one talking about Harley Quinn

I think you mean the Red Dancer of Power. She’s one of the 11 VIPs described in the Rough Guide (they’re all on the cover). Here’s her character sheet from Life of Moonson:

http://etyries.albionsoft.com/etyries.com/moonson/red-dancer.html

43 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

It's interesting that you've stuck with the phased-out Sultan instead of updating to the now-common Satrap (at least that's my impression of how things've gone), is there any particular reason for this? Personal prefence, legacy nomenclature, etc.? I'm just curious.

It's a strong personal preference: I'm the man who taught Greg Stafford the proper use of the word "Satrap," after all.

There's a half-page article about how you can have fun with this in the Rough Guide, naturally, reprinted from Tales of the Reaching Moon #16; my most devoted acolytes will already be hunting out my seminar transcripts from the mid-nineties.

1 minute ago, Runeblogger said:

Sounds cool. 😄How many words have been incorporated from the Guide to Glorantha?

The epic Yolanelathon: What is it about?

The book's currently 109 pages long. The Sultanate of the Silver Shadow chapter takes up four of those pages, including maps (one page), a key excerpt from the Zero Wane History (half a page), and my article on Satraps & Sultans (half a page). There are around 1,300 words from pages 317-319 of the Guide to Glorantha, being the whole of the Silver Shadow section (with one minor edit, to merge the essentially identical Joy Rest and Volthena entries).

My part of the Yolanelathon is about the foiled schemes of a Spolite Witch, with allusions to the darker periods of Carmanian history and some ominous foreshadowing. MOB's parts are mostly crude toilet humour, with a powerful undercurrent of conspiratorial palace politics. Just about what you'd expect from both of us, really.

Oh, @Puckohue? This is all your fault.

8 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

My money is on a younger Marlon Brando.  But, you know, six of one, half dozen the other.

!i!

I'll take your money. Thank you.

1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

It's very nineties, so that fits.

We're so nineties, we've got Spice Girls jokes.

6 minutes ago, Thaz said:

Is this PDF or print as well? Looks Amazing. 

Thank you! Our friends at the Chaosium want to own printed copies of this book almost as much as we all do, and I know that MOB will leave no stone unturned to secure a POD option.

What do we mean by "thoroughly revised and expanded"? I'll tell you...

The 1998 edition of the Rough Guide to Glamour (with red card covers: the most complete version) contained about 29,000 words. We have cut out a third of the book: sections either reprinted in or made redundant by the Glorantha Sourcebook (eg: The Lunar Pantheon, Dart Competitions & New Year Ceremony) and sections primarily written to support the freeform Reaching Moon Megacorp's Life of Moonson (eg: Recent History, a list of Sultanates, Provinces etc. and their rulers). So there are 20,000 words from the old Guide remaining.

The Jonstown Compendium edition of the Guide contains more than 50,000 words.

Most major sections are significantly expanded (eg: the Gazetteer is 60% longer, detailing 117 locations in Outer Glamour; the Rough Guide itself has two new pages on Holidays and Festivals). We have incorporated material from the Guide to Glorantha (a full writeup of the Silver Shadow Sultanate, with a new map by Colin Driver), from Tales of the Reaching Moon (Cult of the Red Emperor, Lunar Government, Satraps & Sultans, Letter from a Monopolist, A Visit to Glamour), and from the epic Yolanelathon (three interlinked stories by MOB and myself, presented at various conventions in the nineties but never collected under one cover). There is a new 4,000 word writeup of the Cult of Glamour by Jeff Richard, plus obscure rumours, fragments and oddities scattered throughout (eg: Antiquities of Old Glamour, Red Empire, Pelorian Rhapsody, Annual Dinner of the Lunar College of Magic).

If you liked the original Rough Guide to Glamour, we think you'll like this version even more!

On 3/12/2020 at 6:02 AM, Runeblogger said:

For those of us who have the original version, could you please post a list of the added material?

Sure! The 1998 edition of the Rough Guide to Glamour (with red card covers: the most complete version) contained about 29,000 words. We have cut out a third of the book: sections either reprinted in or made redundant by the Glorantha Sourcebook (eg: The Lunar Pantheon, Dart Competitions & New Year Ceremony) and sections primarily written to support the freeform Reaching Moon Megacorp's Life of Moonson (eg: Recent History; a list of Sultanates, Provinces etc. and their rulers). So there are 20,000 words from the old Guide remaining.

The Jonstown Compendium edition of the Guide contains more than 50,000 words.

Most major sections are significantly expanded (eg: the Gazetteer is 60% longer, detailing 117 locations in Outer Glamour; the Rough Guide itself has two new pages on Holidays and Festivals). We have incorporated material from the Guide to Glorantha (a full writeup of the Silver Shadow Sultanate, with two new maps by Colin Driver), from Tales of the Reaching Moon (Cult of the Red Emperor, Lunar Government, Satraps & Sultans, Letter from a Monopolist, A Visit to Glamour), and from the epic Yolanelathon (three interlinked stories by MOB and myself, presented at various conventions in the nineties but never collected under one cover). There is a new 4,000 word writeup of the Cult of Glamour by Jeff Richard, plus obscure rumours, fragments and oddities scattered throughout (eg: Antiquities of Old Glamour, Red Empire, Pelorian Rhapsody, Annual Dinner at the Lunar College of Magic).

If you liked the original Rough Guide to Glamour, we think you'll like this version even more!

All I can tell you is that our friends at Chaosium want to own hardcovers of this book almost as much as we do, and if that means arranging something they wouldn’t usually do for a Jonstown Compendium product, they’re willing to put in the effort to make that happen.