Nick Brooke

You might enjoy my Gloranthan Manifesto (free!), which also contains some of the heavy lifting that went into Life of Moonson.

(We have no idea whether or not he’s human, of course. Greg enjoyed the idea that even the most senior echelons of the Lunar Empire were perplexed and confused by the impenetrable masks and veils worn by their Blue Moon cousins. See also: Kitori?)

There’s a lot of good Lunar stuff packed into Crimson King that you’ll probably enjoy, including insights into the Blue Moon, the Egi, Beat-pot Aelwrin and more besides.

So far we've had these cult special Rune spells:

• Avalanche
• Summon Son of Votank
• Summon Tribesman

plus these specialist illusion spells from Eurmal:

• Change a Cow’s Color
• Create Feast
• Create Wine
• Gold into Hay
• Make Fine Clothes

9 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

The Red Book of Magic contains ALL Rune Magic and Spirit Magic spells that are contained in the Cults of RuneQuest series collected in one volume. 

Not quite all, but plenty.

Updated again on 14 November:

• Islands of the Lost (Hero Wars in the East Isles, Vol. 3), by Hannu Rytövuori, David Cake & Nils Weinander: a gazetteer and book of adventures for the Hero Wars in the East Isles campaign, detailing two more islands of the Korolan group (Tamoro and Luvata, both presented with settlement maps, prominent NPCs and parental advice in the traditional format) and two other, more remote islands (Bhat-Nupu and Cwat-Bajat, the titular Islands of the Lost). The longest scenario, Pirates on the Horizon, stands alone; the other three make up the Islands of the Lost sequence, in which adventurers search for the Korolan Queen’s daughter among the lost islands of the Bezarngay Boil. Encounters include cruel pirates, sea monsters, shipwrecks, and a lost temple. The book also contains brief rules for ships (modelled on RQ3), six short-form cult writeups, and an overview of the authors’ plans for future volumes, to help game masters plot the arc of their campaign. ($15.90 for 140 pages)

Harald Smith is running a seasonal sale on print and digital versions of Edge of Empire, his Imther campaign sourcebook.

Plus fresh artwork by Zed Nope (Stern Kolating), another settlement map by Mikael Mansen (who provides a commercial license allowing community content creators to use his maps in their own works, although the details have not been made public), and a short encounter at Tarkalor's Keep from Finmirage. 

12 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Delecti   is a survivor. As a vampire he just wants to keep on keeping on.

Delecti isn't "a vampire": he's the Necromancer. Delecti makes vampires, he rules over vampires, he creates new kinds of vampire. He himself is something entirely different. 

Guys, if you're allowed to spin paranoid fantasies about what those eeevil Lunars are getting up to, we're allowed to reflect them right back atcha. And using our primary Gloranthan sources like White Bear & Red Moon, Wyrms Footnotes, Dragon Pass and King of Sartar, it's easily done. Just stop being so credulous, and always remember that Greg Stafford wasn't creating a simplistic "goodies vs. baddies" set-up: that's the sort of schlocky extruded fantasy product he despised. Trolls have kin too, and all that.

11 minutes ago, TrippyHippy said:

Hmmm...Asterix comics might be a clever little source to use....

Manifesto, p.50.

For extra shits and giggles: we all know Sartar's heirs and champions used to head south to the Holy Country hoping to become eternally-reincarnated God-Kings, but Prince Argrath's rival Jar-eel the Razoress put a stop to that when the Wolf Pirates attacked (cf. Prince of Sartar), and his best mate Harrek the Berserk salted the ground when he destroyed the City of Wonders.

So when Argrath decides he really needs a shot at personal immortality in order to take on his arch-enemy the Red Emperor (who dies and returns as a matter of course), who's he going to turn to for assistance? And when "Prince Argrath" returns from his expedition to Delecti's Ruin, exactly who is in the driving seat?

(We know Argrath is cool with undead advisors, just look at that Praxian sorcerer he hangs around with. In a Robert E Howard short story, you'd know what's really going on.)

Delecti the Necromancer is an EWF remnant. The vengeance-crazed Prince Argrath is bringing back the ancient, blasphemous, forbidden powers of the EWF to aid in his fight against the Empire (c.f Robert E Howard's short story, The Wyrms of the Earth). So of course Delecti will usually ally with Argrath in the Hero Wars. Except when Argrath goes too far, and the Lunar emissaries can convince Delecti -- even Delecti! -- that he needs to be brought down.

On the time-travel front, the line I've heard from Jeff is that while Chaosium's principals did experiment with "time-travel via heroquesting" in various ways, Greg eventually concluded that if you include any time-travel elements in your setting, sooner or later your setting is only about time-travel, and that's not what he wanted Glorantha to be. So while you can find fragments of time-travel scattered throughout the literary history of Glorantha, the canonical setting won't entertain those old ideas. Your Glorantha, of course, Will Vary, but to the extent it becomes a time-travel setting, it'll be forking away from what Chaosium publishes and supports.

There is a phenomenally good description and illustration of the City of Wonders in its heyday on pages 297-301 of Martin Helsdon's Ships & Shores of Southern Genertela. Just putting that out there, in case anyone thought it was only about messing about in boats.

On 11/9/2023 at 11:24 PM, mfbrandi said:

So, with the official reading list out of the way:

• From Nick Brooke (his Gloranthan Manifesto is free), you can take P G Wodehouse, Asterix, and Star Wars.

While I do give examples in my Manifesto of how you could profitably borrow themes from Wodehouse, Asterix and Star Wars in your RuneQuest games, I am not for one moment suggesting that Wodehouse, Asterix and Star Wars are normal sources of inspiration for running games in Glorantha. (Only one of them is.) Any more than Oliver Dickinson would suggest that Damon Runyan's On Broadway is necessary background reading for a Pavis campaign. (That said, a character from Guys and Dolls does turn up in Citizens of the Lunar Empire). The incongruity is part of the point: seek inspiration widely. Otherwise you'll never get to mash up Apocalypse Now with TS Eliot and the Sex Pistols.

You've been pretty well covered above. Get a proper Gloranthan feel from Mary Renault, Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars, Ray Harryhausen sword-and-sandal movies, Life of Brian, Xena, Baahubali, just about anything with Greeks or Romans and barbarians (John James' superb novels, the opening scenes of Gladiator, Spartacus or classic BBC I Clavdivs on the telly), just about anything featuring the Trojan War, or neolithic (Michelle Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness), or Celtic/Germanic (often hiding in the interstices of YA fiction or Arthurian retellings, but see also Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain) or Ancient Near Eastern (Silverberg's Gilgamesh)...

6 hours ago, Scornado said:

Thanks I will look. I see from the blurb at DriveThruRPG you're an Oxford man ... our paths may have crossed. 

The situation I have is that it is 1626 and Argrath is to make a flying visit to his birthplace and the cousin of the Thane of Apple Lane has been asked to arrange some pre-visit security ... what could go wrong?

Then you really need to read Thrilla’s Story, at the back of the Manifesto. She’s what could go wrong.

28 minutes ago, John Hall said:

I am in! I am so in!

It looks amazing. How heavy is it? More importantly does it do +1 bludgeon damage? 😁

The hardcover is about 1.48 kg, or 3.27 pounds.

The hardcover edition is now available: Japan - Empire of Shadows! Please read the product description all the way to the end if you already bought the PDF and now want to buy a print edition.

And it’s back! Japan - Empire of Shadows is available once again, in (new!) hardcover, softcover and digital formats. Please read the product description all the way to the end if you have bought the PDF already and now want a print edition.

In Life of Moonson, we had Sor-eel aged 56 in 1632 or thereabouts. But that's completely non-canonical, and we wouldn't care at all if you changed it for your own nefarious purposes.

Argrath was born in 1596, according to Jeff. Dunno about this “Garrath” fellow.

(Non-Facebook version here.)

I have a few collected thoughts about Dart Wars, Lunar Assassins, Blue Moon Assassins and the like in my Gloranthan Manifesto, which is a free download or a cheap paperback. See pages 117-118.

Here’s a map I made for my abortive run (one player signed up, and then he got Covid):

Updated again on 6 November:

• The Sanctum of Sarkath Han, by Magnus Seter and Robert Dudock: inspired by Steve Perrin’s short Magic World scenario The Vault of Sarkath Han, this classic sword-and-sorcery sandbox adventure gives players an environment filled with denizens and challenges, from the Aldryami and other creatures of the Iron Forest to the demon-haunted sanctum of a long-dead sorcerer. It’s beautifully presented. ($9.99 for 50 pages)

Plus another Smol Snek two-pager, Eurmal's Truth, and a well-earned Electrum best-seller medal for Martin Helsdon's Ships & Shores, just two months after its release.

Please consider leaving a rating or even a short review on DriveThruRPG for any Jonstown Compendium books you've particularly enjoyed: the creators really appreciate it, it helps other potential customers make up their mind, and your best quotes could make it into this year's printed Jonstown Compendium Catalogue.

By analogy with Greek Christos (Christ) > Christianos (Follower of Christ), I believe. That’s ultimately where we get the -ian ending from in English. Not -ion.

9 hours ago, Scornado said:

Yes, but in this case I want the bad guys, not the alternately good ones.  The ones who rob from the rich and the poor, and probably stab them too.

Gagarth.