Nick Brooke

Per the Guide, the Glowline reaches its greatest extent at the end of every Wane, shrinking to its smallest in the middle. So perhaps the AAA map was more-or-less accurate for 1621, but sadly outdated by 1625? 😉

The Argan Argar Atlas was clearly inaccurate. Here's the map from Dragon Pass, showing Slave Wall on the edge of the Glowline:

Adventurers going to the Spike, and the choices they make while they're there, become part of the reason for it blowing up. Leave perfection to the gods: mortals can't hack it.

I'd suggest contacting Michael O'Brien (email: mob at chaosium dot com) - this sounds like a licensing or business development inquiry, it definitely isn't something that you could do via the community content programme. If MOB isn't the right person, he'll be able to point you in the right direction.

Hi, I have no special insight here but I wrote a lot of the foundational stuff for modern Carmania. This is my own interpretation, not canonical. ”Idovanus” = rightly-guided Carmanian religion, overseen by the Magi. Since Aronius Jaranthir’s time, this has included the gods and goddesses of the Lunar Way. “Malakinus” = impersonal godless sorcery, the sort of thing Viziers get up to (and NB that some Viziers are of course Wicked). Practitioners are generally assumed to be “bad” by non-sorcerous types, with some Manichaean echoes (the mundane, material world is essentially fallen, kinda thing), but it’s really about measure, observable reality, repeatable experiments, etc. ”Ganesetarus” = worship of evil gods, Spolite necromancy and the like. More overt muah-ha-ha’ing than “proper” Malakinus practices: this began as a self-conscious exercise in using the Dark Side vs. Dara Happan gods of Light, but was defeated ages ago when Carmanos and his heirs liberated Pelanda from the Spolite Gloom. Mostly underground, both figuratively and literally, but perhaps the Lunar Way’s acceptance of cyclical descent and return has made it more overt?

Yes, but the Strange Gods want to communicate with this weird kid, and they have Strange Powers. So it’s a silly objection.

There are some completely unofficial tips for RuneQuest game masters (plus a lot of other stuff) in my free Gloranthan Manifesto, which I commend to you. They might help you get off on the right foot if you’re going to run games.

“You say I took the Name in vain: I don’t even know the Name. But if I did, well really, what’s it to ya? There’s a blaze of light in every word: it doesn’t matter which you heard, the holy or the broken Hallelujah.”

RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, p.21: ”The year is 1625. Now begins the long-prophesized period known as the Hero Wars: the fighting around Dragon Pass draws the greatest collection of Heroes in one place the world has ever seen. In these pages, adventurers begin their first steps upon the path to becoming Heroes, to take their places amongst others in the Hero Wars.”

"The ancient chroniclers left biased accounts of those times. Generations of historical philosophers and allegorical poets clouded the issue with new truths. The outcome differs with each telling. What really happened? - the only way to discover that is to experience it yourself." "Play it now, not then; here, not there; enjoy." -- White Bear & Red Moon, Greg Stafford, 1975

Here’s the stack of my print-on-demand Jonstown Compendium books we’ll be selling at PAX Aus in Melbourne, Australia tomorrow afternoon (come to Chaosium booth TT1234 at 5:15pm). I’ll be happy to sign books on request, chat about anything, etc. ad lib.

It’s my birthday tomorrow! If you’ve been wondering what to get me, here’s something that’s always welcome: visit the Jonstown Compendium web store, log in to DriveThruRPG, and leave ratings (or even reviews) for recent purchases you’ve enjoyed. (They don’t have to be for my books: spread the love widely, your feedback really matters to community content creators.)

How does it look?

If you bought the PDF direct from Chaosium, you should have received an emailed voucher that will deduct the price you paid for the PDF from the printed book's price. Check your emails, check your spam traps, and if all else fails contact the magnificent Dustin customerservice@chaosium.com and he'll sort you out. If you bought the PDF from DriveThruRPG or elsewhere, no such luck.

I don’t write the rules: I help people understand how to use them. You’re the one who called players “abusive munchkins.” I showed you some ways a competent GM can easily deal with players like that, by using the spell description as written. Maybe you need a competent GM to rein you in?

Oh, I disagree: MGF requires that the intended recipient of the spell will now have a blessed pregnancy. There's an immediate financial loss, yes, but it's followed by an ongoing financial drain (and various other irritations) until your kid finally grows up and leaves home.

"No cult trades special cult magic lightly." GMs can hammer abusive munchkins who try it on: "Nope, no way he's going to trade you that spell." The spell description tells you that outside the core Lightbringer pantheon, you usually need to get a High Priest's permission to trade spells to foreigners. And that spells adventure opportunities! ("Yes, the Sword will trade you Humakt's sacred Rune spells, if you first join him on a doomed expedition into the Upland Marsh to prove your worth...") Meanwhile, if your adventurers have "sat around trading spells" (and spending Rune points every time, let's not forget) for a whole season, hit them with troll raiders just before their next holy day lets them replenish. The survivors will thank you for the lesson. And the Issaries priest facilitating this munchkinism is getting richer with every trade: it's his religious obligation to do so. Ka-ching!

Re-read it. The other Rune master participating in the trade passes their spell to the Issaries priest who cast the spell: nobody else. If that Issaries priest wants to pass it on to somebody else afterwards, that requires a second casting of Spell Trading (and a second profitable trade).

If you traded a Rune spell to somebody else, you don't have to wait until the recipient casts it to replenish your Rune points for that spell. If you're the Issaries merchant who facilitated the trade, you don't have to wait until the recipient casts it to replenish the two Rune points you used for Spell Trading. If you traded a one-use Rune spell to somebody else, you don't get to replenish those Rune points: they were spent when you made the trade. (The spell description talks confusingly about "one-use spells" but in RQG terms it means the Rune points used to cast them.)

Tiny update on 1 October to add Tiny Treasures and bring the third quarter and year-to-date sales charts at the back bang up to date. Also, the price just went up by 50 cents as we're into the home stretch: it's now $2.50 for 83 pages, with regular updates. (Hop on board early, and you get a cheaper index plus free updates all through the year.) Tiny Treasures: The first RuneQuest release by Smol Snek picks up where Davide Quatrini’s Trinkets from Dragon Pass left off: while this work gives you six custom magical items for fifty cents (vs. 50 largely non-magical trinkets in that earlier compilation), each of them has been lovingly illustrated with custom artwork to indicate some unique features of the item. Smol Snek creations are written and art-directed by a young person with autism, with a bit of help from some other very cool people. ($0.50 for two pages)

It's in the Index. Just posting the updated file...

Updated again on 29 September 2023: Hydra!, by Peter Hart. A beautifully-presented adventure, Hydra! sees a crack team of chosen Lunar warriors* executing a well-conceived and foolproof plan to deliver a vital strategic resource to the Lunar College of Magic. Venturing beyond the rosy glow of the Glowline, they will encounter chitinous allies and beastly foes, while experiencing all the tensions of the Tarsh Civil War.** Thoroughly detailed and bursting with character, the scenario is richly illustrated throughout by Dario Corallo and comes in two downloads: 65 pages of scenario plus 106 pages of RuneQuest statblocks and bestiary entries, including many deliciously deviant scorpionfolk variants. ($15.00 for 176 pages) * Who may include unwilling conscripts or disgraced veterans from disbanded regiments, and who were perhaps even selected by lot for the ‘special honour’ of participating in this mission... but that’s still a sort of “chosen,” right? The supplement Hydra - Adventurers from the Lunar Provinces will be invaluable for creating a diverse band of Provincial Army veterans. ** There is no Tarsh Civil War: loyal citizens are urged to denounce anyone spreading malicious Orindori Clan-inspired rumours to the Royalist faction immediately. The Wild Sage's Field Calendar and Almanac, by Michael Bernth. A beautifully designed day-per-page calendar for Glorantha, incorporating holy day details, sunrise/ sunset times, weekly and seasonal summary pages, and seasonal weather almanac pages for all the RuneQuest homelands. ($6.95 for 376 pages) NOTE: the DriveThruRPG website can take a little time to update. If you're quick off the mark and the updated Index isn't yet available to download, try again soon.

Write a scenario or campaign that uses those new rules, and you should be fine. New rules presented without any immediately playable material aren’t OK. (And, needless to say, copying Harnmaster text is verboten). Look at e.g. Company of the Dragon or Caravanserai for examples. (We tried to explain this in the Jonstown Compendium FAQ, but some people don’t know about that):

That's right: he leaves scorched earth and chaos wastelands in his wake as he is drawn north to meet his destiny. (Just kidding: it's not as if the Storm Bull cult in Prax was really keeping Wakboth pinned down under the Block, is it?)

"Bless the best fields with the richest crops!" "No, bless the fields that need most help, on poorer land with marginal crops!" My wife and my mother never did see eye-to-eye about Ernaldan cult doctrine... The general point, that a lot of ordinary people's Rune magic is already being used in their everyday lives, is well made. Not every Sartarite you bump into has three Rune points, for starters (while every "adventurer" does, not every NPC is a potential adventurer), and even if they did, they might well have expended some or all of them already on activities of everyday living. And they aren't all racking up more Rune points and spells over time, like an adventurer does. More on this sort of thing in my free Manifesto, qv.