Nick Brooke

Tell your wife that it was a religious obligation and didn’t mean anything to you. See how that works out.

Sure. Nihil obstat. Usual credit required.

"Earth, Wind and Fire." Catchy slogan.

You're doing numbers over there, @EricW! I do think it's a shame when great ideas only get shared in this forum (although of course I appreciate that some people have perfectly valid reasons for not wanting to use Facebook he said quickly).

Can I share this insight (whole post, not just that excerpt) with the RuneQuest group over on Facebook? I think it’s very helpful, and more people should see it. Full attribution to “EricW from BRP Central” or whatever name you’d prefer to go by. Or please do it yourself, if you’re a member over there.

The Gorakiki cult writeup is available in RuneQuest Classic Trollpak; its Rune spells (for transforming bits of yourself into bee parts) are on p.86, and there's a Miscellaneous Note at the end saying that the children of Gorakiki have become attached to all sorts of strange groups (and a mention of propitiatory worship by humans and elves, though it sounds like you're going for something closer). "Gorakiki has no real control over what her children do, being merely an ancestral deity, and trolls try to overlook the existence of insects tied to the cults of Mallia, the Lightbringers, or other usually hostile gods." So the opening is certainly there, if you want to use it. If you're into plant ecology, cult and myth, check out The Voralans, a superb study of fungus elves, and then write something similar on the relationship between Aldryami, bees, pollination, giant bees, etc.

Gorakiki-Bee.

There’s a licensed Call of Cthulhu scenario called “The Dare” which includes 7e rules for Call of Kid-thulhu, a light-weight rules variant for running investigative games with meddling kids as the protagonists. Check it out? Currently 25% off in the Cosmic Horror sale.

I’ve found the fynbos and Karoo regions of South Africa’s Cape Province another useful inspiration, esp. if you want to understand why agriculture just stops dead at the edge of Prax. Check them out!

Indeed.

Here’s what the poster maps look like:

Q3 2021 was also a lull - getting a computer to spam out effectively infinite numbers of pregen stats doesn’t strike me as particularly creative. It’s one of those things, I suppose.

Oh ye of little faith! Of course Q4 22 included Edge of Empire. Here's an updated version. including 2023 YTD and splitting out some Q4 2022 works by creators who have since become prolific enough to deserve their own colour-coding:

W00t! Furthest is the #4 site-wide best-selling title at DriveThruRPG, and got its Copper best-seller medal (for over fifty sales) on Day 2.

We know that Gaumata’s Vision by Mike Dawson is probably the best RuneQuest scenario ever written: that should be enough reason to buy it. The problem with these “canon” lists is that Jeff seems to take a very legalistic view (understandably, considering his background): only if everything in a book is 100% perfect and exactly what he’d publish today will he incorporate it in his list. So let’s say there’s some wording in (I dunno) the Ogre version of “What My Father Told Me” that isn’t precisely to his taste… well, now: Shadows on the Borderlands can hardly be considered canon if it contains that aberration, can it now? Many folk take a broader view: if it’s basically OK, include it in the canon, and we can wrangle over oddities and edge cases later. Which is what the early Church did when defining scriptural canon (which is, of course, replete with inconsistencies, multiple overlapping contradictory versions of the same event, stylistic wrenches, characters portrayed in wildly different ways, etc.). But I’m a historian, not a lawyer, and see things differently.

No need, Scotty’s archived the post here: Jeff’s Canonical Corpus.

Jeff considers Sun County part of the “canonical corpus” as a description of the Sun County in Prax: history, places, personnel, the whole nine yards. 24 October 2022, in a post to the RuneQuest Facebook group. Same goes for Dorastor. Search for it using the phrase in quotes.

It'd look practically asymptotic, Brian.

A snapshot in Time, agreed. A snapshot in space? Different relationships in different parts of the Lozenge?

Genuine question for Jeff: do you think cult compatibility charts somehow express Universal Setting Truths, or are they more situational? How far would you let the relationship between two cults vary from that shown on the charts, in different times, places and contexts? It seems to me that a cult is a mortal construct, fallibly led, bounded by Time and shaped by History, and not an immutable truth. To take an obvious example, Dara Happan leadership after the failed First Wane rebellion had a different attitude to the Red Goddess than the previous management: was this change reflected in the then-extant cult compatibility chart?

Yes, I know. That’s the point I was making. Argrath attacks Pavis for Argrath’s reasons, not Waha’s or Storm Bull’s or anybody else’s.

Alter Creature is a 2-pt Rune spell in the RBoM, I’d take that as a baseline.

Updated again on 24 August 2023: All Along a River, by Paul Baker @Exubae: An introductory adventure set in the distant land of Teshnos, leveraging the author’s earlier works Houses of Teshnos, the Teshnos Companion and Hsunchen of the East. The story follows a river barge, the River Rose, as it travels upriver from the seaport of Dajanpol Rapur. The adventurers have been charged with taking a Maguffin from their home village to the city of Zanozar, and encounter Teshnan exotica along the way: contests, jungle shrines, mystics, were-tigers, crocodile-men and river pirates galore. ($16.00 for 171 pages) Furthest: Crown Jewel of Lunar Tarsh, by Simon Bray & Friends @blackyinkin: The Gazetteer of Furthest walks along each of the city’s main arteries before delving into its quarters, acropolis and sewers. An overview and map of the Kingdom of Tarsh detail the many cities, villages, temples and other points of interest; neighbouring lands are described from a Tarshite perspective. The Kingdom’s organisation is explored: a mishmash of Districts, Clans and Nobles. An overview of Major Players in Tarshite politics describes King Pharandros, his rivals, the Royal Household, civic leaders, military commanders, and two notorious criminals. Jaxarte Whyded provides a street-level view of Furthest. A History of Tarsh runs through Tarshite history at pace. Minor Cults of Tarsh provides a plethora of local spirit cults, detailing their special Rune spells. A Tarsh Bestiary describes several unique species found in the city of Furthest and the land of Tarsh, with full RuneQuest statblocks. Finally, the scenario Something Foul in Newmarket explores the streets, alleys and sewers of the city. ($19.95 for 158 pages) Related: by generous permission of Chaosium, printed maps of the City of Furthest and Kingdom of Tarsh are available from Simon Bray's RedBubble store in a variety of formats, some of them ludicrous. (I've linked to the Large Posters, which are comparatively sane and reasonable.)