Nick Brooke

Updated on 6 February 2023 with A Vale Ablaze, Vivien Prigent's sequel to In A Merry Green Vale (and don't miss the bundle letting you buy or complete the set at a discount). This has four RuneQuest adventures for members of the Lysang clan, all set in the Arfritha Vale as described in the earlier sourcebook. The first three are relatively straightforward (a cattle raid, chaos baddie and rescue mission); the fourth is a more complicated, politically-charged heroic monster-hunt. Each adventure is designed to have numerous loose ends and long-term consequences, making them excellent fuel for a long-running campaign. Originally written for campaigns set during the Lunar occupation of Sartar, there are thoughts on how to rework each adventure for the post-Dragonrise timeline. Appendices include rules for staging cattle raids, running skirmishes and simplifying NPC statblocks. The author is translating three more scenarios set Beyond the Vale. 137 pages for $11.50 (PDF).

Please avoid clickbait thread titles. Thank you.

Elurae (fox women, see RQG Bestiary) can make everything into a romantic comedy.

Apart from the title scenario in Pegasus Plateau, you could raid the festival casts from Applefest (on the Jonstown Compendium) or Melisande’s Hand (from RQ3’s Sun County). Plenty of whimsical folk and incidents there.

My book's been out for 25 days, and printed copies are starting to arrive... it feels like a good time for a social media stretch goal! Leave a dozen ratings on DriveThruRPG and I'll add this variant character sheet art by Yoshihide Yano as bonus content.

A thousand titles on the Miskatonic Repository are eligible for best-seller medals (not including free or low-value Pay What You Want sales). Here's how they split between the medal tiers: Platinum (over 1,000 sales): 1% Gold (over 500 sales): 2% Electrum (over 250 sales): 8% Silver (over 100 sales): 22% Copper (over 50 sales): 16% No medal (1-50 sales): 51% So: about half of everything published gets to 50 sales, one in three products get to 100, and one in ten get to 250 and may be eligible for print-on-demand.

I just shared this analysis over on Facebook. Here's a breakdown of best-seller medals earned by Jonstown Compendium releases (excluding free and low-value Pay What You Want sales, which don't count towards medals): Platinum (over 1,000 sales): 1% Gold (over 500 sales): 4% Electrum (over 250 sales): 10% Silver (over 100 sales): 32% Copper (over 50 sales): 24% No medal (1-50 sales): 29%. Of the products with no medals: 72% are maps, 11% are foreign language translations, 8% are art packs, 5% are virtual tabletop token sets, 3% are indexes, and one uses an exotic setting. If that's not what you're making, you are practically guaranteed 50 sales. Same analysis for Copper medallists: 11% of them are normal releases, 26% tokens, 17% short/expensive, 12% recent (last three months), 9% exotic, 9% indexes and play aids, 5% maps, 5% QuestWorlds, 3% random stuff, 1.5% art and 1.5% foreign. Again, it looks as if 90% of "normal" releases for the Jonstown Compendium (i.e. "none of the above") will hit Silver (100 sales), and the ones that don't will get to Copper. And combining both analyses, for the 53% of Jonstown Compendium releases that aren't yet Silver best-sellers, here are some common features: maps (41.7%), tokens (14.6%), short and expensive (7.6%), foreign language (6.9%), index or play aid (5.6%), recent (last three months) (5.6%), artpack (4.9%), exotic setting (4.9%), QuestWorlds (2.1%), random stuff (1.4%), none of the above (4.9%).

Here's a bundle of four RuneQuest adventures from the Storytelling Collective's recent Write Your First Adventure workshop for just $5.99 (regular price $9.85): A Lamp for Esrola, Died in the Wool, The Indagos Bull and The White Upon the Hills.

A game published by Pelgrane Press, see their website for details.

Lots of us in the Greydog Clan worshipped the Great Newt, for obvious reasons, and of course that was in the back of my mind when I wrote Black Spear, Act IV...

Here are my old Spirit Cult rules, written for RQ3 back in the nineties. Spirit Cult Rules Note: the rules below are intended to make spirit cult membership easier and more widespread, and also to clear up who pays POW for what, and why. They are not “official” in any way. The apparently “generous” availability of one-use Rune magics follows my earlier suggestions (in Tales #12 and Gloranthan Digests past) for widening re-usability of such magic for all users (i.e. regained annually): I do not intend to set up Spirit Cult worshippers as “super-users” of Rune magic, like the Tricksters in Gods of Glorantha (whose spells are always reusable). If you treat “one-use” Rune spells by the book in your game, treat Spirit Cult Rune spells in exactly the same way. My main bone of contention with the previously published rules is that they appear to make Spirit Cult magic very expensive for the presiding Shaman. The apparently inexpensive Rune spells available from spirit cults become rather pricey, when you consider that it could cost four points of a Shaman’s POW just to be able to sacrifice for them (two to Summon <spirit>, one to Worship <spirit>, and one to become an “Initiate” eligible to sacrifice for Spirit Cult magics). By replacing all of this investment with a single, reusable, one-POW “Summon <Spirit>” ritual (granting the ability to both worship and obtain magic from the spirit in question), we can make Shamans more varied, experimental and unpredictable – as I think they should be! The official RQ3 rule mechanics for Spirit Cults are in Gods of Glorantha and Troll Gods, and many spirit cult examples can be found in these sources, not to mention Tales #14-16, and the Book of Drastic Resolutions: Volume Prax. RQ2 mechanics were in Borderlands; the Cult of Firshala, from the RQ2 supplement Griffin Mountain, is also an example of a nascent Spirit Cult, growing out of a chance encounter. 1) First Catch Your Spirit... A shaman needs to have the 1-POW Rune spell “Summon <spirit>” before he can organise Spirit Cult worship. Any friendly spirit will teach this gladly to shamans it encounters: spirits can be met by chance while wandering the spirit plane, contacted deliberately by going to places they are known to frequent (their homes, territories, or favourite spots), or summoned by holding a ritual to attract their attention (in an appropriate location, appropriately garbed, with appropriate ritual objects, offerings and sacrifices). Random Spirit Encounters Chance encounters are up to the GM, whether using the Spirit Plane Encounter Tables (any incarnation) or his own devious devices. Such encounters could be good or bad news for the shaman. In some places, “random” spirits are known to cluster – as around the “generic” holy places in Prax, the ruins and oases, where hungry and forlorn spirits cluster in search of food or worship. Random shamanic encounters have brought both beneficial and malevolent spirit cults into the world. If a Shaman meets and befriends a nice spirit, he can learn how to summon it for a 1-POW sacrifice/gift/ donation (and go back to his tribe to arrange worship). If a Shaman meets and is taken over by an evil spirit, it may (while possessing the shaman) arrange a worship service to “summon” and propitiate itself! (Cue demonic laughter). Finding Spirits “At Home” Places that are “home” to specific spirits can easily be assigned depending on your campaign needs; el pendejo’s list of the spirit cults at holy places in Prax gives a fair idea of their frequency, or you can base this on the availability of e.g. sub-cult shrines in your own game. Many spirits (obviously including spirits “of” places) are sedentary, and this how “local” spirit cults survive – the spirit that happens to dwell in the Hare Woods, or the Travelling Stone, will always be found by the people who live round that way, for better or for worse. Locals should probably know of (at most!) a single place within reasonable travelling distance where any given spirit can be summoned, as if they knew two or more they wouldn’t know where to go if they wanted to worship it! Summoning spirits at their known holy places (aka “homes”, “nests”, “territories”, etc.) is relatively straightforward, though a full summoning ceremony is usually employed (following the sensible Shamanic principle, “better safe than sorry”). If the Spirit turns up, the Shaman can sacrifice 1 POW for the Summon <spirit> ritual Rune Spell. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost nothing. Summoning Rituals If you choose instead to call up a specific spirit, to a place with which it has little or no previous connection, it’d be best to think in “Ritual Magic” terms: go to a place appropriate to that spirit, bringing gifts (sacrifices, trappings, items) that you think will be attractive to the spirit, and try to summon it to you there. Thus a Praxian shaman summoning Sun Hawk would wear a hawk-feather cloak, a bright-eyed, beaked mask, and perform his ritual in the arid uplands (“hawk country”) at high noon, offering up a live hare or similarly attractive prey to catch the spirit’s attention. (And Sun Hawk still isn’t guaranteed to turn up...) The GM should modify the Summon chance depending on the suitability of the players’ preparations, and their “fit” to his campaign needs. A base-chance Summon roll should normally only apply under “ideal” circumstances: after enough research has been done to select a suitable location, an apposite date and time, carefully and expensively prepared “props” (costume, ritual objects, etc.), and a tasty gift, sacrifice, offering, or whatever. The Summon skill roll is made, modified by Ceremony attempts (measured in hours). A failure costs the Shaman one POW, and he does not learn the “Summon <spirit>“ Rune spell (he thought he did, and got it wrong, and blew his POW). A fumble is left to the devious and twisted imagination of the GM. On a success, the appropriate “Summon <spirit>” one-point Rune spell is learned (at a cost of one POW), and the spirit appears for the Shaman. NEW SPIRIT CULT RUNE SPELL, AVAILABLE TO ALL SHAMANS SUMMON <spirit> 1 point Rune spell, summoning ritual, re-usable (special). Summon <spirit> allows a Shaman to summon, worship and learn Rune magic from a spirit in the form of Spirit Cult worship. The spell is automatically regained one season after its last use, whether or not that Summoning ended in a worship service (successful or otherwise). Thus Spirit Cult worship normally occurs every season. A Shaman may sacrifice for more than one use of the spell: the spirit is usually very happy to allow this, as it permits more frequent summoning and worship of the spirit than would otherwise be possible (while not requiring undue exertion on the spirit’s part). (NB: the one-point Spirit Magic spell “Summon” is not powerful enough to allow Shamanic spirit-cult worship, you cheapskate! And we all know that the Great Newt hates cheapskates!...) 2) Then Worship It... A summoned spirit expects to be worshipped, sooner or later, and it may become upset, surly or uncommunicative if nothing is offered after it’s gone to the trouble of turning up (and/or had its home invaded by unwelcome outsiders). NB: a Shaman who has a good “track record” with a particular spirit might be able to call it up for other purposes... this is left to individual GMs to develop. Becoming a Cultist Becoming a member of a Spirit Cult congregation costs 1 POW, which is sacrificed in the presence of the summoned Spirit, and creates a link to it (in a manner similar to cultic Initiation). This should be noted on the character sheet (perhaps on a list of Spirit Cults or other cult initiations), as it will normally be permanent: a Praxian brave who once worshipped Sun Hawk in his wild and foolish youth can still do so as an elder, if the spirit can be found. It is very hard to be “Excommunicated” from a Spirit Cult (as no-one can be bothered to go through the motions?); much more likely you will be torn to pieces by your former co-religionists if they catch you. Worship Ceremonies At a worship ceremony, worshippers sacrifice all but one of their MPs to the spirit. Roll 1D100: if the number rolled is less than or equal to the number of worshippers, the worship was successful. A canny GM may use the exact number rolled as an indication of how powerful the summoned manifestation of the Spirit is: success, POW of spirit equals 1D100 roll; special success, POW equals number of worshippers; critical success, POW equals 95; failure, what spirit were you talking about? – it doesn’t hang around; fumble - Aha! Cue evil GM laughter and cunning plots... Outsiders! If you attend a successful worship service but are not a worshipper (you’re present, but have not given POW to the spirit), the Shaman and Spirit may detect you and feel unkind towards you: a POWx3% roll is probably appropriate (they are detecting your “uninvolved” POW, so having a high POW works against you), whether you are “hanging out” in the congregation, hiding behind a nearby rock, or whatever. Commonly, simpler and/or more malicious spirits assume such persons are intended as sacrifices, and don’t ask twice before tucking in! A note on the “Worship” spell Spirit Cult worship does not require a “Worship” Rune spell. The Shaman’s ability to summon the spirit is equivalent to this. Shamans who have sacrificed for the relevant Summon spell do not need to sacrifice 1 POW to participate in Spirit Cult worship: they already have a “link” of sorts to the spirit, understanding its nature well enough to direct Magic Points to it (compare with Initiation). They can participate in, and derive full benefits from, a Spirit Cult worship services in which they do not leading the congregation. 3) Then Get Its Magic... All Spirit Cult worshippers who have participated in a successful worship ceremony can sacrifice for one or more points of the spirit’s Rune spell(s). “Ordinary” worshippers regain the use of their Rune spells as per normal one-use magic (i.e. if you follow my “One-Use Rune Magic” guidelines, they are regained annually following a successful worship service; if not, they are one-shot spells, gone for good once cast). Shamans who know the relevant Summon ritual can gain their Spirit Cult Rune spells “reusably”: they will regain the use of all their spirit cult rune spells (other than a just-cast “Summon <spirit>“) every time they participate in a successful worship service for that spirit (whether leading worship or simply participating). 4) And Keep It Happy... Requirements, Taboos, Restrictions Some spirits will require certain actions, attitudes or taboos from their followers. Most can’t afford to be so picky, or their “cult requirements” are pathetically trivial (e.g. “always butcher frogs”). Some can be scary, though: be creative! A follower who breaks his taboos cannot successfully participate in the next worship service (i.e. his participation counts for nothing, he is not a % in the Shaman’s roll, he cannot gain or regain Rune magics). A Shaman who breaks his taboos has the replenishment of his Summon spell delayed for another season, annoys the spirit, and may have to explain this to his congregation. (Spirit cults don’t have spirits of reprisal, but the main spirit can usually manage well enough by themselves, whenever they are summoned for worship service, should malefactors be unwise enough to present themselves). Note that it is unusual for a spirit cult to have unduly onerous membership requirements, or how on earth would it survive? “Daft” requirements are far more fun! Regular Worship Successful spirit cult worship is commonly carried out seasonally: this is magically efficient, keeps the spirit happy, and tops up cultists’ Rune spells on a regular basis. Spirits can afford to be forgiving, though – their sense of time is different to ours – and will not bear lethal grudges if “neglected” for a while. Most are pathetically grateful for whatever worship they can attract, and see no point in driving away their semi-faithful worshippers. So if a Shaman only worships the Sun Hawk at midsummer – or only at midsummer if his tribe is near the Sun Dome Temple at that time – he won’t be shunned for that reason. The bulk of the members of any spirit cult may only want to worship annually, to renew their “one-use” Rune spells. For this reason, any more frequent worship will usually represent a highly domineering, exploitative or obsessive Shaman – it’s no surprise that these are common Shamanic personality traits! Can I join more than one Spirit Cult? The Spirits worshipped by Spirit Cults are pipsqueaks compared to the Big Gods. Their Shamans and worshippers can usually worship any number of them (unless they strenuously object, such as when a Star Spirit learns you are also a worshipper of the Great Dung Beetle), and they’re usually grateful for whatever worship they can obtain. In the boardgame Nomad Gods, the Praxian tribal shamans ‘worship’ (i.e. use) any spirit they come across, regardless of existing alliances or traditional tribal friendships, except in special cases (like the Three Feathered Rivals, or raw Chaos). (NB: the mutual antagonism between the Three Feathered Rivals is famed throughout Prax: pity the Shaman who maintains good relations with more than one of these quarrelsome birds!) In fact, as Shamans don’t have the close emotional ties to their spirit cult associates that priests have towards their gods, it is entirely possible for a Shaman to summon a spirit with whom he has previously has a good relationship, only to entrap, enslave or betray it. If the tribe is very hungry, and the shaman knows how to summon Frog Woman, and his followers all know how to butcher frogs, by now... well, French cuisine comes to the Plaines of Prax! Or, for example, a Shaman wanting to do Sun Hawk a favour might summon Raven (Sun Hawk’s rival) to a place of Sun Hawk’s choosing, for an outburst of cartoon-style violence... What does my God think of my Spirit Cult? Major religions consider most spirit cults beneath their notice. Most spirit cults are glad of any worship they can attract. It is unusual for a mainstream cult to bear a special animus towards a spirit cult (how did it survive?) Clearly there are exceptions – a Yelm priest is unlikely to sympathise with shamanic worship in any case, even less with shamanic worship of Darkness spirits! Some divine or divine/shamanic cults encourage worship of certain spirit cults (e.g. Kyger Litor likes her shaman-priests to worship the Troll spirit cults), and may maintain ritual knowledge, apparatus or sites so as to make this easier and more readily available to their practitioners. In a sense, a sub-cult shrine can be seen as a permanent, institutionalised “Spirit Cult”, with its own occasional devotees, offering one specialised Rune spell, and attracting a fragment of the worship given by Initiates of the main cult to their deity. (But that’s enough God Learning metaphysical speculation for today!) So should I build a Shrine? A Temple? In Spirit Cult worship, congregations are more important than fixed shrines. If you can get loads of your followers to chant the praises of the Great Newt, they will probably do this around a stream, pond, river or spawning-pool – an appropriate location for summoning and worshipping such a being. So you can hold your seasonal worship there regularly, let it be known that that’s where prospective worshippers of the Great Newt should join his existing dozens of followers... and it might be handy (at some point) to set up permanent facilities for your regular summoning ceremony (runestones, changing rooms, storage space for bulky ritual objects). And this is, of course, what Shrines are! If, on the other hand, you’re out in the desolate wastes of Prax, you can forget about keeping an immobile “shrine” to yourself. A Sun Hawk Shrine’s equivalent would be the medicine bundle and mask and shamanic costume and ritual paraphernalia owned by a Praxian Tribal Shaman who had previously contacted the Sun Hawk. If any other tribe got hold of these (by fair means or foul: spot the scenario potential!), they’d be able to summon the Sun Hawk more easily themselves. And if they did so at Sun Hawk’s Perch, a traditional worship spot the Big Bird is known to frequent), successful worship becomes even easier: as ever in Prax, the shrines and holy spots are known to and shared between many tribes, and used by whoever happens to be in possession at the time. You want to build a Temple for your Spirit Cult? Sounds ambitious, but why not go for it! It’ll be fun to see how the local adventurers react... Do you have to be a Shaman to start a Spirit Cult? Frankly, I doubt it. If I were overhauling the RQ3 magic rules for a more “Gloranthan” flavour, one of the things I’d do would be to make it easier for people to gain limited powers reusably – thus, instead of generic “Acolytes of Orlanth”, I might allow an “Acolyte of Orlanth’s Lightning Spear”, gaining that one Rune spell reusably (while all his other Rune spells remained one-use). Similarly, I’d find it easy to believe that occasional individuals can be found who, while not “full Shamans” in the RQ3 rules sense, nevertheless might possess certain Shaman-like abilities – one of which would be the ability to summon and worship one specific spirit. (Perhaps it was a chance encounter with the spirit that first triggered this unusual ability?). IMG, at least, some Spirit Cults would be led by people who are in no way as “magically powerful” or “generally competent” as a fully trained Shaman, Priest or Sorcerer, but who can nevertheless lead a Spirit Cult worship service, summon their spirit, gain reusable Rune Magic from it, and so on and so forth. This would be, if you like, the “flip-side” to the way Shamans can exploit encountered spirits: here, the spirit empowers the (damaged?) person it has contacted, but only to allow them to direct worship towards itself. He can lead worship to the Frog Woman, all right – but he isn’t a Shaman, or a Priest, or able to do very much else, come to that. (This way, rogue or predatory Spirit Cults are easier to establish: you don’t need to “take out” a Shaman in order to get a presence in the community). What the priests, wizards and inquisitors make of this is of course a matter for your own scenarios... Notes for GMs Spirit Cults are ideal for GMs wanting to spring surprises on their players. As opponents, they are sources of weird, one-off Rune spells for otherwise “normal” opponents. If followed by the players, the ad-hoccery inherent in Spirit Cult worship invites new and interesting scenarios, heroquests, and challenges. Spirits have interests, needs, requirements, and objectives, just as much as player characters do: a spirit cult with powerful and capable followers will encourage the spirit to widen its horizons, expecting more and more from its “faithful” devotees.

Updated on 27 January 2023 with details of three recent print releases: Crimson King, my Gloranthan Manifesto and the Jonstown Compendium Catalogue 2022. Plus the usual little updates here and there (sales badges, ratings charts, etc.).

Out now in print!

Now available in print!

This aspect of everyday urban life is, of course, featured in Chris Gidlow's superb book Citizens of the Lunar Empire. If you want a meal, generally you'd pop downstairs to the corner Bar for a tasty hot snack, or to the Bakery for fresh bread. Unwary visitors of Sumerian origin are urged to refrain from overt sexual activity in Jomes' Bar.

See also Ayukata’s MÖRK BOLG, especially the Voltron trollkin heroquest approach.

OK. If your inchoate plan will involve extensively copying or paraphrasing text from a book written by somebody else - whether or not it was published by Chaosium - then it is almost certainly not an appropriate project for any of our community content programmes. Those are for your own original work, not for copies or rewrites of somebody else’s work. The same goes if it involves updating or translating or converting or recycling or changing the presentation of material between different games, or different editions of a game, whether or not those games were published by Chaosium. Again, the community content programmes are for your own original work, not for conversions or adaptations or large-text or printer-friendly versions of somebody else’s work. Our community content programmes let you publish using Chaosium’s intellectual property: Greg Stafford’s world of Glorantha for games using the RQ/QW/13AG rules on the Jonstown Compendium, and Call of Cthulhu for games using the 7th edition rules on the Miskatonic Repository. If you want to do something else, always reach out before you’ve put much work into it, and don’t be surprised if we say no. It may be that what you want to publish is something that Chaosium would be interested in licensing, even if it isn’t appropriate as community content, and at that point the rules I’m tediously explaining will no longer apply. (Note, though, that Chaosium generally points new creators towards the community content programmes as the best place to get started these days) If you want to quote some Chaosium text, ask for permission, but if you aren’t doing something that’s original and creative with it, don’t be surprised if we say no. In my experience it is unlikely we will allow reuse of maps other than the Argan Argar Atlas or art other than the Rune font: the general expectation is that you will draw or commission your own. (Redrawing our published maps in your own style is absolutely fine: mechanically copying them isn’t). If you think you’ve found a loophole, it’d be sensible to ask for clarification rather than exploit it: it would be a shame for you to put work into something inappropriate, only to find it gets pulled from the store on launch, and you will note that the terms and conditions you agree to when you participate in the programme allow Chaosium to do that. (JC CCA, section 9: “No Obligation to Make Available or Sell.”) If permission is granted, you will need to include a copyright notice and permission statement at the start of your work to identify any Chaosium / Moon Design material you have incorporated. We can advise on the exact wording (and preferred quote formats), or you can find copious real-life examples in my own and other authors’ Jonstown Compendium publications. I hope this helps.

It would be harsh to point out that the Jagekriand Weapon so beloved of the Orlanthi looks like the hated -- but similarly devastating -- Tap Rune of the godless Meldek, so on this matter I will remain silent. (See also starveling tribes begging for a place in the cosmos, strategic deterrence using Dragons vs. Bats, etc.)

Who says it isn't?

Here’s what Jeff said last summer on the RuneQuest Facebook group.

Re: the lost legions, the Netflix show Barbarians is all about them! And my notes on Tarndisi’s slaughter-grove in the back of The Duel at Dangerford were inspired by Joerg’s pagan ancestors’ excesses.

I’m only doing my job, @Agentorange. When people seek clarification about the programme I help to run, don’t be surprised when I turn up. When the FAQ says, in so many words, “please don’t waste our time with niggling hypotheticals,” don’t be surprised if I sound irritable when I learn that’s exactly what you’re doing. The other link @Rodney Dangerduck was asking after is the Jonstown Compendium FAQ. A third useful resource is the community content agreement itself (inc. the checkboxes you tick when you publish). Handy reference copies of those three documents are at the back of my reasonably-priced Jonstown Compendium Catalogue 2021, or you can of course look them up online for nowt. Here’s something you can do that would be completely A-OK by us: write a scenario where Orlanthi woodworking is involved. Introduce a NPC Orlanthi carpenter. Say in their intro or statblock or wherever that [Name] is an Orlanth initiate in the minor subcult of Orstan the Carpenter. Stick in a footnote saying “For everything we know about Orstan, see Thunder Rebels p.235f and the Book of Heortling Mythology p.38ff.” Job done. Anyone interested can pick up those books, in the store or on eBay or wherever. Don’t all rush at once. Then introduce the extra details that are relevant to your scenario: they’re a friend of the local Aldryami (who have gone feral), or they’re the master crafter needed to raise a new barn in the next valley over (but those bastards are feuding with us), or their tools have been stolen by those wicked chaotic Broo or Lunars or whoever (who are using them for perverted non-carpentry-related purposes of their own). If you want to include a heroquest, expand any of the existing Orstan myths (such as they are) into fully-detailed heroquest stations. If you want to introduce a magic item made from wood by Orstan, just go for it: “Legends say that the Throne of Colymar was carved by Orstan himself.” If you want to assert that Orlanthi carpenters have magic that lets them straighten wood, or smooth away knots, or whatever, or have ritual obligations they undertake on behalf of the community, just narrate it. My Gloranthan Manifesto has a top tip on how to bat away annoying player questions about NPC magic. (“No, the only way you could learn to do that is if you were working full-time as a carpenter, which you aren’t (yet). Let me know if you want this character to retire and spend the next decade learning carpentry battle-magic spells.”) To the extent that you are creatively engaging with this earlier, albeit now non-canonical material, Chaosium is likely to smile on your efforts. To the extent you are trying to reissue chunks of our older books via the community content programme, Chaosium is likely to frown on them. That’s why I keep urging creators to write something that’s new, original, creative and playable, rather than “updating“ prior publications for different rulesets. The latter is not what the community content programme is for, and we have frequently said so, to get the message across. I hope this is clear. I’ll happily answer specific questions if you can show me what you’re working on.

This is why the FAQ includes a comment about time-wasting rules-lawyers who have no intention of publishing but enjoy wasting other people’s time. In both cases the intent of the programme is clear (“don’t just copy our books/games, write something original instead”), but for some reason folk like to pretend they’re going to invest time and effort in exploiting a perceived edge case. If anyone spots a genuine question or concern in the rest of this thread, let me know.

You can give your own original stuff away via the Jonstown Compendium. We don’t recommend it, as a rule, but you don’t have to commercialise what you’re creating. You just have to create something original.