Nick Brooke

Yes, but it's in the nature of the Lunar Cycle to repeat its greatest hits. If she could redeem Aelwrin, then why not shoot for Harrek? Go big or go home.

We had the Red Emperor aware of the prophecy of the Monster Empire in Life of Moonson. Fun times!

You mention Gilgamesh, but Harrek could almost be Enkidu to Jar-eel's Ishtar, if you'll pardon the quibble. He is a hairy wild man, while she is smooth and fair, a tamer of brutes.

Exactly. If you can't fool them into following "the wrong Argrath" with all the resources available, you're simply not trying.

"Awesome heroic leader"? Has he been lending you his stash?

Unlike Argrath? I think not. (I am an historian; I feel quite confident in telling you that history will not be kind to him, because I intend to continue writing it)

Sure! When you buy a PDF, you pay money for a digital product. Half of it goes to the creator(s), the other half goes to the platform and publisher. You now own a digital product that you can search with Ctrl+F, carry around on multiple devices, back up for safety, cut'n'paste into game handouts, print out handouts from, and so on. If any bonus content gets added, you get it added to your Library on DriveThruRPG automagically. When you buy a printed book, you pay money for a physical product: the cost of printing and shipping a book, plus in all likelihood a margin on top (I usually set this to be about the same as the digital price; other content creators can do their own things, I'm not their boss). The full cost of printing and shipping goes to the printers (as they included their target margin in those costs, the sneaky devils). The margin on top gets split between the creator(s), platform and publisher. You have a printed book that you can carry around, show off to your admiring friends and family, use to swat flies (or, if it's by Martin Helsdon, stun small rodents), read on the beach, or use to prop up the leg of a wobbly table. If bonus content gets added to the digital edition, the magic print fairy does not insert extra pages at the back of your book, because she doesn't exist. What if you've already bought the PDF, and want to just pay the printer for a printed copy? DriveThruRPG doesn't have any way of recognising that's what you're doing. Creators get to set one print price for printed books. They don't have any way to communicate with customers: we can't email out a discount voucher to each of our previous customers, because we can't email our previous customers, as we don't know who they are. We could add a discount voucher to an existing digital product, but we can't control how often it gets used, or who gets to use it. (If it could be tied to customer IDs as a one-use thing, that'd be a perfect solution: but it can't be) We learned this the hard way. When we launched Glamour in print, we bundled a free PDF with every print purchase. We understand DriveThruRPG Customer Services was overrun with requests for hand-crafted discounts in various configurations (e.g. "I bought this in PDF and then I bought it in print, please cancel and refund the PDF purchase I made several months ago"). They asked us not to do anything that might encourage this behaviour, which threatened the future of print-on-demand for our community content programme. So we don't offer that any more. (Remember, DriveThruRPG is a digital marketplace with a bit of outsourced print on the side; if their print sideline starts causing trouble for the core business, they will ruthlessly drop it or impose controls -- ask anyone writing for the DMs Guild) And bear in mind that if you're saying "print copies should be at-cost for digital customers," what you're really saying is that there should be zero margin in print sales for our platform, publisher and creators, because all the money goes to the printer. I'm not entirely sure why DriveThruRPG would be incentivised to do that, although it's certainly a possibility (for an example of PWYW for POD, see the excellent book The Six Paths). So what we tell every print creator is: don't make any work for DriveThruRPG. If you have a discount scheme, you need to manage it yourself. (Simon Phipp does this with his books; I email bonus content to my print customers on request). But as I said in my first two paragraphs above, there are advantages to the digital format. It's not a "free extra," it's the thing I made. If you only want the print version, you don't get to Ctrl+F it, or read it on your Kindle, or print out the handouts conveniently. I advise creators not to bother making indexes for their books, because anyone who wants an index can just get the digital edition and Ctrl+F it. (Martin ignores me, which is one of the reasons his books can be used to stun small rodents). I have never abbreviated this as "Tell them to Ctrl+F off," nor will I ever do so, because I love my customers and I hope you do too. (Especially if you're one of them) Finally, the economics of print on demand are completely different to batch run printing. I wrote a detailed post about this a year ago. Basically, Chaosium could offer its (old) "PDF first, print later" deals because the cost of printing a book is MUCH LOWER for a print run of many thousands of copies than it is when you print each book one at a time, on demand. (And also because the Chaosium knows exactly who its customers are, unlike Jonstown Compendium creators; but I covered that earlier). Mapping across from the one to the other is comparing, I dunno, apples to lobsters. You haven't really understood what you're looking at.

I wrote the version in Black Spear because I was rather bored with the traditional modern presentation of Argrath (*swoon*). It includes an appendix giving multiple possible ‘takes’ on Argrath that you can mix and match to roll your own. Have you checked it out?

The first new release of 2023 is Beer With Teeth's gorgeously-illustrated scenario The Temple of Twins, by Erin McGuire and Diana Probst, featuring art by Kris Herbert, Lai Suk Yin, Rhys Passafiume and Diana Probst. These Praxians need help! Tribal taboos have forced them to turn to outsiders, who will face the greatest challenge in Prax: surviving as a woman. Success leads to tribal shenanigans and plot-hooks aplenty. Like The Gifts of Prax, the scenario includes 15 pages of evocatively Praxian encounters, including a terrifying peccary swarm and the vicious honey badger. The book can easily be linked with other Praxian adventures from Beer With Teeth. $8.00 for 52 pages (PDF).

Here is the Jonstown Compendium Index 2023: an index to the new RuneQuest & Glorantha scenarios and sourcebooks (and sundry other releases) available from Chaosium's Jonstown Compendium community content web store on DriveThruRPG. The index includes full details for every product released after 1 October 2022, plus summary listings for everything else in the store (for full details of earlier releases, see my Jonstown Compendium Catalogue 2022 or earlier indexes and catalogues). Detailed listings analyse content (pages split between scenario, stats, maps, etc.), characters, settings and complexity of each scenario. Includes best-seller and ratings charts, RuneQuest Scenarios, Gloranthan Sourcebooks, Questworld Resources, Shorter Releases (inc. maps, tokens, artpacks and random stuff), three Where in the World? maps showing every scenario, sourcebook and map's location, and notes on when scenarios and campaigns are set (by year and season, inc. Chaosium RQG scenarios). The index will be regularly updated following major releases in 2023. All updates in 2023 are free; the price of the index may increase each quarter as new content grows, so don't wait too long to get on board! If you bought it earlier, get the current version of the index from your Library (top right menu) or from this product page while you're logged in to DriveThruRPG.

Martin’s three art packs are bundled with the digital edition of The Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass. The only Chaosium-supplied “art pack” for the Jonstown Compendium is the maps in the Argan Argar Atlas; you can also use the Glorantha Core Runes font in community content.

I’ll see if I can get Mr Yano’s VIP illustrations from the Japanese edition of “A Rough Guide to Glamour” into wider circulation. One of these days…

Same here. Once the game’s afoot, I use the rules as written. It just seems petty to start a new game saying “You don’t get to have all your usual Rune points this session” (unless there’s a good reason for it: I wouldn’t just do it randomly).

The final version of the Jonstown Compendium Index 2022 is now live on DriveThruRPG. The Jonstown Compendium Catalogue 2022 has been released, merging the 2022 Index with the 2021 Catalogue, plus new quarterly, annual, and all-time best-seller charts. $3.00 for 171 6x9 inch pages (PDF). I will start work on the 2023 Index once the first major publications of the New Year are released.

The updated Jonstown Compendium Catalogue (2022 edition) is now available at DriveThruRPG! This book details every supplement published in the first three years of Chaosium's community content programme for RuneQuest and Glorantha, ranking titles in each major category by sales tier (best-seller medals) and customer ratings. Detailed listings analyse content (pages split between scenario, stats, maps, etc.), calculate the price per page of content (excluding front matter, blank pages, etc.), and summaries of key facts and review comments (where available) on every title. Three Where in the World? maps show product locations (where they can be pinned down). There are notes on when each scenario and campaign is set, by year and season, including all Chaosium RQG scenarios. Appendices include notes for creators plus new quarterly, annual and all-time best-seller charts. 171 pages (6x9 inch) for $9.95 standard colour softcover or $3.00 digital (PDF).

It's a reworked and expanded version of material previously published in those books, updated for the new edition of RuneQuest. The table of contents can be seen in the full-size preview on DriveThruRPG. I am sure @Ian A. Thomson will be happy to answer any detailed questions, but it's not completely new and it's not a reprint.

I strongly believe in giving the fans what they want (see the cover art for Black Spear, and note that my forthcoming scenario Crimson King continues this tradition). When canon gets too constrictive, life finds a way. YGWV. (Anyone interested in a sane and reasonable RuneQuest campaign where the Lunars might not be such terrible baddies after all should check out Harald Smith @jajagappa's Edge of Empire, available now from the Jonstown Compendium)

I don't bother rolling for Rune magic recovery between sessions: every adventurer starts each seasonal adventure with all their Rune points.

Speaking purely for myself, I’m always tempted to reread Mythago Wood when the conversation takes an Aldryami turn. (Lavondyss is even better, but takes rather more investment. They’re both rock-solid heroquesting stories)

Black Elf “adoption ritual” inspiration?

This looks superb, Harald: congratulations!

It just missed the cut, but my next update (probably the final update for the 2022 Index) will detail Edge of Empire by Harald Smith: thirty years in the making, this campaign pack for the Kingdom of Imther is now available via the community content programme. In the smallest of the Lunar Provinces, followers of Sun, Moon and Storm compete as their once-peaceful kingdom plunges into civil war. This extensive sourcebook contains everything you’d expect: adventurer creation (with localised clan and family history tables), new cults and spirits, prominent personalities, seasonal events, campaign themes, adventure seeds, a rumour table, myths and legends, encounter tables and of course an extensive guide to the local cheeses. The author has developed a deep lore for this bucolic land, whose mythology, history and customs richly adorn this highly-playable book. Strongly recommended! $24.99 for 206 pages (PDF).

Updated again, with three new products: Desire for Knowledge, by Niall Sullivan: a sage in the Jonstown library is looking for a scroll containing dangerous secrets of Lunar sorcery, and hires a party of adventurers to retrieve it: shenanigans ensue! This has been written to tie in with the RQ Starter Set and includes GM guidance on which pregenerated adventurers have particularly useful skills. $2.99 for 20 pages (PDF). Secrets of Dorastor Personalities - Tactics by Simon Phipp: an expanded version of the bonus content for Secrets of Dorastor, now lavishly illustrated by Dario Corallo, making it a valuable companion volume to the earlier book. The personalities section presents descriptions, gross statblocks and combat tactics, and covers prominent characters from Cults of Terror’s fiction as well as the monsters and terrors of Dorastor. The high level gaming notes will appeal to players who enjoyed the combat tips in RuneMasters, though much of it is taken up with obvious comments about spell effects. $14.00 for 108 pages (PDF). Temple Hill Acropolis, by Dario Corallo: a massive virtual tabletop map (24k x 18k pixels) of the Temple Hill Acropolis in the Big Rubble of Pavis. The map comes bundled with a key, encounter table and wargame skirmish suggestions. Pay What You Want (recommended: 1 euro). And a final reminder to submit your community content reviews and ratings before the New Year, if you want to see them in the 2022 Catalogue!

Check out the range manufactured by Petersen Games. Yes, that Petersen.

You seem to forget that the whole of Sartar was part of the Lunar Empire until recently, and the northern parts still are (unless you’ve played Black Spear or otherwise rolled your own version of 1627).