Nick Brooke

Politics! Lady Vega runs the Sun County militia. Vega’s a Goldbreath. The Goldbreath Dynasty runs Sandheart. The Sandheart Militia is a new kind of force, made up of the famous “Specials.” So Lady Vega has an incentive to show that this new model of policing can cope with situations where more traditional Sun Domer militia might fail; the Sandheart Militia gets sent on tour; and Vega’s enemies in the Temple are going to try and undermine them if they ever get wind of what’s going on.

OK, you're coming at this from the "If you don't get a specific Rune spell for it, it doesn't really matter much to the cult" perspective. Jeff has explained why that's a mistake, esp. re: Yelmalio, proud provider of exactly zero Phalanx-related Rune magics since the year dot. It may be the wrong way to approach the question. But YGWV, of course. From a fan perspective, I'd look to Beat-pot Aelwrin as a prominent slave rebel and liberator, much like Spartacus. (Except he's a Mirror Universe take on Spartacus, who joined the Roman Legions and eventually rose to the top)

The Red Goddess, and her Seven Mothers. What?

Updated on 13 October with Paul Baker's Teshnos Companion, an expansion to his earlier Houses of Teshnos. The book contains a miscellany of local colour pieces (river boats, city guards, moving temples, reincarnation), a new mystical view of the Other Side, non-human races (Hsunchen, Aldryami, Mostali and Wind Children) and remote regions (Wokistan, Matkondu and Trowjang), all with RuneQuest rules for adventurer generation. It's rounded off with short-form cult writeups for several major deities and a host of local hero, spirit and subcults. The author’s next planned release for Teshnos will be a scenario, Along A River. $12.00 for 85 pages (PDF). Fans of eastern Glorantha should know that Paul's Hsunchen of the East is also useful for a Teshnan campaign, while his Kralori Primer is exceptionally good value ($4.00 for over 200 pages, including bonus content). More books are promised for the East Isles: two further volumes of Scott Crowder's Pirates of the East Isles, plus an imminent series called Hero Wars in the East Isles by Hannu Rytövuori, David Cake and Nils Weinander. The first two releases will be Korolan Islands (a regional sourcebook, inc. adventurer creation rules plus magic, mysticism and martial arts) and Fires of Mingai (a four-scenario starter campaign). And while they're not Gloranthan, I warmly recommend the A Thousand Thousand Islands art zines by Zedeck Siew and Mun Kao if you want to add inspired weirdness and local colour to any Teshnos or East Isles campaign.

I concur. In my Glorantha, the Sun Domers would tell stories about that lazy peasant Uncle Lodril, who is always led astray by his base appetites and screws things up; they don't worship him, though, because he's a lazy peasant who always screws things up. (Like our no-good neighbours, but very unlike us) Similarly, they tell stories about that aloof ascetic priestly mystical Uncle Dayzatar, who is too far unworldly for his own good; they don't worship him, though, because he's an aloof ascetic type, far too unworldly for his own good. (Like those irritating civilian Light Priests and Acolytes at the Temple, but very unlike us) I won't tell you the sort of stories they tell about Father Yelm, because Old Man Goldbreath wouldn't approve. Let's just say he's a stuck-up noble, pumped up with ancestral birthrights, who doesn't appreciate what it's like to be a soldier in the ranks. (I'm talking about Old Man Goldbreath here, of course. Praise Yelm!)

My advice, as usual, is to play with an X-Card: http://tinyurl.com/x-card-rpg The problem with trigger warnings is (a) they can give the game away, and (b) they can make players more concerned than they should be about content. (NB: I feel much the same way about those questionnaires that expect every player to disclose a whole list of potential psychological triggers before you start play: I wouldn't use them myself) But if you are a reasonable person, and pay attention to your players, and they use the X-Card sensibly, you should be fine. Lines and veils, man: lines and veils. Sort this stuff out in Session Zero. The Sandheart Militia are a shoo-in for Gaumata's Vision: this is exactly the sort of problem they should be tackling. And it's a brilliant scenario: Mike Dawson was firing on all cylinders when he wrote it. I don't see any reason not to relocate it. Incidentally, if the Goldbreath Family are trying to make friends in Prax outside of Sun County (which they undoubtedly are!), they could send their local "expert" beat cops to help out Duke Raus or any other neighbour for the occasional season or so: that way the Sandheart Militia can take over missing persons investigations or impound rogue ducks and newtlings etc. up and down the Cradle Valley, reworking material from Borderlands, Shadows... etc.

I tried to find it there first, but its content doesn't seem to be covered by your search engine.

So the page you pulled there is from MOB’s old website. Here, have a link.

It’s the Reaching Moon Megacorp logo. Designed by Dan Barker, turned into an icon by me (for my old Compuserve > BT Internet > etyries.com website, with David Hall’s enthusiastic consent), and borrowed by Tales of the Reaching Moon editor Michael O’Brien for his own website (again, with everybody’s enthusiastic consent). I’m sorry if this caused any confusion. MOB and I are Megacorp to the bone.

Bill, he defined it. The phrase is MOB’s.

Print on Demand (inc. free PDF) and PDF-only links are available via this blog post: https://www.chaosium.com/blogchaosium-releases-the-stafford-house-campaign-to-mark-the-fourth-anniversary-of-greg-staffords-passing/

Just spotted on DriveThruRPG: The Stafford House Campaign (Chaosium Archival Collection, Volume One). PDF only (for now), just $7.99 for 84 pages of APA zine articles and notes from Greg Stafford's personal RuneQuest campaign (1978-1981). Every issue of Dragons Past, Son of Sartar, and the Pharaoh's Gazette, plus all the GM's notes on RuneQuest sessions reported in Wyrms Footnotes.

That’s right. The best way of proving you’re a good Orlanthi is to murder your imagined enemies in secret.

As Harald says: some of them are humans, some of them are trolls, and some of them are half-human, half-troll. "Roughly half each." The Kitori were driven into the Kitori Wilds (the Troll Woods) after they were defeated in Tarkalor Trollkiller's wars, back in your great-grandparents' day. Before that, they'd been a local hegemonic power, dominating Volsaxi lands and controlling the overland route between Sartar and Karse.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Rick, MOB and Jeff, three of Chaosium’s principals, could not have been more supportive when we were getting A Rough Guide to Glamour into shape for the Jonstown Compendium.

"Might conservative, traditionalist Storm Voices think Argrath was introducing dangerous novelties to Sartar?" Yes, absolutely they might. And if they caused him difficulties, the Prince might send a posse from his Barbarian Horde to camp out on their tula and explain how things work. Violence is always an option, and Might makes right. Look, we know some traditional old-school Macedonians thought Alexander was going whacko out East. This is not rocket science. Re-read Campbell?

The title of the post says they're PCs, @g33k. Let's assume they're PCs.

Let's strip away the cruft, and get to the nub of it. You seem to be asking, "As GM, should I penalise my players for playing unusual characters?" The answer depends on what kind of game you want to run. If you like boringly conformist "adventurers" who don't explore the world or develop interesting quirks, then certainly you can crack down on any weird behaviour, unusual associates and the like. Tell them the Sartarite Orlanthi are a tediously conservative, narrow-minded people, and they'll have to conform to the local knuckle-draggers' expectations or fear mobs with torches and pitchforks. Read those alarming passages of old QuestWorlds books that have Orlanthi murdering babies for superstitious reasons: rub it in. If you want happy players, though, I'd suggest not doing that. After all, one of the joys of RuneQuest is the freedom to develop characters in unique directions, embracing foreign notions, weird powers, and unusual complications or entanglements growing out of past adventures. Why not embrace it? And of course you can play it both ways. Jerry will likely make it to the Clan Ring before Tom does, because Jerry keeps his head down and is seen as reliable, while Tom is away with the fairies (metaphorically speaking). You could use Passions to develop this: if you're skiving, hanging out with nogoodniks and generally behaving disreputably, take a hit to your Loyalty (Clan); if you're denouncing troublemakers to the Local Authorities, get a free tick. But if your players aren't interested in conforming, and you don't want to crush them for it, why worry about "realism"? You're playing a fantasy role-playing game, after all. Cut them some slack. This might help: in the Greydog Campaign, we had one prominent GM PC peer who role-modelled "admirable behaviour." The rest of us spent our share of the loot on training, spells and armour? He spent it on cows. When we got home to the village, you can guess who everyone was impressed by. That was a better way of teaching us what to do than saying, "Orlanthi value cattle." (But we were all sword-fanatic weirdoes with a sideline in newt- and rabbit-worship, and some real odd 'uns in the party as well)

What does the clan chieftain say? "Kings should rule, because Priests can make big mistakes" is one of the lessons we Orlanthi learned, back in the Second Age. Also, that guy "Jerry" seems suspiciously normal... Why would you even mention him...? (investigates, vigorously)

Adventurers are exceptional people: cult writeups describe what is normal and expected. Back in RQ2 days, every cult writeup had Rune Lords and Rune Priests, because that's "the way it had always been done." In RQ3, this was rationalised: lots of cults that didn't really need martial heroes lost their Rune Lords, while lots of cults that didn't really need a temple-based non-fighty priesthood lost their Rune Priests. In your own campaign, there's no reason not to allow a player to become "the first Torkani Rune Lord of Argan Argar in this generation," or "the first Champion of Pavis since Balastor fell defending his Barracks," or "a Sword Sage of Lhankor Mhy from some obscure temple in Esrolia where they never got the memo telling them that was now considered gauche." It's your game, and YGWV. In Chaosium's rules and supplements, while they'll write sweeping definitions (caveated with generous exceptions), they won't ever detail every interesting local quirk: that's what community content is for. Let a thousand Gloranthas bloom!

Updated on 3 October with Jamie Revell's Eyes' Rise, a sandbox village in the River of Cradles valley, just south of the Borderlands. After the Lunar Empire’s ignominous retreat, the mismatched band of pioneer settlers it abandoned here were left to see to their own safety, and are certain to welcome assistance from any bold adventurers in the vicinity as they strive to fortify and defend their homes. $4.50 for 31 pages (PDF). Also some overdue tidying-up of my Where in the World? maps, and the regular quarterly price-hike: if you failed to get on board earlier, the 2022 Index is now a whopping $2.00 for 74 half-sized pages (that's 5.4 cents per page, by my usual metric).

Hi, @Jose: the last draft I saw gives Deezola the following. Rune magic: all common Rune spells, plus Dismiss Earth Elemental (small or medium), Regrow Limb, Summon Earth Elemental (small or medium), and Resurrect (one-use) for Priestesses only. Plus some obvious Enchantments etc., but screw that noise. All her magic is subject to the Lunar cycle, of course. Associate cult Rune magic: Heal Body from Dendara, Resist Pain from Gerra and Chaos Gift from the Red Goddess. Cult skills: Cult Lore (Seven Mothers), Dance, First Aid, Manage Household, Meditate, Read/Write New Pelorian, Speak New Pelorian, Sing, and Worship (Deezola). Plus easy access to training from other Seven Mothers cults. Spirit magic: Befuddle, Glamour, Healing, Second Sight, and Vigor.

"The old-fashioned way" is good if you ever revise the text or add bonus content: contributors get the new stuff added to their downloads, and you don't need to keep mailing them updates. The tool you probably want is Account > My Content > Promotion Tools > Send Complimentary Copy to email individual contributors. If you're feeling fancy you can use Promotion Tools > Create/Edit Special Discounts instead to make a freebie voucher code (you can limit it to being used X times: don't ever let a Voucher of Infinite Discounts out into the wild!). That way you can email all your contributors at once, instead of pasting their emails one after another into the comp copy tool.

To be clear: I thought collections of “Tales of Prax,” “Tales of Sartar” and ”Tales of the Lunar Empire” would be eminently do-able, with easily-contacted authors for all the stuff we’d want to include. But nobody bit, and the caravan has moved on.

Years back I championed that idea, but back then none of the former Tales editors was interested. So I’m doing other things instead.