Nick Brooke

Ooh, sensitive! Do you honestly think there’s a visible ethnic/“racial” difference between people born in the Kingdom of Lunar Tarsh and people from lands that were, in your grandparents’ lifetimes, part of the greater Kingdom of Tarsh? And if so, why?

Did you ask one of the other ambassadors, or reach out to MOB directly? This feels like something we'd love to let people use, but I wasn't aware you were asking.

Tarshite people with Tarshite accents can be found in Lunar Tarsh, but also in Old Tarsh (i.e. the fanatically anti-Lunar Tarsh Exiles based around Wintertop) and in northern parts of Sartar (i.e. the Far Point region, which used to be East Tarsh). Anyone lynching random people for "sounding Tarshite," "looking Tarshite" etc. is an idiot. So: how dumb are your Esrolians? A much bigger risk than "looking like a Tarshite" or "sounding like a Tarshite" would be if this NPC was openly worshipping Lunar deities, carrying a scimitar, had a honking great Moon Rune tattoo, etc. But plenty of Esrolians do those things, too - the Red Earth Alliance was extremely popular, after all - and this is the land of "There is always another way" (where alternatives to violence are greatly to be preferred). So you may be worrying too much.

Some general statements on appearance from the Guide to Glorantha: “The Orlanthi are olive-skinned, with brown, black, or reddish hair; a small minority has golden blond hair. Their eyes are typically green, brown, grey, or orange.“ ”Pelorians tend to be light-skinned (ranging from pale to olive), with brown to blonde hair. Brown and blue eyes are prevalent.” As I recall, Greg and Jeff called the Orlanthi “bronze people” and the Pelorians “gold people.” But their homelands/regions are both ethnic melting-pots: Pelorian ancestors, just like Sartarite and Tarshite ancestors, came from all sorts of places and included all sorts of weird and indeed non-human folks. Ethno-nationalism is a non-starter in Third Age Glorantha. Frankly, I wouldn’t do anything to limit players’ choices regarding their adventurer’s appearance; and obsessing too much about pure racial genotypes is weird. (Unless you’re a Mistress Race troll, then you’ve got something to be proud of)

Play the game to find out!

Updated again on 10 February: now contains 757 titles.

NB: although my post mentions a 6-9% price hike, it should be less than that for customers: this is a print cost hike. For my books (at least), I usually set things up so the print cost is about half the print edition’s cover price (and roughly the same as the digital cost), so if I choose to maintain margins the sticker increase will be 3-4.5%. Example: let’s say my book costs $15 to print, so I sell it for $15 digital / $30 print. Print cost goes up by 10%, so I now sell it for $15 digital / $31.50 print. The selling price in print has only gone up 5%, and the digital price hasn’t changed. In the real world, it’s trickier than this (e.g. books are printed at two different sites - US & UK - with different print costs, maintaining margins is “nice to have” but not essential, and my appetite for tweaking prices is limited). But that’s the ball-park.

Also relevant - those systems aren’t permitted on the Jonstown Compendium. If you did include Hero Wars or HeroQuest 1e stats, we’d ask you to remove them.

FYI, QuestWorlds has no stats (for NPCs). None. Don’t be ripped off!

Heads up: print costs for some Miskatonic Repository print-on-demand titles will increase in March. This won't be as bad as last summer's "premium colour" price hike, but you may see prices going up once the new rates come in. OneBookShelf told us: "Price increases are never welcome, but given the established worldwide supply issues (particularly with printing paper), the following increases are not unexpected. Our printed book supplier, Lightning Source/Ingram, has announced their annual price adjustment. Beginning in March, the price of B&W and Standard Color books will increase approximately 6-9% depending on format and page count. The price of US Premium Color printing will not change, but UK Premium Color will increase about 3%."

Heads up: print costs for some Jonstown Compendium print-on-demand titles will increase in March. This won't be as bad as last summer's "premium colour" price hike, but you may see prices going up once the new rates come in. OneBookShelf told us: "Price increases are never welcome, but given the established worldwide supply issues (particularly with printing paper), the following increases are not unexpected. Our printed book supplier, Lightning Source/Ingram, has announced their annual price adjustment. Beginning in March, the price of B&W and Standard Color books will increase approximately 6-9% depending on format and page count. The price of US Premium Color printing will not change, but UK Premium Color will increase about 3%."

We can do this online. The only game systems supported on the Jonstown Compendium are RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (the current Chaosium edition), RuneQuest Classic (i.e. Chaosium RuneQuest 2nd edition), QuestWorlds (the new name for the HeroQuest 2nd edition system used in HeroQuest: Glorantha) and 13th Age Glorantha. We won't allow submissions for other game systems, including but not limited to Chaosium RuneQuest 1st edition ("how quaint!"), Avalon Hill RuneQuest 3, unpublished Avalon Hill drafts (RQ4:AiG & RQ Slayers), Hero Wars (the small paperbacks), HeroQuest 1st edition (the big red book), Mongoose RuneQuest (either version, now renamed Legend), Design Mechanism RuneQuest 6 (now renamed Mythras), other BRP systems, other D20 systems, or other rule systems altogether. I think Ian misspoke when he mentioned "RQ6" -- that's an easy mistake to make, if you've been out of circulation for a bit. It's not a Chaosium game system, it's not set in Glorantha, and we can't allow it on the Jonstown Compendium. Note that you don't have to provide complete stats for everything in your JC submissions. (I mean, you can if you want to, but it's probably a bit OTT). If a NPC is only interesting because of their Bargain skill, don't bother telling us their birthday and shoe size (kinda thing). Although the GM Screen Pack Adventure Book provides multiple statblocks for uninteresting non-combatants, IMO that's highly misleading and is not something you should feel you have to emulate. See Six Seasons in Sartar and Citizens of the Lunar Empire for alternative approaches (pausing only to notice how many Sun Dome Templar statblocks I provided for that big battle scene in Black Spear).

Yes, of course. Always keep an eye open for opportunities to re-enact your myths in the mundane world, whether you're a player or a GM.

Nope. Most authors don’t mention that, so it would be misleading.

I explain how this new Index works with the Catalogue here:

The Jonstown Compendium Index 2022 is Nick Brooke's index to new RuneQuest & Glorantha scenarios and sourcebooks (and sundry other resources) available from Chaosium's Jonstown Compendium community content web store on DriveThruRPG. The index includes full details for every product released after 1 October 2021, plus summary listings for everything else in the store (for full details of all 2020 & 2021 releases, see the Jonstown Compendium Catalogue 2021 or previous years' indexes). 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, Glorantha Sourcebooks, QuestWorld Resources, Shorter Releases (inc. maps, tokens, artpacks and random stuff), three Where in the World? maps showing every scenario, sourcebook and regional 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 2022. All updates in 2022 are free; the price of the index may increase quarterly 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 on DriveThruRPG, or from the product page while you're logged in. The index comes bundled with a spreadsheet listing all major releases inc. price, page-count, medals, etc. for your convenience (updated through 31-Dec-2021) and with two charts showing the sales history of all major Jonstown Compendium titles to 31-Dec-2021. NOTE: Material indexed in this book may deal with mature themes. GMs are advised to adjust their presentation of this subject matter in accordance with their own and their group’s comfort levels.

If they're your original work, I'd suggest looking at the Jonstown Compendium: it's the most practical way to release community content these days (and is already licensed). You will of course need permission from any co-authors, artists and other contributors. Let me know if you need any advice.

Accidental heroquests are the best heroquests, in my opinion. (See Black Spear for examples). Your own example is dead good: always keep an eye out for numinous coincidences when you’re playing RuneQuest, it’ll freak out the other players.

It’s in my sig.

There's a RQ3 short-form cult writeup in the Red Box (Gods of Glorantha, 1986), and there'll be a RQG full-length cult writeup in Cults of Glorantha (2022?). Solar pantheon god of wagons and trade. Skills are Drive, Evaluate, Human Lore & Orate; spirit magic is Detect Gold, Detect Silver, Farsee, Glamour, Glue & Repair; Rune spells are Coin Wheel & Hie Wagon (both in the Red Book of Magic); the only listed Associate Cult is Yelm, who provides Salamanders. Priests of Lokarnos aren't supported by the cult, but only have to tithe 30% of time and income. Lokarnos is interesting because the cult's abilities are more about logistics and coinage than "trade" per se (in which both Issaries and Etyries have a distinct edge), which probably represents the cult's role in transporting to and from the imperial centre and minting currency, rather than entrepreneurial business. Which tells you things it's fun to know about the Dara Happan Empire. In our take on Glamour, Lokarnos cult rickshaws are the licensed yellow cabs of the imperial capital.

Updated again on 12-Jan-22: now contains 734 titles.

I marked up a draft version of the SoloQuest with the frequent comment: "Not how shields work in melee." My proposed edits didn't make it into print, alas. The rule that's been misunderstood is Use of Shield Against Missile Weapons, RQG Core p.219. The name gives it away. Vasana doesn't need to keep stating which locations her shield covers, because she isn't facing missile fire. Vostor’s shield doesn't block any locations in melee combat, and if he isn’t parrying with it a hit to his left arm does not hit the shield, it hits the arm itself.

Notes on Shield Use, RQG Core p.218. Damage in excess of the shield’s hit points strikes a random hit location (“the hit location originally rolled in the attack”).

The SoloQuest has a weird take on how shields work, not supported by the rules. Apart from this “choose which locations are blocked in melee” nonsense, if you parry with a shield and some damage gets through, it doesn’t automatically hit the shield arm: you roll a hit location as normal.