Nick Brooke

Now up to eight ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ratings and six rave reviews (five on DriveThruRPG plus one on Drew’s blog), the latest one being from playtester Matthew Tyler-Jones (The Effekt Podcast) : “What a marvellous book. I have been privileged enough to experience this mini-campaign as it was being sculpted by Nick Brooke. Sculpted from an amalgam of deep, deep Glorantha lore and a scattering of popular culture. But on reading the book, I am so pleased to discover Nick's customary foot-notes which are like his asides at the game table. “This adventure may not be for every table - if your group resent a Moonson that looks like Elvis they may not relish Bowie as Argrath <see NB note>, and some tables might feel railroaded once or twice - but it should be for every GM. It is an object lesson in making myth in Glorantha, and particularly for GMs new to the world (hello starter kit) it works as an insight into the complex history of Glorantha, the history of RuneQuest the game, and a primer on handling surreal heroquests in your bronze age world. If you are a new GM who wants to look like a seasoned pro, this is your vade mecum. “As a playtester, I also got a preview of some of the art by Mike O'Connor, but the full PDF has much much more. It’s great, in a style that fits the heroquesting vibe - very different from the "archeological illustration" of much recent RQ content, but which I feel might well suit the glaze of actual Gloranthan pots and mosaics. “A must for every GM's library.” NB note: GMs who lack Bowie’s raw charisma - if any - will be reassured to know that I set out several different takes on Argrath you can mix and match for your table, if Ziggy Argrath isn’t entirely your cup of tea: mystical Argrath, mumbling Brando Argrath, Muad’dib Argrath, Andy Serkis Argrath, Greg Stafford Argrath, and more besides.

And now there’s a Drew Review: yahoo! From Andrew Logan Montgomery: Black Spear: A Review “There is nothing else quite like Black Spear. There are some very deep dives into Gloranthan lore here, some terrific heroquests, but Black Spear also leans into pop culture and some really trippy shit, man. That is what I think is brilliant about it. There is absolutely no mistaking the setting it was conceived for … This is some top shelf, high-grade Gloranthan-psychedelia. I simply cannot recommend it highly enough.“

And Mike Hagen (A Rough Guide to Glamour) writes: I was sadly unable to be part of any of the play testing of 'Black Spear' but nevertheless, was enjoying regular generous updates from Nick as the work progessed, contributing honestly not much beyond the occassional guffaw and "this is -expletive removed- amazing ". And it kept getting better. So though the final finished product is, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "too many damn pages for any man to understand" that's mainly due to their being jam-packed to overflowing with sweet, sweet Gloranthan goodness. But for those of you mythological diabetics out there or the functionally illiterate just buy this product for the reality altering, simpy stupendous Mike O'Connor art alone. Buy it now. There you've been told.

Now up to six ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ratings, and two new reviews. Harald Smith @jajagappa writes: Hang onto your chariot! And get ready for one wild ride over the rainbow into a technicolor wonderland and the heart of darkness. This extended RuneQuest adventure puts the characters front-and-center in a far-flung heroquest engaging with movers-and-shakers at a seminal moment in the world of Glorantha. My first reactions were: "brilliantly mad", "wickedly delightful", and "gloriously illustrated" (in no particular order). For the gamemaster, the Black Spear demonstrates how to get an epic quest underway and bring the adventurers right into the mythic events that drive the world. It maintains a well-thought-out flow yet is filled with useful advice, thoughts, and humor on how to run each session - even musical recommendations to get players into the right frame-of-mind! The wonderful illustrations with their graphic novel feel feed right into this and provide plenty of possible handouts to help players envision what they've landed in. For the players, it's an opportunity to step out of a hard-and-fast rules mentality and into a seriously entertaining and memorable story. This is the Yellow Submarine, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Apocalypse Now, Mad Max, and more rolled into one non-stop adventure. By the end, they'll be ready to dive head-first into the Hero Wars (or frantically trying to stop it!). For newcomers to Glorantha, the Black Spear plunges you right into the magic of a world that have kept many engaged with it for years. For old-timers, it's a wonderful homage to favorite RuneQuest settings done over in new and intriguing ways that will get you out and boogieing big-time with the newtlings. A wildly delightful plunge into RuneQuest and Glorantha. Highly recommended!

Three ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings and two lovely reviews so far. One of my playtesters, Chris Gidlow, wrote: “From my adventurer’s limited perspective, it was everything I could possibly want – high-stakes quest, travelogue, dungeon-bash, wargame and heroquest taking us from Dragon Pass to Pavis by the scenic route, encountering diverse Gloranthan cultures and playing my part in the unfolding Hero Wars. However, now I get to see the whole pack laid out, the paths not taken, the vast mythic vistas and the depth of imagination and research, I am truly awestruck. This really is the Gloranthan scenario you are looking for … Nick presents a palimpsest of novelties overlaid across familiar locations from RuneQuest’s past and vibrant present … held together with a heroquest around a central myth of Glorantha, rather than minor obscure cults prepared for a scenario. This is absolutely the next scenario you have to get! Your adventurers are in for an utter treat.” And @Eff of Eight Arms and the Mask wrote: “Black Spear is a triumph. This adventure synthesizes together many of the more forbidding, obscure, or occultated aspects of Glorantha, a setting notorious for all three of those things, and does so in a way that's directly approachable, with the author explaining his reasoning as he goes, offering alternate pathways at each juncture. This takes the form of a symbolic journey through the ruins of older Gloranthan games and scenarios, right into the heart of darkness, all held together by a collage of cultural references … Strongly recommended.”

Still Day 1, and now BLACK SPEAR is the #3 Bestselling Title on all of DriveThruRPG. Which is nice. Just waiting for my Copper Best-Seller medal to drop... UPDATE: Copper happened. So did this:

Day 1, and BLACK SPEAR is the #1 Hottest Community Content title on DriveThruRPG (and nine out of the top ten are Chaosium books, just saying). The first review is in, from @davecake, who wrote on Facebook: "This is one of the greatest Glorantha things ever written, and a staggering work of genius." (I assume he liked the pictures, which are really rather special) You can leave a rating and a review on DriveThruRPG 24 hours after purchase. I note in passing that my birthday is this Tuesday, and if you can't think of anything else to get me it'd be lovely to have some feedback from happy customers.

Updated again with Black Spear, a Hero Wars saga for RuneQuest by Nick Brooke and Mike O'Connor. 181 pages for $19.95 in digital format (PDF). “Know then, oh Prince, that in the Sea Season after the Battle of the Queens was Colymar’s Black Spear sent forth to rouse Argrath from his slumbers.” An epic saga of the Hero Wars, festooned with heroquests and deep Gloranthan weirdness. Probably the strangest thing I’ve ever written. Designed as a follow-up to The Duel at Dangerford, but it also works as a stand-alone mini-campaign. Canonically set in Sea Season 1627, with suggestions at the back of the book for changing things around. Illustrated lavishly by Mike O’Connor: 50+ pictures, one or two songs, some poetry, not many stat-blocks.

Available now from the Jonstown Compendium: BLACK SPEAR, by Nick Brooke & Mike O'Connor. 181 pages for $19.95 in digital (PDF) format, $35.95 as a standard colour printed hardcover book, or $49.95 $44.95 in premium colour hardcover. "Know then, oh Prince, that in the Sea Season after the Battle of the Queens was Colymar's Black Spear sent forth to rouse Argrath from his slumbers..." An epic saga of the Hero Wars, festooned with heroquests and deep Gloranthan weirdness. Probably the strangest thing I’ve ever written. Designed as a follow-up to The Duel at Dangerford, but it also works as a stand-alone mini-campaign. Canonically set in Sea Season 1627, with suggestions at the back of the book for changing things around. Illustrated lavishly by Mike O’Connor: 50+ pictures, one or two songs, some poetry, not many stat-blocks.

One of the first signs that the Hero Wars RPG was (ahem) "poorly thought-through in some aspects" (shall we say?) was when it included rules for heroquesting that made it basically impossible to get any heroquest off the ground. What were they thinking? That's among the many reasons I don't raid that game for mechanical ideas.

Is it something they need to know in order to enjoy the scenario I'm running? Then they already know it, or they meet someone who can teach it to them, or they find a written record / temple frieze / statue / crime scene that shows them what they need to do, or the player who makes the best die roll vs. a relevant skill (Cult Lore, Worship, Devotion, an appropriate Rune, etc.) gets given the answer on a plate. Don't ever make players succeed in a skill roll just to make progress in a scenario. Don't ever give players duff info that will crash your game, unless you're prepared to deal with the mess you've created. (But see the corollary below) But in my opinion adventurers shouldn't go into heroquests with perfect knowledge of what's going to happen. If they think they know, that's great -- you can screw around with their expectations, pull the rug out from under them when they least expect it, gate-crash the party and take no prisoners, etc. (Always give players duff info to bring more fun to your game, even if they've rolled nothing bad: that's why they come to the table, after all) I find the rehearsed and researched "safe" model of heroquesting intensely dull, and don't spend any time humouring it in my games. Several examples of what ends up happening are in Black Spear, coming soon to the Jonstown Compendium.

Updated again with Diana Probst's The Whirling Moon, a mini-adventure released via Austin Conrad's Monster of the Month series. $2.00 for 14 pages.

Pages 9&10 of the GM Screen Pack's gamemaster references could be printed as a double-sided cheat-sheet. Is that the sort of thing you're after?

Queen = Cwen = Woman. No special magic is necessary. All women are queens already.

So: in the Orlanth Adventurous initiation, Eurmal explicitly takes the role of Loki in the story of Baldur the Beautiful. Disguised as an old woman, he tricks Orlanth into wielding Death against Yelm. Think of the old mistletoe dart switcheroo. While in the Humakt initiation, Eurmal tricks Grandfather Mortal into ambushing Humakt: he is, of course, slain. His dying words are, "But Eurmal said you wanted to play this game..." To me, those are strongly Loki-inflected appearances, not the "bumbling clown driven by his appetites and bereft of social graces" we're used to seeing in other tales. Eurmal is scheming to set up murder and mayhem. He's an asshole like that.

If you're fast-reading while looking for nuance, you will fail. Look at the way Eurmal is introduced in those initiation scenarios. It's not the way you'd usually find him in one of Greg's myths. I find Drew's presentation more sinister, destructive and malevolent than the often "playful and random" Trickster we're used to. More Loki than Coyote. He is up to something, and he knows it will hurt people and ruin things, and he doesn't care: maybe that's the point?

Updated again with Jamie "Trotsky" Revell's Bearwalkers, an in-depth look at the Rathori of Fronela, including character creation and cult details for both RuneQuest and QuestWorlds. $4.00 for 25 pages.

Excuse me? The Red Goddess categorically demonstrated at Castle Blue that she wasn’t in breach of the Great Compromise. The only people wanting to break the Compromise are those Orlanthi fanatics who have sworn, for whatever benighted reason,* to annihilate her. To the rest of us, they sound like Trumpist dead-enders, attempting to re-litigate a comprehensive defeat with lots of windy rhetoric but absolutely no facts on their side. * (Yes, we killed Orlanth. He died in Godtime, too. What’s the issue, barbarian?)

Bah. If you read or played The Duel at Dangerford, you'd know that King Moirades of Tarsh was the Vladimir Harkonnen equivalent, at least posthumously. Thank goodness this is the Dumbest Theory thread! (Moirades would actually make a totes legit "floating fat man," given the ascension/levitation and orgiastic practices associated with the illuminated Lunar elite. This is now part of my headcanon, and I will take no further questions)

Here's the thing: just about every culture in Glorantha could be the "bad guys." Or the "good guys." It all depends on your perspective. Trolls, Orlanthi, Praxians, Lunars, Pentans, Telmori, Char-Un: you name it, they're all seen as irredeemable villains by various other folk, who know them only as enemies and don't share their sane and reasonable world-view. And it's also perfectly possible to play games with any of them as heroes, doing good things in a culturally-appropriate manner. The traditional exceptions are the Creatures of Chaos (broo, scorpion men, ogres, etc.) plus a few specially-designated Enemy Kingdoms from the old Orange Box (off the top of my head, that was just the Vadeli and the Kingdom of War). I suppose another set of exceptions would include peoples seen as too weak to be dangerous: Oasis Folk, Boat People, Ergeshi, Baboons, Ducks, Trollkin and their ilk. Picking on them only makes you look petty and vindictive. (And maybe you are? Who knows!)

It's not quite co-existence... it's more that even after an impala herd has eaten everything it enjoys on a patch of fertile ground and moved out, a bison herd will still find enough of the fodder it prefers, because the species eat different plants. Sandy Petersen shared details on one of the old mailing lists, which were compiled in an issue of Codex and in Drastic: Prax. Let me see if I can find the source...

Updated again, to note three recent developments: A Rough Guide to Glamour won the Gold ENNIE Award for Best Organized Play 2021! Citizens of the Lunar Empire won a Bronze ENNIE Award in the same category; and Legion won a Gold Best-Seller medal from DriveThruRPG for selling 501 copies. 'Organized Play' is the category the ENNIES use for community content programmes like the Jonstown Compendium, Miskatonic Repository and Dungeon Masters Guild.

A Rough Guide to Glamour has just won the Gold ENNIE Award for "Best Organized Play 2021." Awards ceremony here. Acceptance speech here. Excuse me while I have a little lie-down.

Wigs, man. High-class Lunar women contain multitudes.