Nick Brooke

Here is some feedback I provided on the draft scenario, I don’t think it was actioned but you might find it useful:

There’s just one week left to share your perfectly-worded reviews of Jonstown Compendium books on DriveThruRPG and maybe see them printed in the 2023 Jonstown Compendium Catalogue. So get writing! (Ratings are also welcome!)

Further to that: as soon as the art is complete, I will prepare the print edition to the high standard you have rightly come to expect. But I can’t finish the art myself, and there’s no point starting work until everything is in the bag.

Award-winning author Jane Routley’s second Miskatonic Repository scenario is out now: it’s a rustic Edwardian Suffragettes vs. Cthulhu romp called A Midsummer Night’s Darkness. Cover art is by the phenomenally talented Alex Guillotte, and layout and design are by me (and you’ll see that I had way too much fun!).

Out now in print-on-demand from the Miskatonic Repository on DriveThruRPG: the expanded and revised edition of The Pastores - a malevolent cult for Cthulhu Dark Ages.

Quote

In the cities and countryside of West Frankia a sinister evil flourishes.  Secret worshipers of Shub-Niggurath infiltrate the aristocracy and the Church. On their lands and in their fastnesses they transform flesh and breed beasts neither human nor animal.

This supplement describes the Pastores, their  beliefs, their leaders, their territories, their allies, and their monsters, and includes four scenarios to inflict the Pastores upon investigators.

Expanded and revised for 7th edition Call of Cthulhu.

Content warning
Contains body horror, violence, harm to children, and scenes of torture.  Discuss with your players limits, boundaries, and consent  before play.

Updated again on 23 December:

• Sacred Earth, Sacred Water by Diana Probst, Kristi Herbert & Erin McGuire: this book collects four linked Praxian scenarios from Beer With Teeth and adds new background detailing the Straw Weaver Clan of the Bison Tribe, their way of life and their leaders. It forms a Praxian starter campaign in a single book: you can play either as members of the tribe or else as their outlander friends and associates.
  
  Of the scenarios, Stone and Bone is a battle against deadly scorpion foes, The Gifts of Prax is a shamanic trek across Prax, The Lifethief takes you to the worst place in the world, and The Temple of Twins is one of those scenario ideas that’s so good you wish you’d thought of it yourself. Three of the scenarios are connected, but they can be played in any order. The book is rounded off with several dozen colourful fully-statted Praxian Encounters which could be used for any group crossing the Plaines of Prax, be they Straw Weavers, Sandheart Militia or something else entirely.
  
  The book is beautifully illustrated throughout: Kristi Herbert’s artwork is particularly fine, and many new character illustrations bring the Praxian cast vividly to life.

Hey, @Scornado, are you trying to generalise based on the incident described in “A Fire in the Darkness”? It seems to me that would be a bad idea, for what I’d have thought were fairly obvious reasons.

Regarding your last concerns, I recently shared this “generic RuneQuest scenario” outline on Facebook, and think you should recognise this is a universal issue.

1. It’s [Element] Season, so our heroes have gone to [holy place] to take part in [ritual], like we do every year…
2. But something’s gone wrong, and this year it’s all started going sideways.
3. Unreflective jerks assume traditional enemies have screwed with our myths, but (whisper it) maybe our leaders or ancestors screwed up as well?
4. So now we’re all trying to complete a botched ritual and deal with political complications, while learning secrets about our traditional enemies and respected leaders/ancestors, while dealing with the fallout from the first botched attempt, which is probably huge and dangerous…
5. And then the players come up with their own solution (usually: “let’s marry or worship the huge dangerous monster, cover up our leaders’ and ancestors’ crimes, and lead a pogrom against our completely innocent traditional enemies.”)

Voila! That’s RuneQuest.

The thing is, some RuneQuest players will always prefer to blame the people they think are baddies (even if it means they have to frame them while teaming up with the real baddies), rather than accept what’s actually happening. It can be frustrating! But once you accept that it’s what always happens, you can get more relaxed about it, and maybe even start poking fun at those knuckle-draggers who can’t move past their entry-level preconceptions. That’s what Greg always did.

Oh, and here’s a photo of the Chaosium Community Content store at Dragonmeet.

Updated again on 21 December:

• Korkos Keep, by Dario Corallo & Peter Hart: a straightforward scenario about an incursion into a Zorak Zoran stronghold in the Upland Marsh, beautifully illustrated throughout by Dario Corallo. The introduction presents a variety of adventure hooks (starting with the Humakti classic, “Kill the Undead”), the varied denizens are characterful in the best RuneQuest tradition, and the afterword suggests yet more stories that could revolve around this location. Other useful resources for games set in the Upland Marsh are referenced in the advertisements at the back. The VTT pack includes 22 tokens (ghouls, skeletons, zombies and worse) and a high-resolution map (17.5k x 31.5 k pixels). (30 pages plus a map and 22 VTT tokens for $10.95)

Plus three shorter works:

• Balazar & Elder Wilds Codex by Anders Tönnberg: a gazetteer detailing all the places on the map of Balazar and the Elder Wilds: it should be back on sale shortly. (12 pages for $2.74)
• 100 Hooks and Rumours for Griffin Mountain by Adrian Kennelly: snippets from Griffin Mountain in 100 paragraphs, alphabetically ordered, with a rumour appended to the end of each entry. (10 pages for $1.99)
• The Bandit Den by Smol Snek: a ruined house is the hideout for a group of bandits. (2 pages for $0.50)

And lots more maps by Mikael Mansen, of course.

You know it’s Allabeer. Just thank your lucky stars Lord Goldbreath doesn’t visit Sandheart very often, or it’d be him.

I would treat this case by case (adventurer by adventurer), rather than writing a generic "Sandheart Militia" occupation profile that includes all manner of diverse specialisms. But that's just me. 

The Sandheart Militia are unlike other Sun County militia formations because they aren't part-timers (farmers serving one season per year). Read Tales of the Sun County Militia to understand the Goldbreath family's experiment. As the Sandheart Specials are a bunch of specialists, why not let each of them suggest their main professional skill? The impala-riding scout was hired because he can Track, the Lhankor Mhy forensic tech is there because of his Human Lore, and so on. They don't each derive their income from the same skill, so why would you write the rules as if they did?

You can find a roster of artists who'd be happy to create Gloranthan masterpieces for your group for a reasonable fee via the Creators Helping Creators (CHC) Directory in the Files area of the Jonstown Compendium Creators' Circle group on Facebook. I'm sure they won't mind that this isn't for commercial publication: pecunia non olet.

All human religion was learned from baboons in the Dark, Joerg. I shouldn’t have to remind you of this.

Everything the Aeolians know about religion, they learned from Baboons in the Dark. This is a fundamental Gloranthan Truth.

37 minutes ago, Ian A. Thomson said:

Well, one brand new (inspired by something Nick Brooke mentioned about a game he was playing in),

Intriguing…

Potatoes have made an early appearance in a book I’ve just started reading, James C Scott’s Against the Grain (he’s the author of Seeing Like a State, so I know it’ll be up my street) as a crop that resists state formation. The author suggests that as there’s no defined harvest season for tubers, it’s not nearly so easy for tax collectors to get their cut. Interesting stuff, which plays well with the revolutionary anti-Yelmic origins of the Lunar Way.

King of Sartar, like the foreword to White Bear & Red Moon, the Hero Wars appendix to the Guide, and its source, the cacophony of overlapping Hero Wars Events in the old Orange Box, presents Glorantha as a world fizzing with potential and alternate takes. Dull timelines and plodding recitation of canonical dates and events do the reverse. I know which I prefer.

7 hours ago, Joerg said:

Nobody needs any ambiguity about the date of the demise of King Moirades these days.

Says the wrongest man in Wrongville. And I have the sales figures to prove it.

Storm Bull wants you to fight Chaos. Go fight Chaos.

I’m not sure you grok what a grain goddess does. They don’t diversify, or rotate crops. They are their grain.

Introduce maize? Doesn’t affect the previous grain goddess’s worship at all, except that farmers will gradually or rapidly swap over to the Fifth Wane Wonder Crop and the new, wholly bloodless* Blood Rites of Hon-eel. But the quaint ceremonies at the antiquated grain goddess shrine will continue, for as long as people want to give her worship. It’s a bit like what happened to the Orlanth cult in Lunar Tarsh.

* Terms and conditions apply. The cult of Hon-eel did not write this disclaimer. Ask the corn priestesses if you want to know the secret of guaranteed bumper yields.

For playing RuneQuest, the Prosopaedia and much of the Guide will be largely irrelevant. They have lots of fascinating information about parts of the world where your game isn't set, and exotic foreign deities worshipped by people your adventurers will never meet, but no playable material to support campaigns there. So as Jeff recommends, I'd start with the Sourcebook for a thorough grounding in the core setting conflict: the Hero Wars in Dragon Pass between the Kingdom of Sartar and the Lunar Empire. The Cults of RuneQuest books are superb: of them, Mythology is the overview that ties everything together and contains critically important insights into how the setting works. I'd also recommend Weapons & Equipment to give a view of the material culture of our sword-and-sandal world. And read up the Guide sections on cultures that matter to your game (Orlanthi, Praxian, Pelorian?) and the places where it's set.

5 hours ago, Joerg said:

What I meant with that different angle is that potato bread is not something common but (like in Japan) a rare foodstuff, the source of Lunar indoctrination through the Teelo Norri soup kitchens. It would be a communion with the Moon, of sorts...

Take, eat. This is her body...