redmoongoddess

I'm late but take my money. I love seeing old rpg treasures like really rare fan zines. It seems yours will be a true treasure of time!

@LeingodMy issue is that Argrath was an ambiguous character, but recently Chaosium have gone out of their way to feature the guy as an prominent NPC, even going out of their way to Fridge Kallyr instead of keeping her around as an possible npc counterpart to the "good guy turning evil" story of Argrath, @GAZZA Look into Samuel Haight, and I'm not familiar with the Forgotten Realms, but I doubt the rpg books usually had the players right by where Driz'zt was doing what he was doing, whereis Runequest Glorantha openly has the players working in exactly the area he rules where they presumbly have to do his bidding if they wanna be anti-Lunar Orlanthi. Unless Chaosium plans on having Argrath as an villain, the players are going to quickly learn about this Argrath guy and their reaction will be "Wow, sure sounds like the GM's Pet NPC!" once they found out about all of the shit he did to assure the MUCH weaker pcs actually can exist in a Lunar free kingdom. Maybe they won't, but decades of badly handled metaplots in other rpgs and gm horror stories is anyone skeptical of the "great hero" Argrath. "But what about Pendragon? Doesn't it have a lot of scenarios where you just watch King Arthur do cool stuff?" And a lot of years and events that don't involve Arthur with the implication that the Players will be busy with other stuff (Including their own lives) instead of always following Arthur? King Of Sartar was, as you point out an ambigious tale that implied Argrath could've been just the shared name of a bunch of other people. Le Morte Da Arthur is Le Morte Da Arthur. It's an classic of literature. King Of Sartar isn't there yet. I don't think players will be respectful to Argrath the way they might to Arthur. I agree, the issue is that they've decided to make Runequest, "Roleplaying In Glorantha" focus almost solely on the Orlanthi because of admitted appeal to sales. I like the Orlanthi but holy shitters we could move on from them already. But Chaosium decided to have them as the start of their foundations for the future, and I strongly doubt we're going to ever see areas like the Lunar Kingdom get the respect they deserve considering the usual cycle of cancelled Runequest Products. I.E. Runequest 6 Glorantha. Which was going to have Balazarings and sorcery rules...compare that to """RuneQuest 4."""

The title is obviously lunar propaganda.

Not replying to you, but adding to this question, is it better than the first Cthulhu Invictus book...which was mostly Roman History info already well described in many other rpgs/textbooks/websites and very boring interpretations of the mythos and roman myth? Compare it to something like Harlem Rebound where there is a lot of purely historical material, but there's also a ton of interesting details that flesh the setting out, along with a lot of plot hooks that give you easy ways to use the locations and people mentioned...not to mention it's an actual setting, whereas Invitcus 1st edition shot itself in the foot by trying to describe the entirety of the empire without any interesting vision or general ideas for what the game should be about. So...I really hope Golden Goblin fixed that considering their main skills are in scenarios and not settings from the things I've read from them. (This review is basically my entire opinion on Cthulhu Invticus but better written: https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/16/16003.phtml)

Better idea: Don't involve argrath at all, imho, the "this character is super important and the pcs do nothing while he does all of the important things" thing blew up in white wolf's face, the same fate will occur to Glorantha unless they listen to their fans. Chaosium? See the people who love the Lunars? Including Greg? You might wanna actually do Lunar things already instead of submitting to the feedback loop of pain and suffering. You don't really know if players won't buy an Lunar Book or not until you actually try it. Sartar Rising 3 also failed so don't use the lunar handbook books failing as an rebuttal against that.

not really hyped for waiting even longer for books that's been already worked on over a decade in some cases so they can be for an sixth edition that's probably very early in development compared to them.

Sure thing! If I remember you. And you aren't dead. Edit: And it'll probably be in a different system from RQ:G.

That is very disappointing, honestly, I wonder if at this point we will ever see any of those pantheons be fleshed out like they deserve to be...it really feels like the guys at chaosium are only interested in Orlanthi and the areas around them at this point.

Is it going to cover every major culture in Glorantha? Only (ugh) ones found in Sartar? Or literally every single cult there is?

Dumuzid, that is an amazing answer and I hope that they release that Fonrit book within the next 2 years because I would gladly run an campaign based around everything you typed. I'd take demons over slavers any day.

I, for one, would rather have an setting that can be changed by the actions of the Players.

The thing I've always wondered about Fonrit is what would happen if the slaves actually managed to escape from their bonds. Namely, what would happen to the culture that they follow? I doubt the slaves have known any other culture or deities aside from the ones that are forced onto them by their cruel masters. It would probably be VERY terrifying for a liberated slave to go from slavery to the complete unknown. Not to mention that nearly everyone in Glorantha gains magic from the worship of their deities, and I doubt they would want to keep their old gods who treated them like shit. I wouldn't. But then, they would need to deal with people who actually are able to still use magic when they escape. And assuming they can keep away from the awful slave masters for long enough, what is next? I'm not familiar with this part of Glorantha lore. But I would imagine their best option would be to move to another culture in the surrounding area. That opens up some interesting questions. Is it possible for one to completely assimilate into another Glorantha culture with cult membership and everything? I would hope so. Maybe they could come into contact with the Lunar Empire somehow? The Lunars don't mind slavery, but I doubt they would accept COMPLETE slavery, like the rulers of Fonrit do.

I found it odd GPC never depicts an single battle that's ending depends on the rolls done by a Player or GM despite the default rules allowing for it. Therefore I can easily imagine the War In Cambria being an good addition to a GPC after tons of "railroaded" battles where your players are just pawns. My first impression was for it to be in the Conquest period (considering...it's a conquest period) or the Tournament period (Original assumption in Savage Mountains) but I didn't consider the Boy King period before! It fits quite well, mood wise, and is an fittingly dark place. But one may want to run some of the different adventures in the book during "peaceful" periods if players are getting bored of the constant Waring. Granted, players may be greatly wounded, after many battles, I imagine this option is only for very lucky groups. In particular, I enjoy it's Wine adventure, very weird and very cool.

Okay, got it: Link. Sorry for my laziness in getting it out, but these are the files from the group, along with Images, and Links to sites that may or may not be useful, all in the easy .rar format. It should be noted that quite a fair amount of this old material's been shared on other sites before, like the Pendragon Treasures pdf, but there are still things in there I imagine people would find usage in, such as the adventures and Spanish Material, therefore it is worth preserving for the future to own. May the same terrible fate this info very nearly suffered not blight the Chaosium forums in our future.

Good point. I was going with Zoroastrianism because of the vagueness of where Zazamanc is at and the fact the Sasanian Empire was very active at the time that Pendragon takes place. But really, I feel the fictional pantheon already used in BOKAL should be kept, but the section about Zazamanc should include and focus more on "historical" religions, due to the fact it's really just an gigantic anachronism in place of the actual religious practices, that would be easier to roleplay IMO. I know the default Paganism that's detailed is sorta like this too, considering the little information about what was worshiped in the time period in comparison to Christianity, not to mention we don't know ANYTHING about whatever was believed by the Picts. But there is actual info about the "Pagan" religions that was worshiped in those areas at the time that is available from what I can tell, and I feel it's a waste to completely ignore that, and the Trio of Termagant and Apollyon and Mahouri isn't as interesting to role play as something like an Greco-Egyptian pantheon (Playing as an knight who worshiped Ra would be interesting!) or the Pre-Islamic religions of the Middle East IMHO, I feel it's better when you've got something you can look up for more information beyond the statement of "some weird idea people believed about the middle east back in the day"! I just feel like the current presentation of the Zazamanc culture is like if they ignored Beowulf in the section for the Danes or something. I am surprised Zazamancs don't already have an option to start out as Christians in the book. I guess it's to avoid the idea of them not being Christians being inherently bad that is often suggested in the original sources, but considering that A LOT of other cultures in there are given options to become Christians, I don't think it's that far of a stretch to assume some people in the kingdom of Zazamanc are already converted to the new religion. Agreed! An source book about adventuring in North Africa and (part of) the Middle East during the time of Arthur would be very cool. I imagine Zazamanc to be to North Africa what Logres was to the land of Britain. An mythical land that embodied the best aspects of it's culture yet sadly fell to the folly of mortal sin as any government does eventually. And it would be interesting to see Ghouls appear in a Pendragon adventure, considering their origins in Arabic folklore, but they would probably be by Zazamanc's far border, as I doubt it's borders includes that area, and we don't want to mix up the different and diverse cultures of Africa. Off Topic to my post but on topic to our...Topic, it would be cool to see an resurrection of the Regional books, perhaps one about Cornwall detailing an alternative prospective to the campaign where your Knights follow the rule of King Mark, or one that explores ruined Rome? RE:Geography, I prefer to think Pendragon still takes place on a round Earth despite the many other intentional errors in the game, I feel it's important that not everything in the game is as people in the past "believe", as it allows for exploring more themes and stories than ones that were strictly in the words of Le Morte Da Arthur, I'm pretty sure there weren't any lady knights or many chivalrous Saxtons in it's fiction, but they are allowed in Pendragon since that brings up fun options to the game. I could be wrong, but still. I feel that America existing in the land of Pendragon is more interesting than it being a flat planet. It's unlikely that any players will go there to meet the Native Cultures (Unless it's an Vallant inspired campaign) but some people's ran WEIRDER campaigns. Not to mention accounts of the Inuits meeting Vikings for those running an campaign as the Danes. Final Subject: Anyone know anything about Codex Mirabilis' content beyond that you'll be able to create a Magician that's different from the ones included in 4th edition? I prefer Ars Magica for being a medieval wizard. But I'm still very interested in seeing it done in Pendragon...again.

I feel so dumb for not finishing my sentence when I sent that in. Anyways, that is A LOT different from the image in my mind of a magical queen who rules the "Launds" of Ireland while riding on a Elk or Bear or something else magical and naturey. BUT the love potion does give me an idea of how to bring the PKs into the adventurey part of the tournament that isn't answered by "why doesn't one of the round table knights do it?" In my brain "The Adventure Of The Wooing Of The Lady Of The Launds" starts off with an tournament including many of the important figures from King Arthur's court and the famous warriors and poets mentioned in Pagan Shore, but then someone with an agenda against The Lady and/or Arthur and/or Anguish decides to send a leprechaun to sneak in an love potion during a fest in the middle of the tourney...that accidentally ends up being given to one of the PKs, forcing them to fall in love with Miss Lady Of The Launds, and vice versa. Clearly seeing the love is magically enchanted, Lady Of The Launds sends the warriors and knights of the Tournament to find a cure to the love potion, presumably it can only be cured by an ritual that requires the two cursed to be there. I imagine the word of this leads to the present Irish warriors to accuse the round table knights of treachery and so the player knights need to get the cure as fast as they can before things get to the point of bloodshed. This may also apply to the Druids and Cailleach* consoled for assistance. * Word used for the warrior women and witches who taught Cú Chulainn the mighty Irish martial arts. Also: I feel there could be a lot of fun in a adventure where Player Knights from Britain need to follow the rules indicated by Irish warriors, namely, Geas. Perhaps to appease the many Irish warriors angry the "King Of Ireland" is celebrating the victory of that gutless "warrior" Arthur, it is instructed that warriors from Ireland are allowed to place Geas on those defeated by them, at the expensive of their foes being allowed to do the same. I could see fun roleplaying coming from that. As for an possible ending, I think it should be VERY difficult to get the Lady to actually marry the player knight unless they are REALLY good at battling the MANY warriors who are at the tournament...including Tristan. I feel the most likely ending is for the players to free the Lady and the player Knight from a love struck enchantment, but ultimately the lady shows no interest in marrying the player, and the actual winner ends up being...one of the mentioned knights in Pagan Shore I forgot the name of. Ultimately The Lady is in a loveless marriage but is clearly the dominant one of said relationship regardless. But perhaps it at least leads to the players being on good terms with King Anguish and The Lady. And there is all of the enemies who could've forced our protagonists to follow the Geas. Or vice versia. I'm sure players will want to get vengeance. It's expected. It needs a lot more fleshing out...but it's an idea. Sadly, I won't be able to run this for a long time due to the fact I don't have an active Pendragon campaign currently, but I am curious to see if people on this forum think any of what I've typed is a good idea, or if I am stupid for typing this crap and I should be ashamed for writing it. Maybe it's in a middle column. I just want validation for spending a ton of time on my ramblings made out of boredom.

Late and off topic, but adding to BOLAK discussion. I would like it if the Zazamanc culture was changed into an more "accurate" mixture of the fictional kingdom from Parzival, and the actual cultures in existence at the time in the area, like the Sasanian Empire and Berbers. Why? Because Medieval West Africa is cool and generally ignored as an setting, and it would frankly be a lot easier to portray and role play if there was more actual historical sources to pull from than merely just Medieval Misconceptions, that are thankfully depicted in Pendragon as not being inherently evil or needing of being forced to convert to another religion as in the fiction, but still not very real. Case in point, I feel that it would be better if Zoroastrianism was directly discussed in the book instead of just the vague "Saracenism", considering it's an very interesting religion that gives an cool contrast to the many other "pagan" religions in Pendragon in it's embracing of Monotheism, instead of the implied or directly mentioned worship of multiple deities that is common around the world of Pendragon. Saracenism shouldn't be completely removed, and it needs to be noted that Zoroastrianism didn't really reach into that far into Africa due to the Sasanian Empire's limits, I just think it give some interesting roleplaying opportunities if there were more options for the culture. I'm not saying to completely remove the kingdom of Zazamanc because it didn't exist/isn't accurate either, since Pendragon is a game about KING ARTHUR, but I feel that real life can't be completely overlooked in pursuit of accuracy to literature, we wouldn't be allowing stuff like Female Knights if we were being completely accurate. But we do allow it. And Pendragon is better for it.

I also got the downloads that IIRC aren't included in Idiotic Yahoo's data. I'll try to get them out to this place once I get the time. I'm new to uploading large batches of files that aren't in a zip file or something.

Part of the reason why "Saracens" were popular as an villain was because the time when the Arthur legend became popular in Europe was also during when Crusaders were invading the Muslim Moors and Ottoman Empire, who were considered as EVIL as dragons and goblins were in old fairy tales, and they were believed to be worshiping an "evil" pantheon including deities like "Mahound" (I imagine you can easily figure it who's name they warped for that one...) and Abaddon, despite the fact that Zoroastrianism was FAR more popular in West Africa and the Middle East at the time King Arthur and the like were said to be alive. Zoroastrianism is very interesting, btw. And possibly inspired Judaism and it's successors in turn, ironically. An Medieval Zoroastrian would be an interesting concept for a player to be, actually.

Can I get another source for a Kralorela sourcebook being an upcoming project? That twitter thread doesn't really give a lot of evidence for it beyond it being a place you can sail to from Nochet. IMO that doesn't really confirm or deny the idea of it being the topic of an source book either way. Is there an different source that gives more insight on it I'm missing?

Too many battles. I understand why. But it gets ridiculous. Particularly in Early and Conquest eras. GPC Uther's FIRST year is an battle. And that's probably really annoying for first time players. That's better off being moved to a different year. Boy King features a LOT of battles but that makes sense. But the Conquest era also being an era full of battles feels very repetitive right after the Boy King era. That one can be easily fixed, at least, by just making it so Arthur allows some knights to stay behind to defend the realm from any Saxton Bandits who survived the massive battles during the Boy King Era/Bad Bandits in general/Weird magical monsters, that may use Arthur's business with invading Rome/Ireland/France as an opportunity to fuck stuff up. But still, not a great idea. I also feel there are too many years that describe a bunch of stuff that isn't all that interesting to be in for the players because they're mostly just talking to NPCs. There's a few years in the Boy King era where not much occur, but there's one where it's literally just going to random gatherings of important arthurian figures and all you do is view them talking, I understand the importance of "Plot" BUT not every player is going to be that into them to care about everything involve. In particular if it's just talking. If there is ever an GPC 2nd edition, I feel an focus on including different dates/ways certain events can occur would be useful for people who want to do explore different interpretations of it, or people who need an less long campaign due to real life issues. And to include it's Index. You can't forget a good index.

The fact that a lot of people haven't actually done much with this book is pretty much just proof that old Chaosium really should've included an large scale adventure or two within it...Maybe there could be an Ireland set adventure in a future Pendragon book? Not necessarily based on Pagan Shore. But just generally inspired by Irish folklore. On a different note, does anyone know anything about the Lady of the Launds that is briefly mentioned in Malory that Tristram would've married if he accepted the lady? An adventurous part of me wants to run that as an adventure some day, in Pagan Shore it claims the warriors from Ireland were beaten badly because they weren't good at the usage of Lances, maybe in this timeline this causes an large upset (read:lawsuit) towards Arthur, forcing King Anguish to rewrite the rules into an more general contest that includes contests of Poetry and Sword Battles to allow the tribes and warriors of Ireland an better chance against the many powerful knights of Arthur's Britain. Perhaps Miss Lady Of The Launds actually has an agenda to this separate from getting married, maybe she's not please with Ireland possibly being even more Christianize by Arthurs' realm full of Christians, and the Tournament in some way is meant to teach Mr. Anguish and Arthur an lesson about trying to enforce their beliefs onto Ireland not always working, perhaps our Lady already owns multiple "lovers" and the winner will be gain nothing from winning? And then an bad magical thing would occur that only the PC's would be able to solve, but I've not figured that out yet, I guess I'll figure it out whenever I finally run a Pendragon campaign. But, does anyone got suggestions/pointers for my idea? Part of the fun of Pendragon for me is that it allows for exploring themes and subjects that weren't present in the legends but still fits with it's general origins. Don't worry about the idea being too silly. And what line? There's a lot of interesting ones in PS.

Do you have any good ideas on using the Geas things? Personally I've got this idea of the players needing to give themselves ones in exchange for some sort of great power in order to defeat some kind of magical villain who isn't killable by plain ol' stabbing. Maybe a fairy court that only allows people who give out their Geas in?

Sorta unrelated but: I always wondered what exactly the way they came up with coat of arms back in the day was? Was it just picking what felt right for the lord based on meanings and deep symbolism? Or was it just whatever materials of paint they owned and what ever came first to their brains that felt good? I would imagine probably a little bit of column A and B.

I never noticed this part of the timeline since I usually get bored when medieval politics pop into Pendragon. TY! Very interesting!