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Sea Season 1615: We started this session with a few minutes spent on completing the adventurers. Dangsarle had his iron ingot made into plate vambraces and Gaar decided his bronze products also were vambraces. One Orlanthi had to choose subcult (Adventurous) and two adventurers had to make a few adjustments to their characteristics. I also asked the players to think about whether or not their adventurers have wifes and/or children, and decide at the start of next session. Then we were ready to go. I've hidden the campaign journal below as it contains spoilers from the Borderlands campaign. The combat lasted approximately four rounds. I use a running Strike Rank system instead of the RAW turn based, and I think it worked well. What I need to do better is to prepare better stat blocks for the enemies, to mark off hit points and stuff from. But in general, I’ve discovered I’m not as concerned about the details as I was thirty years ago. I feel I am confident in my ability to create a fun and exciting game experience, and to do that I don’t need to know if the Tusk Rider is brought to -4 or -5 hit points in its left foreleg. It’s enough if I pretend to know. We did experience rolls, and one player even succeeded with a POW gain roll, after having cast Disruption. I’m now contemplating how to time the coming scenarios in the campaign. I need to make it possible for the adventurers to attend the holy days in Horn Gate. The room where we play has a big screen behind me. Should I use it? How? I don’t have any immediate ideas - a slideshow of mood images maybe? I’m afraid it would be distracting.

We now have the protagonists defined: five members of the Saliorson household of the Osmanning bloodline of the Red Cow Clan of the Cinsina Tribe. They all participated in Starbrow’s Revolt and have now fled to Pavis to avoid the repression. The year is 1615. We have the two hunter brothers Gaios and Salion, one an Odayla initiate and the other a Yinkin. Their cousins, the Orlanthi farmer Dangsarle, and his brother the Orlanthi redsmith Gaar. And finally their cousin, the Orlanthi farmer Antip. But let me describe the session from start to finish. After personal presentations (most of us had never met before) the session began with a few general words from me on Glorantha. I then explained the undefined player characters’ general situation and decision to seek employment with a settler duke in Prax. Mercenary Captain Daine then presented his map of Weis Domain and held his briefing. At this point we began the character creation process. Everyone was informed that this would take the entire session. I had prepared a family tree with named grandparents and parents, and ten or so empty spaces where the players could write their names (as the characters were still unnamed). On this family tree they selected their significant ancestors. We then rolled for their histories. I had prepared a few random tables for early years, as my campaign takes place ten years earlier than assumed in the rules. I really enjoy the family history part of the character creation process, but I think it would be even more fun if it had even more impact on the characters. There is a chance of getting a passion or some reputation, but in our case, that only happened to one character. I’d prefer if every character always brought at least one thing from the family history to the character sheet. As I’ve already adjusted the family history process to handle earlier years I might do something about this too. One idea is to make “A normal year.” give +10% to one of the ancestor’s occupational skills. The rest of the character creation process went smoother than expected. We skipped skill category modifiers and other attributes. I’ve added those to the character sheets after the session. The players were a little afraid of making bad choices regarding occupations and cults. I tried to reassure them that as long as they didn’t pick something they really didn’t think sounded fun, it would be alright. Spell choices were also a cause for some worry about picking something they’d come to regret, but I tried to advice them, and offered them the option of changing something after the first sessions when they’ve learnt more about the game. Everyone in the group expressed satisfaction with this session. Some were a bit overwhelmed with all the information they had to take in. I had prepared a leaflet with cultural background information for them to take home, which they did. I stated several times that they did not have to read anything at all in order to be able to play. Everything in between sessions is totally optional. I offered an invite to the Kanka site, and two players have joined so far. Next session we will probably start with questions, finishing up anything left on the character creation, and then continue with Scouting the Lands, the first mission from Duke Raus.

I played RQ3 back in the 1980-ies. I remember running Apple Lane and Trollpak. I also remember the PCs all died when they attacked a Dream Dragon on their way to Pavis. I returned to Glorantha with the new edition and ran a play-by-forum game for awhile. We ran through the Apple Lane scenario of the Gamemaster Screen Pack, and I was hooked. Having found five interested players I've now decided to start a new tabletop campaign. We will play by the new rules, but I've decided to run the old Borderlands campaign set in 1615. As some of the players are new to rpg:s and almost all are new to Glorantha I decided to reduce the number of variables and make them all Sartarite exiles from the Red Cow clan. They will be siblings or cousins, and we will generate their family history together when we meet for our first session tomorrow. I decided on the Red Cow to leave open the remote possibility of having the PCs eventually return to their homeland to run through the Eleven Lights campaign. The probability of the campaign lasting that long is low, but one can dream. The campaign starts ten years earlier than the standard RQ:G-campaign, so I had to rewrite parts of the family history section. With help from the BRP forums and some Glorantha blogs I added events for earlier years. I also decided to replace the personal skill bonuses with added language skills, in order to make the characters be able to communicate in Prax. My plan for the first session is a short intro talk about Glorantha (bronze age, runes, gods etc) and Runequest (skills, deadly, etc) followed by Daine's Briefing. After any questions, we'll do the actual character creation. That might take the entire evening, we'll see. I use Kanka.io to store my information. I've also prepared a Discord server. At the first session we will talk about our attitude to online activities between game sessions.

I've been prepping for a extended Borderlands campaign to be ready for RQ4 and I was parsing throught Ian Thomson's excellent add-on material. Books that I had the good ideas to buy at the time ! And I saw I was missing a map that was on Companion site, the one for the 5 Eyes unofficial extension. So, just in case, I'm looking for the Ian Thomson's 5 Eyes unofficial extension map (the 5eyes.gif file) that a long time ago, was at http://home.primus.com.au/arkat/five.html Thank you!

This is an isometric style map I did of the settlement that is home for the PCs in my campaign based in the River of Cradles. It is rough (m yfirst such map) but gives you the idea, and some ways is better than a typical overhead-style map, at showing some of the character of the place. Brightwater was begun by the player characters at the start of the campaign. They were recruited by a number of high-ranking Lightbringers to create, grow, maintain and protect a settlement in the River of Cradles, somewhere near the territory recently claimed by the Lunar Administration in Pavis. I am using the Borderlands box set for the background of the campaign, but with some alterations. For example, the heroes were such that they really would not countenance working for Duke Raus. So they were hired by the competition - the Lightbringers. I liked the site that Raus chose for his fort in the boxed set, so I decided that Rause established his fortress further south, closer to Corflu, in the Bilos Gap. Thus the heroes were able to establish themselvesat the mouth of the Weis Cut, where Rausfort would normally be on the map. Although I have not put in numbers for various locations in Brightwater, below is the "Nickel Tour" of the settlement in its current state. If you are interested in the original post, or my other Runequest Thursday content, go here: http://d-infinity.net/search/node/runequest Thursday Brightwater is a young settlement of roughly 150 folk, just a little over four seasons old, so a lot of what is on the map is the natural look of the region, and some wooden and cloth structures. The foreground of the map is the easternmost point, overlooking the River of Cradles and the Great Bog [both of which are off-camera, as it were]. The waterway in the lower right is the mouth of the Viilinar River, which extends for a dozen miles up the increasingly rugged Vilinar Valley to the Weis Cut and a seasonally impressive waterfall from the Plains of Prax. At the top of the map are the cliffs that rise several hundred feet to points on those same plains much closer to the settlement. The only way off the plains nearby is either a long and dangerous descent down the sandstone cliffs or flight. Brightwater is situated on a 'Y'-shaped headland of a lower set of cliffs branching off the ones that lead up to Prax. The heights vary between thirty and seventy feet above the Great bog and the River of Cradles. The highest points are the easternmost point with the observation tower, and some hilly areas in the right-hand [Northern] arm of the Y. There is little in the way of trees on the headland, but some tough brush and scrub oak cling to the lee of various rock faces, or in small sheltered valleys, These woods are rapidly being reduced as the need for firewood and building material grows. As you can see most of the building has gone on in the foreground area. The aforementioned Observation Tower has a small siege machine christened 'The Manticore' [essentially a Roman 'scorpion' bolt thrower that can hurl 2 pound bolts about 400 yards. Built by local labor directed by Theudulf the Learned, it has a fine view of the riparian approach from the south. Work has begun on one or two more manticores for placement elsewhere. Next to the Manticore tower is the Great Hall, built in the Sartarite style and still rough hewn, smelling very much of cut-wood and pine tar. It was only completed a week or so ago, but provided shelter [under tent roofs] for sometime before. This is also quickly becoming the social hub of Brightwater, replacing the more central Great Tent as the gathering place [except in good weather, when it is the choice for crafts and similar]. The three halls just above the Great Hall are lesser halls in the same style. In truth, at present, they are little more than flattened earth and growing piles of logs poled down from the Upper Vilinar, but I wanted to put them there to show the Players what they have to look forward to. The tiny building just above the halls is a latrine. There is another across the settlement, just below the fence to the Pasture. Continuing from the Jakes, one would reach the Archers' Stand, a mound of packed hearth about 10 feet high, protected by a waist high wooden wall on three sides. The Archers' Stand [which can shelter six archers with room to shoot] overlooks the Wall and Ditch that protects the only ready access to the Headland and Brightwater. The Wall is rough mortared field stone over a bank of raised earth from the ditch. The stone extends higher in front of the mounded earth, providing some cover for those standing behind. I did not show this in the map, but the rampart for walking is elevated by about 4 feet, and the wall facing west is about 4 feet higher than that. Invisible from this angle is the Ditch immediately outside the wall. The ditch is about 5 feet deep and the same wide. The Wall and Ditch together present a formidable barrier to assault, being effectively a 13 feet high barrier to anyone outside. Currently, sharpened posts angling away from the wall are being erected before the ditch to discourage charges. Directly before the gap in the wall there is another charge breaker, A wall much the same as the one just described but only about 30 feet long, in front of, and across the opening. This is a feature that is used often by settlers in the Big Rubble to stop Rhino RIders or other powerful cavalry smashing in gates. In the image I forgot to add a gate, but there is a pair of wooden gates. Typically these are open during the day, given the view the guards on the Archers' Stand have of the Approach. The only way up onto the Headland is the Approach, which now has something of a road [treacherous and running with muck in Sea Season, but good for the rest of the year]. You can see that the road descends a scree slope into the Paddock, which is fenced and used as grazing for extra animals or those of visitors. The Little Valley is surrounded by 40 foot high vertical sandstone walls. In the nearest part, you can see another fence, in which young or other animals to be segregated are kept. The high ground outslde the Wall Is grazing, sometimes granted to friends of Brightwater. Wahakhan Barsun Spiritlance and his clan of friendly Rhino Riders often camp here with their beasts and wagons, as do the Sabre Lizard nomads of Aghu Wahakhan. Much of the Paddock can be seen from the Archers' Stand, as can the road and access to, and from,the Vilinar Valley. This has proven advantageous on a number of occasions, giving the Brightwaters time to mobilize in defense. Moving North along the wall, we overlook the Paddock, and arrive at a cluster of tents used primarily by the Weisfolk who abandoned their village upriver to settle in Brightwater. These are slightly less desirable than the tents further north because of their location between the Smithy and corral, and the Great Tent, mostly because of noise. Across the way are the original tents belonging to the settlers that the Brightwater Company recruited from Pavis and environs. Many are Pavisites, others are Sartarite emigres from beyond Prax, fleeing the Lunar Occupation, or the children of Sartarites who left a generation ago. Some are other river folk, who share a language and culture with the Weis folk but lived elsewhere. West of the Tents, at the top of the page is the Pasture. a fenced enclosure for herd animals and horses. Sun Elk, captured Sables, cattle, sheep and Aurochs, as well as cavalry horses for some of the players characters, are kept here under watch of pasture guards. The Fence was built where it was because of loose ground and dangerous slipways, which nearly caused a tragedy during the first week. Now fences ward both sides of the two slipways, keep animals and children safer. Finally, strolling down the open area before the Great Tent we come to the Shrines of the Settlement. There is a shrine to the River Horse, one to Humakt, and one to Orlanth that can be camouflaged as a shrine to other Lightbringers if the Lunars show up. In addition, the Well, just left of the Shrines, is a shrine and home to a River Maiden, a daughter of Zola Fel, convinced by a player character shaman to live there in exchange for regular offerings of power. She keeps the drinking water of Brightwater sweet. The area within the flagposts is laid out for the eventual erection of stone fortifications on the site - a castle. At present, it is the parade and drill area for the militia, and the practice area for any who work with weapons. The last item on the map, in the lee of the Manticore Tower, is the Lift. A set of pulleys, worked by an Aurochs or a pair of Zebra, can lift several hundreds of pounds of rocks, earth, fish or even passengers if they don't mind riding up in a rather dirty , smelly rope net. Directly below the Lift, on the valley floor, there are seasonal smoking fires and drying racks for fish or game.