Dorastor

[Dissolv]

I really enjoyed the Dorastor, Land of Doom supplement way back in the day, especially the Riskland campaign. 

Is there anything on the plate for a RQ:G edition supplement relating to either?  Reprint, or new work, or anything really?

[g33k]

Nothing that I have heard of.

I think the best (public) list is the "Upcoming Publications" thread pinned near the top of the Glorantha forum; post #1 of the thread gets periodically re-edited to stay (relatively) current.

There is a Wyrms Footnotes #16 listed as coming out, but it's way, way down the list.  Still, as a collection of varied articles and essays, it looks possible that some Dorastor content might be in that.  Depends in what gets pitched to Chaosium, really!

Back around the time of the RQClassic KS, Rick (somewhat coyly) admitted that a similar reprint-KS for RQ3 products was possible.  I haven't heard much since; I've no idea whether he is an the verge of announcing such a thing, or wincing and dodging (and hoping he dies of old age before the fans force him to the project).  That'd be a RQ3 reprint though, not a RQG product!

I stress that I'm just an avid fan, not part of Chaosium, so my ignorance of their plans is MUCH greater than my knowledge.

Maybe if we summon @Jeff he will have more to tell us; or maybe he will say to let him ALONE, dammitall, to write the stuff we want and keep wondering about, instead of coming online to tell us he's trying to write it, but keeps getting @summoned to the forums & away from his word-processor...  😉

 

[Akhôrahil]

"Further Adventures in Risklands" would make an excellent Jonstown Compendium publication, just saying...

[Akhôrahil]

16 hours ago, Dissolv said:

I really enjoyed the Dorastor, Land of Doom supplement way back in the day, especially the Riskland campaign. 

Is there anything on the plate for a RQ:G edition supplement relating to either?  Reprint, or new work, or anything really?

Oh, and if you haven't checked it, Lords of Terror (but not Cults of Terror) has a lot of Risklands plot hooks. Very useful that way, and better than CoT in my opinion.

[Akhôrahil]

For an obscure source, Codex #1 has a fun short two-part adventure, "Spirit of the Stream" by Martin Crim.

[soltakss]

18 hours ago, Dissolv said:

I really enjoyed the Dorastor, Land of Doom supplement way back in the day, especially the Riskland campaign. 

Is there anything on the plate for a RQ:G edition supplement relating to either?  Reprint, or new work, or anything really?

I am currently writing Secrets of Dorastor, which is an expanded writeup of elements of my Dorastor Campaign from years ago, but updated with extra things added. It will contain new locations, new powerful NPCs, new spells and a lot of scenario hooks. I have some high-level scenarios, but might take them out as they are probably too high-level for a Jonstown Compendium supplement.

Also, I fully support a thread about Dorastor from someone named Dissolv, as I mention in Secrets of Dorastor "Try not to make everything acid as this gets boring after a while (Actually it doesn't - I never tire of hearing Players whinge about their precious iron dissolving and running down their legs!)".

 

[Thaz]

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

but might take them out as they are probably too high-level for a Jonstown Compendium supplement.

Given RQG is a higher power level to start and people have been playing a year or so now :- Go for it I say. Frankly we're going to need some bad bad dudes shortly. 

[g33k]

11 minutes ago, Thaz said:

Given RQG is a higher power level to start and people have been playing a year or so now :- Go for it I say. Frankly we're going to need some bad bad dudes shortly. 

Agreed!

Or if they feel to you like they are too "over-the-top" for the rest of the piece, put them under separate cover as another title in JC, subtitled "for very advanced adventurers only."  Rework them to be easier to place outside Dorastor, or mark the high-level title "for use with Secrets of Dorastor, another fine Jonstown Compendium supplement."

Edited March 18, 2020 by g33k
to

[Akhôrahil]

3 hours ago, soltakss said:

I am currently writing Secrets of Dorastor, which is an expanded writeup of elements of my Dorastor Campaign from years ago, but updated with extra things added. It will contain new locations, new powerful NPCs, new spells and a lot of scenario hooks. I have some high-level scenarios, but might take them out as they are probably too high-level for a Jonstown Compendium supplement.

I think those are worth keeping in, at least as far as I'm concerned - anyone can make up low-level scenarios, but it's super interesting to see what a balanced high-level scenario would look like. 

If you're concerned about playability, perhaps offer two sets of stats, "Full Powered" and "Reduced", which should increase the span of characters it fits. Not that anyone has a right to expect balanced encounters in Dorastor anyway.

Auto-buy for me, if you put this together - I've read the entire web site.

[soltakss]

8 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

I think those are worth keeping in, at least as far as I'm concerned - anyone can make up low-level scenarios, but it's super interesting to see what a balanced high-level scenario would look like. 

Balanced! Hah!

Sorry, what I meant was "Of course these would be balanced high level scenarios".

The adventurers can be killed by this thing or that thing, for example.

[Joerg]

At a sufficiently high campaign level, getting the adventurers killed is little more than a temporary setback? (Killed before DI, or before doing the heroquest return from the dead, I mean.)

[Thaz]

6 minutes ago, Joerg said:

At a sufficiently high campaign level, getting the adventurers killed is little more than a temporary setback? (Killed before DI, or before doing the heroquest return from the dead, I mean.)

Ask Starbrow that question....

[Akhôrahil]

15 minutes ago, Joerg said:

At a sufficiently high campaign level, getting the adventurers killed is little more than a temporary setback? (Killed before DI, or before doing the heroquest return from the dead, I mean.)

This is what dismemberment is for!

[Akhôrahil]

38 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Sorry, what I meant was "Of course these would be balanced high level scenarios".

At a certain stage in many RPGs, I get to the point where instead of trying to picture the flow of a combat, I go, "Eh, I have no idea whether this is balanced, but the PCs have a bunch of tools, so they will probably figure something out". As long as they haven't burned through all their resources already, they should be able to turn it up to 11 for one fight.

I have seen again and again what a difference a party output of 30 Rune Points makes.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Joerg]

10 minutes ago, Thaz said:

Ask Starbrow that question....

Yes, she failed her initiation to capital H herodom at the Short LBQ earlier in 26. But then, the Lunars have been cultivating techniques to assassinate heroes for the time of their conflict with Sartar, getting better and better throughout the seven decades they have been at it. Up to being able to assassinate Orlanth and Ernalda in 21.

1 minute ago, Akhôrahil said:

This is what dismemberment is for!

Belintar returned from being eaten or thrown into a volcano. Just taking people apart doesn't necessarily prevent reforming your body on the heroquest return.

[soltakss]

22 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Just taking people apart doesn't necessarily prevent reforming your body on the heroquest return.

As many a Waltapus HeroQuestor would tell you.

[Dissolv]

The fun of Dorastor to me wasn't necessarily the end game pummeling thereof -- I mean that can be good, but there is a very, very long time in most campaigns before that is reached, and just learning about the horrors therein, and maybe experiencing some Cthuluthu-like mind boggling terrors can really change the attitudes and expectations of a mid-level party.   So as a glimpse of the future, or the next level (or three) up the power chain, Dorastor is very much helpful for those players who thought they topped out at Rune Lord level......

And of course (riskland) is a heck of an adventure to deal with using higher end Initiate level characters.  That is the kind of adventure that gets talked about for years.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Dissolv

[Akhôrahil]

28 minutes ago, Dissolv said:

And of course (riskland) is a heck of an adventure to deal with using higher end Initiate level characters.  That is the kind of adventure that gets talked about for years.

A funny thing in my Risklands campaign is that the PCs are actually farmers and herders, where the module assumes that the PCs are displaced adventurers who are hell on wheels when it comes to fighting but rank incompetents when it comes to farming. 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Runeblogger]

I used Dorastor's farm-managing rules in my Borderlands campaign. Man, they are harsh...

[Akhôrahil]

9 minutes ago, Runeblogger said:

I used Dorastor's farm-managing rules in my Borderlands campaign. Man, they are harsh...

Those Burisons have their shit together, though!

(I made them followers of Durev & Orane in my campaign, and they're deliberately pushing against any military command and any leadership positions outside of "pillars of the community".)

Edited March 18, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Joerg]

One thing that a new Dorastor campaign should include is Sandy's revelation from Kraken 2019 how the Dorastor map known (and shown in the Guide) is at best half-true, as there is a whole different, entirely chaotic portion of Dorastor hiding between the northern slopes of the mountains and the southern slopes, about the same size again than the area shown on the map.

This doesn't make the map in the Guide inaccurate in any way, except for suggesting a closed topology along that ridge-line. This part of Dorastor has become a rip in Arachne Solara's web (thank you, Gbaji), and the "area" in between won't be mappable except for the momentary experience. At least that's how I choose to interpret Sandy's proclamation at Kraken. I thought there was a video of that, but the "The Kraken" youtube channel doesn't have it.

[Akhôrahil]

3 minutes ago, Joerg said:

One thing that a new Dorastor campaign should include is Sandy's revelation from Kraken 2019 how the Dorastor map known (and shown in the Guide) is at best half-true, as there is a whole different, entirely chaotic portion of Dorastor hiding between the northern slopes of the mountains and the southern slopes, about the same size again than the area shown on the map.

This doesn't make the map in the Guide inaccurate in any way, except for suggesting a closed topology along that ridge-line.

Interesting - I kinda assumed that the Nangtali Plateau was mostly free of major chaos (Cursed Telmori and their Slime Deer prey excluded). 

[Joerg]

1 minute ago, Akhôrahil said:

Interesting - I kinda assumed that the Nangtali Plateau was mostly free of major chaos (Cursed Telmori and their Slime Deer prey excluded). 

Not the Nangtali plateau, but the Rockwoods. According to Sandy the route across Kartolin Pass is significantly longer and more dangerous than indicated in the maps both in RQ3 Dorastor:Land of Doom and in the Guide.

[soltakss]

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

One thing that a new Dorastor campaign should include is Sandy's revelation from Kraken 2019 how the Dorastor map known (and shown in the Guide) is at best half-true, as there is a whole different, entirely chaotic portion of Dorastor hiding between the northern slopes of the mountains and the southern slopes, about the same size again than the area shown on the map.

Is that information available anywhere? I normally can't make it to Kraken.

2 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Interesting - I kinda assumed that the Nangtali Plateau was mostly free of major chaos (Cursed Telmori and their Slime Deer prey excluded). 

Hur, hur, hur, hur!

Yes, almost free of Chaos - Good Aventurers, walk this way, almost free of Chaos, yes, yes it is ...

[g33k]

3 hours ago, soltakss said:

...

Hur, hur, hur, hur!

Yes, almost free of Chaos - Good Aventurers, walk this way, almost free of Chaos, yes, yes it is ...

You are a bad, bad man.