French covers of RQ3 and Herowars

[Nick Brooke]

1 minute ago, Joerg said:

There wasn't that much of tolerable RQ3 art anyways.

I thought Roger Raupp's cover art for Sun County, River of Cradles and Shadows on the Borderlands was superbly evocative.

[Kloster]

3 hours ago, Corvantir said:

There were also some articles and adventures in a french magazine called Runes. In spite of its name, the magazine was not centered on Glorantha.

 

Rune is much older. I can ask the author of some of the articles if he has some list or index (I do not own the papers themselves). Note that a good part of Runes's team ended up in Casus's team (in fact, several of Casus Belli's founders were Runes editors).

[Scotty]

17 minutes ago, Joerg said:

That image actually appeared in the English language original of Hero Wars, p.240.

Leafing through my copy (one of the few HW books unavailable from the Vault)

I would love have a copy that we could sell. I only have Robin's draft manuscript before layout...

[Kloster]

4 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

The best scenario I found was "Anisha", in #77, set in Sun County. Although the background for the scenario was a bit convoluted.

Yes, Anisha was good. I much enjoyed it.

[Joerg]

28 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

I thought Roger Raupp's cover art for Sun County, River of Cradles and Shadows on the Borderlands was superbly evocative.

Full agreement, and I edited my post to make clear what I was talking about.

The interior plates of Genertela Box were a mixed bunch in representing the text, and the Fronelan one was clearly off the look and feel I expected. I said so in some of my earliest online comments on Glorantha, and offered Late (Western) Roman Empire/early Dark Ages as better sources for Malkioni knights. Oops, Men-of-All.

On the whole, I like the interior artwork in the French edition of Genertela: Crucible of the Hero Wars. Starting with the packaging as a hardcover book. Some of the illustrations were and still are impossible for the US market even though they conform a European PG 13 or at least 16, but the Chaos issue of Tales of the Reaching Moon had the same problem with its cover.

Glorantha Bestiary had quite good original art. It took me quite a while (as in months) to identify the character on the cover as a Morokanth, though.

The boxed sets period of Avalon Hill was fine until they ran out of art from RQ2 to recycle. Troll Gods was the first product hit by this unwillingness of Avalon Hill to commission real new art, condemning their poor in-house graphic designer to fill those empty pages.

At that time, fan artwork had not yet reached the erudition that Tales of the Reaching Moon artwork picked up around issues 5 or 6.

I don't think that the depictions of aldryami in AH RQ3 were any good. Other than the "page 3" dryad greeting spring in Gods of Glorantha, as nymphs (other than hags) take the appearance of an idealized female of the observer's species. (I wonder how they look to alryami...) But then, the ones in Griffin Mountain or in the independent publications for RQ2 showed classical European elves rather than aldryami, too. The Dobyski one in Elder Secrets at least tried to convey some plant-appearance.

But then, the same complaint goes for the aldryami miniature in Sandy's Gods War. My least favorite of all the pieces. (The badly over-stretched poses of the broo and storm mortals aren't that attractive to me, either, and the mermaids could have a lot less H.C. Andersen, too.)

 

I still love the style of the King of Dragon Pass artwork, even though the skin tones are way too pale to conform to my understanding of Orlanthi and Praxians. But then, my original concept of Alpine and Danubian Celts (and precursors) would have been too pale-skinned and not varied enough in tones of skin, too. But then I learned a lot about skin coloration of both Gloranthans and the first Homo Sapiens Sapiens in Europe since.

 

A complete collection of Glorantha art published in any print document probably still would be less than a single volume of the Guide, even with the most atrocious or unskilled ones included, and the artwork commissioned by David Dunham for his video games probably filling a good hardcover if ever put into print (beyond the few scenes that made it into HeroQuest products).

I rank the French standards fairly high, and want to point to another great contribution of Gloranthan artwork in La Toile D'Arachne Solara by Jean-Paul Lhuillier, an A3 format fanzine that saw two issues around 1994.

The artwork for the German RuneQuest 3 is sparse, and that "professionally" published in license is not Gloranthan at all. The efforts of the Chaos society were a lot better than that. We soon tapped into the international pool of artists for our fan publications, which means you will find Dan Barker (e.g. his great pair of Dragonewt warriors that even received a fake Tales cover) or Dario Corallo on our later products.

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Joerg

[Minlister]

Quote

That image actually appeared in the English language original of Hero Wars, p.240.

My bad! Sorry!

[Corvantir]

5 hours ago, Joerg said:

I wonder where your vision came from, then. RQ2?

When I joined the German RQ community, there were quite a number of RQ2 die-hards on the conventions, with notions about Glorantha that were quite alien to me. My understanding of Glorantha came from RQ3 Genertela Box, RQ3 Gods of Glorantha, and then subsequently (RQ3) Troll Pak and slow access to RQ2 material. I got to read the Pavis Box and Cults of Prax material just before I came across Sun County, King of Sartar, and the Tales of the Reaching Moon articles. I bought RQ2 Companion at a German convention, and that started me into playing in Glorantha, in Heortland.

Many of the assumptions of people who had a different entry into the setting keep surprising me.

That said, I had some insight into Hero Wars while things were prepared for publication. I first met Greg at Convulsion 1994 and then several times at other conventions, and by 1998 Greg had an idea who this obnoxious German was, and so did the online community. There are some things where I wish I had had more input, too.

My idea about the Sartarites had shifted from continental Danubian/eastern Alpine Gauls (to avoid the term Celts) towards a mixture of King of Sartar (Greg's anthology), Pavis Box and Trollpak (the only RQ2 publications giving information on Sartar that went beyond Apple Lane and the hiring scene in Snake Pipe Hollow), then heavily influenced by Digest discussions. David Dunham's King of Dragon Pass computer game provided the next major re-assessment of the Orlanthi of Sartar.

Then I came across Penny Love's novel The Widow's Tale, and @Runeblogger describes my initial reaction to the novel quite accurately.

 

There wasn't that much of tolerable interior RQ3 art in the boxed sets anyways. The covers of the Avalon Hill RQ3 boxes were all quite acceptable. The interior illustrations of Gods of Glorantha and Genertela Box were at times bewildering. One of my first comments on Glorantha being different from how RQ3 products described it was about the knight in the Fronela chapter, and how I thought knights in Glorantha should be imagined, going pre- or onset Dark Ages/Late Western Roman Empire at best rather than late Middle Ages or (Italian early) Renaissance.

Did you have any problems with the RQ3 Renaissance artwork in Sun County, River of Cradles, Dorastor (admittedly with a weird cover until you realize that it is a depiction of Gloranthan artwork), Shadows on the Borderlands, Strangers in Prax?

My original vision was mainly forged by RQ2, The RQ Companion, Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror, which were the only books I owned before RQ3 was published in french. The other RQ2 supplements were already very difficult, if not impossible to find in France at this time. My Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror "books" were even photocopies given to me by the shopkeeper himself. Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror were impossible to order and he considered the game was incomplete without them.

I didn't bought the US version of RQ3 when it was released, the box set was too expensive. The dollar was reaching summits and increased the cost beyond my financial means.

My first contact with RQ3 was with the french edition. I disliked the art, which felt out of place to me, the translation and the new rules which felt generic and added a new layer of complexity without adding something that interested me in exchange. I bought the box set, the screen, Genertela and "les Dieux de Glorantha" and decided to stop there. From this point I only bought the US versions. As far as I am concerned, the RuneQuest renaissance era books, and their art, was far superior to the french versions. The art was not a problem at all. I didn't like the original Gods of Glorantha (the write ups of the god were too limited) and Genertela books. But I liked a lot the renaissance era supplements.

I tried HeroWars in french and did not really understood the content. It felt very strange, as if the books were describing another setting.

It was HeroQuest 2 that brought me back to Glorantha. The art is great in HeroQuest, with a few exceptions, but I must admit that RuneQuest: Glorantha is absolutely gorgeous and feel particularly appropriate to my eyes. I hope the french edition of Glorantha will keep the original art.

Edited April 4, 2020 by Corvantir

[Corvantir]

5 hours ago, Kloster said:

Rune is much older. I can ask the author of some of the articles if he has some list or index (I do not own the papers themselves). Note that a good part of Runes's team ended up in Casus's team (in fact, several of Casus Belli's founders were Runes editors).

You can skim through the various Runes magazines by following the second link given by David Scott. Click on a cover and it will lead you to a viewer displaying the magazine.

http://www.runes-le-magazine.com/

Edited April 4, 2020 by Corvantir

[Mugen]

One very strange thing in french RQ3 content was the fact all Uz had long black hair, like in this illustration from Gods of Glorantha:

https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/477592735461960592/

I was also very surprised to see Aldryami looking like living plants in HeroWars, as french RQ3 material always portrayed them as small humanoids.

[AndreJarosch]

3 minutes ago, Mugen said:

One very strange thing in french RQ3 content was the fact all Uz had long black hair, like in this illustration from Gods of Glorantha:

https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/477592735461960592/

I was also very surprised to see Aldryami looking like living plants in HeroWars, as french RQ3 material always portrayed them as small humanoids.

And the uz look to piggylike in my opinion. I like the more dogfaced much better. 

[Runeblogger]

11 hours ago, Mugen said:

One very strange thing in french RQ3 content was the fact all Uz had long black hair, like in this illustration from Gods of Glorantha:

On the other hand, the art for the French edition of The Haunted Ruins had the most bad-ass looking trolls I have ever seen (except perhaps for the Orlanthi troll in 13th Age Glorantha). 

[Kloster]

22 hours ago, Corvantir said:

You can skim through the various Runes magazines by following the second link given by David Scott. Click on a cover and it will lead you to a viewer displaying the magazine.

http://www.runes-le-magazine.com/

Merci.

[Kloster]

28 minutes ago, Runeblogger said:

On the other hand, the art for the French edition of The Haunted Ruins had the most bad-ass looking trolls I have ever seen (except perhaps for the Orlanthi troll in 13th Age Glorantha). 

"Trollinets" are french RQ3's Trollkins. And this one is a real bad-ass looking one.

[jajagappa]

44 minutes ago, Runeblogger said:

the art for the French edition of The Haunted Ruins had the most bad-ass looking trolls I have ever seen (except perhaps for the Orlanthi troll in 13th Age Glorantha). 

That's in the English edition of the Haunted Ruins as well.

[Runeblogger]

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

That's in the English edition of the Haunted Ruins as well.

Thank you! 🙈   It's become clear now that I only have the French version, he he.  😋

[Runeblogger]

On Studio' Deadcrow's website I found these pieces that are going to be included in the soon to be released French edition of RQG. 😮👍

This looks like an Ernaldan sacred garden:

 

I guess this one belongs to the scenario included in the French rulebook:

And this is a cool cover of the adventure book. Although the dragonewt has an unusual look, the broo is pretty cool: