RuneQuest virtual backgrounds for online gaming

[MOB]

Playing online now you're home? Try out our virtual backgrounds to add some epic flavour to your RPG sessions!

Use one of these backgrounds when playing online - Zoom, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, one of the VTTs (Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, Astral), etc, and share an image of it on social media with the hashtag #homewithchaosium.

We'll pick three winners on May 10th. Each winner will receive a custom-made printed Chaosium Redbubble Art Board, compliments of Chaosium.

More backgrounds (Call of Cthulhu, 7th Sea, Pendragon) and helpful tips here:

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by MOB

[Prainn]

I use them all the time- absolutely stunning pieces!
Thank you so much for doing cool stuff like this especially in these hard times.

Glorantha is digital now baybee.

[Stephen L]

Wow, Amazing art.

Just working out the perspective for the Block image in Prax.  I assume you’re standing Ginmuz Mountains in Eirtha Hills, looking across the plains with the Block standing between (far off) Stormwalk mountain to its left and Hender’s Ruins on the right.

But are the Block's skid marks in the right place?  I thought it fell from an alignment along the marsh, with a bounce in the depression marked “Ex” on the RQii map…
Or am I misinterpreting the mounds around the block?

Also, anyone know what’s at the top of the hill by Hender’s Ruins?

I think that all means that I’m overanalysing things, particularly in the face of such good artistry!

The great art for Runequest in Glorantha makes a huge difference for roleplaying sessions.  I find I'm showing a lot of images to the players on any given adventure, and it's really helping.

[Lordabdul]

8 hours ago, Stephen L said:

Just working out the perspective for the Block image in Prax.

The art is from the Guide, p441, titled "A View from the Paps", so you were just way too far south in your mind I think. This will make the Devil's Marsh look more logically placed. Stormwalk Mountain would still be located left of the Block from there, but it will also explain to you why Tourney Altar is pretty much in front of the Block on that picture, along with Day's rest in between.

8 hours ago, Stephen L said:

Also, anyone know what’s at the top of the hill by Hender’s Ruins?

The Ruins?  

Edited August 18, 2020 by lordabdul

[French Desperate WindChild]

I didn't see the block like that (more like a pike, don't ask me why)

I understand now that Stanley Kubrick just played a baboon in prax before he made 2001 space odyssey

[PhilHibbs]

17 hours ago, Stephen L said:

Just working out the perspective for the Block image in Prax.  I assume you’re standing Ginmuz Mountains in Eirtha Hills, looking across the plains with the Block standing between (far off) Stormwalk mountain to its left and Hender’s Ruins on the right.

But are the Block's skid marks in the right place?  I thought it fell from an alignment along the marsh, with a bounce in the depression marked “Ex” on the RQii map…
Or am I misinterpreting the mounds around the block?

My theory is that The Block was originally a die thrown onto the WBRM map which became part of the scenery, so it should be a cube. I don't care whether this theory has any basis in historical fact, it's true in my mind.

[Manimati]

I had saved a picture from an old Google+ thread where the "View from the Paps" is explained. I did not save informations about the author.

See below

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, Manimati said:

I had saved a picture from an old Google+ threadwhere the "View from the Paps" is explained. I did not save informations about the author.

The G+ group was migrated to Tapatalk, all the posts are still there, including this one, you can find mine and Jeff"s comments here:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/glorantha/for-you-praxians-out-there-here-s-a-view-of-sacred-t2466.html

[Stephen L]

14 hours ago, lordabdul said:

"A View from the Paps", so you were just way too far south

Nope, the alignments wrong to be from the Paps – otherwise the line of sight would align almost directly with the line of the canal (which would therefore be mostly occluded by the Block), and the block would align right up against the shoulders of Stormwalk Mountain (I’m presuming the big mountain in the middle of the range with a visible corkscrew).  This means the viewpoint is further south.  Maybe not as far as Ginmuz Mountains, but not far off.  If I could be bothered, I’d get out my protractor, or orienteering compass and work it out exactly.

But either way, Paps or further south, the block came from almost due South West (clear in the RQii map, a link to the redbubble poster, https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/RQ2-DRAGON-PASS-AND-PRAX-Map-by-Chaosium/24710029.LVTDI#&gid=1&pid=3).  In the original image, this would be more where the marsh is shown as a line of green, so the mounds around the block don’t look like they could be skid marks.  Anyone any ideas what they might be?

4 hours ago, Manimati said:

"View from the Paps"

Thanks for the map, which is a good visual for confirming the orientation is wrong for the Paps.

14 hours ago, lordabdul said:

The Ruins?

Hender's ruins on the maps from the Gamemaster screen pack look like they’re at the base of the hills, rather than the top of a peak:

[jajagappa]

27 minutes ago, Stephen L said:

so the mounds around the block don’t look like they could be skid marks.  Anyone any ideas what they might be?

The one "in front of" the Block in the view is Tourney Altar - it's something of a large amphitheater.

Otherwise, I think if you interpret that the Block bounced and then landed, rather than skidded, you can account for debris displaced as "hills" around it.

[Scotty]

9 minutes ago, Stephen L said:

Nope, the alignments wrong to be from the Paps

It's an artists view not a photograph, it was done to give readers a feel for the area. Artistic license was used to get the important features in (listed under the picture on page 441 of the Guide), note that Kero Fin and the Moon are also visible.

14 minutes ago, Stephen L said:

so the mounds around the block don’t look like they could be skid marks.  Anyone any ideas what they might be?

They the the remains of the churned up land from the epic battles of gods' fought there. Heels pushed back into the dirt from huge blows.

18 minutes ago, Stephen L said:

Hender's ruins

The ruins are partly buried, as per the Guide, There's a large collection of shattered crystalline material standing on top and down the western side of the hills. The "ruins" are extensive.

33 minutes ago, Stephen L said:

Hender's ruins on the maps from the Gamemaster screen pack look like they’re at the base of the hills, rather than the top of a peak

These are stylized maps.

[Stephen L]

2 minutes ago, Scotty said:

give readers a feel for the area

Thanks - that's everything answered!

And to just say again how useful the art is during roleplaying sessions - I find I'm now showing the players a lot of pictures.

[David Scott]

6 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

The one "in front of" the Block in the view is Tourney Altar - it's something of a large amphitheater.

Thanks for the reminder: 

Quote

of course you can see Tourney Altar in this picture. It's the giant hoof print in front of the block! It's a natural amphitheatre. Here's the art direction used: Tourney Altar (in front of the block) is a natural stone amphitheatre (like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Upheaval_Syncline_campsite.jpg or 

 

 

 

[Lordabdul]

1 hour ago, David Scott said:

It's the giant hoof print in front of the block! It's a natural amphitheatre.

Oh gah. From the Cults of Prax write-up, I thought it was the ruins of a man-made amphitheatre:

"Tourney Altar is a great bowl-shaped arena left in this miserable desert by some forgotten civilization."

It being a giant hoof print is actually even better. Was this take on Tourney Altar published anywhere? If so, I'd be kicking myself for not mentioning that in the last Wind Words episode...

[Scotty]

On 8/18/2020 at 7:37 PM, lordabdul said:

From the Cults of Prax write-up, I thought it was the ruins of a man-made amphitheatre:

"Tourney Altar is a great bowl-shaped arena left in this miserable desert by some forgotten civilization."

That's what Biturian Varosh says. He's just saying what he was told by someone else. Likewise the natural amphitheatre look is from the art direction, with the description from the Guide: a natural stone amphitheater. As with all the ruins of Prax and the Wastes, it's unlikely we will ever really know what some of the stuff actually was.

Personally I believe Tourney Altar to be the hollowed out stump of Onetree.

[Lordabdul]

10 hours ago, Scotty said:

Personally I believe Tourney Altar to be the hollowed out stump of Onetree.

Ah since you previously mentioned a "hoof print", I figured it would be where Wakboth (or whoever was the Devil there) might have braced for impact (planting one foot in the ground) while fighting against Storm Bull, or when he saw the Block flying towards him at the last second.

Edited August 20, 2020 by lordabdul

[jajagappa]

5 hours ago, lordabdul said:

since you previously mentioned a "hoof print", I figured it would be where Wakboth (or whoever was the Devil there) might have braced for impact (planting one foot in the ground) while fighting against Storm Bull, or when he saw the Block flying towards him at the last second.

That's the type of thing I'm hoping to see in "The Dragon's Eye" book.  Three or four options as to how to use the place.  One might be fairly mundane: a rock amphitheater taken over and favored by Humakti because of X.  Or the Hollowed Out Stump of OneTree - sacred to the elves, if they could just get by the pesky Humakti guarding it as one of the Sites where Death first struck.  Or, as you said, the place where Wakboth stamped his hoof down - and the Humakti are there to bring Death to all corruption that might yet arise from it....

[Lordabdul]

10 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

That's the type of thing I'm hoping to see in "The Dragon's Eye" book.  Three or four options as to how to use the place.

Ah yes that's an excellent example of a true "YGWV" thing, especially if it indeed comes with a few possible NPCs and scenario seeds. You could repost this in the Dragon's Eye thread!

Edited August 21, 2020 by lordabdul

[Bill the barbarian]

14 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

That's the type of thing I'm hoping to see in "The Dragon's Eye" book.  Three or four options as to how to use the place.  One might be fairly mundane: a rock amphitheater taken over and favored by Humakti because of X.  Or the Hollowed Out Stump of OneTree - sacred to the elves, if they could just get by the pesky Humakti guarding it as one of the Sites where Death first struck.  Or, as you said, the place where Wakboth stamped his hoof down - and the Humakti are there to bring Death to all corruption that might yet arise from it....

Yes, I have never minded when something gets retconned or gregged, I just have more choices in how I wish  to run it (keeps the papers guessing) and even better, I have possible alternative stories to give to yet players depending who they talk to or where they research.