Chaosium Announces RuneQuest: "The Dragon’s Eye" is in development

[MOB]

Chaosium is pleased to announce that The Dragon’s Eye, a new sourcebook for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, is in development.

Originally conceived as “Your Glorantha May Vary”, this collection of locations demonstrates the versatility of the setting, putting that phrase to work by showing new and veteran gamemasters alike how to customize and make the world of Glorantha their own.

The Dragon’s Eye gives gamemasters more possibilities than they can possibly use. For each location, the book details multiple ways to interpret it and use it in a campaign. Adventure hooks and engaging nonplayer characters get the adventurers involved in the action. From homely villages to the mind-bending limits of mortal reality, the adventurers encounter everything that Glorantha has to offer, expanding upon locations such as the Dragon’s Eye, the Wasp Nest, Wilmskirk, Old Wind Temple, and many more.

The Dragon's Eye is being written by renowned game designer Jonathan Tweet. For decades, Jonathan’s roleplaying designs have shown players and gamemasters how to get more personality, drama, and action into their games. His design work includes Ars Magica, Everway, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed, and 13th Age. 

For Glorantha, Jonathan co-wrote the RuneQuest 3rd Edition supplement Strangers in Prax with Mike Dawson and Chaosium's Michael O'Brien in 1994. More recently, he partnered with D&D 4th Edition's Rob Heinsoo for 13th Age Glorantha, their "400+ page love letter to Greg Stafford’s World of Glorantha".

The Dragon's Eye sourcebook is being produced by the award-winning RuneQuest creative team of Jeff Richard (The Guide to Glorantha, King of Sartar, HeroQuest, etc.) and Jason Durall (Basic Roleplaying, RuneQuest, The Laundry, World War Cthulhu, Conan, etc.).

"Jonathan Tweet has been a Glorantha fan since the ‘80s, and this new book shows how much he still loves the setting", said Jeff Richard.

No publication date has been announced.

Dragon's Eye artwork by William Church, from the cover of Wyrms Footnotes #5, Summer 1978.

Edited August 2, 2020 by MOB

[Runeblogger]

Cool! 😍👍

So will this one be published after the Starter Set and the Gods of Glorantha? Or before the Gods of Glorantha?

[Akhôrahil]

I find it intriguing how Dragon Pass is published down to up this time, starting with various adventure locations rather than Ye Big Book of Sartar campaign guide.

[7Tigers]

Please don't forget:
 

Quote

No publication date has been announced.

 

[Trotsky]

This looks interesting - lots of good products in the pipeline. After the gods book and GM guide, the base system will be all set. We can look forward to this and the updated Prax book. It is a good time to get back into RuneQuest. Started my first RuneQuest game for 35+ years on Roll 20 last week - chatted and generated characters. All but one of the players is new to RuneQuest and Glorantha. All week players have been chatting online about their characters and family history - very immersive so far. This week the campaign proper will start...

[g33k]

This looks really, really cool!  Just one question:

5 hours ago, MOB said:

... For each location, the book details multiple ways to interpret it and use it in a campaign ...

Will you include any places that have previously been developed (or under-development settings expected to be published before TDE is) for RQG, such as Clearwine or Jonstown?

To make that clearer:  would you (please!!!) include  at least one such place -- already well-developed -- to make it utterly clear that "YGMV" should explicitly be applied even to well-developed canon. 

TYVM!

[Austin]

36 minutes ago, g33k said:

To make that clearer:  would you (please!!!) include  at least one such place -- already well-developed -- to make it utterly clear that "YGMV" should explicitly be applied even to well-developed canon.

Ooh, I like that idea.

[Dissolv]

This is good news.  Frankly the production rate of Chaosium is sometimes........on the slower side.  However with this many items in the pipeline, it will be fantastic to see areas never before detailed finally getting a close up treatment. 

I'm curious to see how the official vision matches up with what I have been GMing all these years on.

 

[Richard S.]

43 minutes ago, Dissolv said:

I'm curious to see how the official vision matches up with what I have been GMing all these years on.

Considering the point of this is to showcase YGMV, I seriously doubt what's in this book lines up with the Chaosium canon that other RQ products use.

Edited August 2, 2020 by Richard S.

[Rick Meints]

9 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

So will this one be published after the Starter Set and the Gods of Glorantha? Or before the Gods of Glorantha?

That is very likely, but ultimately it comes down to when the writing is finished and we have a complete manuscript in hand.

[Trotsky]

I imagine all the art for the two volume gods’ book will be the bottle neck for that product. Should be worth the wait though...

Edited August 2, 2020 by Trotsky

[Dissolv]

5 hours ago, Richard S. said:

Considering the point of this is to showcase YGMV, I seriously doubt what's in this book lines up with the Chaosium canon that other RQ products use.

It will need an alternate coverage to showcase any such thing.   If it is the only publication covering those areas/topics, then it is is de facto canonical.

[Richard S.]

11 minutes ago, Dissolv said:

It will need an alternate coverage to showcase any such thing.   If it is the only publication covering those areas/topics, then it is is de facto canonical.

 

14 hours ago, MOB said:

For each location, the book details multiple ways to interpret it and use it in a campaign.

 

I highly doubt that they'll be calling out any one interpretation as "correct" either.

Edited August 3, 2020 by Richard S.

[Lordabdul]

On 8/2/2020 at 3:19 AM, MOB said:

For each location, the book details multiple ways to interpret it and use it in a campaign.

It's a very intriguing concept for an RPG book, potentially even innovative, but I'm wondering what the emphasis will be here:

• "Multiple ways to use it in a campaign" is a given for any sourcebook. You get various plot hooks, multiple options for what an NPC or faction might be up to in 1625, or what might happen in the near future if that NPC or faction's agenda was to go one way or another. That's not really "YGWV" in my opinion, that's just a good RPG sourcebook.
• "Multiple ways to interpret it" can potentially go into deeper variations seldom seen in usual RPG material. For example: detailing how a location might vary if this or that cult is in control, with a couple alternate histories explaining the different ways to get to these different present states... or showing how moving a location here or there on the map can create different story opportunities... that's "YGWV" to me.

Whichever it is, I'm looking forward to it!

[redmoongoddess]

At this rate I wonder if we're ever going to see books not set in Dragon Pass...

[Richard S.]

38 minutes ago, redmoongoddess said:

At this rate I wonder if we're ever going to see books not set in Dragon Pass...

They're already in development I believe, but keep in mind that Chaosium only has like 3 or 4 people (I think) who can dedicate themselves solely to Glorantha, and they're trying to set it up so that new players will have a good foundation to play on.

[Trotsky]

This is just a personal thing but back when I played as a teenager it was always set in Prax - so Sartar and Dragon Pass feels kinda fresh and new to me.

[Akhôrahil]

I would love for Jonathan Tweet to have a go at the RQ rules as well - the man is a genius at RPG design.

[jajagappa]

On 8/5/2020 at 1:18 PM, lordabdul said:

It's a very intriguing concept for an RPG book, potentially even innovative, but I'm wondering what the emphasis will be here

Probably along the line of concepts explored in 13G and 13 True Ways. 

The former introduced ideas of Broken Myths and Lost Myths as pieces to incorporate into Heroquests.  Also had ideas of Geography by Runes.  

The latter explored the use of Devils in the 13th Age setting, by providing 13 different ways to structure them depending on which Icon you chose as their primary adversary.  Plus added more traits that you could use to customize to your setting.

 

[redmoongoddess]

On 8/9/2020 at 7:56 PM, Richard S. said:

They're already in development I believe,

Not really, even jeff has admitted lately that it's unclear as to what non-Orlanthi cultures will be covered first, with projects that were thought to be on track such as the Fonrit questworlds book, have been confirmed or implied to be delayed in favor for Runequest 7.

I feel your post is of limited scope. I'm speaking more about official Gloranthan material in general rather than just Runequest. In general it seems that everything non-runequest has been pushed aside (Unless it's the heroquest book about the off screen stuff from the third lights, for whatever reason, that one is still coming out) in favor of the game that makes the most money. It's been an decade since Kingdom Of Sartar and we STILL haven't gotten an official full treatment on the Lunar Empire or anywhere not covered by previous non-GTG material already.

Even the non-dragon pass stuff seems to be planned in a way that revolves around Orlanthi's likelyhood of going there, as the East book won't be published/finished until they release the Nochet book, or the fact the first Trollpak volume is going to have adventures set in troll lands from human prospective. I would've bought the "setting an foundation for new players" thing if it wasn't for the fact we've already had novels worth of material for Dragon Pass already. And then there's the fact we're getting books like this one, that we had no knowledge or news of beforehand until right before it came out, while books we've known about for years are still being delayed in favor for more books about an area already well explored. I can see an argument being made for adventure supplements set in Dragon Pass being worth delaying those non-Orlanthi books for. But it's harder to justify for stuff like this, which is literally just an excuse to show what one author's interpretation of the setting is. And by interpretation of the setting, I mean interpretation of one part that's already been covered to death.

But, I hear an common argument being made that the Focus on Orlanthi is "needed" to not confuse new players. Maybe...but then I remember that Adventures In Glorantha for RQ6/Mythras was going to feature many cultures outside of Dragon Pass, in the core rules, including Balazarings(!!!), and rules for Western Sorcery, all things that were COMPLETELY absent from Roleplaying in Glorantha.

Right now, it feels like Chaosium is more interested in "Roleplaying in Dragon Pass" rather than "Roleplaying in Glorantha". And maybe that doesn't worry the newcomers who were introduced to the setting by this edition, but bare in mind that most people like myself were once "newbies" who were introduced to the setting by KOS and GTG, and are still waiting for non-Orlanthi material to come up, and had to watch Questworlds (which was billed as the Glorantha system) be pushed aside for another edition of Runequest while the promised non-orlanthi material was pushed into development hell. I frankly question if this new generation of newbies will avoid suffering that fate this time around.

[Jeff]

On 8/10/2020 at 12:14 PM, Akhôrahil said:

I would love for Jonathan Tweet to have a go at the RQ rules as well - the man is a genius at RPG design.

Jonathan was one of the playtesters for RQG.

[Austin]

2 hours ago, redmoongoddess said:

And then there's the fact we're getting books like this one, that we had no knowledge or news of beforehand until right before it came out, while books we've known about for years are still being delayed in favor for more books about an area already well explored.

Alternative interpretation: Jonathan Tweet clearly likes YGMV/YGWV (as you can see in 13G). He's also a major game designer, who can probably work on nearly anything he wants. It feels to me like Tweet probably pitched the book to Chaosium, then they went "Ooh, that's cool—do that."

[Jeff]

1 minute ago, Crel said:

Alternative interpretation: Jonathan Tweet clearly likes YGMV/YGWV (as you can see in 13G). He's also a major game designer, who can probably work on nearly anything he wants. It feels to me like Tweet probably pitched the book to Chaosium, then they went "Ooh, that's cool—do that."

More precisely, I wanted to work with Jonathan again. He's great to work with, does great work, and knows Glorantha. So we talked about what he wanted to do and made it happen.

[Nick Brooke]

I thought I’d read @redmoongoddess’s lengthy post somewhere before, so I went to check their history, and I must have been mistaken because they’ve only ever posted twice on this forum. Which is strange, as I’m sure I’ve seen more posts from them here. Unless they had some good reason for clearing out their posting history? <shrug> Just one of those weird mysteries, I suppose. I’d love to know what’s going on.

UPDATE: Thanks, @PhilHibbs, for teaching me the intricacies of the interface. Suspicions confirmed.

Edited August 12, 2020 by Nick Brooke
Thanks, Phil!

[soltakss]

2 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Just one of those weird mysteries, I suppose. I’d love to know what’s going on.

More secrets of the Red Moon for you to chew on.