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

[Minlister]

@redmoongoddess

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I frankly question if this new generation of newbies will avoid suffering that fate this time around

Well, as a newbie, I must say that I don't really feel the need for extensive material on areas outside the "historical core". Just exploring Sartar/Prax whith inroads in Esrolia/Tarsh would take me years and years of intensive gaming. At this point I certainly won"t be a newbie anymore and I will have collected huge amounts of fan-made material (without even speaking of the GtG and the steadily growing JC), allowing me play nearly anywhere in Glorantha. But I recognized that I like to work a lot to prepare my campaigns and that's affecting my point of view obviously.

So, as far as I am concerned, I am quite happy with the editorial strategy. The only missing block is the GoG but one year is not such a long time to wait.

[ThornPlutonius]

With Glorantha being such a large world with so many rich possibilities, I've always thought it disappointing that Chaosium maintained such a narrow focus on such a small part of the world/setting.  That narrow focus appears to continue.  That written, I am sure Mr. Tweet will produce a volume that will be of great use to those who share Chaosium's narrow focus.

[Minlister]

@redmoongoddess

Keeping to the first part of your post that concerns me, I understand your point perfectly. But my own take is slightly different. I am not so much interested in reading about Glorantha than in playing into Glorantha. As I like the "community campaign" and decided to begin in Dragon Pass (I fell in love with Glorantha reading S:KoH), I don't really need extensive information on lands the PC will never visit. What is available at the moment on the empire is enough for me to envision a great variety of "believable" Lunar NPC and I like to create my own stuff, so I am happy with it. But, obviously, it depends on the type of game one envisions. If I wanted the PC to tour Glorantha to discover all its cultures, I could use more information on the west, that's true. But in a way, I think this type of game is not the best choice, considering how rich are Glorantha's cultures. It is the only fantasy game I know in which you can stay in the same place for years and still not exhaust the interest and intricacies of one local culture. So wandering around to pick a little bit of everything, changing location to avoid the "cardboard' feeling typical of so many other universe, would be a pity. Obviously this is my opinion.

As far as Jonathan Tweet is concerned, if you got a problem with his opinions, you should answer directly to him on his blog, the forum is no place for this kind of very serious accusation.

[MOB]

1 hour ago, Minlister said:

@redmoongoddess

As far as Jonathan Tweet is concerned, if you got a problem with his opinions, you should answer directly to him on his blog, the forum is no place for this kind of very serious accusation.

Moderator Hat: @redmoongoddess your comments were flagged to the moderators by a number of members. They have been deleted. What you said about Jonathan Tweet was both offensive and erroneous.

[Beoferret]

One benefit of sticking to Dragon Pass and Prax is that it keeps the world from being completely overwhelming to new players and GMs. Let's expand the player base before demanding a large number of supplements detailing areas outside the core setting for RQG (beyond what you can get in the Guide to Glorantha). That said, I'd personally love to get more info on Pent, Dara Happa, and Fonrit (and how to play in those areas). But I'm quite happy getting a more detailed treatment of unique areas like the Wasp's Nest. 

 

[Jeff]

If you want to talk about other regions, please create a new thread.

[Lordabdul]

One thing that occurs to me is that if the Dragon's Eye is featured prominently, would that be the first official write-up for Dragonewt magic and Dragonewt cities? I hope it's going to be as trippy as they promise ("mind-bending limits of mortal reality"). Or have Dragonewts been covered before?

2 hours ago, SDLeary said:

we still have no clear steps to take us out of Sartar.

We do. Step 1: publish the book on Nochet. Step 2: publish books for regions you can sail to from Nochet. Also, there's another step in there somewhere about a book on Lunar homelands and provinces, which might be Step 1b. This has all been outlined by Chaosium staff.

[Austin]

25 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

would that be the first official write-up for Dragonewt magic and Dragonewt cities? I hope it's going to be as trippy as they promise ("mind-bending limits of mortal reality"). Or have Dragonewts been covered before?

Do you count the dragonewt magic described in the Glorantha Bestiary?

Though, I imagine there would be new, strange elements with a whole city of dream-reality bizarro shenanigans.

[Lordabdul]

5 minutes ago, Crel said:

Do you count the dragonewt magic described in the Glorantha Bestiary?

Haha well I guess I forgot about that one. Thanks  

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, lordabdul said:

Or have Dragonewts been covered before?

Wyrms Footnotes #14 was the original (and available once more!)

[MOB]

6 hours ago, SDLeary said:

...we still have no clear steps to take us out of Sartar.

Other than the content must be Gloranthan, and set in Glorantha, Jonstown Compendium creators have been given carte blanche as to where their Jonstown Compendium creations can be set.

[Bill the barbarian]

On 8/17/2020 at 3:51 PM, redmoongoddess said:

I don't know what's up, but I've posted a lot more posts on this Forum in the past, and I've never cleared them out. I think there's just a bug on our side or something. Unless I got drunk and deleted all of my posts during a hang over. But I don't drink beer. So...shrugs.

Or it is simply a part of a few other eccentricities that the BRP stomping grounds seen to have developed in the past couple of weeks in the search areas. 

 

4 hours ago, lordabdul said:

One thing that occurs to me is that if the Dragon's Eye is featured prominently, would that be the first official write-up for Dragonewt magic and Dragonewt cities? I hope it's going to be as trippy as they promise ("mind-bending limits of mortal reality"). Or have Dragonewts been covered before?

 

There have been some great cameos of the fabled and odd Dragonewts similar to one they make in one of the new titles. (title withheld to avoid needing spoiler warnings).But as to an actual examination of them there is only the Elder Race Section in RQ 3 that I know of... that and a few small zine notes. Thanks Jajagappa! There is of course the famed picture of Dragons’s Eye found in the old Gazetteer of Dragon Pass that featured the pic shown at the top of page one of this thread.

 

4 hours ago, Crel said:

Do you count the dragonewt magic described in the Glorantha Bestiary?

 

Ah yes, I have not read that yet, is it the same as the RQ 3 write up?

49 minutes ago, MOB said:

Other than the content must be Gloranthan, and set in Glorantha, Jonstown Compendium creators have been given carte blanche as to where their Jonstown Compendium creations can be set.

Yes, just did a write up for the Kralori Primer (a JC product in development and being released early this week while still laically in beta) in Wind Whispers #5 so I believe the dam is cracked and the flood of non central Glorantha might be coming sooner rather than later. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Bill the barbarian

[Austin]

5 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Ah yes, I have not read that yet, is it the same as the RQ 3 write up?

No clue, sorry. I don't have Elder Races or the RQ3 Glorantha bestiary, just the core box, and only lately been acquiring some of the later books for collection/reference purposes.

[jajagappa]

12 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Ah yes, I have not read that yet, is it the same as the RQ 3 write up?

Dragon magic was part of the original Wyrms Footnotes article.  RQ3 largely repeated that content (maybe one additional effect?).  RQ Bestiary carries forward the same dragon magic effects (again maybe adding one or two effects).

12 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

as to an actual examination of them there is only the Elder Race Section in RQ 3 that I know of... that and a few small zine notes

Wyrms Footnotes #14 (final issue of the original zine) was the most extensive writeup of dragonewts pre-RQG Bestiary.  Elder Race section of RQ3 based off of that.

And the WF article included Mike Mignola artwork!

[Bill the barbarian]

3 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Wyrms Footnotes #14 (final issue of the original zine) was the most extensive writeup of dragonewts pre-RQG Bestiary.  Elder Race section of RQ3 based off of that.

 

10 hours ago, Crel said:

No clue, sorry. I don't have Elder Races or the RQ3 Glorantha bestiary, just the core box, and only lately been acquiring some of the later books for collection/reference purposes.

No worries Crel, as expected while I had the feel of it jajagappa knows the way of it. :)

Et voila M.  @lordabdul!

 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Bill the barbarian

[Jeff]

I have hidden the threads where people want to talk about books set in other areas. Jonathan's book is set in Dragon Pass and this thread is about that book.

If you want to chat about something else, start a new thread.

[Beoferret]

Possible update: Jonathan Tweet mentioned on his twitter account that he'd handed in a Glorantha manuscript today (7/12). Pretty sure that's referring to "The Dragon's Eye." (Unless he had some other, secret project he was working on.)

 

[Rodney Dangerduck]

To somewhat followup on @redmoongoddess, I'm fine with Chaosium focusing their limited resources on a small area, Dragon Pass / Prax / Esrolia, concentrating on the Era of Argrath.

But, we really need some source material on his opponents, the Lunars.  Our campaign is heading into Sea Season 1627.  There will be a battle at Alda Chur.  Followed by many more.  Our PCs will hopefully do some "special mission".  (Most of us have hippogriffs). 

Our GM is doing a great job but he is struggling right now with the question of this:  Just what should our Lunar Opposition have?  What do they have that flies?  There is all of one Lunar Cult written up in RQG, and Seven Mothers is the "nice", proselytizing branch.  It's challenging to make a wide variety of good enemies out of them.  Nobody would run the Epic Campaign of Lunar Expansion and feature Issaries as the primary Sartarite opposition.

Now, we've played a Lunar campaign a long time, and will be able to make up various Yanafali, Jakaleeli, other opponents, and kind of wave our hands and say "Yanafal has something like Scimitar Trance" and "Jakaleeli can summon Large Lunes".  But, down at the nitty gritty details, if you really care about it, you are still just guessing and making stuff up.  And probably being less creative than some of the minds at Chaosium.  I'm sure @Nick Brooke has great ideas for some way cooler Lunar spells and abilities in mind than Moon Shield and Scimitar Trance.

In conclusion, given realistic limited resources, I could care less about Ralios or Kralorea or whatever, YMMV.  But most campaigns need reasonable rules for Lunars, either as PCs or as opponents.  I think something like "Foes" but focused on Lunars would be awesome.

[AndrewTBP]

3 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

But, we really need some source material on his opponents, the Lunars.

What do they have that flies?  There is all of one Lunar Cult written up in RQG, and Seven Mothers is the "nice", proselytizing branch.  It's challenging to make a wide variety of good enemies out of them. 

Looks at Strangers in Prax on his shelf and laughs. 😉

They have wyverns trained to bridle and saddle. They have moonboats. They have Blue Moon assassins on giant moths. I suspect they could get worshippers of the Dara Happan Death god on giant bats with some effort (which would horrify the Dara Happans, I suspect). 

There are Lunar opponents in reasonable amounts in the 13th Age Glorantha book that you can use to inspire RuneQuest Glorantha rebuilds. 

[Godlearner]

4 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

Our GM is doing a great job but he is struggling right now with the question of this:  Just what should our Lunar Opposition have?  What do they have that flies?  There is all of one Lunar Cult written up in RQG, and Seven Mothers is the "nice", proselytizing branch.  It's challenging to make a wide variety of good enemies out of them.  Nobody would run the Epic Campaign of Lunar Expansion and feature Issaries as the primary Sartarite opposition.

There are a number of good opponents already published in Jonstown Compendium supplements both Lunar and others.

[jajagappa]

15 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

But, we really need some source material on his opponents, the Lunars. 

The Cults book will help substantially with this.  Not only the 7M, but their individual cults, the Red Goddess, Hwarin Dalthippa, Yara Aranis, Etyries, Hon-eel, and the Crimson Bat.  Plus the Fire/Celestial deities of DH and the Lodrili of Peloria, the Blue Moon assassins of Annilla. 

 

[davecake]

As @jajagappasays, the Cults book will substantially expand the information on the Lunars and Lunar empire cults. I would also recommend looking at the Armies and Enemies book  from the JC for an idea of the diversity and range of the Lunar Empires military, including magical ones - having your characters face soldiers from a few known military units makes things seem a bit realer, much more like a big complicated empire than just a single mass of soldiers - and of course many, even most, of the Empires military are not initiates of Lunar religions. 

Note also that a few of the spells from the Lunar cults have already been published in the Red Book of Magic - and you can take a few educated guesses at which are which. Given that your PCs are not going to be in the Lunar cults themselves, that may be enough to wing it. For example, Yara  Aranis is always depicted with 4 arms,  and was conceived to fight the Pentan nomads, so give a priestess Sprout Arms and Terrify Horse and you have an interesting opponent. If it turns out a few things are not quite the same as the published cult, easy enough to explain it away as a variation/sub-cult/or result of individual heroquesting or a gift from a regimental spirit etc.  See also the Meteor Swarm spirit magic spell for the Crater Makers, the Bat Wings, Fangs and Power Drain spells for the Crimson Bat, etc. 

Or just improvise with Irripi Ontor as Lhankor Mhy with Mind Blast and Madness, Jakaleel as shamans that also have access to Seven Mother’s magic and some interesting spirits (as well as normal shamanic abilities), etc. it’s close enough to work with until you get the Cults Book(s).

[Joerg]

On 7/24/2021 at 10:38 AM, davecake said:

Yara  Aranis is always depicted with 4 arms

Is this meant as an instance of YGWV? The illustrations I know have a six-armed goddess. There is a reference to a six-armed goddess wrestling Sheng, emerging two hands short, in Argrath Saga.

 

I agree with the conclusion, though. Rune Magic is magic which makes the user be the deity, whether superficially or in a deeply meaningful (yet materially useless) mystical way.

 

One point about improvisation: A Lunar cult will change in power along with a Lunar phase - the red week, or the less predictable Blue Streak. Or possibly some other cycle manifest in an obscure way. Even Yara Aranis, the goddess of the Glowline, is subject to the cycle.

 

[Oracle]

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

Is this meant as an instance of YGWV? The illustrations I know have a six-armed goddess. There is a reference to a six-armed goddess wrestling Sheng, emerging two hands short, in Argrath Saga.

...

I think this (4-armed Yara  Aranis) stems from the nearly famous cover picture of the Runequest III Gods of Glorantha box, where she is shown with four arms, and which has been used in the Glorantha Sourcebook as well as in the Guide to Glorantha (Vol 2, p.741). But description for this picture in the Guide reads:

Quote

Yara Aranis
The Six-Limbed Goddess of the Reaching Moon first fought against Argrath as the guardian of the Lunar borders and later served him during the Hero Wars as the Six-Limbed goddess of Saird.

HeroQuest Glorantha uses the same picture too, and the text description of the picture is the same also, but additionally it says

Quote

...
This particular statue had two arms torn off during the Lunar Empire's conflict with Sheng Seleris and are thought to now be located somewhere in the Iron Forts of Kralorela.

On the other hand the Prosopaedia entry in the Well of Deliath still uses the description from the Prosopaedia of the Runequest III Gods of Glorantha box:

Quote

She is shown sitting cross-legged, with four arms, each of which holds a weapon or makes a gesture to destroy her foes.

So there are enough contradicting sources to make clear, where the confusion comes from ...

Edited July 25, 2021 by Oracle

[Shiningbrow]

Sounds like someone is confusing "limbs" and "arms", forgetting that legs are limbs as well...