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Out now in Print & PDF: Reaching Moon Megacorp's LIFE OF MOONSON, Book One: The Characters


Nick Brooke

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This 243-page book contains fifty illustrated character sheets from the freeform live-action role-playing game (LARP) run at North American, British and Australian Gloranthan Conventions in the late nineties.
 
Take part in the Lunar New Year Ceremonies! Marvel at the glory and decadence of the Imperial Court! Witness the majesty of the Senate, the might of the Red Army, and the sinister machinations of the organs of state...
 
Written by David Hall, Kevin Jacklin, Nick Brooke & Chris Gidlow, with Michael O’Brien & Mike Hagen. Lavishly illustrated by Dario Corallo, with cartography by Phil Anderson and a foreword by Chaosium's Michael O'Brien.
 
243 pages, $29.95, available now from the Chaosium's Jonstown Compendium community content webstore on DriveThruRPG.
 
The ideal companion to the best-selling A Rough Guide to Glamour.
Edited by Nick Brooke
Available in print-on-demand; Silver best-seller
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Thanks, Simon!

If you bought our book yesterday, please consider leaving a rating or even a review over on DriveThruRPG, or just letting us know you liked it via a Facebook comment. Authors love getting feedback, and I'll make sure your feedback is shared with the whole writing team, to spread that warm rosy glow.
 
Also, if you have questions about how this stuff works, please don't hesitate to ask!
 
(#6 bestselling title overall on DriveThruRPG, w00t!)
Ahem. Now #4 bestselling title overall.
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Edited by Nick Brooke
Updated bestseller rank.
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The second ️ rating for our latest book, Reaching Moon Megacorp's LIFE OF MOONSON Book One: The Characters came with a glowing review attached:
Quote
There are three standout reasons why I think this publication is great.
 
Firstly, learning Lunar secrets! In the 90s, when I played most RQ, the source books spoke of Lunar characters and hinted at this and that, but I was never quite sure what the truth was. Now I can delve deeper as these secrets are mined in the back-storeys of the characters. Great Sister, The White Moon Cult, The Black Army and much more is presented to the reader and I found reading about the characters, institutions and more a great joy. That said there are still enough unfathomable depths left for a GM/reader to make their own decisions about the exact truth for their games (YGWV).
 
Secondly, is the art by Dario Corallo. There is some superb art in this publication. Brilliant cameos of various well-known celebs - Danny DeVito, Michael Caine, Sean Bean, Tom Hanks and many more. Very impressive. I also love the sun-worshipping hoplite image on page 164 - very lovely.
 
Thirdly is the nod to 1990s culture (MoonRock Café etc) which maybe more of a draw to readers of a certain age, like me.
 
In a summary, a lavish publication full intriguing characters, impressive art carried and smartly put together to create a cogent and readable document of over 200 pages.

243 pages, $29.95, digital download from the Chaosium's Jonstown Compendium community content store on DriveThruRPG: link.

 
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15 hours ago, Frp said:

Great fun!

All I wanted to know about the Lunars and more. 

Even though I don't think I could ever run such a large scale game I'll snap up book 2 when it comes out. 

Any chance "How the West Was Won" will be shared like this?

I'm delighted you're enjoying it, @Frp. Please consider leaving a rating or a review on DriveThruRPG, creators really appreciate that.

Life of Moonson, Book Two is still a while off: while obviously most of it was written ages ago, there are some significant layout challenges, and I'll be getting a couple of other projects finished first. In my head, these books are a fully fleshed-out example of what used to go into creating massive freeform role-playing games, not something anyone is ever likely to pick up and play. But I'd be delighted to be proved wrong!

The last time I discussed How the West was One with my co-authors, they weren't keen on selling it (they'd quite like to run it again, don't know where, don't know when), but I'm working on a way to share a lot of the background I wrote for that game on the Jonstown Compendium. We all need more Mediaeval Malkionism in our lives, don't we? 

 

8 hours ago, Grievous said:

I'm firmly in the "waiting for POD"-bin.

If everybody else joined you in that bin, @Grievous, no Jonstown Compendium books would ever come out in POD. But you know that already...

 

In other news, we're now up to four ️ ratings. Thank you, perceptive customers! We really appreciate your feedback, and I regularly pass it on to my fellow authors (and Dario!).

On, and finally: in case anyone's been waiting until the end of the month to get it, I should forewarn you that this book won't be part of DriveThruRPG's Thanksgiving Sale (because it's so recently published), so you won't miss out if you pick it up now.

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12 minutes ago, Grievous said:

I know, I am a baneful freerider, but I just want to appreciate this product in my way. 

It’ll keep. 👍

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Another ️ review for LIFE OF MOONSON Book One: The Characters:
 
 
Quote

Wow! Two hundred and forty three pages! This is comprised of (by my count) fifty one really detailed non player characters (four to five pages on each, typically). Having read through several of these I have been very impressed by the quality of the writing. For each character you get key details (age, career, religion, culture and disposition) followed by a long general description, background, objectives (personal, career and religious), secrets, who the character knows, other knowledge and any special items the character possesses. At the end of the book you get a map, gazetteer and chronology.

 
The character objectives, in particular, could give rise to numerous plots which could be used in a sandbox style campaign set in the Lunar Empire. Over and above that, the book succeeds in fleshing out many details of the Lunar Empire such as the satrapies, the Lunar Heartlands, the provinces, sub cults of the seven mothers such as Danfive Xaron. It even reveals the identity of the mysterious Batman of Glamour. All to the extent that it ought to be pretty much required reading for any GM intending to run adventures in the Empire. But even if you're not it's a fun read and will no doubt be useful as background for campaigns set in Sartar, Prax and elsewhere where the Lunars remain the major antagonists.
 
Oh, and there's great artwork from Dario Corallo. The quality of layout is also excellent.
 
Definitely recommended!
 
 
243 pages, $29.95, digital download from the Chaosium's Jonstown Compendium community content store on DriveThruRPG: link.
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The sixth ️ rating for our book Life of Moonson came with yet another rave review:
 
Quote

"Alright, so let me be real, this product isn't good, it’s FANTASTIC. So, here I am, someone who is very much "The Only Good Lunar, is one fleeing the battlefield." This product gets announced and I am not into it until I read the blurb. So, I pick it up and let me Illuminate you to what this is, what you have is a ticking time bomb of political chicanery. Every single one of these movers and shakers in the Lunar Empire is packed to the gills with motivations, plot, and drips characterization, every single individual in this book has absolutely no reason to trust each other, and yet by circumstance must pick a handful of these vipers to pick up and carry. I have never been so inspired to run a LARP in my entire life, and am gnashing my teeth right now that the second book isn't out yet. Are you a Runequest fan? Buy this to get a new perspective on the blood-soaked wonder of Glamour. Are you a LARP fan? Buy it to see some of the most compelling political framings I have ever seen."

243 pages, $29.95, digital download from the Chaosium's Jonstown Compendium community content store on DriveThruRPG: link.

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Bought and already read it twice - thanks to the team for this wonderful release ! I hope volume 2 and a POD option will come soon ;)

On a more general note, I wanted to say that, as a relative newcomer to Glorantha, I really hope we will eventually get a similar treatment for all those 90s Reaching Moon Megacorp LARPs - in my experience, they are a very useful way to grok the evolution of Glorantha as a setting and so better understand the world as it is presented today.

Edited by Ialda
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Thank you ever so much for saying so, @Ialda. If you haven't done so already, please consider leaving a rating or even a short review on the book's DriveThruRPG product page: it helps other customers, is greatly appreciated by us, and I share all your feedback with my co-authors.

We're currently one sale short of our Copper best-seller medal (51+ sales), so we're still 201 sales short of Electrum (251+ sales), which is what we'll need to get the print-on-demand edition out. Nobody wants it more than I do! 

I've been working on a couple of other books lately: The Corn Dolls remastered edition (now practically complete), and a magnificent manuscript by my friend Chris Gidlow (now through basic layout and in the hands of the artists and map-makers). So laying out Life of Moonson, Book Two is about to become my time-sink project: partly a presentation challenge (all those cards!) and partly an organisational one (all those rules!).

I've talked to my co-authors David Hall and Kevin Jacklin about the feasibility of producing Home of the Bold (1992) and/or How the West was One (1994), and if they decide to go ahead I'd be happy to support them. I expect their decision will depend in part on the success or otherwise of Life of Moonson. 

I have a back-burner idea to pull together my Malkioni writings from the nineties into a Jonstown Compendium book, and that would include a lot of my (non-character) bits of the second LARP. (I was only ever a player in the first game)

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Ding! Life of Moonson just got its Copper Best-Seller award.

If you like our book, please consider leaving a rating or a review (on DriveThruRPG or other social media) to help other potential customers make up their minds.

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On 11/18/2020 at 2:18 AM, Nick Brooke said:

I've talked to my co-authors David Hall and Kevin Jacklin about the feasibility of producing Home of the Bold (1992) and/or How the West was One (1994), and if they decide to go ahead I'd be happy to support them. I expect their decision will depend in part on the success or otherwise of Life of Moonson.

Ooh, those sound exciting...

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15 hours ago, ffilz said:

Ooh, those sound exciting...

How the West was One was a really fun event.  The Waertagi dragon ship returned to Sog City (unfortunately smashing the docks), the Judge kept peace in the city, the School of Necromancy was busy, the College of Business and the Performing Arts was successfully funded, etc. - all while the Ecclesiastical Council went on with its mundane affairs.

 

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On 11/18/2020 at 9:18 PM, Nick Brooke said:

I've talked to my co-authors David Hall and Kevin Jacklin about the feasibility of producing Home of the Bold (1992) and/or How the West was One (1994), and if they decide to go ahead I'd be happy to support them. I expect their decision will depend in part on the success or otherwise of Life of Moonson. 

<waves excitedly>
Please pass on “G’day, mate!” to David Hall from Brian, Tom, and me. (He was running us through the Greydogs in HeroQuest 2)

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36 minutes ago, John Biles said:

It's a small error, but page 18 leaves out Imther - there are five kingdoms in the Lunar Provinces, at least as of right now in canon.

There are, however, four major kingdoms in the Lunar Provinces, as stated on p.18 of our book. So I don't think that's an error at all. 

The Guide to Glorantha (figures on p.294, c.1621) gives Holay 600,000, Tarsh 360,000, Aggar 220,000, Vanch 150,000, and little Imther just 50,000 (or 3% of the total). Which is why I didn't call it a major kingdom, or name it on page 18. The Queen of Holay and King of Aggar are characters in our freeform, the dust is still settling on recent civil wars and military actions in Lunar Tarsh, and Vanch and Imther don't feature at all.

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10 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

There are, however, four major kingdoms in the Lunar Provinces, as stated on p.18 of our book. So I don't think that's an error at all. 

The Guide to Glorantha (figures on p.294, c.1621) gives Holay 600,000, Tarsh 360,000, Aggar 220,000, Vanch 150,000, and little Imther just 50,000 (or 3% of the total). Which is why I didn't call it a major kingdom, or name it on page 18. The Queen of Holay and King of Aggar are characters in our freeform, the dust is still settling on recent civil wars and military actions in Lunar Tarsh, and Vanch and Imther don't feature at all.

Fair enough!  

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10 hours ago, John Biles said:

It's a small error, but page 18 leaves out Imther - there are five kingdoms in the Lunar Provinces, at least as of right now in canon.

 

As @Nick Brooke points out, Imther is by far the smallest and most minor of the Lunar Provinces.  It's primary importance for the Lunar Empire is the dwarf trade (i.e. metal and weapons) - something that gets shut off in 1623 when the last king dies.  It (and Aggar) are the first provinces to subsequently rebel (Glorantha Sourcebook p.41) against the Empire, even before the Dragonrise.  By 1626, the only part of Imther that the Empire holds is Hilltown (p.189) - and they still haven't figured out how to restore access to the dwarfs and their metal.  So, by both measures, it's perfectly reasonable to exclude Imther.

Also, this did develop from a LARP, and there's only so many characters/plots you can reasonably incorporate.  If it was centered on schemes in the Provinces under Appius Luxius, then yes you'd likely want to include, but they are not central (or even of secondary importance) to the Life of Moonson.

Edited by jajagappa
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