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Out now in print - The Company of the Dragon


Nick Brooke

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The Company of the Dragon is out.

Andrew Logan Montgomery’s RuneQuest coming-of-age campaign Six Seasons in Sartar is the best book on the Jonstown Compendium. So what does he do for an encore? He only goes and surpasses it. The Company of the Dragon is a RuneQuest campaign about outlaws and freedom fighters, war and heroism, history and legend. Where Six Seasons was inspired by the feel of first encountering RuneQuest, The Company of the Dragon takes its lead from White Bear & Red Moon, the board wargame of the Hero Wars in Dragon Pass. Its heroes appear in these pages – Argrath and Delecti, Ethilrist and Cragspider.

The book begins with an introduction, an overview of Sartar in the years before the Dragonrise, and a writeup of the players’ warband (the eponymous Company) using the classic cult format, of course, together with its community statistics – fleshing out the system previewed in an appendix to Six Seasons. Those stats become the currency of the campaign, to be tracked, bolstered and replenished between episodes. A chapter on draconic consciousness sketches out how the wyter-wyrm that inspires the company thinks, and what that means.

The meat of the book is 160 pages of episodes, with ample guidance to the gamemaster on how to string these together into a satisfying campaign. Some are major historical events or key turning points in the history of the Company, others are more generic and even repeatable (though always with fleshed-out examples or suggestions for how to add twisty complications to the mix).

While the campaign is perfectly designed for survivors of Six Seasons, there is advice on how to bring new recruits into the Company. And as always, Drew is not afraid to engage with deep Gloranthan lore and put it centre-stage in an entertaining and satisfying way. Highly recommended. A snip at just $29.95 for 270 pages (PDF).

Updated 20 August 2021: The Company of the Dragon is now available as a printed hardcover book. Drew has launched it with a $10 discount off the intended cover price: for a month, the standard colour edition is just $39.95 (normal price $49.95) and the premium colour edition is $64.95 (normal price $74.95).

Edited by Nick Brooke
Now available in print!
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6 hours ago, Pentallion said:

bought it last night right after it hit the shelves.  Up late reading it.  Awesome work.  One thing I'd like to see in an update, however, is chapter links.  It's a huge tome and that's a lot of scrolling to find what you're looking for.

This so much. 

Portfolio at www.juanochoa.co

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I've bought The Company of the Dragon on the first day, that it was available, and have completed my first (cursory) read ... and what shall I say ... it's awesome. And seeing this is a fan publication, makes me wimp out of the idea to create my own publication at some time ... but maybe I will recover.

Anyway it's a truly great story, and I cannot wait to really play this fantastic campaign.

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No!  Don’t wimp out!  Rather than seeing it as setting the bar too high, consider it instead as an opportunity to set a different bar.  Don’t try to recreate what has been done, create something new with that as inspiration, as artists have done throughout history.

In my own efforts I’m taking a consciously old school RQ2 approach, feeling more like the kinds of adventures you’d find in an early 80s fanzine than the modern lush dramatic soap operas with extensive portions of narrative to read to the players.  The art is going to be tough, and I’m starting to feel around locally for artists that might have the style for which I’m looking.  The maps are going to be tough, but there are resources out there.  The layout is going to be tough, but nothing I can’t learn to handle.

Glorantha has all kinds of adventures tucked here and there across the landscape, both big and small.  GMs need access to as many of all kinds as they can get.

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As a rule, print on demand is only available after a book has sold 250+ digital copies on DriveThruRPG. If you want The Company of the Dragon to come out in print any faster, the most helpful thing you can do is buy the PDF version now.

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8 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

As a rule, print on demand is only available after a book has sold 250+ digital copies on DriveThruRPG. If you want The Company of the Dragon to come out in print any faster, the most helpful thing you can do is buy the PDF version now.

@Nick Brooke in terms of a bestseller (silver, gold, etc...), what is the equivalent to reaching the needed 250+ (I may need to threaten friends, colleagues, and family to the galleys to buy the book... so it can get to print status sooner)

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Copper is 51+
Silver is 101+
Electrum is 251+
Gold is 501+

The next level up is Platinum, at 1,001+, but no JC title has got there yet. (Our best-sellers have sold around 700 copies)

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On 3/22/2021 at 4:06 AM, GMKen said:

Don't wimp out... Glorantha has all kinds of adventures tucked here and there across the landscape, both big and small.  GMs need access to as many of all kinds as they can get.

I love Andrew's stuff but my two most used and looted JC scenarios are Rocks Fall & Stone and Bone.

Little adventures I can slot in quickly.

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Running Six Seasons in Sartar has been one of the best RPG experiences I have had - thanks to the Andrew and great players. Company of the Dragon looks like it is going to continue that trend. The content is excellent and just as Six Seasons plotted a path from adulthood to... well no spoilers here, this book has a similar engaging arc. 
 

I really like the ‘episodes’ model for scenarios - it gives me, as a GM, guidance so I don’t have to be continually inventing new stuff each week - but the flexibility to individualise each encounter to suit our play. They sit somewhere between scenario hooks and full blown adventures. In Six Seasons we used all the suggested episodes from the back of that book and will be using all the new ones from this.

In Six Seasons we did not use the community rules, our focus was more on the development of the young characters but it makes perfect sense to use them to develop the Dragon warband in this book.

Andrew’s ability to incorporate mythos into interesting and engaging situations to role play is excellent and there are several included that will help introduce great ‘Glorantha feel’ to your game. I am not steeped in all things Glorantha and find this practical help invaluable and has given me the confidence to write my own HeroQuests and religious ceremonies and events.

As in the previous story arc - this one builds into something that will live long in the GM and players’ memory.

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"Six Seasons in Sartar" is a GOLD seller (501+), how can it be that "The Company of the Dragon" hasn´t made it to Electrum in 4 weeks?

I thought that AT LEAST 50% of all buyers of "Six Seasons in Sartar" would instabuy "The Company of the Dragon" in the first week. 

If you liked Six Seasons, you will love Company.
The book (which i call "The RuneQuest Glorantha Prequel Book", because it covers the years 1920 to 1625, and the official RQG starting point is 1625) is brilliant!

Go, get it, it´s only one click away: 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/350649/THE-COMPANY-OF-THE-DRAGON?affiliate_id=1800438

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I guess I’m one of the bad guys, as I don’t do pdf.  Accuse me of Aldryamicide if you like, but my OCD says printed books, so like with the Book of Doom I’m just going to have to wait.

Besides, just ordered a PoD of Six Seasons in Sartar, so I do kind of want to see what that looks like before deciding further.  I do have to say I’ve generally enjoyed everything I’ve ordered off of DriveThruRPG and lulu.

Question: is there a second-hand market for used PDFs?

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18 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

I thought that AT LEAST 50% of all buyers of "Six Seasons in Sartar" would instabuy "The Company of the Dragon" in the first week.

That's a fair but somewhat bold assumption (a week is fast!!) But as others have said, there a few reasons for people holding off

16 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Some of us are waiting to play the first one before buying the second one.

 

3 hours ago, GMKen said:

I guess I’m one of the bad guys, as I don’t do pdf.  

For others it might be money.

In my case, I am simply more focused on Call of Cthulhu nowadays.

But I will get to The Company of the Dragon at some point in the future. It will most likely be after half a dozen CoC books, the Red Book of Magic, the Starter Set, The Gods of Glorantha and perhaps the Sartar set. Ok, maybe not that far. Possibly before Gods.

But I will get there. And I really want it...

Edited by DreadDomain
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