Out now in Print – RuneQuest: Weapons & Equipment

[JRE]

It is bizarre, as Hu-metal is supposed to be the same color as RW bronze, as is the mix of copper and tin. However the death rune in the sword and the ingot, as well as the color would point out to Ur-metal.

Following the coins, that I think should be clear, we have bolgs in the top left, so it is Na-metal all right, clacks on the center left, so Ga-metal rather than Lo-metal, wheels on the center right, El-metal, and silver pennies at the bottom center, so Ul-metal, reinforced by the Moon rune on the ingot. We have both forms of Auminum, Sa-metal and Lo-metal, though Sa-metal should be greenish liquid and Lo-metal reddish solid. I suspect the artist read quicksilver and aluminum and just used the RW colors, rather than the Gloranthan ones.

I would say there are only three right out of seven. Unless Hu-metal refers to the sword hilt, which is the right colour for bronze.

[PhilHibbs]

10 hours ago, Lurking Grue said:

There was some errata back in the day regarding the Metals of Acos (p. 13), as far as I know. However, at least the v1.01 (Jan 2022) PDF I downloaded yesterday still has some errors...

Some people have their print editions already, mine should arrive today so I can check soon. I'm hoping this is just another case of Chaosium being bad at updating their PDFs.

Edited August 9, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[Joerg]

IMG, Lo-metal stands for Lorion's metal rather than Lodril's, and the deity is a mis-attribution by the Dawn Age Seshnegi author who lacked the syncretic insight of the Theyalans. "The Metals of Acos" is an in-world document, after all, and thus is allowed to make mistakes. The mostali caste system on the other hand should know the truth.

Lodril's metal really is tin admixed to copper. The Mostali call this brass, and won't have anything to do with that disastrous storm metal that came from destroying their world machine. Tin is the seed of the Sky, inflicted on the broad earth.

 

The entire two-letter-code for Gloranthan metals adds a level of obscurity that may throw off even veterans every now and then, even more so as it uses an obscure Ralian pantheon (of Hrelar Amali, I suppose) to name the elemental deities.

The question what would be the correct Gloranthan term for a specific metal has plenty correct answers, as there are plenty Gloranthan languages across which those names differ.

For the "most correct answer", we would need the name in the relevant elemental language for the native metal(s), or alternatively the language of the Celestial Court rather than that of one of its reflections.

[PhilHibbs]

12 hours ago, Lurking Grue said:

There was some errata back in the day regarding the Metals of Acos (p. 13), as far as I know. However, at least the v1.01 (Jan 2022) PDF I downloaded yesterday still has some errors, IMHO.

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

Some people have their print editions already, mine should arrive today so I can check soon. I'm hoping this is just another case of Chaosium being bad at updating their PDFs.

There are no changes to that picture of the metals, so if it was wrong then it is still wrong in print.

Those copper-coloured squares and spikes, and the silvery circlet at the bottom right, can't both be Lo-Metal.

This is a bit shoddy. Clearly the "PDF first" method did not work from a quality control perspective, even though this mistake was spotted (I take it on trust that @Lurking Grue is correct that it was, if not then I will owe an apology to Chaosium). Whoever does the proofreading - whether it is community or professional - someone needs to actually read the feedback and do something about it!

*Update* It looks like @AndreJarosch did raise a query about the incorrect element runes, and the colour of Hu-Metal, but no-one spotted the two Lo-metals! So by my calculations a half apology is due. The subject was raised, but not in sufficient detail to cover all the issues.

Edited August 9, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[JRE]

I agree the names fit with the names of the elemental deities worshipped in Hrelar Amali. However, I would propose the names were spread either by Arkat crusaders or alternately by the Jrusteli, who took the names from Seshnela. 

The Guide (p. 373) gives Mostal alternative name in Hrelar Amali as Utriam, while in other sources it was Urtiam, which fits better with Ur-metal. 

In that pantheon Lodik is the lord of fire, while Ehilm is the Sun God. That would make Lo-metal fire rather than water, so the name fits, but the water association is missing. Maybe they just focus on the red color?

The others are pretty straightforward.

With the whole picture, the metal marked as Ga-metal is actually Hu-metal, bronze, as shown also by the Air rune (from Humat). Ze-metal is correct, from Zrenthus. So we have some disorder and missing Ur-metal, to balance the duplicated Lo-metal.

Edited August 9, 2022 by JRE

[metcalph]

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

Those copper-coloured squares and spikes, and the silvery circlet at the bottom right, can't both be Lo-Metal.

In my pdf (I'm looking at it right now), the circlet is labelled ul-metal.

 

Looking at Bertalor's Text 

Quote

Lo-metal (aluminum) is the metal of Lodril, the fire-god. Just as fire is the lightest element, this too is the
lightest metal. It is red in color, like fire. This is a much-coveted metal for weapons, being light but firm, second
in desirability only to ur-metal. This stems from Lodril’s purity.

The two lo-metals is possibly not an error (the original exists in the Elder Secrets book) but a genuine gloranthan confusion.  That is the solid form of quicksilver is referred to as lo-metal while the liquid version is sa-metal (and Bertie seems unaware they could be transformed).  I did once think of the red lo-metal as being brass and the gray one as being zinc.  Strabo refers at one point to a false silver in the context of making brass which sounds like Lodril. But now I think it more likely that Bertalor *thought* the lo-metal was associated with Lodril and that his metal really is unenchantable Brass.

Edited August 9, 2022 by metcalph

[AndreJarosch]

The picture of the metals had some issues in the original PDF. 
It seems that it was tried to correct that... but still doesn´t seem right. 

Here the original PDF version: 


And here the "corrected" version: 

 

Edited August 9, 2022 by AndreJarosch

[AndreJarosch]

And THIS is IMHO the correct version: 



Hu-metal (bronze), metal of the Storm Gods (Storm Rune on the chunk of metal and a hammer nearby, to show that weapons and armor are made out of it. 

Na-metal (lead), metal of the Darkness Gods. 

Ur-metal (iron), metal of the gods of war (Death Rune AND a sword!)

Ga-metal (copper), metal of the Earth Gods (the smaller bits are clacks, the gloranthan copper coin)

El-Metal (gold), metal of the Sun Gods (juwelry and gold coins)

Ze-metal (tin), metal of the Sky Gods (no clue why there is an earth rune of the cube, but the sheets are actually tin foils. 🙂

Sa-metal (quicksilver), metal of the Sea Gods (liquid)

Ul-metal (silver), metal of the Moon Goddess (Moon Rune on the chunk of metal, and silver coins)

Lo-metal (aluminium), metal of the Fire inside the Earth God (no clue why one would make a tiara out of aluminium, but looks like it)

Edited August 9, 2022 by AndreJarosch

[PhilHibbs]

Yep. Changing the Ul-metal (silver) circlet to Lo-metal (aluminium) is fine. Changing the Hu-metal (bronze) ingot with moon rune and coins to Ul-metal (silver) is also fine. The main mistake is leaving the copper clacks as Lo-metal (aluminium), but to be fair no-one spotted this. The iron ingot with death rune, and the sword, were correct (Ur-metal) but this seems to have been changed incorrectly to Hu-metal (Bronze)!

2 minutes ago, AndreJarosch said:

And THIS is IMHO the correct version: 

Yep. All we need now is a set of three Redbubble stickers that we can slap on the page!

Edited August 9, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[PhilHibbs]

Cleaned up version of Andre's:

[metcalph]

28 minutes ago, AndreJarosch said:

Lo-metal (aluminium), metal of the Fire inside the Earth God (no clue why one would make a tiara out of aluminium, but looks like it)

Napoleon III had aluminium dishes and cutlery coz they were more expensive than gold (in the good old days before electrolytic refining). 

Just goes to show like his preference for the Academic Art, Napoleon III had no taste. 

[RandomNumber]

Hopefully someone from Chaosium will cauterize this and tell us what was intended. Or perhaps it's a case of Your Metal May Vary given the colours "described are often metaphysical and not actual"

[David Scott]

Might I suggest asking in the Q&A thread...

[Jose]

6 hours ago, RandomNumber said:

Hopefully someone from Chaosium will cauterize this and tell us what was intended. Or perhaps it's a case of Your Metal May Vary given the colours "described are often metaphysical and not actual"

I feel a disturbance... in the cosmic matrix... Better you get the pdf first🤣🤣🤣 and wait for reviews. 

[Viktor Haag]

Do we have a rough timeframe for when we can expect the hardback of the Equipment book to be available in the Canadian warehouse? I mean I could be checking the Chaosium store page every morning, but it gets a bit tiring... 8D

[MOB]

Chaosium Unveiled reveals RuneQuest: Weapons & Equipment for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

An essential guide to a wide range of items, goods, services, training, magical items, and beasts for both players and Game Masters.

What the critics say about RuneQuest: Weapons & Equipment

"I have a bone to pick with the brand-new RuneQuest Weapons & Equipment guide. Its title... Weapons & Equipment sounds like a laundry list for player character adventurers. This book is so much more. This book is RuneQuest: The Material Culture of Dragon Pass... For all of her wonders, her strangeness, Glorantha is an incredibly defined and real setting. Weapons & Equipment underscores this, and I suspect will change the way you think and feel about the game." — Andrew Logan Montgomery.

"This book is superb and offers so much more than you might expect in an equipment guide. Highly recommended." — M.T. Black.

"It's how you do a weapons and equipment guide right — highly recommended." — RPG Imaginings.

[Chorpa]

Running a non-glorantha fantasy game with BRP. Would this be a good buy to have an Equipment catalog if ignoring the Glorantha specific stuff for a generic BRP fantasy game? 🤔

[g33k]

2 hours ago, Chorpa said:

Running a non-glorantha fantasy game with BRP. Would this be a good buy to have an Equipment catalog if ignoring the Glorantha specific stuff for a generic BRP fantasy game? 🤔

What is the culture/tech of your "generic" BRP fantasy game?
Lots of settings are more "kitchen-sink-y" (i.e. they try to include as much material as possible), and a Gloranthan book will miss some of that ...

[Chorpa]

3 hours ago, g33k said:

What is the culture/tech of your "generic" BRP fantasy game?
Lots of settings are more "kitchen-sink-y" (i.e. they try to include as much material as possible), and a Gloranthan book will miss some of that ...

It is a more dark and gritty Sword & Sorcery fantasy but with the traditional fantasy races. Don't know just how to describe it. Just feel like I want a more complete equipment list than just weapons and armors in the BRP book with a monetary value instead of the abstract wealth in the BRP book. Deciding if I should get this or just pick the equipment list and costs from the Mythras book. We started the campaign as a Mythras game. But the players started to whine about the complexity of the combat system in Mythras. So I am bringing the characters over to BRP so we could custom build and pick the rules needed for quicker but still gritty combats.

[PhilHibbs]

5 hours ago, Chorpa said:

Running a non-glorantha fantasy game with BRP. Would this be a good buy to have an Equipment catalog if ignoring the Glorantha specific stuff for a generic BRP fantasy game? 🤔

Oh yes definitely, with the caveat that it is tailored to a bronze-age-like culture so you won't find medieval jousting armour or stuff like that.

W&E is touted as being a great Gloranthan cultural reference rather than "just a list of stuff", and it is, but don't let that put you off, it does perfectly well as "a list of stuff" too! And a lot of the cultural stuff is easily usable outside of Glorantha.

[Chorpa]

Thanks. It is more of an iron age feel I strive for. Sounds like it could be what I look for. I do own RQG but never really got hooked on Glorantha. But BRP is my system of choice. Was thinking about using the new Dragonbane/Drakar och Demoner game but a bit modified. But it is not as flexible as previous editions of BRP/Drakar och Demoner so one character (a Minotaur) was hard to bring over from Mythras. But it's no problem bringing it over with the BRP book so I decided to go that route instead.

[soltakss]

On 7/24/2023 at 1:52 PM, Chorpa said:

Running a non-glorantha fantasy game with BRP. Would this be a good buy to have an Equipment catalog if ignoring the Glorantha specific stuff for a generic BRP fantasy game? 🤔

Yes.